Starting a virtual assistant business is the key to financial freedom for many people. It’s the ability to do what you love, have a flexible schedule, and grow your own business. To learn how to start a virtual assistant business and get everything you need to know, just keep reading.

How Much Can You Make As A Virtual Assistant?

The average rate for a virtual assistant is about $35 per hour. Rates can vary based on the type of work you do and your skillset. The more specialized your skills, the more you can charge. That being said, some services are pretty simple to offer (like social media management) that will still allow you to earn a decent hourly pay rate.

How much you can earn as a VA depends on:

• How many clients that you take on
• The services that you provide
• Your level of experience
• Your hourly rate
• How many hours worked each week

Virtual assistants can earn up to $100 an hour, although most will charge less. VAs are independent contractors and set the rates for the services they offer. If you want to make more money as a virtual assistant, charge more per hour and get better clients who value what you do and are willing to pay for it.

Make More Money By Niching Down

General virtual assistants can earn anywhere from $25 to $75 per hour, depending on their skills and experience.

Virtual assistants that niche down can make $2,000 a month for 10 hours of work per client by being a specialist.

There’s a huge opportunity for niche virtual assistants — the kind of people who help other entrepreneurs with tasks such as:

• Sales Funnel Strategist
• WordPress Expert
• Content Writer or Copywriter
• Facebook Ad Manager
• Launch Strategist
• Pinterest Manager

The key to making good money as a VA is to be a specialist. If you’re a generalist, there are plenty of low-paying gigs out there — but you’ll have to compete with lots of other people. By specializing, you can charge more and secure more clients easily.

What Skills Are Needed To Be A Great Virtual Assistant?

Most virtual assistants start their business by performing one service (such as data entry) for one client. As they build a reputation and get more experience, they can add additional services and clients, allowing them to charge higher rates.

Virtual assistants work in many different industries, so the requirements vary depending on the clients you want to serve. In general, here are the skills you’ll need:

• Technical skills — You don’t need to be an I.T. expert, but some degree of technical literacy is necessary. Most virtual assistants use software such as Microsoft Office or Google Docs, which are widely used by businesses of all kinds.
• Administrative skills — Virtual assistants are often described as “virtual secretaries,” so knowledge of administrative skills is important. This includes things like scheduling, email management, and appointment setting.
• Communication skills — Whether it’s emailing clients or writing blog posts for your website, effective communication is essential for a virtual assistant.
• Interpersonal skills — Although most communication is done via email and phone calls, you’ll also encounter face-to-face interactions with clients at conferences or other events, so strong interpersonal skills are important.

To become a VA, you’ll need to know how to provide the following services:

• Email management — organize inboxes by reading and responding to emails
• Calendar management — schedule meetings, appointments, and travel arrangements
• Data entry — enter data into Excel spreadsheets or customer relationship management platforms
• Research — conduct research related to client businesses
• Customer service — communicate with customers on behalf of clients via email and over the phone
• Social media management — manage social media accounts on platforms like Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram or other web-based programs. This involves creating or curating content, creating promotions, answering questions and comments

10 Steps To Start Your Virtual Assistant Business

Starting a virtual assistant business is fairly simple. Here are the steps to follow to start your virtual assistant business today.

1. Pick Your Virtual Assistant Business Name

Keep this simple and use your name, most people want a catchy name and title for their virtual assistant business. But If you do the catchy route, make sure that it is easy to pronounce and lookup. You don’t want a name that’s too confusing for people to lookup

2. Choose Your Services & Rates

What are you good at? Are there any specific services that you’d prefer to offer? 

There are many services to offer such as:

• General Virtual Assistance.
• Content Writing & Management.
• Search Engine Optimization (SEO) & Digital Marketing.
• Social Media Management.
• Web Development.
• Audio & Video Editing.
• Pinterest Assistant

When you first start, choose what you’re comfortable with. You can always change it later!

The same goes for setting your rates. I’ve seen many VAs start out charging $15-$20 per hour and then later changing to $45-50 per hour! Just remember that as a business owner, you have to cover your overhead, technology, taxes, and more. Make sure you add an extra $5-$10 an hour to help cover other necessities like these if you didn’t factor them into your rates already.

3. Do All Of The Legal Work

Depending on your state, county, and city, you may need a business license to run your virtual assistant business. Be sure to check with all three to see what you need or don’t need. Also, if you do decide to name your business differently from your name, you’ll most likely need to fill out a DBA (doing business as) form as well.

While you’re figuring all of that out, it’s also the perfect time to decide how you want to structure your business. This step may be best decided with the help of a lawyer and CPA because setting up the right business structure will help as far as legalities, taxes, and more.

For more information on the legality of starting a business, check out my blog: How To Start A Business In 10 Steps

 

4. Create A Business Plan

A business plan doesn’t have to be a long, boring document. Your business plan only needs a few points, including the services you’ll provide, the contract you’ll give potential clients, how you’ll pay for your business, and what you can offer that sets you apart from other VAs.

5. Develop A Marketing Strategy

How will you market your business to get new clients?

Will you use social media as a tool to gain new clients? Do you have a blog and email list? These are questions you need to ask and answer so you can pitch yourself and your services a little easier.

6. Tap In With Your Network

This is the best way to get your first client.

Once you’ve done the above steps, it’s time to reach out to your existing everyone that you know! Even if they don’t fall within your virtual assistant business niche, they may need your help or know someone who does.

7. Start To Advertise Your Virtual Assistant Business

If you don’t find a client from your network, or if you want to branch out, it’s time to advertise your services! Post on social media, write a blog post, create a YouTube video. Do whatever you need to do to gain a new client. Part of doing business is advertising what you have to offer.

Also, don’t forget to create a “Hire Me” page or even a portfolio of work that you’ve done, so people can message you or book a call to hire you.

8. Excellent Customer Service

Once you’ve found your first clients, or even once your business starts growing, it’s important to continue doing good business

Complete your tasks on time, communicate and go above and beyond for your clients. They’ll appreciate that you care about their businesses and companies, and will be more willing to continue working with you and refer you to others.

9. Referrals & Testimonials Keep The Business Going

Along with keeping your clients, Ask for referrals and testimonials! Don’t be afraid of leveraging the work you’ve done for your current clients.

Ask them if they’d be willing to put a testimonial on your site or social media. Record a video of them stating all that you’ve helped with. And ask them to refer you to people in their network if they’re satisfied with the work you do.

10. Automate and Systemize Your Business

As with all businesses, there is great importance for tools and systems 

On the “must-have list”:

• An accounting tool, like QuickBooks.
• Also use Asana as a task management system, so that you never forget anything that you need to do.
• Slack to communicate with clients.
• Dubsado as a Customer Relationship Management Tool to track clients as well as automatically send calendar invites, emails, invoices, and contracts over to them
• Simple Booklet  is an awesome tool to show off your portfolio to clients

Final Thoughts on Becoming A Virtual Assistant

There are so many great reasons why starting a virtual assistant business can be a fantastic entrepreneurial opportunity, but the most important one that is often overlooked is the core reason for starting any business: creating freedom—financial freedom and freedom from an office.

Investing in working with a coach, or taking a course can speed up your business growth and help you grow your revenue faster. I know I could’ve avoided a lot of mistakes as a beginner entrepreneur if I had gotten help when I first started. That’s why I recommend the Ultimate Virtual Assistant Bootcamp course, to help you have the blueprint to start your own Virtual Assistant Business!