Podcast Narration Script – EPISODE 5

Virtual Assistant vs. Virtual Paralegal vs. Online Business Manager

Virtual Assistant vs. Virtual Paralegal vs. Online Business Manager

By: Holly A. Sheriff on behalf of Best Virtual Paralegal LLC

The Narration is provided by a professional Voiceover Actress & is not that of the author.

What are the differences are between a Virtual Assistant (V.A.), Virtual Paralegal (VP), and Online Business Manager (O.B.M.). Learn more here! At Best Virtual Paralegal, we love answering this question! COVID has undoubtedly changed the legal industry a bit. The world has finally caught up to Best Virtual Paralegal! We have worked remotely for decades. You're in luck because we are highly skilled virtual assistants, virtual paralegals, and online business managers every day!

First, let's define the three roles!

Because there is some overlap between what these three roles do, virtual assistants, virtual paralegals, and online business managers may be defined similarly depending on the source. This overlap causes most people to confuse the three roles.

Virtual Assistants are defined by sources like Fiverr, Upwork, and Time Doctor as an "independent contractor who provides administrative, technical, and creative support to other professionals (2022)."

The A.B.A., the State Bar Association of Texas, and Best Virtual Paralegal define a virtual paralegal as "an independent contractor who is self-employed

and works outside the traditional law firm or corporate setting (2022)."

Indeed, Upwork and Time Doctor describe an online business manager as "a self-employed independent contractor working remotely to manage a business by providing administrative, technical, and creative support (2022)."

Let's discuss the differences!

The definitions of these roles seem similar, as you can see. In this section, we will examine how these three roles can support firms in diverse ways. The differences between these three roles may vary from company to company. In other words, what Best Virtual Paralegal believes is a virtual assistant role or task might be listed by another source such as Upwork under a virtual paralegal role/task. These roles are subjective, based on the company providing the service.

Virtual assistants are the doers. Generally, they are task-oriented professionals who assist clients in achieving their goals. Often, this means virtual assistants perform tasks that an attorney cannot bill the client or pass through to the client, such as legal secretary duties.

Our article has discussed virtual assistants, virtual paralegals, and online business managers in this particular order. In this section, however, we're going to skip virtual paralegal for a minute and jump straight to an online business manager.

We will discuss virtual paralegals after online business managers.

Business managers are the people who can help clients manage their online businesses in a wide range of ways. In many ways, the online business manager takes care of the responsibilities of the business owner, as well as those of consultant, coach, strategist, and marketer. In most cases, the business owner remains the conductor, while the online business manager becomes their right-hand person.

Let's go back around and talk about virtual paralegals.

In many cases, virtual paralegals who have owned their own businesses for a while or who have received extensive education and experience help their clients as both business managers and paralegals. However, this is not always the case - it depends on the virtual paralegal's skillset and mindset. Previously, we discussed this topic in the article titled "Paralegal Entrepreneurs are more." A firm is more likely to find a business manager & paralegal in one person or one company if the virtual paralegal is more experienced.

Let's explore some of the tasks one may delegate now that we know how the roles differ. This is not all-inclusive. And not all V.A.s, VPs, O.B.M.s. offer all the tasks listed below. With that said, this list will be semi-cohesive in terms of the services we offer here at Best Virtual Paralegal!

Before we have you take a look at the chart of duties for each role, there are a few caveats, which we added to the narration for extra context. Due to time restraints, we have omitted the obvious paralegal duties and tasks from the list. For example, lawyers can use Best Virtual Paralegal to summarize documents, medical records, and financial reports. In addition, paralegals are typically responsible for summarizing records—however, the author omitted that task from the list.

For those of you following along on our blog, let's begin by taking a look at the virtual assistance column.

Here at Best Virtual Paralegal, the following tasks are usually performed by a virtual assistant or virtual legal assistant:

Inbox and Calendar Management Don't let your inbox get out of control! You can have the support of a V.A. who can look after your inbox and calendar for you. Social Media & Podcast Support

Maintaining or strategically enhancing your online presence through social media and podcasts.

Data Entry - Data entry can be such a time-consuming task, so let us do it for you!

Nonlegal Document Creation

We can create those important business documents for you such as proposal templates, populating tender documents, creating marketing collateral and training materials, etc.

Copywriting blog copy, advertisements, social captions & more.

Online Research: Let us find the information you need. Does your spouse need a gym? Do you want a list of all the gyms within a 50-mile radius of your office? Best Virtual Paralegal's Virtual Assistants staff can help.

Managing calendars and schedules, & dockets.

Building or managing databases (of contacts)

Next, if you are following along on our blog, we are going to look at tasks Best Virtual Paralegal usually assigns to a paralegal & an online business manager. If you look at the graph on the blog, you might notice the next tasks are listed under both a paralegal & an online business manager!!!

Looking for ways to improve processes &automations

Supporting your wider team

Tracking business metrics and taking care of the important day-to-day admin tasks.

Strategic growth of your business and therefore we can be your sounding board for any ideas you have.

Managing the projects that you need to be completed, hopefully within budget!

Delivering high-quality customer service to all your clients and stakeholders (where applicable).

Social Media & Podcast Support

Maintaining and/or enhancing your online presence through social media and podcasts.

Webinar Support

It's all about Zoom and webinars these days so me and my team are experienced in offering technical support during your webinar. From break-out rooms to curating questions, we have your back.

Document Management: Creating and maintaining your business documents such as policies and procedures, proposal templates, populating tender documents, creating marketing collateral and training materials, etc.

Project Management System - generates Gantt charts, progress reports, and executive summaries, and provides the client with electronic updates on the status of the case as well as actual costs versus projected costs and task completion, etc.

As you can see, a virtual paralegal and an online business manager here at Best Virtual Paralegal are often the same. But, again, as we discussed earlier, that is not the case with every company.

Join us again for an upcoming article that will dive deeper into Best Virtual Paralegal's marketing services! They are the most phenomenal digital marketing services; you will ever find!

We are looking forward to seeing you again soon - if you have any suggestions, please let us know! If this article has helped you decide what you can delegate - let's work together to achieve your goals! Let's meet today! Thanks for visiting Best Virtual Paralegal's blog, otherwise known as The Paralegal View, in print.

Thank you for listening! Visit our website at www. Bestvirtualparalegal.com to schedule an appointment, to listen to more of the Paralegal View. For now, this is Jessica signing off. Thank you for joining me on the Paralegal View!

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