3 Ways You Can Grow Your VA Career

Growing your VA career can seem like a challenge, especially with the rate at which new VAs are entering the field. As humans we constantly seek change and ways to improve our lives, especially when it comes to work. Planning for the future of your career and learning new ways to leverage your business is a great way to begin pushing your way to the top. This blog will help you navigate new ideas and push for the expansion of opportunities in your own VA career.

Start Your Own Agency 

Starting your own business can seem intimidating, and an agency can be even more so. With the rapid development of the VA field within the past few years, there is a constant need for new business ventures and job opportunities. By creating your own agency, you have the opportunity to expand your business and also take on a greater workload (or lessen your own), with the right people. Agencies are also great for new VAs looking to gain experience and learn new skills from seasoned VAs. 

Some of the benefits of owning a VA agency are:

• Taking on more projects and/or clients
• Being able to lessen your personal workload with the help of others
• Offering new skills and services
• Gaining a wider audience and demographic

Expand Your Skills 

As with any business (not solely VAs), by expanding your skills and services or products you are able to gain a wider audience and clientele seeking new opportunities. Expanding your skills can be done in a multitude of ways; you could go the full nine yards and enroll in a university or college program and obtain a degree or certificate, or you can opt for a less expensive and probably quicker option such as taking a VA specific course. These allow you to also learn from other professionals in the field and gain their insight. If you want to have on-going opportunities for growth and don’t know where to start, you can opt for virtual resources such as Youtube or Skillshare where you can learn from professionals in their field (i.e. photography, social media marketing). 

If you decide you don’t personally have the time or desire to expand on your own skills, but want to offer more services as a business, you can employ an employee that has a certain set of skills (i.e. web designers or copywriters). This can also slowly introduce you to the idea of beginning an agency without having to onboard a larger amount of employees at once. 

Some ways you can expand your skills are:

• Taking a VA course
• Enrolling in a program through schools (degree, certificates, etc.)
• Virtual resources such as Skillshare or Masterclass where you can learn from professionals
• Serving a wider variety of clients to gain work experience with new businesses
• Taking on an employee with a certain set of skills (i.e. an accountant or web designer)

Broaden Your Horizons 

If your business solely services a specific type of business or client, you can try to expand your target market. For instance, if you are passionate about health and wellness and tend to only work for wellness coaches or fitness facilities, you can try expanding this audience to healthy food companies or athleisure brands. This way you can slowly begin to introduce your services to a newer audience, without having to be overwhelmed with a drastic change from your current clientele. By assisting alternative or different businesses, you can gain work experience, testimonials, and new skills as well (i.e. working for a marketing agency can help develop your virtual marketing skills). 

If you don’t know where to start, there are a few things you can do:

• Write down all your current clients, and future clients you would like to work with (analyze what they have in common and how they differ)
• If you only offer your services to a certain type of business, try googling similar businesses within the same industry
• Start small - seek out small businesses that are local to your area and find a few that interest you.

For questions, please reach out to us through the contact us page on our website. Make sure you are up to date with all things TVL, such as travel and lifestyle content, by following us on social media. Stay tuned for next week’s blog!