Rather intimidating question, based on the talent pool in this forum. I am but a lowly newbie, seeking direction. (Call me Grasshopper) VA-land is calling me, but what shall I answer?
Strength – been thrown in the deep end so often that I don’t freak out, just come up with a plan of action and dogpaddle my way to safety while completing a project.
Weakness – never worked with one piece of software long enough to truly get to the advanced stage.
Likes: Publisher, Word, Photoshop, Excel, Powerpoint, internet research
No Can Do: Anything that smacks of accounting. (trust me on that one!)
That’s a pretty lean list I have to start with, but those are the things I’m best at. I’d rather start conservative and add things as I gain confidence.
What does it take to be a proofreader? Is that mostly spelling and obvious grammatical and punctuation errors? I like to do that as well – at what point does it become editing? And something that recently came to my attention – formatting ebooks. Are they in demand at all or is that sooo 2003? I like doing layouts and formatting. If you do pamphlets and brochures (much call for that?) how much copy do you write yourself? Guess it depends on the client, huh?
I’ve been taking online courses at a community college to brush up on things I like to do. I did take a full course in web design back in 2002, but never had a job where that was the focus, so my skills fell by the wayside around 2005. I’ve done a couple classes recently and picked up a couple good books as a refresher for XHTML & CSS. I will be trying to learn php/MySQL later – that looks like a bear.
Obviously, I won’t be targeting lawyers, real estate, construction or any other high-powered business. Most likely I will be targeting small businesses that can use periodic help or want flyers/brochures created. That’s the idea now – who knows what it will evolve into by the time I actually put a website up and get officially started!
Any suggestions…pleeeeze?!
