What characteristics should a freelance pa have?

Obviously a freelance pa needs to be both knowledgeable and have expertise in a wide range of admin tasks ... but what other qualities will clients be looking for so they feel reassured you will be able to support them and their business? 

Let me take you through some qualities that I think are most important … this is a long list and some of the qualities will seem really obvious but need to be considered.

Professional and Approachable

As a freelance pa you will want to have a good relationship with all your clients. Being professional, approachable and supportive to clients will support good working relationships. Furthermore, a freelance pa will gain more respect from clients and their associates by remaining professional and friendly at all times. 

Sometimes things might not work out, for one reason or another, and working freelance you can choose who you work with and in such situations it is better for both parties to move on.

Loyal

This should really be taken for granted that every freelance pa will be loyal to their clients … but it is important to add this to my list. If you aren’t loyal to your clients then they will move on to someone else.

Trustworthy and Honest

As with loyalty it should go without saying that a freelance pa should be trustworthy and honest. My clients tend to be small businesses and it is a huge step for them to outsource tasks to me and trust me to support their business. The honesty part … well if you make a mistake it is important to own up to it … we are all human! Just don’t let it happen too often.

Dependable

It is vital that any client knows that if a task it outsourced it will be completed, so dependability is a key quality. While at the start of a working relationship a certain amount of instruction and hand holding may be required, once things are on a regular footing and systems are understood, a client will not want to be helping out or chasing to ensure that a task has been done. After all, as a freelance pa you are there to save your client time and enable them to focus on other aspects of their business, not create more work for them to do!! 

If your client calls or emails and you can’t respond immediately, it is vital that you call them back or reply to their email in a timely manner. It is unlikely that as a freelance pa you will be ‘on call’ 24/7 but respond promptly. Be dependable so that your client knows they really can rely on you.

Responsive and Punctual

Any freelance pa needs to meet their client’s deadlines; if requested to do a task that isn’t achievable then it is important to be honest and discuss options, but once a deadline is agreed it must be kept. If there is any delay, and yes sometimes this may happen for a reason that is out with our control, communicating with the client and explaining the situation as early as possible is key. Most clients will be understanding; I always try to complete tasks ahead of schedule just in case!

Communicative

I touched on communication above and being communicative is critical to a good working relationship between a freelance pa and their client. It is fundamental to clarify a client’s wishes regarding communication from the start. Clients may have very different requirements and they need to be established and met; some may require regular updates while others just need to know that tasks are progressing/completed. Your client’s preferred form of communication should also be clarified from the start, be that email, phone call or some other form of message.

Accurate

A freelance pa needs to be both accurate and consistent with the work they are producing for their client. While we are all human, and we can all make mistakes, your client needs to feel reassured that the work that you return to them does not have to be checked. So attention to detail in all your client work is a must; all work should be done to the highest of standards.

Attentive and Composed

As a freelance pa your clients are not interested in how many other clients you are working for, they want to know that no matter what else you have on your plate everything they need you to do is being done. So it is important to be attentive to all your clients. 

Being composed is also a great skill. There may be days when several clients get in touch asking for support and you’re juggling several tasks … but even if you don’t feel in control at that moment you must give the perception you are! You don’t want your client getting stressed and feeling that their work won’t be done; to be absolutely honest I work really well under pressure but if you don’t then always be composed and in control with your clients!!

Perceptive

Over time a freelance pa will come to really understand their client and the business they are supporting, as a result they can become more proactive as they see things from a different point-of-view to those working within the business. A freelance pa should feel confident that they can suggest new processes to their client and use their initiative; when in this position a freelance pa can become invaluable to their client.

Resourceful

There isn’t a freelance pa around who knows everything, so it is important to be open and honest with your client (or future client) about the level of your knowledge/abilities. It is much better to say to your client that you don’t have any experience doing a particular task, but that you are more than happy to learn how to do it (in your own time!). After all, the new skills and knowledge you gain may then be useful to other clients.

Being resourceful and building systems that enable you to find information you need either from other people in your client’s business or through other contacts/associates is important. Being able to find out and learn how to do tasks you are unfamiliar with will ensure you become an irreplaceable member of your client’s team.

Tenacious (sometimes!)

The very reason that our clients outsource tasks to a freelance pa is because they are busy so it is inevitable that sometimes they may need to be chased for answers. So a freelance pa needs to be tenacious when required, if a client doesn’t respond and as a result a task can’t be completed then the pa needs to be persistent and chase the information they need. In the long run the client will be grateful if if not at the time!

Flexible, Efficient and Focused

As a freelance pa your client is not aware of the other clients you have and your workload. Some days we may have a packed task list all of which is a priority for that client; that’s just the nature of our job. Of course, we want to please and help all our clients and so it is important that a freelance pa is flexible while handling multiple priorities. 

A freelance pa will be organised and efficient and be able to focus on each task at hand and complete multiple tasks during the day. By scheduling and planning all this is possible … a freelance pa will know the best time of day to work on certain task and plan accordingly. Multi-tasking in my view does not mean working on several tasks at the same time but organising your time to be able to work on multiple tasks at different times.

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Well that is quite a long list of qualities, don’t you think? I might just add one more thing … being a freelance pa can be quite lonely as you work on your own most of the time and, as well as juggling multiple clients, you also have to ‘run’ your own business! But I absolutely love supporting other small businesses and wouldn’t do anything else. I wouldn’t claim to be the most amazing freelance pa but I am always willing to learn more skills in order to help my client’s businesses grow.

What other qualities will your clients be looking for in addition to all your admin skills?

Cornerstone pa services is here to help YOU! Do get in touch if you have admin tasks to outsource and give yourself more time to focus on other aspects of your business. No task is ever too small or too tedious.