Starting a virtual assistant business is just one of many ways to be a Work at home mom. If you have experience in an administrative field, or can offer virtual services to business clients, then you are a prime candidate for having a successful virtual assistant business.

Getting started as a virtual assistant requires a few simple steps. There is no formal credential process to become a virtual assistant, but there are several companies who offer training and their own credentialing. This is not absolutely necessary to be a successful virtual assistant, but it can be helpful in obtaining jobs as a newcomer. Before you sign up for any program or course, do your due diligence and investigate the company. Get recommendations from other successful virtual assistants and consider finding a mentor who can help you get started.

Legally, you’ll need a business license in order to become an independent contractor. By obtaining a business license you’ll be able to open up a business bank account and keep your business and personal finances separately. Being legal also means you can declare many of your business expenses as tax write offs.

Once you’ve set up your home office, you’ll need to establish your virtual office. On the Internet, you’ll use a website to advertise yourself as a virtual assistant. Having a website is essential to establishing your presence. If web design is not in your skill set, find someone who can make a website for you. Try to contact other virtual assistants and see if you can barter for the design if it’s something that you cannot afford to begin with.

On your website you should, at minimum, list your services and who you are. You can also include an hourly rate, although many virtual assistants like to charge by the project instead of by the hour. As far as services go, don’t offer services that you don’t like to do. If you can make spreadsheets but don’t like to do it, then don’t offer that service. If you have background in a specific field, for example law, then list this as a specialty. You can also specialize in the type of work that you offer. Many virtual assistants limit their business to writing and editing, web design, data management or planning, but some offer a mixture of all types of services. Remember, this is your business and you can choose what tasks that you want to perform.

The best way to get virtual assistant jobs to begin with is to start networking. Your best leads will come through people that you already know, whether they are online or in your hometown. Let people know what you are offering and promote your website address so people can see who you are and what you are doing. Make sure to include up to date contact information on your web page, including a phone number.

When you get your first client, its important to have a contract set in place before you start working on a project. You can get many sample contracts online that you can adapt for your needs. Make sure you and the client are both on the same page about the type of work that you will be doing. That way there are no surprises when you deliver the project and your bill.

After you have a few projects under your belt, you’ll begin to build a reputation. Then your virtual assistant business will grow naturally to include repeat clients and new projects. When you consistently do good work, your reputation will precede you and you may have more projects that you know what to do with in a short period of time. Make sure not to overbook yourself, and collect a network of other virtual assistants who are willing to take overflows for you if the need arises.

Getting your virtual assistant business off on the right foot is simple when you follow the basic steps mentioned above.

When you are considering working from home, there is a set of decisions that must be made. First, you must decide whether or not working at home is right for you. Next, you need to consider what type of work at home job you will be doing. There are many opportunities for freelances out there, both offline and off. Having a successful freelance career starts with evaluating your own skills and requirements in a job and then finding the right match.

Sometimes the best place to start with your freelance career is where your out of the home career ended. Many women find that they can become independent contractors in the field that they previously worked in. You can use your previous work experience as a launching pad for your freelance career. Some of the ways to use your experience to your advantage are: finding a company that hires people in your field to work from home, using your previous experience to become an “expert” writer in your field or starting a business related to your previous field.

However, some people look at their freelance careers as a way to break out of their old job. If you’d like to try something completely different, there are plenty of opportunities for entry-level work as an independent contractor. Many of these jobs deal with telephone or online customer service. When you work as a customer service agent from your home, you just need a reliable Internet connection and a working phone. Companies also hire medical transcriptionists, data entry professionals and virtual personal assistants to telecommute.

If you want to start your own business, the opportunities are very vast. You can start with a direct sales company and sell products from an established brand to friends and neighbors. You’ll make commissions through your sales and also off of recruiting other people to sell the products. There are hundreds of direct sales companies that offer everything from aromatherapy products to candles to cooking supplies.

Another option for starting your own business is offering a service in your community. Day care center operators, florists, professional organizers and hairdressers all have the option of working at home, among many other professions. Of course, starting a business in your community normally means that you’ve had some experience in that field. However, there are some small business ideas that can be started without much experience at all.

Many women turn to the Internet for a source of at home income. The World Wide Web offers a plethora of job opportunities. You can offer your services online as a freelance web designer, writer or virtual assistant. You can also start an online store that sells products that you make yourself or have the rights to resell. Many freelances establish their businesses online by using one of the popular auction sites, like eBay. Still others find a home in internet marketing, by directing web traffic to a website and then recommending certain products and services.

Decide first what type of job you’d like to do and then work from there. If you are truly a people person and need to get out each day, direct sales or a local service business might be right for you. If you are the type of mom who lives online and is comfortable with the Internet, try finding a job or starting your own business on the web. If you like the comfort of having a weekly paycheck, look into telecommuting positions.

Once you’ve decided what category of job you’d like, do some research on what it takes to be successful at that type of business. If you feel like you are drawn to one particular business or company, then sit on your decision for a week and see how it feels. Imagine what your life will be like as you take on the duties of that job. Most importantly, be realistic with yourself about how much time you can devote to your business. Finding the right match isn’t hard when you thoroughly consider your options.

Upon becoming a freelancer for the first time, it is also important that you create a mass of different items that can show off the kind of work you do.

Making this portfolio may be one of the most important things you can do if you want to succeed as a freelancer, as it will help you move up in the world of freelance work.

Only include projects that you have all of the rights to, as if someone thinks that you may have stolen pieces of your portfolio from others, the word may get out and you risk not being hired for freelance work by anyone – ever.

Furthermore, only add items to your portfolio that make you look good in whatever particular field you are trying to find freelance work in.

Sure, if you are looking for freelance work as a web designer you could include an article you wrote on chemistry, but why would someone looking for a skilled web designer really care about something you wrote for a chemistry website – unless your client was also hiring you to write his web copy.

Finally, your competition from around the globe will be another major barrier in your pursuit to become a self sufficient freelancer.

People from all walks of life and from just about every country in the world will be competing for the same projects as you, so you had better be prepared to offer something that other people simply cannot compete with.

For example, if you are a freelance writer or editor, the best way to compete is to explain to your clients that you are a native English speaker.

Graphic and web designers as well as software programmers should take plenty of extra college courses to show how well they are educated in their craft.

Finally, no matter field you are freelancing in, you should always take some time as an unpaid worker to create some examples for your portfolio that really highlight your strong points.

It is most important to set your targets. What strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats do you need to deal with? It is a waste of time to covet a company that uses internal resources for their writing.

Your plan should include key information about your targets, such as organization overview, key contacts, potential proposal/grant writing opportunities, etc.

There are several ways to meet people that will be helpful to your networking. There are writers’ forums and groups online, as well as industry-related forums and groups. Even if the industry itself doesn’t hire writers, it may recommend you when they meet someone who does.

Joining professional organizations, such as a writers club or organization online can benefit you. Also, don’t overlook offline resources like the Greater Chamber of Commerce in your city or town. Members often recommend others in their group for jobs they are unable to do.

Promote yourself for free through article directories. In order to let people know what types of writing you can write, you need to do some free promotion through using the Top 10 article directories which get tons of traffic from the search engines and lots of visitors looking for writing.

If you make a compelling Author’s Resource Box, you will garner a lot of free traffic to your website where you can further sell prospective clients on your services.

You can introduce yourself to editors and owners of the larger websites. This can give you an in when something comes up.

Direct contact and taking the time to familiarize them with you and your skills, may well be remembered for later recommendations.

You will want to seek out membership sites where they are selling PLR content. PLR content is Private Label Content provided on a monthly basis by membership site owners to buyers.

The buyers can be website owners or ezine publishers looking for specific niche topics and don’t want to spend a lot to have the content produced.

Average PLR articles sell for pennies versus the dollars it would take to write an original article.

It is best to have a site when trying this and remember that it is a numbers game. You need to hit a minimum of 40 to 50 sites before you even think about giving up. If you reach that number, then rework your email, look at your pricing and go at it again.

You can even offer a rewriting service to the people who buy the PLR content, and give them cut rate pricing for rewriting services on the PLR content that the site provides.

As you build your freelance business, you simply need to keep thinking outside of the box.

Look at the services provided and see where you can upgrade or tie in your writing with what’s already working. If a PLR site is very popular, being able to rewrite for webmasters is always a good way to get your foot in the door.

Creating a website is relatively easy to accomplish. On these free sites, you will become a sub-domain as I stated earlier. A sub-domain would be something like yourname.typepad.com or you.wordpress.com.

These are good places to begin setting up your initial portfolio, pricing and the like because the main site is so heavily trafficked and the search engines love them.

Another great place to set up is on Squidoo lenses, Hubpages and Google Knols. All of these are one page mini-sites that focus on one thing only.

You can set up any of these pages and by creatively using their linking structure, you can set up a total portfolio and make money monthly from the articles you’re displaying.

Once you have a good understanding of how websites work and how easy it is to set up your own website, it will be time to branch out and make a website for yourself.
By this point, you should be ready to set up your site on your own with your own domain name, web hosting and blog template customized to you. Here are some things you will need to do in order to take orders.

Get a Paypal account. It should be at least a Premier account and you should take the time to get it verified. In this way, you will be able to take orders from your website for writing jobs.

Godaddy.com is a great place to get your domain name. A domain name is a recognizable name that takes the place of numerically addressed Internet addresses.

Hostgator.com provides excellent cheap web hosting. This is where you point your domain name. Pointing means that you direct people to your site.

When they type your domain name, the web browser takes them to your site.

Pick which blogging platform you are going to use. By far, the easiest platform to start on is Blogger. It allows you to use their templates as well as their blogging platform to post to your domain. It takes care of all of the HTML and other programming issues for you, leaving you free to simply provide the web content, samples and pricing you want.

While you may not want to stay with Blogger, if you’re frightened of jumping into the WordPress world, blogger is your best bet.

If you do decide to go with WordPress, there is a wealth of information in the form of articles, e-books and videos to help you get set up and going.

There are thousands of free templates to choose from for all different types of websites, and with the addition of various, free plug-ins, which are tiny programs, you can customize your template to reflect what you are about.

Understanding search engine optimization (SEO) is definitely an advantage when you are seeking jobs. Many clients want their writers to know how to use the keywords that bring attention to their sites.

While this may sound easy, it can be really tricky to work those phrases into your writing and make it sound reasonable. It won’t hurt to practice that skill a few times on your own site!

Don’t be a quitter; part of becoming a writer is the rejection. Don’t be discouraged and do not give up.

Unfortunately, when you are out there looking for work, you will run into dozens of freelance writing scams. One of the most common scams is the one that asks you to write for free.

They offer all kinds of experience and exposure for the new freelance writer, but, let’s face it.

What they want is something for nothing. Period.

And these articles aren’t being shown in successful, professional online publications. They are beginners, just like you. And they are willing to publish almost anything.

It would be far more impressive on your resume, if you volunteered to do some free articles for a charity that gives you your byline.

They do this because they haven’t got the money to pay you for the job, which probably means that they are running a new, as yet unsuccessful site, and can’t afford advertising either.

Without the ads, and without the traffic to their site, no ad revenue will be earned. You will be wasting your time. It would be easier to earn ad revenue dollars on your own, by signing up with Google Adsense and running some ads on your own website!

And, never accept a job and write a single word until you know exactly how and when you are going to be paid for it.

The moment that you read a job ad that promises you thousands of dollars per month, run, don’t walk, away from it. You may be lucky enough to find a job like that some day, but it won’t be through that sort of an ad. It will come through networking and contacts.

If a job ad isn’t willing to state who the client is and how to contact him, be suspicious. You should be able to research a company that you are going to work for.

It boils down to this…before you jump in, check your source. Some sites are less prone to scamming than others.

Are they sharing any of their company information? If not, why not?

If the pay scale they promise you is ―hundreds of dollars per week,‖ walk away from it. If it sounds too good to be true, it almost always is.

Don’t be afraid to look them up with the Better Business Bureau. Don’t ever send them money for any reason. You do not have to pay to work at a legitimate job.

Discuss in detail the financial arrangements. How you are being paid, whether or not they take out withholding, if you are considered to be an independent contractor, and any other questions should be answered willingly and freely.

To be your own boss and set up your own business, you need to get up every day, get to your computer, produce some material, respond quickly to emails, and actively pursue new writing opportunities. You need to be self-motivated and disciplined.

You must dependably meet deadlines. Loving what you do and being your own boss isn’t enough. You must require as much from yourself as you would from any employee that you would hire to work for you.

In order to set up your new freelance business you will have to have a good, reliable computer, with a lot of memory. A decent printer is a must. Keep a daily planner, and note all jobs and deadlines in it.

You need to keep track of what you write, sell and to whom you sell it. This can be done on a simple Excel sheet, or you can use a submission tracker. There are free ones available online, such as SAMM. Obviously, you need to have an email address.

Fortunately, little is needed in the way of office supplies and writing materials beyond that. You will run into few unusual expenses and overhead costs.

One of the things you may be facing is analysis paralysis where you have a head full of ideas, advice from friends and things that worked in other businesses you may have started. Put all of those aside. Most people when presented with too many choices wind up doing nothing.

So, before you go down that route, sit down and work through a plan as you read this e-book.

If you still can’t come up with a plan, rest assured. We explain everything then give you a simple step-by-step plan that you can put into action immediately.

Dedication and motivation will take you through the turbulent learning curve towards profit and success. Organization will make or break you in the writing profession. So, we will assume you are dedicated and look at organization.

You will need to be organized both online and offline in this profession. You will need to set up bookmarks to sites you visit regularly, a homepage that helps get you going when you first log on, an email or emails that you can use to organize your business under.

You will need a website to advertise your services and to post your portfolio for prospective customers to review.

Offline organization involving having a place where you can work uninterrupted, a connection to the Internet, places to store your materials like a calendar, paper, printer, computer and the like.

Your office can be anywhere, but it should be easy to reach the essentials that you need to produce your work. You should also have a couple of notepads for making notes, outlining your research and so forth.

In order to be successful at this, you need to set up and print out a template to follow and to focus your research.

A simple article template goes something like this:

• Your Title:
• Summary: Some article directories require a summary of your article.
• Introduction: The introduction will usually pose a problem and offer 3 to 4 ways to solve that problem.
• Body of the article: This is where you list how the 3 or 4 points will help resolve the problem posed or answer the question posed.
• Conclusion: The conclusion sums up what the problem/question is along with the 3 to 4 points to resolve/answer that problem/question.

After that, there should be a Call to Action which invites the reader to do something as a result of the resolution of that problem.

Keywords: Usually the client will ask for keywords or keyphrases to be added into the article X number of times.

The standard insertion of keywords for a 500 word article 5 to 6 times in the following fashion:

Each primary keyword needs to appear in the:
o Title
o Once in the first paragraph
o Once in the last paragraph
o 2 more times anywhere in the article

Most web content runs pretty similar to the template shown above and makes it very straight-forward for the freelance writer to work with.

Part of the organization process includes having this template ready for every job that you research.

Websites are growing in numbers daily. They are looking for blogs, articles, copywriting, proofreading, and more. With magazines and newspapers now offering online editions, there are all kinds of places to look for writing jobs. If you pursue this diligently, you should find plenty of steady work.

How-to-articles, interviews, product reviews, restaurant and show reviews will fall in this category. Opinion based blog writing would also qualify as content writing.

Copywriting is more persuasive. It is usually written to convince the reader to buy something, try something, or sign up for something. Ad copy, sales letters, product descriptions, and home page text all are methods of attempting to encourage the reader to take some sort of action.

If you don’t want to set up a personal website, you can also use a couple other third-party organizations that not only allow you to post your articles on their platform, but pay you for using your content.

Other business writing would include things like press releases, business plans, pitch letters, media kits, legal writing, annual reports, newsletters, brochures, etc. As you can see, you have many places that you can find writing assignments.

Some are never even advertised. You can go to publications on the Web that allows freelance submissions. These sites are called ―writers markets.‖ Some of them will even pitch your ideas for you before you have actually written the articles.

Starting Your Own Website or Blog

By starting your own website or blog, and writing about topics that you are passionate about, you are creating samples of your skills that can be used to procure writing jobs. When you are answering ads for work, you can include a link to your site and the relevant articles you have written.

You can do it for free using places like WordPress.com which will allow you to set up a blog with your information as well as any writing samples you want to provide.

While it is always better to have your own domain name, for newcomers this may not be something they want to tackle right away.

There are a number of good, free sites where you can be sub domain of the main site and use their templates to get up and running with no technical knowledge at all.