There are a few certification courses that VA’s can take to increase their knowledge in the virtual assistant industry. However, there is much debate on whether or not a person should go for a certification with their business. Here are some advantages and disadvantages of VA certifications:
Advantages Credibility - Obtaining a certification through one of these courses can give you some credibility as a professional and help a potential client feel a little better about hiring you for their projects.
Broaden your knowledge - You can learn more about the Virtual assistant business to help you edge out your competition. You can learn some tips and tricks to provide the best and sometimes quickest services, possible for your clients.
Distinguishes you as a professional - A certification can take you to a professional level and gives you the opportunity to offer more money for your services to clients who will be more willing to pay for them.
Disadvantages Expensive - These courses can sometimes be quite expensive on your budget. A lot of VA’s forego the certification process as they are able to find decent paying work without spending the money for the course.
No guarantees - While a certification is quite helpful for some VA’s to find work, there is no guarantee that it will bring you the higher paying work you seek. You would need to decide if the money would be well spent for you.
Insignificant to some clients - There are some clients who aren’t interested in whether or not a VA holds a certification from these courses. They are more interested in whether or not you have either a specific certification in a field, such as accounting, or good standing experience in performing a certain task, like web design.
If you choose to take a certification course to increase your business, there are a few places you can look into. IAVOA or International Association of Virtual Office Assistant is one place you can look. Another one is VAU or Virtual Assistant U. These places offer good informative courses to get your business certified and give you the credibility you need to show you’re professionalism.
