Skills a Virtual Assistant Needs to ensure a Full Practice

Someone bragging about you is the best kind of networking you could ask for.  It allows you to increase your client base, and bring in more income.  The best way to wow your customers is to be sure you can do it all.  From website management, to product development and marketing, the more you know the more money you can make the more recognition you can earn. 

By Kathy Sparks, VA Technical School

PAs & Secrataries - Skills  a Virtual Assistant Needs to Insure a Full Practice If your VA practice is lacking, and no one seems to bragging about you, then perhaps your virtual assistant technical skills are not meeting the requirements that most entrepreneurs need. If your clients brag about you, you probably are not having a problem keeping your practice as full as you want it. Someone bragging about you is the best kind of networking you could ask for.

This message was in an email I received a few weeks ago:
“After desperately looking for some high quality virtual assistants to recommend to my clients, I am finally taking things in my own hands…”

Can you tell what this person is saying? This entrepreneur could not find virtual assistants she could turn to for any or most of the projects she had and her clients need.

It appears that we are letting some great opportunities pass us by because we are not skilled enough to handle the projects successful entrepreneurs need.

Let me explain. If your car develops a mechanical problem, you want to take it to your local garage, you expect them to diagnose the problem and to fix the problem. You don’t want to go back and hear, “oh, we don’t do that, you’ll have to take your car to Dan the mechanic.” And then what happens? You need to go to Dan, make another appointment, and spend more time without the car. Pretty soon a whole day is gone and you have to do it all over again tomorrow.

Understand how pleasant it is for your client to hear, “okay, sure, I can do that.” Wow, they LOVE that statement. If you are an entrepreneur who has projects that need continuity and that require one system to work with the other,  like a product attached to a shopping cart that results in an autoresponder being sent - you, as the entrepreneur, would love to turn the whole project over to your virtual assistant. As the client’s VA, you will be more efficient by being able to work through the process yourself rather than finding and relying on someone else to do parts of the project.

You can start turning clients away because there is no more room in your practice by being the virtual assistant that clients brag about. And why do they brag? Because you have the skills they need to run their business.

Once you have learned how to start your Virtual Assistant practice, you need to close the gap between knowing how to start the “business” and actually meeting the technical needs of the people out there who need great VAs.

When skilled virtual assistants cannot be found, business people search for individuals who do the specific projects, like setting up a hosting account, setting up the shopping cart, customer service, learning some software - looks like this person will be managing four people. Not much “time saving here.” They could subscribe to a service that provides a “Team” of VAs. The problem with this solution is that the client is either communicating with the specific member of the team that is working on a specific project or only gets to communicate with the coordinator.

A Virtual Assistant Partnership is a team between the client and VA where the VA is well versed in the business, and can complete the major portion of the tasks required of the business owner.

You should be able to show your clients ways to enhance their businesses. You should be able to say, “yes I can” more times than, “I’ll find someone for you to do that.” As a virtual assistant, you should always be in the process of broadening your skills so that you can help take your clients from an idea to a viable business.

You’ve already learned HOW to become a VA, now you need to add value (and $$$) to our virtual assistant practice by focusing on increasing your technical skill level. You can create a WOW image and have your clients brag about you. By increasing your value, you can increase your rates. Don’t fall into the “box” of low paid Virtual Assistants who know only how to type a letter or work on a spreadsheet.

You can learn how to become the VA clients brag about and you can close the technical gap between “how to be a VA” and actually being able to execute the things your clients need to help make their businesses successful. This gap can be closed with technical training. Skills entrepreneurs constantly ask for are the ability to maintain a web site, manage a shopping cart, set up autoresponders, send broadcast emails, find joint venture partners, distribute articles, how to use Assessment Generator, help them develop products, set up a teleclass and marketing their site, teleclasses and products.

VAs need a wide variety of skills and we need to know when, where and how to apply those skills. We need to know the best way to apply them for our customers. We need to know the best solution for the problem at hand. Adding to your technical skills is a win/win for you and your client. You win because you add value to your business and your client wins because now they get new ideas and they can count on you to do the job.

Kathy Sparks, VA Technical School, www.vatechnicalschool.com , is a ten year veteran of a full Virtual Assistant Practice. Visit VA Technical School to learn more about how to add value to your VA practice.

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