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What Is A Virtual Assistant?
The Virtual Assistant industry is growing by leaps and bounds but there are still plenty of people who don’t really understand what a virtual assistant is or how they can play a vital role in the growth of a business — both online and traditional brick and mortar.
A Virtual Assistant, or VA, provides services to individual, organizations or companies, but they work online, from home (or where ever they choose to be), instead of going into an office. There are many tasks that an entrepreneur might need help with.
With more and more people are running their own businesses and realizing they can’t do it all, Virtual Assistants are in high demand!
What Services Does a Virtual Assistant Provide
The truth of the matter is that there is no cut and dry list of tasks that a virtual assistant can be responsible for. The list is diverse and extensive, depending on the needs of the client. To give you an idea, Gina Horkey, of Horkey Handook, has compiled a list of 150+ common VA services that will provide you with a great starting point. Depending upon your skills and interests, you’re almost guaranteed to find something on the list that will appeal to potential clients.
Here are a few examples:
- Customer support
- Processing online orders and refunds
- Website design
- WordPress maintenance
- Graphic design and layout
- Calendar management and travel arrangements
- Content creation for blogs and ghostwriting
- Editing and proofreading
- Transcription
- Content research
- Keyword research
- Email management
- Bookkeeping
- Data entry
- Creating sales pages
- Managing product launches
- Performing outreach
- Lead generation
- Editing videos
- Social media management
- Project management
- Community management and moderation
The list goes on! For many busy entrepreneurs, the greater the variety of tasks you can handle, the more valuable you will be to them.
Services are one thing, but you might be wondering what skills do you need to become a Virtual Assistant?
Obviously, if you’re planning to work online, a general understanding of all-things-internet is a good place to start. Having some specific skills and experience will make getting started easier and it will definitely prove to be a big help with landing your first clients.
Your experience could include any variety of business activities – both online and offline. At the same time, it’s important to note that a lack of skills should never be a deterrent. A high degree of motivation, good communication skills and a desire to learn are equally, if not more, important
Your Next Steps
If starting your own VA business something you’re passionate about pursuing, you can learn more about it by checking out Horkey Handbook’s best-selling course: 30 Days or Less to Virtual Assistant Success. It goes into much greater detail b. walking you through each individual step across 58+ lessons, 13 quizzes and over 145 minutes of video.
The also offers an exclusive membership community for current and past students of their courses called, the VA Leads Community. In addition to ongoing training and access to high-quality job leads. You’ll also be part of a close-knit community of successful virtual assistants who are open to sharing their knowledge and experience.
“You’re always one decision away from a totally different life” ~unknown
Put your strengths to work and become a much sought-after Virtual Assistant.
Click here to learn how to become a Virtual Assistant
30 Days or Less to Virtual Assistant Success
Recommended Tools for Your Virtual Assistant Business
A Business Blog/Website
You’ll need a place to send your people to transform them into buyers! Consider it your “storefront”. It’s also necessary to have blog/website so you can set up your Instagram, Facebook, Pinterest and other social media accounts as a business. By setting these up as business accounts, you will have access to the analytics. These are important tools to help you learn about your audience and how to target them and meet their needs. If you don’t have one already, Click here to start your blog/website
An Email Delivery System
Obtaining Emails is important! Sign up with an email service provider and start collecting emails. I use and recommend ConvertKit. It allows you to have multiple lists and landing pages. You can customize your templates or just use the ones they provide. It also allows to you to set up multiple email sequences and you can include downloads, such as ebooks, printables, email courses and other lead magnets that will entice your audience to sign up.