How I Started My Virtual Assistant Freelancing Career
Way back in 2013 while managing my sister’s computer shop, the idea came up and I wanted to create a blog as I am fond of gadgets, especially the Android Smartphone. I created a website and started posting about mobile device specifications. It was fun, my website got monetized by Google Adsense and I earned through that platform.
While doing it for over a year, one of my friends noticed my ability in what I’m doing online and he invited me to be one of his assistants. It’s because I’m into online, I grabbed the opportunity and started to be part of his team. After over 6 months of working with him, the contract was paused and I started to do my journey by learning through Videos on YouTube and some articles on how to start a Freelancing career.
As an associate degree IT graduate from STI Gensan, what I learned there, especially the programming was tough to initiate in actual work because the timeframe in teaching was too narrow for 2 years. In summary, my knowledge of programming is not so good. On my actual task of developing websites using WordPress in an automated way, I can still apply my knowledge from academics, but the Java language and Visual Basic were not applied. Instead, I used Basic HTML, CSS, Javascript, & PHP codes that I learned online to back up the website whenever my client wanted a little bit of customization of the interface or the function.
Do I need to be a programmer to be a Virtual Assistant?
For me, no. Virtual Assistant’s task is too broad and you can get jobs by just managing a Google Sheet. My main research objective when I was about to start was not to do website development for the client, I focused on learning how to manage existing websites, doing admin tasks like data entry, Office Suites like Google and Microsoft, Photoshop basic, Canva editing, video compilation software, SEO, and some marketing tools. Over time doing this daily, I tried to open an account on the Freelancing platform and I found my very first client which gave me 3 USD per hour. The tasks given were part-time doing data entries in Google Sheets and eventually found another client that gives full-time with different hourly rates.
And this is my journey as a General Virtual Assistant. I still learning more and counting on different objectives and tools to enhance my experience and deliver quality work. The virtual Assistant job is fun to do when you are passionate about the specific field. So if you are a client, pick me up and let me be your Virtual Assistant to help you assist in various tasks of your business. And if you are a Freelancer like me, just believe in yourself and focus on learning, and especially trust our God that gives us this talent.