Working from home, or while traveling is simple and by learning how to become a virtual assistant with no experience or a degree you can do it. Louise Joy was a virtual assistant for us when we needed help and she is sharing her journey below. Just like her, you too can work from home as a virtual assistant.
Louise Joy’s Story on How to Become a Virtual Assistant
Craving the freedom to take vacations whenever you want, setting your own hours, and working anywhere there’s Wi-Fi? But don’t think you have the skills or experience to get a remote job? Or maybe you just don’t know where to start?
I was in this position just six months ago.
Though I’d dabbled in freelancing and making money online in the past, it wasn’t a long-term solution for me at the time. When I realized I could take some of my current skills and extend them into a virtual assisting career, it was like a light bulb went off in my head.
Even though I didn’t have the traditional skills needed for being an assistant (online or offline!), I knew that virtual assistant skills are easy to pick up and are one of the most flexible jobs you can do online without a degree.
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Here’s how I did it.
I researched what skills are needed to become a VA
Like most digital nomads that become VAs, I was surprised to learn that I already had a few skills that would serve me well in this line of work.
Technically, to become a VA, you don’t really need much experience at all. The main things you need are:
- A working laptop/computer
- A reliable internet connection
- Basic language and computing skills
Anything else you need to know depends on what services you’d like to offer – and can easily be learned online in your own time.
I already had the above skills and a little extra – such as writing and blogging skills, basic admin experience.
By first taking a look at what skills I already had, I knew I was immediately in a position to start offering basic virtual assisting services such as email/calendar management and general admin tasks. This was without any prior experience or a degree in this line of work.
I used what skills I already had to bring in work
I took what skills I already had and got myself set up on websites such as Fiverr and People Per Hour. Freelancing platforms like these are ideal for anyone just beginning to delve into the world of freelancing.
Although such platforms sometimes take a small fee, they offer benefits such as freelancer protection and in-site invoices. They basically take the boring or hard parts of being a VA and allow you to simply log on and browse jobs or offer your services.
The small downside of using People Per Hour or Fiverr is that because many Virtual Assistant skills don’t require a lot of experience, a lot of people are in the same boat.
It can be hard sometimes to stand out for virtual assistant jobs without experience amongst many others offering the same skill set – but it is still a great starting point.
After spending five or so years offering admin and writing work on People Per Hour, I decided to take the plunge and invest in becoming a Virtual Assistant full time.
I taught myself extra skills to offer as a Virtual Assistant
To this day, I still enjoy the odd data entry or admin task that comes my way – but there came a time where I wanted to learn more. Now I can now pick and choose based on what virtual assistant skills I enjoy the most!
Some services you can offer as a VA include:
- Content repurposing
- Blogging
- Social media management (Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Pinterest)
- Instagram engagement
- Podcast and video editing
- Email marketing
- Project management
Every skill listed above can easily be picked up or learned yourself. You don’t need a degree to run a travel brand’s Instagram account, nor do you need years of experience to launch an email marketing campaign.
Some skills you’ll find you already have (who doesn’t have the experience of running social media in this day and age?), whereas others may need a little bit of extra learning.
SEO (Search Engine Optimization), project management, and calendar management are all things that can easily be learned with time and patience. In fact, you’ll find many basic Virtual Assistant free training courses with a quick Google search.
Because I wanted to offer a multitude of different services and learn how to market myself as a VA, I decided to invest in a program to teach me everything I needed to know in one place: 90 Day VA.
90 Day VA: the lowdown
90 Day VA is a comprehensive virtual assistant training program developed by Esther Inman.
Esther began offering Virtual Assistant services whilst traveling the world and now teaches over 2000 women like you and me to do the same. She knows her stuff!
This comprehensive course teaches you everything you need to know to become a virtual assistant – in just 90 days! You’ll learn a variety of skills you’ll need to set up your own virtual assistant business, from start to finish.
The 90 Day VA course topics are as follows:
- Upping Your Content Repurposing Skills
- Ghostwriting Blogs With SEO
- Getting Started With Social Media
- All Things Instagram
- Mastering Pinterest as a VA
- Podcasting Editing & Management
- Video Editing & Management
- Email Marketing
- Lite Web Management
As well as a total crash course in the above modules – the course offers further benefits.
What I’ve particularly enjoyed about 90 Day Virtual Assistant program so far is that I’ve learned how to nurture the right mindset and pick up productive habits to ensure I ace my VA career.
For total beginners like me (and perhaps you too!), the course also includes everything you need to know to actually launch your VA career – such as the best tools for project management, creating contracts and even putting together a portfolio of your best work.
Plus, once you sign up, you get access to an exclusive VAI Members Club on Facebook. This group allows you to share your homework to get feedback from other course members and offers weekly calls with Esther’s team and Esther herself to help keep you motivated or tackle any questions you may have.
The VAI Members Club also sees regular job postings that are exclusively available to any students of the course. This means that even if you’ve just started, the virtual companies hiring know exactly what type of expertise they’ll get from taking on students directly from the group. I often see new students posting about their success following roles they’ve applied for from the group.
Enrollment for 90 Day VA has opened once more, so don’t miss your chance to take part. Click here to sign up and get access immediately.
Remote working roles you could apply for as a Virtual Assistant
It’s important to remember that self-employed work has challenges too. Although you’ll have the ability to set your own hours, your workload will vary often.
Clients come and go. Some clients may have lots of work for you one month due to a product launch, and the next you could be entirely free of any tasks.
Therefore there will be times when you’ll want to reach out to new clients or even apply for freelance roles being advertised.
There’s an endless list of jobs you can do from home without a degree as a VA:
- Administrative Assistant
- Content Creator
- Video Script Writer
- Social Media Manager
- Blog Manager
- Podcast Creator
- Graphic Designer
And, of course, you can simply combine all these roles into what you’d like to offer as a Virtual Assistant. You can take on clients that need a hand organizing their email inbox and pick up a different client who wants to improve their brand engagement.
That’s why it’s particularly important to keep learning and developing your skills. The more you have to offer, the better!
If there’s one thing you should take away from this blog post, it’s that you can become a VA, no matter what your experience or skill set may be. So what if you don’t have a degree or all the skills needed to become a travel virtual assistant. Why should that stop you?
Many of the basic skills you already have – it may just be that you’re not in the right mindset to apply them. And what you don’t know can easily be learned.
If I can become a Virtual Assistant in just a few months without any prior experience – so can you.
Louise Joy is an amazing VA and I’ve been very thankful to have her and all the knowledge she learned by taking the 90DayVA course.
See a day in the life of a freelancer with Louise, our Content Writer and Virtual Assistant.
Still unsure? Check out Esther’s FREE online class to learn what a Virtual Assistant is (and isn’t), how to find legit work without experience, and everything you need to start your virtual career.
You’ve got this!
Have you thought about working as a Virtual Assistant? Tell us about it below!
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