7 Business Skills for Virtual Assistants

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7 Business Skills for Virtual Assistants
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This process of learning all of these new skills
might seem overwhelming at first, especially if
youre a new virtual assistant. But consider your
hard work to be the equivalent of building a
strong foundation. It will support the growth of
your business for years to come and keep you on
the right trajectory.

• The Ability to Plan and Strategize

• Prioritize Revenue Generating Tasks

• Stop Multitasking and Start Batching

• Learn to Communicate More Effectively

• Develop Your Sales Skills

• Acquire Basic Accounting Knowledge

• Commit to Personal and Professional Development

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The Ability to Plan and Strategize
When youre feeling busy or overwhelmed, the
easiest way to reduce stress is by putting things
on the back-burner.
But heres the thing If your want to grow your
virtual assistant business, youll need to
developing the ability plan and strategize.
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Prioritize Revenue Generating Tasks
If you dont place an emphasis on tasks that
generate revenue, your bottom line will suffer
immeasurably. You might even go out of business.
As a virtual assistant and business owner, there
will always be a million things on your to-do
list. But not all of those items deserve the same
level of attention.
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Stop Multitasking and Start Batching
For a long time, I felt like it was important to
get better at managing multiple tasks
simultaneously. At one point I became so bad at
focusing on a single task that I was doing
something different every 5-10 minutes often
going back and forth between the same 2-3
projects.
What Ive learned through experience is that very
little good comes from multitasking. In fact, it
almost always results in lost productivity and
more frequent mistakes.
Giving up multitasking is not easy. It takes hard
work and determination.
Trust me, Im no expert. But learning to focus on
a one thing at a time is the bomb. In fact, its
one of the most valuable virtual assistant skills
you can develop.
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Learn to Communicate More Effectively
Communication is an essential skill for any
virtual assistant.
You can never be good enough at communication.
Whether youre conveying your thoughts to a
client or outlining payment terms, there
is always room for improvement.
Perhaps the most important thing to remember
about improving your ability to communicate is
that 50 of communication involves listening.
Listening makes you better at sales, better at
conflict resolution and better at meeting the
needs of your clients.
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Develop Your Sales Skills
At the end of the day, no matter how you slice
it, youre in the business of sales. It doesnt
matter whether youre a VA who specializes in
real estate, WordPress or social media.
If you can convince your clients and prospective
clients that youre offering somethinga product
or servicethat will make their life or business
better in some way, youre golden.
Look, the thought of being good at sales can seem
like a scary proposition, especially if you hate
sales the way I do. But dont let this
four-letter word scare you away.
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Acquire Basic Accounting Knowledge
Putting your dislike for numbers aside, there are
several benefits to developing basic accounting
knowledge and maintaining the books for your VA
business.
Instead of relying on hunches or memory, youll
be able to

• Determine which clients and projects are most
  profitable.

• Know which clients pay their bills late and which
  ones are reliable.

• Understand which parts of your VA business
  generate the most revenue and in which quarter
  most of that revenue arrive.

• See when your expenses are getting out of hand or
  impacting profitability.

• Figure out which clients are due for a rate
  increase.

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Commit to Personal and Professional Development
As a virtual assistant, your business is either
moving forward or backward.
If you fail to make progresseven small but
measurable progressyouve lost some of your most
valuable asset.
a commitment to personal and professional
development has the potential to impact your
business more than anything else.
the desire to seek perfection of your craft, to
become a better salesperson, a better
communicator and to understand more about the
numbers behind your business.
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figuring out how you can provide more value and
solve problems more efficiently for your clients.
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