What skills do virtual assistants need

Skill is the ability to do something well using your knowledge and practice of the subject. 

If you are starting a virtual assistant career

Are you interested in becoming a virtual assistant? If you are asking yourself what skills do I need to be a virtual assistant, you have come to the right page. We will discuss virtual assistant skills for beginners and show you what skills you need depending on your current circumstance.

The skills you will need to start your career as a V.A. will depend on how you will be providing your virtual assistant services. 

If you will be providing your services by starting your own virtual assistant business and becoming self-employed, then you can use any relevant skills and experience that you already have to get started. 

How to identify your skills and pick your services

Virtual assistant skills for beginners

1. Make a list of the skills that you currently have that you can use as a virtual assistant.

2. Click here to see a list of virtual assistant services and the skills required to provide each service. Then you can easily determine what services you can start providing now using the skills you already have.

If you are looking for a virtual assistant job, the skills you will need to be a virtual assistant will depend on the job role and requirements which are usually detailed within the job description. Some companies may be flexible on these others won’t be. 

If you already have a job as a virtual assistant and your employer wants you to learn a new skill, this may be because the company was able to identify an opportunity to deliver additional services that also serve their customer’s needs.

Some employers will fund your training. Depending on your employer you could be given a pay rise or bonus once you have completed training and have begun providing the new services.

There is a wide range of virtual assistant skills for beginners that you can develop and learn by completing a course. The virtual assistant business management mini-course will teach you how to manage clients and develop your business management skills. Download the virtual assistant business management pack for free to use with the V.A. business management course.

If you are interested in a virtual assistant job that you do not currently have the skills for and are considering training to learn the skills to apply for the position, you will need to determine if the job you are thinking of applying for is worth learning a new skill for. 

Weigh up the time it will take to learn the skill, whether the job will still be available, as well as if there are any costs involved and compare it to the salary, benefits, and growth opportunities within the company and use this information to make a decision. 

Remember even if you train to learn a particular skill so that you can attract a specific job, if you decide to leave that job or things don’t work out and you are not selected for the job, those skills are still yours for life and you can use them in other ways. You can learn high paying virtual assistant skills or technical skills for virtual assistants.  Learning a new skill is an overall great way to advance your virtual assistant career.

If you have started your virtual assistant career

Are you already a virtual assistant? If you have already begun your career as a virtual assistant and you want to provide different services than what you are currently offering you are already in a good position to do this as you have the advantage of already having clients that trust you and an audience that may already need your new services. 

Offering your clients new services may mean that you need to learn new skills in order to be able to provide the services properly. 

Once you know which new services you want to provide you will need to learn the skills that are related to the services. If you want to develop high paying virtual assistant skills you should consider professional training to learn new virtual assistant skills so you can be even more confident when you are providing your new services. It’s a good idea to practice providing your new service so you develop experience first before serving your clients to ensure everything runs smoothly. 

It is also possible to offer a wider range of services in your virtual assistant business without learning new skills. Don’t forget, like we always tell our clients they don’t have to do it all alone, well neither do you! You can always offer new services without actually providing them yourself. You can do this by setting up an arrangement with another virtual assistant who already has the skills. By outsourcing the new services to another V.A. you can increase your productivity and maximise your income. 

Widening the range of services you offer can attract new customers and also attract new opportunities with existing clients. Once you have sufficient training and have learned the associated skills to offer the new service, you can promote it by informing your existing clients of your new service and sending them a special offer.

Add any new services to your current service list on your website and marketing materials. Also, make sure to share the information on social media and ensure you update your website to include your new virtual assistant services.

If you need a virtual assistant

If you have asked the question what skills do virtual assistants need? because you are looking for a virtual assistant, the first thing to consider is what is a virtual assistant?

There are many different types of virtual assistants but the basic definition is someone who completes tasks for your business from a remote location. With this being said the large variety of services offered by virtual assistants online includes VAs with a wide variety of skills. 

If you need a virtual assistant, and you want to know more about what skills are needed to be a virtual assistant, below are four basic skills that all virtual assistants should have

• Good timekeeping / Reliable / Ability to meet deadlines 
• Excellent verbal and written communication skills
• Organisational skills
• Professionalism 

In addition to these four skills, to ensure your virtual assistant is the perfect match you will need to match the skills needed for your specific job to the VA’s skills to achieve the best results for your business.

If you already know the tasks you want to delegate to a virtual assistant then you can use that information to determine the additional skills your V.A. must possess. 

Example: You need images edited for your monthly magazine cover. 

If that’s the case you will need to hire a virtual assistant with Photoshop skills. 

You also should consider their ability level for a particular skill. 

Example: You only require minor image editing adjustments for your magazine cover.

If this is the case then options are open for you to hire a virtual assistant with only basic image editing / Photoshop skills. 

If you need advanced image editing then you will need a virtual assistant that has the four basic skills and advanced image editing skills plus experience in photoshop or whatever image editing software you are using. 

Depending on the size and type of project or task that you are considering hiring a VA to complete, you may also need to ask yourself the following questions. 

• Do I need a virtual assistant with 1 main skillset for just one type of task? 

• Do I need a multi-skilled V.A. to handle multiple different tasks? 

• Or is it better to hire multiple virtual assistants?

The answer will come down to two factors, money and time. You need to decide which at this moment is more valuable to you.

Depending on your business it may be better for you to hire two V.As with different skills to carry out the project / tasks. This option may cost more money in advance however it can save you time by having the job completed faster by two virtual assistants that have experience and different skill sets.

Or it may be better for you to just find one multi-skilled virtual assistant that is able to complete the project / task for you. Whilst this option will take more time to complete as there is only one dedicated virtual assistant assigned to your project it may not require as high upfront costs as it would hiring multiple virtual assistants at once.

There are different ways of hiring a virtual assistant. The type of virtual assistant recruitment option you should opt for depends on your requirements. Hiring a virtual assistant is meant to save you time and money, so ensuring that you have the right virtual assistant that will help you achieve your work goals the first time is really important. 

As well as skills there is a whole load of other factors to consider when hiring a virtual assistant to help with your business. Often a lot of people looking for a VA do not consider location – even though virtual assistants work remotely, living in different time zones could be a problem, so be sure to check their availability. As virtual assistant recruitment specialists, we can discuss with you all the other important factors to consider when hiring a virtual assistant. Schedule a call here to discuss.

If you are looking for a virtual assistant with a particular set of skills. We have profiles of virtual assistants ready to match your requirements today. Whether you are looking for a freelance virtual assistant to manage your tasks or projects or want to take on a permanent or temporary virtual assistant.