In the online world, virtual assistants are known to be versatile creatures. This is why many other professionals seek them out and invest on their services; their versatility simply makes them a very useful asset to any business.
However, there are also VAs who make money by specializing on certain highly sought after skills rather than market a broad range of services. This begs the question for some: is it a lot more profitable to go with one or a few skills rather than be a versatile VA? First off, let us tackle the advantages of specialization.
- You get to grow in the field you specialize in. As you offer only one or small skill set as your service, it will be easy for you to grow in whatever area that you have chosen to specialize in. Unlike peddling yourself as a jack-of-all-trades, specialization will help you move up as you gain experience in your work; the longer you are in the business, the higher valued you get.
- There is less competition in niche skill markets. The VA market is huge, and competition between VAs is great to the point that not all VAs get the chance to land a contract. If you specialize on a single skill or a few, you get to market your services to only a single niche. In niche markets, the competition is much smaller, and you get a better chance at getting a contract.
- You know what you are hired to do. When you are specialized, it is understood that you have extensive training or experience on the skill that you have focused in. What this would mean is that you will not have to worry about being inadequately equipped for whatever tasks that you are given. As you will only be tasked to do something that you do best, you are confident that you can deliver and will not have to talk your way into refusing the job.
- It\’s quality over quantity for you. One good thing about specialization is that you get to focus on training yourself and growing in one particular skill or a small set of similar skills. This results with you delivering quality service in your field of expertise. Surely, it cannot be said that all jacks-of-all trades do not have mastery of any of the skills they possess and can offer only a service of average quality; specialized VAs simply have more time in their hands to develop themselves and be able to bring quality service with things they do best.
- You help increase your client\’s productivity. Of course, your client ends up benefitting from your specialization. Those who will hire you are no more than those who are looking for the skills that you are a master in. You can bring in more productivity to their business than any versatile VA.
