Working as an Associate Virtual Assistant is something that many VAs have heard of, but don’t necessarily understand. An Associate role is a great way of boosting your confidence and kickstarting your business – it also enables you to gain experience.
But make no mistake, it’s not a shortcut to training and starting your own VA business – and it’s certainly not an easy option. Here’s what you need to know about working as an Associate.
You need to be self-employed in your own right
When you work in an Associate role you’re not an employee for the lead VA. It’s also not a form of a Virtual Assistant trainee program! As an Associate, you still need to be a self-employed business owner in your own right. So you need to treat your business as a business – and that includes getting your own insurance cover, password protection and data protection procedures and legalities in place.
An Associate needs to look for clients of their own
As an Associate, you need to be looking for your own clients. You cannot be relying on lead VAs to provide you with the clients and work you need, to grow your business. Ensure you’re giving yourself adequate time to promote and market your own business, whilst you’re working as an Associate.
An Associate role isn’t a cheap or ready-made solution
An Associate role is an outsourcing position. You partner up with another VA to help them out. It could be because they have a heavy workload, need access to a specific skill set, or they need cover for illness, maternity leave or other commitments. You’re one self-employed business, working with another.
To reiterate, you need to have knowledge of being a VA, as well as the right VA skills and training in place, before you become an Associate. It isn’t a cheap or ready-made solution to help you bypass training as a VA and learning how to run your own VA business!
Being an Associate can be great for your business – but it shouldn’t be your business
Working in an Associate role is a great way of boosting your confidence, honing your skills, gaining testimonials, and helping you kickstart your own business. You can figure out what tasks you do like doing, and help boost your finances if your own business is quiet. It’s also the perfect way of helping provide value to other VAs in your community.
But don’t fall into the trap of thinking that it’s an easy or cheap option or a great way to train as a VA – far from it! It’s just equipping you with a different set of skills that will help you grow your own VA business.
If you’d like to learn more about working in an Associate role, you can find out about it in this blog post. And if you’d like to have access to support and expert advice to help you grow and maintain your VA business, check out our VA Membership. It’ll give you access to training and support, accountability and a thriving community of VAs. You can find all the details on our VA Membership, here. We also have a mini Masterclass on “How to be a successful Associate VA” available in our VA Training Academy Shop.
