So You Want to Be a Virtual Assistant: 7 Things I Wish I’d Known

When I first started looking into how to become a virtual assistant, I didn’t even know that was the term for it. By the time I finished reading, I had seventeen tabs open and a vague sense that this might actually be possible.

That was over ten years ago. Here’s what I know now that I didn’t know then.

1. The platforms are real, but so are the scams

I signed up for everything: Freelancer, Guru, PeoplePerHour, Fiverr, Upwork, and yes, even Craigslist. Each platform works differently, and the volume of job postings feels encouraging at first. (The tools I actually stuck with are a different story – I wrote about my current remote work toolkit here.)

Then you encounter your first scam. Then your second. Freelancer and Guru were the worst for this when I started. Offers that seemed legitimate until they asked you to move communication off-platform, or requested your bank details before any contract was signed.

The most common ones to watch out for: clients who ask for a deposit from you before work begins, or who tell you that you need to purchase special software or equipment to do the job. You are the one providing a service. You should never be paying to start working.

My rule: new clients pay upfront, or we don’t start. Not the full project, but enough to begin. Three to five hours is reasonable. This protects you, and it also filters out the people who were never serious. A legitimate client may hesitate, because they don’t know you yet either. That’s fair. Offer a small trial, three to five hours paid in advance, so they can see how you work before committing to more. If they refuse even that, walk away. The right clients understand why this boundary exists.

2. Expect rejection for longer than feels reasonable
I spent my first two weeks writing proposals every single evening. Four to five hours a night, tailoring each bid to the specific job, trying to sound experienced without overclaiming. I was rejected more times than I counted.

My first paid client found me on Fiverr, about two weeks in. Five hours of data search and data entry. Simple work, but painstaking. I finished it with a headache and a genuine appreciation for how much focus the unglamorous tasks require.

The point is: the pipeline takes time to build. If you are writing good proposals and not hearing back, you are not failing. You are doing exactly what everyone does at the start.

3. Start lower than you think, then move up
I began at fifteen dollars an hour, with a trial rate of ten for the first five hours. It felt uncomfortably low. It also got me in the door.

Once a client saw how I worked, the rate conversation became easier. As my work grew more complex, so did my pricing, fifteen to twenty dollars, adjusted by scope. Starting low is not the same as staying low. It is a way of removing the risk for a client who doesn’t know you yet.

4. Your first clients will teach you more than any course
No amount of reading about virtual assistance prepares you for actually doing it. The tools, the communication styles, the way different clients think about deadlines – you learn all of this by working, not by studying.

Take the early jobs seriously, even the small ones. They are not just income. They are your education.

5. The client who gives you a raise without being asked is worth keeping forever
About three months into working with one of my longest-standing clients, he told me he wanted to pay me more. He said he was genuinely glad to have found someone as reliable as I was, and that he felt he should reflect that in what he paid me. He added five dollars an hour, without my asking.

That client and I have now worked together for seven years.

I tell this story not to suggest that all clients will do this, because they won’t. I tell it because it’s a reminder of what the right working relationship feels like. You should feel seen. You should feel that your work is valued, not just used. If you don’t feel that after a reasonable amount of time, it is worth asking yourself whether this particular client is the right fit for the long term.

6. Exclamation marks in the first message are a red flag
I learned this one the hard way.

A client who opens with “Hi!!! So excited to work with you!! Need this ASAP!!” is not enthusiastic. They are telling you, in advance, that everything will be urgent, that deadlines will be constant, and that any small delay will be treated as a crisis.

I used to read that energy as passion. Now I read it as a preview of what working with that person will actually be like. Other early warning signs I have learned to notice: vague briefs that get more demanding once you have started, requests to skip the contract “just this once,” and clients who are too busy to onboard you properly but expect you to hit the ground running regardless.

Trust the pattern you see in the first message. It usually holds.

7. Reliability is rarer than you think, and clients notice
Here is something that took me a while to understand: a lot of freelancers are unreliable. Not maliciously, but practically. They respond quickly when pitching for work, then go quiet once hired. Replies slow down. Deadlines slip. And then, just when the client has given up hope, a message arrives explaining that a grandmother has passed away.

For the second time.

Genuine emergencies happen. Illness happens. Life happens, and reasonable clients understand this. But a pattern of disappearing and reappearing with increasingly elaborate explanations will cost you clients regardless of how good your work is or how low your rates are. People can hire a cheaper freelancer. What they cannot easily find is a freelancer who shows up consistently, communicates proactively, and does what they said they would do.

That is a low bar. Clear it, and you will stand out more than you expect.

The boundaries that come with it are another matter entirely — but that’s a conversation for another time.