Friday, February 20, 2009

Picture being a VA and working from home

Picture being a Virtual Assistants

You are sitting at home reading a magazine and you come across an article about Virtual Assistants. You can immediately imagine yourself as a Virtual Assistant. You can picture yourself working from home, sitting in your own office, typing for clients, earning good money just by working from home. That is your first thoughts on being a Virtual Assistant.

Now you think I will type ‘Virtual Assistant’ into goggle search, what appears flabbergasts you, this is worldwide and there is loads of them. So you start checking out the various websites and soon learn you have the same or similar experience and maybe this is something you must seriously think about doing.

But before you decide to do this, think! Are you cut out to be a Virtual Assistant, being a Virtual Assistant can mean hard work, long hours, working to suite a client, sitting for hours on your own in your own office with no company. Doing your own marketing and networking as you need to find your own clients. Clients will not find you unless you take steps for them to find you. How do you manage to run your own office, do you have any management experience? Before going in for this, think, do you have the temperament to be a Virtual Assistant? It will require patience, you will need to be assertive, pro-active, be able to address and handle clients as if you were on the same level as them. Lean how to cope if your computer breaks down/crashes. Learn who to call when you need help and assistance.

There is so much involved in working virtually. You will have to pay your own company expenses, buy your own stationery, paper, equipment, keep updated with the latest in technology the latest news within the Industry. Learn where to target to get the best clients you need for your business. Learn how to sound people out. Be sure you are the kind of person to handle this before starting out. There will be disappointment, there will be clients who don’t pay you, how do you cope with this. How do you cope if you take on say typing and then you don’t know how to complete it or don’t know how to do it as its more complicated than you thought when you answered the query, but now you have the work and you have done nothing like this before. You can’t just throw in the towel, you have to manage the situation, deal with it. It is like any business you start there is always doubt and wondering, can I do this.

Becoming a Virtual Assistant is a learning curve; you start from scratch and grow your own business. Being a Virtual Assistant is not about sitting at home and doing typing; it’s far more involved than that. It is blooming hard work. But what you put in is what you will get out, the harder you work, the more you will reap the rewards. I did not get where I am overnight, I had to work for it, years of hard work, no money, no rewards. Now I can reap those benefits of all the hard work I did. Being a Virtual Assistant takes skill and experience, without this you will not survive.

Slowly but surely the industry is becoming known more and more within South Africa that means more work for Virtual Assistants. At the moment it seems to be the more experienced Virtual Assistant who are the ones who are benefiting from this, but things will change and Virtual Assisting will become a sort after business to be in. With the Recession within our country, clients are looking towards outsourcing and work will be available.
So now could be a great time to think about going into the world of Virtual Assisting.

Written by Alison Fourie, VA for Hire, © Copyright 2009. All rights reserved.

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