Working as a Virtual Assistant is the most realistic way to make good money from home and online. There are several areas that you can start working as a Virtual Assistant with no experience such as real estate, wedding events, sales and marketing, social media, financial, graphics design, and many more.
In this article, we will walk through How to Become a Virtual Assistant with No experience, Virtual Assistant skills requirement, where to find your client, where to find Virtual Assistant jobs.
In addition, we will talk about how to scale your Virtual Assistant business to make money on the side or work full time as a Virtual Assistant.
What is a Virtual Assistant and What Do They Do?
A virtual assistant is an independent contractor where you will be providing administrative and technical services to small business owners. You will be working from remote and can work any part of the world since all the work is done online.
Many small business owners need some work to outsource but they cannot afford hiring companies due to high cost. So, they hire virtual assistants for those works and they can focus on their company’s growth.
Virtual assistants provide cost-effective solutions to completing daily and routine tasks and freeing up business owners’ time for larger-scale projects.
There are literally hundreds of services that you can offer as a virtual assistant but some of the most common ones are answering customer service calls, emails, posting on social media for the business, writing or blogging, invoicing, calendar management, research and appointment setting etc.
A virtual assistant who can…
Provide Customer Service… Market On Blogs & Social Networks… Conduct Research … Maintain Databases… Arrange Travel… Prepare Transcriptions… Send Invoices… Coordinate Projects & Staffing… Update Bookkeeping… Handle Your Calendar… Schedule Your Appointments… Complete Routine Paperwork… Manage Voice Mail… etc.
What skills do you need to become a Virtual Assistant?
To Become a Virtual Assistant, you don’t need any kind of degree or certification. You just simply need to develop some skills which you possess already and have enough experience to do it for multiple clients.
But for ease please check the below skills which mostly required for becoming a virtual assistant.
- English Language
- Communication and Interpersonal skills as you will be interacting with international client.
- Organizational skills
- Good knowledge and understanding of internet
- Ms Office ( Word, Excel, Power point etc.)
There are two kinds of Virtual Assistant skills requirement. One is Technical (IT) and second Non-Technical (No-IT). Both types of jobs are available for virtual assistant. Check your background and start working according to your skills.
The rest skills you can learn while doing job and you can add it in your portfolio and resume. You can some user testing skills in your cv from Utest ( a company hire of application testing).
How much can you earn working as a Virtual Assistant?
You will find over the internet that a Virtual Assistant can earn between $10 to $20 per hour. But, like other jobs Virtual Assistant pay scale varies and depends on several factors such as:
- Type of work ( IT or Non IT)
- Experience Level if any
- Hours worked per week
Experience and highly technical skills virtual assistant are get paid more may be $50 per hour.
But you can still earn between $10 to $20 per hour being working as a virtual assistant with no experience. Once you grow your skill and client base you can increase your rates.
Based on the ZipRecruiter pay scale for virtual assistant, the average yearly salary for virtual assistants is $60,000 per year.
How to Become a Virtual Assistant with No Experience
Now you have learned about the work profile of virtual assistant what they do, skill’s requirement, and salary. If you are ready to start working yourself in this role, here are some steps for you to follow to become a Virtual Assistant with No Experience.
First check out what is your skills and interest which you can you offer yourself being a Virtual Assistant to client. Check complete list of skills which you can offer to business owner. Here are the basic steps you’ll need to follow:
- Research Necessary Skills
- Decide which VA services you’ll offer your clients
- Set Your VA Services Rates
- Create your online presence
- Plan and Create Your Marketing Strategy
- Network or Networking
- Take a Virtual Assistant Training Course (Optional)
1. Research Necessary Skills
Once you have decided to start working as a Virtual Assistant, you have to make a list of the different skills that you know. If don’t know you will probably require a little bit of research.
You might even need to find some people who are currently doing the same type of work that you want to do or running the type of business that you want to run in the future.
You will find out from them exactly what skills were really necessary in order for them to get to where they’re at now. The next thing that you are going to need to do is figure out how to actually get those skills.
This will require a little bit of research on your end to find the best way to acquire those skills. Sometimes you might require taking an online course to get them or take a class at your local community college or you might need to hire a mentor or someone to train you.
If you feel comfortable in learning by himself, then just get in and start practicing, and this will get your feet wet and start building those skills yourself.
2. Decide Which Virtual Assistant Services You’ll Offer Your Clients
The very first thing that you need to do is figure out which skills and work that you want to pursue and offer to the client.
Just pick the one that really stands out to you and that sounds interesting, enjoyable and the best fit for your long-term goals. If you need some ideas about, read How to start working only.
This is the first step and you just need to decide and not to worry about if you don’t have the skill and experience.
Once you decide what opportunity you want to pursue then you will need to figure out what skills you need in order to be able to successfully take advantage of that opportunity.
Here’s what we recommend:
- Take a look at the list of services that I mentioned at the beginning of this post.
- Pick 2-3 ideas that you feel you’d like to begin with and then….
3. Set Your Rates of Services
Now you are fully occupied with your role which you are going to offer into the VA industry according to your skills. Setting up your rates or charge of service is probably a very difficult part of establishing your VA Career or business.
While deciding the rates you should be fair and competitive, but make sure that you are making profit.
In my opinion, if you are starting your Virtual Assistant career or business set a minimum rate in comparison to your competitor or even you can offer a sample work for them for a couple of days or weeks. This will build confidence level with your client and he will pay you more than your expectation.
Still you think about rates of your service, do some research into what other VAs are charging for similar services. Check Facebook groups google search and rate chart and fix your price. Consider your skill and experience level when setting your rates.
There are four main pricing categories for Virtual Assistant Rates as follows:
- Hourly: You get paid for the amount of time you work for you client in hour.
- Project-Based: It is different from Hourly. Here client will pay flat fee for a one-time project such as setting up social media accounts, designing a website, etc.
- Package of Hours: Depending on your contract, client pays for a certain number of hours to use over time. It can expire after a set amount of time such as 6 months or a year.
- Retainer: Client pays an ongoing monthly rate for a specific set of tasks number of hours.
4. Build your online presence (Create Your Online Portfolio)
Online presence is the key to start working as Virtual Assistant, as you will be providing your services online. You online presence will assure your client that you are good at this stuff. Your visibility over the internet will grab attention of clients also.
Start some SAMPLE examples work and through the process of creating these examples work, you will be getting experience and practice. After that you’ll also have something that you can publicly show for it.
The other thing that you can do here is started to do some free work for clients so that you have more to add to your portfolio. Once you have the experience and skills and now you need to start working on attracting clients or customers.
Now you’ll need a website or perhaps even a blog to telling your services to potential clients and let them know about your services. I can assist you here personal to setting up a blog. Contac Us.
By which you can start actually making money and grow your experience even further.
5. Create and Plan Your Marketing Strategy
Now you are ready for Virtual Assistant career or busines, and you time is for marketing yourself. This is best and most effective way to find clients. I have seen many people struggle with advertising themselves.
If you don’t know, how to be marketing yourself? Start trying with the following strategies to marketing yourself:
- Social Media – if you already have social media accounts, you can use those to share your services or announce to your friends, family, and professional network that you’ve started working as Virtual Assistant.
- Join Virtual Assistance Groups – There are many groups available on facebook for Virtual Assistance jobs. Join these groups.
- Bid on Public Jobs – Check site like upwork, Fiverr or freelancer and find people who have publicly posted looking for VA.You can help them by giving your bid proposal. If you win the bid then you will get the opportunity to do that work.
- Website or Blog – if you already have a blog or website which represent you VA Skills and business share this to small business owner through email. Apply here for virtual assistant jobs.
- Facebook ads or blog posts – Use Facebook ads or blog posts to market to online business owners. Flyers and business cards are great for advertising with potential local and offline clients.
6. Network or Networking
Once you done with the above 5 steps, now the time to connect with other Virtual Assistant to get tips, ideas, and leads for finding clients, jobs and new business.
Connect yourself with other Vas in online forums on Facebook, LinkedIn, or online free courses forum. Join online conferences and summits are another cost-effective way to network with prospective clients.
7. Take a Virtual Assistant Training Course (Optional)
If you still struggling to become a Virtual Assistant with no experience you may join Virtual Assistant Training Course. These courses are curated for quick start up guide for beginners.
Kayla Sloan is an expert virtual assistant and she has started VA business in 2014. Kayla teaches aspiring virtual assistants how to start their own VA business and land their first paying clients in her best-selling course 10K VA.
Virtual Assistant Services which are in demand
You have to decide as a Virtual Assistant that what kind of services you can offer. Tasks for a VA are limitless. Offers the services, in my opinion, only which you enjoy doing and do not offer which you do not know.
Think about how you can use your unique skills and experiences to provide value for your clients.
Here’s a list of popular services that virtual assistants are offering, and people pay for:
Customer Support
Customers are the keys of success of business. If a company provide customer support to consumers, these happy customers will be there brand promoter. Customer support works
- Handling customer inquiries
- Supporting customers in real-time (e.g., Live Chat)
- Processing orders
- Managing shipments
- Chasing payments
- Keeping records up to date
Small business owners outsource the customer related task to detail oriented through virtual assistant as they don’t have the time to provide this kind of one on one service.
Social Media Management
Small business owners are taking their business over the Social Media also and they required VA to promote their product on social media. Social Media jobs that are very demandable.
It is very demanded as this a specialized service. Being a Social Media Management VA, you will be performing the below activities for their business owners.
- Create / Manage Facebook Pages / Groups
- Posting and Scheduling Facebook Recording & Interpreting Insights
- Promoting Facebook Pages
- Create / Manage a Twitter Account
- Increasing Your Twitter Following
- Schedule Tweets
- Track Mentions and Hashtags
- Create / Manage LinkedIn Profile
- Create Pinnable Images on Pinterest
- Scheduling and Tracking Pins
- Create / Manage Instagram Account
- Post Images and Videos on Instagram
- Track Hashtags and Insights
- Create / Manage YouTube Account
- Upload Videos on YouTube
- Moderating Comments
- Answer Inquiries / Messages
Administrative
Being a Virtual Assistant with no experience start offering administrative support services to clients. This is good point of entry. Working as a administrative support VA you will be doing some of the easiest task. Virtual assistant duties in this category might include
- Basic Bookkeeping
- Sending Client Invoices
- Database Building / CRM
- Customer Service Emails
- Send Cards, Thank You, etc.
- Travel Arrangement and Planning
- Transcribe Video and Audio Files
- Preparing Online Meeting Minutes
- Creating Forms or Reports
- Document Template Creation
- Online Research
- Blog Publishing Management
- Creating Operating Procedures & Training Materials
Email Marketing
Email marketing plays a major role in advertising product like social media. Therefore, business owners look for the Email Marketing specialized knowledge VA.
Category of this VA pay rates are high. So, learning this skill is a way to stand out and earn more money. Activities include the following for email marketing.
- Email marketing software knowledge.
- Creating a New List in Software
- Adding / Removing Subscribers
- Creating and Scheduling Broadcast
- Creating and Scheduling Sequences
- Editing Follow-up Emails
- Setting Up Auto-Responders
- Creating Email Newsletters
- Editing / Proofreading Emails
Email Management
Many business owners don’t have time to check emails. And they don’t like seeing thousands of unanswered emails in their inbox. Honestly, sometimes it gets too much, and I’m tempted to accidentally hit “archive all” – and pretend I never got them.
That is why people may hire a virtual assistant to help with it. Tasks under email management may include:
- Drafting replies (e.g., to common questions)
- Flagging important emails
- Unsubscribing from unwanted promotional activity
- Following up on important sent emails m
- Managing spam (e.g., creating junk mail filters)
- Archiving emails (not “archive all,” though)
Organization and Administration
Under this category a Virtual Assistant has to do the below tasks. I recommend this. The virtual assistant with no experience can do these task easily and satisfy the client.
- Calendar Management
- Appointment Scheduling
- Reminder Services
- Dropbox / Google Drive Organization
- Data Entry in Word, or Google Docs
- Creating / Managing Spreadsheets
- Preparing Powerpoint / Keynote
- PDF Conversion, Splitting and Merging
Websites or Blog
A specialized skills jobs which a virtual assistant with no experience can not handle it easily. Before applying for the services learn the Websites and blogging skills. Potential is very high. This service included the following tasks.
- Support and Develop WordPress
- Install WordPress PlugIns and Themes
- Creating New Pages
- Site Analysis
- Keyword Research for Blog Content
- Competitor Analysis
- Landing Page Set-up/Creation
- On-page Optimization For Posts / Pages
Design
As the word stat that you will providing service for design. A high demanded service which include the task as below.
- Basic Photoshop / Image Editing
- Designing Logos, Banners, Icons, eBooks, Headers
- Infographics Images Design
- Designing Websites, Creating Mock-Ups
- Designing Landing / Sales / Opt-In Pages
Content Writing
Another service that you could do as you’re working on building experience is to become a content creator. Tasks includes the below
- Content / Blog Post Creation
- Guest Blogging
- SEO Writing
- Press Release Writing
- Newsletter Writing
- Copywriting / Sales Copy
How to find virtual assistant jobs?
Job portal websites, social networks and connecting with other VA can you help you to finding Virtual Assistant jobs easily. Filter your search and apply. Here are few tried and tested methods for finding VA jobs to get in fast and quickly.
1. Belay Solutions
Belay Solutions a job portal website dedicated to VA jobs with a ton of listing and support. Recommended to signup if you are seriously looking for VA jobs. Belay often asks you have a degree and a few years of experience. You can also ask for support from them to improve your skills and jobs.
2. Fancy Hands
To start working immediately as a Virtual Assistant you must join Fancy Hands. Here online entrepreneur post their task and ask virtual assistant to complete it. The Fancy Hands team are always looking for virtual assistants (pay is in the $3-$7 per task range). Join Fancy Hands here.
3. Equivity
Among the VA job portal websites Equivity is a legitimate company who consistently hires virtual assistants for their clients. You will find highest paying positions or job in the industry. They require bachelor’s college degree to star with them.
4. Zirtual
Zitrual is only available for US resident. It offers virtual assistant, data entry, and other types of support services.
It is a privately held American company that provides virtual assistant services to professionals, entrepreneurs and small corporate teams.
Zirtual headquartered in Columbus, OH. They are always looking to hire virtual assistants. Join Zitural
5. Flexjobs
Flexjobs is a paid reputable job portal website. They update their website regulary.
You will find easily a virtual assistant job here and your search stop. I noticed more than 200 jobs listed over on the website. See the current Flexjob VA job listings.
6. Freelancer Websites
Freelance websites are good way if you’re new to working as a virtual assistant and don’t have much experience or training.
freelance websites like Upwork, Fiverr and People Per Hour are some freelancing sites where you will find the VA jobs easily.
Job on this freelancer websites are generally low paying. You can start by using this route as a beginner.
7. Social Media sites
Facebook is a great place if you look for freelance jobs. There are many Virtual Assistant groups you can join. Search for anything Virtual Assistant work-related, and you’ll probably be overwhelmed by the number of jobs and choices.
Join these groups, make sure you put in some time and effort into networking. Networking is a powerful tool. You would be surprised by the people who just started and getting tasks.
8. Reaching out to local businesses
Many local business owners might be searching for their day to day activities to be outsourced in minim cost. The reason might the business owner is not much skilled.
Try approaching local market in your area as per your skills and convince them to hire you. Small local business are big market for virtual assistant. . It’s a great way to practice your marketing skills, too.
Network with Other Virtual Assistants
Starting a job as a Virtual Assistants might take longer, but Connecting with other virtual assistants is a great way to find it.
You will get advice on pricing, services, and resources like training courses and conferences. You might find some job opportunities as well.
There could be possibility they come across any opportunities they can’t take for one reason or another. They will recommend you do it.
Summary
Hope that you learned and understand about Virtual Assistant how to Become a Virtual Assistant with No experience, Virtual Assistant skills requirement, where to find your client, where to find Virtual Assistant jobs. If you find it good let share it.
