Loading ...There are folks out there who just don’t get it.
Have you heard them?
They talk about Virtual Assistants, true Virtual Assistants, as if doing administrative work was dull-witted, unskilled and not worthy of respect. They tell the marketplace to pay poorly for that work because it doesn’t require any great skill or competence.
And these are your colleagues?! Gee, with “friends” and colleagues like that, who needs enemies, huh?
People who think Virtual Assistants need to “specialize” just don’t get it either. Virtual Assistance is already a specialty–it is the specialty of providing ongoing administrative support.
Those folks who don’t get it don’t understand the business or marketing implications of trying to be all things to all people, or the confusion–and subsequent reduced perceived value–that is created by turning what is a very specific concept and definition into a generic term that lumps anything and everything together.
Those who specialize in web design are web designers, folks.
Those who specialize in bookkeeping are bookkeepers.
Virtual Assistants already specialize in something: ongoing administrative support.
What is so difficult to understand about that? If you do something other than ongoing administrative support, you aren’t a Virtual Assistant. This isn’t a club or something for crying out loud. This is business. And the laws of business and marketing dictate that in order for the marketplace to find you, you want to put yourself in the correct category of business. That means calling yourself what you are, not something you aren’t.
What a lot of folks are also confused by is the idea that they have to specialize in something in order to make more money. This is rooted in the fact that most Virtual Assistants aren’t earning well. But that’s not a problem that has anything to do with the work we do. It’s a problem of Virtual Assistants not understanding what business they are in, trying to work with people who are not a fit, and not deciding on a target market to focus on.
They aren’t making money, not because they need to specialize in one specific task, but because they are trying to find clients in the wrong places and not charging properly. And when you have colleagues further devaluing what you do, it’s no wonder Virtual Assistants can barely muster the professional esteem to get out of bed!
Where Virtual Assistants can make more money is not by specializing in one particular task (which would also make them NOT Virtual Assistants). It’s by focusing on a target market (also referred to as a niche). Those who become experts at serving a very specific, focused group get to know that group well, speak their language, understand their businesses and work at a higher level, and thus, charge more.
The term Virtual Assistant is not limiting in any way and allows for all kinds of opportunity for you to specialize–specialize in a niche, that is.
Within the clarifying framework of the definition, there is all kinds of opportunity to specialize by choosing a niche market to focus on. The more expertise you develop serving a very specific target group, each with its own particular set of administrative needs, the more you can charge.
