What Skills Do You Need to Become a Virtual Assistant?

One of the most popular questions we get from aspiring Virtual Assistants relates to what skills are needed to start up your own business.

Organised
As a VA, you will be working with a range of clients providing different types of support to each client. It is therefore imperative that you are an organised person who is able to switch between different tasks and work within different situations regularly.

Self Motivation
You are now your own boss which brings a whole host of positive points, but this also means you no longer have a boss to issue instructions, motivate and encourage you – or breathe down your neck! You need to consider if you will be able to motivate yourself each day to get the job done, even if you don’t have any clients yet. 

Relevant Work Experience
As a Virtual Assistant, we are charging for the experience and skills that we have gained and honed during our careers.  As we are charging for our skills, they need to be to an exceptionally high standard.

High Ethics
Again, we are charging for our time so high ethics and honesty are a must for all Virtual Assistants. Our clients have to trust us to do their work and believe what we report back. You need to be 100% honest with clients and work to high standards. 

Task Oriented
The work of a Virtual Assistant is very task oriented – just for different people. It is a juggling act and you need to make sure that all work completed is accurate and on time. If you don’t like doing some mundane tasks, then the route of a Virtual Assistant is probably not for you.

Software
Virtual Assistants are renowned for their excellent software skills and some VAs even offers software training as part of their services to clients.  Make sure that you are experienced in the software if you are going to offer it as a service to paying clients. For example, it wouldn’t be right to offer to produce high quality presentations if you don’t know PowerPoint.