will charge per project or per hour, if there is no work for you to do, they will not have to pay you as they do their employees that are on the books. Try to call upon new small businesses and entrepreneurs. They seem to use VA’s the most because they can avoid the paperwork associated with bringing on an employee and, if they are working from home as well, they will not have to share their home office with anyone!

· Contact former employers who know your work ethic and let them know what you are doing now. Perhaps they have some work for you or they can recommend you to an associate.

· Start a website, even a free one

Providing services as a virtual assistant, or VA, is one of the hottest home businesses today. With its growing popularity, more and more businesses and entrepreneurs are seeking them out. With that, more and more people are seeking to enter into this field. What that means to you is that the field is competitive and finding work is not always easy.

The first thing you need to do is ensure your skills are sharp. If you have less than 5 years of executive secretary experience, or comparable, you may want to consider enrolling in a certification class with a reputable institution such as Assist U or IVVA. This way you can point out that you are certified in your field. The reason this field differs from that of a “cyber secretary” is that a VA acts more as a partner to the business owner, assisting in all aspects of the business, whereas a secretary may just perform one or two functions for the business such as typing, call taking, or filing. In fact, many virtual assistants act as personal assistants as well as business assistants. Some of their duties may include handling mail and e-mail, arranging business meetings, planning events such as family parties, buying gifts, managing newsletters, faxing, transcription, research, and more. Because their duties generally encompass so much, their pay is usually higher than those performing secretarial tasks. The average VA is said to be making between twenty and forty-five dollars per hour.

Once you know you are prepared for this work, obtaining clients is the biggest challenge. As with any business, your marketing efforts could make or break you. I suggest doing as much marketing as you can for free before spending a dime on advertising. After all, if you were to put forth large sums of money into advertising that brought you no clientele, you’d really be in the red.

Here are some free ideas for obtaining clientele. · Sometimes you may get lucky and come upon an ad for a virtual assistant right on one of the top job boards such as Monster.com or HotJobs.com so check these boards often. In fact, set up a daily “job agent” that will send you e-mails daily for listings with “virtual assistant” as a keyword.

· Look for ads placed for executive/personal assistants and call on them directly. Explain your services and what you can do for the company. Don’t forget to point out that the employer will save themselves tons of money by not having to provide a 401-K, medical benefits, and the like because you work as an independent contractor. Also, since you will charge per project or per hour, if there is no work for you to do, they will not have to pay you as they do their employees that are on the books. Try to call upon new small businesses and entrepreneurs. They seem to use VA’s the most because they can avoid the paperwork associated with bringing on an employee and, if they are working from home as well, they will not have to share their home office with anyone!

· Contact former employers who know your work ethic and let them know what you are doing now. Perhaps they have some work for you or they can recommend you to an associate.

· Start a website, even a free one w

out that you are certified in your field. The reason this field differs from that of a “cyber secretary” is that a VA acts more as a partner to the business owner, assisting in all aspects of the business, whereas a secretary may just perform one or two functions for the business such as typing, call taking, or filing. In fact, many virtual assistants act as personal assistants as well as business assistants. Some of their duties may include handling mail and e-mail, arranging business meetings, planning events such as family parties, buying gifts, managing newsletters, faxing, transcription, research, and more. Because their duties generally encompass so much, their pay is usually higher than those performing secretarial tasks. The average VA is said to be making between twenty and forty-five dollars per hour.

Once you know you are prepared for this work, obtaining clients is the biggest challenge. As with any business, your marketing efforts could make or break you. I suggest doing as much marketing as you can for free before spending a dime on advertising. After all, if you were to put forth large sums of money into advertising that brought you no clientele, you’d really be in the red.

Here are some free ideas for obtaining clientele. · Sometimes you may get lucky and come upon an ad for a virtual assistant right on one of the top job boards such as Monster.com or HotJobs.com so check these boards often. In fact, set up a daily “job agent” that will send you e-mails daily for listings with “virtual assistant” as a keyword.

· Look for ads placed for executive/personal assistants and call on them directly. Explain your services and what you can do for the company. Don’t forget to point out that the employer will save themselves tons of money by not having to provide a 401-K, medical benefits, and the like because you work as an independent contractor. Also, since you will charge per project or per hour, if there is no work for you to do, they will not have to pay you as they do their employees that are on the books. Try to call upon new small businesses and entrepreneurs. They seem to use VA’s the most because they can avoid the paperwork associated with bringing on an employee and, if they are working from home as well, they will not have to share their home office with anyone!

· Contact former employers who know your work ethic and let them know what you are doing now. Perhaps they have some work for you or they can recommend you to an associate.

· Start a website, even a free one

s generally encompass so much, their pay is usually higher than those performing secretarial tasks. The average VA is said to be making between twenty and forty-five dollars per hour.

Once you know you are prepared for this work, obtaining clients is the biggest challenge. As with any business, your marketing efforts could make or break you. I suggest doing as much marketing as you can for free before spending a dime on advertising. After all, if you were to put forth large sums of money into advertising that brought you no clientele, you’d really be in the red.

Here are some free ideas for obtaining clientele. · Sometimes you may get lucky and come upon an ad for a virtual assistant right on one of the top job boards such as Monster.com or HotJobs.com so check these boards often. In fact, set up a daily “job agent” that will send you e-mails daily for listings with “virtual assistant” as a keyword.

· Look for ads placed for executive/personal assistants and call on them directly. Explain your services and what you can do for the company. Don’t forget to point out that the employer will save themselves tons of money by not having to provide a 401-K, medical benefits, and the like because you work as an independent contractor. Also, since you will charge per project or per hour, if there is no work for you to do, they will not have to pay you as they do their employees that are on the books. Try to call upon new small businesses and entrepreneurs. They seem to use VA’s the most because they can avoid the paperwork associated with bringing on an employee and, if they are working from home as well, they will not have to share their home office with anyone!

· Contact former employers who know your work ethic and let them know what you are doing now. Perhaps they have some work for you or they can recommend you to an associate.

· Start a website, even a free one

mes you may get lucky and come upon an ad for a virtual assistant right on one of the top job boards such as Monster.com or HotJobs.com so check these boards often. In fact, set up a daily “job agent” that will send you e-mails daily for listings with “virtual assistant” as a keyword.

· Look for ads placed for executive/personal assistants and call on them directly. Explain your services and what you can do for the company. Don’t forget to point out that the employer will save themselves tons of money by not having to provide a 401-K, medical benefits, and the like because you work as an independent contractor. Also, since you will charge per project or per hour, if there is no work for you to do, they will not have to pay you as they do their employees that are on the books. Try to call upon new small businesses and entrepreneurs. They seem to use VA’s the most because they can avoid the paperwork associated with bringing on an employee and, if they are working from home as well, they will not have to share their home office with anyone!

· Contact former employers who know your work ethic and let them know what you are doing now. Perhaps they have some work for you or they can recommend you to an associate.

· Start a website, even a free one

will charge per project or per hour, if there is no work for you to do, they will not have to pay you as they do their employees that are on the books. Try to call upon new small businesses and entrepreneurs. They seem to use VA’s the most because they can avoid the paperwork associated with bringing on an employee and, if they are working from home as well, they will not have to share their home office with anyone!

· Contact former employers who know your work ethic and let them know what you are doing now. Perhaps they have some work for you or they can recommend you to an associate.

· Start a website, even a free one will do, and market it as much as possible. Place your website link in your e-mail and forum signatures and frequent small business and home business forums where potential clients are apt to be.

· Place an ad on Craig’s List. This site is an excellent free resource!

· Register with agencies that place VA’s in positions for no fee. You may have to take a pay cut if they take a percentage of your wages, but some make a placement fee directly from the client. Even if you make a little bit less for a couple of temporary jobs, it will get experience under your belt and whomever you work for may recommend you to someone else!

· Print out some business cards on your home computer and hand them out to everyone, especially new businesses in your area.

· Many freelance message boards have listings for virtual assistants regularly. Check them often. You can do a Google search to find these.

· There are many VA networking boards appearing on the web. Their sole purpose is to connect VA’s with potential clients. Find them and use them. Some even offer you a free website.

· If you are going to certify with a VA training program see if you can find one that offers job placement services or career coaching after your training to help assist you in finding clients.

When selling yourself to businesses, really try to anticipate their personal needs and make your sales pitch specific to them. For example you might have a different approach when talking to a father of three who runs a dog grooming business (“Free yourself up to have more time with your family and your pets”) than you would with an e-business entrepreneur (“Think of how much more time you will have to concentrate solely on bringing in more money if you have me to handle all of the administrative work!”).

If you exhaust all of the free options, there are always the yellow pages, newspapers, paid online ads, and more. You can also purchase many books that have been published recently which are devoted to helping VA’s learn how to market their home business. Good luck!