Do you have a love for social media, design, and organization? Becoming a virtual assistant could be the perfect career for you! Being a virtual assistant gives you the opportunity to always be creative and have fun. If you’re interested in learning how to be a virtual assistant, keep reading.
What Is a Virtual Assistant?
A virtual assistant is a person who does tasks, provides skills, and completes any projects that an in-person assistant would do, except they do it all online. As a virtual assistant, you may find yourself completing organization, design, and management tasks for your clients without ever having to leave the comfort of your home.
Virtual assistant careers specialize in skills and tasks including:
- Social media management
- Calendar, email, or account management
- Creating, editing, or recording podcasts
- Graphic design, including logos, websites, flyers, and social media posts
- Website creation, content management, or design
Steps for Becoming a Virtual Assistant
1. Decide on Your Services
The first step in learning how to be a virtual assistant is to decide on what services you will provide. Before you even contact clients or create your business, you should sit down and perfect who you are and what you provide. Virtual assistants can provide many skills and jobs, even ones not listed above, so it’s important to be specific.
It’s great to know a little bit about every area in the virtual assistant world, but it’s equally as important to be an expert in at least one. Do you specialize in social media? Graphic design? Management? Find your niche and focus on it!
2. Create Who You Are
Once you’ve figured out who you want to be and what services you can provide, it’s important to begin the creation process. There are five major steps in the creation process:
- Create your business name
- Register your business legally
- Craft a website and social media pages
- Write your “about me”, advertising who you are
- Decide on your pricing, per hour or flat rate
3. Focus On Your Online Presence
Marketing is key for a virtual assistant professional. If you want your career to be successful, you’re going to need to market yourself as much as possible. Marketing yourself can include a number of things. You can let your creativity shine through!
Virtual assistants typically find success with marketing through areas such as:- Online Promotion. Online promotion can include a number of things. Creating and promoting a Google Business Profile can help you show up in potential Google search results. Utilizing Search Engine Optimization (SEO) keywords on your website can help you get more visits. Writing and publishing regular blogs may increase your interactions.
- Increased Social Media Presence. You need to become an expert in social media to be a successful virtual assistant. Perfecting your knowledge on one or two social media sites will help you become a desirable virtual assistant. Promoting your work on these platforms, or all across your social media platforms, can also help market your business.
- Paid Advertising. Advertisements on Google, Facebook, Instagram, or other sites will help others take notice of your virtual assistant business. An advertisement that’s attention grabbing, catchy, and straight to the point of what you’re offering is important to get potential clients to click on it. Be crafty, creative, and strategic!
Your marketing strategy doesn’t have to be limited to these options, either. As a virtual assistant, you have the creative freedom to market your business how you best see fit. If you want to take a more creative or different approach, that’s completely up to you!
4. Apply for Jobs Online
It’s time to start applying for jobs! While this can be an intimidating step, applying for jobs is a fun, exciting part of being a virtual assistant. This step can take quite some time, and rejection will happen. Keeping up your spirits and motivation is important.
One option for applying for jobs online is to apply to sites that specifically cater to remote workers. Sites such as Fiverr and Upwork allow you to promote your work, set your price, and accept or reject clients on the site itself. Other options such as Flexjobs or Facebook groups that promote remote work are great choices as well.
Another way that you could find clientele is through cold pitches. Cold pitches are when you call a potential client and promote yourself to them. You’re basically advertising yourself to the person you want to hire you. Make sure to sort through potential clients before you call and find the ones who are looking for your area of focus!
5. Begin With Your First Client
The most exciting part of the steps to becoming a virtual assistant--working with your first client! Beginning with your first client does require a few steps to make sure the process goes smoothly:
- Signing a contract. Before you even start with the client, you need to make sure that a contract is signed. On sites such as Fiverr, this step is not necessary. But if you are operating out of your own business, it’s important that you and the client both sign a contract stating payment, time frame of work, and other details that are specific and important to you.
- Defining boundaries. As a virtual assistant, you need to have defined boundaries in order to keep your work safe, fun, and successful. Defining requirements, responsibilities, and hours is important to keeping a good relationship with your client.
Now, after you’ve completed all the steps, you can start your first job! You get to work with your client on any projects, tasks, and creative endeavors they need you for.
Try Your Hand at Being a Virtual Assistant Today!
Does being a virtual assistant appeal to you? Being a virtual assistant can be one of the most rewarding, creative jobs that you can find. Working from home is definitely an added bonus, too! To make sure you’re never without internet at home, try Nomad Internet for reliable service today!