How to Start a Virtual Assistanc

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How to Start a Virtual Assistance Business

Starting your own business as a Virtual Assistant is possibly one of the easiest businesses to get into, particularly if you have already acquired valuable office skills in your job outside the home. A Virtual Assistant (VA) provides administrative and secretarial services to other businesses and she does so "virtually." That means that you can work from home to provide these services to your clients.

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Managing Your Virtual Assistant Clients While Working form Home

Managing
Your Virtual Assistant Clients While Working At Home With The Kids
Virtual assistants are on the rise. This is an excellent profession for
the work-at-home mother. Here are some tips for managing your workload
while the kids are home.
What is a virtual assistant? A virtual assistant is someone who
provides businesses with services that aid them in the daily running of
the business. They perform tasks like word processing, web design,
corresponding with business clients, and database management.
Managing this business from home has advantages and disadvantages. For
one, a mom can keep her kids under her watchful eye instead of in a
daycare center. The family saves money on the cost of a sitter. She can
also work in her pajamas until noon if she chooses.
Moms with home-based businesses can experience scheduling issues
though. Children, especially small ones, don’t understand that mom
can’t play because she has to work on the computer. Infants are even
less forgiving. When they need something, there will be no relief for
mom until she satisfies them.
With virtual assisting clients, the needs are varied and sometimes
urgent. How can a mom work her business and take care of the kids?
Planning is of the utmost importance. Patience is a must as well.
If you have an infant, schedule phone calls and net meetings during nap
times. Babies sleep several hours a day. Use that time wisely to get
client deliverables finished and sent out.
If you have a toddler who can walk and get into things, he or she will
need to be in the office area with you. Toddlers do not sleep for long
periods of time, so phone calls can be handled then, but other work
will have to be managed with them awake. Setting up a play area in the
corner of the office will keep your toddler occupied.
Place a few of their favorite toys, a blanket, and a pillow in the play
area. A small television with a VCR for tapes of favorite shows gains
their attention while you work on the computer. When they get tired,
they can lie down and take a nap.
If you have more than one child, you may consider hiring a nanny once
or twice a week. On these days, schedule conference calls, onsite
meetings for local businesses, and other activities for which you need
undisturbed quiet. Make the most of those days to lighten your load on
the days when you are the caregiver for the kids.
Managing a virtual assisting business can be done with the kids at
home. Setting a schedule and sticking to it will help you remain sane
when the kids want and need your attention.
Ready to start and run your own Virtual Assistant business from home?
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href=”http://momstalkbiz.com/amember/go.php?r=XXX&i=l12”>your guide to starting a
VA business</a>.

What Training does a Virtual Assistant Need? (NEW!)

What Training does a Virtual Assistant Need?

This can be a controversial topic. There are those that believe you need to have some sort of formal training before you can call yourself a VA. And then there are those that believe no training is required.

While it isn’t a requirement to go through an official training program in order to start a VA business, if you are interested you can. Do a Google search for Virtual Assistant training and you will find page after page of places that offer training. Just to name a few places available that provide VA training – Virtual Assistance U (http://www.virtualassistanceu.com/) or Virtual Assistant Training (http://www.vatraining.com/). These are the first two sites listed in Google, at this time.

It can be beneficial to go through a training program because you will be mentored / coached, be given learning material, etc. This is also all stuff that you can seek out on your own and don’t necessarily need a VA training program to provide it to you.

The decision to go through VA training isn’t one that someone can make for you, it’s going to be personal preference and whether or not you feel a training program would benefit you and your business.

To be honest, a lot of the qualities you will need to be a successful VA are not things that can even be taught to you. You’ll need to be determined and determination has to come from within, it’s certainly not a skill that can be taught. Perseverance is another quality you’ll need to be a successful VA and again that isn’t something that can be taught to you.

If you opt to go the no training route, you will still need to make sure that you are setting aside a certain amount of time to be brushing up on your skills and learning all the new things that come up with the advances of technology on a regular basis. It’s still always going to be a ‘learning’ industry whether you go through training or not. A training course can only teach you so many things. So you really need to think long and hard about whether or not you will benefit from a VA training program.
			
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Why is a Virtual Assistant Business good for a Work at Home Mom? (NEW!)

Why is a Virtual Assistant Business good for a Work at Home Mom?

A Virtual Assistant business can be the perfect way for a mom to stay at home with her kids but feel like she is providing to the family finances. A VA business is often times the easiest way for a mom to become a work at home mom. And I don’t mean easiest as in an easy way to make a buck because it’s going to require a lot of patience, hard work, determination and perseverance. There’s no such thing as a quick buck.

Chances are that if you have been working outside the home in Corporate America in an office setting of some sort, you probably have some skill(s) that you can offer virtually or at least a skill(s) that will be beneficial in starting your own Virtual Assistant business.

Confused by that statement? Let’s look at it a little deeper, for example let’s say you worked as a bookkeeper. Bookkeeping is a highly specialized skill that many people are willing to pay someone to do for them. Many small businesses or work at home moms are in need of bookkeepers and it’s a skill they are willing to pay for to not have to deal with it themselves. This would be the perfect opportunity for you to offer your services as a Virtual Assistant.

Another example could be if you worked as a medical transcriptionist or legal transcriptionist. Again these are specialized skills that can provide you the foot in the door you need to start your own VA business.

What about the mom that hasn’t been working in a long time but is interested in starting her own VA business? The old saying where there’s a will there’s a way comes to mind. There are some basic type skills you can start out offering such as customer service. More than likely you know how to check email, reply to emails, make phone calls, etc. That’s pretty basic stuff and not surprisingly many small business owners outsource this stuff because it’s so time consuming.

Another option would be to look for an internship opportunity so that you can have someone take you under their wing and train in an area of specialty so that you can offer that as a service to your customers.

You’ll need to keep in mind that although a Virtual Assistant business is a great way for a mom to work from home, even possibly one of the easier ways; it’s time consuming and will require a lot of sweat equity on your part. It’s not something you can just throw up a website and expect the money to come rolling in tomorrow. It doesn’t work that way.  
			
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What Type of Software do You Recommend for a Virtual Assistant? (NEW!)

What Type of Software do You Recommend for a Virtual Assistant?

This is a very broad question with a simple answer. It’s going to depend on what specialty services you plan on providing your customers. If you are just starting out you will need to think about what services you want to offer and go from there.

To give you a few ideas of what is meant by a broad topic with a simple answer; look at the different possibilities of software dependant on your specialty. Remember these are just examples and the software you need is going to vary depending on what you choose to offer as services.

One example could be a VA that wants to specialize in graphics. You will need an image editing software such as PhotoShop (http://photoshop.s0ftware-now.com/index.html).

Another example is a VA that will be offering transcription services. You will need software that allows you to play digital audio (MP3 files) if you wish to transcribe these types of files. If you wish to transcribe other files such as audio recorded onto micro or macro cassette tapes, a machine with a foot pedal will be needed.

If you are a VA that would like to specialize in website updating using FrontPage then you will need to have Microsoft FrontPage installed on your computer. You can purchase the software from a place like Amazon.com.

Those are just a few examples of the broad range of different software that could possibly be needed. Again, it’s simply going to depend on the services you choose to specialize in.

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