Virtual Assistants For You Information

If there are any further questions you have please click here.

Question : What are the prices and potential earnings that I should expect?

Answer : We believe that the prices that a VA charges should be agreed between the VA and the Client. We do not wish to place any particular price on the services that a VA can offer, as the services will be too diverse. The potential earnings is dependent on the VA and how much time and how many clients that they work with.

Question : How should I communicate with the Client?

Answer : The forms of communication between a VA and their client depends on the requirements and capabilities of the client themselves. We expect most communication to completed over the phone and using email, but we still believe that there is a definite need to be able to meet face to face with clients if it is required. This is why we have split the country into regions so that this is possible.

Question : There are several agencies now and I am not sure whether to register with them all or just UK ones?

Answer : We think that Virtual Assistants should advertise themselves wherever they can. We aim to promote VA's in the UK and Ireland specifically. We would welcome other countries to set up their own equivalent web sites under the virtualassistants4u.co.uk name but would expect them to maintain them themselves. This is because we believe that different countries, even using the same languages, have different cultures, laws and expectations in the work place. Additionally we strongly believe that VA's and their Clients should be able to meet and work directly together if required. We don't think that a VA should be face-less, voice-less, human-less.

Answer :We are not a company that performs VA services ourselves or as an agency, we are here purely to help VA's to advertise themselves. We were looking at becoming Virtual Assistants and found that nearly all the sites were American and were really training agents or offering a type of franchise. Most importantly they all wanted money. Agencies will all reduce the amount that a VA will get paid and increase the amount that a client has to pay, hopefully through negotiation both VA's and the clients will benefit. We do not expect any monies from anyone for work that is generated from advertising Virtual Assistants on the site or for joining

Answer : We have always believed that a virtual assistants services should be presented in a manner which can be related to a physical location so that if necessary the customer may choose their VA by location and therefore have the ability to meet with their assistant if they need to as part of their relationship. Of course clients may choose VA’s in remote locations to themselves and subsequently never meet, but that would be their choice. For this reason we only allow Virtual Assistants to register for one location, unless they can show that their operation is based in multiple regions.

We understand that this view of our members registers is potentially restrictive, and that it does not necessarily encourage clients to move from their own location, so we have tried to combat this with registers which are based upon the Services and Skills that VA’s and a Slideshow of all web pages shown in a random order.

Question : Can I do my own website and pass it over to you to exhibit for me?

Answer : Yes. We are happy to host web pages and what we call mini-webs for people. We believe that the name is easier to remember and give to people than most that are offered to people (remember that you can use any prefix you like to va4u.com eg. JohnIsThe.va4u.com). We will consider multiple page mini-webs to be added to our site for free for those under 100 Kb, for those over 100 Kb, a nominal fee based upon the size of your request. For further information on web pages click here.

Question : Virtual Assistants are a new concept and is not well known yet. What are the realistic odds on getting work at the moment? How much work can I expect to get?

Answer : The amounts of work which can be generated for a VA will mainly be down to the individual, although we hope that the site will also add to the volumes of work. As the site grows the amount of information held within the site will grow. This will aid in the likelihood of the web site being found in search engines.

Answer : We expect VA's to advertise themselves locally and that we are there to add to the advertising on the Internet. We also hope that you get any clients you feel may benefit from advertising themselves on the net to register and get a free page and redirectable email address which can then be redirected to you to administer for them.

Answer : Whether or not you wish to become a certified is up to you and what skills you currently have to offer. The reason that va4u.com was founded was because we saw a lot of VA sites which were fundamentally making money through people setting up as a VA, when really all people needed was a bit of advertising.

Most certifications that I have seen around the web are basically affiliations where you pay a membership fee with little or no checking of the quality of the VA, we do not place any additional value on any affiliation.

However some certifications offer training courses in standard secretarial type training with a leaning to Internet based work. If you already have particular skills that you feel confident of being able to supply to a client then there is little need to gain any particular certification.

I do support the organisations listed on the Associations web page. Particularly GAVA and IVAA as they are free organisations

Answer : If you wish to make changes to any part of your details you may do so by completing the change form provided. Alternatively you may mail any changes to the webmaster who will make the changes for you. For changes to be considered you must provide some detail which is not readily available on the webpage. For example your password or the mail address you registered with.

Answer : There are no regulations or qualifications required to become a Virtual Assistant. Currently VA’s as a profession does not have any limitations on it, in the respect that being a VA does not tie you to a given service. We have VA’s that offer all forms of Virtual Services from the typical administrative role through translation to Web services, the possibilities are endless. If you are thinking of becoming a VA you should have skills that you are able to reliably offer and provide in a virtual world, that people would be willing to pay you for, this can be anything at all. Have a look at what the other VA’s are offering, http://www.va4u.com/slideshow/slideshow.htm

I would warn you that there are various organisations that offer VA qualifications and training, but these are organisations that have just got onto the bandwagon early and decided to set up their own standards and certifications. Mostly these are fairly innocuous in their nature but they do stand to make some money from what they offer and then in turn power to drive the profession to their advantage. There are some good organisations that are non profit making and free such as www.gava.org which I would recommend. Have a look at http://www.va4u.com/assistant/Reference/Associations.htm for our recommended organisations.