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What is a Virtual Assistant?
A virtual assistant is a remote worker mostly freelancing to assist the client with their task to free up their time to do more on their business or personal life.
There are a lot of sub categories of a virtual assistants eg. Real estate VA, Travel VA, Legal VA, Marketing VA, Social Media VA, Amazon VA and the list goes on. Every VA Jobs may be different in some ways but there are key task in general.
General task of a Virtual Assistant:
1. Email Management – answering emails, filtering and categorizing emails.
2. Coordinating schedules – organizing client’s calendar.
3. Answer phone calls or make phone calls – scheduling and taking messages for the client, communicating with the your client’s customers or employees.
4. Transcribing documents – transcribing audio files, video files or text files. Or anything related to your clients business.
5. Customer Support – answering customer’s questions, and processing orders.
6. Prepare Reports – summary of sales and other reports related to their business.
7. Travel schedule – some of your clients may request to be assisted with their travel arrangements, hotel bookings or airline tickets.
Other task may include the following:
– Data entry and spread sheet management
– Web research
– Leads generation
– Clients outreach – helping them to market their business.
– Email Marketing
– Social Media Management – social media posting and engagement
– Website Management
– Content Creation and Creatives
– Billing and Accounting
There are instances that there are specific task not included on the list on the different categories of a VA.
What do you need to become a Virtual Assistant?
1. Equipment
- Computer – Desktop if you are working mostly in one location or at home. Laptop if you are a nomad and traveling around.
- Internet – Reliable internet and high-speed connection and preferably with backup internet.
- Headset – to be able to communicate with your client clearly. (Optional)
2. Skills – You may not have a direct experience as a virtual assistant, but some of the skills needed to become one, you may already possess. Also, there are thousands of videos and blogs to enhance your skills and learn from them for free.
- Computer proficiency – You are mainly working online and remotely with a wide variety of tasks involving apps, tools, and software. Learning how to maximize the free resources through YouTube and google is beneficial.
- Organization and Management – You will be doing a lot of organizing from emails to appointments, calendars, and spreadsheets. And management basically everything involving his business and sometimes personal activities.
- Communication – dealing with your clients and their clients may need good communication skills via writing or speaking. For you to have a good understanding of the task, constant and open communication with your clients is helpful.
Related Blog: Free Courses to enhance your technical skills.
3. Patience – A big bucket of patience, from learning the skills, creating a portfolio, applying and building your accounts, to endless interviews and rejections.
How to start a Virtual Assistant Job?
Step 1: After acquiring the needed equipment, skills and patience listed above. You are now ready for the next step.
Step 2: Create an account on trusted website. Prepare your Resume and update your CV.
Related Blog: Where to find work from home jobs opportunity?
Step 3: Start applying for jobs on different platforms and agencies. Don’t forget to research the reputation of the site and the company that you will communicate with. Also, if they are asking for payment/security deposit, then you already know it is not a legitimate offer.
Step 4: Market yourself, by creating a portfolio, updating your LinkedIn profile, and connecting and networking with like-minded people. You can start with a social media page and eventually create your own website portfolio.
Step 5: Narrow down your niche/or decide what sub-category you want to master as a VA. You can be a general virtual assistant, real estate VA, amazon VA and so on. You can start exploring the job descriptions of the openings and check which task you are comfortable doing. Remember that being an expert in your niche or category will open doors to more clients and higher pay.
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How much a Virtual Assistant Make?
Your rate will depend on your expertise and experience.
As a no-experience VA PH-based fee ideally starts at 5 USD per hour. However, some offer 3 USD per hour as a beginner and the client will provide the training at an intern level. In this case, after a few months of mastery of your task don’t be shy to renegotiate your fees. If you are offered lower than that it is not worth it. Remember you are paying for your own equipment, electricity, internet, and time.
Gaining confidence with your experience and being able to sell yourself even better. The average rate of a VA is around 10-15 USD per hour. It can go up to 20-50USD per hour as your expertise grows.
Some clients also offer a fixed monthly rate for long-term VA starting with 500USD-800USD as a beginner. Then with experience, you can reach an average of 1,000-2,000USD per month. As an expert, the rate goes beyond.
Are you ready to become a Virtual Assistant?
Here is a list of Pros and cons of becoming a VA.
PROs
- You can set up fast. With the right equipment, skills, and dedication you are ready to go.
- It is flexible, you can work day time, graveyard shifts, part-time and full time.
- You can work anywhere, at home, café, at the beach and anywhere with good access to internet.
- You don’t need a degree to get started.
- You can spend time with your family.
Cons
- Setting up maybe easy but getting clients take a lot of time, it can take you weeks, or even months.
- You need to invest on the equipment as they are not provided.
- Unlike a regular employment, your usual benefits like Philhealth, SSS, Pag ibig or HMO is not offered here as you are a independent contractor.
- Trainings may or may not be offered, if you are rendering a service make sure you are up to date with the latest software or familiar with the task.
Hi Pinay!
Currently, there is the hype about becoming a virtual assistant. I am one of the contributors in Angat Pinay and I’ve been a part-time VA since 2015. I started as an intern with 550 USD per month and reached 2,000 USD per month on one client alone. Personally, it is not a quick money scheme but a process, hard work, dedication, research, offering beyond what was asked, and a lot of patience.
Don’t give up easily. Apply as much as you can and be confident. Make an effort in learning, the resources are there for your to discover. It may take time but continue and be consistent.
Share with us your struggle and victories in becoming a VA. We would love to learn something new from you and be inspired by your story.