How to get started as a successful Virtual Assistant

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In May 2020, I made the leap from a career in office-based event management, into work-from-home life as a virtual assistant and freelancer.

I have valued the opportunity to work with different clients and projects, learn new tactics and skills along the way, plus have flexibility in where and when I do my work.

I’ve so far juggled a mix of digital event support (hello, Zoom conference calls!), social media management, content writing, video editing and podcast production – some of which were new to me and learned quickly with resources I mention below!

Here are my best tips from getting started and gaining some great ongoing clients. Let me know in the comments or via Twitter & Instagram if you have other questions!

Virtual Assistant work: Why I’m a big fan

• You can take advantage of “geographic arbitrage” and open yourself up to many more options for potential employers, outside your own city or even country.
• You can do it as a side hustle, part-time or full-time.
• Depending on your clients or projects, you can have time flexibility, doing the work when it suits your availability or energy.
• You diversify your income – eg. If you lose your full-time employer, you’ll have no cash coming in vs. if you lose 1 of 3+ clients, you’ll still be earning.
• You set your own rates, to balance the value you bring with what clients will pay.
• You can work on lots of different projects, learn new skills, or specialise to specific tasks you enjoy.

Downsides (and how to combat them)

• You’ll likely have irregular income – Guard against this by having a buffer in your bank account for lean months, or look for regular clients or a retainer payment basis if you want security.
• You won’t get holiday pay or sick leave or superannuation (employer retirement contributions), so you need to build this buffer into your rates.
• You’ll need to set aside money for taxes, as they won’t typically be taken out of your pay automatically like an employee would have.

What can I even offer?

• Look at your previous jobs and your hobbies. List out the skills, even if you think they are minor.
  • Eg. data entry, using Google Docs, writing good emails, keeping on top of calendars, a good eye for Instagram, clever captions in social media, savvy in Canva, proofreading (including in Australian/UK and/or US English), digital marketing
• Read this: 100 Services you can offer as a VA
• Many (most!) of those skills you are used to doing in your office jobs can be done online.
• You don’t need to do a course or have a qualification.
• No single VA needs to have all the skills. Some will only do social media, others only copywriting, others only Google Drive/Gmail admin tasks. You don’t need to be all things!
• Start from where you are. You can choose to upskill later if you want, in areas that interest YOU. You are in control of what you want to offer.
• You may not wish to call yourself a virtual assistant; totally up to you. (Not everyone understands that term or may associate only with low-paid international workers). 
  • Try instead: project coordinator, freelancer, online support, remote worker, digital marketer, copywriter,  support person,  right hand person, ally.
• See also this Free VA beginners guide

Easiest steps in getting first client

• Don’t overthink it! Go for MVP – Minimum Viable Product
  • eg. What are the bare minimum steps you need to do to get your first client? (Answer: You don’t need a shiny new website, don’t need to feel 100% ready, don’t need to upskill! A word of mouth recommendation, helping a friend or doing a quick subcontractor gig can get you started – then you can work out the rest later/as it comes up.)
• Getting that first client
  • Tell friends what you offer – post it on your LinkedIn, Facebook update, Instagram.
  • Contact former employers to say what you’re doing; they may need some temp online support.
  • Follow leads on Facebook groups or get subcontractor positions from other VAs.
• Once you have that first client
  • Keep your Facebook page/LinkedIn profile up to date and write posts to showcase the skills you have, experience you’ve gained, testimonials and links to projects.
  • Ask that first client if they have any extra work you could do or other contacts who might be able to use your services; if not now, make a calendar reminder to contact again in 6mths, 1yr.
  • Ask that first client for a testimonial. Make it as easy as possible, eg. paraphrase what they may have said/written to you already and ask them to approve use of the sentences you’ve put together; or ask them to respond to 2-3 questions (How did I make your work/life easier? What would you say to someone considering hiring me?)

Promoting yourself

• Set up an online presence to promote you and your work
  • A Facebook page is easiest. 
  • You can add your page as an “employer” in your personal FB profile in your work section and set that to publicly viewable. When networking on Facebook (such as in groups), others will see this when they click through on your personal profile. Note: This is best if you are going all-in or have an existing employer who is okay with you sharing that you freelance on the side.
• Network on Facebook groups! My favourite. A list is below.
  • There are job leads and subcontractor roles there, plus opportunities to learn from others. Also, if you post helpful responses to others relating to the skills you provide, you can start to stand out there and become known for those.
  • Don’t underestimate first impressions. If responding to a job listing on Facebook, for f*ck’s sake, don’t have typos or grammatical errors (so many people do). Link to your FB page. Give a succinct paragraph about how you can help them. Don’t DM them without permission; but consider including in your post response: “If you’re interested in talking further, let me know I can DM you by giving me a like on this post”
• Make sure your LinkedIn is up to date. Clients do look at it.
• A website isn’t necessary to have, but can be another useful way of showing what you can do to potential clients.
• An alternative to a website could be having a PowerPoint presentation or pdf available in Google Drive, that you share with potential clients or link to in your FB page (use a nice link shortener like free bit.ly). Canva has templates or use Google Slides)
• You could ask a trusted friend to look at your online presence and give feedback as if they were a client wanting to connect with you.
• My current favourite tip: When pitching to a client you are keen on, send a 1min video shot by phone (nothing fancy) on why you want to work for them and what skills you have. Upload to Google Drive, send them a shareable link in your application (again, it’s nicer if it’s a short link created via bit.ly). It will make you stand out for little effort. > I did this for a client needing 10 weeks of temping. It has now added up to 12 months of regular work so far.

Facebook groups I use – For advice, networking and job leads

• Australia – My regulars:
  • Virtual Assistants of Australia
  • Virtual Assistants Australia
  • Virtual Assistants Australia (Jobleads)
  • Freelance Jungle
• Australia – Others:
  • Clever Copywriting School
  • ProBlogger (also has a job board on website)
• International – My favourites
  • Next Level Virtual Assistants – by Digital Nomad Kit
  • Digital Nomad Girls
• International – Others
  • Virtual Assistant Savvies

LinkedIn also has groups available (I don’t use much, but others have success there. Do a search under “virtual assistant” or “freelancer”)

Courses you might like to do later – but are entirely optional!

• Note: You can typically learn everything yourself via Google searches and free resources, including reading others’ posts in VA Facebook groups mentioned.

• VA specific – Free
  • 5 Day VA Challenge (free) – Digital Nomad Kit – I did this when getting started. I highly recommend; runs a few times a year (next is 22 Feb 2021)
• VA specific – Paid
  • VA Starter Kit – by Digital Nomad Kit – I ended up going on to this paid course and got good tips out of it.
  • Virtual Savvy
  • 10k VA by Kayla Sloan – popular in the personal finance community (US)
  • Virtually Yours (Aus)

• LinkedIn Learning (was Lynda)
  • Big fan of this. All the software courses you could need. Free membership via many public libraries or otherwise about $30/mth.

• Google Digital Certificates (free)

• Or, just search Google or YouTube when you need to know something… anything… (A key skill of a VA is working out the answers to problems, so get used to this!)

Other things to consider

• Be cautious of Freelancer or Upwork sites, as clients may be more price driven and you’re competing with low rates offered and those sites taking a cut. It can be worth checking it out, but often more lucrative and flexible to get clients yourself.
• For the next step up, you may also want to consider becoming a “digital business manager” or an “online business manager” (OBM). These work to manage teams on behalf of an entrepreneur or business, often managing other virtual assistants and freelancers to deliver a larger project. 

Setting rates

• Plenty of different ways to calculate this. You can check Upwork or Freelancer for some rates (look for people in your own country for more accurate figures). Also have a look on Facebook groups or search online for virtual assistant agencies (some will share hourly rates).
• Digital Nomad Kit has a good article I used to start (and I’ve since increased rates as I’ve gone on) – Setting your VA rates
• You can work by project fees (need to do good estimates by breaking down all that would be involved in project and pricing accordingly + contingency), by retainer (eg. set number of hours per mth/week) or simply hourly.
• You need to make sure that you’re covering your expenses – plus the fact of no holiday pay, sick pay, retirement fund contributions 
• You should also factor in a buffer for the time it takes you to pitch to clients, other admin time and “downtime”. Eg. I find that I can only do about 30 productive hours on the clock as a VA (vs being paid for 40hrs in an office environment, when you might realistically only do 30hr productive work anyway outside distractions and water cooler chat, etc). Your rates need to reflect that every hour is a quality hour of work.
• Positioning yourself as a premium virtual assistant or consultant can help get those higher rates.
• A cool idea I saw recently was offering VIP days where clients can book you for one-off 8 to 10 hour days to work exclusively for them and then charge a premium for that. Eg. strategy day or training day.
• See also Before You Go Freelance

Managing finances

• I get paid into a separate bank account for my business work (nothing special, just a fee-free account). Then, I set up fortnightly transfers as an “allowance” to my personal account I use for transactions, so it feels like a salary.
• I keep a buffer of $1000+ in my business account, just in case.
• I set up alerts in my account so I know when I got paid from invoices, plus if the balance dips below $1000.
• When I get paid, I put aside an amount for tax payments (eg. 25%) into a separate savings account. I DO NOT touch this, as the tax man will want it later and it avoids having to scrabble to find the cash at the end of financial year.
• Important: I use a spreadsheet to mark in what I expect to make each week/month vs how many hours to do it. This means I see in advance if I might have a “lean” month or have overcommitted on hours, so I can adjust.

Have you considered becoming a Virtual Assistant for a side hustle or career change? Let me know below if you’re curious and have other unanswered questions, or can share your own success and tips!

Cover photo by Alizée Baudez on Unsplash