8-Point Checklist When Starting Your Own Virtual Assistant Venture

Virtual Assistance is a profession which is fast growing and becoming extremely popular. Virtual Assistants are individuals who work from the comfort of their own homes to provide valued services using technology to clients globally. As women try to juggle their work and family life, more and more prefer to stay at home and work as a virtual assistant.

Are you interested in starting your own home based virtual assistant venture? Then follow this simple checklist.

1. Evaluate Yourself

Before jumping into starting your own virtual assistant business you should first evaluate yourself and see whether this is the right career path for you. Possessing great administrative skills, communicative skills and being computer literate is a must in this profession. In addition if you are a self motivated person who loves to learn new things, enjoy working with dynamic people and dream of having your own business this is the correct path for you.

2. Decide on the Service You Want to Offer

The nature of work that you provide to your clients will depend on your area of expertise. You should decide which service you want to offer by analyzing your background and the experience that you have already acquired. Depending on the above it could be billing and book keeping, meeting and travel planning, market research, business writing, desktop publishing, website creation, etc.

3. Determine Your Commitment to Your Business

You should decide how much time and energy you have to commit to your business. Whether you want to become a full time virtual assistant or a part time virtual assistant? The advantage of being a virtual assistant is that you get to set your own working hours. You can work “on call” or you can setup a work schedule with the client according to the time convenient for you.

4. Verify the Equipment & Software

Now that you have decided which service you would be offering to your clients, you should examine and see whether you have the correct equipment and software to provide it. Also since most of the communication and data delivery between you and your client would be done through the computer, you should ensure that you posses the required connectivity and software. For example email, instant messaging, etc.

5. Identifying Your Clients

You should identify which type of clients may need your service and where they are located and how you can have access to them.

6. Making a Business Plan

It is essential that you create a business plan for your venture. In this you should include information such as the business history, summary of the business, management information, designing & production plan, financial plan, etc. As your business grows and expands you can refer to it to manage your growth and change.

7. Creating a Marketing Strategy

A very important aspect to your venture is your marketing strategy. Now that you have decided on your services you need to spread the word about your venture. You should decide on a marketing strategy which suits you and your budget and start working on it.

8. Fees and Pricing

You should have a competitive fee/price for the service you offer. When you are starting off it is always better to do some research and find out what the competitive rates are in the market. Always remember never to overprice or to sell yourself short.

Starting up a home based virtual assistant business would not involve a high cost. By following the above guidelines, you can build up a very successful virtual assistant practice.

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Samantha Gregory

Samantha A. Gregory is an author, consultant, and speaker. She’s a single-mom lifestyle, money, and parenting expert featured in The Washington Post, The New York Times, Essence Magazine, HuffPost, ABC News, and Mint.com.

Samantha founded the award-winning RichSingleMomma.com™, the first online magazine featuring personal finance, parenting, and personal development content and courses for single moms.

She aims to inspire women who are ready to thrive and not just survive in their single motherhood journey. Connect with her on Instagram @richsinglemomma.