DON'T -- Underprice your services. The average virtual assistant today makes $25 to $70 an hour, depending on their skills, services offered, location, and years of experience. Don’t make the mistake of assuming if you charge the lowest prices, you’ll get the most work. You won’t. Instead, you’ll end up working outrageous hours for peanuts! Clients will pay more for professional services. When a potential client discovers you’re charging a lower rate than standard, they often feel they will receive a quality of services that is also lower.

DON'T -- Overextend yourself. One of the common mistakes many virtual assistants make is to accept too much work and then not be able to accurately complete it. Learn to say no or have a back-up helper who can assist you with any overflow work. Remember one of the most important ingredients for success is keeping your clients satisfied. If you overextend yourself and make a lot of errors, it will jeopardize your business.

DON'T -- Get discouraged. It takes time to get a business going. Plan ahead and have money saved in reserve. Don’t buy items until you have found the best possible price and there is an absolute need. This advance planning takes the pressure off of having to make money NOW. If things are slow and the phone just isn’t ringing ... MAKE IT RING!! There’s plenty of work out there, you just need to aggressively pursue it.

Finally, the most important ingredient for success is your belief in yourself. If you believe that with your skills and experience, you can own your own business, then there’s nothing stopping you. DREAMS DO COME TRUE. SOMETIMES YOU JUST NEED TO MAKE THEM HAPPEN.

Diana Ennen, author, publicist, book marketer and mentor. She has written numerous books on operating a home-based business including Virtual Assistant: the Series and is president of Virtual Word Publishing http://www.virtualwordpublishing.com/ and http://www.publicity-va.com./

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Diana_Ennen

Many thanks for this article on becoming a Virtual Assistant

Become a Virtual Assistant is very grateful for the help and useful articles that we have at our disposal. With regard to making your dreams come true, write them down. If you cannot think of your dream, think of your nightmare and write that down then write the opposite and you have a written GOAL. Set goals for your Virtual Assistant Business - written dreams, then add dates and you have something to aim for. If you never write your goals down the odds are that you will never achieve them and your business will not thrive.