What You Need to Become A Virtual Assistant
Here are some previous jobs I’ve had.
Babysitter
Popcorn Popper
After-School Program Worker
Preschool Teacher
Kindergarten Teacher
2nd Grade Teacher
None of these jobs have much in common, other than the fact that you have to interact with people to do them. I’ve always been a people person. I love meeting new people and learning new things about people. So when I knew it was time to leave teaching to pursue another career, I knew it had to be something dealing with people.
The beauty of becoming a Virtual Assistant, is that you really don’t need any prior experience. You need a phone or a computer, some basic knowledge of technology, and…you need to be good at working with people.
When I started, I bought a course. There are a thousand of them, just google Virtual Assistant courses and you’ll be brought to dozens of websites claiming to be the best. I paid big bucks for one because I thought I needed it. Every evening after I put my new one year old to bed, I sat in our spare bedroom going through the modules and daydreaming about having that room be my home office someday.
The thing is, after I made it through a couple of the topics, I realized that most of this I already had knowledge of. It was so basic. Most people that have any sort of technology knowledge can do it. Obviously there are services you have to learn and tons of things that I don’t offer still because I don’t know how to do them. But so many people need help with so many basic services. Once I learned that small fact, I started pitching to people I knew. I went every where that I was a local shopper at and told everyone about my new adventure.
Obviously people had questions - virtual assistance was a fairly new term that no one understood. So I explained, I had coffees with business owners, I did various meetings, I joined a networking group, and I posted a million things about what services I was offering (my #1 tip by the way!) Then I signed on one client who took a chance on me, and she started shouting my name. The rest is history.
Clearly that sounds so simple and easy - which it was NOT. But despite all the tears and late nights and doubt that creeped in, I had faith I could do it, and I did it!
If I can do it, you can too. And you really don’t need many skills to just get started as a virtual assistant. I don’t think I had anything special to start, I just started offering the things I already knew how to do and researching the ones I didn’t.
Do you know how to add calendar events to Google Calendar?
Are you able to organize someones email into folders?
Can you create basic graphics for social media?
Do you know how to write copy?
Any of these things are things I have done for others that just need help in their business, and you can too! If you need help getting started, I do have a guide with some very simple steps to get your feet off the ground! There are various freebies in the shop too if you want to check any of them out. I’m always a DM or an email away if you have any questions!
