Question of the Week – How does a person get started in the (Virtual Assistance) business?

Today I received the following email and wanted to share my reply with you:

I have been a secretary/admin/and now an executive assistant for a long time. I have increased my knowledge, education, and skills throughout the years. I am considered to be the best assistant in the office I currently work in — and always strive to be the very best…. I don’t plan on leaving my current position — but things can change quickly in “corporate America” so I want to see what it would entail to really be a virtual assistant. My #1 question is how does a person get started in the business? There are enough people doing it now — surely there are some “best practices”. I honestly see it as the future and think it would be a great business opportunity for me.

K.D. – Missouri, USA

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Thanks so much for your note K.D.!

I appreciate your pro-active, forward thinking mindset. One can never be two confident about the stability of corporate America….just look a Lehman Brothers!

As regards to your question, how does a person get started in the business, I recently wrote a post about this, which you can review at: https://www.eatova.com/2008/08/top-three-ways-to-get-started-in-virtual-assistance/.

In addition to that, when I quit my corporate job over 2 1/2 years ago to start my VA business this is what I did:

1. Educated myself about the Virtual Assistance industry
2. Prepared a transition plan to start my Virtual Assistant business
3. Followed my transition plan and started my VA business
4. Invested in training to learn how to become a savvy business owner
5. Immediately implemented everything I learned with my exisiting and new clients
6. Kept working hard to make steady progress. (I’m still doing this!)
7. Continued to invest in myself and my business. (I’m still doing this too!)

There are definitely “best practices” involved to be a successful Virtual Assistant. One of my goals with EA -> VA is to show each of you how to be a HIGHLY SUCCESSFUL VA, not just a VA. You likely already have most of the skills you need to be a great virtual assistant, but what you need help with is creating a solid foundation for your business, building the business and consistently attracting your ideal clients. This is why it is so important to invest in training. There is a proven formula to help you achieve your goals and you’ll enjoy your business so much more if you follow it, instead of trying to reinvent the wheel and struggle on your own.

I’ll be covering these best practices on this blog, in the “EA to VA Insights” newsletter and in upcoming teleclasses, so stay tuned for details! And welcome to the EA -> VA community…I’m thrilled to have you here!

Best regards,

Sydni