I love the "virtual office" idea for your clients. I was blown away, this is a great way to boost your business. My focus is administrative & project/event planning.

WOW! Do I feel incompetent! After reading everything that all of you do, I'm thinking I need to re-think this VA business. I don't know what half of these things are that you all do! But, I will persevere... I will find my niche and will run with it.

Thanks for all this great information.

Diane

This is such a fantastic thread! In the event that I have a client requesting a service that I don't provide, I'll know where to send him/her.

Diane, I would hate to think that you are re-thinking your business because of this thread. To figure out what services you'd like to provide to your clients, start with a list of all the things you can do. Delete the ones that you detest and delete the ones you just don't like. What is left is what you can start providing.

As your business grows and you gain more virtual experience, you'll start to find your business niche being pulled in a particular area. For me it was website design. Up until this year, I'd been self taught and then I decided to go to the local TAFE (Technical College - Australia) this year and learn everything I could about website design. This will make me a better VA but considering that I started my business providing bookkeeping services and general typing, I am a long way from where I first started 2 years ago.

If you've made it this far, then you are definitely not incompetent!!

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Kylie Short
Tilda Virtual Services - Making virtual personal

Thank you for the words of encouragement, Kylie. I know I have alot of skills to offer, but after reading this list, it just sounded so intimidating to think that a client might ask me to provide some of these services I'm not familiar with, and I don't want him/her to think, "Oh my gosh, she doesn't know how to do that and she calls herself a VA?" You know what I mean?

But you are right. I also need to take some courses to learn some new skills. And yes, there are some services that I don't want to do, like bookkeeping. I can certainly balance a checkbook, but when it comes to the minute details of bookkeeping, it's not for me!

So again, thank you for helping me think this through clearly. I really do appreciate it!

Diane

Originally Posted by DianeB

Thank you for the words of encouragement, Kylie. I know I have alot of skills to offer, but after reading this list, it just sounded so intimidating to think that a client might ask me to provide some of these services I'm not familiar with, and I don't want him/her to think, "Oh my gosh, she doesn't know how to do that and she calls herself a VA?" You know what I mean? But you are right. I also need to take some courses to learn some new skills. And yes, there are some services that I don't want to do, like bookkeeping. I can certainly balance a checkbook, but when it comes to the minute details of bookkeeping, it's not for me! So again, thank you for helping me think this through clearly. I really do appreciate it! Diane

Hello Diane B

Never feel intimidated by a request from your clients. If you are unsure of how to accomplish a task, then your outsource that task to another VA. I have done this when I am unsure of the task, so I will start emailing and phone VA's that are knowledgable in that function. I will forward the job to them. With this in place, your clients are happy and so are you. In our industry mostly all VA assist one another. It's like forming a partnership without acutally seeing your partner. My motto is never turn away a potential client. Also taking classes and reading will help you. Hope this help you.

Phyllis L

Wow, I'm overwhelmed...
From the standpoint of someone who is just exploring whether this can be a successful proposition, I'm in awe of all of your abilities. I don't even know how to figure out what to offer!

I don't want to fail

Elizabeth

Elizabeth,

Don't focus on worrying about failing! Focus on succeeding! Think of the things you are good at, the things you like to do and the things that make you happy. What would your dream job/business be? Then explore that further. You have unique talents that will allow you to succeed. Don't be afraid and just go for it! Look through the other threads here, there is so much good information to get you started.

Yvone

Elizabeth, and Diane,
You can't fail as long as you offer services that *you* enjoy and are skilled at providing. Remember, each VA has his or her own skill set and project preferences - the rest we turn down or outsource to another VA who DOES offer that service. All is not lost if a client says 'Can you...?' and your answer happens to be 'No.'

Kylie's initial advice is excellent - start brainstorming what you CAN do - add in talents and skills you aren't even sure relate to client needs and then work from there. You'll be amazed at just how extensive your menu of services really is.

One other thing to keep in mind is as a business owner and virtual service provider you'll always want to be learning new skills, new technologies, new internet services, etc. so even if you don't know how to do something now, doesn't mean you can't learn it and work it in as a new service later.

Don't worry - just head into this with the idea that there are some things you can do really well - and start there

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I came across a VA website not too long ago and she had a very interesting niche. She calls herself "confidential assistant", if I remember correctly, and she offers assistance to Private detectives and such. Reminds me of the show "Monk" only virtual. Very cool.