Are you looking for a new job? Maybe a role that will work alongside your other commitments such as childcare, looking after elderly relatives or simply running a household? Jobs like that can be few and far between. Some require for your specific hours, or a certain day of the week which might not work. Others mean you simply wouldn't be able to juggle both work and home life. Have you ever thought about setting up by yourself? A great thing you can do, which allows you to work in your own time, is offer assistance to businesses, from your home. If you have a broadband connection, laptop and a phone, you could easily become a virtual assistant.
What Is A Virtual Assistant?
A virtual assistant, or a VA, is someone who works with businesses, providing support from the comfort of their own home. This means you don't need to go into an office space or the business premises. You simply work from home, offering services that businesses want to outsource or need a hand with. There are many benefits for both the VA and the businesses they are working with. Firstly, the clients that the virtual assistant works with don't have to employ the individual.
It can be done on a freelance basis, meaning there are no pension contributions or employee paperwork to be organised and maintained. Whilst there might be a contract, working freelance means the tax side of things is all up to the freelancer. Working on a freelance basis means the virtual assistant can pick and choose their hours, working when they want, where they want, as long as the work gets done.
How Can You Become A VA?
You don't really need a great deal of experience or expertise to become a virtual assistant. VAs do a lot of different jobs so you'll need to be organised and professional, hardworking and thorough. However, as long as you have a broadband connection that works, a laptop you can log on to and a phone you can answer, you should be sorted.
A lot of the work will be you at a screen, answering call, organising things and maybe even typing things up. Depending on the services you decide to offer, this could even be done in the evenings alongside your current role. Of course, to become a virtual assistant, you are going to need clients.
How Do You Find Clients & Businesses To Work With?
Having your own website which details what you can offer businesses, business people or entrepreneurs is a great asset. However it's not one you necessarily need. You could literally find businesses you like the sound of and email them. Join LinkedIn and set your profile up with all the information that you can offer, then start connecting with people. You never know who might need a permanent, or maybe temporary bit of assistance.
Then, of course, there is social media. Search for virtual assistant in Twitter and you might find tweets from potential clients who are looking for a helping hand. Targeting new businesses might prove successful as they need things done but won't want to hire permanent members of staff. Get your name out there. Once you get the first client, word of mouth can be a fantastic thing!
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What Work Does A Virtual Assistant Do?
There are lots of tasks a virtual assistant could find themselves doing. If you are an expert in a specific field you might just keep that niche and fid that people come to you for just that skill. However if you want to provide more services and perhaps take on longer hours with each client, become a master of many talents. You could be replying to emails, posting on websites and organising travel.
For another client you could be doing diary management, organising events, writing blog posts or creating graphics. The list if pretty much endless. Load of different businesses need tasks doing and often it's easier to hand them over to someone else to free up time. This is how you could earn your living.
What Hours Will You Work As A VA?
The great thing about working as a VA is that you can choose the hours that you work. You might pick up one client who needs four hours a week, which could suffice. However with different clients wanting different amounts of hours, you could quickly build up a number of hours.
As long as clients knew that the work would be done when it is done, you could have three four or even five clients which would create part time hours for you. Maybe if you enjoyed the work so much and there was enough interest you could build up to a full time role.
How Much Should You Charge & What Could You Earn?
You can charge whatever you think you are worth. Looking at research from the Society of Virtual Assistant's annual survey, the average rate for a VA in the United Kingdom is around £27 an hour. Some people start lower at maybe £15 an hour whilst others charge upwards of £30 and even £50 an hour. You need to do what works for you and the client.
Don't forget that out of what you are earning, you will need to pay overheads, your tax and National Insurance contributions. If we take the average amount and call it 15 hours a week, that's £405 a week. That's £21060 a year. Your take home pay for this amount would be just under £18k a year.
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In conclusion, how does becoming a virtual assistant sound? Where would you work from within your house? Would you need a dedicate office space or would you be happy doing it from the kitchen table? Would it be a great way to make money whilst also doing the school run and juggling being the Dad taxi? Becoming a virtual assistant can be a very fulfilling and rewarding role. One which provides variety as well as a decent pay cheque. Fire up the laptop, get ready to write, connect to your broadband and grab your mobile phone. You're about to become a virtual assistant!