Embarking on a career as a virtual assistant  is becoming a popular way to become a work at home mum for many women.  If you’ve previously had a career and experience in an administrative field and can offer virtual administrative services and support to business customers, then you would be a good candidate for starting a successful virtual assistant business.

Getting started as a virtual assistant takes some simple steps along with the necessity to prepare a business plan for your business . There isn’t a formal process to gain certifications to become a virtual assistant, but there are various virtual assistant companies who provide you with training and their own certifications. Getting a certification through an agency or a virtual assistant company is not a requirement to be a successful virtual assistant, but it could help you in getting tasks as a starter.  Make sure that if you do decide to sign up for a course, you do your research on the certification provider.  You can get information and feedback from other virtual assistants and even look at finding a mentor to help you in your new venture.

One of the next things you need to arrange is undertaking some research on starting up a small business and finding out what your legal and taxation obligations are.  As you will be an independent contractor you will need to arrange for all the necessary business licenses and registrations before you commence business.  Getting all the necessary paperwork in order will allow you to be able to open up a business bank account as you will need to keep your personal and business finances apart from each other.  This is very important come tax time.

Once your home office is all set up,  you’ll then need to establish a “virtual office” for your business.  You’ll be using a website on the internet to advertise yourself and the services you will be providing as a virtual assistant.  Your website is a definite necessity to establishing your presence on the internet.  If you are not confident in designing a website yourself, find someone who can do this for you.

Your website, essentially should list the services you are offering and some information about who you are.   When you are advertising your services, be sure not to offer a service that you know you can’t undertake and don’t offer anything you can’t do.  As an example if you can only type at 30wpm don’t advertise that you can type at 80wpm, if you don’t  like data entry then don’t advertise it as a service.  The best thing to do is write down a list of all the skills that you do have and what tasks you like performing.  You can always add to your services down the track.  Just remember that this is your business and you can decided on the tasks that you want to undertake.

To gain your first client and tasks as a virtual assistant, the best approach would be to start networking.  Go through all the people you know already – past workmates & employers, family and friends.  You need to get the word out there and let people know what services you are offering, who you are and what type of business you are undertaking.  Make sure you promote your website address to allow people to see more information about your business.  Get some business cards made up so you can pass hand them out to current and potential contacts.  Make sure to include your business name, your name, contact phone numbers, website address and email address on your business cards.

Before acquiring any clients is is valuable to have a contract or agreement drawn up and ready to use before you make a start on a project for a client.  You can do a search online as there are a lot of sample contract which you can use an adapt for your business needs.   It is necessary that both yourself and your client are clear about the type of work you will be undertaking and the price you are charging.  You do not want to get any surprises once the project and invoice has been passed on to the client.

When you get your first client, its advisable to have some type of contract set in place before you start working on a project. You can get many sample contracts online that you can adapt for your needs. Make sure you and the client are both on the same page about the type of work that you will be doing. That way there are no surprises when you deliver the project and your bill.

Your business will start to build a reputation once you have gained your first clients and started completing tasks for them.  Once things start to set in place your virtual assistant business will start to grow on it’s own.  You will have repeat clients and new ones.  All you need to do is provide a professional service, do a good job at all your tasks performed for your clients and the reputation of your business will build.  Make sure that you don’t take on more work than you can do and stay focussed.

About the Author

Kellie Simon is a Full Time Internet Marketer, who also provides support to Online Business. Kellie loves sharing her knowledge to encourage and assist others to get started in their online business. Visit Kellie’s Blog to get her free report revealing the top 8 methods you can use to get started online and making money today. Go To Kellie’s Blog – http://www.kelliesimon.com.au

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