Jasmine Birtles
Your money-making expert. Financial journalist, TV and radio personality.
Make £25 an Hour as a Virtual Assistant
Reading Time: 7 minutesIt’s International Virtual Assistant Day!
The coronavirus pandemic triggered massive changes in the working landscape. Not only are more jobs being carried out remotely now, but more work is being outsourced as well. For many businesses, hiring freelancers and independent contractors for specific jobs, rather than keeping a larger number of employees on the payroll is more effective and cost-efficient. In particular, this has lead to an increasing demand for virtual assistants.
- What is a Virtual Assistant?
- What’s Involved?
- Steps to Become a Virtual Assistant
- How Much Does a Virtual Assistant Make?
- More Useful Reading
What is a virtual assistant?
Virtual assistants (VA) are essentially freelancers who work in an administrative role for a company or client remotely. They hire out their administrative or creative assistance to various clients and businesses and assist with their needs from home. It’s a win-win situation for both employer and employee. From a business perspective, outsourcing work to virtual assistants means they don’t have to provide a VA with office space, utilities and tools, or contribute any other additional benefits. While some of the key benefits for virtual assistants include the freedom to choose who they work with, the ability to work more flexible hours, and the potential to earn over £200 a day. Plus, you can do it all from home without the commute. What’s not to like?
What’s involved?
Working as a virtual assistant can involve a wide range of tasks. It’ll largely depend on who you’re working for and what they need, but it can involve anything from simply answering phones and sending emails, to book-keeping, business planning and desktop publishing. Got any niche skills? Great. The more specialised your skills are, the more you’ll be able to charge. For example, if you’ve had five years’ experience working in the marketing industry and have extensive knowledge of Microsoft Publisher, you can advertise yourself as a virtual assistant specialising in marketing and desktop publishing.
Securing virtual assistant jobs is more accessible than you might imagine. As remote work gains popularity and flexible working arrangements become increasingly favoured, virtual assistants have abundant opportunities to connect with clients.
Do i need qualifications?
Although technically no formal training or qualifications are necessary to be a virtual assistant, most clients will look for a background or relevant experience in secretarial or administration work. If you don’t have this though, don’t panic! For one thing, you’ll have plenty of transferrable skills from other roles such as problem solving, team work, and written communication skills. As well as this though, the increasing demand for virtual assistants means they’re needed in additional roles such as social media, content management, writing blogs, and internet marketing. In these instances, experience in the specific role is more relevant than general administrational experience.
What do i need to get set up?
To get started as a virtual assistant you can actually keep costs incredibly low. Although there are a few things you’ll need, it’s likely that you already have them. At a minimum you’ll need a broadband internet connection, a separate phone line, a computer with all the necessary software, and office stationery. Plus, while you’ll already be paying utility bills you can claim some tax back on them if you’re working from home.
Steps to become a virtual assistant
STEP 1: Sort your skills
Virtual assistants are hired for a range of skills and expertise. Before you get started, decide what your unique selling points are and how you’ll market yourself in your resume.
Here’s a few pointers to get your brainstorming started:
- Do you have any niche skills?
- Do you have any professional training or qualifications in a particular area?
- Is there an area of work that you’d like to learn, or focus more on?
Bear in mind that this is an industry that’s continuously moving forward and developing so you need to keep your skills and knowledge up to date as software and programmes change.
STEP 2: Get started
Register your business
The first thing to do to get started is to register your business with your company name. Think carefully about what name you choose, as it’s the first impression a potential client will have of you. One popular option is to just operate under your own name.
Once you’ve chosen a name for your virtual assistant business, you should check it’s not yet used by somebody else. You can check this with the National Business Register. Plus, you also need to check your business name isn’t trademarked. If it is it can cause you serious legal trouble down the line, so best to find out before!
Finally, you’ll need to register yourself as self-employed with HM Revenue & Customs which is free, but if you don’t get it done within three months of working for yourself you could be caught with a fine. Once you’ve registered, they’ll send you all the relevant information you’ll need about national insurance and tax.
Business Insurance and Tax
As a virtual assistant you’ll need to consider an upgrading your insurance policy, as working from home may affect your cover. The Society of Virtual Assistants has a very useful article here on what type of insurance cover you need and why you need it.
When you first start up as a virtual assistant, you probably won’t have to pay VAT as you’re allowed a £85,000 turnover before you have to pay it. However, if your taxable turnover is over £85,000 then you’ll have to contact HMRC to register for VAT. This’ll also mean you’ll have to comply with the governments recent changes to Making Tax Digital. There are various software platforms that can help you with Making Tax Digital (MTD).
Financing and Start-up costs
Initial financing and start-up costs usually prevent you from making a profit immediately. Be prepared for this, and check out Should You Go Into Debt to Start a Business for more information.
STEP 3: Finding work as a VA
Sign up to a VA agency
Signing up to an agency can be a good starting point to get work and find clients. However, be wary and avoid agencies that will charge you to work for them. Once you’ve paid them it’ll be doubtful if you ever hear from them again. Similarly, avoid anything advertising ‘get rich quick’ or ‘make up to £1000 a day’. Anything too good to be true on the job market always is.
One of the best websites to check out is the Society of Virtual Assistants. It’s a free service and they have loads of useful information for virtual assistants. You can choose from two different types of membership: approved and standard.
- The standard membership is designed to support those looking into becoming a virtual assistant. It includes some useful tools. You’ll get access to the forum where you can post your queries, the society blog and other resources.
- The approved membership is for businesses. You’ll have to agree to a code of conduct, and have professional quality website and email, which will be checked. Once you’ve been verified, you’ll be added to the searchable database. They’ll also provide you with access to the ‘jobs available’ part of the forum, which will then hopefully lead on to paid work.
Advertising your business
When you first set up any business it’s hard work making your services known and sourcing clients. Our article Finding Freelance Clients has some useful hints on how to advertise and find yourself clients.
To get your initial clients, you need to know what kind of people you want to offer your VA services to. Make a list of your key skills, what you’re accomplished in, and what you enjoy. Then think about what type of companies would need your services. What kind of companies might need you to sort out their emails or phone lines? What companies might need virtual help with their customer service?
Consider what you can offer to improve their productivity, what the benefits of your service will be to the company and what makes you stand out from the crowd.
Your advertising medium will depend on your target audience. Ask yourself:
- What literature do these companies read/use?
- Where do these companies network?
- What form of media is this company likely to come into contact with most often?
Also, creating your own website is a good way to sell yourself as a virtual assistant. A website is a useful place for you to build an online CV, showcase experience and endorsements, and use it to promote your services. There are plenty of free tools that make it easy enough. How to Set Up a Website For Your Freelance Business is full of all the information you need to get started.
STEP 4: Increase your skills, increase your pay
Virtual assistants can make more money by increasing the skills they offer. Things like book-keeping, web-management and copy-editing are popular ways to increase your attractiveness to prospective clients. Essentially, the more you can do, the more you’re able to offer a prospective client and this boosts your chances of getting work. A variety of work is the beauty of being a virtual assistant and the more things you can do, the more you can charge.
How much does a virtual assistant make?
According to Glassdoor, the average annual salary of a virtual assistant is just under £30,000. Plus, an annual survey conducted by Society of Virtual Assistant, found that the average hourly rate for a VA in the UK is £27. These figures may help you with a rough idea, but obviously it largely depends on what skills and experience you can bring to a role.
There are a few important things you need to take into account when setting your rates. Firstly, you want to decide whether you’re going to charge based on a day-rate, or by the hour. Be wary about charging by the hour though, as you can end up working a lot of un-billable hours when researching and carrying out your own admin tasks, that essentially leave you earning less than you could with a day-rate.
However, as a self-employed person you also need to take into account a lack of:
- Holiday pay
- Sick pay
- Maternity leave
- Guaranteed hours
- Pension contributions
- Job security; and
- Provided office stationery and utilities
You’ll need to calculate the fact that you’re missing out on these benefits into your pricing. Realistically, an additional minimum of 25% should be added on to your price to ensure your expenses and tax are covered. For example, if you were thinking of charging £20 an hour, then this should change to £25.
More useful reading
If you’re looking for more help on setting up as a freelancer then check out the articles below:
- 5 Common Objections Freelancers Hear (And How to Overcome Them)
- How to Find Your Freelance Niche
- Useful Resources for Freelancers of All Experience Levels
Disclaimer: MoneyMagpie is not a licensed financial advisor and therefore information found here including opinions, commentary, suggestions or strategies are for informational, entertainment or educational purposes only. This should not be considered as financial advice. Anyone thinking of investing should conduct their own due diligence.
Great read! I found it so helpful and it gave me so many insights! Thanks for sharing this.
The power of the internet is such that even those tasks that were previously thought to be impossible to complete from home can now be completed through the use of a computer. One such job is a virtual assistant. Whereas most people would like to have assistants for their businesses, not everyone can afford one. This is where virtual assistants come into play as they can be hired for almost half the money on a full time, on the job, assistants. Virtual assistants can earn up to $20 per hour and earn a substantial income if they have a liking… Read more »
Great read, if you decide to go for a freelance VA, please come and list on vamaven.com
Hi there,
It’s a great article, and would love to do this part-time. However, I would like to know the age restriction, or is there any? I’m a student who falls in the expectations mentioned above.
Nithila.
there are no age restrictions if you work for yourself. With VA work people don’t even see you very often as you are working remotely. So really the only issue is whether you can do the job. If you’re 17 or 70 but can do the job you’re asked to do then you can be a VA 🙂
Hi Jasmine,
Thanks for your reply, it really did help!!!
Nithila
Great article! Everyody would love to read this post. Being with this job is such a rewarding experience: I have more time to spend with my family, no hassle of commuting to work everyday, and more time for myself means more time for relaxation.The biggest benefit, I can say, is the salary. VAs can make more money by increasing their skills set and eventually offering to do a whole bunch of work for the client.
Fantastic article, with lots of really useful information and tips.
Thanks!
We have seen a significant increase in VA registrations in the last 3-5 months. VA services usually get ordered over the holidays due to staff members having a break. Also in the last year we have seen quite a few VAs offer social media monitoring and maintenance services which is proving attractive to businesses, especially startups.
I have a start up business with very little capital – so everything is being done on the cheap. Not the way I imagined it – but can’t risk doing nothing. I have thought asking a friend who is struggling to find work to cover some of my ‘office’ needs which are inconsistent and not a lot at this stage – 1. to keep costs down, 2. to help her out. She has ran offices in the past – so I do not doubt her ability. My only concern is practicality – as I am in the UK and she… Read more »
I have been a virtual PA for 10 years and while I did start out on my own it hanse become so hard to find new clients as big companies are coming into the game. People like Odesk now called Upwork. While I am listed their I also found it hard to stand out from the crowd. Now I work for a firm called Avirtual see avirtual .co.uk I am one of their employees but can still work from home and get to choose my own hours, its not quite the same but its not bad and its half there… Read more »
I provide my own office space, equipment and supplies. Communication is handled efficiently through email, telephone, fax, overnight mail and online.
It might actually be the case that you would need prior physical office experience before considering working as a virtual assistant. But at this day and age, virtually anything can be learned online- by watching videos, reading blogs and downloading free resources which are all that you need to learn the fundamental aspect of becoming a virtual assistant. Learning this craft online, I dare say, can also serve as your metrics to know if your personality and learning aptitude is suited for a virtual job.