Dear Gritty VA:
I just discovered there’s another Virtual Assistant in my town! I’m afraid she might not like having competition in the same area. She’s apparently very active in the business community, and I’m really worried that this could put a damper on my own networking possibilities. What should I do? ~ NC
Actually, I view this as a positive because having more than one Virtual Assistant in the same area lends credibility to what we do in the eyes of the business community.
Having other Virtual Assistants in your local area can also be an advantage because you can combine your efforts in making the business community aware of the existence of Virtual Assistance.
I think it just might prove to be very fruitful if you could gather all of the Virtual Assistants together in your area, and talk about ways to lay that foundation and how to share the efforts and costs of promoting Virtual Assistance in your community (this is what’s known as co-opting advertising).
You could all put a presentation together, and shop it around to the various local business groups that offer any number of opportunities to do this. In my area, there are the Chamber of Commerce, networking groups, business associations, district associations, Toastmasters clubs, etc. And if you are a shy person, having other Virtual Assistants to share the presenting makes it easier and you feel more confident.
By focusing on getting the information out there, it becomes education rather than advertisement. The brilliance of this is that by making what we do as Virtual Assistants well-known, your own personal business will benefit. Who do think they’ll be calling when they need our brand of services (which your presentation has convinced them they need)?
Why, the Virtual Assistants who gave them the info in the first place!
Don’t think of other Virtual Assistants as competition. There is more work and clients to go around than you can possibly imagine. The businesses and industries we currently serve are only a fraction of those we could be helping grow–we have only begun to scratch the surface. And one Virtual Assistant’s non-fitting client is another Virtual Assistant’s ideal client.
Thanks for commenting. Yeah, the virtual assistant term is really completely idiotic to...
One Comment
I felt like this as well when I start my VA business. I found that there was another Virtual Assistant nearby and didn’t worry about it at first. As I found out how successful she was, in the VA industry, then I started worrying.
Now I agree with the Gritty VA when she says, “There is more work and clients to go around than you can possibly imagine. The businesses and industries we currently serve are only a fraction of those we could be helping grow–we have only begun to scratch the surface.”
It doesn’t matter where you live or how many VA’s there are in your town, people will hire you if you are the best VA for them.