Back to the Basics - What Is a Virtual Assistant and How Do You Build a Business as One?

Jul 27

I wanted to touch base this week because I get questions nearly every day about what a virtual assistant even is, how it’s a legit business you can start, how you make money, what you actually do as a VA, and everything in between.

And a lot of times these questions come from the angle of somebody DMing me and they are like okay I’m intrigued and I want to work from home and I want to have time flexibility or I want to make some extra money in the side of my job but like… what the heck is this ACTUALLY so I want to pull the curtain back (like I like to do on the podcast) and break it all down for you. Take the mystery out of it if you will!

So let’s dive in!

So what is a virtual assistant?

A virtual assistant or commonly known as a VA is truly exactly what it sounds like — you’re an assistant for a client, but you work virtually!

Think of a VA as a support person in someone’s business, whether it’s on a specific project, or it’s on a more consistent basis! You are behind the scenes (hence my business and this podcasts name lol) which means you are working a lot on back-end things to help the client’s business run smoother and/or take some of the tasks that they are feeling bogged down or overwhelmed by, off their plate!

Who are your clients when you are a VA?

I feel like most commonly, it’s online business owners who are utilizing virtual assistants because of the commonalities of it, right? If you’re building an online business, you likely want support that is virtual and online as well! You don’t necessarily need or want someone in person working as an assistant when everything can be done through the internet and Zoom, ya know!? Some people might! But it’s more common to hire VAs!

That’s not to say that brick-and-mortar biz owners don’t use VAs, because I’m actually seeing a lot more of this going on- But anecdotally, I bet 90% of people hiring VAs are online business owners, content creators, etc.

Also, a virtual assistant is usually someone’s FIRST hire.

Let’s say the business owner has been in business for a year or so and they are starting to scale and are realizing they can keep up with everything they’ve got going on — they are likely going to look to a virtual assistant to outsource some of the things that they can! Typically, it’s less expensive for a business owner to hire a VA than it is to hire a full-time employee because you don’t have to provide benefits, a salary, etc. Hiring contractors in general is the first step for business owners! So as a VA, you are likely one of the first, if not the first, team members of a brand or business which can be really fun and exciting in my opinion!

But in terms of clients, your clients can really be ANYONE in any industry! I moved around from working with clients a few months ago, and I only work with two clients now as their OBM, but overall, I’ve worked with I think 12 different industries which is crazy cool! I really think any business owner can benefit from a VA if they are at a point where they need to outsource but that’s another blog for another day.

I actually have a highlight on my IG titled “VA SERVICES“ where you can see submissions of client industries and I shared just a handful of things a VA could do for them if you want to check out some ideas! I will link that in the description so you can find it easily.

I also have a student from our VA Roadmap, which if you didn’t know that’s our signature program teaching you how to start and grow and business as a VA (and if you missed it, we are actually doing a flash sale on the program until the end of the month. I’ll put the sale deets at the bottom of this post but it’s a GOOD one so def check it out) — anyway, this student who is inside the roadmap, is working on being more of like a family personal assistant (but working virtually). She has experience with being a nanny and a PA and had an awesome idea of being a virtual PA where she can help families book travel, manage schedules, manage their homes through different systems, etc! I think that’s a really cool and creative outlook and honestly, there’s a lot of scaleability with that! I mean I imagine digital products, call packages, etc — but I digress lol.

But in my first couple months as a VA, I worked with six clients and they were:

❋ A productivity coach and course creator

❋ An enneagram coach and expert

❋ An interior designer (who was actually a hybrid client of mine, and I was doing their social media)

❋ A digital product and membership creator for network marketers

❋ An interior photographer

❋ A health and wellness coach

So all across the board right!? And that’s something that actually drew me to the VA industry because as someone who is multi passionate, I like to learn about and be involved in a variety of things!

I am going to link two episodes for you that go over alllll about how to actually find clients if you are interested in that:

Episode 09: 3 Places to Find Your First VA Client

Episode 23: Facebook groups are Out – Here’s What’s In

Check out those episodes after this one if you are curious on what goes into client attraction and where you can find your ideal clients you want to work with!

That leads me to my next question which is:

What do you do, or what can you do, as a VA?

For my client who was a productivity coach and course creator I did:

Customer support emails
Honeybook management
Membership/community management (accepting new members, removing members who have canceled, reviewing payments, etc)
Turn podcast scripts into blog posts
Reformat old blog posts
Schedule social media posts
Any admin-related “one-off tasks”

For my client who was a health and wellness coach I:

Turn Instagram posts into blog posts
Membership/community management (accepting new members, removing members who have canceled, reviewing payments, etc.)
Affiliate management
Outreach marketing to podcasts
Any admin-related “one-off tasks”

And, for the photographer I:

Content creation for Instagram
Copy for email marketing
Managing company operations
Help with webinars/masterclasses
Assist in event/retreat planning

So those are just some examples of different tasks! Every client you work with is going to have a different list of things they want to delegate to you as their VA, and ultimately it’s up to you on what services you want to provide!

I don’t work with clients as much. I stepped away from client work to focus on mentoring and coaching back in March/April of this year, but I do work with two clients still and as their OBM or online business manager, which is different than a VA – the biggest difference is that I am involved a lot more with strategy and actually the set up of systems and the planning and processes vs just executing the to-do list, but I still do some more VA related tasks for those clients too.

The last question I want to go over is:

How much time does it take to build a successful business as a virtual assistant?

First, success is subjective. There might be someone who considers an extra $500 a month successful. There might be someone else who considers $5k months as successful! Everyone’s definition of success is different, so while I can’t answer this question exactly since your goals might be different than someone else’s – I can tell you that someone who wants to make $500 a month is not going to have to work as much as someone who wants to make $5000 a month – I feel like that is a given, ya know?

That being said, this is your business! You can work as much or as little as you want to! You decide how many clients you want to take on, how many hours you have available, etc. You are in the driver's seat.

But the key is that you align your action with your goals. Whether it’s how you set your rates, what your hours and availability are, or how many clients you take on! You can’t expect to make $5k in your business when you are putting in $500 effort, ya know?

So for this – define what your goals are and what “success” means to you, and then reverse engineer those goals. This is something I work a lot with my students on. And listen, MOST people start out very part-time with the business as a VA. It truly is SUCH a great side hustle!! So even if you can only work 5 hours a week (1 hour a day, M-F) you can still make a great additional income on the side of your full-time gig! And you can also take it full-time if that is your goal! Everyone’s goals are very different!

I really do believe that having a business as a VA can create a lot of opportunities for you and your family. I’ve done it, I have watched other people do it, and I’ve taught people how to do it! But you have to decide what success looks like to you, what measurable goals you are going to work towards, and the action that you need to take in order to make them happen!

Maybe you’ve been thinking about starting your own business as a VA but there are some things holding you back… Take a peek at our signature virtual assistant course, The Va Roadmap! Save $100 with the code BACKTOSCHOOL until 7/31! Learn about the investment here.