How To Become A Virtual Assistant: Side Hustle To Success

When Covid struck the nation, a lot of businesses had to resort to remote working in order to continue running. This led to business owners realising that not all staff needed to be on site to perform their duties. In turn, this also allowed companies to streamline their costs and cut down on the costs of office space.

In addition, with technology ever evolving, carrying out daily business activities from home has become easier than ever. This has opened many doors for people looking at side hustles as a way to make extra income.

Enter the Virtual Assistant (VA) role. The demand for proficient virtual assistants has grown more than ever. A virtual assistant side hustle offers rewards and opportunities to grow your development much more than many other side hustles.

This article will help you understand what’s needed to begin your VA side hustle, how to land your clients and the benefits of the VA role.

What Is A Virtual Assistant?

A Virtual Assistant (VA) is a professional (usually self-employed) who provides both general and specialised support to businesses from a remote location. The services offered can include administration, creative services and technical support.

The role of virtual assistant provides you with a great deal of flexibility as you can cover a range of general administration tasks or choose to match your skills to specific areas of work.

Thanks to working remotely, there are no restrictions as to who you can provide your services to and your clients can be anywhere in the world.

Whether you’re embarking on a new career or looking for a side hustle to supplement your income, becoming a VA provides an amazing entry point.

The scope of services on offer by virtual assistants is wide and can include:

• Appointment Scheduling - arranging meetings and meeting locations for company staff

• Social Media - engaging followers, managing social media posts, publishing posts and writing blog posts

• Admin Support - data entry, report preparation, managing appointments and email management

• Customer Service - processing orders, customer queries and complaint handling

• Website Management - keeping content up-to-date, adding articles using SEO techniques and general website maintenance

• Accounts - issuing and managing invoicing, bookkeeping, managing pay

Why Consider Being A Virtual Assistant?

Before we jump into the “how to become a VA,” let’s have a quick look at why it’s worth considering:

Flexible Location: you can work anywhere in the world provided you have a laptop and an internet connection.

Flexible Hours: work the hours you choose to fit in with your schedule. This helps with a good work-life balance.

Cheap To Start: there’s no qualification requirements for a VA and no need for a plush office with top of the range equipment.

Engaging Work: different clients will have different requirements which provides a lot of diversity and keeps things interesting.

Income Potential: you can set your own pay rates and continue to increase them as you gain more experience and skills.

Career Control: you can pick the jobs that are best suited to your skills and offer the best development opportunities.

Virtual Assistant Skill Set

Before jumping in with both feet, it’s important that you assess your skills to see if being a virtual assistant is for you.

The minimum core skills you should possess are:

• Good Communication Skills - you will need strong literacy skills to communicate clearly both with written and verbal exchanges.

• Problem Resolution - the ability to troubleshoot is vital as you’ll be working independently.

• Organisational Skills - it’s imperative that you can manage your own time to ensure you deliver on time for your customers.

• Technically Savvy - different customers will operate different systems. Being proficient in using varied tools and software and adapting to new technology is key.

• Reliability - by delivering high standard work on time, you enhance your reputation and build good relationships with your client. This can lead to further work.

If you have all of these skills, there’s no reason you can’t choose to specialise in niche markets and roles. Having specialised skills can make you stand out from other virtual assistants and give you an edge.

Possible areas for specialised virtual assistants might include:

• Social Media Virtual Assistant: Podcast VA and/or VA to influencers - support with creation, editing and publishing.

• Real Estate Virtual Assistant: help estate agents with customer communications, listings and other admin tasks.

• E-commerce Virtual Assistant: maintain online shops, deal with customer queries, process orders and utilise marketing tools to push the client's brand.

• Data Analysis Virtual Assistant: crunch data to provide your client with detailed reports.

• Graphic Design Virtual Assistant: use design skills to assist with marketing materials and customer communications.

Set Up Your Virtual Assistant Business

Now we get to the nitty gritty of the guide: what do you need to do to get started as a virtual assistant?

Specify Your Services

Decide where your strengths lie and define the services you plan to offer. You might want to consider having different packages that combine certain services together to target different audiences.

Produce a Business Plan

Most successful companies have a business plan to ensure their objectives stay on track. A business plan can help to:

• Define your goals

• Specify your target market

• Create a pricing strategy

• Devise a marketing plan

Build an Online Brand

Your online presence is the gateway to selling yourself and your services. It’s imperative you dedicate as much time as necessary to get this right.

• Website: this will be your shop window so ensure you showcase your skills and services. It needs to look professional and provide details of how to contact you and tell them a bit about yourself. The website doesn’t have to be all singing and dancing. It can be basic but it needs to look clean and provide your prospective customers with the information they want.

• Portfolio: this can be a huge help on your website. Showcase your previous work and include any positive reviews and testimonials you have from existing and previous clients.

• LinkedIn Profile: LinkedIn is a useful tool for business networking. Make sure you optimise your profile outlining your experience and skills and connect with as many people as you can.

• Social Media: create a presence on platforms such as X and Facebook. It’s a cheap (or free) way to showcase your wares and engage with old and new customers.

• Blog: creating a blog section on your website is a great way to make Google take notice of you. If time permits, add regular blog posts detailing anything that adds to your credibility.

Decide Your Rates

Research the market demand for your type of services and compare costs if possible. Your rates should match your level of experience and skills.

You should decide whether you want to charge by the hour or by project or even based on the package if you offer different packages for your services.

Typical virtual assistant rates could be:

• Foundation Level - £10 to £15 per hour usually for basic admin tasks

• Medium Level - £15 to £40 per hour for those with advanced skills and experience

• Expert Level - £40 to £70 per hour for the most experienced and those with special skills and services

The Legal Stuff

It’s boring but nonetheless, there’s certain legal requirements to you running your own virtual assistant business.

• Register your company - it’s a requirement that you register the business name and be sure to check if you need any relevant permits or licences.

• Terms of Business - ensure you have watertight contracts in place that specify the terms of your services, when payments are due, and any confidentiality agreements that are needed.

• The Tax Man: another unfortunate side to running a business is how much you have to give to HMRC. Make sure you keep records of all transactions (including expenses) and it’s definitely worth speaking to a tax specialist if you’re new to this.

Getting Those All-Important Clients

Landing your first client is possibly the hardest part of starting out as a virtual assistant. Once you get that first client, it’s all about momentum.

Here’s some strategies to consider when looking for your clients:

Use Networks

• Reach out to family, friends and colleagues to let them know about your venture.

• Join network events so you can connect with people from the same industry and share your contact details.

• Join any forums and groups linked to virtual assistants.

Freelance Job Boards

• Sign up to freelance websites such as Upwork, PeoplePerHour and Fiverr.

• Register on job boards such as Indeed and remote.co.

• Look for job postings on social media platforms.

Cold Contact

• Try and find businesses that could take advantage of your services and contact them directly. Make sure you personalise the message and tailor it to their business.

Market Your Services

• Emails: build a bank of emails so you can stay in touch with previous clients and send newsletters.

• Paid advertising: don’t rule out paying for Google or Facebook adverts once you’re up and running. They can be a very powerful marketing tool.

• Content marketing: look into launching a YouTube channel and/or a blog so you can promote your virtual assistant services.

Continue To Grow The Business

Technology and methods are constantly changing so it’s important you’re on top of the latest ways to benefit from what’s available:

• Take online courses to keep current skills up-to-date and learn new skills.

• Keep up-to-date with the latest software and tools that can make life easier.

• Keep an eye out for virtual assistant conferences and webinars

Final Thoughts

Becoming a virtual assistant isn’t as difficult as you might think, whether you choose to do it as a side hustle for extra money or as a full time role.

It provides you with the opportunity to work from anywhere and doesn’t cost the earth to set it all up. It’s no shock that thousands of people are starting their own virtual assistant businesses each year.

This is the perfect role for you if you want to control your own destiny. You can set the amount of time you want to work and the level of income you’d like to target.

Use this guide as your starting point and it won’t be long before you’re running your own virtual assistant business.