Do You Have What it Takes to Be a Virtual Assistant?

Starting your own virtual assistant business requires more than just a desire to make money working from home.  Ask yourself the following questions and answer honestly.

Too many individuals look at becoming a VA as a way to make easy money from home, but the truth is, running your own business is anything but easy.  Your honest answers to these questions will give you a clearer idea of what it takes to become and succeed as a virtual assistant.

• Do I work well independently without the need to be told what to do or when to do it?
• Am I able to get along well with all different types of personalities, even those that many people find difficult?
• How good am I at making decisions?
• Do I have the stamina to put in the long hours and days required to run my own business?
• Am I good at planning and organizing?
• Do I have the motivation to keep going even when the responsibility of running my own business becomes difficult and stressful?
• Am I capable of the self control needed to set and meet deadlines without supervision?
• Can I remain focused and able to resist distractions?
• Do I have a good support system?
• Do I have adequate professional office experience?
• Do I have the technical expertise required?
• Am I able to market myself and my services?
• Can I handle sitting at a computer all day?
• Do I enjoy working alone?

The importance of your answers to these questions can’t be understated.  As a business owner you and only you will be responsible for all aspects of the business.  You’ll not only be providing  your clients with VA services, but you’ll also be responsible for bookkeeping, invoicing, marketing and all of the other aspects of keeping a business running and making it a success.

You might think that because you’re virtual, getting along with people isn’t as important, but remember, clients come with different personalities and so do people you network with.  Making major decisions regarding your business, as well as the way you complete client work will be something you do daily. You’ll put in more hours than you ever imagined, and need to be more organized than you ever thought.

You’ll be surprised at how much more distraction is present when working from a home office, so it will be important to be able to shut out the things around you and focus on business. You’ll need to know how to set and stick to deadlines without someone prodding you to get the work completed.

The need for adequate professional office experience can’t be emphasized enough; there are some things, such as professionalism, that can only be learned through the proper experience.  To be considered professional office experience you should have been at the very least an administrative assistant with certain amount of responsibility within the office.  This means you would have been required to make decisions and perhaps supervised others.

If you have answered the above questions honestly and still feel confident that becoming a virtual assistant is for you, you can now move forward knowing that you’ve truly put some thought into what it takes to run your own business.

For those of you who made it through the list and are convinced that virtual assistance is the career choice for you head over to the Clerical Advantage Facebook Page and grab the freebies available by simply clicking the Like button on the page.  And if you’re serious about starting a virtual assistant business the VA Survival Guide gives you the sort of start up and day to day helps for running your business that can mean the difference between success and failure of your business. And keep up on helpful business tips for VA’s by subscribing to the VA Survival Tips newsletter.

Download the .pdf  handout version of this post, which has a fill-able checklist and section for notes and questions.

[stextbox id=”custom”]Do you have more questions  about starting your own virtual assistant business.  Get the answers to those questions by asking them on the Wall of the Clerical Advantage Facebook Page and I’ll answer them and/or give you details on where you can get more information.[/stextbox]