How To Become a Virtual Assistant
VA’s Have Choices
Being a VA can be rewarding both financially and from a personal perspective as often you can choose who you work for and what tasks you take on. You also get to set your own schedule and can potentially work from anywhere.
The first thing you need to do is to believe in yourself, to know your strengths, to be able to learn quickly and to management your priorities and time. Being a VA is of course, like all jobs, hard work and can have dull and boring elements. So what exactly is a VA and what do they do?
A VA is simply someone provide provides support to other businesses from a remote location in return for a fee. The Internet, being able to share files and affordable online meeting tools means that VAs are in high demand by entrepreneurs and online businesses.
To be successful, you should play to your strengths and aim to specialise in a niche and offer your service to a type of business - by becoming an expert in your niche, you will also get paid more per job in the long run.
As a VA, there are many services that you can offer including:
VA Niche 1: General Administration
Although this might not appear to be very niche, if you select a specific sector, you can develop a specialised VA offering rather than providing general administration services. Tasks and services could include: · Booking appointments
· File management and data entry
· Managing databases and spreadsheet
· Making travel arrangements Managing calendars and schedule
VA Niche 2: Social Media
Many entrepreneurs and businesses know that they need a social media presence, but most do not have time to dedicate to creating content, sharing, and engaging with their audience. If you have a talent for managing Facebook pages, Twitter, Pinterest, and Instagram accounts, this niche could be an ideal niche for you.
Social media VAs are in high demand therefore if you possess the following skills, you could become a social media VA:· How to create headlines and interesting copywriting and marketing materials
· Have an eye for design enabling you to pin, tweet, and post images for Instagram
· You keep ahead of the trends and can spot new ways to promote and attract visitors
· How to engage with a brand’s audience and how to keep the conversation going with people.
VA Niche 3: Blogging
Blogger VAs make money helping bloggers run their business by: · Writing, editing, and proofreading blog posts
· Moderating blog comments and content
· Creating graphics for blog posts or social media like Pinterest
· Improving SEO
· Removing broken links, adding affiliate links
· Managing readers’ emails and scheduling social media.
VA Niche 4: E-commerce
Many businesses run their own e-commerce store, it can be difficult for them - especially for small and mid-size businesses. An E-commerce VA can help by:· Managing customer service
· Tracking orders, including order entry, shipment, and invoicing
· Managing product returns/exchanges
· Overseeing inventory management
· Helping with marketing
· Undertaking website maintenance.
VA Niche 5: Content Production
In the3 same way that some enterprises struggle to manage their e-commerce, some struggle with creating, curating, and editing videos an social media content. Creating content is time-consuming and is there is always a need for strong content develops – a role which lends itself to a VA.Typically, content VAs will:
· Write blog posts
· Research content ideas
· Create graphics
· Source images and video content
· Take product photos and make videos.
Niche VA 6: Finance
If you have experience in managing finance or undertaking bookkeeping becoming a finance VA is a potentially lucrative niche role for a VA. Finance VA often offer services such as:· Book-keeping
· Creating and chasing invoices for payment
· Processing payments both income and expenditure
· Management the payroll.
