Blogging+Career, Remote Jobs for Moms
Remote Jobs for Moms: Virtual Assistant
If you’re new here, let me tell you a bit about this series. The Remote Jobs for Moms series will feature remote jobs that are perfect for moms. Some will be employee-type jobs, while others will be more focused on self-employment, allowing you to build a business from home. Either way, these jobs can be just what you’re looking for if you want a work from home job.
This month’s remote job for moms is virtual assistant. As someone who’s done virtual assistant work in the past (and still does for a few clients), I’m going to explain how to become a virtual assistant. You’ll learn everything from the average virtual assistant salary to what kind of services virtual assistants provide to how to find virtual assistant training for little to no cost.
*Some of the links below are affiliate links. I’ll earn a commission from downloads/purchases made through these links at no extra cost to you.
Table of Contents
What is a virtual assistant?
A virtual assistant is a self-employed professional who provides services to clients. Clients can be individuals, organizations, or businesses. A virtual assistant works remotely, meaning that they do not need to work at a business location to serve clients.
What does a virtual assistant do?
A virtual assistant (VA) can work on different tasks for each client at any given time. Daily tasks can vary each day, depending on the needs of the VA’s clients. For example, a VA might manage social media accounts for one client but handle customer support tasks for another client. VAs literally do it all. Here are just some examples of virtual assistant services a VA can offer:
- Blogging, writing, or editing
- Social media management
- Lead generation
- Graphic design
- Team management
- Recruitment
- Call center tasks
- Email support and management
- Marketing
- Proposal writing
- Product management tasks
- Customer relationship management
- Podcast or video editing
- Notetaking
- Creating presentations
- Organizing files
- Website maintenance
- Photo editing
- Recipe creation and photography
- Researching
- Managing ads
- …and the list goes on!
One of the perks of being a VA is the opportunity to use the skills you have and enjoy using and varying them as client needs change. Although virtual assisting isn’t my main service, I am a blog manager and VA for a few clients. I enjoy the variety of tasks my VA work gives me to break free from my usual routine sometimes.
Gina Horkey (I’ll talk more about her in a bit) has a free resource bundle that lists 275+ services to offer as a virtual assistant. This is a great place to start if you’re unsure if you have the skillset to become a VA or want to learn how you can make it work with the skills you have.
What is a typical virtual assistant salary?
Virtual assistants make anywhere from $15,000 to upwards of $130,000 per year, according to ZipRecruiter. That’s obviously a huge gap between each end of the salary range. That’s because it’s difficult to appoint a specific salary to virtual assisting. You’ll be a business owner as a VA, so you’re technically in charge of how many clients you work with, how many hours you work, and what you charge. In other words, the sky is the limit in terms of pay.
Realistically, you can expect to earn anywhere from $20 to $150+ an hour as a virtual assistant. You might start at the lower end of the scale, but it’s possible to quickly move up into high-paying territory when you start getting quality clients.
How to become a virtual assistant from home
You came here to learn how to become a virtual assistant and work from home, so let’s get to it! Here’s everything you need to know about training, finding jobs, and building a client base.
Virtual assistant training
Although you don’t need specific training to become a virtual assistant, it certainly can’t hurt you to boost your skills or learn something new. Adding a new skill to your virtual assistant services can only help you appeal to more clients! You don’t need to spend a ton of money to expand your skillset, either. Consider taking some online courses for affordable prices through skill-building platforms, like:
Some awesome VAs give away super helpful resources to help beginners, too. I mentioned Gina Horkey’s free VA resource bundle above. Ava and the Bee also has a free VA toolkit. And I love this list of VA resources from Desire to Done. There are so many ways to learn what you need to know before starting your business.
Photo by Karolina Grabowska via Kaboompics
Where to find virtual assistant jobs
As a VA, you can search for jobs or build a business and form a base of your own clients. Some VAs prefer to start with finding jobs for a few reasons, including the following:
- A posted job means that someone is already looking for VA services, so you don’t need to waste time pitching to someone who’s not interested.
- Jobs can help you start earning faster.
- Pitching can be scary sometimes. You’re literally putting yourself out there hoping someone will want to work with you.
If you want to become a VA but you’re not ready to start pitching to find clients or you want to work as soon as possible, applying to already posted jobs might be for you. Here’s where you can find them:
I also wrote a post about where to find work at home jobs, which includes several sites that can help you find virtual assistant jobs.
How to find clients for your virtual assistant business
Once you’re ready to make the leap into finding your own clients to work with, your VA business can really take off. There are several ways you can go about doing this:
- Optimize your LinkedIn profile. Market yourself as a VA and help interested people find you.
- Create a website. Let it detail your services and give potential clients a way to contact you.
- Be active on social media. Follow other VAs, share helpful tips and resources, and follow businesses or individuals you’d be interested in working with.
- Pitch your services. Reach out on LinkedIn, social media, or via email to offer your help.
- Network with other VAs and freelancers. Get on their radar as someone who might be able to offer additional services to their clients that they don’t already offer.
- Get referrals. Once you expand your network, you might have other VAs or past clients refer work to you.
Jumpstart your VA business
When I first started learning about virtual assisting, I came across Gina Horkey. She’s a virtual assistant turned mentor for people beginning their virtual assistant and freelance writing careers. Her blog, Horkey Handbook, has so many excellent resources for anyone looking to start a business of their own. I soaked up a lot of information from her blog, giving me the confidence I needed to venture off and finally get my freelance writing business moving.
Through my network of freelancers, I found several virtual assistants who have bought Gina Horkey’s virtual assistant courses and loved every piece of information in them. I’ve seen people scale from no clients to so many clients that they’ve had to start waiting lists for prospects. That’s an awesome problem to have, right? Want to know how to get to that point? Sign up for a virtual assistant training course from Gina!
Virtual assistant courses
Gina has two different resources to help VAs. Jumpstart Your Virtual Assistant Business is a mini-course designed to introduce you to becoming a virtual assistant. You’ll learn what you need to get started and find out if virtual assisting is your cup of tea. Sign up for Jumpstart Your Virtual Assistant Business for only $19!
Gina’s other resource is her Fully-Booked VA System. This monthly or annual subscription program gives you access to so many goodies. The system includes Gina’s VA Foundations course, access to the exclusive community, skills courses, a program certification, live coaching, printable templates, and more. You’ll even get client leads that come straight to Gina to work with virtual assistants who have been certified through Horkey Handbook!
Sign up for Fully-Booked VA System now, and save 50% on an annual subscription! It’s all starting in January 2021, so it’s the perfect time to kick off your new career as a virtual assistant (or level up what you’ve already been doing).
Start your VA journey
Are you ready to begin your virtual assistant business? Awesome! I’m happy to answer any other questions you have, so be sure to leave a comment below. Also, if you’re already a VA, I’d love to know what’s working well for you to pick up clients and have a steady workflow.
Don’t forget to check out some other remote jobs for moms, like freelance writing and transcription. Many remote jobs are ones you can also tack onto your list of services as a VA!
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