If you’re new to the world of virtual assistance and want to know how to start your own home business from scratch (without experience), you’re in the right place!

In my post today, I’m going to teach you the exact steps I took as an inexperienced VA to completely book out my services in just 30 days.

In this comprehensive guide, you’ll learn:

• How to start a profitable VA business from scratch (step by step)
• How to market yourself and find paying clients
• What to charge for your freelance services
• My signature method for standing out in a crowded niche
• How to develop your skills and charge more money (without working more hours)
• How to scale your VA business for major profits

 

 

Chapter 1: The Basics Of Making Money From Home As A VA

 

What is a virtual assistant?

A virtual assistant (or VA) is a service provider who offers remote services to other business owners. This can include general administrative services or more specialized tasks like creating graphics, building websites, or project management. 

The best part?

Because the “umbrella” of virtual assistance is so broad, you can literally offer any service you want that can be done remotely. 

There has never been a better time to start a virtual assistant business–let me share a few stats with you to prove it…

UpWork estimates that by 2025, 22% of the workforce (that’s 36.2 million Americans!) will work remotely.

According to Intuition, the amount of businesses embracing remote work since the pandemic started has jumped by at least 18%.

Not only that, but businesses are able to save money by outsourcing work to contractors that they would normally give to full-time employees. 

Why?

It allows them to work on a project-by-project basis without the added expenses of buying supplies, paying for benefits, and all the costs that come with having an employee.

As you can see, being a virtual assistant makes you a MAJOR asset to other businesses.

 

 

What qualifications do I need to start?

If you’re just starting out as a VA, there’s good news for you:

You don’t need any specific qualifications or certifications to start your business.

All you need is some sort of skill that can enable you to offer a service!

If you choose to develop your skills later on, you do have the option to pursue further training or become certified in a particular area (but it’s completely optional)!

 

What are the up-front expenses?

One of the things that makes virtual assistance a great home-business is the low start up costs.

If you have a computer (or Chromebook) and reliable internet, you have what you need to get started. 

There are some other essential tools you’ll need (most which are free)–check them out below!

• Email address (you can start with a simple gmail account)
• Invoicing tool (i.e. Paypal or Wave Apps)
• Time tracker (i.e. Clockify or Toggl)
• Google Drive
• Canva
• Facebook account (optional but recommended)

Want to see what other tools I recommend to ramp up your business? I’ll share more on that later in this post! 

 

What it means to be your own boss (independent contractor vs. w2 employee)

If you’re working as a virtual assistant that means you will be working as an independent contractor.

Independent contractors differ from employees because instead of working under that other company, they are hiring your business to perform a service for them. 

It’s also important to note that client’s can’t legally tell you HOW to do your work. They can only control the result or deliverable that they’re paying for.

You get to choose your working hours, rate of pay, and define many other policies that your clients will have to go by.

You get to set the rules! (How great is that??)

 

Chapter 2: Choosing A Business Name That Attracts Clients

 

What To Know Before You Name Your Business

The name of your business is typically the very first thing potential clients will notice about your brand. 

It is important to choose a name that you’re happy with, and that resonates well with the clients you want to work with.

But you know what?

Naming your business should NEVER be a stopping point.

Don’t get so caught up in the name that you stop yourself from even getting clients (I see this happen all the time).

I’ve said this before: if your marketing is good enough, your business name could be “The Virtual Assistant” and it won’t stop you from getting clients! 

Also…

There are three main options for choosing a business name:

• Choosing a fun/unique name
• Choosing a professional name
• Self-branding your business name

Keep reading because I’m going to briefly break each of these methods down below!

 

How To Choose A Personality-Packed Business Name That Sticks

First, let’s talk about how to come up with a unique, personality-packed business name that sticks.

Here’s a step-by-step on how to do this:

 

STEP 1. Think of some fun BUZZWORDS that describe virtual assistance.

(A buzzword is simply what comes to mind when you think about your business and what you will be doing in your business.)

Here are some examples: 

Virtual
Assistant
Creative
Create
Desk
Coffee
Cubicle
Write
Social
Notebook
Click
Work

Make sure your buzzwords relate to your personality, geographic location, or target audience.

 

STEP 2: Think of some words that describe either you or your ideal client.

For example:

Fun
Quick
Jolly
Happy
Fresh
She
Determined
Social
Crafty
Simple

 

STEP 3: Try pairing words from each list and see what you come up with!

 

How To Choose A Corporate Friendly Name For Your Business

If you want to go for a professional name for your business name, you’ll follow a similar process as mentioned above. 

 

STEP 1: Think of professional titles for you and/or your business. 

Here’s a few ideas to get started:

Virtual Assistant
Virtual Assistance
Assistance
Creative
Professional Services
Collaborations

 

STEP 2: Think of some adjectives that reflect you and your business. 

How would you want someone to describe you or your business? What would you hope people would have after working with you?

Here’s a few ideas:

Integrity
Results
Committed
Determined
Growth

 

STEP 3: Try pairing words from both lists that you made and see what sticks!

Here are some names I came up with from the example lists I just gave: 

Integrity Assistance
Committed Creative
Integrity Collaborations

 

Related Post: Choosing a Name for Your VA Business

 

Simple Steps To Self-brand Your Business

If you’re looking to self-brand your business, (meaning that YOU are the face of your business) you can do this by simply using your name. 

I’ve always been a fan of self-branding because of how versatile it is. 

If you think you may want to venture into coaching or some other creative service in the future, or if you haven’t fully defined who your target audience is going to be yet, self-branding may be a great choice for you.

 

Do I need to trademark my name?

A question that often comes up for many VAs is whether or not they should trademark their name.

I’m not a lawyer, so this is NOT official legal advice…

But you don’t need to officially trademark your name upfront. You should, however, make sure that the name you want is not legally protected by someone else.

You also want to check Score.org and reach out to your local rep to learn about the regulations of operating a business in your city.

Also, please be aware that trademarking your business name is different from incorporating your business as an LLC or other business entity. 

 

Chapter 3: How To Choose VA Services That Pay Well

 

What To Do When You Don’t Know Where To Start

Don’t know what services you should offer?

I recommend going through this easy activity to help you choose:

1. Go through various VA services and decide which ones you know the best.Rate your current skill level from 1-5.(One being “I am not proficient in this service at all,” and five being “I am a rockstar at this service.”)
2. Go through the list a second time and decide which services you are interested in (whether you know how to do them or not).
   Rate your interest level from 1-5.(One being “I am not interested in learning this at all,” and five being “I am really interested in this topic” or “I already do this and LOVE it.”)
3. Now – go through each service and pull out your top 5 – 10 services.What do you think of them? Do they get you excited?Do they “flow together” in a way that could make great packages?

 

Services that are great for beginners 

I believe that virtual assistance is the easiest way to earn money online. 

If you are just starting out and don’t have much (or any) experience, there are some services you can offer. 

Here are my top 7:

• Data Entry
• Email Management
• Calendar Management
• Facebook Page Management
• Facebook Group Management
• Canva Design
• Outreach

 

 

Don’t get caught up into thinking that you have to specialize or niche down right away.

Offering general administrative services is a great way to get started!

I’m also going to share my pro-tip with you…

Learn to adopt the phrase: “I don’t know how to do that, but I can figure it out! I’m a fast learner!”

Because here’s the deal…

It doesn’t matter if you have all the skills.

What business owners really want to know is – are you reliable? Do you have the know-how to teach yourself a new skill if given the opportunity?

As a CEO, I will tell you that is so much more valuable than knowing all the things!

 

Services that pay premium rates

One of the best ways to earn more money as a VA (without selling MORE hours) is by raising your rates.

And the BEST way to justify higher rates is by offering specialized services. 

 

Here’s a list of 27 specialized services VAs can offer:

• Newsletter Design
• Email Marketing
• Social Media Ad Set-Up / Management
• Content Creation Services
• WordPress Updates
• Web Design
• Shopify Assistance
• SEO Services
• Content Creation for Online Courses
• Webinar Setup / Live Webinar Assistance
• Editing
• Resume Writing
• Proofreading
• Transcription
• Internet Research
• Blog Management
• Responding to Blog Comments
• Ghostwriting
• Video Editing
• PowerPoint Presentations
• Logo Design / Graphic Design
• Payments and Invoicing
• Accounting / Bookkeeping Services
• Scheduling Social Media
• Setting Up Affiliate Programs & Affiliate Management
• Running / Managing Contests and Giveaways
• Press Releases

 

 

Is it ok to change your services?

If you’re on the fence about your services, don’t worry…you can change them later. 

Sometimes it will take trial and error to figure out what you enjoy most. That is perfectly fine!

Don’t be afraid to experiment with your services. You can always make tweaks (or even major changes) along the way.

 

Chapter 4: How To Set Your VA Rates & Make More Money

 

The First Step In Setting Your Rates

Before you come up with a rate for your VA services, there is one thing I absolutely recommend doing…

If you’re the main breadwinner in your household, or you need to start making a significant contribution to your family’s finances SOON, this first step is ESPECIALLY important.

So here it is…

Start with the amount of money you need to bring home to cover your personal bills and expenses. 

(You’ll want to add about 25%-30% to that for taxes you’ll be paying.)

Next, go to your calendar of choice (I LOVE Google Calendar personally) and block out the time in your schedule that you’re going to set apart JUST for your VA business.

This might change as you go, but you need a starting point to work with here!

You’ll need to choose how much of that time will be spent on your VA business (marketing, admin tasks etc.) and how much of that time will be spent on client work.

In the beginning, you’ll spend a lot of time on your actual business. You’ll be busy marketing your business, corresponding with potential clients, working on your portfolio and etc. These are all non-billable hours because you don’t directly charge your clients for those tasks. 

Once you get things rolling with clients, you’ll spend more time working on client projects. 

The number of hours that you have to spend on actual client work are called your billable hours. 

You’ll take the amount of take-home pay that you need to make, and divide it by the number of billable hours you have to come up with an hourly rate. 

This hourly rate is the minimum you’d have to charge in order to make that goal income each month.

Keep in mind though, that you’d have to book out ALL your hours in order to hit that goal.

 

What to do when you don’t know what to charge

If you are going back and forth on what to charge for general VA services, here’s what you can do…

Start out at $25 per hour and sign your first client.

With each new client, increase your rates $2.50 more for the new clients.

(For example, your second client will pay  $27.50 per hour. Your third, $30 per hour and so on.)

Your skill and comfort are growing, so your rates should too!

 

Hourly vs package rates

We’ve covered how to set an hourly rate for your VA business, but there is another method that is pretty awesome and I’m going to share it with you.

It’s called packaged-based pricing, and here’s why it’s my FAVORITE pricing method…

What makes packaged-based pricing so AWESOME is you aren’t trading time for money. Instead of paying you for each hour you spend working, the client is paying you for the outcome itself. 

That means that as you become FASTER at getting things done, you won’t be penalized because you aren’t being charged for how much time it takes you to get something done! 

Related Post: VA Pricing: Hourly vs. Package Pricing

 

Tips For Increasing Your Rates Without Losing Clients

There will come a time in your client relationship where you will need to raise your rates.

Making sure that you follow best practices will help you keep a good relationship and retain your clients!

First, I suggest being really reasonable with your increase. 

If you were previously charging $25 an hour, jumping to $50 straight away might be a little bit of a shock to your client. Here’s what to do instead…

If your goal is to earn $50/hr because you’re offering a specialized service, I suggest increasing your rates gradually and building up to $50/hr over time. 

Also, give your clients advanced notice! 

It will depend on the terms of your contract, but generally you want to give them at least 15-30 days notice of your rate increase as a courtesy. 

Letting them know at the last minute is probably not a good idea! But if done professionally, there’s noreason why they wouldn’t want to continue working with you.

When it comes time to talk to your client, remember to remind your client what you’ve accomplished for them!

Tell the client how raising your rates actually benefits THEM. 

For example:

• It means you don’t have to take on more work and you can give them more attention
• You’ll have more finances to refine your skills
• You can invest in better tools

It’s your job to educate the client. Make it more about THEM, and less about you. 

And I can’t stress enough…

Be confident! 

If you believe in yourself, it will be easier for your clients to believe in you. 

 

Chapter 5: How To Get Ideal Clients With My Serve First Method

 

What is the Serve First Method?

The Serve First method is my signature process that I used to book my dream clients and scale my business to over $10K a month!

It’s the same method I urge my students to use over and over again in both my paid courses and free resources…

And that’s because it WORKS.

So what is it exactly?

It’s my 3-step process that puts giving others VALUE before making a profit. Hence, we are SERVING first!

And this is how you do it…

 

STEP 1: Research – Research the client or organization really well! 

You’d be surprised at how many people DON’T take the time to do this. 

You want to learn as much background info as you can, which brings me to step number two…

 

STEP 2: Personalization – Taking the information you learned about this potential client, personalize your pitch! 

Make sure to address the person by name, and include tidbits about the company so they know this was not a copy-paste proposal that you sent to 10 other people. 

 

STEP 3: Go above & beyond – Take everything above and put it together. 

You want to give value to the prospective client so that they get a taste of how AWESOME it would be to work with you. 

Whether or not they accept, you want to give them something they can take away and use. 

Here are some examples of how you can do that:

• Are you a content creator? Create a social media graphic that matches their brand.
• Do you offer writing services? Write a list of 5 blog topics you could write for their business, and pick one to create an outline for it.
• Do you specialize in admin work? Write a list of ideas that you would execute to organize their business specifically

Do these steps take more time? YES. But they also make you stand out!

As I always say, you don’t have to be the first at the gate, but you should be the BEST. 

 

Best places to find clients

Do you know what makes a successful business?

It’s not a website…

It’s not having 10K followers on Instagram…

It’s not a big email list…

Nope. All of those things are GOOD, but they don’t mean anything without PAYING CLIENTS.

That’s where marketing comes into play.

And here’s the thing–it’s NEVER too early to start telling people about your business.

The secrets that I am about to share not only worked for me, but have worked for the thousands of students that have joined my course.

The FIRST place I tell my VAs to look for clients is their own circle of friends and family. 

Hang with me for a sec…

I want you to close your eyes right now and think, “Do I know one small business owner?”

(Most likely someone is popping in your head, right?

Well, just like YOU know at least one business owner, it’s VERY likely everyone that you know knows at least one small business owner too!

The thing I love most about virtual assistance is that you don’t have to sell to your friends and family. You just have to let them know what you’re doing. 

That way if they come across someone who needs the services you offer, you should be the FIRST person that comes to mind!

 

 

The next place you’re going to want to look for clients is online.

I highly recommend joining several Facebook groups for business owners, and showing up DAILY. 

Show value by answering questions, giving tips, and being a resource for the people in that group. As you’re doing that, build connections with other users and look out for any job opps that might be posted!

Click here to join our free community of over 130K professionals. 

There might be other platforms where your client base is active (Instagram, LinkedIn, etc).  

Go ahead and join the groups or platforms that have your target client in them. Then start engaging, interacting, and showing up!

A third resource is freelance sites like Upwork.com which help connect independent contractors like you with clients. 

These platforms have their pros and cons, but there are some great opportunities listed. It can be a great way to get started.

Lastly, I can’t NOT mention good ‘ol fashion cold pitching.

Yes, I know…it might seem a little scary. But know what?

I know of freelancers who grew their income from $0 to six-figures just using this method alone!

 

Do I need a website? 

A professional website is a FANTASTIC tool for your VA business, but it’s not necessary right away.

In fact, it’s actually better to wait until you have your first 1,2, or even 3 clients before working on a website. Here’s why…

When you’re starting out your business, it’s very tempting to get caught up on all the details of picking out a name, colors for your logo, and website.

These things can make the business feel “official,” right?

But there are a lot of factors about your business you still might be figuring out. 

As you begin offering services and working with clients, you might even choose to take a different turn with your offers.

I wouldn’t want you to spend hours working to perfect your website, only to have to do an overhaul in a couple of months because you decided to change your brand.

I also WOULDN’T want you to spend SO much time tweaking fonts and images on your site, that you don’t put as much time into actually finding clients.

So yes, a website is GREAT. But focus on getting clients. Here is what to do instead…

You can make a free account with Canva.com and use one of their free templates to create a portfolio for yourself. Then you can use this to show your work, services, and rates to potential clients. 

Here are some essential sections your portfolio should include:

• A brief “bio” with a clean headshot
• List of your services
• Rates (this is optional)
• Past experience or testimonials from people you’ve worked with
• Examples of your work
• An easy way to contact you

You want the portfolio to reflect you and your personality, but also make sure it’s professional and not too cluttered!

 

Helpful tools

One of the questions I get asked ALL the time is what tools virtual assistants need.

Are you ready for a list of some of my FAVORITE tools for starting a profitable VA business?

Most of them are free, so be sure to check them out. 

• Wave Apps (For invoicing + getting paid)
• PayPal (For invoicing + getting paid)
• Dubsado (For automating your business)
• Toggl (For tracking time)
• Canva (For making graphics without design skills)
• Unsplash (For free stock photography)
• Trello (For free project management)
• Slack (For communicating with a team)
• Loom (For screen recording videos quickly)
• Google Drive (For file sharing)
• Calendly (For scheduling calls easily with clients)
• HelloSign (For getting contracts signed)
• Later (For scheduling social media posts)
• Planoly (For scheduling Instagram posts)
• Typeform (For creating beautiful forms)
• MailerLite (For free  email marketing)
• Zoom (For free video conferencing)

Click here to see my full list of over 50 tools for profitable virtual assistants!

 

What to do once you’ve found a client 

So you have your business name, services, and rates all figured out.

You’ve started marketing like CRAZY and have told everyone you know about your business. 

Hopefully it won’t be long before you find your very first client, and once you do there are a few essential steps you should absolutely take.

• Have a contract in place
• Send your invoice and set up a way to get paid
• Communicate to your client how you work (What are your office hours? How will you communicate? What is your policy on late payments?)
• Keep a clear line of communication with your client + keep your word!
• Make sure you get a testimonial and let your client know you’re open to more work!

(Should we plug a link to our contracts here?)

 

Chapter 6: How To Uplevel Your Skills & Charge Higher Rates 

 

Why VAs should specialize their services

After making $10K months in my own VA business and training over 3,000 students, I discovered that the key to getting those dreamy, high-paying clients is specializing in a high-end service.

As simple as that sounds, it catapulted me from making $20-$30 per hour as a general admin VA, to making OVER $75 per hour working with my DREAM client as a specialist!

Do you know why this works?

Because people will pay top dollar for an expert in their field. 

You don’t have to specialize right away, but it’s something to keep in mind once you’re ready to niche down.

Specializing the key to increasing your monthly income without working more hours. You’re literally getting paid MORE for the same amount of hours you’re already putting in!

 

How to develop your skills 

Maybe you want to specialize, but you don’t feel like you have any skills. 

First of all, that’s not true. And here’s why…

We all have some sort of skills that are transferable into virtual assistance–it’s just about finding what they are. 

That doesn’t mean that there isn’t room for improvement though, and I do highly recommend developing the skills you already have as well as acquiring new ones! 

Here’s what I recommend: make a list…

Write down the things you’re good at and skills you have, and see if any of those could potentially be a service that you niche down to. 

Maybe organization and efficiency are your strong suits–you could potentially specialize as a business manager or systems specialist.

Maybe you’re a REALLY social, bubbly person and would thrive in a role like social media management.

 

Want to learn what your VA personality type is? Click below to take our quiz and be automatically paired with specializations right for you!

 

 

Pick 2-3 skill sets that really interest you, and try to learn everything you can about them. Then see what sticks with you.

There are a lot of great resources out there to learn virtual assistant tools. If that’s something you’re interested in, the SavvyVault is a fantastic place to start!

It’s a library of over 60 courses teaching tools and skills like social media management, copywriting, Dubsado, Canva, ClickUp, and SO MUCH MORE.

Click here to learn more about the SavvyVault.

 

Case Studies 

You’ve heard me talk all about how specializing can make a phenomenal difference in your VA business. Now I want you to SEE IT for yourself!

Meet Kristiina. After taking our signature program, the SavvySystem, she decided to specialize in business management for life coaches. Now she’s making $40-$60 per hour doing work that she loves.

Then we have another SavvySystem student, Kristi DiSilva. She specializes in HoneyBook and ClickUp, making anywhere from $50 an hour to $400 an hour with her specialized skill! (Can you say WOW?!)

If that’s not enough for you, I’ll share ONE more.

Meet Andrea. She specializes in branding, web-design and SEO, making a minimum of $150 or more per hour with her services!

Why am I sharing these case studies with you?

I want you to see this isn’t a pipe dream. There are REAL people making a full-time income doing remote work that they love – and this can be true for you too.

I hope these stories will inspire you and give you the confidence to step out and go for your dream.

 

Chapter 7: Advanced Tips For Scaling Your Business To Earn More & Work Less

Now that you’ve learned all about the basics of starting a VA business, I didn’t want to leave you hanging without giving you the last piece – how to scale your business to earn MORE profit while working less in your business.

Does it sound too good to be true? It’s not – just read on to learn why it’s possible…

 

Hiring Subcontractors

Once you’ve established yourself as a VA and booked out your clients you’re going to come into a little roadblock…

You’ve sold-out your services and you want to make more money…but you only have so much time in a day. Meaning, you don’t have the capacity to take on more clients even if you wanted to.

This is where subcontractors come in.

A subcontractor is another independent contractor that you outsource to work under your business identity. 

By hiring subcontractors and paying them a portion of your client earnings, you’ll be able to free up your schedule and take on more work without actually doing the work yourself. 

You can even set up your business so that your team of subcontractors handle ALL your client work while you oversee projects, market your business, and focus on growth! 

How does it work? I’ll tell you…

Let’s say you have 5 clients paying you a rate of $60 per hour. You would hire a subcontractor and pay them a portion of that to assist you with completing tasks for the client’s project.

This amount you pay the subcontractor will vary greatly depending on their experience and how involved you are in the project.

Now that they’ve taken over some of your work, you have MORE time to grow your business while still making a PROFIT yourself.

 

Attracting Clients To Your Business (Without Wearing Yourself Out)

Social media marketing, blogging, and cold pitching are all AMAZING methods of acquiring clients in the beginning.

But here’s the thing – you have to do it in a smart way so that you don’t wear yourself out with the hustle of upkeeping those platforms.

You need a long-term strategy to attract clients, and one way of doing that is by building an email list.

Your blog posts, social media pages, and website should all direct visitors to sign-up for your email list using what’s called an opt-in.

An opt-in is a free digital product that gives value to your audience. They can download it for free in exchange for giving their email and being added to your subscribers. 

You can set this up using a program like WordPress, ConverKit, or MailerLite. 

This gives you direct access to your audience and allows you to build a relationship with them. Over time they will grow to know, like, and trust you and you can market your services to them.

 

Join a Like-Minded Community

Here’s what most successful entrepreneurs might not tell you…

It’s not their sweat and hard work alone that got them to be so successful.

(Shocking, I know.)

Having the right mentorship and like-minded community around you is ESSENTIAL to being in that small percentage of VAs who make it to $10K months and over.

If you’re thinking about scaling your virtual assistant business, I HIGHLY recommend joining a mastermind or some sort of high-level group coaching program.

Business owners who invest in themselves are able to see growth much more quickly because they have someone to give them a done-for-you roadmap that’s been tested and proven.

 

Conclusion

Alright, we’ve covered a ton of information in this post. 

If you’ve made it this far, you’ve literally gotten my step-by-step guide to creating a successful VA business from scratch.

Now I want you to take action…

If you’re interested in starting a VA business, let me know in the comments…what’s your number one motivator for starting your business?