Virtual Assistant Skills You Already Have on Your Toolbelt
Let me guess: You don’t think you have the virtual assistant skills to land clients online. I mean, who would hire someone that’s never done the job before… right?! What if I told you that you already have what clients are looking for?
It doesn’t always come down to “Do you know this tech platform?” or “Can you write custom CSS code?” as to whether clients will hire you.
I’ll let you in on a (not-so) secret of the virtual assistant world: Clients hire based on who they feel cares about their business, not what technical skills they have.
Because trust me when I say that you can teach someone how to write a blog post, but you can’t teach them how to give a shit about what you’re writing about.
I said what I said.
That’s why it doesn’t matter that you don’t know any of the tech platforms or detailed online marketing skills. You just have to truly and honestly care about what it is that your potential client is doing and show them that you care.
I’ve seen it happen time and time again with my students in the Virtual Assistant Blueprint.
So, what do you have to offer when you’re first getting started in the VA world? That’s what we’re talking about today.
Important Virtual Assistant Skills (You Probably Already Have)
Detail-Oriented
It’s not uncommon for business owners to have very specific parameters that they want you to meet with the tasks they assign you. So it’s important that you have or develop a strong attention for detail.
This helps them trust you more and more over time as you prove that you catch those nuances they care about. It also relieves them of stress that much more because they don’t feel as though they have to review every single thing you do for them.
They’ll just know you’ve done it correctly and caught the details because that’s how you always do it.
Efficient Communication
One of the biggest challenges of working remotely is that there’s no way to just lean over the cubicle wall and check-in on how tasks and projects are coming along. So it’s extremely valued when you have strong communication skills to keep your clients in the loop on how things are progressing.
Clients love when you reach out to them proactively with updates, upcoming out of office dates, and new ideas. It never leaves them wondering what you’re doing.
Desire to Learn
If you don’t know the platforms that you client uses in their business, that means you have to be willing to learn!
Clients regularly switch systems as their businesses grow and they start new marketing strategies, so it’s a huge benefit to them if you have an eagerness to acquire more skills.
The best part is that when you’re working with your first few clients, it’s also an asset to you to learn a bunch of different things! Because you’ll naturally learn what you love doing, what you loathe, and expand your skillset for future clients.
Ever sent an email? Yeah, I thought so.
One of the most in-demand VA services is email inbox management. So take the inbox management skills you learned in your previous jobs / life and help business owners run theirs!
All you need to do is work with them to create template emails and respond, file and label as needed on a consistent basis. These are all things I’m willing to be that you’ve done before and can do it again on their behalf.
Trustworthiness
At the end of the day, your clients are trusting you with their businesses and that’s a big freakin’ deal.
So honoring your client’s privacy, not sharing personal information or marketing strategies, and basically just being a good human is really important. I know that if you’re a part of the BB community, you’re a trustworthy person.
But know that clients obviously value this very deeply as well.
Customer Service
If you are great at anticipating customer or client’s needs and get satisfaction out of giving them the best experience possible, you probably have great customer service skills! It’s really easy to translate experience from hospitality, retail, human resources, and more into the VA industry.
Your clients obviously require a certain deal of customer service in your partnership with them directly. But it’s not uncommon for them to need customer service team members for their students or clients as well. You can answer login or payment email concerns, provide support when their course students have questions, and more!
The big thing with this is simply a desire to support others on behalf of your clients.
Creativity
You know all those pretty graphics you see on Instagram? Well, someone had to make them.
If you consider yourself a creative person, you can translate that (ahem, extremely valuable!) virtual assistant skill into a lot of different services for your clients. You can make social media graphics, design logos, create websites, make fonts, and more!
Self-Motivation
When you’re a business owner, you absolutely have to be self-motivated.
You are the only one that’s going to make you complete that client task before you log off for the day. Your client will never be sitting at the desk across from you making sure you’re staying on track.
So it’s critical that you can find the drive within yourself to sit down at your computer and start the day. If you aren’t self-motivated to stay on track with your tasks and your projects, it’s going to be really difficult to find success in this space.
Organization
Naturally organized people thrive in the Virtual Assistant world because it affects what we do in so many capacities.
You’ll naturally keep your business and your roster of clients more organized for yourself, but this is also invaluable to clients.
Clients need you to keep their files and business projects streamlined in a way that helps them stay on track and not worry about the nitty-gritty details. That’s your job!
If your potential clients are constantly looking for things or struggle to organize it themselves, they’re going to love you.
Social Media
Business owners outsource social media management to virtual assistant’s constantly.
You already have a ton of personal experience of being a social media user. You know what content you resonate with and what you read that makes you feel gross and leaves you thinking, “Omg, I would never buy from them.”
I encourage you to reframe the education and experience you already have with social media for your clients. You can take their entire social media suite (Pinterest, Instagram, Facebook, TikTok) off their plate and manage it for them.
You already know what works and what doesn’t on social media whether you realize it or not, simply from your own experience.
How many of these virtual assistant skills do you have in your tool belt? Let me know! I’d love to hear from you!