Virtual Assistant Professional Development: The Before

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I just have to say Jo, I love your work. I take so much from it. This is very timely Jo, as I am a starting newbie being an early retiree from the corporate. This makes realize the distinction to the VA world but will go for it. Jo, thank you for another brilliant post.

We have this amazing and vast educational tool called Google, you can find anything you want and even stuff you never thought of. I am still on a learning curve and expect to continue to learn as technology changes so quickly. It is hard but I have never had any doubts that I made the right choice and keep plugging away. There is also mindset — you have to be able to step away from being an employee and become a business owner.

You work with your clients to improve their business rather than work for them. Thank you Tracey, what a lovely thing to say!

I use Feedly to bring in news feeds from my favourite blogs — experts on SEO, marketing, social media, freelancing, technology etc — then make sure I read them to stay ahead of the game. I agree with you on the mindset one too.

Essential Virtual Assistant qualities

It can often take something like a nightmare client for you to realise that you work with them not for them. Your actions and the words you choose need to subtly make and keep the distinction clear. I love it when people comment on here so thank you very much for your contribution. I am new member on here, to be honest its 5: I just wanted to say I am quite blown away by what has been imparted to me. I have over the last few days gone from strength to strength and learnt a lot of lessons of the calibre of professionals out here on the web, and Jo is just simply amazing — I will be contacting her shortly for professional help re writing my CV.

Thank you so much for your lovely comments Dawn, you must be shattered now! Thanks so much for your blunt and candid information on becoming a VA.

Qualities every Virtual Assistant needs to have

But I keep getting all these references popping up everywhere about becoming a VA! Any advice please for the confused mum?

These fears are in your head and are not yet real. It sound like you have everything you need to become a VA, you just need the courage to try. They made me smile! Your website and the info on it are so amazingly helpful and I really do appreciate your candid approach.

It can be very tempting to research the whole thing to death when you just need to get started! Thank you Joanne for the wonderful site, I have been on this site just a few times, since I met you on Quora, and I have found there is so much to learn in here in regards to Virtual Assistant work. I finally have started to see my destiny more clearly since I found your site just a few weeks ago. There is nobody who says it all so clearly and better than you do, I for one have a rather unique VA story that I would like to share with you, so please look out for my story in your inbox.

The story is just about how the VA industry can and has helped me try fight poverty and daily life struggles from a slum in Africa. Managing expectations and instilling confidence — these two should be discussed between the virtual assistant and the client before agreeing to any contract.

For one thing, the virtual assistant needs to be clear of her abilities or capabilities to be able to give value to the client. For another, the client must be able to provide a clear picture of the tasks involved. Both things are vitally important when managing clients. Thank you for your contribution — much appreciated!

I have spent the past couple of hours trawling through your various guides and general information and now feel even more driven to get started. I will follow up my introductions but at the end of the day, I need to be the driver behind my future and not totally rely on others to make this happen for me. I am from Mauritius and would like to start as a Virtual Assistant. Do you think this will bring me success in a country like ours. You look at what skills you have and then find people who need those things doing.

Your job is to do some research by asking around and finding out. No, there is absolutely NO stopping you now!

Found you this week and downloaded your handbook. I agree with you on the use of social networking for my business and am very alien to it so I have arranged one to one training with a local specialist in this area so that I can offer it to my clients. I know I have the qualities you mention above to make this work. Thanks for all the tips. That is great news Lisa! Expertise is one of the most vital aspects of being a Virtual Assistant. You need to be perfect, or at least try to be perfect — An improperly placed stone can lead to the collapse of the […].

Good article listing these virtual assistant qualities. It is always saddening to hear about those clients who got a bad experience from their previous VAs. Those VAs who are messing up with their job, mess up with the clients and give bad reputation to the skilled and performing VAs. I am a VA for years now and I remember when I was a newbie. I never considered myself one because I do not want to give myself some justification why I cannot do my job. Newbie or not, you were hired because you had what it takes to perform the tasks.

It is a matter of being serious about your job and considering the business your own. Thank you for your comment Mariane and you are so right. The set of qualities you have written is absolutely a good read for a beginner like me.

Talk about setting proper expectations! Will be digging into more of your posts for helpful insights. This is very true! After hating virtual assistance for long, I came across this post several months a go.

I can now say I discovered myself. There are so many people out there who want to work online but did not do anything to become one. All silly things such as how to use gmail and screenshots.

5 Reasons Entrepreneurs & SMEs Should Hire a Virtual Assistant

And then they would ask if I can refer them to my clients??? Thank you for your comment Milette, sadly this seems to be a very common occurrence. Some people want everything on a plate and not have to find out anything for themselves. Unfortunately the opposite is exactly what you need to do in order to work for yourself! I am really happy I found this website and read this article. I am a graduate student and I have been thinking of working online now as a VA well because I want to further my education.

Find out what tools you need to become a Virtual Assistant:

As a total beginner i was scared and doubting myself whether this job is the right one for me or not. I wanted to up my game and to do that I knew I needed to learn from people who were better than me. So I bought a 2-day ticket to the Expert Empires event in London. July 9th, by Joanne Munro. How to choose a laptop for your VA business was last modified: September 14th, by Joanne Munro. This decision hack will change your life was last modified: August 21st, by Joanne Munro. July 20th, by Joanne Munro. VAs reveal who their last client was and how they got them was last modified: July 6th, by Joanne Munro.

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How to improve your pricing strategy and mindset was last modified: July 24th, by Joanne Munro. June 11th, by Joanne Munro. The legal stuff you need to have in place was last modified: May 25th, by Joanne Munro. Her voice sounds like a tinkling bell and I love her to the moon and back… I love my Mum but… was last modified: April 26th, by Joanne Munro. How Virtual Assistants manage childcare was last modified: July 26th, by Joanne Munro. What story are you telling yourself?

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