There are over 40 million virtual assistants worldwide. That number is expected to grow significantly in the years to come.
Even though virtual assistants are everywhere, there’s an association with Southeast Asia, cheap labor, and being classified as disposable.
For certain demographics, starting a virtual assistant career is the most accessible way to enter freelancing.
They’re often blinded by people who have a similar trajectory who sell the dream that it’s a better way of living than a corporate job.
My Problem With The Term Virtual Assistant
The term virtual assistant has been used, overused, and abused. That puts you in a bad spot if you’re just starting.
The majority of virtual assistants aren’t thinking about niching down or providing a focused service.
Instead, they try to slap dozens of different “skills” on a bloated resume, and there’s rarely someone who can do one particular skill exceptionally well.
By default, that would trigger the mindset of you being more disposable, and employers don’t need you when they can replace you with someone who has a similar resume.
I’ve interviewed hundreds over the years. And my hiring rate was less than 5%. That was because they’re trying to pretend to be something they’re not.
- It’s not because you can copy and paste text into Canva on a template that you’re a Canva Designer
- It’s not because you posted 100 images on social media that you’re a social media expert
But it doesn’t have to be this way. What you want is to start separating yourself from the bottom tiers.
Virtual Assistants Are Bottom Chasers
Over the years, I’ve had some crazy applications, but there was a significant uptrend in people direct messaging me, begging me to hire them. Begging them to hire them for as little as $1/hour because they couldn’t find a project or client.
I refused to hire them. Because I can’t respect anyone who’s going with an approach that puts them in a bad spot.
Not only that, but what if they find the next month another client who’s willing to pay their actual rates?
They’re not going to stick around, and I would have wasted time, money, and energy in training them.
The worst part is that virtual assistants are often abused by employers and prey on the weak.
They squeeze the life and blood out of them until they’re fed up. For a morally bankrupt employer, they have no problem replacing them with someone else who’s willing to do the shitty job.
When you devalue your rates and worth out of desperation, an entire market or industry will react and follow.
Because when everyone is lowering their rates, they feel they’re forced to do the same, or they’re not getting the job.
But you shouldn’t.
Start Eliminating The Virtual Assistant Label
Because there’s so much abuse with this term, you want to distance yourself from the bottom tier and its associations.
Have a sigma mindset, and acquire a stronger position in the freelance market by focusing on a particular skill or field.
If you do, you can raise your rates.
Ethical employers want to compensate for skills, not for someone who has dabbled in 20 fields but hasn’t mastered any of them.
I’ve seen resumes from VAs where one paragraph states they’re good at SEO, followed by low-skill data-entry tasks.
The worst part? That’s followed by a list of “skills”, where they add Google Docs or MS Office as a filler.
Not a single serious client will ever hire you.
The only clients you’re going to get are the ones who abuse virtual assistants for a low wage.
Start Killing Instead Of Surviving
Your skills will go somewhat async with your rates. If you’re trying to serve an entire market, you can never be great or exceptional.
Instead, take the path of least resistance and do the opposite of what every other virtual assistant is doing.
The majority of VAs are focused on finding clients to survive. They rarely focus on finding clients that fit a certain profile or a niche.
The main reason? They consider freelancing a means to an end, but never consider it as a business.
Have a killer mindset, even if you feel that others might fill their portfolio with random clients.
Stop thinking about surviving, instead start thinking about eradicating your competition with higher rates in one or two particular fields.
Start Treating Your Virtual Assistant Career As A Business
New virtual assistants react and copy what other VAs do. Joining every freelance platform like UpWork or Fiverr and applying for jobs like a maniac.
The fact is that platforms like UpWork have over 20 million freelancers, but only 850K active companies are looking to hire someone.
The most successful virtual assistants I’ve ever met have a clear sense of business and commercial acumen.
They understand they’re a business and treat themselves like one. They don’t cut corners and are very clear about their targets, ideal customer profiles, and financial goals.
There’s little fundamental difference between you as a virtual assistant (freelancer) or a bootstrapped startup.
Traditional startups follow playbooks. Some of them include:
- Mapping out ICPs (ideal customer profiles)
- Setting KPIs and financial goals
- Working on growth models
- Working on brand equity, or personal branding
Great Virtual Assistants Have A Personal Brand
Ever gone through Facebook, freelance platforms, or groups with fellow virtual assistants?
You can simply ask them:
- Do you have a personal blog and website?
- How’s your social media looking professionally?
- Do you use a custom domain and hosting for better branding?
99% of them will say no. And that’s a mistake. The fact that you’re not finding clients at decent rates is not always the demand’s fault.
That is on you.
That is your fault, because you never consider personal brand equity as part of your freelance career.
It’s your fault that you don’t take action or necessary steps to build a cohesive story, which highlights your skills through content and growth marketing.
If you want to advance and leave the bottom tier behind, then work on your brand.
I explained this part in very detail in my free Zero To 500K Guide, so I suggest you read it.
The cost of building a personal brand will be about $40-$100 per year.
That includes:
It’s a small price to pay when you’re able to leverage that and get a 100X return. Especially when millions of other virtual assistants ignore the basic fundamentals of branding.
Employers want someone who’s reliable, has a strong story, and a portfolio that makes sense. Sometimes, a detail like this can be a deciding factor on whether they want to hire you or not.
Close
Being a virtual assistant is an honorable job. Despite how the industry labels them or associates them with cheap labor.
But it’s up to you to change that narrative and make a shift, becoming an expert in 1-3 fields.
Instead of using the term virtual assistant, go with:
- I provide assistance in xxxx
- I assist early-stage startups in growth
- I assist e-commerce companies in order processing
Being a supporting pillar for a business doesn’t always mean you’re a VA.
It simply means that you’re critical to any business, and without you, they have a hard time operating without inefficiencies.
Being the best virtual assistant will only happen if you drill on 1-2 skills and a particular niche that is willing to overcompensate you for your output, instead of getting labeled as cheap labor.