I want to be a VA but…

Saw a post over the weekend of a lady who wanted to become a VA but had very little skills and didn’t know what she should specialise in.  I don’t know about you, but for me that rang warning bells.  Here is someone with very little skillset and yet she wants to become a VA. Virtual Assistants should be well versed in the skills they wish to provide services in because, after all, they become advisor/consultants for their clients in these particular skills and no-one should be offering services to clients if they don’t have the knowledge and experience.  Below is my answer which I suspect might not have been well received but is an important thing to think about.

There is a BIG difference between not having experience as a VA versus not having experience in doing things. You should only offer services in the things you have lots of experience in.

If you have experience in nothing or very little, then seriously, you should be reconsidering your decision to become a VA. Virtual Assistants should have good experience in the services they are offering, whether it’s general admin, word-processing, transcriptions, bookkeeping, phone answering, data entry, and even web development and the programs used for any of these items.

If you don’t have much experience in anything then I would highly recommend you get a job and get some experience and come back to the industry in 2-3 years or so, once you have built up that experience. If I’ve got it wrong, then sorry, but in reading the original message here it sounds like you have little experience in the service offerings.

Why do I say this? Because I see so many giving up after only having started 6 months’ previously. They underestimated what would be involved in running a business and being a VA does mean you’re in business. Plus I see so many clients complaining that the VAs they’ve engaged didn’t do a good job and it really gives the industry as a whole, a bad rap.

I’m not trying to spoil your fun here, but rather talking with many years’ experience behind me. 20+ in the corporate world before I began as a VA and another 20+ years in this industry.

If you don’t wish to go back to a job and desperately want to be a VA then I do recommend you get the training – and pay for it. Training to do the things you want to provide services in and then training to operate a VA business. There are lots of courses online for all sorts of things or where you live locally you may find a business college that can give you some really good grounding.

I know that the internet has provided so many the opportunity to work at home and develop a client base and yes, many new industries have been birthed as a result. But seriously, people should have some experience in whatever it is they want to provide to clients as clients will be expected to pay for those services and they deserve to get good results and a good outcome. What do you think?