I’ll be honest. When I started my virtual assistance business, Mann Made Time, I was worried about the hundreds of other VAs I would be in competition with. If you’re a ‘newbie’ virtual assistant, you might also feel these pangs of worry about all of the other freelance administrative professionals that are more established than you are. You might be worried about your competition. I think it’s only natural for a business owner to worry about their competitors. But…the VA industry is different than any other I know of. I don’t see my fellow VAs as competitors anymore. Not really.

Because our industry is relatively new, we must all work together to educate the world about what we do - the services we provide. If you are a new VA, you might find it strange how other VAs are so willing to help you out when you need advice. At all of our networking forums, you have VAs offering marketing advice. In how many other industries can you find business owners in direct competition with each other offering marketing tips? We mention each other in blogs, leading our potential clients right to other VAs sites. We help each other with press releases and other marketing pieces.

Why? I believe it’s because successful VAs know that there are more than enough clients to go around. Most of us are working hard to promote our industry, and the more great VAs in the world spreading the word about what they do, the more people will learn about us.

I live in Canada’s smallest province, and when I started my business, I was the only VA here. Now I know of three others. When I first heard that there was another local VA, I didn’t think about how that could hurt my business. I thought about how it could, in fact, help my business. One more soul to educate PEI and the world about virtual assistance.

Revolutionary VAs don’t see other VAs as a threat, they try to learn from them and think of ways we can all work together to bring virtual assistance mainstream.