How to Become a Virtual Assistant: A Beginner’s Guide

This beginner’s guide will help you comprehend the virtual assistant industry and how they operate if you are thinking about becoming one but are unsure of where to begin.

Learning how to work as a virtual assistant has never been more advantageous. Starting this career, which offers unrestricted financial potential, scalability, and time flexibility, involves just seven actionable steps: 

Step 1: List your qualifications and the services you’ll be providing.

Step 2: Set your pricing structure in place.

Step 3: Get any tools you might require.

Step 4: Create a presence online.

Step 5: Search for VA jobs

Step 6: Make connections and grow your network.

Step 7: Develop your personal brand.

In this article, we’ll go over each of these steps in more detail, as well as other factors to take into account when locating and obtaining your first client in the field of virtual assistance. 

What is a virtual assistant?

The term “virtual assistant,” or “VA,” refers to a person who works to support small business owners on administrative, technical, and occasionally sales or marketing tasks. This person is typically self-employed. 

Since everything you do is “virtual,” you can work from any location with an adequate internet connection because all of your tasks can be completed online.

Additionally, virtual assistants appreciate the flexibility and independence of remote work, which frequently presents opportunities for entry-level workers.

Do Virtual Assistants Need Special Skills or Training?

Most people mistakenly believe that being a VA necessitates having a lengthy professional background in the industry or that helping a client’s business thrive and survive requires having a college degree.

Basic computer, organizational, and communication skills are needed for the typical operational duties of most businesses. So, for instance, offering administrative support or working as a virtual executive assistant doesn’t call for any specialized knowledge or training.

You can enroll in an online course in digital marketing if you need to gain knowledge for certain tasks, such as marketing. Similarly, other disciplines like sales, project management, and business strategy apply.

What does a virtual assistant do?

To put it simply, you will be asked to perform office and administrative-type duties from a distance as a virtual assistant, typically for small business owners. The most typical duties of a VA are:

Administrative Support

• the personal assistant of business owners
• scheduling calls and appointments
• Organizing a client’s calendar and schedule
• voicemail monitoring
• creating a travel itinerary
• producing reports and PDF documents
• composing emails, internal correspondence
• creating PowerPoint presentations
• File management (using services like DropBox, Google Drive, etc.)
• creating spreadsheets and entering data

Communication Support

• Customer service
• Examine, respond to, and arrange email.
• answering phone calls from customers and processing orders
• assisting customers in resolving problems
• Transcribe what is said by listening to recordings of meetings.
• sending customers emails about sales promotions
• Chasing payments
• keeping track of shipments and providing updates.

Social Media Management Tasks

• create content for social media platforms like Facebook and Instagram, and post it there.
• maintaining profiles and running social media accounts
• keeping the conversation going by responding to comments
• developing and launching social media advertising campaigns
• using social media to connect with new potential customers
• keeping up with the guidelines for promotions on each platform
• Search engine optimization techniques to boost interaction 

Is there a demand for virtual assistants?

Companies and small businesses that require assistance but don’t want to hire full-time employees in a specific location are heavily utilizing virtual assistants thanks to the availability of high-speed internet, document cloud sharing, and affordable conference calling systems.

Not only do small businesses recognize the advantages of using virtual assistants, but many professionals do as well, including writers who want to concentrate on writing but lack the time to market their work. 

This also applies to influencers who concentrate on their most crucial tasks and delegate the rest to virtual assistants. Influencers may, for instance, hire a virtual personal assistant to assist them with scheduling meetings, making travel arrangements, and running social media accounts.

Freelancers and business owners are aware that hiring someone to support their operations remotely gives them more flexibility and the ability to scale up or down as needed.

It makes sense to outsource tasks to a VA when there are simply not enough hours in the day to complete everything. As a result, they have more time to work on tasks and projects that only they can finish.

Additionally, hiring a VA is much less expensive than hiring an office employee. This results in cost savings for the client on things like office supplies, health insurance, and other employee benefits programs.

The demand for virtual assistants is increasing and is expected to do so in the future. Virtual assistants will become more and more necessary, and their skill sets will grow exponentially.

Virtual Assistant Jobs Currently in High Demand

This list only scratches the surface of the most popular business sectors and in-demand online tasks that VA can provide. 

• Customer Support
• Administrative Support
• Social Media Management
• Website Management
• Telemarketing
• Email Marketing
• Transcribing
• Bookkeeping, 
• Data Entry 
• Search Engine Optimization (SEO),
• Creating Ad Campaigns, 
• Digital Marketing, 
• Inventory Management, 
• Business Research
• Executive Assistance

How much does a virtual assistant make?

The answer to the question “How much does a virtual assistant make per month?” is that it greatly depends on your level of experience and the nature of your client.

Building a steady clientele and specializing in niche services will help virtual assistants increase their earnings and earning potential.

The following table displays the monthly salary range for virtual assistants from the top 10 countries that offer VA services. Source: Glassdoor.com

The 7 Steps to How to Become a Virtual Assistant

In order to get started, follow these steps if you’re interested in starting a career or a side hustle as a virtual assistant:

Be inventive when choosing the services you want to provide and the virtual assistant skills you want to highlight. Consider the ways in which you can add value to your clients by utilizing your special skills and experience. Make a note of the things you can and cannot do. It will assist you in avoiding undertaking a task where your chances of success are low.

Make a decision regarding your target market and the kinds of clients you want to work with. Consider whether the work they do interests you or whether the sector is one you are familiar with. You must also outline how you can assist them and why they should choose you over another VA. This step is crucial because it will aid in the creation of your marketing strategy later on.

Although some virtual assistant jobs may seem straightforward, like providing basic customer service, keep in mind that you must be comfortable using the internet, managing email inboxes, and using cloud-based communication tools like file sharing, password managers, and teleconferencing. Another crucial skill is the ability to create documents, files, and spreadsheets.

When you provide services as a virtual assistant, you should always make sure that you have a clear pricing structure in place. It is important to determine your pricing structure before you start working with potential clients. This way, you are able to set what type of services you are able to provide and what services your potential client will be able to afford. 

The most common pricing structure that virtual assistants use is hourly, daily, or weekly rates. When you set your rate, you have to consider both the cost of your time and the value of your services. It is important to provide your services at a value that is worth the cost.

If you are a VA who bills by the task, you must think about how long it will take you to finish a particular task. With that in mind, you can set your rate depending on the task.

If you’re just starting out, base your rates on what other virtual assistants in your area are charging. If there aren’t any in your area, base your fee structure on the hourly rates of other VA services. This is important because you should also determine what your minimum fee is.

Before you start your virtual assistant side hustle, you will need to get any tools you might require. Some of these tools may be things that you already have around the house. These include a laptop or desktop computer, and a headset. 

You will also need a landline and a printer, as well as a copier or scanner to complete any projects. Ideally, you should set up a dedicated workspace with a landline and a reliable internet connection.

Learn about productivity-enhancing software like Notion, Trello, Slack, Monday, and Google Workspace. You can organize your tasks, communicate with clients, and more with the aid of these programs. Many of these platforms offer a free version, and you can start with these to save on start-up costs.

In this digital age, having some kind of online presence legitimizes you as a professional and aids in connecting with potential clients. Starting out, you can build your online presence by making specialized social media profiles or repurposing ones that already exist to highlight your side gig as a virtual assistant.

It’s a good idea to have a website at some point in your online side hustle journey. It can be much simpler for people to start finding you if you have a website and active social media accounts.  A website can be made for free using various tools, and LinkedIn and Facebook should be included in your social media accounts.

If you already have a website up and running, adding a straightforward Work With Me page outlining who you are, what you do, and who you do it for is an excellent way to give prospective customers who are interested in your services information.

There are other quick and easy ways to create an online presence. Online virtual assistant platforms are also available, which give you a standard portfolio and make it simpler for clients to review and understand what you can do.

You should start looking for a VA job as soon as possible because it might take some time. Finding your first virtual assistant job might be the biggest challenge, but once you have some experience under your belt, it will get easier and easier to get hired for more work.

In the beginning, you might have to take on small, low-paying jobs to gain experience and good reviews, but as your resume and clientele expand, you’ll be able to negotiate higher pay rates and land better contracts.

The 14 best websites for finding virtual assistant jobs are compiled in the list below. 

1. Fancyhands: This program focuses primarily on quick tasks that can be finished in 15 to 20 minutes. Although seasoned virtual assistants might not find this site useful, beginners can get a head start and gain experience here.
2. VANetworking.com: Regardless of your level of experience, this website is a one-stop shop for virtual assistants. It’s the ideal location for learning the ins and outs of being a virtual assistant and networking with employers and other VAs.
3. Belay: As one of the most well-known providers of virtual assistance, this company does demand that VAs have at least five years of prior experience (either traditional or virtual). They prefer applicants with a bachelor’s degree and some prior remote work experience, but they may make an exception if the right person applies. If you’re looking to move from an office to a virtual role, Belay is another excellent website. 
4. Time Etc.: This company only employs people with at least five years of work experience, but it can be ideal for those with in-office administrative experience who want to make the switch to a virtual position for the first time. The starting pay is $11, but you can later bargain for higher pay.
5. Vicky Virtual: Vicky Virtual focuses primarily on phone work, including answering the phone, helping callers, scheduling appointments, and carrying out simple administrative duties. Beginners will find it ideal because the starting rate is $10/hr.
6. Upwork: Upwork, one of the biggest online freelance marketplaces, offers virtual assistant positions for people of all experience levels. You must bid on job proposals in order to find work, and Upwork will deduct 10% of your earnings. 
7. Zirtual.com: This virtual assistant provider takes care of client acquisition for you, saving you time and effort. While you won’t need to handle the business’s administration of your VA side hustle, you won’t be able to set your own pay rates and will instead be subject to Zirtual’s standard pay rates.
8. 99 Dollar Social: This website specializes in virtual assistants for social media and promises daily high-quality social media posts to its customers. You would be employed directly by 99 Dollar Social and would receive a monthly flat rate for each account. Your earnings will increase as you take on more accounts.
9. oDesk: Another job board that requires you to bid on proposals and may occasionally result in lower pay rates is oDesk. However, this site is ideal for simple jobs that will quickly build your portfolio if you’re a novice with little to no experience.
10. Freelancer.com serves as a freelance marketplace for all kinds of businesses. There are a number of ways to find virtual assistant jobs on this site, but it focuses on tasks that require specialized knowledge, such as an in-depth understanding of 3D modeling or extensive teaching experience.
11. LinkedIn: Traditional roles are still the main focus of LinkedIn Jobs, but that doesn’t mean you can’t find high-caliber positions as virtual assistants. Remember that it is the most popular networking tool in the world as well. If you think someone on LinkedIn could use a virtual assistant, get in touch with them.
12. ZipRecruiter: Over the past few years, ZipRecruiter has developed into a potent tool for employers. Employers can easily find candidates who best meet their requirements quickly thanks to their matching technology. You have a ton of options because there are dozens of virtual assistant jobs posted on the website every day.
13. Indeed: Although Indeed is primarily geared toward traditional office jobs, it is constantly posting more remote and virtual positions. Nevertheless, be sure to include remote or virtual-related keywords in your search.
14. Onlinejobs.ph: If you are a Filipino, you should sign up on this website. This platform is distinct because it only showcases the abilities of Filipino remote workers. John Jonas founded Onlinejobs.ph in 2008, and it has since grown to be the main online marketplace for hiring Filipino virtual assistants or other specialized talents.

While you’ll probably start out as a virtual assistant earning $8 to $15 per hour, more experienced workers can make up to $100 per hour. Give it some time, work hard, and you’ll soon have a successful virtual assistant business of your own.

Asking for feedback from your clients and developing a portfolio of client testimonials and examples of your work are important as you continue to land jobs.

By showcasing your virtual assistant skills in this portfolio, you’ll probably be able to attract more clients and better-paying jobs. 

To keep a client for the long term, make yourself an invaluable part of their small business by providing as much value as possible in every piece of work you do for them. 

You must rely on pitching your virtual assistant skills until your business expands to the point where referrals start coming in regularly. This is particularly true if you’re just starting out. 

You can stay current on events and the newest job openings in your industry by participating in a variety of VA groups and networks.

You will have direct access to other virtual assistants so you can exchange ideas and experiences with them. You might be able to determine which marketing strategy is best for you by looking at how others market themselves and approach their profession.

Tell your family and friends that you’re going to start working as a VA as a side hustle. The next project or contract could come from anyone; you never know.

It is crucial to have a personal brand in today’s world. Your unique selling proposition (USP) may serve as your identity. Your career and a side hustle can both expand as a result of developing your personal brand. 

Virtual assistants are not an exception to the rule when it comes to the importance of having a personal brand. Since this will be how people will initially perceive you, it is critical to establish the ideal tone for your personal brand.

As a virtual assistant, you have the chance to establish your reputation in the field and grow your personal brand as you take more jobs from different clients. Your uniqueness will help you stand out from other assistants and will enable you to command a higher salary.

By leveraging and enhancing your strengths in specific areas, you can also develop your personal brand. Consider specializing in other skills that are in demand. Possible areas of specialization include email marketing, digital marketing, SEO, and website design.

The Bottom Line

We know that starting a business can seem overwhelming, and making the decision to dive in can be difficult. Don’t let your fear of the unknown hold you back from starting.

Regardless of prior experience or education, anyone who wants to work from home has the option of becoming a VA. You only need your skills, a computer or smartphone, and an internet connection to get started.

The majority of people can start a virtual assistant business on the side because there aren’t many startup expenses. It’s the quickest way I know of to enter the gig economy and open doors to opportunities you might not even be able to imagine at the moment.

Even though it may be challenging to find your first client, you’ll discover that there are plenty of opportunities to work from home as a virtual assistant if you do some careful planning and develop a distinctive personal brand and network.

The most crucial thing is to begin and to keep moving forward, regardless of where you are starting from.