So, you want to be a virtual assistant (VA) but have absolutely no experience? No problem! The truth is, you don’t need to be a veteran VA to start working as a virtual assistant. In fact, many people start from scratch and go on to build lucrative careers.
Keep in mind, it will take hard work. You can’t expect that if you decide to become a VA work will magically fall into your lap.
However, you can become a successful VA with the right combination of dedication, determination, and enthusiasm (which should be no problem — after all, these are common traits of superstar VAs!).
Ready? Read on to learn how to become a virtual assistant with no experience.
Who Uses Virtual Assistants and Why?
Small business owners, solopreneurs, busy professionals, and bloggers all use virtual assistants. When there’s just not enough hours in the day to get everything done, it makes sense to outsource tasks to a VA. This frees up valuable time for the client to work on projects and tasks only they can complete.
Plus, it’s much more cost-effective to hire a VA than an in-office employee. For the client, this means savings on things like office supplies, health insurance, and other employee benefits programs.
Ready to jump-start your own virtual assistant business? Learn more than 275 services virtual assistants, like you, can offer.
Who Would Make a Great VA?
One of the great things about the VA profession is that so many diverse backgrounds translate well to virtual assisting. Of course, anyone with admin or clerical experience likely knows a few tricks of the trade to providing standout professional support, but teachers, stay-at-home parents, human resources pros, paralegals, nurses, and accountants possess many of the traits needed to succeed, too! And that’s just a short list.
Work history aside, some of the traits that generally make for a great VA include:
- Patience
- Honesty
- Discretion
- Personable
- Professional
- Organized
This isn’t an all-inclusive list, of course. But if you were nodding your head in agreement as you ran through that list, you probably already possess the soft skills needed to succeed as a VA!
How to Become a Virtual Assistant with No Experience
So, you know you’ve got what it takes to be successful but aren’t exactly sure where to start? That’s okay. You want to make sure you get started the right way. This will help you gain your footing and ultimately grow a successful business. The last thing you want to do is get started without a plan in place. Grasping at straws hoping something will work isn’t nearly as effective as going into the VA field with a well thought out strategy!
Start Small
I always recommend all beginners, no matter the profession, pick a niche. Whether you want to be a writer, proofreader, transcriptionist or, in this case, are wondering how to become a virtual assistant with no experience, the first thing you should do is settle on a niche.
Why?
It’s much easier to find potential clients, land jobs, and establish yourself as an expert when you’re focused on a particular group. And becoming an expert is what you should be aiming for. As an expert, you can command higher rates and will have clients seeking out your services rather than you constantly tracking down your next gig.
If a virtual assistant niche isn’t jumping right out you, here’s some of the most common (and lucrative!) options you might want to consider. Or, get inspired with this workbook filled with 275+ services VAs can offer.
Social Media Assistant
Social media is a time suck for business owners, bloggers and brands. (Believe me, I know!). As a virtual social media assistant, you help free up a client’s time by managing their social presence. This can include creating content, finding share-worthy articles, making pin-worthy graphics and responding to DMs and comments.
You may be a good fit for this niche if you:
- Can pin, post, tweet, snap and update with the best of them
- Know what’s trending before it’s actually trending
- Are familiar with automation tools like Buffer, Tailwind, and Hootsuite
- Understand what it takes to generate buzz and create brand awareness
This particular VA niche has exploded in recent years, and shows no signs of stopping. It seems like every day there’s a new social platform to conquer and different best practices to follow. As a social media virtual assistant, you can be the pro that helps businesses, bloggers and brands attract new readers and grow a loyal audience.
Pinterest is a good example. Many VAs become Pinterest Assistants and get paid to pin full time!
Blogger’s Virtual Assistant
Bloggers are usually jacks and jills of all trades. That is, they do just about everything when it comes to creating, updating, and maintaining their blogs and online presence. When you’re a one-man or one-woman show, it’s hard to keep up with this daily routine. That’s where you come in.
As a blogger’s assistant you may:
- Help write, edit, and post blog content
- Assist with graphic creation using applications like Canva or PicMonkey
- Respond to reader emails
- Optimize existing content by removing/fixing broken links, adding affiliate links, etc.
- Help schedule social media
If you’re just starting out as a blogger or have always wanted to start your own blog, being a blogger’s VA is a great learning opportunity. You’ll get a first-hand look at how a profitable blog operates and learn a tip or two along the way.
Ecommerce Assistant
Running a virtual storefront requires a lot of upkeep. Online store owners may have hundreds of thousands of items in their ever-changing inventory. Plus, there’s orders, returns and general customer service inquiries to handle on a daily basis. How on Earth do they keep up? They outsource work to a virtual assistant, like you, of course!
What you might do as an ecommerce VA:
- Write product descriptions
- Respond to customer billing inquiries
- Track packages and handle returns
- Help promote sales and product launches
Sellers may have their own sites or use a combination of popular platforms. Some of the most common ways to sell online include Amazon, Ebay, Etsy and Shopify. While you likely won’t be handling physical merchandise as an ecommerce VA, you will help run the day-to-day operations of a store. This is a great opportunity to use your real world retail skills in a virtual setting!
Real Estate Assistant
A lot goes into buying and selling property. That’s why buyers and sellers turn to realtors for help. Realtors secure home listings, help buyers find the perfect property, market listings, and stage open houses (to name a few). This is a lot to do for one person! To help stay organized and provide amazing support to buyers and sellers alike, realtors often outsource tasks so they can focus on their clients’ needs.
Some things you might do as a realtor’s VA:
- Schedule listing appointments and home viewings
- Market open houses
- Calendar management
- Write listing descriptions that sell
- Reach out to prospective buyers/sellers
If you have a background in real estate or simply have an interest in the field, this is a great opportunity to gain experience. While you won’t actually be showing houses, you will play an important role to the realtor that helps contribute to their overall success!
Ready to get into the field of real estate assisting? Find out how to become a Virtual Real Estate Assistant and create a career you’ll love.
General Admin Assistant
I know I said it’s important to pick a niche. So you might be wondering why general admin assistant made the list. In reality, a general VA is a niche of it’s own. How so?
Solopreneurs and small business owners need help. Chances are, they’ve got orders rolling in and clients to please. But there’s also the internal things that need to get taken care of on a daily basis. It’s hard to concentrate on delivering quality work when there’s an administrative to-do list a mile long.
You can exclusively market yourself to these busy professionals. They don’t have the need for their own receptionist or operations manager but they do need a helping hand to help them get more done in a day — and that person could be you!
Where to Find Virtual Assistant Jobs
A number of companies contract with virtual assistants. These companies serve as the middleman between you, the VA, and the client. You’ll likely work as an IC and be paid based on the number of clients you work with or amount of time you log.
But if you’re wondering how to become a virtual assistant with no experience, these companies might not be the best fit for you. Many of them exclusively contract with experienced VAs.
Boldy
Boldy is a unique company that hires VAs. At Boldly, you are hired as an employee instead of a contractor. Most Boldly VAs work part-time and have the flexibility to build their own schedule. To work at Boldly you need at least seven years experience! Check out my Boldly Review to find out what it’s like to work there.
Time Etc.
However, if you come from an admin or clerical background, you might want to check out Time Etc. You don’t need VA experience here to be considered but you will need to have previously worked as an executive assistant, receptionist, or any other admin-type position. This is a pretty flexible opportunity. In fact, if you have as little as three hours to spare each week, you can apply to become a VA here.
Fancy Hands
Another beginner-friendly platform to get your feet wet is Fancy Hands. This is a unique crowdsourced VA platform. Fancy Hands Virtual Assistants all have access to a pool of client tasks. Tasks are claimed on a first come first served basis. So, you never know what kinds of jobs may be available at any given time. You’re paid per task ($2.00-$7.00). Each one should only take about 15-20 minutes to complete. Payments are issued every two weeks via Dwolla.
Upwork
Upwork is the largest freelance marketplace. There are literally thousands of gigs posted at any given time. It’s free to sign up at Upwork. However, they take a 10% cut of any payments you receive! If you start out here, you’ll want to fill out your profile completely and learn the art of crafting the perfect pitch. Ryan Robinson, content marketing consultant to some big-name companies, knows a thing or two about writing a winning proposal. Check out his 5 Steps to Writing the Perfect Freelance Proposal to give yourself a leg up on the competition.
Remote Job Boards
I always recommend you regularly visit remote job boards. These are niche job search sites that specifically focus on remote jobs! Most of these sites are broken down by category. One of the popular categories is administrative assistant. That means you can finds dozens of virtual assistant jobs on these sites.
Create Your Own Freelance VA Career
Many pros become a virtual assistant with no experience by starting their own freelance business.
Now, it can seem overwhelming to become a freelancer but it’s honestly not that difficult. A whopping 57 million Americans freelance. If they can do it, so can you. What’s more, freelancers earn 70% more per hour than traditional workers.
And, your startup costs are very minimal. Really, all you need is to set up a freelance service website (which you can totally DIY) and that’s it. Now you are ready to market your services to potential clients.
Social media and LinkedIn and two great places to start. But, if you need extra support to establish yourself as a VA, I highly recommend online virtual assistant training.
Online Virtual Assistant Training
You need a lot of sweat equity to become a virtual assistant with no experience. I’m talking about many hours spent setting up your services, finding clients, and marketing yourself before you ever get paid.
But, there’s a way to fast track your business (and success) by signing up for virtual assistant training.
HorkeyHandbook
Gina Horkey started a successful VA biz from scratch and now she shares her tips as a VA biz coach over at Horkey Handbook. In just 5 steps (and 30 days or less) you can learn what it takes to be a VA, whether it’s right for you, and start earning income. All it takes is a small $97 investment for this quick-start mini course.
Pinterest VA
Ready to offer Pinterest services as a VA? No problem. You can learn from the best by signing up for courses at Become A Pinterest Virtual Assistant Today.
Real Estate Assistant
Real estate is big business which also makes it a very profitable VA niche. Find out how you can offer real estate assistant services and find virtual work helping realtors with training at Horkey Handbook.
Get Started Today – Become A Virtual Experience With No Experience
The best way to become a VA is to simply get started. Start small and build up momentum. You can:
- Pick a niche
- Create your freelance service site
- Make connections on LinkedIn
- Let others know about your services on social media
And, when in doubt, get extra help. The online courses we talked about like Horkey Handbook and Become A Pinterest VA are your go-to resources for online VA training.
Before you know it, you’ll be up and running as a VA, experience or not 🙂
Happily,
Ashlee
P.S. This post contains affiliate links. Check out my disclosure statement to learn more.
Hi Ashlee,
I’m so glad I came across your site today. I’m considering doing some work online to help my husband with the household expenses. Your site is the first one I’ve come across that gives comprehensive info on how to start working from home. I’m sure there are others but I’m liking what I’m reading. Thank you for sharing all these information.
This is wonderful information. I am starting a Virtual Assistant business of my own and am looking for information about what services to offer and how to market to potential clients.
Wonderful Information
Thank you so much for decent infomation on being a VA I’ve been looking into it for days. Your the first that has actually answered some questions without a sales pitch 🙂
Probably the most comprehensive piece I have read.
Just one point to add here, Aspiring social media virtual assistants must develop a knack to identify the nature of their client’s brand and only then set out to create relevant content. If done otherwise, it may end up causing more harm than good to the client.
Just going to share it on my social network.
Cheers!
im very interested.and i am please to submit to you my appreciate for you virtual assistant advertised
Hi Ashlee,
I’m so glad I came across your site today. I’m considering doing some work online to help my husband with the household expenses. Your site is the first one I’ve come across that gives comprehensive info on how to start working from home. I’m sure there are others but I’m liking what I’m reading. Thank you for sharing all these information.
the same as well
archon f. simbol
Hi there, very helpful article w/ the basic foundation of being a VA! I have been very interested in jumping in the VA world but I am SO lost at where to START. I’m sure there is contracts involved, do I have to formulate my own contract before I start taking on clients to ensure that I’m going to be paid properly and such? That’s my biggest question. If you could get back to me that would be so great!
I’m glad I came across this article. It is very informative and helpful. Thank you for sharing.
Hi Ashlee,
Thank you so much for the information that you have shared. I am really looking forward to this kind of job to help in the household expenses. Looking forward to get one this time now that I know the work of VA. I am always confused of its job details. It is now clear to me that there are so many kinds of VA. Thank you, thank you Ashlee. I will keep you posted when I get one. By the way, I am from the Philippines.
God bless you
Thank you for sharing really useful information in details.
I like to work as virtually since so long, I try upwork only but from now I fill I have so many other options as well.
This is useful for everyone like newbie also. you write this blog in very simple language.
Thanks for sharing this information
Great post! Just a quick nitpick though. It should be “nodding” your head in agreement instead of “shaking” (this indicates a ‘no’).
A lot of people spend hundreds of hours over the internet to know how to earn money online. I agree with you that you just have to know What types of services you can offer. You can really do a lot to earn money online. I would say if any new individual who would like to make many online starts to reads this informative article I am sure he is heading to get to to a big position since he save hours in research. Very Informative:)
I would like to apply as a virtual assistant.
Great article. Great tips for anyone who wants to be a virtual assistant and does not have much experience yet. Thank you for sharing
Thank you for sharing this great collection of information. The links are quite useful but a few of them do not work. The Grammarly link as well as both Gina Horkey links are broken. Do you need another VA to help? lol
It’s nice to see information truly aimed at persons with little to no experience attempting or desiring to become a VA. Reference to The 30 Days or Less to Virtual Assistant Success seems to appear all over the Internet and it suggests it’s a great course; I plan to take it when I can. It’s encouraging to see you mentioning it as well.
Hi Jen,
Thanks for letting me know 🙂 I’ll be sure to get the links updated and working immediately. Gina’s course is great, and has launched the careers of many VAs.
Happily,
Ashlee
1. Dependability. Unwavering quality is an absolute necessity in a virtual aide. Regardless of how qualified you are or how economically you function, you will lose customers in the event that they can’t depend on you. This implies they have to “set it and overlook it.” When they give you an assignment, you should take a shot at your own particular to complete it without updates and with no hand-holding. You should make their life simpler, and on the off chance that they need to continually stop what they’re doing to keep an eye on you, you’ll soon lose that customer.
2. Precision. Exactness is vital. Errors are human and will happen. Be that as it may, you should maintain a strategic distance from superfluous slip-ups like grammatical errors and disappointing work. In the event that your customer needs to backpedal and check your work, you’re not sparing them much time.
3. Honesty. Trustworthiness is everything with regards to scholarly properties. Stealing is unsatisfactory and will cost you customers (if not more). Also, you should be consistent with your time allotment. On the off chance that you guarantee work by Thursday, at that point it must be finished by Thursday; if a postponement is completely unavoidable, you have to pre-emptively convey that. I endeavor to complete things daily early just in the event that something comes up finally so I have some additional squirm room.
4. Kind and benevolent identity. Having affinity with your customers will take you more distant than you could envision. Continuously remain positive, regardless of how the customer demonstrations. When you’re certain and elevating, you indicate trust amidst their emergency, which will pick up you their regard.
5. Cleverness. A significant virtual associate is the go-to individual for data. You don’t need to know everything about the business, however you need a framework set up that enables you to discover. This can be as basic as having a particular purpose of contact at the organization that you can go to when you require data. In any case, once you make an inquiry, make certain to archive it so you don’t need to request a similar data over and again. Having the capacity to answer the larger part, if not all, of a customer’s essential inquiries helps make you a basic piece of their group.
6. A “thoughts” individual. This obliges genius. You need to have thoughts that make the organization you’re working for better. When you consider the customer’s business, you indicate you’re in excess of a normal associate. Also, when you concoct a methodology to improve the business, ordinarily the customer will place you accountable for that new assignment, keeping you working and making you considerably more important.
7. Help develop the customer’s business. Similarly as the last two focuses, on the off chance that you can influence a customer’s business to develop and that builds their pay, you’ll have a vocation until the end of time. The additional wage you give the customer will make you an extremely valuable colleague.
8. Complete and development. Remain over each undertaking, notwithstanding when your customer doesn’t. Little errands can frequently become lost despite a general sense of vigilance, however it’s your activity not to give that a chance to happen. For instance, I had a customer who expected to favor all bookmarks previously I posted them. On the off chance that I didn’t get endorsement following a few days, I’d send her another email with the bookmarks connected saying, “on the off chance that you missed these, these bookmarks are anticipating endorsement.” I did this time and again, and she even expressed gratitude toward me for keeping her on undertaking.
9. Function admirably under strain. Never let a customer see you sweat. This is a joke, yet it’s valid in more courses than you might suspect. You need every customer to believe they’re your exclusive customer, regardless of your workload. This implies not going up against excessively, in light of the fact that a worried virtual colleague regularly passes that weight on to a customer, which is precisely what you’re attempting to ease.
10. Capacity to multitask. Most likely one of the main five things a virtual associate must do is go up against different assignments for numerous customers and keep them all pushing ahead. It takes association, productivity, and great planning, yet it’s basic for virtual right hand achievement.
This is very helpful especially to moms like me who are planning to work at home and be productive while taking care of the kids. I became more inspired when i read this.
Thanks, April. Glad you found it helpful! This is a great stay-at-home job for mamas!
happily,
Ashlee
Hello Ashlee,
I’m just starting to get my feet wet in the VA Arena and this post really helped me wrap my head around it better. Thank you.
Na’omi
I loved reading this post, it has given me some hope that I could find work without previous VA experience, many thanks to you for sharing.
Hi Claire,
You’ve got this 💪🏻
Happily,
Ashlee
Thank you for sharing that useful information. Learning all about VA to decide if I want to become one of them. It will be useful when I decide to start my own blog. As I mom to be I have to find ways to earn some money from home while I am enjoying my baby girl. Very interesting information.
Do you use Grammarly?
Hi. Ashlee.
Informative and comprehensive info.
Thanks
Hi Ashlee! It’s 2018, few weeks to go this year will come to an end. As a full time mom and wife, I planned to work at home. I have a lot of questions in mind regarding virtual jobs. So I googled those questions, and thanks to your articles, it gave me the answers I want to know. Hopefully, before 2019, I will land my first homebased job!!! May you continue to write and help moms like me. God bless & more power to you!
Thanks so much for a genuine article that has really encouraged me. It wasn’t just an attempt to sell irrelevant information, and your title wasn’t a misleading empty promise (like some others I’ve come across). It addressed my EXACT question which was how to I get into this VA thing without any experience. Thanks so much again!
Crissi
Hi Crissi,
Thanks for stopping by! I’ve got a strictly no-click-bait policy here 😉 Glad you found everything helpful.
Happily,
Ashlee
Aww thanks Louise! Best of luck to you in 2019. If you need anything, let me know!
Happily,
Ashlee
Working with a virtual assistant can completely change the way that you – and your business – operate. It can help you to save money, it can help you to save time – and best of all, it can help you to outsource specialized work to people who have a wealth of experience so that your business benefits.
Thank You.I’ve learn a lot
thanks you because when i read everything that has been my motivation in life ..and also inspiring. God Bless
Hi Ashlee,
Reading this article is a great boost for me to start a VA career. Since the pandemic started, our business has been badly hit and our first baby on the way. So I thought of a career change. Hope I can be like you someday. Thank you so much.
wonderful thanks for sharing, much appreciated!
A virtual assistant (VA) is an individual from a remote location who can provide assistance to other companies. Digital assistants are in high demand from entrepreneurs and online companies who need assistance but do not want to carry full-time workers to a particular venue, thanks to high-speed internet, document sharing, and affordable conference calling systems.
Depending on business needs, allowing someone to support their company remotely allows them more flexibility, fewer fixed costs, and the opportunity to scale up and down.
To put it plainly, you will be asked to do office and administrative-type activities from a remote location as a virtual assistant.
Trending is familiar with automation tools like Buffer, Tailwind, and Hootsuite
Understand How it takes to generate buzz and create brand awareness?
This is a great post, Ashlee! Especially in a time like the one we are in today, working from home has opened so many doors for so many people who may otherwise be left without one, and moms who do want flexibility. Thank you for putting it together, I will actually be referring my subscribers to it, it is extremely useful. I think most people are unaware of the virtual assistant industry. Again, great work, this is a much-needed post.
Thanks! Glad you found it useful 🙂
I would like to become a virtual assistant
Hi Ashlee
I am not staying in the USA, can I apply at companies in the USA as a VA.
This is a great post! Thank you for putting it together, it is extremely useful.
This is a much-needed post, You are a superstar
This is a great post! Thank you for putting it together, it is extremely useful
You are a superstar
Great info needed by Virtual Assistants especially newbies!
Thanks for sharing!
You’re welcome!
Hi, Gina! I’ve been a PA for about 2 years now and every summer in college. I am ready to jump into the world of being a VA. I do believe the hardest part is getting started. Thanks for all the great information!