So You Don’t Want To Be An Admin Virtual Assistant

I wanted to do this blog post to speak to those of you who don’t want to do admin type of work. Whether you are an admin Virtual Assistant now or you’re just getting started in the industry, and it’s not something you’re interested in doing.

As always, you can also listen to this instead of reading the blog post, if you prefer. Please hit the play button on the podcast below. 

Why I Didn’t Want To Be An Admin Virtual Assistant

If you’ve heard my backstory, I did not want to be an admin when I started my VA business for three significant reasons. 

1. I hadn’t been an admin in probably 25 years, and I didn’t want to go back to that type of work. Nothing wrong with it, but doing admin work isn’t for everyone. It’s not for me.
2. I wanted freedom-based skills. I didn’t want to be tied to my desk during business hours, answering phone calls, or doing calendar management. I wanted what I call freedom-based or backend skills.
3. The biggest one, I think for me, was it didn’t pay enough. Admin Virtual Assistants do great work, but it’s not an in-demand skill set anymore. The industry is moving away from being admin based on being more strategic and techie. I’ll talk more about what I mean by this in a bit.

The VA Industry Is NOT Admin Only

Please realize that if you’re new to the VA industry, it’s not admin only. It’s very diverse. I equate it to the coaching industry. Some people think the coaching industry is either just life coaches, health coaches, or business coaches. In contrast, it has many different types of coaches. It’s diverse, just like the VA industry. Even though the word is Assistant, that doesn’t necessarily mean you’re an admin Virtual Assistant. You will find people who think that’s the case, so it’s an educational opportunity for you to say: “No. The VA industry is not just admin based. It’s a diverse industry, full of different skillsets.”

Freedom, Flexibility + Higher Income

I want to reassure you that you don’t have to be an admin. No matter if you’re currently an admin and are looking to change, or if you’re looking for a way to get out of your soul-sucking job. You can go right into those freedom-based skills as I did. They’ll give you the freedom and the income to work when and where you want. 

They are skills and tasks that are deadline-driven, not time-driven. That was very important to me because then I felt like I just had another job. One of the reasons I wanted to get out of my job was because I wanted freedom and flexibility. I felt, if I went back to working regular business hours and being stuck at my computer, it wasn’t going to be much different. I needed to do the things that were helping me achieve those dreams of freedom and flexibility.

Become An Asset To Your Clients

Another reason you might consider offering strategic and techie type services is you become an asset to your clients instead of an expense. Clients can do their own admin work, but they don’t know how to set up or manage the technology that makes their business possible. So if you’re offering these backend skills, aka freedom-based skills, you’re becoming an asset to them. You’re more of a consultant than an assistant. If you can help your clients make money, you’ll never run out of clients. You’re almost recession-proof. So that’s another benefit to learning and offering strategic and techie skills.

What Are Strategic + Techie Skills

Let me take a minute and explain what I mean by strategic and techie skills, so we’re on the same page. 

• Strategic skills are all about the strategy, planning, and implementation of a particular system or structure. (Digital Marketing skills are strategic)
• Techie skills are the tools that you use to implement and automate a strategy.

How To Combine Strategic + Techie Skills

For example, email marketing is a strategic type of skill where you work with clients to identify their goals. After that, you put together an implementation plan. MailChimp is one of many email marketing tools that business owners use to implement their email marketing strategy. MailChimp is a techie skill. When you put the techie and strategic skills together, you become a consultant and an asset to your clients! And this is what I focus on teaching in my training.

If you’re somebody who loves systems and processes, that’s another strategic skillset. Because you can go in and help clients set up the techie tool, systems, workflows, and processes that automate their business. 

Project Management Is Another Strategic Skill

No matter which industry you’re in, Project Management will work to your advantage. It helps you manage yourself better, your business, your clients, your deadlines, your task, and how to juggle all those moving parts.

Offering strategic skills is where you’re helping clients develop a strategy and a plan, and then implementing it for them. Whether you’re executing it yourself or you have a team that does it for you. These are going to be higher-paying, specialized skills. They are in-demand because they help clients lean on the technology for automation. 

You’re going to realize that all four skills, systems and processes, project management, strategic, and techie skills, will fold together. They all overlap, making you a much bigger asset to your clients since you understand how they all work together. (Plus, you can charge premium rates!)

If you’re interested in learning how to become an Online Business Project Manager please check out my FREE training: VA to PM – Where to begin and how to transition. It’s on-demand, automated, and starts every 5 minutes. So you can watch it at your convenience.

Digital Marketing Services You Can Offer

Digital Marketing is a huge in-demand skill set – almost more than anything else. It combines both Strategic and Techie skills into one! Here are a few examples of Digital Marketing services, just to name a few:

• Building sales funnels
• Implementing an email marketing system
• Creating and managing content 
• Building websites
• Paid ads such as Facebook or Google

There are so many opportunities and different skill sets that you can offer other than admin Virtual Assistant services. If you’re looking for freedom-based skills, then strategic and techie skills are the way to go. Plus, they marry together to make you even more in-demand!

Be sure to check out my free ebook all about the Top 10 Skills Clients Want – it will go into more detail about the skills and services you can offer to give you that freedom based life!

Don’t forget to leave a comment if you found this information useful. I’d love to hear from you.

Thanks for reading – Susan

P.S. If you want to learn more about why it’s time to move away from admin services or why offering Digital Marketing services from the beginning is beneficial, please have a peek at my post The Ultimate VA Success Guide: 4 Truths About The Most In Demand Virtual Assistant Services.