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A virtual assistant (VA) is a self-employed professional who provides administrative, secretarial and creative services on a remote basis.

Working from their own fully equipped offices, VAs work with a variety of different clients on a regular, ad hoc, or individual project basis.

In other words, a VA is a professional small-business owner who provides virtual PA support to a number of clients and who can undertake those tasks normally performed by a PA or an office manager.

By forming a partnership with a VA, you can make more money by focusing on what you do best and expanding your business. Once you have a VA, you will be able to be far more productive as a result.

We recommend you bring one on board as soon as possible.

What are the benefits of working with a VA?

Focus can be switched to moneymaking activities - by outsourcing their administrative tasks, clients can focus their time on making moneymaking activities.

A cost-effective solution - clients only pay for the time you are working on their tasks, not lunch breaks, networking events, holidays, etc.

No office space or equipment requirements - as VAs work from their own premises, clients do not need to provide the office space or equipment they would if they employed their own support staff.

No employee-related issues - as a VA is a self-employed business owner, clients do not need to worry about employment law, national insurance contributions, PAYE, pension contributions, etc.

Flexible support available - most VAs work on a regular retainer, ad hoc and project specific basis, alleviating clients’ requirements for employed support staff.

Experienced professional to support their business - if utilised correctly, a VA with professional expertise can help a business grow.

Can complement existing support staff - a VA is a perfect resource to complement existing office staff with tasks that often get overlooked in the day-to-day running of a business.

Allow more time for leisure activities - by outsourcing tasks to a VA, clients can increase the amount of time they can spend with their family and friends.

What is freelance work? I am sure that you have heard of freelance photographers eagerly snapping photographs of movie and sports stars, and selling them at huge profits to gossip columns and entertainment magazines or websites. These photographers are not employed by any of these magazine or website owners. They work for themselves as freelancers, and decide when and where they would like to work and often sell their work to the highest bidder if a highly sought after photograph has been taken.

Taking and selling photographs is by no means the only freelance opportunities available to freelance workers. You can work as a freelancer in many different professions. You can work as a translator, design websites, create applications, optimize websites, write adverts, work as a virtual PA, write reviews, the list goes on and on. And similar to freelance photographers, you decide when you want to work, and how much work you would like to do. No more working office hours at the beck and call of your boss. You are your own boss.

It does sound wonderful, doesn’t it? Well it is not as simple as it seems, but it could be. We all have knowledge of something, a particular area where we would consider ourselves to be an expert. Why not use this knowledge by working as a freelancer, and getting paid to share your knowledge. It is much easier than you think.

Where do you go to get work as a freelancer?

Searching on Google will get you millions of possible results for potential freelance work. Proceed carefully though, as there are many scams out there. Your best bet would be to start with a reputable freelance provider. Again you can use Google to search for information on a particular site, and often you can find comments from would be freelancers, supporting or exposing these sites.

There are primarily two types of freelancer sites. The first type asks you to pay a membership fee, either monthly, or a once of payment. For someone starting with very little available resources, and no reputation, this could be a difficult option. They do have their advantages though. They tend to attract the more serious freelancers and suppliers, simply because you have to pay to join. These sites may or may not charge commission on projects completed. On the down side you can get scammed out of your hard earned cash by sites promising thousands of jobs, but once you have paid to join, you find very few opportunities available. The once off payment sites will mostly fall into this category.

The second type of freelancer sites will cost you nothing to join, and they will take a percentage of the total value of the project. The percentage is generally higher than pay to join sites, and is normally around ten percent. The advantage of this type of site is that anyone can join, but this can be a disadvantage as well, as you will get more unreliable freelancers and suppliers. If this type of site is well managed, it can be a good opportunity for new freelancers.

Before you join any of these sites though, you have to ensure that you can receive payments made to you. Most sites will offer you the option of more than one payment method, but you have to ensure that you can receive payment in your country. As an example you can not receive payments using PayPal in all countries. The last thing you would want is to complete a project and then find that you can not get your money.

To start of as a freelancer, you will have to build a good reputation. This may require you to work at much lower rates in the beginning to be able to secure projects. Consider this as your learning curve. Many freelancers take years before they can get sufficient work to be able to earn a living wage. You have to get stuck in and be unrelenting, and then you will be successful.