Virtual assistants are some of the most in-demand jobs right now thanks to the rapid growth of online businesses.

Owners and managers are realizing they don't need someone in a certain city or on the payroll to get things done, so they're looking for virtual help. This means that you (working from home or wherever you want) could be the perfect fit for companies around the world.

Providing assistance as a virtual administrative support person means doing what businesses need through the online tools they use. In many cases, these are tasks you already know how to do and programs you now use. Being a virtual assistant doesn't require an advanced degree or much (if any) experience. If this sounds good to you, keep reading.

In this article we will discuss:

• What is a virtual assistant?

• What work do they offer?

• How to become a virtual assistant

• 7 most requested skills

• Your six next steps

• And the only platform you need to use to get started

Let's dive right into our discussion on how to become a virtual assistant.‍

What is a virtual assistant?

The first step in learning how to become a virtual assistant is determining which position is right for you. Being a virtual assistant means you are usually a freelancer who performs administrative, technical, and sometimes sales or marketing tasks for a company. The “virtual” part means that all your activities can be carried out online, allowing you to work from anywhere with a good internet connection.

In most cases, virtual assistants provide support for business leaders. This could mean maintaining one's calendar and daily schedule, responding to emails, gathering information about sales goals before meetings, and even ordering water and snacks for the physical office.

Some virtual lead generation assistant
 end up doing a highly technical job. This could mean running various programs to find leads and business opportunities, scheduling social media posts and email campaigns, tracking marketing metrics, or performing accounting. What you do and how you specialize is up to you, but you should have an idea of ​​the types of tasks you're comfortable doing before applying for a virtual assistant position.‍

What services does a virtual assistant provide? ‍

Virtual assistants can be called to do all types of tasks for your customers. Sometimes you will perform some specific tasks only for a owner or manager. In other cases, you can play a vital role in major business functions and feel part of the team. Being a virtual assistant allows you to be flexible and try out many different types of environments and then focus on the ones you like most.

Here are some of the most common specialties that the virtual assistant role includes:

1. General administrative work: Administrative tasks such as managing a calendar, sorting emails, answering phone calls, setting appointments, and other tasks that local assistants perform.

2. Project management: Some virtual assistants run projects for business owners. This means you'll hold meetings, request updates from team members, and create reports on the progress of a project. You may also have some responsibility for projects that remain on time or within budget.

3. Bookkeeping: Financial support is vital for every business. Smaller businesses and those using virtual assistants often need help with processing payments, checking expenses, checking payroll, and creating regular budget statements. If you are good with numbers and business, this might be a good place to start.

4. Billing and Invoicing: Businesses often need help invoicing their customers. In these roles, a virtual assistant will create invoices using the company's software platform, verify each invoice, send them, and help process payments and record them when a payment is completed.

5. Content research: Here you will learn about the company, its products and its customers. So your job is to generate ideas and research topics assigned to provide relevant information.

6. Blogging and Writing: Sometimes you also write the content you research. This is often in the form of blog posts, but virtual assistants can also be used to write web pages and other content.

7. Customer Research : growing companies usually need to understand who their customers are. In this case, virtual assistants will be assigned tasks related to tracking and analyzing data provided by a company's research tools.

8. Customer support: Answering frequently asked questions, researching customer details, taking messages and general help are tasks that most freelance virtual assistants perform regularly.

9. Data Entry: Data entry is generally an administrative job where you organize and enter information. Sometimes it might be general logging or entering information, and in other cases, you might have more detailed tasks where you need to analyze the information you're reading.

10. Ecommerce order management: Often a specialized form of customer support, many ecommerce companies use virtual assistants to help them understand current orders, find tracking numbers for customers, and even restock products.

11. Email marketing: You may need to send emails to customers or manage email sequences in email marketing programs. Sometimes a virtual assistant writes the email or responds to it, especially if the client's responses include things like setting up a meeting.

12. Social media management: Posting on social media, answering questions, and ensuring a brand looks good online are all part of social media management.

13. Social Media Marketing: Virtual assistants can also specialize in marketing that happens on social media. Here you can create campaigns and set spend, set ad targets or get ad campaign reports and gather pertinent details for your boss.

14. Website Management: Virtual assistants are often tasked with making basic website updates, posting content, proofreading, and more. You may need WordPress or other skills to shine here.

15. Transcription: A final common task for virtual assistants is to listen to meetings or recordings and transcribe what was said. Some jobs may also ask you to take notes and create reports on what was discussed.

What are the most sought-after virtual assistant services?

Browsing today's job listings, we found that these seven tasks and requirements are some of the most in-demand services for freelance virtual assistants and virtual administrative assistants:

cold call

Cold calling is when you call people to try to get them interested in a product or service. What makes you “cold” is that the people you call have not previously shown interest. You've probably heard it called telemarketing. In these jobs, you'll typically make many calls every day, follow a sales script, and have a very specific goal, such as 'sell product X' or 'agree to watch a demo'.

To be successful, a virtual assistant will need to be able to handle rejection well. Working from home can make this a little easier, however.

Receiving calls from customers

Many companies are outsourcing their phones as administrative tasks. This means that you will receive a discharge or phone number and will be responsible for answering when someone calls. Depending on the business and the call, you may provide information to customers or be asked to look up details, such as ordering information, for callers. You will often forward the calls to the correct person after understanding the calling request. This requires a good understanding of business departments and the ability to think about your feet.

Email communications

Some companies have switched from telephone sales to email communications because it is becoming easier to get some customers to respond to an email than to answer a phone. Online businesses may also not have traditional phone lines, so email is also a way to provide customer service.

Email communication work for virtual assistants covers many different topics. You can respond to customer requests and questions. Or you can write sales emails to send to people after a meeting or when they sign up for a newsletter or promotional coupon on a website. Professionalism and understanding the customer can go a long way.

Customer scheduling

Small business owners often hire people who have just become virtual assistants to help with some of their daily tasks. One of the most important items is scheduling meetings, calls and follow-ups with clients. For these tasks, you will usually be focused on your calendar and will have to look at a person's email first. You take all meeting requests from your emails and put them into a calendar.

In advanced work, you may need to attend the meeting itself to help schedule time for follow-up meetings. You will also often need to connect with your boss to see who has scheduled a follow-up meeting or needs to schedule one. You will then be responsible for contacting them via email or phone and trying to schedule that client's appointment.

File management and maintenance

Many companies need organized people to manage their documents and files so everyone in the company can find them. Virtual assistants are a tremendous help here because their tasks will be to quickly scan documents and sort them into the correct locations. You may also need to rename the files so that they fit a consistent style. File maintenance means looking through folders or shared drives like OneDrive or Google Drive to make sure all your files are in the right place and named correctly.

Attention to detail and the ability to follow instructions closely are an immense help with these tasks.

Social Media Marketing

Almost every company needs to have a social media presence, but not every business leader has the time to create it. Then, they will hire you to create and post content on social media channels like Facebook and Instagram. These posts need to look and feel like the company while also being appropriate. Each company will have unique style requirements, so pay close attention.

In addition to posting for organic marketing, you will also need to create social media posts and ads and use the ad platforms on those services to post. You'll be working not just with content, but also with budgets and metrics, so a good business sense and the ability to think strategically can help you find the perfect mix of content to make the most of your client's budget.

LinkedIn lead generation

This is perhaps the most specialized on our list, but it is in high demand by companies whose clients are other businesses. Many service providers use LinkedIn to identify potential target customers based on location, industry, company size, and more. For these jobs, the virtual assistant will use software and search to find people on LinkedIn, create lists of potential targets, and send introductory messages to them once your client approves the list. Having a strong business sense and knowing how to talk to business leaders is a plus for this skill.‍

Also Read: Virtual Lead Generation Assistant

Also Read: How a Real Estate Virtual Assistant Can Help You Close Hot Sales

How to become a virtual assistant with no experience

Being a virtual assistant may seem like a lot of work, but there are actually just a few steps to get started and find your first client. You'll need to know about the tasks to be performed and how to do them, set up your own business information, and start applying for jobs. It will be quick and many freelancers find that it is not as difficult as they initially thought.

1. Take training courses

You have to prepare yourself to work as a virtual assistant and run your business online. The best place to start is to find some online training focused on virtual assistance. There are many free and paid courses and skills tools available to you right now. When you find one you like, look for reviews or ask other virtual assistants what might help. Consider joining LinkedIn or other networking groups to ask people who work as virtual administrative assistants about the courses they've taken.

Learning from experts is a fantastic way to develop the right skills and understand what will be expected of you when you land your first job.

2. Determine the work you like and can do

After taking a class or two and reading lots of blogs like this one, it's time to figure out which virtual assistance tasks you enjoy doing and are good at doing. These are a great place to start in terms of what services you offer clients.

Create your list of tasks you will do and see how they are related. If there are things you can't do, write that down too. This will help you avoid a project where you are less likely to succeed.

When you are starting out, you will be working on many things at once. This will include your online business and work, as well as what you do for clients. Sticking to what you are good at initially will help you perform well.

3. Calculate the prices to be charged

Prices and fees vary greatly in the world of virtual administrative assistants and virtual assistants. How much you earn will change based on the tasks you do and the size of your clients. The best place to start is to look at what others are being paid.

Visit pages that highlight top freelance virtual assistants or that showcase virtual assistant jobs where you can find clients online and see what others are charging. Price your services according to what you see in the market so that clients are willing to give you a chance and you avoid asking for a very low rate to keep your business afloat.

Remember, your prices should be high enough to help you cover your business expenses and overhead, as well as other things like medical care if needed. Being a freelancer means no paid vacation or benefits unless you make enough money to cover those costs.

4. Create an online presence

Once you learn about your preferences and prices, you need to share them with the world. The best place to start is to create an online portfolio or resume to show what you've done in the past, relevant job skills, and any certifications you've earned from your training courses. Having a website and social media presence can make it much easier for people to start finding you.

There are many free options for creating a website and your social work should include LinkedIn, Instagram, Facebook and even Tiktok. There are also platforms that provide a standard portfolio and make it easy for clients to judge you and see what you can do.

5. Start applying for jobs

Also Read: Six Ways to Use a Virtual Assistant to Generate More Leads

Now you have to start looking for these customers! The first thing to do is look on job boards for companies in need. Some services like Upwork help people hire freelance virtual assistants right away. In other cases, you may see that a company wants to hire an assistant. Instead of applying for a permanent position, you can email the HR department or hiring manager and pitch your services as a virtual assistant. This would allow you to work from home and control more of your freelancing day, but still provide that client with the services they need.

Remember to always remain professional and be responsive. People want you to communicate quickly and clearly, so they expect a quick response to any phone call or email they send.

6. Learn about yourself and your customers

The last thing to do is take all this information and treat it as a learning experience. As you start working, you will discover that there are people, companies, industries, types of businesses and tasks that you like and others that you don't. Use this to help you specialize and present your services. You'll be ready to provide your best work in environments you enjoy and this will lead to positive reviews when you complete your tasks.

This is your business, so focus on what's important to you and you'll give yourself the best chance of success.

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