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?!

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Lori http://www.solterravs.com

HI Lori , I would suggest creating a list of different industries that you'd find interesting and exciting to work with. Your list of offerings isn't already niche-based so you could potentially market yourself in whichever direction you choose. As you develop your practice and have more experience working with different types of clients in different areas you'll likely find your own preferences developing for one industry over another - for now, I'd advise that you start with what sounds fun but, as you mentioned, doesn't require specific technical knowledge.

Maybe post back with some industries that you're interested in and maybe we can come up with some specific tasks you could market to them based on your current skill set?

Hi Lori,

One thing that confused me for some time was the difference between niche and target market. I have worked in the legal industry for 25 years, so if I were to choose a market to target that I'm familiar with, it would be sole practitioners. A good niche for me would be refining that target to bankruptcy attorneys because in this economy, that is a booming field in the legal industry. Within that very defined target market (bankruptcy sole practitioners) would be providing intake processing forms for new clients of theirs, sending out the necessary forms to the clients and processing them with the courts, and probably a couple of types of competitive analyses and website analyses weekly and monthly reports.

If you have worked in a certain field most of your adult life, that would be a good place to start with marketing your business. There are a few good reasons to serve a narrow market: branding, reputation and ease of operation.

As for finding your niche, if you are good at proofreading, maintaining websites for typos and adding content is something you could do on a monthly or quarterly basis for clients. Just an idea.

Congrats on taking classes. I'm learning a lot online as well and it's helping a lot.

To answer two of your specific questions: proofreading becomes editing when you assist writers/authors to write assertively, rather than passively, among other things. And ebooks will never be antiquated. A lot of companies need help with press releases, white papers, articles, newsletters and other "ghost writing" services.

Best of luck in pursuing your passion and following your dreams!

Sue

Thanks for the suggestions Tess & Sue! I may be able to find a direction to head in now, instead of going hither, thither and yon.

Part of my problem is I haven't worked in one field! In my 20's I managed a record store (back when there were records), in my 30's I was a shipper/receiver & did ordering for a health food store, and after that took a job as a baggage handler for an airline. (I swear I did NOT lose your bag!) Since I worked outside at night in the winter in the Northeast, THAT'S when I decided I needed some office skills to get back to those daytime inside jobs. I had never touched a computer before then, so I bought one, got some books and dived (dove?) right in. I started as admin, progressed to payroll, then took the aforementioned web design classes. After that, it was back to admin work for a chain of grocery stores, and now its admin/webmonkey for a company that sells pressure washers and cleaning compounds. My experience has been all over the board. If being a VA doesn't work out, I may look into lion taming.

Hmm..what industries would I like to work in..? I like the notion of working with I guess you'd call them preservation societies, that work to preserve/restore historic buildings. That's not really an industry, but it comes to mind anyway. I 'll have to ponder that a bit.

I think proofreading is more my style - I definitely would not offer editing, not at this stage. I only recently learned about ebooks and thought that sounded intriguing, and I have been reading quite a bit lately about press releases as well. It sounds like I'm leaning towards word processing...?

What is considered desktop publishing? Is that a sort of generic term that covers a lot of ground, or is it a specific set of skills?

I like the idea of "web maintenance" for content. As I get back into the swing of things, I could expand to creating small (under 10 pages) websites. And now that I'm delving back into CSS, what did I read about now - CMS! Content management systems! Thats was a new one to me. Whew. Maybe I just don't get out enough.

Any and all ideas, thoughts and notions will be entertained!

Thanks muchly!

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Lori http://www.solterravs.com

Hey Lori,

I just love your sense of humor and honesty. I started a desktop publishing company back in the 1980's, well it was called typesetting back then. The true definition for me would take me back to those days when I worked on a dedicated processor, poured chemicals into the machine, put rolls of paper in the back of it and changed fonts and their families, depending on whether the client wanted sans serif or not. Nowadays, the term has taken on a less formal definition and I think of it often referred to when setting up newsletters and such.

Microsoft has a lot of tutorials that will walk you through Word, Excel and Powerpoint. They are free and they are very good.

As for having worked in one field or not, don't worry about it. I have worked in the legal field so long that I wish to break into a different area, so basically we're both in the same boat - with different skillsets.

I really like your idea about working with preserving buildings. Can you imagine how many clients will need your services? The amount of bankruptcies, foreclosures and whole cities closing down is going to turn around at some point. Developers will come in and take over rundown communities and they will need our services to help them out.

Thank you so much for your post, Lori. You've given me a lot of inspiration!

I hope to stay in touch with you on this board and beyond.

Sue

Awesome, Sue! That was some in-depth process to desktop publishing! Whew! You must have loved it to go to those lengths to accomplish that. I do like the idea of desktop publishing - I may be leaning in that direction, at least at first.

I have a pretty solid, basic grasp of most of the MS Office programs, but if someone wanted a mail merge, I'd have to hit the Help button. I knew how to do it once upon a time, but was asked to do it so infrequently (once for Word 97, once for Word 2000...you get the idea) that I never remembered. The tutorials are a good idea. I forgot about them.

Cool that you'd like to break into another area after a successul career in the legal field! We definitely have to keep in touch - I smell a brainstorm coming on! Woohoo!!

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Lori http://www.solterravs.com

Hi Lori,
I am so glad that I came across your thread. I am new to this site and the VA profession, and am getting aquanted with everything that is available on here. I am reading and taking it all in. I am curious as to how you are approaching your business since you posted. How are things going for you?
I loved the responses that were given and it gave me a lot to think about. Like you I am still finding my "niche". I have always been in retail both on the entry level and management end. I am weak on the technology end of being a VA but strong in business development and growth. I still have lots to learn. Good luck in your venture and let us know how it is going for you.
diana

There are some really great answers on this thread, thanks to all who have contributed. I have realized that not having a niche makes doing business much more complicated, and am just in the process of trying to decide one for myself. I was thinking of transcription, but am not entirely sure what skillset is required, I've only transcribed single person dictations. If anyone has any advice, that would be great! And how is your niche hunt going for you, loreli?

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www.TimeLinesVirtualAssistance .com

Hi Lori, great questions, I am still working on putting everything together and questions like yours help me out a lot, because sometimes when everything runs together it's hard thinking about asking the right questions.

Marina

Woosh!

I had to give myself a break for a couple weeks becasue I was getting back into my there's-so-much-to-learn-how-am-I-ever-going-to-do-this mindset that it was not constructive! I have since put myself on a daily schedule of that I want to accomplish, and am doing fairly well with it. Just basic stuff like "2 hours of XHTML today" or "find out how to register a business" , so I feel like I am working toward that goal. I'm lucky in that I still have a full time job while I'm getting things in order, but I also can't be too afraid to let go of that job sooner rather than later, despite the sagging economy. As long as I have this job, I won't throw myself wholeheartedly into VA-dom. I can get myself psyched and stand on the end of the high-dive for only so long before either abandoning it and slinking back down the ladder, or flinging myself off into seemingly oblivion and realizing "Hey! This is great!!"

I'm not niche hunting any longer - by the end of March I will be launching myself into...the abyss? Wild blue yonder? Endless depths? Greatest adventure of all?!!

Woooooooo!!!!

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Lori http://www.solterravs.com