How do I become a virtual assistant with no experience

You can become a virtual assistant even if you have no experience at all. All you need to do is to be willing to learn new virtual assistant skills and then put them into practice, this way you will gain virtual assistant experience. 

As long as you are confident in providing virtual assistant services you can still become a VA even with no experience at all. 

When I started my virtual assistant business I did not have any virtual assistant experience. But I did have the skills that a virtual assistant would need. I chose to use those skills which I already had to become a virtual assistant and help others achieve their business goals. 

What qualifications do I need to become a virtual assistant?

You don’t need any qualifications to become a virtual assistant or to start your own virtual assistant business. 

There are various qualifications available online designed for virtual assistants, however, these usually do not give you the practical experience you need and are not widely recognised by clients or employers.

There are many training courses, you can enrol in a virtual assistant course to develop your skills. A course designed for startup VAs will help you learn more about becoming a virtual assistant and how to set up a business. A virtual assistant course helps prepare you to provide your virtual assistant services. Check out this free virtual assistant mini-management course to help you succeed when managing your virtual assistant business. 

There are many places online where you can get some information and also experience in the virtual assistant industry. You can find out more by doing a Google search.

You can learn a lot from other virtual assistants so be sure to follow other V.A.’s on social media and sign up for their mailing list to get access to exclusive information. This should give you a clear overview of what sort of marketing virtual assistant companies do, and give you a good idea of how they operate as well as ideas and options for new services. 

Decide what type of virtual assistant services you can do based on the skills you already have. 

Then learn about the different paths you can take to become a virtual assistant. If you choose the path of getting a job and being employed as a virtual assistant, gaining a qualification may be something that some employers require, or it may give you an advantage over other candidates when applying for virtual assistant jobs. 

What skills do I need to become a virtual assistant?

You can become a virtual assistant with no experience. However, there are some skills that every virtual assistant will be expected to have

• Good timekeeping – Being reliable and able to meet deadlines 
• Excellent verbal and written communication skills
• Organisational skills
• Professional attitude

In addition to these, you may also need other skills depending on the specific services you will be providing.

Where to find virtual assistant jobs?

Once you have completed some virtual assistant training and feel confident enough to offer virtual support services you can begin to apply for virtual assistant jobs. Even if you are a virtual assistant with no experience.

This can be done using actual job sites such as Indeed or Monster Jobs 

Sometimes on job sites such as these, it is the client who is actually the one doing the recruiting and has placed the job advertisement online. Other times it may be an external or internal recruiter that is handling the recruitment process. 

Depending on which path you decide to take to become a virtual assistant. You can choose to apply to job postings made by recruiters or to only apply for job postings made by clients. 

Make sure you already have your home workspace set up for you to operate your virtual services. You need these three main essentials. 

1. Laptop or PC with a secure high-speed internet connection 
2. A desk and comfortable chair 
3. A well lit quiet space

You can also apply for virtual assistant jobs using freelancing sites such as Fiverr, Freelancer, Upwork, or People Per Hour.

Each of these freelancing websites is different. Some allow you to look for freelancing virtual assistant jobs and some allow you to post freelancing virtual job offers / services. 

Don’t worry about the competition when looking for jobs on freelancing websites, even if you don’t have virtual assistant experience it doesn’t necessarily matter as not all positions will require this, some will just require you to have the knowledge, ability, and availability. 

Check out our recruitment page to register to receive the latest virtual assistant job alerts. 

Setting up a virtual assistant business

If you are setting up a business as a virtual assistant and have no experience then follow these 7 steps to get set up. 

Step 1 – Determine your services, niche and target market

Choose which services you will offer based on the skills you already have. You can develop and learn more skills as you go. 

Decide what niche you will be offering, you should do some market research to determine if it will be a profitable niche. 

Identify your target market. This is the audience that needs your services, you will also need to do some research to determine where you can find your target audience so that you know where to direct your marketing online and offline. 

Step 2 – Choose and learn virtual assistant software and tools

Choose what software and tools you will use in your virtual assistant business. Sign-up and install the software and begin to practice. This way even though you currently have no experience as a virtual assistant, by the time you have completed the seventh step of setting up your virtual assistant business, you will have some experience in how to use the software, apps, or tools so you can carry out services to your clients with confidence. 

Step 3 – Payment / Policies / Processes / Plans

Determine the prices you will be charging for these services, and don’t forget to factor in any costs of the apps, software, or tools it takes to provide the service. 

Develop a process you will use to offer the service. Writing down the process or a guide provides instructions for someone else to also do the job for you in the future. It will ensure they are doing it correctly, and following the same process that you created to carry out your services. 

Determine your policies such as refund policies, late payment policies, etc. 

To learn more about virtual assistant policies click here. 

Step 4 – Branding 

Create your business brand, everything such as your logo, tagline, colours, theme, and elevator pitch. Even though this is only step 4, this is one of the last steps before you can actually begin to offer your services. 

For more information on branding your virtual assistant business click here. 

Step 5 – Business registration and setup

Register your business. The way to register your business will depend on which country and location you are in. To register your business in the U.K. click here for more information.

At this stage, you can begin to provide your services, even though you do not have a website yet and have not started officially marketing your business, you can still tell your friends and family members and networking circle and begin to gain clients and offer your virtual assistant services. 

Step 6 – Create a website 

Create a website for your virtual assistant business. 

You can also create social media accounts.

Creating your social media account first will be faster, you already have your branding style and colour scheme to add to your social media.

Once your website is completed and published you can add your website URL to your social media profile.

If you already have personal contacts and friends on social media, you can send your friend list your new business social media profile so they can like or follow etc. 

You can even choose to use your existing personal social media account as your new virtual assistant business account, just make sure to keep it professional. This way when you post you will immediately already have an audience that is aware of your business. 

You can talk about your website launch on social media and drive a crowd to your website once it is built. 

For more information about what your virtual assistant website should include click here.

Step 7 – Marketing 

Now everything is set up, it is time to concentrate on marketing your website and your services as a whole. Marketing your virtual assistant business needs to be done consistently. In addition to your business social media, there are a number of other ways to get the news about your business and services directly to your target market. You can find out more information about marketing your virtual assistant business here.  

Setting up a virtual assistant business is easy, but making your virtual assistant business a success requires consistency and effort. 

There are many pros to starting a virtual assistant business these include: 

• Having the ability to choose when and where you work
• Low setup costs
• Quick to setup 
• No experience is needed you can use skills you already have 

There are also some cons as well that you should be aware of before starting a virtual assistant business. You can find out more about the pros and cons of running a virtual assistant business here.

You might begin your virtual assistant career as a virtual assistant with no experience but with consistency, you will become a successful virtual assistant with a range of experience, and you will attract even more clients. 

How to gain experience as a virtual assistant

If you are a virtual assistant without experience. You will gain experience as a virtual assistant once you start offering your services, with every new customer comes more experience and something new you will learn. 

Other ways to gain virtual assistant experience

Apprenticeship / internship – You can gain a lot of experience from doing a virtual assistant apprenticeship. By the end of the apprenticeship, you will have the skills, knowledge, and experience to be a virtual assistant.

Charities – Contacting charities to provide a service voluntarily is a way of you donating to charity yourself. You can contact charities and offer your service at no cost, or for a discounted rate in exchange for reviews. This will allow you to gain virtual assistant experience and credibility. If you do a good job the charity may potentially use your services in the future. 

Freelancing sites – If you are looking for your first client you can begin by posting gigs that offer your services. As you will be posting the offer at a lower rate it is best to offer services that don’t take you a lot of time to complete. Before concentrating on getting the best quality clients, you should concentrate on getting high-quality reviews, which you can use to attract high-quality clients as time goes by. 

Most clients that visit freelancing sites such as Fiverr or People Per Hour look for freelancers with reviews. If you don’t have any it can be harder to attract clients. Usually, if you can undercut the price of everyone else your gig will become popular and will gain a lot of attention. As long as you do a good job when clients purchase your gigs this can help you to get a good amount of reviews. Once you have a good amount of reviews and a good reputation, then raise your prices accordingly. 

V.A. business tasks – If you will be doing your own virtual assistant business tasks and admin then you will gain experience with every task that you complete. 

Example: Every time you post on social media you are gaining experience in social media management. 

Every time you write a new blog post for your virtual assistant business you are gaining experience with content creation and proofreading. 

Every time you discover a better way of doing something for your virtual assistant business you are developing your skills and virtual assistant experience.

CONCLUSION 

Do not let the lack of experience stop you or delay you any further when it comes to setting up your virtual assistant business. 

Some of the virtual assistants that I have trained already had experience as a P.A. at an executive level. I have also trained others with no experience at all and they have been just as successful at starting their virtual assistant business. 

I have learnt the factor which determines the success of both of these types of virtual assistants is not the experience but the attitude and effort. 

If you want a flexible career as a virtual assistant start taking action toward those goals today.