When people ask me what I do and I tell them, I often get the question, who is a virtual assistant, and then how can I become one. I will tell you who a virtual assistant is and how you can become a virtual assistant in 5 simple steps.

A virtual assistant is a professional who offers a service to an individual or business REMOTELY. The most important aspect of being a virtual assistant is the fact that you are able to work from the comfort of your home or a vacation spot. Your current location is not a hindrance or barrier or prerequisite for you. This makes virtual assisting the best side hustle or a great career choice for a stay at home mom/dad. Great news, yeah?

Now that you have decided to become a virtual assistant, below are the 5 simple steps you need to take.

1. Decide on a service to offer. There are over 50 services a virtual assistant can offer which makes it a very versatile business. The services you offer are entirely dependent on your skillset. What do you know how to do naturally, have learned how to do overtime or are willing to get trained to do now. Those are the factors that will determine what services you should offer to your prospective clients.
2. Choose a social media platform as your online office space. A website is great but a social media profile is essential. Make sure your profile says what you do and how you can be reached.
3. Now it’s time to create your packages and price your services. Here’s a general rule of thumb, Decide how many hours of the day you will be available to work for. Then determine how much you intend to earn on a monthly basis. This will give you a raw estimate of what you can charge your clients based on the number of hours it will take to work for them. Now do some research and see what the asking rate is for services or packages that are similar to yours. Here’s my advice, try to avoid charging too high especially when you are just starting out. Build momentum and grow, then with the confidence that comes with experience, increase your price to correlate with your expertise.
4. It’s time to work on your processes. These will include your client on-boarding process, contracts & agreements, payments & invoices. Getting these right before you begin will make signing up your first client a breeze and it will increase your chances of retaining that client based on your professionalism
5. Now it’s time to sign your first client: There’s something called a warm list. This is a list of friends and family who love you and will be willing to listen to you. Send an e-mail/WhatsApp message/Text message to them informing them of your new business venture and why you will make a perfect VA for their business. Now, please note that you may not receive favorable responses from them with a great majority telling you it won’t work. So, expect that and of course, move on. Cold calling is also a great way to find clients. Finally, social media is a great place to find and sign up new clients. About 75% of my clients found me via social media. Start by making sure your posts are about your service and what you can do for your clients. Finally, running Facebook ads is a great way to get in front of new people every day.

There you have it, 5 simple ways to start your virtual assistant business.