Virtual Assistance is a profession which is fast growing and becoming extremely popular. Virtual Assistants are individuals who work from the comfort of their own homes to provide valued services using technology to clients globally. As women try to juggle their work and family life, more and more prefer to stay at home and work as a virtual assistant.
Are you interested in starting your own home based virtual assistant venture? Then follow this simple checklist.
1. Evaluate Yourself
Before jumping into starting your own virtual assistant business you should first evaluate yourself and see whether this is the right career path for you. Possessing great administrative skills, communicative skills and being computer literate is a must in this profession. In addition if you are a self motivated person who loves to learn new things, enjoy working with dynamic people and dream of having your own business this is the correct path for you.
2. Decide on the Service You Want to Offer
The nature of work that you provide to your clients will depend on your area of expertise. You should decide which service you want to offer by analyzing your background and the experience that you have already acquired. Depending on the above it could be billing and book keeping, meeting and travel planning, market research, business writing, desktop publishing, website creation, etc.
3. Determine Your Commitment to Your Business
You should decide how much time and energy you have to commit to your business. Whether you want to become a full time virtual assistant or a part time virtual assistant? The advantage of being a virtual assistant is that you get to set your own working hours. You can work “on call” or you can setup a work schedule with the client according to the time convenient for you.
4. Verify the Equipment & Software
Now that you have decided which service you would be offering to your clients, you should examine and see whether you have the correct equipment and software to provide it. Also since most of the communication and data delivery between you and your client would be done through the computer, you should ensure that you posses the required connectivity and software. For example email, instant messaging, etc.
5. Identifying Your Clients
You should identify which type of clients may need your service and where they are located and how you can have access to them.
6. Making a Business Plan
It is essential that you create a business plan for your venture. In this you should include information such as the business history, summary of the business, management information, designing & production plan, financial plan, etc. As your business grows and expands you can refer to it to manage your growth and change.
7. Creating a Marketing Strategy
A very important aspect to your venture is your marketing strategy. Now that you have decided on your services you need to spread the word about your venture. You should decide on a marketing strategy which suits you and your budget and start working on it.
8. Fees and Pricing
You should have a competitive fee/price for the service you offer. When you are starting off it is always better to do some research and find out what the competitive rates are in the market. Always remember never to overprice or to sell yourself short.
Starting up a home based virtual assistant business would not involve a high cost. By following the above guidelines, you can build up a very successful virtual assistant practice.
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by Liz Folger:
Liz Folger is the founder of Bizymoms.com. The #1 Goal of Bizymoms.com is to help women find a business they are proud to own, and then help them, step-by-step, make their home business dream a reality. Bizymoms.com has been helping moms become business owners since 1997. The site offers many resources from online chats to e-books and online classes. Just recently they've added home business career kits that are proving to be quite popular and much needed.
· BizyLetters Career Kit
· Tutormonster Career Kit
· Expert VA Career Kit
· BizyWelcome Service Career Kit
· Candy Wrappers Career Kit
· Event Planner Career Kit
· Errand Service Career Kit
· Jewelry Store Career Kit
· Crafting Business Career Kit
· Cleaning Service Career Kit
