Is Virtual Assistant Work Right For You?

A virtual assistant is an independent contractor rather than an employee, who supports clients through administrative, marketing, project management or creative services. A VA can work through an agency or better yet, work directly with clients and no middle-man. I don't usually recommend the agency route and explain why in my free training.

As a VA, you are an independent contractor and are required to pay your own taxes. Now I’m not a tax professional, so take this with a grain of salt, but I recommend saving at least 25 to 30% of your income for taxes.

When you gain a new client, you will send your client a W-9 (information form with SSN or EIN).  At the end of the year, if your client pays you over $600, they will send you a 1099. which you will use to report your income to the IRS.

If you’re not comfortable with sharing your social security number on your W-9 form, then it’s really easy to request an EIN from the IRS.gov website and you will be assigned one immediately online and later they will send you a paper copy for your records.

Also, as an independent contractor, you should report your work expenses to the IRS so you can write them off. What kind of expenses, you ask? Basically anything that you legitimately use for work. If you have a dedicated home office, then you can write that off. Just be sure to know your square footage. Your computers, software, online tools count, too. One thing that can be easy to overlook that count, too, are invoicing fees. If clients pay you by credit card and your tool charges you a fee (like PayPal) you’ll want to add those up and report those, too.

The times a virtual assistant works depends on the type of work and the arrangement you have with your client(s).

If the work you offer involves managing emails, making phone calls and helping a client with day-to-day tasks involving their customers or employees, then you’ll need to offer your client set day-time hours. 

If your client hires you for day-time office duties for, let’s say, 10 hours a week, then you can communicate with your client to decide which  two hours each day you will be available and he or she can depend on your services then.

You are free, of course, to take specific dates off, but it’s wise to let the client know that in advance.

Also, if you would like to take off a certain day every week, that works, too — as long as you specify that in your contract. For example, if you would like to have Fridays free, then for a 10-hour engagement, you would work 2.5 hrs each day rather than 2 hrs.

If you do project-based work, you can work any hours you like as long as you complete the project on the agreed-upon due date. It’s wise to set up work-time expectations, however, in your service agreement.

One of the biggest benefits of working as a virtual assistant is the flexibility of setting your own hours. While having a set schedule isn’t required, it is recommended. It will help you and others take your work more seriously and help you get the job done!

When starting out as a virtual assistant, it’s a good idea to know how many hours a week you will be available to work on growing your business and serve clients and plan your work week from there. You will have more schedule flexibility in project-related tasks than day-to-day administrative assistant tasks.

While it’s different for everyone, you can expect to work about 75% of your hours for clients and 25% for your own business-related tasks.  Of course, at the very beginning of your business, these numbers may be totally switched around as you learn about becoming a VA, set-up your business and make steps toward marketing your services.

As an independent contractor, you’ll have business-related responsibilities such as your own book-keeping and marketing your business as well as client-related work.

Your client-related work will be in the niche you choose which is based on your experience, skill set, business growth and business goals. Some examples of VA niches include general admin work, personal assistant work, customer service work, marketing, social media, bookkeeping, copywriting, email management and more.

If you already have a computer and internet connection, you’re ready to start. You’ll eventually need to invest in a website which can be under $100 a year for a domain and hosting, but you can use a free Facebook business page to get the word out about your business at first.

You can also use free online tools to start and, should you decide to upgrade, invest in a more advanced tool set for under $40 total per month. Overall, it’s a pretty low-cost investment to begin with and then the option to invest in bigger and better tools as your business grows

As a virtual assistant you can make $500 a month in the beginning at just 5 hours a week ($25 an hour) and within a year or two, move your rates up to $40 an hour. Depending on the time you put into it, replacing your full-time income (and then some) is a definite possibility.

You can also grow your business by subcontracting virtual assistants to work for you while you focus on gaining more and more clients. If you like, you can even start adding more advanced, higher-priced services like consulting or business coaching.

The sky’s the limit and you get to decide how high you want to go.

It doesn't take long to start working as a virtual assistant and begin invoicing clients. 

The trick is to know what things you absolutely have to have in place before officially opening your business and what you can work on while you're earning the money you need. 

You can get your business ready in as little as a week if you work hard at it, gain your first client the following week and then, depending on your invoicing method, you can start earning income immediately after they sign your contract.

Many things about starting your own virtual assistant business are necessary for long-term success, but they aren't necessary to actually start. 

That's why I share all the necessary stuff for now and later (in my recommended order for gaining clients quickly) in my course, The Upward VA Roadmap.

You can complete the modules in just a few hours to get a good overview of what you need to do and when and then use the rest of your week to work through the action steps to put together the essentials you need to start earning income as quickly as possible.