Work with what you've got

When I started my Virtual Assistant business, I thought I needed to learn new skills to sign new clients.

In fact, I thought I needed to learn all the things.

The problem was that I got so stuck in preparation and learning mode that it took me a hell of a long time to take action. I thought I’d feel more prepared to find clients if I learned everything I needed to beforehand, but all that happened was I overlooked what I already knew by focussing on everything I didn’t know.

The thing is, you don’t need to learn every skill under the sun to become a VA. You know a lot already, and when you realise that you’ll feel heaps more confident going forward!

Let’s get started on helping you work with what you’ve got.

Types of skills

Skills fall into two main categories: soft skills and hard/technical skills:

• Soft skills are things like communication, resourcefulness and problem solving. You can find a comprehensive list here. These are things that are transferable to any work situation, and you’ll have heaps of your own already

• Hard/technical skills are more measurable and include how well you know tools, processes and anything else with a clear output

Do a skills audit

Before you work out what you need to learn, ask yourself what do you know already?

I was a PA and EA for years before I made the leap, so I had very obvious PA style skills to use straight away. If you’ve worked in an office of any type you’ll already have admin experience. If you’ve used a database like Salesforce or Insightly you’ll be able to work with CRM systems. If you’ve used Outlook before you’ll be able to pick up Gmail (don’t feel rubbish if you don’t know these things - they’re just examples!)

And what about your soft skills? Do you excel at making strong relationships? Are you great at using your own initiative to solve problems? Are you good at organising events, big or small?

Create your own list of skills. It’ll be the beginning of your marketing materials, whether it’s the first time you’ve written them or if you’re revamping them to get your VA business on track.

Do some market research

Before you even think about learning a new skill, you need to find out if clients actually need support with that skill. You might not have an ideal client or niche area in mind, but start to pay attention to what clients are looking for in Facebook groups, on LinkedIn or on Instagram. Ask other VAs what they support their clients with too. Are there any common themes?

Skills you might think about learning:

I’ve been a VA for a long time, and to date I’ve worked with 23 clients (many of them long term!) They all needed different things, and if I listed them all I’d probably send you to sleep.

If you’re ready to learn a new skill and you’re planning on supporting online business owners, techy ones like these will always be in demand:

• Email marketing (scheduling emails using a tool like ConvertKit, Mailerlite, Active Campaign, FloDesk, Mailchimp)

• Social media support (creating graphics, scheduling posts, engagement, repurposing content)

• Online course support (creating or updating digital programmes on tools like

There will be heaps more of course, as the online space is always changing!

Make the most of what’s out there

Every single online tool out there will have free training widely accessible. And of course YouTube is your friend on every occasion! So work out what it is you want to learn and make the most of what’s out there already.