If you are serious about making money online – as much as $30 an hour (and sometimes a lot more) – without any special skills or a long history of online work, becoming a Virtual Assistant is definitely the way to go.
For starters, Virtual Assistants (VAs) are always in demand.
As more people start online businesses and realize how much they have to juggle on their own than ever before they begin to reach out to VAs left and right – and that’s a great opportunity for you to jump right in.
Secondly, there’s no real steep learning curve to becoming a top-tier VA, either.
Clients provide a lot of “on-the-job” training themselves, but most of the work is pretty easy to get a handle on right out of the gate. Your tasks might vary from day-to-day as a VA, but it’s really not all that difficult to pick things up in a hurry.
Lastly, there’s no limit to the amount of money you can make as a VA, either.
Straight out of the gate there are VAs making a few thousand dollars a month (and some making a lot more than that). It is not unreasonable at all to expect to make at least $1000 your first month as a VA, and with a little bit of effort – and some smart systems like the ones we highlight below – you can start making much more than that in a hurry.
Ready to jump right in?
Let’s do it!
Virtual Assistant 101
Getting a handle on what a Virtual Assistant is and what they do is a little challenging at first, if only because these professionals have to tackle so many different kinds of responsibilities.
Truth be told, there’s really no “one-size-fits-all” kind of definition as a VA.
One client might hire you to be a virtual executive assistant, managing their calendar and schedule, making sure everything runs smoothly, and basically acting as a second set of eyeballs to guarantee things don’t fall through the cracks.
Another client might hire you to be a little bit more hands on, knocking out work product or managing other outsourced employees while juggling a couple of other responsibilities at the same time.
Another still might be looking to hire you for technical skills you bring to the table (sales, marketing web design, etc.), looking to fall you into their company infrastructure without having to bring you on as a full-time employee.
To put it bluntly, Virtual Assistants usually have to wear a bunch of different hats.
Thankfully though, this kind of approach to a career practically guarantees your never be bored at work again.
This is especially true if you get a couple of different clients that are looking for you to handoff couple of different responsibilities – allowing you to work as much (or as little) on the things you enjoy while eliminating everything you don’t like.
It’s tough to get any better than that.
Becoming a Virtual Assistant
There’s no singular route to becoming a Virtual Assistant.
Most people take a bit of a roundabout path to this kind of career, bouncing from one outsourcer job to another before settling in as a VA somewhere. Others start out explicitly looking to become a VA and carve out a niche in an industry or a marketplace.
Others still sort of see this as a temporary steppingstone to get them where they’re looking to go with a 100% online only income.
There are definitely some things you can do to hit the ground running with a bit of a head start if you’ve decided you want to be a VA, though.
For starters, you’re going to want to zero in on what your four or five core competencies are going to be – the most important VA skills, talents, or abilities that you are going to offer your potential clients.
You want to stick to four or five core competencies because your new clients are going to expect a bit of versatility. But you don’t want to go beyond that or you’ll end up stretching yourself too thin, never offering the caliber of service clients are after, and will drive yourself crazy trying to fulfill all these different services at the same time, too.
Think about the type of VA that you want to be.
Do you want to be someone that manages schedules, someone that does called outreach, someone that handles incoming communications and the like?
Or do you want to be more of a “hands-on” kind of asset in the business, digging down into the different systems an online entrepreneur has in place by offering skills like web design, copywriting, sales, etc.?
Maybe you’re interested in something else altogether!
No matter what, you want to get crystal clear about the type of VA you are going to be and the type of clients that you want to land, too.
Speaking of that…
Laser Focus on a Niche or Industry
One of the smartest moves you can make as a new VA is to immediately separate yourself from the rest of the competition (of which there is likely to be plenty).
Instead of saying that you are a VA for anyone and everyone, consider zeroing in like a laser beam on a singular niche, a singular industry, or a singular type of entrepreneur that’s looking for your services in the first place.
This is going to give you an immediate advantage over the competition.
Think about it like this.
Is an entrepreneur that is feeling totally overwhelmed with personal and time management projects going to want to hire a VA that promote themselves as a Swiss Army knife or are they going to want to hire a Virtual Assistant that specializes in time management, calendar control, scheduling, and the like?
The choice is obvious and gives you a huge leg up just by differentiating yourself with this approach.
The same can be said about positioning yourself according to niche or marketplace.
Instead of being a VA across all industries consider helping e-commerce entrepreneurs, drop shipping entrepreneurs, affiliate marketers, web designers, copywriters, etc. – and helping them exclusively.
This kind of approach not only differentiates you from the rest of the pack but it also lets you offer extra leverage as part of bringing you on to their team. You’ll know the industry you’re working in inside and out, you’ll know how things operate, and you’ll know how to give specialized advice that generalist VAs won’t be able to offer.
That’s a game changer.
Run Your Operation Like a Business
One of the keys to making big money as a Virtual Assistant is to stop thinking of yourself as an independent contractor or an employee and instead to start thinking of yourself as a business.
You want to think about filling up your prospect pipeline, making sure that you have plenty of potential clients to offer your services to – and keeping that pipeline of prospects full even when you are totally booked up with work.
You also want to think about finding ways to scale up your services, separating your earning potential from the amount of time you have in the day.
Sure, landing VA gigs for $30 an hour (or more) is great in the beginning of your new career. But it doesn’t take long (or that much extra effort) to start making a whole lot more money than that.
You’ll only be able to start making that kind of money, though, when you stop thinking about trading your time for cash and instead start leveraging your services, your systems, and your unique abilities.
Find ways to scale – offering “prepackaged” solutions that you can automate or outsource yourself, for example – and you’ll be on your way to making a mountain of money as a VA really quickly.
Of course, one of the smartest ways to start making a pile of cash in the VA world is to create your own VA agency.
Whether you choose to hire yourself out as the “front man” for that operation or want to build a business entrepreneurs can come to just to get a VA (or a team of VAs) is up to you.
But after you learn and master the skills necessary to be a great VA (time management, scheduling, delegation, outsourcing, etc.) it’s not a big leap to start managing VAs as a business owner and maximizing your profits in a huge way.
All in all, the sky really is the limit when you’re looking to become a Virtual Assistant.
Keep things that we shared above in mind and you’ll not only be able to shortcut your learning curve big time in this career, but you also be able to make a whole lot more money faster than you ever would have been able to, too.
There are lots (LOTS) of people out there that need the kind of help real deal Virtual Assistants bring to the table. If you’re willing to put in the work and playthings smart the financial future of your dreams and total freedom aren’t all that far away!