Virtual Assistant Business Plan – Company Description

The company description should give yourself and any other potential reader clarity about who you are and what you have to offer. It should provide the information on how the different aspects of your business fit together.

Details that you can include in the company description are the following:

Mission Statement

A good mission statement accurately explains why your business exists and what you hope to achieve with it. It describes your purpose – your reason for being.

Before writing a mission statement, ask yourself the following questions:

What is the purpose of your VA business?
Why did you start it in the first place?
What are the needs of your clients that you will address?
How will you address these needs?
What are the values / beliefs that will guide your work?

The answers to these questions will give you a pretty good idea how to formulate your statement.

Write an initial draft of not more that ± 30-50 words. Use this draft as a starting point to refine and finalise your mission.

Take some time to clearly think about each aspect and ensure that your final mission statement includes the answers to all 4 questions.

Tip: Use your mission statement as a measuring instrument. You can measure each and every action you take against it to evaluate if the action fits into the overall picture of you VA business.

This will focus your time and energy on the essential activities of running your business.

Goals

Include your goals in your business plan and specifically in the company description.

Setting your goals is more than just quickly scribbling down a few ideas on a piece of paper. To be of any value, your goals need to be SMART: Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Realistic and Timely.

Click here to learn more about how to set SMART goals for your VA business

It is good to set goals with different timelines (short-, medium- and long term) for all the aspects of your business such as marketing, administration, financial, personal etc.

Short term goals are those that you want to reach within the next few weeks or months. Medium term goals are typically ranging from 6 months to a few years and long term goals are those that you want to reach within 2 – 5 years time.

Remember, that a goal should be something that you really want, not just something that sounds good. It should be high enough to give you the momentum to work that little bit harder, but it should not be too steep that it is out of your reach.

Tip: State your goals in a positive manner. Then try to repeat them on a regular basis, preferably daily. Repetition of your goals helps both your conscious and subconscious mind on working towards the goal.

Company Strengths

As a virtual assistant, you are your company!

You own it, you are the strength of your company and you are responsible for its success.

In this section you can list the following:

Your education, previous experience and skills.
Your strengths and core competencies
What factors do you think will make your business succeed?
What do you think your competitive advantages and/or disadvantages will be?

The information to the above can typically be derived from doing a SWOT (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats) analyses.

Services Offered

Your services and the way you perform it, are the heart of your VA business.

The following information needs to be included in this section:

A detailed description of your services.
Include a list of possible new services that you will be able to perform in future.
Hours of operation. Will you be able to provide your service full-time or part time? How many hours per week will you be able to work?
Rates per service.

Tip: Do not just state your services in a list format, but try to include information about the specific benefits that each service will offer your client. E.g. you can state your ability to meet your client’s needs and any advantage that your service has over that of your competition.

Equipment

Give a list of all the equipment that is necessary to deliver your service.

Include equipment that you already have as well as those that you need to purchase.

Business Legal Structure

One of the more important decisions to make when starting your own VA business is to choose the business legal structure e.g

Sole Proprietorship
Partnership
Corporation
Limited Liability Company

Tip: It is important to understand all the options available before making your choice. Evaluate the advantages and disadvantages of each and pay special attention to the tax implications. Your choice will depend on your business’s specific needs.