How to Make Money From Home as a Virtual Assistant

So many women are looking for ways to earn money from home — which I’m a big fan of! Many try signing up with some kind of company like Plexus or Young Living or starting a blog. Those are great options and I know many people making a full-time income from them and loving doing so.

But one option that is very under-explored and few people seem to consider is becoming a virtual assistant. Many online (and offline) companies will hire virtual workers to help with a variety of projects for their site and there is always a big need out there for good virtual assistants.

In fact, most of the great virtual assistants I know are turning away jobs because there is so much opportunity and not enough time!

No matter what your skill set is, there’s a good chance there is a virtual assistant opportunity for you. For instance, here are some of the ways I currently use virtual assistants on my team:

• Graphic design, website design, website maintenance
• Customer service — trouble-shooting tech issues, issue refunds, answering customer questions
• Blog posts — Finding, vetting, and drafting posts, responding to comments, designing graphics for posts
• Facebook — Scheduling posts, responding to comments
• Facebook advertising — Setting up ads, watching and tracking the results
• Email — Answering questions from readers, keeping my email organized, fielding complaints, setting up email newsletters
• Advertising and marketing — Talking to potential advertisers, negotiating contracts, keeping all of the details straight for ad buys
• Product creation — helping me create course content, managing & running the details of a course launch, setting up all of the details for affiliates

And that’s just a very short list! There’s no way that I could do what I do without having a fantastic team of virtual assistants working for me. Some of them who started out as part-time contractors are now full-time employees, but they still work remotely!

People can’t believe it when I tell them that we don’t have an “official office space” and that most of the people on my team live in different states and time zones!

That is the beautiful thing about running an internet business. You can find the best of the best people and hire them — without having to ask them to relocate to your area!

4 Steps to Getting Started as a Virtual Assistant

Over the years, I’ve had people come and ask me how you become a virtual assistant. The truth is, there is no one-size-fits-all plan — especially because there are so many types of virtual assistants and there are so many different companies looking for virtual assistants. But if you are interested in becoming a virtual assistant, here are a few suggestions:

1. Be a Self-Starter — Don’t wait for the opportunity to drop in your lap. Go out and teach yourself everything you can to be the best virtual assistant you can be in the area you believe you are most suited for.
2. Volunteer Your Time — Is there a company you are interested in working for? Approach them and volunteer your time and services for the first 20 hours. You have to start somewhere and not only will this be great experience, there’s a chance that the company will hire you on after you’ve completed your 20 hours!
3. Keep Your Rates Low — Many virtual assistants can charge upwards of $35 to $40 per hour. Which is fantastic for them, but that might be way out of reach of newer bloggers and online businesses. Start out by charging a really competitive rate like $12 to $15 per hour. As you gain more experience and the work opportunities pick up, then you can increase your rates.
4. Be Incredibly Thorough — When someone will email me and offer their services or ask for a job, I quickly scan the email to see how attentive they are to detail. You would not believe how many times there will be glaring errors in an email (like spelling my name wrong or getting my website URL incorrect)! And this is often in an email from someone who says they are detail oriented or fantastic at customer service! The little details matter.

If you are interested in becoming a virtual assistant, I want to invite you to join me on Thursday for a free webinar I’ll be doing with Gina Horkey.

During the last three years, Gina has replaced her previous full-time salary with part-time virtual assistant work. And she still works as a VA – in addition to teaching others how to become or find one.

In this webinar, Gina will teach you:

• What a virtual assistant is.
• What VAs do.
• The current need that exists.
• How to get started working as one!
• Plus, she’ll take your questions live at the end!

Sign up for this free webinar here.

P.S. Can’t make the webinar live? Go ahead and sign up and we’ll send you a replay after it’s finished!