Starting a virtual assistant business is a lot like starting any other business. There are hazards and pitfalls along the way that can sink a business before it even gets off the ground. But just as with any other small business, there are ways to maximize your chances of success when starting a virtual assistant business.
Plan Your Business
Starting a virtual assistant business when you’re alone makes it easy to approach the business in a sort of haphazard or piecemeal way. This is a mistake, to be sure. Success requires a certain degree of planning and organization. In fact, it wouldn’t hurt to create a virtual assistant business plan, much like the business plans other businesses use.
Identify Your Assets
Virtual Assistance can be a highly specialized field. If you have expert knowledge in QuickBooks, for example, you have special expertise that puts you ahead of some of your competitors. The same holds true for technical knowledge or specific writing skills. Knowing what you bring to the table can help you successfully identify which potential client situations might work best for you, and it can help you to market your abilities to those potential clients.
Focus On Marketing
The reason that many virtual assistant businesses fail isn’t that the person isn’t good at what she does. It isn’t because she did a bad job or because he didn’t understand a particular process. The reason many VA businesses fail is a failure to market the business effectively. Marketing, branding, and sales are all key components of any small business.
Get Virtual Assistant Training
By enrolling in a VA training program, you put yourself ahead of the competition. Training for VAs offers you an extra edge by starting your virtual assistant business in a way that helps you benefit and learn from the experience of others.
Pay Attention to the Business
It can be easy to get lost in the day-to-day details of your VA business. It’s important not to lose sight of the business overall. Remember to mind your own books, not just your clients’ books. Spend some time revising your business plan from time to time to maintain focus on your long-term goals, not just short-term income. Also, always make sure that you have the equipment you need to stay on top of technology.
Following these tips puts you well on the road to success with your virtual assistant business. Good luck!
From information technology to accounting, many industries have a professional certification program. Virtual assistance is no exception.
Virtual assistant certification programs recognize the best and brightest people in the industry. Even more, VA certification lets a potential client know that you perform well, and that an independent third party has verified your credentials.
Virtual assistant certification programs accomplish a few goals. First, they help people maintain their confidence in their field of work as a VA. Without this recognition, the entire industry may stop growing altogether. Conversely, when any industry has high standards for certification and is willing to police its own membership for quality, the industry at large can grow.
In addition to being good for the VA industry, virtual assistant certification is good for VAs. Certification can lead to higher wages. It can also lead to more clients, as some people refuse to do business with a professional that isn’t licensed.
Lastly, certification gives you prestige and a professional advantage over those who aren’t certified.
When looking into a virtual assistant certification programs, it’s important to watch out for VA scams. Many unscrupulous individuals prefer to earn income through misleading and misdirecting an unsuspecting customer.
Don’t be afraid, though. There are many credible programs. Make sure that the VA certification program you explore is recognized among peers in the industry, has a good reputation, and that the organization granting the certification is a respected one.
There are two levels of virtual assistant certification to consider: the PVA and the MVA.
The PVA (or Professional Virtual Assistant) is the first of two levels of certification. When they reach this level, virtual assistants have worked hard to hone skills and become experienced in their craft.
The second and highest level of virtual assistant certification is MVA. MVA (or Master Virtual Assistant) consists of certified VAs who have grown by enrolling in additional courses pertaining to their practice. In addition, MVAs have more depth of experience than PVAs.
While certification doesn’t guarantee that you’ll perform well as a virtual assistant, it can help make the difference in your success with clients and within the industry.
The time is right to become a Certified Virtual Assistant.
The number of businesses that need Virtual Assistants is growing at a rapid pace.
It’s expected that by 2009, 80% of businesses will have a presence on the Internet. Most of them will be trying to marketin online…. and they’ll need help doing it.
That means over 20 million clients for VA’s.
In the US alone , it is predicteded that Internet Marketing and Advertising Spending will reach $9.3 billion by 2010.
Things are growing and evolving so rapidly in the Internet Marketing industry, that an ever expanding pool of internet business owners are desperate for Virtual Assistants with the right niche skills to effectively support their marketing efforts!
In the next post I’ll review more reasons to become a VA, and where you can go to get training and a VA Certification.
Technorati Tags: va certification
Starting a virtual assistant business is a lot like starting any other business. There are hazards and pitfalls along the way that can sink a business before it even gets off the ground. But just as with any other small business, there are ways to maximize your chances of success when starting a virtual assistant business.