Home
>
Small Business
>
Starting a Virtual Assistant Business

Starting a Virtual Assistant Business

If you're organized, smart, capable and willing to work with deadlines, you could start a virtual assistance business and cash in on your skills without having to commit to an employer (you'd be your own boss instead) or the "cube life". A VA (virtual assistant) is basically like an administrative assistant (or whatever duties need to be filled, such as writing, link building etc) that serves in a virtual capacity. What this means is that they are independent contractors, and not employees of individual companies.

VA's get to set their own rates, their own hours and most importantly, get to pick and choose as to who they will and won't take as clients. They can choose what duties they are willing to perform and what duties are not in the repertoire. They can start their own VA firms or gain business through those already established. And with the boom of the Internet, virtual assistants are in becoming more and more utilized by companies around the globe.

According to the virtual business alliance, virtual assisting (of whom most are female) will be a 130 billion dollar industry before the year 2008. In fact, many women see the trend and are entering the field with high hopes of where they can be a few years from now.

Christina Cole is the owner of www.virtualcontentandmore.com ? a virtual assisting business who caters primarily to webmasters looking for content and link development services ? and has found being a VA to be very rewarding. "I started my business by doing odd services for friends of mine who owned multiple websites and became overwhelmed due to too many things needing to be done and not enough time. I liked the work and before I knew it, those friends had referred me to friends and I had a full time booming business."

While not all VA's have "formal" training, some of them elect to by attending VA courses like those offered through virtual business alliance and virtual business alliance.But, if a person has good business sense, marketing skills and a passion, like all entrepreneurs, it is doable with or without "formal training".

But, beware of some pitfalls ? many virtual assistants end up working long hours (as with any start up business) in the first few years and some continue to work odd and/or long hours well after their practice becomes successful. Be sure you are willing to put in the time to make your VA service a success.

Try to find a niche to focus on ? a way to make yourself stand out from the crowd. Have a proper home office in place and figure out what your rates will be ? and remember to advertise, advertise, advertise ? be it via paid efforts or by making a "brand" out of your name. Christina advises, "Don't think that because you've hung out your shingle or built your website that clients will begin to bang down your door. Contribute to the business communities, brand yourself, brand your agency and let people know what you can do for them. The ability to market your business and yourself is extremely important in this business."

Audrey Hoffman is a successful entrepreneur who owns several businesses ? including virtual business alliance ? a site that offers information about virtual business alliance as well as virtual business alliance in all 50 states.

luxury cleaning services Morton Grove ...

In The News:

Uber teen accounts now feature live video streaming from the driver's camera, but encrypted recordings stay on Uber's servers for up to 14 days.

Router firewalls and software firewalls serve different roles in protecting your home Wi-Fi from unwanted traffic and suspicious connections.

A Chrome extension with 70,000 users and a 4.7-star rating began injecting fake update warnings after a threat actor acquired and weaponized it.

Amazon's Alexa+ rolls out free to Fire TV devices across the U.S., but hands-free microphones and stored voice data raise key privacy questions.

Meta's new teen accounts settlement sets a default two-hour daily limit on Instagram and Facebook, plus night mode and school mode restrictions.

The CareCloud data breach exposed Social Security numbers, banking information and medical records belonging to more than 3.75 million people.

Waymo reveals its custom 5-nanometer chip and dual computing systems designed to take over instantly if the robotaxi's primary computer fails.

Identity theft now includes account takeover, phone hijacking and payment card exposure. Here's what to look for in identity theft protection services.

Stay up to date on the latest AI technology advancements and learn about the challenges and opportunities AI presents now and for the future.

The FBI and Justice Department seized domains tied to QScan and QTRouter, tools allegedly used by China-linked hackers to breach NASA and other agencies.

Uber Eats drone delivery launches later this year through a Zipline partnership, starting in Dallas and Houston with a goal of one million daily flights.

Medicare Open Enrollment scams start with data broker targeting months before October. Learn why August is the time to remove your personal info.

The World Humanoid Robot Games' crashes show how far the technology still needs to go to be useful, "Survivor" reality TV star and robotics scientist Christian Hubicki says.

X-Humanoid's TianGong Ultra ran 100 meters in 9.32 seconds at Beijing's World Humanoid Robot Games, beating last year's winner by more than half.

A tap-to-pay charity scam is turning small $15 or $20 donations into charges of nearly $5,000, with victims losing thousands before they notice.

Kurt Knutsson shares seven emergency preparedness lessons from surviving Hurricane Katrina inside a New Orleans hotel as conditions turned desperate.

A contractor stored credentials in a Google Doc set to "Anyone with the link," and Google Search autocomplete eventually surfaced the password string.

New Orleans 911 uses Carbyne AI to triage repeat auto crash calls, but strict limits keep human call-takers in control of all other emergencies.

A single card skimmer can generate $1 million in stolen funds, and Secret Service video shows criminals installing them in under two seconds.

ChatGPT, Meta AI and Google now use memory, connected apps and past chats to personalize ads and responses in ways most users overlook today.

MagicalAuth by Glide.id uses cryptographic SIM credentials to verify bank logins without sending SMS OTP codes that scammers can intercept or phish.

A humanoid robot named Lightning Bolt ran 100 meters in 9.39 seconds at the World Humanoid Robot Games in Beijing, edging Usain Bolt's record.

An AI agent using Claude AI canceled another person's gym booking after finding a security flaw in the reservation system's authorization checks.

Trump signed a memorandum allowing vetted private U.S. companies to conduct cyber operations against foreign criminal organizations under oversight.

Your Social Security number appeared in a breach, but exposure and identity theft are not the same. Here's how identity restoration actually works.

Starting a Virtual Assistant Business

Small Business