This page was created by a Continuing Education student through the course of their Bureautique et immersion anglaise program.
The views expressed below are those of the student and not those of Champlain College Saint-Lambert.

Freelance Administrative Assistant

Discover a new job. Do you want to use your field of competence?

Do you want manage your schedule ?

What is it exactly? It’s a new profession for the Digital Age.

Freelance Administrative Assistants’ do the same tasks as the administrative assistant but from their home. They are entrepreneurs and are hired by different companies. It responds to an increasing demand from Small business leaders (because large companies already have their own administrative assistant). Freelance Administrative assistants have become more in demand as businesses increase their use of the internet for daily operations.

 

Why employers’ hire Administrative Assistants? What is the purpose of their jobs?

Some employers cannot afford to pay a full-time administrative assistant.

  • They don’t have time.
  • They don’t have the expertise.

The freelance administrative assistant must have extensive experience in administration, planning and organization because employers need to rely on them quickly.

Time is money!  Freelancers need to explain to managers how they need to do their job, possess the right administrative tools, and how to properly store important papers.

Freelance administrative assistance companies work on a variety of projects such as:

  • Manage your communication flow (thousands of emails and interrupting phone calls)
  • Diary management (they can arrange your schedule)
  • Digital file ranking
  • Invoicing
  • Create databases (they can also take care of your bookkeeping)
  • Business card scanning
  • Proofreading and text correction
  • Leave management
  • Even …Job interviews

Freelancers can work for multiple clients in a single day. Often when they have multiple clients, the interventions are not the same because companies have different needs: some start their business; others are there for a long time and others are on the verge of bankruptcy.

Freelance Administrative Assistants need to know how they can be useful for companies that hire them. It can be for a replacement, only a few days, a month or for specific projects.

If freelancers need information from one company, they can work on another project from the same company or work for another company while waiting for the answer.

Benefits:

Sole proprietor (Your own home business);   flexibility (set your own business); choose your own projects;
tax write-off;  prioritize work and minimal supervision.

Pros for the manager:

They have people available around the clock; Have a larger talent pool (they can help you with many tasks).

Offer a money-back guarantee.

With the increasing number of administrative assistants working from home, several administrative assistant sites that offer their services in this way were born.

 

Virtual assistants that work independently set their own hourly rate, typically falls between $30 and $55 per hour, depending on their level of experience and whether they have received specialized training in relevant fields. Those that work independently are also responsible for finding and managing their own clients.

According to payscale.com, the average rate for a virtual assistant in Canada is $22.50 per hour.

 

Discover FREE popular Apps
for freelances

What does it take to be a successful freelancer? Is it knowledge and experience, people skills, consistency and hard effort, serendipity, or a random streak of luck?

Google applications becoming the most popular.

 

GMAIL APPLICATION allows you to check and sort emails and create to-do lists

Then there’s Google Docs. Google spreadsheets, Google calendar, and Google slides, which are all saved on the cloud. This means you can access them from anywhere you have an internet connection.

Plus, you can share them with team members or clients at the press of a button.

And let’s not forget about communication – Google Hangouts is a chat messenger you can use for video conferences.

GOOGLE DRIVE   (FREE)

Is becoming a popular alternative to Dropbox because almost everyone has a Google account, and Google Drive includes access to their suite of software tools, including Docs, Sheets, and Slides.

These programs allow you to work online and collaborate with others in real time, storing the files in your Drive. Like Dropbox, it comes free with a limited storage space (15GB), with the option to purchase more. You can also install Drive on your computer to sync your online files.

CUSHION    Planning and managing for the whole year

Constantly taking on too much work and never thinking to take a break
Cushion is a planning app built by freelancers, so you can expect it caters to freelancing needs.

CLOCKIFY   Time tracker and billable hour’s calculator

Clockify is a time tracking and timesheet app that’ll help you manage your billable time and track how productive you are with your work.

BUFFER   Social media manager

Buffer is perfect if you have to handle social media management for your client – you’ll spend less time on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, but you’ll be more effective.

You’ll get the means to:

  • schedule and automatically share posts to various social media accounts
    (anything from Facebook updates to retweets)
  • optimize your posting schedule
  • analyze post engagement, as well as handle additional activity analytics
  • create your own visuals to accompany posts, or add images and videos

This app’s biggest strength lies in its approach to scheduling – you can plan content months ahead in Buffer’s calendar, get tips on the ideal time to post content, and enjoy custom scheduling.

 

This application also helps you maintain a work-life balance – there’s a separate section where you can plan, keep track of, and schedule vacations.

This is a short introduction to a multiples of useful application tool you can found to help you manage successfully your freelancer’s career.

Whether it’s training your brain to help you stay focused, keeping track of time spent on a task, or figuring out your budget – you can be sure there is an app for that. Why not give these app “coworkers” a try and get your work-life balance in order thanks to a more organized and disciplined freelancer life?