Virtual Assistant Jobs: How to Become a Virtual Assistant
Virtual Assistant Jobs: How to Become a Virtual Assistant
Today, many corporate jobs are solely online and you can tap into any of the opportunities generated to create a successful home business.
One such opportunity is becoming a Virtual Assistant. With the right determination, drive and knowledge, you can get started with virtual assistance and build a successful career.
So, what does it take to build a career in virtual assistance? What skills do I need to become an earning virtual assistant?
This post will provide the answers to these questions about virtual assistant jobs that you can do from home.
What is a Virtual Assistant?
A Virtual Assistant (VA) is anyone who offers assistance and various services to businesses in exchange for a pre-agreed fee. A virtual assistant works as an independent contractor and has the freedom like anyone else in self-employment.
Virtual assistance services are offered online, meaning that you can work for brands globally from the comfort of your home.
A typical business would hire a virtual assistant to offset some duties and thus get time to handle crucial matters aimed to accelerate growth.
The roles of a Virtual Assistant:
What you do as a virtual assistant depends on what you’ve mastered and have experience in. you can decide to work for a particular niche, say real estate and offer services tailored to that niche or be an all-around virtual assistant offering most business-related services.
There’s a common belief that virtual assistants exclusively handle office work. This is not true as virtual assistants handle anything that’s business-related, including marketing and accounting.
Services to offer as a Virtual Assistant:
As mentioned above, there’re vast services you can offer to businesses as a virtual assistant. Below are ideas of the services you can focus on as a virtual assistant:
Market research:
Market research forms the basis of any business’s growth and success, so there’ll be constant demand for VA’s offering this service. Your main task here will be to gather data from other corporate websites to aid in understanding the existing and future market.
Data presentation:
After market research, you can go ahead to compile the findings into a presentation. This can make work easier for your clients if they’re planning to discuss the findings in a meeting.
Bookkeeping:
Can you handle tasks such as recording bill, receipts and invoices? Why not help small businesses always searching for these services? You don’t need high-end accounting skills, but if this is your area of specialty, you can be of much help even to bigger entities.
Social media management:
Social media is undoubtedly a very crucial tool for any business looking to expose its brand to potential investors, customers and clients. Social media management tasks you can handle as a VA include posting and responding to the brand’s followers.
Website management:
No business can survive today without a website- it’s the easiest online platform to run all the business matters. As a VA, you can publish information, monitor links, respond to comments and offer general website management services.
Video editing:
Due to the great results video marketing offers, businesses are always searching for video editing services. You can do video editing as a complimentary service or standalone service.
Managing emails:
Managing mail is a simple task, but it’s not a wonder to find business owners who’ve no time to handle it. You can help these businesses filter and respond to crucial emails.
Administrative services:
This is typically any task that entrepreneurs/business owners have no time handling. It can be anything from data entry to making travel arrangements and calendar management.
Customer service:
Many businesses want to improve their customer experience but have no time to devote to them. You can dive in as a virtual assistant and help such businesses handle customer-related tasks.
How to become a Virtual Assistant:
1. Determine what services you’ll offer
Understand what skills you have or what you’re good at, then choose services that match this. Don’t engage in something you’re completely new to, as you may not offer results that are good enough to gain the trust of clients when starting out.
2. Create a virtual assistant themed website
Design or get help design a website that’s relevant to your VA job. The website should contain all the information your clients need to know about you and the virtual assistant job you’re creating.
3. Source for potential clients
On knowing what industry or niche you want to focus on, the biggest task remains to find clients to work for. If you’re completely new to the VA arena, here are three strategies that can help you get started finding potential virtual assistant clients:
Freelancer websites:
As you start out, you can search for jobs from well-known freelancer sites such as Upwork. Here, you’ll get exposure and experience in the services you offer and it’ll be easy to find clients once you’ve refined your skills for certain task(s).
Social media:
Use your social media accounts to inform people that you offer VA services. As you start networking, focus on building credibility, then move to market your services.
Reach out to clients via email:
One of the most effective strategies to find business owners who need VA services is through mail. Craft emails that explain the kind of services you offer, your address and contact information, then send them to random business emails. Don’t forget to make them brief and friendly.
Evaluate what you’ll charge for the services you offer:
The average pay rate of a virtual assistant is £11 per hour (a pretty nice pay for a remote job), but this can vary depending on the services you offer. Here are some virtual assistant services and the average pay you should get per hour:
- Website management- £14 – £28
- Social media management- £10 – £28
- Build landing pages – £28 – £43
- Proofread blog posts- £10 – £18
- Create an editorial calendar- £21 – £35
Get professional virtual assistance training:
If you feel like you need some basics when starting out as a VA, you can always take professional training. It’s advisable to take an online course to get used to the digital space as early as you get started.
Grow credibility and build your virtual assistant business:
Once you’ve worked for your first few clients, you can ask them to leave reviews or testimonials of the experience they had working with you.
Good reviews will help build your business’s credibility and attract even more clients.
