How To Find Virtual Assistant Jobs For Beginners

Virtual Assistant Jobs For Beginners

More and more people have started working from home mainly due to factors beyond their control. Not only this but more and more companies are realising that their staff are more productive working from home.

People are realising that they can earn good money working for companies from home. The virtual assistant job market is booming and now is a great time to get involved. So how do you find Virtual assistant jobs for beginners then?

Starting your own virtual assistant business is a daunting process when you have no experience but we all have to start somewhere. Let’s start at the beginning in case you have no clue what a virtual assistant is.

Some of my posts may contain affiliate links. This simply means if you purchase something after clicking one of the links, I may receive a commission at no extra cost to you. Many thanks for the continued support.

What Is A Virtual Assistant?

A virtual assistant is exactly as it sounds. You are an assistant to a range of businesses from small to large and you work from home which is why it is called virtual.

A virtual assistant can provide a host of various services from digital marketing tasks to emails and ringing clients along with arranging meetings and managing calendars etc.

You can work as much or as little as you want and the good news is most of the skills you learn or already know are transferable across most business’s which simply means if you need to move to a different employer it won’t be a problem.

Virtual Assistant Tasks

• Arranging Appointments
• Phoning clients
• Managing a workplace diary
• Managing a workplace calendar
• Managing a companies social media
• Digital marketing
• Preparing reports
• Arranging hotels and Birthday gifts etc (Personal Care)

What Skills Are Needed To Become A Virtual Assistant?

A lot of skills that are needed to become a virtual assistant are skills that you may have naturally or have picked up in your career at some point.

A lot of these skills are what will stand you in good stead when looking for virtual assistant jobs for beginners.

• Reliability: Being reliable is one of the top skills needed. Your employer shouldn’t have to worry about your completing the task on time or in the correct manner.
• Time Management: Similar to being reliable, Meeting demands and carrying out tasks in the time frame given comes down to good time management.
• Versatile: Hey its business tasks can change. Perhaps the timescale has moved or the task now has some added requirement. Being versatile is a great trait to have as a virtual assistant.
• Self Motivated: Working on your own from home can be a bit lonely and there are going to be times when you may feel tempted to pick your mobile up and start browsing or turn the Television on. Being Self-motivated is a skill you will need.
• Be Resourceful: Being resourceful is very important. No client wants to give you a task and then be bombarded with questions about how exactly they want the task completed. Use your head and be resourceful when it comes to completing tasks and doing your job.

How Much Can I Earn As A Virtual Assistant?

This is a hard question to answer as it can vary quite a bit dependant on the skillset you have and the hours you work.

You can earn anywhere between $5 to $60 per hour dependant on skill and the company you are working for.

In the Uk at the time of writing the average pay for a virtual assistant is around £16.50 per hour which is higher than the national average wage.

Virtual assistant jobs for beginners will start at a lower rate as you will not have the experience required when you start out.

If you are replying to emails and handling social media accounts then you will earn less then someone who is doing marketing and graphic design for example.

It really does boil down to skillset and how well you market yourself.

Virtual Assistant Pros And Cons

Virtual Assistant Pros

• Schedule your own day. If you want a 2-hour lunch then that is fine, If you need a break mid-afternoon to walk the dog, Also fine. The point is you can make a schedule that suits you, Weather that is working 11 hours straight or having 6 tea breaks.
• No Fixed Location. I love blogging from my dining room table with a cup of tea on the go and most Virtual assistants would prefer to work at home. However, the pro to being a virtual assistant is as long as you have some form of internet connection then you are free to work anywhere you like.
• Nobody to answer to. Sure you still have tasks that need to be completed but say you feel a bit rough or you didn’t sleep very well and you are tired then you can just get your tasks done all in one go then go back to bed in the afternoon. No ringing your boss to say you don’t feel well.
• People you work with. When working full-time in your day to day job sometimes you don’t get a chance to choose your colleagues. With being a virtual assistant you are working on your own and for yourself. You can pick and choose clients to work for and that can do a lot for your mental health.
• Wear what you like. Mostly when I am working on my blog you will find me in jogging bottoms and a hoodie. This is the beauty of working at home for yourself. Do you want to answer all of that companies emails in your PJ’s? Then go right ahead.
• Choose Your Pay. You can choose the rate you charge per hour or per task and if you feel you need a rise then you can just up your rate. If your work is good then people will pay.

Virtual Assistant Cons

• Holidays. Do you want a holiday? You will have to organise this around tasks you may currently have ongoing. You also will not get paid unless you are resigned to doing some work on your laptop while sunning yourself. Not as easy as you might think.
• Distractions. Occasionally while sat in my dining room blogging I do feel like making myself a cup of tea and playing some video games. Distractions are all too common when you have sat at home just inches away from most of them.
• Taxes. Unfortunately, business-like tasks such as paying your taxes and pension etc which are all done for you in a regular job need to be done by you and sometimes it is a massive pain.

How To Become A Virtual Assistant With No Experience

This is a very important question because let’s face it we all need to start somewhere and being a virtual assistant is not learned at college.

A virtual assistant will have some or at least one of the skills mentioned above.

If you are just starting out and want to become a virtual assistant with no experience and are looking for virtual assistant jobs for beginners then I would suggest picking one skill that you might already be quite good at and trying to market yourself around that.

You may feel that being a writer is your best skillset or perhaps you have some admin skills. There is a big rise in Pinterest Virtual assistants so perhaps that might suit your creative skillset better.

Have a think and pick one skillset you think you would be good at and that will be your starting point.

The two best ones at the moment in my personal opinion are Social media assistant and Blogging assistant.

Running any form of social media account can take time away from a business when they could be doing more lucrative work.

Also, Bloggers have small tasks such as Pinterest pinning and sending emails that they can easily assign to someone else for a small cost of course.

Where To Find Virtual Assistant Jobs For Beginners

So this is probably what you came to this post to find. Where to find virtual assistant jobs for beginners?

Let me tell you first off that becoming a virtual assistant takes a lot of dedication and hard work but it will be worthwhile in the end.

So where do you find these Virtual assistant jobs?

Below is a list of the best places to start getting known as a virtual assistant and to start honing your skills in various areas.

Fiverr:

Im sure if you have ever thought about doing any kind of freelance work then you will have heard of Fiverr.

Fiverr is a freelance site where you can sign up and list your skills. Create a great profile stating your experience in the areas you specialise in.

Once you have created your profile you can create a package with various price points that people can purchase.

For example I have purchased Pinterest pin packages from Fiverr and I have also in the past purchased website logo’s

More recently I have also been looking for blog content creators as well so the list of jobs you may be able to create is endless.

Upwork:

Upwork can be a bit daunting at first but this is solely because it is the biggest freelance site in the world.

The great news is there are so many jobs to choose from. This does also mean that finding Virtual assistant jobs for beginners could be a bit harder.

The site is free which is an added bonus, however, they do take a 10% cut of any payments made to you so please bear this in mind when calculating your fee’s

The main thing to remember with Upwork is that more jobs available and being a big site means more competition so make sure your profile and the Pitch you add to it to get the jobs is top-notch.

If you get stuck then there are plenty of guides online like this Upwork Profile guide from Full-time nomad.

There is also this great guide from Upwork themselves.

Fancy Hands:

Fancy Hands is a great site to go to if you are looking for a virtual assistant job for a beginner as it is a very beginner-friendly site.

Fancy Hands currently only have a US-based workforce but hopefully, they will expand at some point and we folks in the UK can benefit from their services.

All Fancy Hands asks is that you have a fast internet connection and can surf the web and use the internet well.

Here is an example of some of the work you may be asked to do as a virtual assistant for Fancy Hands.

• Making phone calls on behalf of people.
• Scheduling appointments (doctors, business, etc)
• Tracking down the best price for something.
• Finding hotels that meet certain criteria.
• Data entry.
• More phone calls.

The tasks typically pay between $3 to $7 per task and most tasks typically take about 20minutes. Sign up for Fancy Hands today and start earning.

Time Etc:

Timeetc is a great little site that is perfect for people looking for virtual assistant jobs for beginners as you do not need previous virtual assistant experience.

They do ask that you have had some kind of admin or secretarial role in the past but admin roles are something you could get a part-time job in if you needed a little experience there.

The pay is £11 per hour to start with and they do ask that you can spare 2-3 hours per day which I’m sure most of you can do.

The tasks needed will potentially include, arranging meetings and appointments, making telephone calls, sorting expenses, updating social media, or writing articles and content. Administration, formatting and typing documents, making travel arrangements, managing calendars.

You will have to sign up and be approved to work as a virtual assistant, then once this has happened you can start applying to work with clients.

Odesk:

You may see this site when you are doing your searching but just so you are in the loop Odesk is now Upwork so please see above for information on that site.

99Social:

99Social is a site where a Business will pay a monthly fee for people like yourselves to write daily short social media posts along with a photo.

This is to primarily boost the business owners social media profile and to engage with their every growing followers.

If you have excellent english and grammar and are very good with social media then this is the site for you.

You are paid a flat fee and this is monthly. The more clients you get and the more you write then the more money you will earn.

Check out 99Social to see if it is right for you as a beginner Virtual assistant.

Va Networking:

Va Networking is like a one-stop-shop for everything Virtual Assistant. They have a great blog. Some super tips on becoming a Virtual assistant.

They also offer Virtual Assistant products such as coaching and start-up check lists.

My favourite bit about this site is their free goodies for VA’s which includes some great downloadable facts to help you get started looking for virtual assistant jobs for beginners.

This site is super for not just beginners but experienced Virtual assistants as well. If I was starting out as a VA this is probably the site I would look at first.

Alternative Virtual Assistant Tips:

There are a few other ways of getting virtual assistant jobs for beginners. My first tip would be to create a Facebook Profile that shows you in a professional light. Then reach out to the local small business in your area through Facebook groups etc.

If you can get a few small contracts with local business’s then this will give you more experience.

Once you have gained that experience you could also reach out on Linkedin. Linkedin is the biggest professional networking site and you could try reaching out to slightly bigger companies on there. By this point, you will have built up your CV so it has lots of experience listed on it as well as a short section demonstrating what you can offer as a Virtual assistant.

Try Virtualassistantforums.com for more help from other more experienced VA’s and also the forum is dedicated to connecting virtual assistants to potential clients so lots of work opportunities for you to grab with both hands.

Virtual Assistant Jobs For Beginners

When you start out looking for virtual assistant jobs for beginners it is going to be hard and at times frustrating but if you work hard and learn as you go and perform with dedication and focus then you can turn this into a full-time job and eventually with the right experience behind you a well paid full-time job. Good luck.