How To Become A Virtual Assistant With No Experience
Are you looking for a job but just not getting anywhere? Or the hours are not great as you have kids to attend to? Instead of working your socks off for other people, learn how to become a Virtual Assistant all in the comfort of your own home!
I’ve done clerical work on the side for about 19 years now but it wasn’t until I got made redundant twice that I decided to work for myself and offer my services as a VA in 2012.
Things can take a while to get going with all businesses, so you can do this whilst having an existing job as I did with my mobile beauty and massage business and built it up from there.
What Is A Virtual Assistant?
A virtual assistant (VA) is someone that provides and gives support to other businesses from your location (such as your home office). These days it is so much easier to do with super-fast wifi, video conferencing, document sharing, for example, using Dropbox, which I use all the time.
What Does A Virtual Assistant Do?
Basically, you will be asked to do office and admin type tasks such as emailing, calling clients, bookkeeping, social media, anything that keeps them organised.
What Resources Do I Need To Start?
Now you don’t need to have experience or have to be an expert in office administration but my advice at least know how to get around Microsoft Word, Excel, Powerpoint & Outlook for emailing. I was lucky I did go on a PA course, and it taught me lots about writing letters, rep, etc. There are plenty of online learning programmes you can g,o on, such as Transcribe Anywhere. Their courses are:
- Multimedia, self-paced course
- Video tutorials, worksheets, printable PDF cheatsheets
- Tons of practice with multiple levels of difficulty to really prepare you for the job
- Tips, tricks, and step-by-step how-to from a 30+ year transcription veteran instructor
- Lifetime support
- Lifetime updates to course material
You can learn as you go on along whilst you’re offering your services. I’ve never stopped learning, I even went on to do bookkeeping!
A useful tool I use is Grammarly to help with grammar and spelling. You will definitely need this. It’s free and beneficial, especially when you’re getting paid to write up a report or send emails out to people. There’s nothing worse than getting an email and someone can’t spell properly!
Ideally, it’s useful to have a website to advertise your services. If you want to set up a website, go to my How To Start A Blog Instantly, as there is a step-by-step guide to help you, and it’s cheap as chips.
Even though you’re not setting up a blog website, you can still use it for your business, plus blogging is a great way to get customers in asking for your services.
Check out my other post, Why You Need A Blog For Your Business. There are a lot of tips to help you with your business.
What Office Tools Do I Need?
1. You need a good computer/laptop. My advice, is don’t go cheap as you want something that will last you a few years down the line. I went with FUJITSU LIFEBOOK U757 Ultrabook from Ebuyer. It has lots of storage (this is a must when choosing a laptop) and is quick, i.e., it’s not slow to load up. Or you can get something slightly cheaper at Amazon but obviously, go with the budget you have in mind.
2. What I found really useful is an extra monitor, so instead of flicking from one page to another on your laptop, you can just look at the other screen. It’s doesn’t have to be big, but use this as your main screen and makes sure it’s eye level or just about eye level as it’s better for your posture.
3. You will also need a printer. One that you can photocopy and scan items. People local to you may need printouts for certain things. You definitely need a high-quality printer so go with a laser one not inkjet. I went with a SAMSUNG Multifunction laser printer so I can photocopy and scan documents plus save them onto a USB if I need to and it’s wireless.
4. A good mobile phone. Ideally, you want a different phone number from the one you have for personal use. I went for a double sim phone as I didn’t want 2 separate phones.
The one I use and is amazing, it’s so good my 2 boys wanted one and my husband. It’s a XIAOMI POCOPHONE, it has a dual sim and has lots of storage. The camera is super! And it’s not expensive. Make sure you get a phone case to protect it.
5. A quality office chair! is a must if you’re at your desk all day. Go for one that has lumbar support and is adjustable.
TIP: Don’t forget these tools are expenses, so don’t forget to put them down in your bookkeeping so you’ll have less tax to pay at the end of the year!! Quickbooks is great for keeping your accounts in order.
What Are Businesses Looking For In A Virtual Assistant?
As I said before, you need to know your stuff on Microsoft and be computer literate, but most of it is easy. Anyone can do it. These businesses and individuals are looking for all sorts in a Virtual Assistant. Here are just a few:
- Type Letters
- Transcribe
- Reports
- Type up minutes
- Excel Spreadsheets
- Copy Typing
- Coordinator for arranging courses
- Travel Management
- Recruitment assistance
- Event planning
- Bookkeeping
What is The Best Niche To Specialise In As A VA?
I always say, do the one you like to do or the ones you are good at and concentrate on those for now. You can learn the other stuff as you go along, as I’ve mentioned before, or you can start learning straight away whilst you are waiting for the work to come in.
TIP: Maybe think about your previous jobs. What were you best at and utilise that into your niche?
You can even teach people online how to do a specific thing. It could be anything from crafting, gardening to organising your home. Thinkific is a great platform to start teaching people.
How To Make People Aware That You’re Available For VA Services
So how do you get yourself heard without spending a fortune on advertising?
Check out local business networking events, they are a good place to get started and people like to shop local. Make sure you have business cards handy when you attend.
WHAT DO I TALK ABOUT?
Talk about your job: what is it you do and what you enjoy about it.
Talk about holidays and travel. Ask people where they went and where they intend to go to next. Can they recommend a good place to go?
Talk about sports and current affairs.
TIP: Never push your service on anyone, just give them information, the hours you do, price for monthly service and calls etc and leave it up to them. You can always offer them a free trial.
Online Networking is another way to get yourself heard. LinkedIn is a good one to get started and maybe find some groups to join on Facebook.
Don’t forget to add your business on FREE advertising websites such as Free Index or if you Google FREE advertising you’ll find a local one to you.
Add a business page to your Facebook page and start posting as soon as you can. Same with Instagram and Twitter. Use Canva for your social media posts, they look more impressive than putting a few words together, plus you can design and get your business cards printed here too.
What Are The Best Freelancer Websites For A Virtual Assistant?
The first one I used was FIVERR. Just click on ‘become a seller’ on the homepage. It’s FREE to join. Just create your gig (what you offer), deliver your service and get paid! It’s excellent. My sister did this, too, and held down a full-time job to get a bit of extra money coming in.
TIP. Make sure you look at what others are offering on FIVERR to give you ideas on how to promote your stuff!
The next best three are Task Rabbit, Upwork and People Per Hour they do the same thing.
How Much Money Does A Virtual Assistant Make?
It depends on what market you want to serve. Do you want to assist service-based businesses or trades-people? Or both?
For service-based businesses and large companies, i.e., financial advisors, solicitors etc., they would be willing to pay at least £25 per hour.
For trades-people, i.e., decorator, window cleaner etc., would probably only want to pay £15. Ideally, you want to be charging no less than £15 as you are self-employed and have to pay your own taxes and NI.
Make sure you keep your accounts on track when working for yourself. As a bookkeeper QuickBooks is essential for organizing my books. I would recommend it to anyone self-employed or a small business owner like me. Follow my link for a special discount! Quickbooks .
You don’t have to charge an hourly rate. You could charge day rates or weekly rates. For instance, you may look at a workload and say, well, that will take me at least a week to do and charge for the week. So if you manage to do it in 4 days, you’re quids in!
Make sure you add on extras, such as phone calls, the paper used, trips to the post office if you need to send parcels etc. (mileage).
STAY MOTIVATED
Remember to stay motivated when things go quiet. Re-visit your goals when you started your business. Refocus on what you actually want to achieve and write it down.
Update your website and see what you can do to improve on it.
Take a break, and go for a walk. Do something else besides sitting at your desk. You’ll find once you start doing something else the work starts coming in!
I hope this little post helps. If you have any questions please don’t hesitate to ask and don’t forget to subscribe.
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