Must-Have:
1. Oral Communication Skills
When you are looking for work, you might be encountering opportunities to do telemarketing, appointment setting or any outbound customer service work. If this is the need, you should be ready to talk to clients and be able to effectively communicate with them. For US clients, it is important that you can communicate with the right accent, intonation and pronunciation. When working as a telemarketer, you should not give any hint that you are not from the same country. You should be able to converse naturally and not deliver the script like an automated machine. Listening skills are very important. Your tone should be friendly and accommodating.
If the work does not require making or answering calls, you still need to be equipped with good oral communication skills as you may be talking to your boss from time to time. You have to be clearly understood to make the communication effective.
2. IT Skills
Since the work requires the use of technology, you should know the basic tools used for normal office applications. These include productivity, project management, web management and multimedia tools. You should also have skills on manipulating social networking and messenger sites. It will help if you have your own Skype, AIM, Yahoo or Gmail account for easy communication.
3. Writing Skills
Virtual assistants are also asked to do some writing work. Writers are obviously required to be equipped in this area. Research workers should know how to communicate in writing. Whatever the position is, you will be required to communicate in writing on a regular basis for reporting, inquiries and other reasons. You have to make sure that you know the basics of writing, especially business writing. You also have to be conscious about spelling and punctuation and the language or tone of your written outputs. These are measures of how you will be as an employee. Work-from-home jobs will require a lot of communication in writing. Hence, it is important to be excellent in this area to succeed in your work-from-home job.
Nice to Have:
4. Web Design and Development
If you have the knowledge and skills in creating websites or the process of creating them, you are at an advantage. This is a skill needed by most online business managers. Knowledge about hosting, domains and web maintenance are skills that will be nice to have to be easily considered for employment.
5. Graphic Design
Creating banners, logos, Powerpoint slides, images and other creative artwork will be important for better consideration by prospective employers. A creative skill set, writing and IT skills are a good set that will be sought by most employers to maximize you as a resource.
Given the above and your interest to work from home, you can start by assessing your skill level. Whichever needs to be honed should be addressed immediately. If you need to improve on your writing skills, try setting up a blog and start writing so you can practice and learn. There is no other way to start learning but to practice. Get feedback from people close to you and improve. This is very important. You should work on your own professional development to make yourself more competitive and valued by people you will be working for and with.
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