Virtual assistants (VAs) are contracted freelance professionals that work remotely to assist business owners with certain tasks that help them run their business. As a virtual assistant, it’s important to continue to learn new skills to make yourself more resourceful and valuable.
VAs usually help with basic tasks such as data entry, scheduling, and online research. With the remote workforce booming today, the role of VAs has broadened. The greatest in-demand skills for virtual assistants are administrative, creative, and technical.
Some of the skills of in-demand VAs include:
Data entry or order entry
Customer service via phone, text, and chat
Graphic design
Social media marketing
Various marketing tasks
Website maintenance
As a VA, learning additional skills can also be a great way to break into a more specialized field since you can build skills and gain experience along the way. Completing training courses is an excellent investment to advance your career. Here are some of the best resources for virtual assistant training.
1. Work From Home as a Virtual Assistant
This course is designed to share the processes that have been proven to help build a successful virtual assistant business and give you the edge. It will give you the basics to get started as a virtual assistant.
What you will learn:
Learn if the virtual assistant career is right for you
Establish what you should do before you open your virtual assistant business
Create your business policies to set yourself up for success
How to set your rates
Preparing your business to start
Establish processes for the daily running of your business
2. Fully Booked VA
You could jump-start your virtual assistant business and figure out if you have what it takes to be a VA by taking their four online mini courses. The courses will walk you through the basic understanding of what it takes to get a virtual assistant business up and running. These are quick and easy courses that will get you started.
3. Powerful Social Media Marketing for Beginners
Being able to handle a client’s social media marketing successfully makes for an extremely valuable VA. This course will give you a basic understanding and working knowledge of social media marketing.
What you will learn:
Master productivity and organization
Create content for social media
Understand your purpose within your VA career
Get a clear understanding of the use of social media for businesses
4. The Complete Canva Course
VAs are commonly hired to create graphic designs for a business’s websites, print material, Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest, and other social media. Canva is an online design program that will allow you to create professional-looking designs quickly and easily. You will design nine different projects in a hands-on and practical way.
What will you learn:
How to create designs using Canva, for free
Core graphic design skills that you could use with other design projects
Mastering all the elements inside Canva
How to create videos and other cool animations
There are many advanced Canva courses you could take after your initial course of learning the basics. The advanced courses will help you take your designs to the next level, including more effective marketing designs.
5. Facebook Blueprint
Facebook Blueprint offers free online self-guided courses to build your marketing skills through Facebook, Instagram, Messenger, and WhatsApp.
You will learn how to:
Prepare to bring your business online
Establish your presence
Attract your audience
Build relationships
Improve your creative strategy
Optimize your efforts
6. WordPress for Beginners: The Complete 2021 WordPress Guild
Creating and managing websites can be very challenging if you don’t know what you’re doing. WordPress makes it possible for those without the technical skill and knowledge of coding to make professional websites. However, it’s still far from easy, you will need hours of testing and changing things to achieve the design you desire.
WordPress for Beginners course will teach you the ins and outs of creating a professional WordPress website. As WordPress websites grow increasingly popular, you will see more demand for creators and designers of WordPress websites.
You will learn how to:
Install WordPress
Create a custom web mail account
Install SSL
Build a mailing list
Configure a full range of WordPress plugins
Import and export content
Design a website using WordPress themes
Setup pages for comments and contact
Use the Gutenberg Editor
Optimise a website for Google and other search engines
Protect a your website against malware and hackers
Create and edit video and image galleries
7. Microsoft Excel: Excel from Beginner to Advanced
Being able to effectively create and manage spreadsheets is important for a VA. Excel is extremely useful for many business processes. It can be used for things like:
Accounting
Inventory tracking
Compiling mailing and contact lists
Calendars and schedules
Project management
Goal planning
Visualizations
HR Management
Checklists and task lists
Time logs
With this program you will learn:
Mastering Excel both beginner and advanced
Learn the most frequently used functions in an office
A solid understanding of the basics
How to maintain a large set of Excel data in a list or table
Unlock formulas with IF, INDEX, VLOOKUP, MATCH functions and more
Create reports using the popular tool, PivotTables
How to automate your day-to-day tasks using Macros and VBA
8. Data Entry Course for Beginners
Data entry is a common task business owners or entrepreneurs hire a VA for. It’s fairly easy work but could be very time consuming which is why it’s commonly outsourced. With this course you will learn about the Data Entry project types that are available on freelance marketplaces for instance – Upwork and Fiverr.
You will learn how to:
Be a data entry professional
How to convert PDF files
9. Google Cloud Productivity – Drive and Google’s Office Suite
This is a complete course to teach you the functions of Google Drive, Docs, Slides, Sheets and Forms all which are excellent free tools Google created. These tools provide huge benefits to effectively run your VA business and complete tasks for your clients.
You will learn:
How to use Google Drive to enhance efficiency in storing and sharing files
Have a working understanding of Google Docs and how to use them to program effectively
How to create, edit, and share spreadsheets quick and easy
Be able to create, share and present professional looking presentations
Create forms and surveys, also how to collect and analyze data from them
10. Digital Marketing Masterclass – 23 Courses in One
Digital marketing is booming since it’s a cost effective and successful marketing tool for businesses. As a virtual assistant, if you’re able to handle marketing tasks that help your clients grow their business without them needing to spend the time creating marketing content, posting and responding to comments you are as good as gold to them. This course will teach you how to use many of the proven digital marketing strategies.
Conclusion
The best virtual assistants are able to successfully complete a wide range of tasks so they are the go-to for many of their clients’ business processes. A VA that also specializes in marketing is exceptionally valuable as they’re able to assist their clients in scaling their businesses. Continuing to learn new skills will make you a more in-demand and irreplaceable VA which means you can charge more for your precious time and expertise. You should also be looking for the next skill to master to add to your portfolio and stand out from the competition. The more you know, the more you’re worth.
If you have these exceptional skills and are looking for a position in a virtual assistant position or if you’re looking to hire one for your business contact Pocketbook Agency and we will find the right placement for you!
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