Today I’m going to share a MASSIVE blunder that I made with one of my main clients just so you can see that it isn’t so much the mistake that’s the problem, it’s how you respond and deal with that mistake that matters to the client. And hold on to your hats and hide behind your fingers, because this was a pretty big and rather embarrassing error!
Back when I used to offer 1-2-1 training, I mentioned to a friend that a couple of trainees had confidence issues. I’d given them the practical steps they needed to become a VA, but I wasn’t sure how to move them forward when it came to building confidence. He reminded me that I wasn’t a therapist and asked if they’d completed a SWOT analysis.
Although the types of tasks you’ll be given by clients will obviously vary depending on what your services are and what these clients do for a living, I thought it might be a good idea to give you three examples of different Virtual Assistant tasks so you can get a basic idea of what to expect.
Annoyingly, you will regularly be contacted by people who have absolutely no idea what they want you to do. They know they need help, but they’re often so busy they can’t think straight and really aren’t sure of the best way to use you. You obviously need to fix this or you won’t end up doing any work for them at all!
Ever been on LinkedIn and want to connect with someone but don’t know what to say? Or maybe you’ve already connected, but you don’t know how to continue the conversation. Perhaps someone has requested to connect with you, but you want to know why before accepting. Don’t worry because I have three templates that completely eliminate the weird awkwardness of LinkedIn messaging!
A great service to offer is credit control – i.e. chasing invoices. You might shudder at the thought of calling strangers to chase money, but it’s actually completely painless if you know what to say. Many small business owners prefer to outsource this task because it prevents awkwardness by creating a professional buffer between them and their clients.
An “elevator pitch” is how you would deliver a summary of your product, business or service to someone during a short elevator ride. It’s not a sales pitch; it’s a concise explanation of who you are, what you do, who you do it for and why someone might want this. It’s useful to have an elevator pitch when networking, so let me show you how to write one.
Another popular question from new Virtual Assistants is what services they should offer their clients. Obviously, this will depend on numerous things such as demand, your niche, your skill set, your interests, your previous career and your location, but here are 30 different VA services you could consider offering to start you off.
This is a Virtual Assistant case study and interview with Nikki Ince. Nikki is the owner of Willow Admin, a Virtual Assistant company based in North Stifford in Essex. She initially only provided onsite admin support to local businesses but went fully virtual in 2013 and now provides admin and social media support to small businesses and entrepreneurs. This is her VA story.
I really like telling you guys how to set up and become Virtual Assistants but I realised recently that it might be nice if you knew a bit more about me. So after racking my brain for an inordinate amount of time and deleting some rather incriminating and over-shary details, this is what I’ve come up with. Don’t judge me…
