Becoming a virtual assistant sounds great – working in the comfort of your own home and zero commutes! We’ve put together this short guide on how to become a virtual assistant and work from home so you can start earning ASAP.

 

How to find work as a virtual assistant; To start as a virtual assistant, you will need to get yourself in front of some potential employers. You can advertise your services on normal job sites or join specialist websites like Skillbox, which are designed to help freelance virtual assistants find work.

Photo by Austin Distel 

Looking to become a virtual assistant?

“If you want to become a successful virtual assistant and work from home, one of the most important things you’ll need to be good at is winning work”.

Once you've set up a profile, you'll need to make sure you stand out from the crowd of VA's looking for work. Trust us, there’s a lot of competition!

There are a number of ways you can do this, but we recommend the following:

A good reputation will help you gain more work. To begin with, you will not have any reviews on your profile, so we would suggest doing some work at a lower price in order to gain some good reviews. Clients looking to spend a lot will want to see evidence of a good reputation, so doing some cheaper jobs to start out can be an excellent way to gain well-paid jobs in the future.

Here are some useful tips to remain productive and win work: 

“Make sure it’s a temporary discount though”.

If you want to command good rates, earn more and become a virtual assistant full time, it’s better to limit yourself to a one-off deal such as "50% off for the first five clients" in order to gain the reputation you need without working for reduced rates long term.

If your prices are permanently low it can even give the impression that your services aren’t as good as other VAs and may even put buyers off.

Specialise in a particular industry; Some companies like to have a VA that has specialist experience in their industry because it usually means they don't have to help train or guide their new VA through industry-specific terminology and issues. Some virtual assistants will even have experience using specialist programmes or software that is only used in one particular industry.

“Specialising is a great way to attract new clients and command a higher rate of pay as your skills will be rarer than an average virtual assistant”.

Don’t have any specialist skills yet?

Don’t panic. You can also…

Do something bold on your profile! Being bold on your profile is another way you can gain more work, especially if you don't yet have any specialist skills to offer. If you look at your competing VAs profiles and find commonalities, especially in their bios, you can stand out by writing something more interesting, personal and bold.

Often people shy away from being themselves and write bland bios to avoid putting people off their work.

“Showing your true personality can help you win work instead of putting people off”.

Imagine you have to sift through 20 applications for the same job and you keep seeing the same type of beige, boring bio. You’re much more likely to remember the person who did something different, has a funny profile photo and writes like a human being (a touch of humour won’t hurt either!).

What should you charge as a Virtual Assistant? A virtual assistant’s normally charging between £20-£50 per hour, the average is £25 in the UK. The main factors you'll want to consider when setting your own rates are:

How hard are the skills needed for the job?

More highly skilled work, say bookkeeping, may require a higher rate than less skilled work, such as answering phone calls.

Don’t forget your hourly rate doesn’t come with the benefits of normal employment  – you don’t get holiday pay, job security and you need to pay your own taxes. A higher rate for freelancers is common to cover these risks.

How much demand is there for your skills?

If you have some niche skills and a lot of people looking for you to work for them, you may want to raise your rates.

How long have you been doing the job?

 If you haven’t been a virtual assistant for very long you may want to offer a lower introductory rate in order to gain good reviews for future work.

Want to find virtual assistant work now? You can sign up to Skillbox here and set up your profile to start finding work as a virtual assistant. Small businesses and big companies are looking for online help now – you only have to put yourself out there to find them!