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VA Directory

VA Directory - Connecting clients with Virtual Assistants

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Forums or Networks and how many should I join?

This is a question I see asked on many VA forums.  The reality is that it’s important for you to share and learn from your peers, but also make sure you’re getting exposure for your business too.

I belong to several forums and participate at each one from time to time, but not every day for all. However, I do believe it’s important to belong to VA Networks as well as forums and I am a member of 4 currently.  These have both forums and job postings from clients so I get both sides covered there and make sure I’m actively involved in their forums regularly. It makes sense to join a network that is in your own country but then look to join others that are well positioned and have been around for quite sometime. Remember that our industry is global so there’s no reason you can’t gain client work by belonging to a network from another country.  Joining their forums first is probably a good way to get a taste for what the network is like, the culture of the network and the leaders of that network.  Generally the networks have free forums but their paid memberships include many other benefits, including receiving requests from clients for work to be done.

Forums are for learning about your industry and sharing with your peers, networks are for growing your business and gaining client contacts.

 

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Joining a Virtual Assistant Network makes sense

I use Google Alert a lot to keep me informed of the industry and also about things relating to my clients’ businesses.  One thing I often see are blogs about where to find a Virtual Assistant or comments on blogs from new VAs who are keen to find work, clients and learn more about the industry they’ve joined.

What amazes me is that a simple Google search will direct people to the Virtual Assistant Networks that are out there and yet so many seem to miss this fact.

Virtual Assistant Networks or Organisations provide two main services: they connect VAs with other VAs and clients, and they provide clients a one-stop-shop for a Virtual Assistant.

For the Virtual Assistant, learning from your peers and sharing information with them is very important.  It’s how the industry grows and is shaped, by the members of its industry.  Many of the networks or organisations have the industry at heart and have helped it grow over the years.  These groups also provide VAs the opportunity of meeting genuine clients as clients place requests for work to be done via the websites of these networks or organisations.  Clients do not have to pay a search fee but the VAs do pay a membership fee to belong to the networks or organisations.  And getting client contact and peer-to-peer support aren’t the only member benefits. Many of the networks or organisations provide other things such as training and coaching, directory listings, web support, marketing support and so on – much the same as any industry association today.

For the clients they are given a sense of security knowing that the VAs belonging to these groups have been screened, meet certain criteria to be a member and back up support in times of absence of their chosen VA or for bigger projects.

Two such groups are “A Clayton’s Secretary” which has been in existence as a network since April 1996 and the International Virtual Assistants Association (IVAA) was incorporated in 1999.

Start working at home next year

At this time of year thoughts turn to the new year that’s coming. Will we continue doing what we’ve been doing? Will we do something new? Is now the time to make a change?

For many the dream of working at home is still that. A dream. They wonder if it will ever become possible? For some it will.

I’ve been very fortunate and have worked in my own home office for nearly 17 years.  It hasn’t been easy but it has definitely been worthwhile and rewarding.  To spend every day where my family comes and goes and being here for them has meant so much to me, and now as we all look back, I can see it’s meant a great deal to them too.  Not just our daughters but also my husband.

My mum was home when I was growing up and I am so glad I’ve been able to do that for our children too. But, of course, today’s economic environment often dictates that two incomes are needed in the family household, and not one.

If you have good computer skills and have worked in an office for a few years, then you would be eligible to become a Virtual Assistant, using those same skills in your own home office. That dream of working at home can come true for you.

Working for yourself is very different to working for someone else but you are not without help in the Virtual Assistant industry.  There are numerous networks and discussion forums available where your peers will help guide you and support you and direct you along this path of self-employment.  And there are some courses available too.

If you’d like to do a course and learn about running your own Virtual Assistant business, then I have just what you’re looking for – and at a special price for Christmas too.  Why not check it out?

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Under the new management of Anita Kilkenny.

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