Trends in the Virtual Assistance Industry

With the most common basis for Virtual Assistants being a secretarial business or a background in the Secretarial or Administrative services arena in business, VAs are finding more and more ways to branch out into new areas and specialized niches.  No longer is Virtual Assistance limited to typing resumes and reports or processing data or transcription. 

What is a niche?
A niche is a specialized area that a Virtual Assistant provides support for, has experience with, and loves doing.  While a lot of VAs start out taking all sorts of jobs for any sort of money, after a while, they narrow their "perfect client" down to two or three specialized types of professionals/businesses who they strive to partner with and market specifically towards.

Different areas that VAs specialize in are:

• Real estate/mortgage professionals'  support
• General administrative support
• Executive support
• Desktop publishing
• Marketing support
• Organization and association management
• Web hosting and design
• Accounting and bookkeeping support
• Presentation planning and assistance
• Concierge and event planning
• Legal support
• Content writing
• Copy writing
• Editing and proofreading services
• Transcription services
• Human resources support
• Medical office support
• Administrative support for coaches (business, life, etc.)
• Travel planning
• Training manual writing and planning
• Speaking engagements
• Support for consultants
• Writing/editing support for authors and independent publishers
• Entrepreneur and small business owner support
• Support for engineers and architects (This is a highly specialized field; most of the VAs who deal with these types of clients have executive assistant backgrounds for large engineering and/or architectural firms.)
• Support for financial advisors
• Support for nonprofit organizations
• Support for real estate developers
• Support for sales professionals
• Support for job seekers or professionals looking to make a career change
• Support for "head-hunters" or executive search firms
• Support for mental health professionals/therapists
• Prioritization, delegation and organization assistance
• Tech support for computer networking
• Customer service support for clients via email and/or telephone

...and this list keeps growing and growing! 

As more and more technology is becoming available and businesses are looking for these highly-specialized candidates, the VAs who keep up with technology and the latest business news for their chosen niche are becoming invaluable to their clients and looking more and more attractive to their potential clients and marketing targets.

Recommended Resource

The Five Key Steps to Your Successful Virtual Assistant Business  - This book covers everything from what are virtual assistants to services you can offer as a VA. It also goes into detail about starting, operating, and growing a profitable and successful virtual assistant business, pricing your services and more.