Clients ask assistants to find things out: the best venue for a workshop, three suppliers of printer paper with prices, contact details for schools in a district, flight options, or what a competitor charges. Research appears in remote VA adverts and in executive assistant duties. Done well, it saves the client hours and helps them decide.
Start with the question
Before searching, make sure you understand what the client needs. Ask: What decision will this help with? How many options do you want? Any budget, location or date limits? When do you need it? A clear question saves wasted data and time.
Search smarter
- Use specific words. "Conference hall Tamale capacity 100" works better than "hall".
- Use quotation marks to search for an exact phrase: "shea butter exporters".
- Search within one site by adding site: and the address, for example site:gov.gh to search Ghanaian government sites.
- Exclude words with a minus sign directly before the word, such as jobs -scam.
- Check the date of what you find. Prices and opening hours change.
Check that information is reliable
Not everything online is true. Ask:
- Who published it? An official site, a known organisation, or an anonymous page?