Periodically I get asked this question – to work as a Virtual Assistant, what kind of skills do I need?

There are tons of different types of services that VAs are providing today, however, traditionally they did begin as work at home secretaries – those who had good secretarial skills in the corporate world, and they brought those skills home to develop their own businesses.

The industry has evolved considerably over the past 15 or so years and today the skills are quite varied.

I recently had a lady contact me via Facebook and said she only had typing and some computer skills.  Here is my answer to her:

‘Some computer skills’ – what in particular? And how fast can you type? Are you accurate?

Generally most VAs have about 5 years previous experience in a job somewhere.   The types of work we do are varied and can include: typing, data entry, database management, Powerpoint presentations, transcriptions, research, social media management (Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn), phone answering, website maintenance, bookkeeping and so on.  Whatever skillset you have, as long as you are competent, you can become a VA.

No two VAs are alike – we all come with a different set of skills, experience and backgrounds and this means we can all learn from one another.

I encourage you to join a VA forum online so you can mix and mingle with those who are already doing it so you can learn from them and build up confidence in your ability to do the same.  Why not drop by my site at www.vadirectory.net and join the chat forum linked on the front page?