Virtual assistance is a booming industry. The virtual office assistant industry is known to have it’s beginnings back in 1995, meaning that the industry is still fairly young and there is plenty of opportunity for work from home careers to continue growing.

What is a Virtual Office Assistant?

Virtual office assistants are independent contractors that choose where they work (mostly from a home office, and many clients will prefer this for different security reasons), and typically will work for multiple clients. They perform tasks that can range from administrative, creative (such as writing), and technical (web design, IT support, etc). Virtual assistants use technology like phone, email, instant message, or fax to do their business.

The Cold Hard Truth About Being a Virtual Office Assistant

But before you give your boss two weeks notice to start your virtual office assistant firm you should be aware that it isn’t going to be a cake job. Many startup virtual office assistant firms are averaging working 14 – 18 hours a day. This job can call for odd hours of operation since most clients are in different time zones.
And most clients want to hire a virtual office assistant to save money (because most virtual assistants are independent contractors they pay their own taxes, pay for their own equipment, training, healthcare, etc.). In other words: don’t get into this expecting to get benefits; it is rare in this industry.

The Good News About Becoming a Virtual Office Assistant

You didn’t think I was going to leave you hanging with bad news did you? Anyway, like I said at the beginning of this post: Virtual assistance is a booming industry. There are several industries that commonly hire virtual assistants: real estate, financial services, accounting and legal. You may also find individuals (insurance agents website owners, graphic designers, etc.) that need assistance. The sky is the limit.
And the key to not letting your work become a drudgery? First do something that you know. You will be up all night panicking about taking that job with a law firm if you know nothing about the work that is involved. If you know what is needed to do real estate clerical work then you will have a much easier (and less stressful) time doing your job.
Second, do something you love. Let’s face it, you won’t always love your job, but if you love it 80% of the time it will make up for the other 20% of the time in the long run. If you love your work you won’t have nearly as much trouble sending out an email for the CPA down the road at 5 am or making that 8 pm call for your local insurance company.

Where to start:

1. You need to decide what kind of services that you will be able to offer. What experience do you have?
2. What kind of clients will you handle? Only financial services or only legal services?
3. Think about how much time that you can commit to starting a virtual office assistant business. Do you want to do this part time (it might be ideal to join an existing firm) or full time (maybe you want to build your own virtual office assistant firm)?
4. Are their potential clients in your local area (this mainly applies if you are starting your own firm and have sufficient time to devote to the client)? Maybe the real estate firm downtown needs someone to do clerical work for them.
5. Research just how in demand your particular field of service is (how many lawyers are looking for your skill set?).
6. Who is your ideal client? How would you let them know about your services?
7. If you are planning on doing this full time know how much money that you will need to get your firm up and running. How much money will you need to run the business successfully?
8. Write up a business plan. Go back to it every couple of months (more often initially) and revise where needed.
9. Assess your business equipment: can your computer handle the tasks that your ideal client needs you to perform?
10. Do you need a business license or other legal docs? Get this in order before getting your first client. While you’re at it make sure you set up your business account at your bank if you are operating under a business name.
11. And advertise. This doesn’t just mean writing a Yellow Pages ad or even a Google AdWords ad. Tell people what you are doing online and offline. You never know who you will meet that is looking for your services.

In the end you might want to join one of the professional organizations for virtual assistants like IVAA. You should also join a networking group of fellow virtual assistants. Being able to socialize and talk shop can have many benefits and help you brainstorm solutions to problems or questions that you might have along the way.

Technorati Tags: virtual office assistant, work at home agent, work at home career, work from home careers