Hi,

I’d like some feedback on the services I’m thinking of offering. The majority of my experience is in commercial real estate lending (and some residential), along with quite a bit of general administrative duties. Also, I worked at a hospital for over four years doing physician credentialing, which I absolutely loved.

I don’t have experience with bookkeeping or website design/management, although I’d love to learn about web design.

Based upon my experience and contacts in my community, I’d like to initially target physicians, private lenders and other small companies offering financial services. Here is the list of services:

• Data entry
• Typing
• Research
• Mailings
• Scheduling
• Travel arrangements
• Proofreading
• Newsletters
• Bank account reconciliation
• Spreadsheet design & maintenance
• Database design & maintenance
• Physician credentialing/CME tracking & monitoring

I realize every person, company, and scenario is different, but I’m looking for some general feedback. Does this list seem either too broad or too restrictive?

Any input is appreciated. Thanks!!

I think your list is great.. If you have a specializes service, like your real estate lending, I would focus on that as that will benefit you in the long run!!! Great list

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Winslow Girl Virtual Assistant
www.winslowgirlva.com
Taking Virtual Assistance to the Next Level

It looks like a well thought out and detailed list, not to mention you've already considered your target markets. This is a great start!
Just curious, what kind of scheduling would you be doing? I guess what I'm wondering is - how would the appointment information come to you: via phone, email, etc?

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Thanks Tess & WinslowGirl (sorry, don't know your name yet!)

Tess, about the scheduling...that's a good question! But, well, I don't know the answer yet.

The scheduling I was imagining would be when a client has an appointment with one of his/her customers. However, I don't want to include answering phones as one of my services, because I am NOT a phone person. I definitely don't want to do something I dislike, because not only would I be unhappy, but I wouldn't do a good job at it.

Perhaps I need to think about that aspect a little further. Thanks for the food for thought - that's exactly what I need!

Most welcome That's why I asked...the majority of virtual assistants that I know (including myself) do not provide phones as a service simply because it ties you to your home office, or at least to a phone and drastically changes the way you might otherwise move through your day and your other clients' projects.

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Hi Kathryn,

Your services list seems pretty good to me. A task I recently did to define the services I wanted to offer was to simply look over my employment resume. I took a look at my resume and recalled the tasks not only I enjoyed doing, but knew I was very good at too. This helped me in deciding the tasks I truly enjoyed and helped me leave off the tasks, I know I could do, but did not want to do in the long run. This may help you in defining your services. Having a particular niche (in your case real estate lending and physician credentialing) is great, focus on those areas, as those are your greatest assets!

As far as wanting to learn new skills, like web design. It is never ever to take to take a course on something you have always wanted to learn. After all, you may come to find that there is a skill you are exceptionally good at and in the long run, you can add that to your list of services. Good Luck!

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Darlene Victoria Gonzalez
The Voice & Vision Behind Your Business

Thanks Darlene, I'll try that technique and use it to refine my list!