Team Double-Click® recently launched their answer to the increasing challenges of working in corporate America: the Licensed Virtual Assistant program. A Team Double-Click® Licensed Virtual Assistant is an individual who wishes to build their client base, backed by Team Double-Click’s® recognized branding and stellar reputation.

With this ground-breaking program, virtual assistants pay a flat monthly fee to be licensed by Team Double-Click®. Licensing will allow virtual assistants to use the Team Double-Click® name, brand, logo, and marketing messages to obtain their own clients rather than wait for Team Double-Click® to find clients for them. In growing their virtual assistant business, a Licensed Virtual Assistant will have the ability to perform the work themselves or to earn additional income by placing clients with Team Double-Click's® highly trained support-level virtual assistants.

I had a chance to talk to Gayle recently. The following are a few insightful excerpts from our conversation - click here for the complete interview.

Many individuals are interested in working from home, but don’t believe they can make the kind of income they make in corporate America. Why was it so important to create the Licensed Virtual Assistant program and do you believe it can be a long-term solution to the growing concerns we have with the current state of our economy?

We created the Licensed Virtual Assistant program as a viable alternative to the corporate job where individuals literally have the opportunity to make over $100k a year. The amount of money that they generate with this opportunity is completely up to them. A good analogy is to look at the Licensed Virtual Assistant program as similar to how Real Estate Agents pay a “desk fee” to build their business utilizing the reputation of the brokerage company that they work with.

In reading some of the articles that you have wrote, you have mentioned numerous times your concern for the environment. Why do you feel so strongly about this topic and how can virtual staffing help the global concerns we are all facing?

Team Double-Click® created the Licensed Virtual Assistant program as an option to grow a home-based business, in part to help the environment. Team Double-Click® believes that we all need to do our part to help the environment and those facing the daily challenges of working outside the home with the current economic landscape. We want to help as many individuals to be able to work from home and be there for their families.

Can you share why you believe that it is imperative that companies consider finding staffing solutions through a virtual channel, like Team Double-Click®?

The business landscape is ever-changing and the cost to fill a corporate position continues to rise. The average cost of an employee can be as much as 2 1/2 times their salary and includes social security, vacation/sick time, health insurance, worker’s compensation and Medicare. When hiring virtual assistants, companies do not have the costs involved with regular employees and can save thousands of dollars a year.

What are the benefits for companies to work with Team Double-Click® for their staffing needs?

With Team Double-Click®, the companies’ needs are assessed and based upon their requirements; they are matched with a highly-skilled and trained virtual assistant. Our virtual assistants use the most advanced means of communication, and the newest, most efficient and time-saving office products and work delivery, without any geographic boundaries.

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Thanks Jim and Gayle, and all the best!

In the current world, where emails have replaced phone calls and web-meetings have replaced face-to-face meetings, Virtual Assistants (VAs) are rapidly becoming a more practical answer to the many gaps a small OR large business may have in pure muscle.

Virtual Staffing Agencies (and independent, freelance VAs) are constantly touting the myriad of reasons why VAs have become a profitable solution - they possess many skills already, they "work" online to facilitate support across state lines, eager and motivated to acquire just about any knowledge they don't already have. In addition, they only bill the hours they work, as they are not employees on salary...and the list goes on.

With regards to technical tasks, the list is virtually limitless to the number and types of things a VA can tackle. In this article, we are going to bring to light a few ideas that any RE firm can implement directly or hopefully spark more ideas to more completely and successfully utilize a VA.

1.) VAs can provide valuable advice and guidance for your website(s)

Whether it is customizing a current agent website you already possess and run on your own, or maybe it's creating a brand new site, a VA possesses the skills to design a custom template or adapt a template, and can maintain it on a regular basis, adding/removing listings or information as needed.

This expertise would be invaluable for any RE professional interested in keeping a listing of properties on their agent site. This would also be an excellent asset when creating and or maintaining single property websites, 1 website (URL) dedicated to 1 property. Its often said that many agents/brokers purchase technology, but never use it, as finding time during your day can be a limiting factor.

2.) Make your virtual storefront visible

Once you have a web storefront, how do you attract site-visitors? The answer is something known as Search Engine Optimization (SEO). SEO is a process of improving the ranking of your site amongst various web crawlers (or search engines). Generally, the higher the ranking, the earlier a site will appear in search results, which yields more site visitors. A VA can customize your site to utilize key words which can be submitted, along with your site name, on a weekly (or even daily) basis to increase your rankings as well as your site volume. They can also solicit other websites to reference (link to) the agent website...activities you simply may not have time for but are critical in SEO.

3.) Take your site to the next level

Your VA can take your agent website or single property site an additional step further with the creation of virtual tours. You've heard of them, you've seen them on other's sites, but you just don't have the time to learn how to create or execute one? Assign it to your VA! After you have sent the photographs, your VA can utilize their computer to create, finalize and publish virtual tours for each of your properties.

4.) Manage your important documentation

Your VA can even manage your paperwork for you, all virtually! For example, you have routine paperwork that must be executed through the life-span of a transaction. Simply fax your hand-written information to your VA. The VA enters the info into your standard form and faxes to the proper location OR they can even utilize online transaction management as a central repository for all your documentation needs. Your VA can maintain this repository for you, facilitating document execution of clients and peer real estate professionals throughout the lifespan of the transaction.

With the technology available today, VAs are definitely a viable resource for your business entity. The examples above are only a fraction of the types of activities VAs can accomplish that easilly puts them to work as more than just an assistant. Rather, they become your partner.

We had the pleasure of interviewing Jayne Goldman, a recent REAL ESTATE WEBOGRAPHER™ certificant and Virtual Assistant (VA). Jayne is an independent contractor via Team Double-Click, an official Technology Partner of The National Institute of Webographers and sponsor of the Virtual Assistant competency module. Given real estate technology, Team Double-Click provides virtual assistants to support technology adoption and administration on behalf of top-producing real estate agents and brokers. 

Jayne recently completed the REAL ESTATE WEBOGRAPHER™ certification and we asked a few simple interview questions.

1) What is your background?

I was a Systems Programmer/Analyst for a worldwide insurance company for 15 years. During the last four years of my career there, I was allowed to telecommute. In 2005, during a company merger, my job was eliminated along with many others from my department.

2) Why did you undertake the REAL ESTATE WEBOGRAPHER™ certification?

After I was laid off, I decided to use this as an opportunity to pursue something that I was really interested in. I have always had a love of real estate but I could not devote the time necessary to be a good agent so I have been looking for a way to provide support to the real estate industry.

Since I am also looking for something that will allow me to work from home, I signed up with the virtual staffing agency Team Double-Click. It was through this agency that I learned about the REAL ESTATE WEBOGRAPHER™ certification. I decided to take the courses to expand my knowledge and to make myself more marketable as a potential employee.

3) What are your impressions of the online experience?

I love to take classes online. It allows me to take the classes at my own convenience, whenever I have a little bit of time. Being a mother of three, I do not have the time to travel to a classroom to take courses so this allowed me to obtain a certification that I would never have had the time to pursue otherwise. These classes were very easy to understand. The hands-on exercises helped reinforce what I learned in each class.

4) How long did it take you to complete the certification?

It took me about 6 weeks. I would work on it for about an hour a night during the week after my children went to bed.

5) What real estate technologies are you considering implementing (for yourself or your clients)?

My father runs his own computer consulting business and he has a client who has expressed an interest in having a single-property website for a rental building that is currently under construction. Now I have the knowledge to assist my father, if this website becomes a reality.

6) What would you tell those who are considering this certification?

I would tell them to take the classes! There is a lot to learn, it is fun and it does not take that much time.

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Thanks Jayne and all the Best!

We have received many inquiries from potential candidates about the "Virtual Assistant", also called a VA.  A Virtual Assistant can provide technology administration and support, along with an array of other administrative services to a top-producing, real estate agents, brokers and companies.  Acquisition of technology is imperative, the time to use and administer RE technology can at times, a limiting factor.

Team Double-Click^SM is a virtual assistant staffing company, pairing highly qualified virtual assistants to real estate agents, brokers and companies.  The pairing of VA to RE Client is a process of matching the needs of the client, with search against the thousands of VAs that are a part of Team Double-Click. Kendra Todd, winner of Donald Trump's hit reality show "The Apprentice", uses and recommends Team Double-Click.

Dawn Smith, Marketing Manager for Team Double-Click has this insight into the world of VAs.

Industry experts continue to extol the virtues of virtual assistants. Nevertheless, small business owners continue to undertake operations-related minutia that Internet-based professionals can easily handle. Some experts attribute this to technology.