Improve Your Business by Checking Out Your Competitors

Make your business even better by looking at what your competition is doing. Learn what new services you can offer, look for areas of improvement, and explore your pricing. 

While keeping up with the Jones in the real world may not always be a wise choice, keeping up with your competition as a virtual assistant is. It’s even better, though, when you can find ways to stand out from your competition. One of the best ways to begin that process is by exploring competitor websites. This will help you improve your own business in all the ways below and more.
Learn New Services to Offer
As a virtual assistant, you’re essentially a “Girl Friday” for your clients. You’re the person they turn to to get all kinds of things done. The more skills and talents you have to offer, the more in demand you will be. That’s why it’s important to check out your competition and see how your service offerings compare.
Look for Areas in Need of Improvement
You should also be able to determine which skills seem to be in higher demand according to prominence or placement on your competitor's site. Do these high-demand areas represent weaknesses in your own offerings? Are they skills you could stand to brush up on or improve? You should become a perpetual student as a VA – always expanding your knowledge and skill base in order to offer your clients more valuable services. It will improve your demand and allow you to command a more lucrative fee for your services.
Explore Pricing and Structure
It’s important to make apples to apples comparisons when checking out your competition. You’re looking for people with similar skills who are going after a similar slice of the market. This will help you determine if you’re price is within the average range or a little on the low or high side of the market.
This is not all about your fee for services, but also about learning what kind of pricing structure your competitors are using. Do they have different prices for each service? Do they charge an hourly rate? How do they determine their rates and how does your system stack up?
Explore Differences in Services Offered
It’s important to know if you offer services your competition does not so you can look for ways to capitalize on the differences. You want to stand out as someone who has more to offer. Pointing out your unique skills and talents is an important way to make yourself more appealing to people in need of a full-service VA.
Do Your Competitors Specialize?
Are your competitors specializing in one field? If so, could you benefit by expanding your offerings to multiple fields? If not, should you consider offering specialty services in a field you have a wide range of experience working within, such as banking, bookkeeping, real estate, legal services, medical services, etc.? Will that make you more valuable as a virtual assistant?
The key when exploring the websites of other virtual assistants is to find ways to be the more attractive option for potential clients. Keep that in mind above all else when checking out the competition.

Written by Stephanie Watson
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With more than 20 years experience working from home in a variety of roles such as HTML Website Designer, Internet Marketer, Template Bender and Virtual Assistant, today Stephanie is an author and content strategist who organizes, plans, writes and implements content strategies for business owners through her business Barry Publishing.