My First Year as a Freelance Virtual Assistant

The end of the year is always such a great time to reflect and reassess your goals as you move into the new year! Especially for me now since I’ve just completed my first year as a Freelancer Virtual Assistant, providing part-time assistance to business owners and entrepreneurs. I would like to recap and summarize this time and share some tips and lessons you may also learn from as you grow.

My Virtual Assistant Story in short

My story started in 2020 when the lockdown of the pandemic made me research more about being a remote assistant. I found it attractive that I could choose when and how I work and basically could work from ANYWHERE.
So, I completed 90 Day-VA course, which allowed me to learn the most lucrative in-demand skills on the market and find legit jobs. I landed my first client. Yohoo!
​After that, I resigned from my full-time job, having worked in the hospitality industry for more than 8 years. (wow, that sounds like a lot!)

How to Apply for Freelance Permit as a newbie VA

The first step of my freelance journey was finding a solution on how can I start working on my own with the correct legit work permit in Dubai, United Arab Emirates. Upon researching, I got in touch with so many companies and proposals, but unfortunately, all of them seemed so expensive or more confusing. I was so lucky to come across Kinga Szabo, CEO of Beacon UAE, who was so kind and helpful. She helped me with a personalized proposal considering my need to apply for a freelance permit in UAE, which perfectly suited me. She is excellent and so professional.

​My First Days as a Virtual Assistant

​Since my first client was in a different time zone (in the US), I first worked at night time, so I sacrificed this time for learning and improving myself while providing the best service I could for my client. 

Starting out is always hard, and most of the time, you might feel lost. But I was so lucky to have an extremely supportive client who I learned tons of knowledge from on the way. I am forever grateful.

Most importantly, I am truly thankful for my first-year clients! Without all of them, I couldn’t have achieved a successful year. 

Here are some tips I learned during my first year as a newbie Virtual Assistant. 

​Lesson 1: Decide on what services you want to offer

​As a VA, you might be able to offer more than 200 different services. Working on a bunch of different tasks for a bunch of different clients is exhausting. So I suggest starting with braindump. Write down what your skills are and what you LOVE working with. Do you like working on social media, or do you prefer organizing and managing emails? Then choose the best 3 services you feel most comfortable offering as a new VA. Voila, you are almost ready to look for clients.

​Lesson 2: Always be open to learning new skills

​Starting out as a VA means a lot of learning. Don’t ever stick and start thinking you know all the things. There are always newer and more innovative apps, software, and solutions you should learn to stay competitive in this market. So, just please keep my advice and stay open-minded and keep up with the latest trends.

​Lesson 3: Focus on a healthy balance

When you are your own boss, and you have the freedom when and how much you work, it might become hard to keep the boundaries in place. You may reach a time when you will get busy with multiple clients. Especially if you are a perfectionist (like me, haha), you might find yourself overworking and staying at your workstation until late evening or night. When you realize this is happening, you will need to take a step back to take care of yourself, especially to stay creative and productive.
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It does take a lot of effort, consistency, and strategy to reach your VA success. It is something I am very proud of. And I have sooo many new ideas to grow and evolve my services to best serve my clients in the next year.

Still, have questions about whether or not starting a VA business is right for you?
Ready to enroll and jumpstart your business in 2023? Let’s chat, schedule your VA session with me, HERE!