Being a VA is not for everyone!

I am constantly receiving emails from those wanting to become a Virtual Assistant and looking for information on how to do that. AJWD does outsource work when necessary and it works out very well for those involved but we are very choosy as to whom we work with. When I was looking for a business to become involved in, I spent every lunch break at Borders Book Store reading every entrepreneur and small business book they had available. After that I concentrated on the internet and did a lot of research, all in all I spent about a year researching this insustry. Finally we moved to Charlotte, NC and AJWD was born.

Most people that I speak to assume that anyone can become a VA and expect to start working tomorrow. People don’t realize the dedication, struggle and hard work that is involved in owning your own business. In my previous corporate life there were other people who were responsible for budgets, marketing, administration, purchasing, and reception and so on. As a small business owner I am responsible for all that, I don’t have a staff of people ready to help out with various tasks. As a VA you are responsible for the administration, marketing, accounting, reception, coffee making and anything else that needs to be done plus you also have your client work to do.

As a small business owner, you must have support, drive, possess great inner strength and truly believe in yourself. As a VA you must be efficient, great at multi tasking, good at communication and love what you do. Not everyone can be a VA, I have spoken to numerous “wannabe” VA’s and when I ask the question “why do you want to be a VA?”, their answer is “I want to be able to work from home and earn money”. My suggestion to them is to join a business that offers work at home opportunities.

VA’s take great pride in their work, we have to, most of our business comes from referrals and word of mouth. If we or our work is unprofessional then we will be back at a 9-to-5 job before we can say “jack rabbit”! We become experts at balancing home and work. If a good client has a last minute project which has to be done now, we step up to the challenge even if it involves us working until the wee hours of the morning. We do not look kindly on these types of projects though! What I mean is we put our heart and soul into making our business a successful one and our clients always come first!

We spend hours researching the latest and great software and the most economical way to obtain it, and we have lots of business resource tips to pass along to our clients. Why do we share, you ask? We delight in sharing our ideas and resources with those we partner with. I am constantly surprised at how generous VA’s are with the knowledge and information they have gained throughout their years of experience as a business owner, most VA's are happy to help you along in your business.

If you are interested in becoming a VA, do your research; continue working and know what is involved in becoming a successful business owner. By successful I don’t mean making a salary of $70,000 per year, success means different things to different people. To me success means being able to work at home, in a business that I love and be able to take a half day if I so wish and never having to go back to corporate life again!

Here are some attributes that you will need as a VA –, the ability to multi task and be extremely organized and above all, you must have excellent customer service, otherwise the previous two won’t matter. Without customer service, you won’t receive referrals and you need referrals to build your business!