Professional Development for Virtual Assistants

Continuing education for virtual assistants to keep your skills current.

Why is this important? Where do you find training?

During my years working in a Corporate Human Resources department analyzing training metrics, the importance of training and continuing education had two significant and obvious impacts that stood out for this large corporation.

Professional Development Impact #1

The first important impact was from the perspective of the company. Providing employees with the training they need to maintain and improve upon their skill set was a wise investment for keeping the company on the cutting edge of developing and enhancing technology, leadership and customer service.

Professional Development Impact #2

The second important impact was from the perspective of the employee. Having the opportunity to attend training and knowing the company is making the investment in you as a valued contributor leads to employee satisfaction.

Comparisons can be drawn from the impacts made on that large corporation to the impact training can have on your small home business so let’s dive in.

Why Professional Development for Virtual Assistants is a Value-Add Activity?

As you are probably aware, Virtual Business Assistants have many niche markets they can focus on. Whether you are a Real Estate Virtual Assistant, Business Coach Assistant, Non-Profit Support Team Member, Social Media VA, or you provide General Administrative services, there is still huge value in continuously improving your existing skills and knowledge. First, the Virtual Assistant profession has a high caliber of competition. I have to note that even though it’s a competitive market, Virtual Business Assistants are also among the most generous when it comes to sharing information, tips and ideas. The bottom line is if you want to keep up with your competition, a healthy dose of training as often as you can squeeze it in will be key to your success and to the growth of your business. It is a worthy investment of time and money – note you can find free training as well. Second, there is an added bonus to participating in training geared towards your niche. You achieve a sense of accomplishment and empowerment. Each additional piece of knowledge you have makes you more valuable to your existing and potential clients - that is a truly satisfying feeling.

Where can you find Virtual Assistant Training Opportunities?

There are a lot of free and paid training opportunities out there. Even just picking up a book or reading multiple articles or blogs on a particular subject will enhance your knowledge and can be considered continuing ed. So don’t limit yourself to the idea that training must be a traditional format. If you like interaction, go for more of the live training sessions. If you learn by doing, enroll in more webinars so you can pause the material and test your knowledge.

The recent webinars I have participated in include graphics courses for Canva, Google Digital Garage, and a variety of free QuickBooks Online webinars. I specifically chose the QuickBooks webinars to improve my skills on basic tasks but also to increase my confidence for navigating the system so that I could perform my tasks more efficiently. I’ll share a quick story. I had a client that was a long-time user of QuickBooks, but stuck with what he knew. After taking a webinar, I picked up a few tips on features I realized would save time on internal processes for this client, and he was extremely grateful that I shared my knowledge.

Final thoughts on education for Virtual Assistants?

Whatever method you choose for continuing education to improve your value as a Virtual Assistant, training will open doors to new clients and can add to the impact you have with existing clients. So, take the time to invest in yourself, imagine the possibilities and by all means have fun with it!

More Virtual Assistant Business Tips:

• Best Practices for Your Virtual Assistant Business

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Katie Bauer started Effective Virtual Assistance, LLC, in 2008. Based out of Northern Virginia, Effective Virtual Assistance, LLC partners with small businesses locally and nationally to give business owners the time they need to focus on core business and revenue generating activities.

With a firm belief that when a client is successful, that reflects on her success, Katie’s goal is to go above and beyond with each and every client task and project.

Over the years Katie has been contacted by aspiring VAs through clients or directly via her website, asking for insight and advice. She realized writing a short eBook to share her experience along with offering some of the documents and tools she uses to run her business could benefit other Virtual Assistants. Click HERE! You definitely want to see all the professional resources & customizable forms available.