Are you ready to earn money from home?
If you want to earn money from home, you’ve probably done what everyone does—head to the internet. The place for everything—parenting advice, medical diagnosis (we all do it and think we are dying at some point), business ideas, random nonsense, etc, etc, etc.
You can start making money from home. Yes, escape the 9–5 and money worries. I am not promising that you will make a $100k a day, like so many make money from home promises. This is a very practical how to earn money from home and how to make money as a homeschool mom. You can break from the 9–5, be your own boss, raise your kids, and enjoy your life.
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Now that you’ve searched online and the search results come back, you are totally overwhelmed. So many choices and so many questions. What will get you started the fastest? Where do you find clients? How do you really start earning money from home?
If multi-level-marketing is not your thing, and you are skeptical with all the Pinterest promises of making $10k a month. Then this post is for you. You can earn money from home as a virtual assistant.
How I Earn Money from Home as a Virtual Assistant
So many of my momtrepreneur life coffee chats center around building a new business and all the emotional baggage that comes with that. Frankly, it is what consumes my thoughts. I need to remind myself often that I have launched and maintain a successful business. My virtual assistant business is thriving to the point that I don’t advertise or promote it. It really has taken on a life of its own. I am glad about this, so I can focus on my blog, YouTube channel, and podcast.
For the past 8 years, I’ve been a successful virtual assistant. You can read more about the journey to get to this place in the hello moms post, and was it ever a long, winding journey. Looking at this year, I am on target to surpass my full-time income from my last office job. For the past few years, it has matched the income. This does not include any income from my blog because at this point the blog is running a deficit. It is a good thing I am making money as a virtual assistant so I can support my other business.
I am still not working full-time hours. I usually work 30-35 hours between all my clients, which is still a lot for a homeschool mom of six.
As a virtual assistant, I provide administrative support to all my clients. It looks different for every single one. I am not a specialist, meaning I’ve never specialized in just one thing. I am a generalist. This has served my clients and myself well.
What is a Virtual Assistant
This title and role has become very popular in the last few years. Gaining more popularity when everyone became a work from home parent. However, it doesn’t define just one thing. Like when someone says, “He’s the IT guy.” We pretty much know what the IT guy does without further explanation. This is not so when it comes to a virtual assistant.
A virtual assistant can be and do anything. I don’t say this in the inspirational speaker, warm fuzzy way. I mean it very literally. Here are some of the things that I’ve done as a virtual assistant: write blog posts, manage social media, create websites, read contracts, learn the publishing industry, write and edit books on mental health topics, design covers for same books, publish them with Amazon KDP, design magazine ads with a reach of more than 2 million (yikes! I did that), bookkeeping, running accounting reports, and oh so much more.
These are just some of the things that I’ve done in my 7 years as a virtual assistant that allowed me to earn money from home. Now think of your skills and what you have to offer.
Pick Your Virtual Assistant Services and Start Making Money from Home
This can be hard or easy for some. Depending on your skillset and whether you are generalist or a specialist. I am a generalist so the struggle was real. I had no idea what to put on my website or what services I even wanted to do. At the same time, I had a lot of options to choose from and to delete from the list. I didn’t need to offer traveling planning (I was so happy to delete this one). I could explore the idea of building websites for other people, which I never did in a previous job. But it was an option that I had time to explore and add to my list.
You can download the free Mom Boss 2.0 workbook to get a more step-by-step guide on how to choose your services, but here are some ideas to get you started.
1. Get an idea of your skills
The term assistant covers a lot, so you can really pick what you want to do. Whether it is something you like or it is something you just don’t hate. You don’t need to have an unquenchable passion for it. You really don’t.
Let your imagination flow. Do you want to create templates for letters? Help with HR? Send invoices? Make travel arrangements? Manage social media platforms? Design a website? Blog for a business? Be a bookkeeper? Design marketing materials? Be a writer? And, I could go on and on. You really can do anything you want.
If you don’t have a very specific idea of the services to offer that is ok. See what your market is looking for. What you want to do is even more important than what your client needs. Don’t get me wrong, you need to be marketable but make sure it is something you want to do.
Tasks that I did in my office job, were not things that I wanted to build a business around. And I was good at them, I just didn’t want to continue to do them. I started my business with a general list of services I offered. I included a statement that my list wasn’t inclusive, and I would be open to other projects as well. Most of what I do now was never listed on my website as a service I offer and still isn’t for that matter. Except bookkeeping that is on my website and something that I am currently doing for a client.
If you find yourself stuck, here are a few things you can do.
Make a list
Dump everything from your brain into a notebook. Silence the inner critic and write everything down. You want to leave everything on the list, don’t take anything off of it, yet.
Walk away from the list
This always sounds like bad advice to me. You are the middle of solving a conundrum and you just walk away and not think about it. Really?! By walking away and not thinking about it, allows your brain to work on it in the background. You will be surprised at the ideas that come out of you when you are not pressuring yourself to come up with a ridiculously good idea.
Do you ever wake up with a great idea or a solution to a problem? That is your brain working in the background, and that’s what you want to happen now.
Come back to the list
Are there any more items you need to add to it. Is there something else you thought of while you were taking a break from your list. Write it down.
Rank what you’ve written down
Now you are going to decided what you actually want to do, and what you absolutely hate doing. Rank the skills on your list, but use a small scale, like 1-5. Give each item a rate. You can give your different skills the same rank. But if there is something on the list that you just hate doing, cross it off completely. Take the skills you ranked in the top three, and see if you can build a business around them.
Get a trusted person’s input
Find someone that will be honest with you, but will also consider your fragile emotions. Starting a business and putting yourself out there, is not easy for anyone. So talk with someone you trust, and who will be kind to your emotions.
My trusted person is always my husband. He will always be honest with, but his motivation is to encourage me, and seek the very best for me. He also knows where my emotions are fragile.
The purpose of this step is to test your list and get some constructive feedback. You don’t need to agree with everything that is said, but you need to start somewhere with testing the market for your skills.
2. Narrow down your list, but don’t box yourself in
When I started my virtual assistant business to earn money from home, I literally had a list of general administration things I could do. It was very sad looking. Since I was just starting out, I didn’t know what I wanted to do or what I should offer.
Take the list that you created and narrow down the services you want to offer, but be open to new opportunities. There might be something that you never considered doing, but want to try it. Don’t box yourself in to what is just on your list.
I know, I know. All the gurus tell you to find a niche or to specialize, but that doesn’t mean that is the right fit for you. You can be rebel mom and define success on your own terms.
Your business will grow and change as you understand what you clients are looking for. And as you get referrals from clients. This is an exciting adventure. Think outside of the box.
3. Learn something new
This is the perfect time to learn something new. I am big believer in the need to always learn. Never stop or you will grow stagnant.
You have the opportunity to learn skills that will get you into the field of your choosing. Offer the skills you already have, so you can pay the bills, and then learn something new on the backend that you will eventually add to your list. Or even replace your list with this new skill. So what can you do to get yourself starting your own virtual assistant business?
4. Don’t be afraid to say yes
Seriously, there are a few jobs that I said yes to, then end up with a sleepless night and the thoughts churning, “Can I really do this?” You know what I discovered, I can do it. I’ve realized that I am capable of figuring almost anything out. Now putting the time into learning something new is the question that needs to be answered.
Don’t be afraid to say yes to something new. If you have the track record of being able to take on a new skill then go for it. Don’t overestimate your abilities, but don’t underestimate them either. Here is the caveat, you should be honest with your client. You can say, “Yes, I can figure out how to do that.”
Conclusion: How to Earn Money from Home
You can make money from home as a virtual assistant. This is still a great way to break free from the 9–5, be your own boss, raise your kids, and enjoy your life.
If you have questions, let me know. Seriously, my whole goal with this site is to help moms find the freedom of defining success on your own terms. So drop me a note.
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