Meet My Virtual Assistant

As soon as I mention that I have a Virtual Assistant, I always get tons of questions, so I thought it might be helpful to have my V.A., Andrea, answer some questions for you, and fill you in a bit as to what her job looks like! I couldn’t do most of what I do without Andrea’s help. She was exactly what I needed at the time that I hired her, and has been amazing to grow my business with! If you’ve been considering hiring a virtual assistant, I fully recommend Andrea. If you’ve thought about becoming a V.A. yourself, you will find her information very valuable! Enjoy the read!

I launched my virtual assisting business two and a half years ago, and even though virtual assisting has grown so much in popularity since then, it’s still kind of new to a lot of people, and there are generally a lot of questions about what it’s like to be a virtual assistant, or what it is exactly that virtual assistants do. I’m going to tackle a few of the most popular questions today, and maybe you’ll be inspired to become a virtual assistant yourself! Or maybe you’re a business owner who will be inspired to work with a virtual assistant to take some tasks off your plate!

How did you get started with being a virtual assistant?

After running my own Etsy business for six years, I was ready to close up shop and turn the page on a new chapter. I knew that I still wanted to be able to work from home full time, and I needed flexibility in order to be available for my kids, so after applying for some virtual assisting jobs, I ended up accepting a virtual assistant position through a company that hires virtual assistants and matches them with business owners. After a few weeks of working with the business owner they connected me with, I realized it wasn’t a good fit for me at all, and we parted ways. Once I left that job I decided to go out on my own, and start my own virtual assisting business. I launched in January 2017.

What training is needed to become a virtual assistant?

The great thing about running an online business for several years before I became a virtual assistant is that I had SO much experience with all things internet-related, which was a huge reason that I was able to make the move so quickly into becoming a virtual assistant. All of my work running my own online business gave me so many amazing tools for being able to transition over to helping other business owners with their businesses.

There are also so many amazing online courses, and certifications available to further your knowledge and skills. I have taken both free and paid courses. If you have an area you want to gain more skill and knowledge in, I can pretty much guarantee there is an online course out there for exactly that area!

How did you get clients?

In the beginning, my clients were all people that I had developed online friendships with via social media. Because I was an online business owner before becoming a virtual assistant, I had made many friends online who were also online business owners. Once I launched my virtual assisting business, several friends reached out to see if I might be able to help them with specific things in their businesses, and it took off from there!

These days the majority of my clients come via word-of-mouth. Clients that I previously worked with, or currently work with share my info with their friends and family, which I am so so thankful for!

What services do you offer?

I currently offer three services to new clients: Squarespace website design, Pinterest management, and collateral design. When I first launched my virtual assistant business, I offered so many services—website design/set-up, website maintenance, collateral design, social media management, social media content creation, blogging, email marketing, email management, general admin type stuff, Etsy listing optimization, etc. But I really developed a passion for Squarespace website design, Pinterest, and designing collateral materials for clients, so those areas are now my main focus.

I’m so thankful I’ve been able to be a virtual assistant for the past two and a half years. Being a business owner is so much work, and I’m so happy I’ve been able to help take some of the work off of my clients’ plates and allow them to focus on other areas of their businesses.