Customer Reviews

Virtual Assistant, The Series: Become a Highly Successful, Sought After VA

5 star:		(38)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(5)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This book is okay. I am coming from an engineering background into the realm of virtual assistance, so much of the book to be "yes, I know that, let's get onto something new already." I imagine if I had been coming from more of a straight admin position that I would consider the book to be excellent. The authors pull together just about everything you need to know to start you own virtual assistant business. They talk about business plans, training, web sites, skills and services offered, and marketing.

There is a lot of general business information in this book that you can find in just about any business-related, how-to book. You'll find the typical marketing advice, typical Web site advice, and typical advice on writing a buisness plan.

The virtual-assistant Web sites listed in the "You're Not Alone!" section are mostly outdated, although I realize the author has no control over that.

There is some useful information in the book, such as the sample marketing letter and the sections on choosing services and setting fees. There also is some useful advice from other virtual assistants. However, I'm not sure those things make the book worth its cost. It may be worth the cost for someone who is totally unfamiliar with business practices.

Frankly, if you're interested in offering writing services through your virtual-assistant business, I would recommend reading the book titled "The Wealthy Writer" by Michael Meanwell.

When I designed a college course of Virtual Assistant training almost 4 years ago, I looked at many books that were available at the time in consideration for selecting a text for my new course. I chose "Virtual Assistant - The Series" by Kelly Poelker & Diana Ennen for several important reasons. First of all, the contents covered topics often overlooked by other books, such as deciding if you are right for this sort of self-employment, creating a disaster plan to avoid interrupted services, and juggling the demands of home life and career under the same roof. Another import reason for selecting this text for my classes is that there is an accompanying workbook available where the student answers questions and records their thoughts and notes about the content of each chapter. This approach is very useful in validating what was learned in each chapter. Each chapter in the book contains a section called "In their own words" where leading virtual assistants make comments from their own experience. This is like having a team of professionals at your side offering suggestions as you proceed through the course!

My final decision for choosing this book for my classes was based on Internet research which produced some glowing accolades about both authors of the book, proving to me that this book contained useful and relevant information derived from the personal successful experience of the authors.

Since then, I have taught the Virtual Assistant course many times, both lecture and online, for two different college districts in the San Diego area, and have found that the layout of the chapters and the length of the book is ideal for a 16-18 week college semester. I just added my own lecture notes and provided some hands-on exercises based on the reading, and the students have been quite happy and successful, and many are now working as a virtual assistant after reading this book and completing the course. I will recommend this book without hesitation to any college or business school desiring to offer such a course, or to those of you who choose to purchase the book and learn the virtual assistant business on your own.

Virtual Assistant - The Series: Become a Highly Successful, Sought After VA should be considered the Must Have handbook for anyone considering a career as a Virtual Assistant.

Diana Ennen, with 20+ years in business and Virtual Assistant experience and Kelly Poelker, Master Virtual Assistant have created an informative manual that covers everything from choosing your business and domain names, creating a business and marketing plan, to designing your website, advertising and promotion of your new VA business.

Offering tips and articles from other industry experts including Liz Foldger, Janice Byer, Michelle Dunn and many more, Virtual Assistant - The Series leaves no stone unturned. This professionally written handbook is easy to read yet in-depth. Much of the information covered could easily be adapted for any home business start up.

Resources including information on target markets, specialized VA services, business accounting and daily operational procedures provide readers with extensive information. The final chapter includes checklists, sample forms, sample contracts and links to numerous other Virtual Assistant resources.

Throughout Virtual Assistant - The Series, you'll hear from many virtual assistants offering information about their business, which areas they specialize in, the training they've received, business rates, the mistakes they made and their accomplishments - all "In Their Own Words".

I strongly encourage anyone considering the VA profession to grab a copy of Virtual Assistant - The Series: Become a Highly Successful, Sought After VA today. You won't be disappointed!

I'm just getting started as a virtual assistant and the information in this handbook has helped me set up my company and plan for the future. The information in the chapters is very well-organized and provides comments from actual virtual assistants in addition to the authors, so the reader gets several points of view.

I just had to write and say that I love this book! I already own a home business, and I actually figured this guide might help me find resources for locating a VA, since it's known as "the" resource for virtual assistants. And wow, not only did I get a ton of great resources, but I learned so much that I could apply to my own business. (Loved the coaching tips!)

Virtual Assistant, The Series is simply chock full of everything you would ever want to know about starting a virtual assistant business - learning the skills, contracts and forms needed, the day by day expectations of a VA, plenty of niche services to explore, resources on starting a VA site, even collection tips. It also has a great list of resources that can help those of us looking for a VA find someone great.

If you want to start a VA business (or any service business for that matter) or want to add those services to your current business, you are definitely going to want this guide!

This book gave me the motivation I needed to get my business started. Just about everything you need to know in an easy to read format that I couldn't put down. The fact that I found several typos gave me even more confidence - knowing that the writers aren't perfect, but are still very successful and proving that I have excellent proofing skills! I would recommend to anyone thinking about a virtual business.

I really thought this book was great for starting the virtual assistant business. The only thing that I didn't like was it talked alot about getting certified as a VA which costs alot of money and for someone just starting out without a lot of money they can not afford to do that. Other than that I really found the book informative.

I am a self-confessed small business book junky who recently decided to launch a VA business.

The book itself has a nice heft and large format, though the content itself had a distinctly "off the laser printer" look that seemed homemade.

I would have liked to see the authors dig a bit deeper into helping the reader find a sense of direction and reality as they enter this business. Some of the contributions made by working VAs were helpful, though I don't think there should be so many of them. Space would be better used on practical information.

Good appendix!

Donna

Diana and Kelly's book on Virtual Assisting is one of leading books in the VA Industry. I purchased this book because it was so highly recommended by other VAs. If colleges were using it as their textbook it was a definite purchase for me. I found it to be a tremendous help in marketing, pricing, and just general "how to" tips. I couldn't put it down. Any VA serious about their business needs to have it in their reference library.