Are you wondering which services you can offer as a Virtual Assistant? When you first decide to become a Virtual Assistant, it’s easy to wonder what it is you can offer clients and if you should specialise in a particular area.

When I first decided to become a Virtual Assistant, it was really easy for me to pick a Blogging Virtual Assistant because of my experience. However, you might not have a very easy time deciding.. so I’m here to help you.

What Skills Do Virtual Assistants Need

There are some main skills that Virtual Assistants need in order to be successful and truly useful to clients.

Communication Skills

Having great communication skills is very important! Regardless of your services, you will always need to be able to communicate well with your clients on what you’re doing. Some of the main ways you might communicate with clients is through phone calls, video chats, emails and messages. Due to this, great communication skills in written form are important as well.

Computer Literate

It sounds obvious but you need to be good with computers. I wouldn’t consider myself at being amazing with computers, admittedly. I can use one just fine (obviously), however the more technical side of computers is not my speciality.

Being good with computers just means you can use one unassisted and you know basic programs. As long as you’re familiar with websites, browsers and apps then you should have sufficient skills to become a Virtual Assistant.

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You might be wondering do Virtual Assistants need a website, I answer this question and talk about the benefits of having a website as a Virtual Assistant.

Conscientious

I love this word! Not just how it’s said but it’s meaning. Being conscientious is so important because it essentially means to do your job well and thoroughly.

You need this to be a VIrtual Assistant, you can’t half-ass your work. It’s very important to provide your services to the best of your ability and to a very high standard.

A good Virtual Assistant will really care about their client’s business and will want it to succeed.

Efficient

Attention to detail is very important, you might be working on a high priority project for a client and that means you need to be very efficient in how you complete the project and also extremely accurate.

I’ve always described myself as efficient. I can manage my time well and prioritise tasks. I can complete projects in a timely manner but also with a good attention to detail. Everyone makes mistakes, it’s part of being human. That-being-said being efficient in general is a very important skill for being a Virtual Assistant.

Highly Organised

You might be working with clients who are struggling to get organised so being highly organised in a work capacity is very important for a Virtual Assistant. Being able to plan your days well and prioritise the more important tasks is essential.

If you’re not a highly organised person you will likely struggle as a Virtual Assistant because you’re working for yourself and so the usual accountability that comes with working in an office environment is not there. There are systems you can set up for yourself to help you get organised and there’s even accountability groups you can join – so all is not lost if you miss an office environment.

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Reliability

Being reliable is so so important! You might get clients that want to work with you for an extended period of time so you have to show them that you are reliable and they can count on you. That doesn’t mean they can contact you at all times, it’s still important for you to set boundaries. (I’ll dedicate a whole blog post to boundaries because it’s an important subject)

Your client needs to know that they can count of you to do what you’ve said you will and when you said you would do it.

Some additional skills that might be useful but aren’t essential.

Additional skills:

• Love learning – if you love to learn and develop your skills further this will help you progress as a Virtual Assistant.
• Creativity – some form of creativity would be helpful, whether that’s written or more visual creativity.
• Discliplined – as you will be working from home, some level of discipline will be important to make sure you can manage your own workload.

Services You Can Offer As A Virtual Assistant

Now let’s get to the services you can offer as a Virtual Assistant. This should help you get started and decide your service offer.

Usually all of the services will come under certain sections within the industry.

Examples of sections:

• Admin
• Finance
• Social Media
• Web

Of course within these sections there are a plethora of different services you can offer, as they are very broad. It helps to ask yourself, what do I have experience in? Have you worked in Finance? More importantly, did you enjoy it?

If you have administrative experience in a certain section you can then use that experience and decide your specific service offer.

Some of the main services you can offer as a Virtual Assistant are as follows:

Accounting/Bookkeeping

If you have previous experience within an Accounts dept or Book Keeping then this is a service you can offer clients. You will likely need to experience with Accounting software as well like Sage, Leap or Quickbooks.

You will also likely need to have experience with sending invoices and using Excel spreadsheets. If you’re a big fan of numbers and data then you’ll love this service.

Admin

Most Virtual Assistants will find themselves doing all sorts of general admin for clients if required. However this is also a good service to provide if you’re not sure what you would like to specialise in. General administrative tasks could be answering emails, answering calls, doing research, and creating presentations; and documents.

Some knowledge of Microsoft 365 would be useful, although not essential as you can watch videos and do courses if you needed to learn for a client.

Author Assistance

An Author Virtual Assistant helps Authors with everything connected to publishing their book. This could include proof reading or formatting. Plus assistance with marketing the book release on social media and email newsletters. They might also need to organise Ads for the book release to increase sales.

Some Authors will be so overwhelmed with everything that needs to be done to promote their book that they need an Author Virtual Assistant to take on some of these tasks, to free them to be creative and concentrate on the writing.

Blogging Assistance

In case you aren’t aware, this is the service I provide. I write SEO optimised blog posts for Bloggers who need an additional writer to write content for their blog. As a Blogging Virtual Assistant you might also be required to edit and rewrite existing posts, check for internal links and generally keep the blog organised.

Other tasks you might end up doing could be sending email campaigns and writing captions for social media posts.

Calendar Management

A Calendar Management VIrtual Assistant organises clients calendars so that they never miss an important meeting or event. This is a great service to provide if you already have experience using software like Calendly, Google Calendar or Outlook. Some clients will just require a system put in place like time blocking, to have repeating tasks automated and for everything to be synched with other team members.

Sometimes businesses just don’t have the time to implement these processes and that’s where you can help.

Copywriting

A Copywriting Virtual Assistant will do some tasks similar to a Blogging Virtual Assistant. A Copywriter mainly researches about the client’s company, products or services, target audience and demographic and then uses that to increase the visibility of the client in front of their target audience (and increase sales). A Copywriting VA will also write for the business with clear call to actions (CTAS) and they’ll have a very good knowledge of SEO.

Data Entry

As the name suggests, a Data Entry VIrtual Assistant will mainly be entering data into a client’s database. A Data Entry Virtual Assistant will sometimes be dealing with data which is confidential. It helps if you have previous experience in Data Entry because you will need to type at quite a fast speed (between 40-70 words per minute) whilst also being completely accurate in transferring data.

Executive Admin

Also known as Executive Assistant, An Executive Virtual Assistant is like a more senior role to an Admin Virtual Assistant. If you are highly organised and you have exceptional management skills you could be a good candidate for an Executive Admin role. You could be organising calendars, tracking appointments, email management and even be a remote Manager if the client requires someone to manage that side of their business.

Graphic Design

If you have previous experience with graphic design, photography, creating logos and that sort of thing then a Graphic Design Virtual Assistant would be the perfect service for you. I have a lot of respect for people that can create stunning logos, business cards and social media posts because design is not my speciality.

You could also be making marketing brochures and infographics for clients. A keen eye for design is a must for this service!

Medical Assistance

A Medical Virtual Assistant will do tasks for anyone in the Healthcare industry. This could involve, updating patient medical records, answering telephone calls remotely, answering emails and even scheduling appointments.

If you have previous experience in Adminstrative or Receptionist roles within a Practice or Hospital then this would be the perfect role for you.

Legal Assistance

Similar to the previous service, a Legal Virtual Assistant will assist legal practices with phone calls, discovery, case management and all other administrative tasks required by the law firm. Some other tasks you might end up doing are managing meetings, changes in court dates and file management.

Another great service you can provide if you have previous experience working at a law firm.

Online Business Manager

An Online Business Manager (OBM) is another senior Virtual Assistant role. An OBM is specifically in charge of maintaining the operations of a company, they work closely with the owner of the business on their business strategy and take on the administrative tasks that are holding the business owner back from growing their business.

If you have experience in a Senior Managemental role this would be suitable for you. OBM’s can charge a much higher rate for their services and wouldn’t necessarily need many clients (depending on the hours they’re available to work).

Pinterest Manager

Do you have a lot of knowledge about Pinterest? If you do, then a Pinterest Virtual Assistant might be the service for you. A Pinterest VA could do tasks such as set up a Pinterest Business account for the client, optimise the account with SEO, create SEO optimised boards, plus create and establish a pinning strategy, to get the clients pins seen by more people on Pinterest.

Project Management

A Project Mangement Virtual Assistant is somebody who takes a clients ideas about a project and makes them a reality. This could include, managing a team for the project, managing the project budget and organise schedules ie the time frame for completion etc.

If you love to get involved in a project and see it through to completion, then this is a great service to specialise in.

Property Management

If you have previous experience with an estate agent/realitor then this would be a great option. Managing property can involve a lot of tasks such as insurance and handling documents, this can be difficult to keep on top of for businesses and this is where they would hire a Property Management Virtual Assistant.

Other tasks you might end up doing are, screening property applicants, listings and online management; and even phone/email support if required.

Publicity

A Publicity Virtual Assistant is basically in charge of PR for clients, by helping businesses with creating a marketing strategy and press releases etc. Some clients will need a lot of promotional material created for social media, email marketing and distribution.

If you have previous experience in Marketing, with SEO and Social Media, this would be an excellent service to provide. Your main task is to get your client’s brand seen and increase sales.

Social Media Manager

As the name suggests, a Social Media Virtual Assistant will manage everything related to the client’s social media accounts. Most businesses know that in order to get your brand recognised then you need to be on social media, the trouble is that social media can be quite time consuming.

A Social Media Virtual Assistant will create and schedule social media posts, create graphics etc, manage and reply to comments, monitor what is working and what isn’t; and research social trends. A good knowledge of the main social media platforms would be necessary for this service, ie LinkedIn, Pinterest, Instagram, Facebook and TikTok.

Tech Assistance

If you have previous experience with Technology and/or websites then this would be a great service that you can offer. Small and large businesses often find they are unable to look after the tech side of their business. A Tech Virtual Assistant can manage and maintain the client’s website, optimise for SEO, complete coding related tasks, send out email campaigns and get everything running smoothly.

You can niche down further if you have particular skills, for example you can become a WordPress Virtual Assistant if you have a lot of experience with WordPress websites.

Travel Coordination

Also known as Travel Management Virtual Assistant, this would be a great service if you have some experience with travel coordination, working in Travel Agencies etc.

The main tasks of a Travel Coordinator would be to prepare a travel budget, book flights or train tickets, organise car rentals or taxis, reserving hotel accomodation, managing the itinerary and sending out travel plan reminders if required.

Video Editing

Do you have previous experience editing videos? This could be a great service to specialise in. You would be editing videos for a brand so you would need to have experience using software such as Adobe Premiere Pro and/or Final Cut Pro. Your main tasks would be to edit out errors in the video, add transitions, add text, include brand colours and make a great quality video to be shared.

Video Editing is one of the first things that Brands and YouTubers will want to outsource once their business grows, because video editing is quite time consuming. That’s where a Video Editing Virtual Assistant will come in because this task can easily be done remotely.

Have you decided which services you can offer as a Virtual Assistant? You can always pick one that you have experience with and then you can change in the future, (if you find there’s something in particular that you don’t like doing).

It can be very overwhelming starting your new Virtual Assistant business, that’s why I’ve written a guide How to get started as a Virtual Assistant, to help you out.

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If you have further questions you can always message me on Instagram, where I’m the most active.

Damaris

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