How many secretarial skills do you use in your VA business?

Had an interesting chat recently with Rosemary Parr who runs Scottish PA Network – we were chatting about the different skillsets VAs and PAs have…and that’s why the transition can sometimes be difficult.

I thought it might be useful to run a poll:

Certainly on the SVA Forum there’s some debate about what is unique to VAs in terms of skillset:

https://forum.societyofvirtualassistants.co.uk/t/specific-va-skills/674985

Off the top of my head I’d say that in addition to excellent PA skills, the VAs also need:

• Business skills
• Know how to work remotely
• Marketing skills
• Be able to juggle priorities (because even if you are used to having several bosses, there is usually one overarching aim for the company which always takes precedence – that doesn’t exist for VAs with numerous clients)
• Being prepared to take what is essentially a “commission only” job
• Being able to set personal boundaries around work (VAs don’t have an HR dept looking after them)
• To be really self-motivated

Anything else you think we need? Personal skills? Technical knowledge? Add in the comments below…