How to Make Money From Home As A Virtual Assistant

Jul 22

You have heard people talk about making money from home as a virtual assistant, whether it's me or someone else on the internet, or maybe this is the first time you're even hearing about it. And if that's the case, welcome. But what does that actually mean? What is a virtual assistant? What does a virtual assistant do? We're going to be answering some of those questions today. I'm going to break it down for you and show you how you can make money from home using the skills you already have.

When you think about the word assistant, the root word of assistant is assist. That's very, very important in this context. The definition of assist is to help or support someone in order to make a task easier or to contribute to the achievement of a goal. It can also mean to be present as a helper or to participate in a supporting role. As a virtual assistant, your role is to assist your clients, who are typically other business owners, by taking tasks off their plates and allowing them to focus on the things that only they can do. A lot of times, when people are hiring a VA, it is so that they can take tasks off the business owner’s to do list so that they can focus on things like working with their clients, doing calls with their coaching clients for their program, creating content. or just the things that they actually want to be doing that’s really in their zone of genius. But a lot of times it is just taking things off their plate or things that keep getting pushed on the back burner, and having another person that can come in and take over. Why being a VA is, in my opinion, the best way to make money from home, especially if you're looking for a side hustle, but also if you wanna do something full-time from home, is a couple of different reasons. There are really three reasons.

Number one, it's a low barrier to entry. You can become a virtual assistant using the skills you already have. This is what I am all about. This is what I talk about all the time, that no matter what your background is, no matter if you're a teacher, you're a nurse, you're in corporate, you're a stay-at-home mom, literally you can become a virtual assistant using the skills you already have. It's just a way of positioning your skills, making sure you have the right support and systems in place in order to get started. It's a low barrier to entry. You don't need fancy resumes. You don't need a specific degree. You don't even need experience in like administration. There are so many skills that you already have that will translate into supporting your other business owners. Hear me when I say that. It is so, so possible for you. That makes it one of the best ways to get started because you could literally get started today by helping a business owner take things off their to do list.

Number two reason is it's consistent and it's predictable a lot of the time. Once you get a client, I always recommend, and I talk a lot about this in our Beginner to Book VA program, that you have contracts that are three months or longer. I always recommend that your initial contract with someone be a three-month contract. Then obviously in your contract, you have cancellation agreements and clauses and all that good stuff where it is predictable, typically when you will have clients and how much money you'll be making every month. Especially when you are pricing based on hourly retainers. If you have a client who is booking you for 10 hours a month, you know that you are going to make X amount of money from that client every single month. You know that those 10 hours are reserved for that client. This is what I teach in Beginner to Booked VA, and we really hammer in on this because it's important to let you know that you can build an online business, make money from home, and it can be sustainable and predictable. I had clients that I worked with for almost three years straight, because the agreement that we had in place. A lot of times, people don't want to hire a VA only to have to hire a new one in a couple of months. People are hiring VAs so that you can be with them long-term. I know that's what you want as well, right? You don't wanna just be someone who has a bunch of client turnover. That is so possible with this. It's not something where you're constantly having to look for the next sale or looking for the next person to sign up. It can be consistent, predictable, and sustainable. That's what I want for you.

Number three, it is very much in high demand. I want to give you some statistics. In 2020, there were about 4.4 million new businesses started in the US. In 2023, there were 5.5 million new businesses started in the US. That is a 56% increase overall since 2019. 2019 to 2023, that was a 56% increase overall. What does that mean for you? Those businesses are likely to going to need VAs. Some of them are probably already looking. A virtual assistant is one of the first hires that someone typically makes, especially in online business. There's a lot of people who have brick and mortars and offer in-person services who might be looking to hire a virtual assistant. It really just depends. It's remembering that there are people who are starting online businesses every single day. Not even online businesses, just businesses in general that are starting every single day. What that means for you is that you have clients as long as people are starting businesses. That's not going anywhere. I think it's just going to continue to increase. People are just going to continue to create businesses, whether it's online or in person, but I definitely think online business is just going to continue to increase, as we can do more things remotely and do more things online than ever before. I think you're going to continue to see this demand rising up, and I think that’s a huge benefit. It's in high demand. People are always going to need people to help support them in their business. They're always going to need support with their to do list. That is what you are here for.

So if you're like, okay, cool. This sounds like something I can totally do. I can make money from home as a VA. I've been looking for a way to make money from home as a VA. I just didn't really know if it was actually possible, if it was a real, legit thing. I'm here to tell you it very much is. There are three things that you really need to do in order to become a VA.

Number one, you need to identify your skill sets. You need to look at, okay, what are the skills that I have? Whether they're hard skills or soft skills. You need to uncover and identify what your skill sets are.

Number two, you need to look at how that translates to services and what you could use your skill sets for in order to help business owners. I have some good news for you. We actually have a free quiz called the Discover Your Money Making Skillset quiz. You can take this quiz and not only will you get your results right away, but if you put in your email address, we will also send you an email with more in depth results and examples of what this could look like for you. That's going to help you get an idea, start to see what is possible, and get those wheels turning.

Number three is putting yourself out there. Paying attention to the conversations of the people around you. There are so many times when I run into people, I hear people talking about how they are looking for an assistant, they just need help in their business, or, whatever it might be. The topic of coming to bringing someone on as a virtual assistant comes up. So make sure that you're paying attention to that. Also, letting people know what you're doing. Literally telling people, I'm starting my business as a virtual assistant. If you know of anyone who's looking for a VA or looking for support in their business, would you mind sending them my way? That is literally how I got my very first two clients. I sent a text to two of my friends, and I just said, hey, I'm starting my business as a VA. If you know of anyone or you hear of anyone looking, would you mind recommending me? Turns out, both of those people that I texted ended up actually needing VAs themselves. So that really worked out. That is what is so possible for you as well. Also, social media is a great place to start putting yourself out there as well. That's just a tool that you can use in your tool belt. It's searchable. People are definitely searching for VAs on social media because Instagram has really become a search engine. There's a lot of SEO, search engine optimization, that has started to happen. When someone types in virtual assistant, you know, profiles of VAs and content about VAs will start to come up. That is how they are finding a virtual assistant. I'm not saying you need to post every single day on social media and you need to market super heavy on social media. This is actually a topic I really want to talk about in the next few weeks. I really want to kind of break down how posting as a VA looks a lot different than how I think people think when using social media as marketing. So stay tuned for that.

When you put yourself out there and you start talking about it, you might realize there are actually people in your life right now who are looking for VAs. I know gals who have gone through beginner to book VA, and they've been hired by their realtor. A family friend has a business. They've been looking for someone to help take over some emails and some customer service or invoicing. You just never, ever know. You just have to put yourself out there. So do me a favor, and also do yourself a favor and go take the quiz. I think it'll give you a really good idea and insight into how you can use your skills to be a VA. I would actually love to hear what results you get. So after you take the quiz, respond to that email that you get with your results, and let me know.