My Personal Journey into a VA Career

Let’s travel to the not-so-distant past of 2020!

We can all think of several great things that happened in 2020 despite the chaos in the world at that time.

For me, opportunity knocked. 

While maintaining my work-from-home status at a responsible and community-focused financial services company, I realized I liked working from home. This was a privilege my company gave me in the midst of the pandemic. 

During that time, I learned and grew because of the circumstances at hand. And also because I found ways to branch out and learn new ways of doing things. 

So, even while still working for Corporate America, I learned how to start my own virtual assistance business, which focuses on project management, blogging, research and marketing. I will throw in some old-fashioned administrative work for good measure if asked (or if I just can’t help myself!).

Speaking of learning,
                            what kind of training do VAs receive?

Personally, I arrived at my training accidentally! 

I took a 15-week, intensive virtual assistant training course on becoming a virtual assistant in late 2020 from a reputable trainer familiar with virtual administrative work. 

But…I took the course to learn more ways to become a better remote administrative assistant for my corporate work, and then to coach my fellow admin assistants on how to do their remote work well. (My corporate role involves training other admins.)

However, I learned so many exciting aspects of virtual assistance work

during that course that I realized I just HAD to start my own business!

I filled two notebooks covering everything from setting my work hours to understanding taxes as a solopreneur to managing client expectations to pitching my company to investors…and so much more!

I researched nearly everything related to starting a business in this niche, and I created multiple business documents—including a full business plan—as I prepared to get started!

After all of that, I filed a few documents with the government, set up my bookkeeping, started a Facebook page for my business, and started calling my list of prospective clients. (I guess I did a few more things than that, but that’s another blog post for another time.)

There you have it: The path I took to become a virtual assistant!
Well, a summary of it anyway. The full story would take a long time to tell!

After all of that, I continued my training…of course!

When I started Primer & Scout, LLC in January 2021, I knew I’d need to continue my virtual assistance skills training.

In addition to belonging to multiple Facebook groups for virtual assistants where I learn from others in the group, I follow successful virtual assistants, bloggers, and content creators to learn more about the niche I’ve chosen for my work. 

And I’m always on the lookout for additional training opportunities, which often come in the form of webinars and week-long master classes!

But!!! Most of my training actually comes on the job

as I am hired to do tasks that are quite unique to the client’s needs.

For example, writing a blog post is different than writing a vlog (video blog) script…even though they are very similar in many ways!

I research, practice, and research some more, honing my skills as I go.

Like most of us, my past experience...

                                                  ...is part of my current work.

Actually, I brought a more-than-adequate amount of experience with me when I started my VA business.

My “day job” is in the highly-regulated financial services field, where I served as a client service representative and administrative assistant to a busy financial representative for nearly 15 years.

I handled customer service activities like client phone calls, appointment setting, and lobby hospitality; account service work like accurately processing financial forms and applications as well as managing monetary transactions in a timely fashion; and learning how to use all the various systems, software, and apps needed in a busy financial services office.  

Talk about on-the-job training!

I was often tasked with setting up efficiencies and new systems for doing our work more quickly while maintaining excellent levels of accuracy and customer service.

Along the way, I have also been a personnel supervisor, office manager, procedure developer, project manager, and corporate trainer for that same company, where I translate my past experience into training and process programs for my colleagues. 

Bottom Line:
     How does my past experience fit in with VA work?

For years, my time has been focused on providing first-class customer service to our clients while meeting the requirements a highly regulated industry can muster.

I wrote professional communications frequently to our clients and our teams, met deadlines while juggling multiple projects and priorities, figured out how to accomplish multiple tasks that came without a guidebook, led teams, and kept a cheerful outlook through it all. 

Does this sound like what a VA might do as well?

If you said “yes,” you are correct!

Your ideal VA should come with these qualities, among others of course:
Professionalism, quality communication skills, ability to meet deadlines

and manage multiple priorities, learning potential, creativity, and a positive attitude.

Now, if you’re dreaming of the VA life and wondering whether you need the same skills as I have to be a VA, I would definitely say that you need some natural talent and background skills. 

How do I train to be a virtual assistant?

Training beforehand and as you get started—and as you continue to grow your business—is almost always a must! Between the varied tasks that are outsourced to VAs and the evolving software/apps used to accomplish these tasks, there is a lot to learn!

Experience in customer service and administrative processes is very helpful in the work, too.

A quick online search reveals the many virtual assistance training programs, similar to the one I took, available today as this is becoming a booming career field! If you want to explore VA training options, my advice is to take classes from reputable sources. (Do your research or click the contact me button below to request some ideas!)

Confidence in your skills and abilities goes a long way in building rapport with your clients, vendors, and fellow VAs.

True confidence often comes from knowledge—

that is, knowing that you understand what you’re being asked to do or could figure it out

with a little research, practice, and elbow grease.

My goal as a virtual assistant is…

…To help solopreneurs and small business owners move on to more important projects by taking on the work that I can help them with: Project management, blogging, social media marketing, researching, keyword/SEO, and other administrative tasks.

I’m also delighted to share the lessons I’ve learned with other VAs (or prospective VAs) who are just getting started.

Click the Contact Me button below to connect with me!