Is the South African Market Ready for Virtual Assistants?

By Dee Matheson

Trawling the internet and making contact with experienced Virtual Assistants in South Africa has given me some insight as to what I would need and how to get my Virtual Assistant business started, but what no-one tells you is how challenging it can be to get the concept of a Virtual Assistant across to entrepreneurs, especially here in South Africa.

In the US and UK, as well as the Far East, this concept has been around for many years and widely accepted. But in South Africa, very few businesses are aware of this phenomenon and so far there has only been very limited exposure and most of that has been word of mouth. I take my hat off to veteran Virtual Assistants like Alison Fourie and Gaynor Paynter.  How they have managed to start off and keep going for 12 years, is astonishing.

I attended the local Chamber of Commerce networking session yesterday, and during my little promotional speech, I was gobsmacked to see the ‘aha’ moment that happened with some entrepreneurs. Unfortunately many business owners are still under the misconception that if they have work, they need to employ someone permanently in a job and these people need to work in their office.

Here is a challenge to all the Virtual Assistants that belong to this forum, get out there and tell people about this business and note the ‘aha’ moment. This entrepreneur might not need you, but you have now sold the idea to him/her and they could pass on this concept to others. The more we talk about it, the more popular it will become and everyone will be a winner.

I am doing my bit, are you?