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Westat is hiring At-Home Telephone Data Collectors.

Accolade Support is hiring Call Center PC Desktop Support Agents.

More about At Home Telephone Data Collectors Position from Westat website:

Telephone data collectors administer questionnaires over the telephone. They read the questions aloud clearly and distinctly, and record the respondent’s answers accurately. Our studies are typically conducted in English but often require individuals who can also conduct the study in other languages, including Spanish, Mandarin, Cantonese, Vietnamese, and Korean. Telephone data collectors are paid on an hourly basis.

English-speaking data collectors start at $8.25 per hour. Bilingual (English/Spanish) data collectors start at $10.25 per hour. Data collectors working weekend hours (Saturday and Sunday) receive an additional $2.00 per hour.

To be eligible to work as a telephone data collector from your home, you must meet the following requirements:

• Able to establish rapport, follow a script as a conversation, and complete surveys with selected respondents.
• Have a quiet home work environment during scheduled work and training hours.
• Own a reliable Windows-based PC computer.
• Have moderate computing skills.
• Able to be on the Internet (cable or DSL) and on a landline telephone at the same time.
• Own or obtain a corded telephone with a hands-free, corded headset (no cordless, VOIP, or cell phones are permitted).
• Able to work a minimum of 15 hours a week – either day, evening, or weekend hours.”

Click Here to start the application process by answering some questions.

More about the Call Center PC Desktop Support Agents at Accolade website:

We are looking for bright and energetic 100% Telecommute - PC Desktop Support Agents.

Position Title: Call Center Agent
Position Type: Contract - Full Time or Part Time
Compensation: $8.25 to $10.00 per hour
Start Date: Immediately

Applicants should possess ALL of the following skill sets:

Technical skills - A technical skill set with the ability to provide desktop troubleshooting, resolve Internet connectivity issues, and support software applications (with training).

Sales skills - The ability to sell products and services to a wide variety of markets to inbound callers.

Customer service skills - Working with callers who may be frustrated or upset that something hasn’t gone as expected. A key component of this is assuring the customer that you will help them, calming them down, and resolving the situation for them when possible. Patience and a genuine desire to assist our customers is a must.

Attention to detail - Callers will regularly relate information including phone numbers, email addresses, product numbers, messages, and details about their particular reason for calling. Accurately relaying this information to our clients is crucial to your success in this position.

To qualify for this position you must have, or obtain the following:

1. A U.S. based home telephone number. (No cell phones or VOIP phones)
2. A corded telephone set with a headset. (No cordless phones)
3. A PC with Windows 98, or 2000, or XP
4. Your PC wired to a cable modem, DSL modem, or broadband connection. (No wireless connections)
5. A quiet environment where you can take calls without being disrupted or callers hearing any noise or sounds in the background

Parameds (http://www.parameds.com) is hiring, email your resume to joinus@parameds.com, with an expressed interested cover letter.

The job is phone work (but flexible) - outbound calls to medical facilities requesting medical records for patients who have applied for life insurance, disability insurance, long term care insurance and health insurance, or those who have died and need records for the death claim , and whatever other reasons an insurance agency might need records for. Work is consistent, pay is “case” based. A great work at home job!

Google has Quality Rater - English Language opening again, along with other languages. pay is around $15/hour. Bachelor’s degree or equivalent required. Great work at home job. check out their website here:

http://www.google.com/support/jobs/bin/topic.py?dep_id=1094&loc_id=1628

If you are a experienced virtual assistant, you might want to consider starting your own virtual assistant business. Managing your own business could be very changeling, especially if it’s your first time running a business. Before you start, there are a lot to consider, and here is a list of things you need to think and plan ahead:

1. What services you plan to offer to your client. This of course largely will depend on your skills and experience. You might want to just focus on a few things that you do best and enjoy doing, and gradually expand your service later.

2. What are your goals for the first 3, 6 month and 12 month? This is just a simple business plan outline your short term expectation of your business. How much you expect to make and on what budget. Be realistic and adjust it to accommodate for change and growth in your practice.

3. Choose a business name, get a business licence and incorporate if you choose to set up LLC or S/C corporation.

4. Get all your necessary equipment ready - a good computer, internet access, fax machines, copier and printer and comfortable office chairs.

5. Design and print marketing supplies - business card, fax, letter head, flyers, broucher etc.

6. Design and build your company website, ideally your website domain should be yourcompanyname.com (or close), choose emails address that is based on your company website domain name. Website should be a professional business website.

7. Set up bank account for your business, and/or apply credit cards or loans to cover start up cost if you don’t have savings.

8. Get all the draft business document ready such as business proposal, invoice and billing templates, contacts or letter of agreement etc.

9. Decide how much you are going to charge for your service(s). Research Virtual Assistant industry rate and local business market.

10. Decide how to market your business and networking - Join local professional organizations, Yellow book advertising, direct marketing, Internet Marketing (local craiglist could be a start.)

11. Which industry(s) you want to focus on first - this largely depends on your experience. You might already know some or many potential clients in certain industry, you might find it more effective starting with the familiar territory.

12. Planning on learning new skills. Expanding your skill sets brings you more potential clients, increase business revenue and makes you more competitive.

This list might not be complete, but I hope it give you some ideas and a starting guide to get more prepared to start a successful virtual assistant business. If you enjoy administrative work, running your own virtual assistant business is a great option working from home!