FINDING A NICHE (part one)

One of the things I learned the first nine months of my business is that there were so many services I could offer as a virtual assistant that it made it difficult to zero in on one particular thing. When my networking group would ask what type of client(s) I was looking for my typical answer was "anybody". I was looking for "anybody" who didn't have enough time and needed the extra help, "anybody" who was afraid of the social networks, "anybody" who needed help organizing. My tag line is Bringing order to the chaos of YOUR world! I figured "anybody" could fit that--even parents who worked 40 hours a week and didn't know how they were going to prepare for their teen's graduation party. As time went on I learned that asking for "anybody" didn't help those who wanted to help me. Anybody essentially meant "nobody". It was hard for me to determine who "anybody" was myself. I was also overwhelmed with the vast majority of tasks I could handle. I generally am the "Jane of all trades" in administrative work. I wanted to narrow that list to those things I really excelled in and enjoyed. I began my quest for learning what my niche was. There's a lot of information to share with you so I will break this up in two or three posts so that you can think about each step: There are three things that you can do to determine your niche. The first is to write your story. This could be in letter form to a friend, a relative, or to no one in particular. It can be a testimonial of who you are, where you're from, what brought you to where you are, and where you see yourself in the next 5-10 years. List those times in your life that were turning points which helped you make your life's decisions. When you're done writing your story, check back with Virtually Speaking for the next step.