How did I replace my full time income working only 20 hours a week from home
with the new baby? By becoming a freelance at virtual assistant.
And in this video I'm gonna share with you some of my top tips for becoming one
as well.
I'm Abbey Ashley, the founder of the virtual savvy,
and this is my youtube channel. If you haven't already,
make sure that you subscribe to my channel.
Click the bell to be notified every time I release a new video because I'm
constantly putting out information for new and aspiring virtual assistants to
grow their business from scratch.
Have you ever wondered how people really make money working from home?
You know it's possible you've read the blogs,
you've seen the pins on Pinterest of people making money from home,
but you stop and you think, how is that really possible?
What do people really do in order to earn an income working online?
Well,
I did this myself and the way I did it was through becoming a freelance virtual
assistant.
I started my business in 2013 when I was actually pregnant with my very first
child. I was really quickly able to book out my services,
which meant that after maternity leave I didn't have to go back to work.
It was a huge turning point for me and my family.
We started to taste how flexible life could really be.
We started to be able to go on vacations more often.
We didn't have to check in with the boss to see if it was okay because I was the
boss virtual assistance changed our life and it's why I created the virtual
savvy so I can help other people discover this life changing career path as
well. In this video I'm going to be sharing with you what a freelance virtual
assistant is,
the services you can offer as one and share with you how to access my top tips
for finding clients as a VA. Let's start with this,
What is a virtual assistant?
A virtual assistant can be any type of remote assistant who provides
administrative,
creative or technical support services for online or brick and mortar
businesses. Generally, as a virtual assistant,
you will be starting your own business.
You can go to work at a virtual assistant company.
You can also be hired on as a W-2 employee as a virtual assistant,
but generally the people that I trained would be starting their own virtual
assistant businesses,
which means that you get to charge the rates that you want to charge,
work the hours that you want to work and find your own clients that you want to
work with. I love the freedom and flexibility that comes with that.
Now I will note that as a freelance virtual assistant,
you will be an independent contractor. What does that mean?
As opposed to being an employee? As an independent contractor,
you will set your own hours. You'll set your own rate,
which means you decide what you charge, you decide when,
where and how you will work,
which means that a client can't necessarily say that you have to be online from
nine to five or require you to be somewhere at a specific time,
and it also means that you create your own systems for working,
including invoicing, payments, etc.
Have you ever worked as an independent contractor or freelancer?
Let me know in the comments below. I want to hear what kind of job you did.
It doesn't have to be online, but just go ahead and share with me below. Okay,
so now that we know what a virtual assistant is,
we know how you'll be working. We know that you're in charge and you're the boss,
it's good to know what type of services of virtual assistant can actually offer.
What will you actually be doing for your clients? Right?
Most virtual assistants fall into two categories.
Either you are a general virtual assistant or a specialized virtual assistant.
Most people start out as a general virtual assistant, which I think is awesome.
You most likely already have the transferable skills from a previous job or a
volunteer experience to make you qualified to become a VA.
Here are some of the most requested tasks for people starting out as a general
virtual assistant. As a general VA,
you can help your clients with things like scheduling and sending emails,
social media, graphic creation, social media, scheduling,
writing, blogging, content creation, web design,
calendar management, Webinar, live workshop assistance,
customer service emails,
travel research and booking and appointment setting. You might be thinking, Abbey,
these are really easy tasks. Why would somebody hire me to do this?
The thing is, as a person's business grows,
their time becomes more and more valuable.
So if you can come in and help with some of the more mundane tasks or the things
that don't require a specialized skill,
that frees up the business owner to focus more on big picture items or the
things that make them more money.
This is why a general virtual assistant is a very important role.
I have found that sometimes the first hire a client will make is a general VA.
They need somebody to help with invoicing.
They need somebody to help with answering some of their customer service emails,
and that's where you come in when we're talking about services to offer as a
virtual assistant,
maybe you already have a high end service that you can offer currently,
or maybe you're going to start out as a general virtual assistant,
but eventually you want to learn a high end service.
One of the best ways to raise your rates is to learn a high end specialized
skill.
So when we ask what skills can a freelance virtual assistant offer,
one of the best things to do is look at what's really possible.
Oftentimes people will transition from being a virtual assistant,
a general VA into offering these more specialized skills,
some of these skills include interest management, Instagram management,
Facebook ads, course launch strategies, online business management,
bookkeeping, proofreading and copywriting, graphic design,
web design, or affiliate management. I'd love to hear from you,
which one of these high end services sounds appealing to you?
Which one do you think that you could eventually offer in your business?
Even if you don't know that service right now, it's okay.
It can go ahead and stay on your radar as something that you eventually want to
learn and that you eventually want to become an expert in. Remember,
nobody was instantly an expert.
Everybody started from zero,
so even if you don't already know a certain service, don't discredit yourself.
You still can learn.
You can still become an expert in a particular field.
Just go ahead and put it out there and decide this is what I think I eventually
want to pursue. That way you can be open to those opportunities. At this point,
you may be wondering, okay, Abbey, how about the clients?
It's actually the number one question that I get from people starting out as
virtual assistants is where am I going to find people to hire me?
Well,
I will go ahead and preface by saying there are no shortage of freelance jobs.
According to a recent study,
there are 57.3 million people already doing freelance work in the United States.
In fact,
by the year 2027 the majority of workers in the US will actually be freelancers.
That's right.
The amount of people who are employees compared to the amount of people who are
freelancers,
freelancers are actually going to outnumber employees by 2027 crazy.
Right? But it makes sense with the way the world is going. Right?
More and more people are comfortable hiring remotely.
We all realize that you don't have to live in the same city as somebody,
especially if they're the best fit for the job. Time zones.
Even countries don't necessarily matter as much when it comes to hiring people
to assist you in your business.
The world is getting bigger and it's the perfect time to jump into the freelance
virtual assistant world. I'd love to hear from you.
On a scale from one to five let me know how interested you are in becoming a
virtual assistant.
How much do you think this may be the right career path for you?
So let me know in the comments below.
Now you know what a virtual assistant is and you know what services that you can
offer as a VA. We also know that there is no shortage of jobs,
so where do you actually find these clients? How do you market your business?
I've created a free 60 minute web training called become a booked out virtual
assistant and I would love to have you join me for it.
You can get instant access by going to thevirtualsavvy.com/bbo if this video was
helpful to you, it makes sure you like it and subscribe to my channel.
That helps me know what kind of content you want me to be creating.
I'll see you in the next video. Bye.