Virtual assistance is not new, but it’s certainly new to many people. A virtual assistant is much more than a telecommuting secretary. According to VAnetworking.com “A Virtual Assistant (VA) is a highly-trained independent entrepreneur who provides a myriad of business support services virtually via phone, fax and internet based technology to support and meet the growing needs of businesses worldwide.”
A virtual assistant often specializes in certain business aspects such as marketing, graphic design, sales, etc. Some virtual assistants may be employed by one company and simply telecommute. Most, however, are small business owners and their business is to provide support to other small and large business owners from their home office.
There are many niches within the field of virtual assistance; real estate, social media, search engine optimization (SEO), legal, and medical, to name a few.
Statistically, most virtual assistants are married (69.3%) women (96.8%) with children (76.1%), have college or trade school training (59.2%) and were in the workforce for some time before starting their business (82.5%).*
A virtual assistant, at the peak of their career, can expect to charge around $40 an hour, depending upon their niche and experience. VA’s who specialize in graphic design and web design often earn much more; those in real estate tend to earn less.
One of the benefits of running a virtual assistance business is literally being able to work on your own schedule. Most virtual assistants work at least a few hours at night and on weekends, while handling client calls and other time-specific duties during the day. Vacations are easy to schedule, you can either take your business along with you or hire a sub-contractor to handle the bulk of your work while you are away.
How do you start a virtual assistance business? One great resource to start with is VAnetworking.com. Here you will find resources to help you start up your business, a business plan outline, training, informative articles, a forum to network with and learn from other virtual assistants, and links to many more resources.
Most virtual assistants find their clients through word of mouth, and most also market via a website, so keep that in mind and get busy networking!
*Source of statistics: Virtual Assistant Networking Association The Media Virtual Assistant Survey.
Comments
Thanks for putting this out there! I've been doing VA work for real estate agents and at first, they are amazed at how much can really be done virtually. As long as you hire the right person to do the job of course!
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