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What You Need to Know About Being a Virtual Assistant

Being a Virtual Assistant is a great way to be your own boss and to be in charge of your own schedule – right? Sure, but there is a lot more to it. When you start a VA business, you are not just offering services to clients in exchange for payment, you are becoming a business owner. If you want to be in business for any length of time, you need to start thinking of yourself as a business owner right now. I often ask VAs like you why they want to run their own VA business – and most of the time your reasons are very personal. • You want to be more available for your family • You… Read More »What You Need to Know About Being a Virtual Assistant

How to Get Clients Talking About Your VA Business

The best way to get clients talking about your VA business is to start talking about it yourself first. Now I’m not talking about being like that old used car salesman who talks and talks and never lets anyone else get a word in! But in order for people to understand what it is that you do for your clients, you have to be able to talk to people about it. I teach VAs what I call a Concise Marketing Message – it’s about getting really clear on what services you offer, who you support, and why it’s important to them to get help with that thing – and finally, why you are the best person for them to work… Read More »How to Get Clients Talking About Your VA Business

The Best Way to Charge Your Clients for Virtual Assistant Services

Setting your rates as you get your VA business started is always a challenge. You don’t want to overcharge, but you also need to be very cautious not to undercharge. You also need to be sure to provide the right amount of value for your client, while making sure that your business is profitable. Easy, right? It actually is easier than you think, once you have a strategy for charging your clients. Calculating your billable rate is important no matter how you charge your clients, but it’s also essential to figure out the best way for your clients to pay you. When you start out, hourly rates are a great way to charge clients. Often you will be doing tasks… Read More »The Best Way to Charge Your Clients for Virtual Assistant Services

Do I Really Need A Target Market as a VA?

When Virtual Assistants come to me and say they are having trouble finding clients, I always ask them who their target market is. Many times the answer is ‘I don’t have one’ or ‘I haven’t narrowed it down yet.’ If you have not chosen a target group to market your services to, you are making things much more difficult for yourself to grow your VA business. Narrowing down to serve a target market is an important part of your business planning. Without knowing who your customers are, it will be naturally harder to find them. Think about the places that you shop or go to. Who are their customers? What are their products and services? Who do they cater to?… Read More »Do I Really Need A Target Market as a VA?

How to Stay Positive and Optimistic When Being a VA is Hard

The power of positive thinking in your Virtual Assistant business is an excellent skill to learn. Do you have trouble staying positive? When we start our VA business, it is easy to be optimistic. But as time goes on, it is very easy to let negativity set in. Sometimes we just have a bad day. Sometimes we get overwhelmed by client work. Sometimes we struggle to find clients. Sometimes we feel like it’s too much, and it’s probably just easier to go back to a J-O-B. There are any number of things that may take over that positive area of your brain and bring you down. Wow, nice optimistic article, eh?! But this is a real issue – especially during… Read More »How to Stay Positive and Optimistic When Being a VA is Hard

5 Tips to Push Through the Fear of Starting Your Virtual Assistant Business

If you are afraid to start your VA business, here’s one thing you need to know: you are not the only one. It’s so common to be afraid to make the leap to launch. It’s scary to put yourself out there when you have never done it before. It’s kind of like a first date, except on our first date we have zero experience so that’s usually the thing that causes us anxiety. With your business, you aren’t a young kid. You are older, you have some work experience (even if it is not as a VA). You are making a plan to operate a business. The anxiety is the same – it’s still the world of the unknown, but… Read More »5 Tips to Push Through the Fear of Starting Your Virtual Assistant Business

Be Interesting, and Interested, When Networking

If I were to ask you what you do, how would you respond? There are lot of different situations you might be asked that in, so to be fair what I mean is if I meet you at a business event (online or in person), how would you respond? Many VAs I know don’t handle this most important question well. Our instinct, or perhaps what we have been taught somewhere along the line, is that we need to respond with a well-rehearsed elevator pitch. I hate elevator pitches. Sorry to be so blunt, but I think they ruin conversation. Real conversation. You start by saying you are a Virtual Assistant (which may even confuse the person you are having the… Read More »Be Interesting, and Interested, When Networking

3 Simple Tips To Value Your Virtual Assistant Clients

Without clients we don’t have a VA business. So we need to be sure we appreciate our clients – even on the difficult days! Your clients are the people who pay you money to do what you love. We appreciate that, of course, because we need them to keep doing that so we can stay in business. But it is important to nurture your client relationships to make our daily work more enjoyable too. Whether your relationship is in the beginning stages, or has existed for a long time, focus on how valuable the client is. When you first start working with someone there is always a learning curve as you get to know each other, and communication is really… Read More »3 Simple Tips To Value Your Virtual Assistant Clients