If you are someone with excellent time and project management skills and are an all-around reliable, responsible, and organized person who has a strength for streamlining workflow and accomplishing tasks efficiently, becoming a virtual assistant may be right down your alley!
Job Description
A virtual assistant (VA) is exactly what the name suggests, an assistant that provides support services and works from a remote location. A virtual assistant these days is not the same as a secretary or administrative assistant, but can rather be someone with a wide-range of skills. Virtual assistants tend to be generalists and can help clients with a variety of tasks from administrative work to online marketing, specializing in social media management, blogging, and SEO or in writing and editing.
Virtual assistants are in high demand because growing entrepreneurs, online businesses, and start-ups that need a second pair of helping hands, but they don’t have the manpower or funds to hire someone full-time, or they may just not have enough work for someone full-time. Business owners like to hire virtual assistants because VA’s can be hired on an as needed basis and be assigned tasks when they come up. Clients and businesses are able to save money to get their work done while freelance virtual assistants are able to work on different projects with multiple clients.
The salary of a virtual assistant can vary widely. On freelance marketplace platforms like Upwork, the salary could go as low as $5 an hour, but if you have experience and have adequate skills, the average salary ranges from $10-15, and once you gain more experience and depending on the niche of clients you work with, you can be making up to six figures a year like these ladies. Since it is such a broad field with possibilies to specialize in all kinds of services, niches, and clients, the possibilities of earning are endless.
Virtual assistants help small businesses, start ups, and entrepreneurs with day to day activities for their business which can involve the following tasks:
Marketing: Many VA’s are digital marketing specialists, in which they do everything from social media management and email marketing to website management and blogging. VA’s can have different skillsets and offer different services. As a VA, you may even specialize in one topic you’re confident in whether that be web design or search engine optimization.
Write and Edit: Anything your client may need to be written, whether it be a proposal or website copy. You may be asked to write e-mails to your clients clients and do a variety of tasks.
Transcription: Depending on your client, you may be asked to transcribe conference calls and other material.
Project Management: You could be asked to do an array of jobs from managing your clients’ calendar to managing a project they have for you from front to end.
Administrative Tasks: As a VA, you may be assigned similar work to what a general administrative assistant which can include everything from coordinating with vendors to placing orders for new supplies.
And much more…including sales support, technical support, customer service – the list goes on.
Honestly, as a virtual assistant, you can offer any services you want. As long as it is something that can help a business or start-up grow, you are bound to find something. Many people freelance as virtual assistants or even start their own virtual assistant business. The hardest part will be to market your business and make yourself visible for business owners to find you. However, once you are able to establish your virtual assistant business and prove your skills, it will be easier to find clients and start working online full-time.
