How To Become A Virtual Assistant With No Experience

A virtual assistant works from home for small businesses and online entrepreneurs. As virtual assistant jobs are done online, companies are hiring worldwide. The salary varies because there are part-time jobs, entry-level jobs with no experience, and high-paying jobs. A VA can help to grow a business by doing some recurring but necessary tasks.

Most employers focus on skills and experience to hire virtual assistants. For example, you can become a VA in social media management if you know exactly how to grow a business with social media. There are also websites offering virtual assistant training and online courses to get a virtual assistant certificate. To find a virtual job to may open a gig on a freelance website, apply for a job in one of the websites above.

Five steps to becoming a virtual assistant with no experience

1. Brainstorming and research

First, you need to decide what services you are going to offer. To start making money as a virtual assistant, try to write down:

• your actual skills and knowledge
• background, degree, and certificate
• virtual assistant skills you want to learn
• hobbies and leisure
• expected income
• all the services you can offer

Now it’s time to research and refine your list of virtual assistant services suitable for beginners. Here are some elements to consider if you have no experience:

• Find if people are looking for what you intend to offer. You can try Google Keyword Planner to find search volume, research on social media, websites, and YouTube.  
• Go on virtual assistant websites and freelance platforms to see what people offer.
• Estimate your earning potential.

Keep in mind that the value of service is related to the benefits gained by the client. Anything you can do to help a business owner save time, increase revenue, or save money is a valuable service. 

2. Improve or learn the required skills to become a VA

Any VA should develop organizational and communication skills. Depending on the services you plan to offer, you may need to find a course or training. It would help if you could focus on:

• acquiring knowledge (books, podcasts, blog articles, YouTube)
• learning new skills (courses, training programs, and/or a mentor)
• gaining experience 

If you can not get a job right away, you can conduct personal projects. For example, growing a YouTube channel to +10k subscribers can showcase your ability to become a youtube virtual assistant. 

3. Choose a beginner-friendly website where you can find virtual assistant jobs

You need an online platform to start selling your services. Do you plan to work with freelancing platforms, get an entry-level virtual assistant job, or launch a start-up? 

Here are some ideas to join a platform that accepts virtual assistants without previous experience:

Sign up to freelance platforms to find virtual assistant jobs

You can create a gig to offer your services on multiple freelance websites. You will benefit from an existing client base and start working fast if you know how to promote your gig. However, you usually have some extra fee since the platform host your services and takes care of payment processing. 

Here are 10 freelance platforms where you can find virtual assistant jobs:

• Behance
• Dribbble
• Fiverr
• Guru
• FreeUp
• Freelancer.com
• PeoplePerHour
• SeoClerks
• Toptal
• Upwork

Find companies hiring remote virtual assistants

Working from home as a virtual assistant is doable because many virtual assistant companies help businesses find a VA. 

Here are 10 freelance platforms where you can find virtual assistant jobs:

• Belay was launched in 2010, and the company connects business owners to vetted virtual assistants who work remotely. 
• Byron connects businesses to VA through its virtual assistant platform to allow you to make money in your spare time.
• Task Virtual is a virtual assistant company that matches a large range of VAs with SMAs and online entrepreneurs.
• Zirtual provides virtual assistant services to entrepreneurs, professionals, and small corporate teams. 

4. Assess the competition and finalize your offer

Virtual assistant companies often have strict rules regarding prices, offers, and delivery times. However, if you are a freelancer or sell your services on your website, you need to:

• elaborate different packages
• assign prices (hourly rates or a flat fee per project) 
• create product-bundle pricing
• write a complete and comprehensive description of each offer

During the process, it would help to access competition and calibrate your offer to be competitive. 

5. Create your VA service

It’s time to create your gig or your website. 

If you want to start freelancing, you will go through a few simple steps:

• sign up and account creation
• profile set up
• gig creation

Starting a gig on a freelancing website is one of the fastest ways to earn money as a virtual assistant. 

If you want to create your website, you will need to:

• Purchase a domain name and get web hosting using a hosting provider like Siteground.
• Choose a website builder, for example, WordPress 
• Create and design your website (a single-page website is enough to start)

6. Start building an online presence and networking

It would help if you could choose one or two social media platforms and create a business account. The goal is to be active on the platform to build a community of followers and people that share the same goals. I suggest to:

• post regularly
• participate in discussions and answer comments
• join groups, tribes, subreddits depending on the platforms

The primary keys are consistency and providing value. 

7. Start building a list

You can use email marketing tools like Getresponse to create an opt-in form on your website to collect emails. If you only have social media account, Getresponse can host your landing page (or opt-in page) to build your email list. 

Focus on sending all the traffic you get from your social media account to your opt-in page. 

8. Start working with your first clients

 You may have some issues finding customers at the beginning. Try to leverage your network to find potential customers and offer them a deal they can not refuse.

• A trial
• A discount
•  Sample work for free
• Product bundle including bonuses

Your goal is to get these first positive reviews and some experience.

Most Common Examples of Virtual Assistants Jobs

There are a lot of that can be done by a Virtual Assistant. Some common examples of virtual assistant jobs include:

1. Social Media Management

Social media is a good way to establish your online presence. Many businesses use it to increase brand awareness, connect with potential customers and drive traffic to their websites.

Unfortunately, a small company does not always have the means to develop social media. This is where a VA can offer services in social media management such as:

• Setting up your social media accounts.
• Update schedules.
• Creating content such as posts, images, and product or service updates.
• Poll creation.
• Handling social media scheduling tools like Hootsuite and Buffer.
• Interact with clients online to develop a good online reputation.
• Pinterest: Setting up accounts, account management, making, and managing Pins.
• LinkedIn: Setting up accounts, account management, group creation, and management.
• Facebook: Setting up accounts, account management, group creation and management, ad creation, and management.

2. Email Management

You might not believe this, but a recent study by Forbes just revealed that an average worker spends at least 150 minutes checking emails each day, and they receive about 200 emails. This clearly shows just how time-consuming email management can be.

Some examples of services offered by VAs for Email management include;

• Writing email copy
• Organizing Emails
• Responding to emails
• Forwarding emails
• Managing email marketing campaigns & Autoresponder
• Setting up Email templates and labels
• Replying to customer questions
• Get customer feedback
• Grow email list

3. Project Management

• Sometimes business owners might find themselves undertaking big and demanding projects but short on the workforce. In this case, a VA may manage some aspects of the project.
• Some examples of services offered by VAs for Project management include;
• Launching products, especially digital products like eBooks and courses.
• Analyzing the best techniques for the project.
• Hiring professional members to be part of your team.
• Scheduling tasks.
• Managing and monitoring other members of the team.
• Conducting a business audit.

4. Blog Management

When you ask any blogger about bog management, they will probably tell you that managing a blog is a big commitment. There are a lot of tasks that you will have to handle when you are managing a blog; this is why a lot of professional bloggers often relegate some tasks to Virtual assistants on the internet.

However, if you are just managing the blog as a hobby, you might decide not to hire a VA. Some examples of services offered by VAs for Blog management include:

• Uploading content and formatting them properly for Search Engine Optimization (SEO).
• Add external and internal links to posts.
• Add images and graphic content to posts.
• Finding images.
• Content SEO.
• Keywords research.

5. Bookkeeping

Book Keeping is one of the most important administrative tasks that businesses often ignore. This is mainly because it is a very time-consuming and tiring task. However, since it helps keeps track of the progress of your business, it is an incredibly important task.

This is why it is incredibly important that you only hand this contract to a reliable VA. Some examples of services offered by VAs for Book Keeping include;

• Issuing refunds.
• Creating invoices.
• Recording bills.
• Recording payments.
• Tracking the financial progress of the business.
• Balance sheet creation.
• Workers and contractors payment.
• Handling taxes.
• Coordinating credit card and bank statements.

6. Ad Management

Managing an ad campaign for your business can be a very time-consuming task, so you can just relegate the task to a reliable Virtual Assistant. This VA will be in charge of the management of your ads on all social media platforms like Facebook and Instagram.

If you like, you can decide to have the same VA handle both your social media accounts and your ad campaigns on social media. Some examples of services offered by VAs for Blog management include:

• Creating and managing ads on social media platforms like Facebook and Instagram.
• Ad Optimization.
• Competitor Research.
• Copywriting and design for an ad campaign.
• Analytical tracking of campaign progress.
• ROI management of ad campaigns.

7. Customer Service

Customer service is a very important aspect of any business, but it can often take too much time, and if it is not done by professionals, it can have a bad effect on your brand reputation. This is why it is often recommended that you hire a professional VA to handle your customer services.

They will handle email customer service, live chat customer support, and social media customer service. Some examples of services offered by VAs for customer service include:

• Replying to customer emails.
• Live chat with customers.
• Chatting with customers on social media.
• Writing Frequently Asked Questions.
• Answering Frequently Asked Questions.
• Handling customer complaints.
• Issuing refunds.
• Request feedback.

8. Writing

Some examples of services offered by VAs for Writing include;

• Blog writing
• Content writing
• Article writing
• Copywriting
• Letter writing
• Ghostwriting
• EBook writing
• Newsletter creation
• Editing and proofreading
• Proposal writing

9. Graphics Design

Some examples of services offered by VAs for customer service include;

• EBook design
• Photo editing
• Logo Design
• Flyer creation
• Business card design
• Images for content
• Photographs
• Product Design
• Infographic creation for websites, social media, and YouTube

10. Research

• Keyword Research
• Event Research
• Market Research
• Competitor Research
• Software Research
• SWOT Analysis
• Hashtag Research
• Academic Research
• Travel Research
• Patent Research
• Copyright checker
• Product Comparison
• Trademark search and registration

Benefits of virtual assistant jobs

Virtual assistant jobs have many benefits such as:

• More flexibility for workers and employers
• No need to have an office
• Possibility to work with people worldwide
• Work on multiple projects at the same time to make more money
• Save time on commuting
• Apply to any field related to making money online

As a contractor, you get to choose the people you want to work with and you will not have a chief telling you what to do all day.

Evolution of virtual assistant jobs: Final thoughts

Virtual assistant job is one of the most popular home-based jobs in 2020. According to Payscale, a virtual assistant in the US can make from $10 to $28 per hour.

Lately, we have seen an increasing interest in virtual assistants from The Philippines offering their services for lower salaries. Due to the growth of the internet economy, there is a continuous demand for virtual assistants.

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