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Should a virtual assistant be certified? Yes or No

June

20th

Teresa Morrow

I will tell you right away my take on this controversy: I do not think a person has to have a virtual assistant certification.

Now, before some of you start yelling at me through your computers, allow me to add a few things and further explain myself.

I am not saying acquiring a certification is a bad choice, all I am saying is possessing a certification does not necessarily make a person a good virtual assistant.

To me there are two types of people I feel should or probably would want to have a certification:

Beginner - with little or no administrative skills
One who is working solely or most with corporate clients, in the corporate world, these type of credentials are looked at more readily.

However, I believe to be a successful virtual assistant one should definitely display previous experience, problem solving skills, knowledge, integrity & trust, and self discipline.

Experience - Nothing can replace experience. You either have it or you don’t. With experience comes knowledge.

Teresa’s Tip: And with knowledge comes the possibility of offering more services (if you want).

Problem Resolver - Are you a person who handles challenges head on or do you hide your head in the sand or throw your arms up? If you don’t know the answer, are you the type of person who will go and try and at least find the answer?

Teresa’s Tip: Take each problem or challenge as an opportunity for learning new resolutions. You become the resource more and more.

Reliability - You are self disciplined enough to be a virtual assistant? Are you a person that your customers can hand over tasks to and they will get done in a timely manner?

Teresa’s Tip: Verbalize your work hours & communication preferences. Also put them on your site/blog and on your contract.

Integrity/Trust- Do you work your business with integrity? After speaking with you on the phone, are your client left with a feeing of trust?

Teresa’s Tip: Be sure you tell people what you can do and what you can not do.

Again, I am not saying that certificate is a bad thing to obtain, however, I don’t think it is a needed item in order to be a very successful virtual assistant.

And I will end this article as such (and I am not pompous, I am just stating something)

There are two last points I would like to make

I have over 15 years in the administrative field (working in various industries) so I have the experience, knowledge, reliability, integrity and self discipline to be a virtual assistant…and no certification.
Since I have owned my business, I have yet for any of my clients to ask me if I had a certification. And 90% of my clients have referred others to me.

Teresa Morrow is on Florida Board of Advisors with The WECAI Network ™ (http://www.wecai.org) and one of Editors at Large at WE Magazine for Women ™ (http://www.wemagazineforwomen). She has over 15 years working with various industries to include property management, landscape architecture and financial planning firms in executive administrative positions. In 2007, Teresa started Key Business Partners, a virtual assistance & online promotional company. You can contact her via email at keybusinesspartners@verizon.net or visit her website at http://www.keybusinesspartners.com.