Where To Find Virtual Assistant Jobs And Start Getting Clients
When you first launch your Virtual Assistant business it can be super scary! You might be wondering where to find Virtual Assistant jobs to get you started with clients. I’ll help you out with some of the best places you can look for work as a VA.
How Do I Find Work As A Virtual Assistant
There are soo many places that you can find work as a Virtual Assistant. I’ll separate them out into different sections because I know that you might prefer to use certain places depending on your skills and personal preferences.
Social Media
Social Media is a great place to find clients because most people are on at least one social media channel every day. I would recommend just picking two platforms and getting yourself set up there. If you pick too many then you will not have as much time to concentrate on each.
I’ve spoken to so many different Virtual Assistants providing a variety of services and where they find clients is usually a big mix. Some people say that they’ve received all of their clients on LinkedIn and some swear by Facebook or Instagram.
You just have to find the platform that works well for you and where your ideal clients are.
This might be obvious but a Social Media Virtual Assistant or a Pinterest Virtual Assistant will need to be on these platforms, in order to be providing services to clients – you’ll need to have some experience using the platforms yourself.
I personally love social media for connecting with people and I have my preferences on the platforms I prefer. However, you might find something else that works well for you and that’s totally ok! These are just some ideas to get you started and help you find clients.
Facebook was the original social media platform and it has changed a lot over the years. It’s a good all around platform for Virtual Assistants because you can create your own Facebook Page with all of your details on. You can then use that page to post about your business and grow your audience.
You can post photos and videos with a link to your website and people can message your business through your Facebook page because it’s connected to your personal profile. Facebook doesn’t allow you to create multiple profiles but you can have multiple pages if you want.
Another useful side of Facebook is that there are a lot of groups that you can join. They have Virtual Assistant groups for when you have questions and want some advice. Or if you wanted to join Facebook groups in your niche, if you start becoming active in these groups by answering questions and helping people. You can always talk to them about your services if you start to build a relationship with them first.
Within the Virtual Assistant groups on Facebook, you can also search #jobopp to see recent job opportunities that people have posted. Please pay close attention to the instructions within the post and only send a personal message if they ask you to do so. As a Virtual Assistant you need to be able to follow instructions and if they’ve asked you to email to apply and you ignore that, it doesn’t look very good on you.
I would recommend optimising your personal profile to show publicly the services you provide so that if someone clicks on your profile they will see your contact details and how they can hire you.
You can add a few hashtags on your posts but it’s not essential.
LinkedIn is a social media platform that is best suited to professionals and businesses. You can post photos and videos just like some of the other social media platforms and you can write long detailed captions with links to your website (if you have one).
If you’re new to LinkedIn you just start with building connections with people you know or used to work with. LinkedIn prefers you to know the people that you follow or connect them, however you can still use this platform to connect and get yourself in front of your ideal client.
Like with Facebook, LinkedIn does have groups that you can join within your niche. You can introduce yourself there and start building your connections.
Lots of Virtual Assistants have great success with finding clients on LinkedIn, just make sure that your profile is optimised so that potential clients can see what you do easily and start building relationships with people.
Another great social media platform is Instagram. Instagram used to be a platform that was focused on being visually appealing with pictures only. Now it includes Reels which is short-form video content and Stories which are temporary photos or videos that you can post which disappear after 24 hours. These different ways of sharing content were added when Snapchat and TikTok became very popular.
The best way to be found on Instagram and grow your audience used to be by using up to 30 hashtags on your posts. Hashtags are still worth using on Instagram but they’ve stated that their algorithm looks for keywords in your caption more now to understand what your content is about.
Instagram is a really great way of connecting with people, it’s not so good at getting people off of there and onto your website. You can only include one website url in your profile and you can’t add a link to your posts. They allow you to add a link to a story that you post but I have heard that even people that are micro influencers with 10k folllowers don’t actually have that many people leave Instagram by clicking on their links.
For finding clients for your Virtual Assistant business, Instagram is a really great option.
A social media platform that might be useful for you is Twitter. You can post photos and videos with links to your website, they do have a 280 character limit on Twitter. For a long writer myself, I find that a bit limiting. However, I know some Virtual Assistants love to use Twitter to get clients.
Twitter is quite a bit more fast paced than the other social media platforms. People can end up posting several times a day. It is shorter captions though so you don’t necessarily have to spend ages writing a caption.
Twitter doesn’t work by hashtags although you can have 1-3 hashtags in your captions if you want to prove context. What’s quite handy about Twitter is if someone else re-tweets your original tweet (post) then you are getting yourself in front of their audience and this can increase your visibility on the platform.
TikTok
TikTok used to be geared towards a younger audience but I’ve seen that shift a lot in recent times. On TikTok people share short-form video content. If you share content on TikTok it doesn’t necessarily have to involve you doing a dance, unless you particularly wanted to of course.
TikTok used to only allow links to Instagram or YouTube in your profile, however they have now updated to allow a link to a website in your profile.
I’ve heard mixed opinions about TikTok and I’m not personally that familliar with it myself. This could be a good platform to concentrate on if you really enjoy making short-form content as a way to connect with your audience.
Short-form video content can be whatever you want it to be. A day in your life, something relatable or funny. This type of content is the type of content that could help you go viral on the platform.
Other Social Platforms
I wanted to separate these last two social media platforms because in my opinion, they’re more of a long-game social media platforms. YouTube and Pinterest are technically search engines so getting yourself found on either of these is going to be quite difficult in the beginning. It does totally depend on your niche of course and the services you’ll be providing.
YouTube
YouTube is a great platform which contains short and long-form video content. The amazing thing about YouTube is that anyone can create an account and start uploading their videos. If you have something to teach and share, then you can create a YouTube channel.
If the services you want to provide for clients is video editing or anything related to YouTube then this might be a great way of gaining clients. You could create a channel and share what you know about these services. Or you could just use YouTube to find the bigger YouTubers that might be in need of a video editor. Once YouTubers reach a certain number of subscribers, they might want to outsource some of their tasks to a Virtual Assistant to make their life easier.
If you’re looking for clients on YouTube you wouldn’t necessarily be concerned about the 1000 subscribers 4000 hours watch time that creators need in order to get monetised and display ads on their channel. However, this could be a bonus if you manage to grow your channel at the same time.
I’ve heard people say that Pinterest is a social platform for Introverts because it just involves pretty Pinterest pins that lead to your website and minimal interaction with people. This could be correct…
This is another platform that I think would be useful to use alongside other things. As I’m a blogger, I already use Pinterest and have used it for several years now. I can see the benefits of getting traffic to your website from Pinterest. However, in terms of finding clients as a Virtual Assistant it’s going to be a long process.
Pinterest involves using static images 1000 x 1500 in size with a description where you can add keywords, you then link the pin to a page of your website and pin it to one of your boards on your profile.
When you’re first starting out on Pinterest you should create several boards which are relevant to your niche and start pinning other people’s pins to that board to start building up your profile. Then you create several different pin versions for each blog post on your website and pin regularly on the platform.
As I mentioned, this could be helpful if you have a blog on your website and you want to start bringing in traffic before you start getting found by search engines. Try not to spend too long on it though because your main aim should be getting clients for your business.
Freelance Websites
I know a lot of Virtual Assistants have found some good success with using Freelancer websites. They are all slightly different in how they work so you can have look at the brief descriptions below to give you an idea of which you could try.
Fiverr
One of the most popular freelance websites is Fiverr. With Fiverr you create what is called ‘Gigs’ so you first complete your profile with all the relevant information about yourself and then you add your gigs which will include what services you can offer.
For example, if you design websites or logos you just have a look and see how much people are generally offering for these services. You then start to fill in the information about this service – including the pricing, delivery time and any images. If you also create social media graphics then you would do a separate gig for this service as well.
Once you start getting work through Fiverr you start to build up your profile. When you first start out you’re listed as a new seller and the more clients you get through Fiverr and positive reviews, the more you will move up the seller levels.
People Per Hour
As with other Freelance websites you start by setting up your profile on People Per Hour and include your portfolio and examples of work you’ve done, if applicable.
On People Per Hour you can post an offer of the service you can provide and you can also search for job opportunities to send your proposal to. I actually like that you have both options on this freelance website. Their aim is to connect freelancers with clients and if the client likes your work they can hire you on a further project.
Upwork
As with other freelance websites you should start by fillling out your profile and including a photo. You can also include a portfolio with examples of work that you’ve done.
With Upwork you can search for Virtual Assistant jobs and then if you see one you like, you can apply and include examples of your work relevant to the job. Upwork provides you with I think around 20 free bids per week. When you send your proposal to a client, you can use these bids to boost your proposal to 1st 2nd or 3rd place in the listing. If you get outbid on the proposal, Upwork will usually refund you your bids.
Upwork do take a service fee from your payment, you will see this when you submit your first proposal.
This bidding system works the best if you save your bids for projects that are really suitable for you.
Networking
Networking is a great way to gain clients and leads. Some people prefer to network in person, you can do this in your local area. You would just need to search for business or Virtual Assistant events that are taking place in your Town or City. It’s a great way of getting yourself out there and talking to people about your business.
The bonus is even if you don’t gain clients you will likely still make some friends and connections. You never know when someone is going to be in a conversation with a small business owner and they could mention your name as someone who can help provide a service and solve a problem they’re having.
It’s not essential but having a business card or similar to be able to hand out would be useful. That way even if they don’t currently know of anyone requiring Virtual Assistant services, they can hold onto your card incase they come across an opportunity for you in the future.
If you live in a Village or a more remote location then online networking events would be a great way of gaining new clients. Eventbrite is a great place that you can have a look and see if there’s any events that you can join. I’ve joined networking events for my niche for free, although some of the events listed do have fees so make sure you look out for that.
Associate Work
Another great way to get started as a Virtual Assistant is to see if any other Virtual Assistants need associates. Once a Virtual Assistant is a bit more established, sometimes they bring on a team to help them complete the work and sometimes they sub-contract some client work to their associates.
When you work as an associate you are not likely to get paid as much as if you were getting clients for yourself but it’s a great option when you’re new and you want to build up your portfolio and gain some experience.
If you’re unsure which services you want to provide, it could also help you figure out what it is you like doing for clients and what don’t you like doing for clients.
Word Of Mouth
As an introvert myself, this one doesn’t always come naturally to me. The trick is to talk to everyone you know about your Virtual Assistant business. If they don’t know what it is you’re doing, they can’t help you!
If you’re introverted like me, tell your more extroverted friends about your business and what you do. Friends and family are likely to want to help and if they ever come across anyone that needs a Virtual Assistant they’ll be the first to recommend your services and pass on your details.
Basically if everyone you know is aware of your business, you are increasing your chances of getting work in the future. It’s a great place to start. If you’re not marketing yourself very well it will take you a long time to get clients. People need to know that you are there and what services you plan to provide for clients.
There are a lot of different services you can provide as a Virtual Assistant, that’s why I’ve written a guide with 20 amazing Virtual Assistant services. You can look at this next if you’re not sure what skills you have.
I set up my Facebook page before I’d even decided my pricing or set up my website. Within that first week I had two messages asking about my services and one of those messages turned into my very first client.
I recommend you do this before you’re ready, it might sound silly but talking about your business straight away will help you to feel more confident about it and it will get you more well known right from the start.
Where To Find Virtual Assistant Jobs UK
There are a few specific websites that are just for finding Virtual Assistant jobs in the UK.
Many of the places you can find jobs above are very general so it doesn’t matter where you are in the world. These are the specific websites that you can find clients if you’re in the UK.
I’ve recently interviewed some UK based experienced Virtual Assistants, if you would like to learn tips for new Virtual Assistants that will really inspire you to launch your Virtual Assistant business.
Freelancer
Freelancer is a UK based freelance website. Freelancer actually works similarly to Upwork in that you create your profile and then you search through projects listed by business and bid when you want to apply to work on the project.
Although Freelancer is a UK based website there are businesses that post on there from other countries in the world.
Some projects you’ll be able to bid on unless you’ve got a paying membership with Freelancer or at least 5 reviews on your profile.
Indeed
You may already be aware of Indeed as a place to look for jobs, however you can also find remote jobs on Indeed if you specify this in your search.
You might not find very many Virtual Assistant jobs on Indeed but it’s certainly worth a look as there are general Virtual Assistant jobs posted occasionally.
Virtual Assistant Agencies
Another option for when you’re starting out is to sign on with an Agency. If you’re struggling to find clients yourself, it might be an idea to get you earning some money quicker. It’s worth noting that when you sign with an agency you might not receive as much money as if you gained the clients yourself. Still if you are feeling a bit stuck with getting clients yourself, it does mean that they do the work of matching you with clients.
- Blue Umbrella – General admin
- JH Virtual Assistant – General admin, social media management
- Smart PA – Personal assistants
- Society Of Virtual Assistants – General admin
- Tiger Recruitment – General admin, social media management
- Time etc – General admin, experienced VAS
- Virtalent – General admin, experienced VAS
- Virtual PA London – Personal assistants
- Wired Differently – General admin, all clients are ASD
You might be wondering do Virtual Assistants need a website, I answer this question and talk about the benefits of having a website as a Virtual Assistant.
I hope this has helped you know where to find Virtual Assistant jobs yourself. It can be quite intimidating when you first start out and you’re not sure where to find clients. If you have any more questions, leave me a comment and I’ll help you out.
Damaris
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