If you’re a highly organized person in search of a way to make money from home, you may want to look into becoming a virtual assistant.
Virtual assistants are often used to perform administrative work for a business, as many businesses have found that outsourcing administrative tasks to independent contractors can save money on operational costs (not to mention time).
On average, a virtual assistant can earn about $18 an hour for work that can include customer support, bookkeeping and managing email, social media, website and e-commerce storefront management.
However, some virtual assistants can make even more than that. Making Sense of Cents profiled one virtual assistant who said she earns about $10,000 a month. Her secret: in-demand skills that allow her to work in more lucrative virtual assistant niches.
Unlike general virtual assistants, having a virtual assistant niche means you offer a more granular service that needs in-depth skills — and that means you can charge more. If you’re a graphic design pro or a web design guru, you can offer those services and ask for more money in exchange.
9 In-Demand Virtual Assistant Niches (Plus What You Can Earn)
Not sure what niches are out there? Check out this list of virtual assistant niches and see if any of them fit your skills and abilities.
1. Administrative Virtual Assistant
Repetitive administrative tasks can be time-consuming to business owners, and that is where a virtual administrative assistant — also known as virtual office support — comes in handy.
These VAs handle tasks like customer care, calendar management, billing and accounting, making and receiving phone calls, managing emails, coordinating travels, and leads management.
Pay: Between $20 to $40 an hour, depending on the project’s scope and complexity
2. Transcription
Can you type fast, listen well, do research, and write and speak well? If so, you can offer transcription services as a VA.
A transcriptionist specializes in converting audio to text. You can niche down and choose between general transcription, medical transcription and real-time transcription.
This guide will help you get started as a transcriptionist.
Pay: $25+ an hour
3. Graphic Design Virtual Assistant
A graphic design virtual assistant helps businesses with logo creation, business cards, website images, social media graphics, infographics, flyers, brochures, image editing, animation, book covers, ebooks, and print design.
Here’s how you can get started in a career as a graphic designer.
Pay: $45 an hour, on average
4. Virtual Digital Marketing Assistant
Digital marketing is dynamic, and new trends come up every day. And since most businesses these days use the internet to generate leads and sales, a savvy digital marketing VA is in high demand to help them stay on trend.
A digital marketing specialist’s responsibilities can include blog management, and marketing via email, search engines and social media.
Pay: $23 an hour, on average
5. Technical Virtual Assistant
A virtual technical assistant focuses more on the technical parts of running a business. This can include tasks like updating WordPress, email automation, scheduling content and SEO. If you have the skills, you can even offer video editing.
This post offers more information about the kinds of services tech VAs can offer small businesses.
6. Customer Care Virtual Assistant
A customer care/virtual support assistant helps a business enhance customer satisfaction by responding to customer emails, phone calls, responding to customer reviews, handling messages on live chats, and handling outbound calls. This niche requires critical thinking and stellar communication skills.
Pay: About $25 an hour
7. Travel Virtual Assistant
Executives have their hands full, so sitting down and making travel reservations can be a hassle for them. As a travel virtual assistant, you can provide that service while making a decent amount of money. (Being a travel VA can be very lucrative.)
A travel VA’s duties will likely include researching travel destinations, planning itineraries, booking flights, researching discounts and travel offers, booking accommodation and planning excursions.
Pay: $24 an hour, on average
8. Language Translation Virtual Assistant
If you’re bilingual, you can offer language translation as a virtual assistant. You’ll likely translate documents or transcripts from one language to another to help businesses reach more customers in different languages.
Pay: $38 an hour, on average.
9. Virtual Bookkeeper
Are you an accountant by profession, love maths, and have computer skills? As a virtual assistant, you can provide accounting services to businesses and keep clean books.
Here’s what you need to know to start your own virtual bookkeeping business.
Pay: Up to $60 an hour
The Benefits of Working as a Virtual Assistant
Some of the potential benefits of working as a virtual assistant include:
- Working from home (or anywhere) — which means no commute!
- Flexible working hours, which is particularly great for stay-at-home parents.
- Requires little capital, although you need to buy a few tools, like a laptop and software.
- Getting to choose your clients, the services you offer and your rate.
How to Get Started as a Virtual Assistant
You don’t need a lot of experience to get started as a virtual assistant. However, you do need excellent organization skills, time management, fast typing and critical thinking. You also need to understand how to use the tools commonly used by VAs in your particular niche.
- Learn more about the VA industry. Several virtual assistant blogs offer in-depth information about the industry, including Kayla Sloan, The VA Handbook, Horkey Handbook, and The Virtual Savvy. You can also take virtual assistant courses that offer a complete blueprint on being a virtual assistant.
- Get the right tools. This list of essential tools for virtual assistants will point you in the right direction.
- Find virtual assistant jobs. This list of eight sites where you can find work as a virtual assistant will help you get started.
Charity Jerop is a contributor to The Penny Hoarder.
This was originally published on The Penny Hoarder, which helps millions of readers worldwide earn and save money by sharing unique job opportunities, personal stories, freebies and more. The Inc. 5000 ranked The Penny Hoarder as the fastest-growing private media company in the U.S. in 2017.