Many people need extra income, and many have lost their jobs due to recession and are having to seek other ways of making a living.

If you have some administrative skills, perhaps have worked in offices, and have some PC/word processiing ability and enjoy using the Interenet — then a worthwhile opportunity to consider, especially in a time when many companies are reducing their ful-time staff retinue, but STILL need vital admin support, is to become a ‘Virtual Assistant’ — or VA.

Today more than ever the ’social media’ is a topic that is  in the news. A good VA might handle the day-to-day requirements of any small or medium-sized business for maintaining and improving their ’social media’ presence online. For example:

A Virtual Assistant might do thing like this: 

* Update a company’s website and blog
* Find blogs for the business ’spokeperson’ to comment on
* Manage the company Twitter, LinkedIn, and Facebook  accounts 
* Submit articles  on behalf of the company to online article resources
* Manage  email accounts, compile and mail out newsletters…
* And a whole lot more…

In fact all the things that small enterprise owners need to do to help to develop customer awareness and build business but which they usually have insufficient time to do…

If you have admin skills, and enjoy using Twitter and Facebook already on a personal basis (i.e. you know your way around the social media sites!) then you could quickly adapt your skills and knowledge to earn around £25.00 an hour (or even more) as a VA and/or Social Media Assistant.

The added benefit of such a job — is that you are based at home. Naturally you will need a space to work, and have access to a PC/Laptop and  a sufficiently fast Internet connection (these days of course adsl/broadband is optimal)…

If you have these facilities and you really want to earn an honest and solid income them you might consider running your own Virtual Assistant business. Naturally you might be able to provide services to several businesses who would employ you for just a few hours aweek, each. This cuts their costs but leaves the way open for you to develop a flexible and rewarding business.

For example:  If you were working for 4 regular clients proving support at just 1 hour  each per day throughout the working week, that would provide you with 4 hours-per-day x 5 day-a-week = 20 hours work a week. Typically you would be charging between £15 to £30 per hour for your services (depending on complexity and requirements of the client). So for a 20 hour week you might expect to earn between: £300 and £600. This could represents an income of more than £2000 per month, in excess of  £24,000 a year — all for working about half-time compared with a typical ‘employed’ working week of 40-hours.

Of course you could step-up your business and take on more hours, or more clients, and for a full-time VA an annual income of between £35,000 and £60,000 per annum, or more,  is readily acheivable with a little consistent effort, and by building up a list of loyal clients thanks to reliable provision and your efficient, valuable and increasingly necessary services. And there will be little or no need to ’sell your services’ as a a good VA will not only need just a small regular client list, but will see their businesses grow thanks to referrals from happy customers!

If you have at least ’some background’ or experience in office work and adminsistration, or perhaps in secretarial support, and are reasonably confident online and/or prepared to learn, then becoming a Virtual Assistant and/or independent Social Media Assistant could be the perfect solution to provide you with a flexible home-based job and a good income.

This is a VERY REAL opportunity that is seeing massively growing demand due to the current economic climate and the boom in online marketing and social networks.

To find out more:

http://happytorecommend.com/blog/become-a-virtual-assistant

How to Become a Virtual Assistant