84: 5 Skills You Already Have That Would Make You a Great Virtual Assistant

Think you need years of experience to become a virtual assistant? Think again. In this episode, I’m sharing the top 5 skills you already have that make you perfectly qualified to start a virtual assistant business in 2026, no matter if you are a teacher, work a corporate 9-5, are in healthcare, a SAHM, or anything in between!

If you’ve ever asked:

• “Am I even qualified to be a VA?”
• “What skills do I have that people would actually pay me for?"
• “Could I really work from home and make money doing this?”

You’re in the right place!

✹ Want to learn how to make $1,000/month in just 1 hour/day as a virtual assistant? Join our next FREE workshop!

✹ Ready to start your business as a virtual assistant? Doors are open to Beginner to Booked VA®! Click here to learn more and snag your spot!

✹ Want to send us a voice note with a question you have or a win you want to share?! Click here!

Transcript

SPEAKER_00: 1:30

Have you been thinking about becoming a virtual assistant, but aren't sure if you're actually qualified or have what it takes? Well, think again because in today's episode, I'm breaking down five skills that you already have that would make you the perfect virtual assistant, even if you've never worked online or in business before. These skills are things that people not only look for in a VA, but are ready to pay you for like yesterday. So let's dive in. Welcome to the Virtual Assistant School Podcast. I'm your host, Kate, a teacher-turned entrepreneur, mom of two, and I teach women how to use the skills they already have to make money from home as a virtual assistant. Every Tuesday and Thursday, you'll get step-by-step strategies, behind-the-scenes insights, and hear honest, unfiltered conversations about making money and growing an online business so you can stop feeling stuck and start taking action toward your goals. Whether you're looking for a flexible side hustle or want to take your business full-time, this podcast is for you. Building a business or starting something new can be super overwhelming at times. But here, you don't have to do it alone. So grab your coffee or make another cup and let's dive into this week's episode. Hello and welcome back to the Virtual Assistant School podcast. I am so happy that you are here. I am coming off of about a week vacation or so. It's so funny to me because people are always asking, like, you know, if you're a VA, like, can you take a vacation? Like, how does that work with clients? And I think I've done a podcast episode about this before. And honestly, this is not the content that this podcast is about, like this episode is about, but I figured I'd share anyway. You can absolutely and should take time off as a virtual assistant. Um, you're it you're the business owner, right? You're not an employee. You don't have to ask for PTO. You don't have to, you know, ask for time off. Um, I have clients right now. I have about five clients that I'm working with right now. I'm onboarding another one next month. And I just told them, like, hey, I'm gonna be out of town for my sister's baby shower. I got everything done that needed to get done that was time sensitive, like before I left. And then I took work off from like Wednesday to Tuesday. So took about a week off. Um, and it was great. So if you're someone who has maybe thought, like, okay, how do I actually take time off as a VA? Just know that it is possible and all it takes is really good communication and um, you know, just getting stuff done before you leave. So anyway, that's like a little side nugget. Not what we're talking about today, but we did just come back from a little bit of a vacation, just visiting family, 10-hour drive with a five-year-old and a three-year-old. 10 out of 10 don't recommend. But my boys actually did really great coming home, which we came home yesterday. And it was just going there that was a little rough. And it's probably because they hadn't been in the car that long for a while. They just needed some practice because coming home was a lot better. Um, but we made it home. Feels so good to be home. It was also great celebrating my sister for her baby shower and all that kind of stuff. But I'm excited to get back into the work. And it really starts with today's episode. Um, if you've been thinking about becoming a virtual assistant, but you keep telling yourself that you're not qualified or you don't have the right experience or you're not techie enough, or you don't know social media. Like those are the things that come up when people have these kind of hesitations. I'm hoping that this episode will change that. And that by the end of this episode, you're gonna realize that you're way more ready than you think to get started. Because here's what I know most high-achieving women are already doing the exact type of work that business owners pay virtual assistants for. They just don't recognize it as like a marketable skill or a service that you can offer. So today I'm breaking down the five skills that you likely already have, how they translate into real virtual assistant services, and how they can help you start earning money from home without needing like another degree or a huge following on social media. Really, you just need to know number one, what you're good at. Number two, how it helps business owners, and number three, how to package it into a paid service. So let's jump into it. Skill number one is organization. Okay. If you've ever managed a calendar, you've handled appointments, you've kept a household running, you've made sure deadlines were met, you've coordinated schedules, you've kept a little human alive or multiple of them, then you're organized. Okay. And business owners pay for this. This translates into specific BA services like inbox organization or calendar management, scheduling content, managing projects, keeping track of deadlines, all of that kind of stuff is something that if you're someone who's organized, you can absolutely do those things. I know that you know how to hold things together. And that is literally what clients hire virtual assistants to do. Okay. They need support in managing the behind the scenes of their business in this way because it's hard as a business owner to not only grow your business, but manage everything and keep it running at the same time, right? That's where kind of a business owner comes to this fork in a road of do I keep doing everything myself and maybe not grow as much or grow as fast, or do I hire and I start delegating things so that I can focus on the things that I need to focus on to grow the business? Okay. That's where you come in. That's where you come in and can help manage things behind the scenes, right? Organization is a skill that not everyone has. But if you are someone who has that skill, you are going to be highly valuable when it comes to being a virtual assistant. Okay, number two is communication. So if you've ever answered customer service emails, or if you're a teacher, you've handled parent communication, you've talked to administrators, maybe you're in healthcare, you've communicated with patients or clients, or in corporate, you have had communication with teams, right? Or even if you've just ever been the person that everyone says, you know, you're just really good with people, that's communication. All right. Business owners need people who can respond professionally, who can keep conversations moving, who can follow up, who can help feel help clients feel taken care of and can make things run smoother, right? And so this looks like email management, customer service, responding to inquiries, handling DMs if someone is looking for like inbox support, onboarding clients, sending proposals or follow-ups. All of these things are stuff that business owners have to do, but they don't want to spend their day in their inbox, right? They don't want to have to be managing all of those things because they also need to be out doing the things that only they can do, which is working with clients, which is um, you know, getting more leads or fulfilling services that people have paid for for them. Business owners just don't want to be doing all of that kind of stuff. And they don't need to be doing all that stuff when they can hire someone like you, right? And what's really cool is that they're going to show you how they want you to communicate. Like a lot of times they'll have email templates or um they'll tell you how they want you to communicate in inboxes. Um, they'll show you how to follow up, like all that kind of stuff. So it's not like you have to know how to do those things right away, but it's just something that you could take off of their plate and you know, respond to them how they want their team to respond to these types of things. Okay, number three skill is problem solving. I know that you know how to problem solve. All right. I know that there's been a time that you've figured out how to make something work with limited time. I know that there's been a time where you've troubleshot an issue, troubleshooting an issue, troubleshot an issue. I don't really know. Troubleshooting? I'm gonna go with that. An issue. You've learned something quickly because you had to, or you had to just figure out like what you needed to do without anybody telling you how to do it. That's problem solving, right? And it's one of the most valuable skills as a VA that you could really have because most business owners really need someone who can kind of figure out things. This could look like helping a business owner, you know, troubleshoot an issue that they came across or organizing digital tools, figuring out some tech support issues by like researching the problem and coming up with a solution and just handling random tasks that pop up, you know? And this isn't to say that your clients won't show you what they need to do, because, like I just said, they're going to show you how not only they want you to respond if you're doing like customer response or customer service, um, but they're also going to have SOPs, which are standard operating procedures. And that's necessary when you hire a VA to show your VA how you want things executed. And it's basically like giving them a recipe for doing the task that you want them to do. And so your client is going to give you those things, but there's things that are going to come up that maybe your client doesn't even know the answer to, right? Or something that like changes in a system and maybe they just want some help to figure out like what that looks like. And so you can do that research or whatever. Um, when you can kind of have this ownership over your tasks, then you become a very, very high, highly sought out VA because you're able to take these headaches off of business owners' plates. And it's just one more thing they don't have to worry about. Skill number four is attention to detail. I think this is one of the most underrated skills in the VA world. Um, and maybe it's because like everyone's just going too fast all of the time or whatever it might be. But if you're someone who notices errors that others missed, or you catch little details, or you triple check things, you're kind of the type who reads instructions carefully, this skill makes you incredibly valuable because the online world runs on details, honestly. And VA services that support this is stuff like formatting documents or scheduling content with all the correct links, um, organizing spreadsheets, posting blogs or email newsletters correctly, just like making sure that everything is clean and polished. A detail-oriented VA is truly a business owner's dream. And while it is something that's, you know, very, very valuable, I will say this is probably the skill set that I am not the strongest in. I'm definitely detail-oriented and um, especially with my clients' work because I'm making sure that their work is done really, really well. But I have ADHD and it's really hard for me to notice typos or um like do proofreading or things like that. And so that's not like a huge skill set that I have. That's not something that I offer. I don't offer editing or proofreading or that kind of thing. And so I don't want you to hear this and think like, oh, well, I, you know, maybe I have AD, you have ADHD and you are not sure like if you have as much attention to detail as you need to to be a VA. I would say that it's different when you're doing it for clients. Um, it's different when you're doing it for work because for myself, I'm not as good at being attention to detail. Um I wish I was better at something that I'm working on. But for clients, you know, like I said, I'm good at like catching links. I'm good at catching errors, I'm good at um making sure like things are working appropriately and staying attention to those details, um, posting blogs and email newsletters correctly, all that kind of stuff. Like we're not gonna skimp on making things look great and professional and um making sure that it's like great quality, but I'm not gonna be doing editing and proofreading, I'll tell you that, because that is not one of my strengths. And so if you're thinking like editing and proofreading, not one of my strengths either, then hopefully you can see that this, you know, this attention to detail type of skill set can look different depending on what it is you're looking for. Um, and if you are someone who loves editing and proofreading and that kind of thing, then, you know, by all means, that's something that you can offer as a service, right? So you don't have to offer all of these services, you don't have to do all of these things, but you can when you have these different skill sets. And then skill number five is one that you definitely already have. And I know it. I know it. It's multitasking and prioritization. Because if you're a mom, I know that you can handle 37 things happening at once and still remember what matters most, right? That skill translates into managing multiple clients, juggling deadlines, keeping tasks organized, prioritizing what's urgent, staying on top of moving parts. Honestly, a lot of times business owners just need someone that can hold them accountable to staying on top of what they need to be working on and communicating what you are working on as the virtual assistant. Being a VA is a lot of learn as you go. And when I started, I didn't have a lot of experience in business or online platforms and all that kind of stuff, but I learned a ton as I started working with clients, which is why I know if you have these five core skills: organization, communication, problem solving, attention to detail, multitasking or prioritization, then you already have what it takes to be a VA. You don't need to try and become an expert before you ever even get started. You just need to redirect what you already do well naturally into paid services. Now, if you're sitting here thinking, okay, I do have the skills, but what do I actually do with them? Or how do I turn this into income? How do I find clients? What should I offer? What should I charge? Do I need a contract? All those kinds of questions. That is exactly why I created Beginner to Book VA. It is a step-by-step roadmap that shows you how to figure out your services, package your skills, position yourself confidently, run discovery calls. We give you a contract template and we teach you exactly how to actually start booking paying clients, even if you're starting from scratch, even if you only have nap time or after bedtime, and especially if you don't want to spend your life on social media because it's not necessary in order to be successful as a VA. Doors are officially open right now. And if you're ready to stop Googling how do I make money from home and actually start doing it, you can click the link in the show notes and join us inside Beginner to Booked VA. All right, that is it from me. I hope you enjoyed this episode. And if you did, I would love it even more if you would leave us a five-star review and tell me what you love most about the podcast. This helps me see exactly what I should share more of. And also helps people who are just like you who are looking to make money from home, find the podcast and find, you know, the solution for them and their family. It would be so awesome if you took a couple of minutes to do that. But either way, I will see you in the next episode. I'm rooting for you. Talk to you soon. Bye.