The role of Virtual Assistant has grown rapidly over the past few years. It has created jobs and opened up more opportunities for people to work from home.

Being a Virtual Assistant or VA can be a very rewarding job. Not only do you do a range of tasks but clients can very too. Hairdressers to accountants, tattooists to solicitors. They could all call on a VA to help them at some time or other.

Being a VA means that you are your own ‘boss’. You are free to choose the projects and tasks that you take on, usually the ones that you are capable of and enjoy doing. I would say that you have to be good at multi-tasking, which is something I particularly enjoy. My work is varied and never boring! 

Plus you can set your own rates of pay. No ‘Office’ space is needed, you can set up in any corner of the house, though I would suggest that you find somewhere that you can close the door on at the end of the working day and not be tempted to go back to until the next morning!

Your working day is flexible. You can stop for a break, go and do some shopping or meet friends for coffee whenever you like, as long as deadlines are met. It is an ideal job for a parent with children at school. It means you can be there for them when they get home and in the school holidays.

Start-up costs can be kept to a minimum; almost everyone now has a computer and internet connection. When deciding on charges it may be a good idea to conduct a survey to see what the going rates are for each type of job. You don’t want to undercharge thus working for next to nothing but then again you don’t want to price yourself out of the market.

Taxes and expenses also need to be taken into account. Just because you are self-employed it does not mean you don’t have to pay tax and national insurance. More information on this can be found at http://www.hmrc.gov.uk/selfemployed/ Expenses will be mainly electricity, stationery and internet charges.

Start small and you will soon grow if you do the job to your best ability and produce top quality, competitive work. In no time at all you could earn yourself a good reputation and be able to expand your services and also tackle bigger clients and jobs.