Here are the top 3 reasons to Become a VA Mom, plus some questions to help guide your decision to become a VA.

#1. BEING ABLE TO WORK FROM HOME AND RAISE MY KIDS

There are not many careers that support raising your own children. In fact, more and more moms are having to go out of the home after having children just to help support the family financially as the cost of everything rises.

My number 1 reason for building a virtual assistant business was my kids. I didn’t want a daycare raising them. I had originally gone to college to get my Early Childcare Educator Certificate and worked at daycares. I know all too well that some daycares, or workers at the daycares are not who I want raising my children or talking to them like I would never talk to them.

2020 is also a crazy unforeseen time in our history that mandates a lot more home jobs as parents have to stay home with children.

#2. AN INCOME YOU CAN LIVE ON

Whether you are a single mom that needs to make enough to pay for everything, or you just want to help support your family and pay a few bills, this business can provide a little or a lot of income.

Although virtual assistant businesses can be a bit unsteady in the beginning while you find your rockstar clients, after that it is pretty steady and reliable as long as you keep providing the work for your clients. I saw a post that said the average VA in the US makes around $39,000 a year. That might not be super awesome, but that’s the average. Many VA’s bring in much more, depending on what services you offer and how many hours you want to work. But that average a single mom can survive on in most areas.

If you want to travel often with your family, becoming a virtual assistant is the best way to do it because you can work from anywhere in the world, pretty much. As long as your hotel, campsite, or resort has wifi.

I started at $20 an hour and worked up to $25 an hour and now work at $30 an hour in most of my packages. You can set your own rate. Some services are in high demand that not many VA’s are doing, so you can charge more, like $50-60 an hour. Really, the sky’s the limit at what you can make in your business.

Once you find you have too much work you can scale your business up and hire subcontractors to do some of your clients’ work.  You pay them $15-20 an hour and you still charge your client the $25-30 an hour and get the difference from what you pay your subcontractor.

#3. NO MORE DAYCARE FEES OR BABYSITTER COSTS

No more missing school concerts, or having to find a babysitter at home or take time off work when the kids are sick for a week or more. School breaks, like spring break, winter break, and that long summer break, you get to spend time doing fun stuff with your children instead of sending them to daycares or summer camps. Think of all the money you’ll save just in daycare fees by staying home with the kids.

I don’t know about your kids, but mine seem to catch every virus and flu that they come in contact with at school. This year they were sick from Christmas until March. They just kept giving it to each other one after the other like a damn horror story. That’s almost 2 months of babysitter fees I would have had to fork out, let alone trying to find a babysitter for that long that would come to my house. AND then I caught it and could hardly move for 2 weeks straight. Good thing I can do my client work from my bed and laying on the couch. Clients are usually very supportive if you are too ill to work for a couple days. They know even VA’s get sick from time to time.

To read more reasons to become a VA mom check out my blog post 15 REASONS TO BECOME A VIRTUAL ASSISTANT MOM

What Do I Need To Know Before Starting My VA Business?

Before we get to the actual steps to start your business you will need to make sure it’s the right direction for you. You will need to really look inside and ask yourself some serious questions.

Do You Like Being On The Computer?

VA work can keep you on the computer for hours at a time doing client work. If you are very comfortable being on a computer and the internet for hours then this would be a good business for you. If not you could try working for a call service from home and be on the phone more than the computer.

Are You Tech Savvy?

You will need to learn new programs and systems when working with clients, unless you pick a niche that doesn’t require a lot of learning and changing, such as strictly Social Media Managing. Or providing just 1 or 2 service offers, then you wouldn’t have to learn new programs, but that does limit your potential clients and work.

I do general VA work as well as social media management because I LOVE learning new programs, software, and systems my clients use. It keeps my mind from getting bored. I realize we are all different and some might just want to stick to a couple things so they can get really good at those services and not have to learn new things all the time.

Are You Comfortable Doing Video Conferences?

Although some clients just do voice meetings or call on the phone, many I have dealt with like to jump on a video conference service like Zoom or Skype to meet you before hiring and to chat once a month.  

Even if you are not very comfortable with this right at the start you can get used to it once you have done it a few times. I was so nervous getting on video with potential clients at the beginning but after about 5 it got easier to do. Many times the first initial conference/meeting with a potential client is on video, but if they hire you, the rest are usually just voice conference from my experience. I think most people don’t like the video conference part, even the clients.

Are You Comfortable Marketing Yourself?

Selling your own services is harder than it sounds. Suddenly doubts like, am I good enough, someone out there is better why would they hire me, start to surface. You have to be able to push those doubts down and know that you can do this and help businesses. It took a while for me to muster up the courage to market myself as a VA. So even if you answer no to this you can learn to be more comfortable marketing yourself and the services you offer.

I began offering free services until I felt comfortable with charging people. I felt I needed to get more experience before I was “good enough” to get paid for my services. It’s the way my brain and emotions worked at the time and I did get a few free clients and gained the courage with the experience, and then got my first client as soon as I started advertising my VA business.

Do You Have Support?

Do you have family or friends that support your business idea? No? Well not many VA’s actually do at the beginning. So no worries there! You can reach out to other VA’s who are just starting out and support each other. Most family and friends start supporting you when you are actually bringing in the paychecks, and then they want to learn how so they can do it. (haha)

If you are the lucky one to have your husband or friends supporting your business start-up let them know how you are doing and when you get your first client, they will want to celebrate with you! Cherish that support!

Do You Have Enough Money Rolling In While You Start Your VA Business?

Don’t quit your job until you have at least a couple clients. But, if you are already not working it may be the best time to start it.

I would say maternity leave, medical leave, or 2020, are the best times to decide to set up your new business idea and get clients and money coming in before your leave is over and the money stops. Or if you are a stay at home mom that wants to start earning a few hundred to help support the family and pay some bills off, that’s a great time to start your VA business up.

But don’t jump into your VA business without a financial plan to be able to pay bills and not lose your house. If you need to work a job while you set up your business that is perfectly ok and you will still make it happen.

Get more steps to take to start your VA business in the Become A VA Mom Guide. It has everything I wrote above plus more steps and tips on how to start your VA business.

I hope you found this helpful.

P.S. – Check out the resource page with free pdf’s to download. 🙂