3 Reasons You Should Start a Side Hustle as a VA

Jan 24

We are going to dive into 3 reasons why you should start a side hustle as a virtual assistant and I am excited to chat about this topic because I WISH that I even knew what a virtual assistant was 6 or 7 years ago when I was teaching in the classroom because I would have 100% would have been all in to do it as a part-time gig, and for some of the reasons I share with you today! It is important to note that having a business as a virtual assistant can be a full-time job (it is for me), however, the majority of people who get started, start out with just a few hours a week and then work up from there, which makes it perfect to do alongside a 9-5 or staying at home with your kids, whatever your day to day looks like right now! There’s a lot of opportunity in the industry and I think that’s important to mention!

01. It’s a Great Way to Supplement Your Income

Like I said, you can totally work as a VA and run your business full-time! I do it, and so do other gals in the space. However, I do think that it is a really great way to supplement your income because you are in control of how much you work and how much you make because you set your own availability and hours, and you set your own rate. Let’s say for example you are charging $20 as a VA and you want to work 5 hours a week (just 1 hour a day M-F). That’s 20 hours a month, times $20 an hour. That’s an extra $400 a month. Just think about for a second what an extra $400 could do for you and your family right now! And that’s only working 1 hour a day Monday through Friday so what if you are like okay, I could probably dedicate two hours a day, M-F, or maybe you are willing to give a couple of hours up on the weekends, like maybe during your kids' naptime or something, cool. Let’s double it.

Now you have 10 hours a week dedicated to working as a VA at $20 an hour, you are now making $800 a month. Obviously account for taxes because you will have to pay those at the end of the year, you’ll want to chat with a CPA about that BUT the point is, this is an awesome way to have some extra income coming in to help with finances, pay off debt, build up your savings, have some play money to treat yourself to something you enjoy doing but maybe is just an extra expense you don’t want to take on right now.

And know that that income can go up from there not because you increase your hours, but maybe you increase your rate! Maybe you raise your rate (or start at depending on your experience) to $25 an hour or $30 an hour. Now you are making an extra $1000-$1200 a month! Again, this is before taxes and what very little overhead you have (we will talk about that next), but I think in a world that is screaming “quit your 9-5 and build your own business”, we should be talking more about the power of a side hustle and how financially it can make a lot of sense for people and families!

02. There is Very Little Overhead

With any business, there is going to be some sort of overhead, however, online business and working as a virtual assistant really does have a lot less overhead than a brick-and-mortar business, ya know? So let’s talk about some of those expenses.

Obviously, since you are working as a virtual assistant, you are going to need access to a computer. You could potentially get away with a tablet, however, I would recommend investing in a laptop because some systems that your client may need you in won’t work or be very user-friendly on a tablet. And then you will want wifi or access to the Internet.

Then, the rest of your business expenses are really up to you and how much you want to invest in your business! You have access to free marketing via social media, there are apps and websites you can go to create free or low cost landing pages/websites, a lot of scheduling tools to book discovery calls have a free version… I could go on and on. I think if I were to recommend one thing that you invest in to make your business run smoother, it would be a CRM, which stands for customer relationship manager, platform and the one I use and love is Honeybook. I think it’s $30-40 a month (and then has a small transaction fee) but it does everything. I send my invoices and contracts through there, I book calls through it, my inquiry form is housed in Honeybook, you can even track expenses and download profit and loss statements… it’s pretty cool. And I am in no way sponsored by HB, they don’t even know who I am- but I will put my referral code in the description and the show notes in ‘cause you want to check it out. You can get your first 6 months for only $1 when you use that link! But again, this isn’t even something you NEED to run your business. I just think its a great tool to use and will grow with you and your business.

I am going to do an episode in the future about what my overhead costs were when I first started my business and maybe what I would recommend now looking back because it is different than what my expenses are now with a team and the mentorship and education side of my business. But all in all, it takes very little investment to run a business as a VA.

Alright now for the third and final reason why you should start a business as a VA –

03. It is Very Flexible When it Comes to Time

This is a BIG ONE for me. When I was looking to pivot in my career, I wanted something that was flexible so I could really build my own schedule around my family's life. When I first started, my son was about 15 months and I was pregnant with Baby #2 and didn’t have childcare. So I wanted to be able to do this during nap time after the kids went to bed or just throughout pockets of my day. And that is exactly what I did for a long time! Then as my business grew, and after we had our second baby, we decided that it would be best for our family to have some part-time childcare so that I could really be intentional with my time both working AND when I am with my kids, but still, I am able to create a schedule that works for us because of the flexibility of working as a VA!

One big question I get typically when I talk about this is, “Well as you’re still working with clients, don’t you have to do things a certain way or at a certain time?” And I would say yes and no. Yes, there are deadlines that have to be met, there are tasks that have to be done every day (like emails for example) but for the most part, as long as things get done when they need to get done, you are doing your job! An example would be certain weekly tasks – let's say every week you are scheduling their social media posts and they need to be scheduled by Friday for the following week. You could schedule them M, T, W, or Th. This is something you will chat more about with your clients but every client I have worked with is down with me figuring out the workflow that works best as long as things get done!

I think this is a good time to mention too that just because you work with clients doesn’t mean that you can’t set boundaries too. I set boundaries and expectations from the get-go, including by business hours, my schedule, and all that jazz. When you are a virtual assistant you are most often a contractor and it’s important to remember this is your business too, so if a client isn’t a great fit then that is totally okay! You will find one that is.

Another aspect of this time flexibility is that YOU decide how much time you want to make available to clients or how much you want to work as a VA. If you have a really full schedule at your 9-5 already, you may only want to work 1-2 hours a day so you can take on clients that are only looking for a few hours a week. Or if you are a teacher for example, and you have more availability in the summer you can take more clients on then or add more hours if you wanted to!

The point is, it’s very flexible and you can build your schedule however works best for you and your family!

There you have it! 3 Reasons You Should Start A Side Hustle As a VA. I hope this blog post gave you some helpful insight and if you are reading this post and you are like YUP I want to do this, I have some exciting news for you! 👇🏻

Our signature program, Your BTS BFF: Launching Your VA Business course is reopening its doors on March 1st!

This course is designed to give you all the tools you need to set up your business, start booking clients, and create a life you love with a schedule to match! During the course you will learn how to identify your ideal client, determine your services, set your rates, onboard new clients, manage your time while working with clients, and more!

I basically give you everything I wish I had when I started MY business and even tools and strategy I still use today within our agency to help you grow and scale as a virtual assistant. PLUS we have a lot of really helpful updates coming to it this round including some new and updated lessons, bonus trainings, and added resources!

If this is something you are interested in, you can check out all of the details here and get on the waitlist!

Can’t wait to see you inside! 👯‍♀️