I was amazed to find that ‘some’ Business Advisors tell prospective VAs that the best place to get information on how to set up their business is from other VAs. Your competition is NOT the best place and there are so many types of service on offer that you may go through a lot of Virtual Assistants before you find one who has the same skill set as you have. I have even been asked how much certain specialist equipment costs – not being on that side of the profession, I have no idea.
If you want information (apart from pricing) you will find that there are forums all over the world specifically for VAs. A search on Google will show up many of these and some directories also have a forum for their members. This is the place to ask and get answers to business questions.
Our site Become a Virtual Assistant gives as much information as we can on starting up, but due to country restrictions and local taxes etc it is impossible to cover all countries and their rules and regulations.
Items such as Booking Forms, Terms and Conditions and Privacy Policies should be company specific and should also be checked over by a solicitor/lawyer/etc depending on your country. Your financial planning is of great importance and a visit to a local accountant is well worth it and will probably be free for a first visit. These professions are there to give you advice as are local business organisations.
Why should a newcomer to the VA industry not approach another VA for this information? Well the real reason I advise against it is because running a home or small business is more than just doing the work and collecting the cheque. It involves marketing, accounting and a myriad of other tasks just to keep the business running – they are not qualified and simply do not have time.
If you want further advice on starting up your practice, may I suggest Alexandra Amour’s site and book’s.
I hope that you are all enjoying summer. Work tends to slow down now for many but that just gives us time to plan our marketing campaign for the autumn. Summer to me means soft fruit and we were lucky enough to be invited to a cherry picking evening – the season is so short that it is a good excuse to eat as many as possible. Some went into bottles for the winter as a reminder on a dark day of what is to come again.
Di Chapman
