Work as a Virtual Assistant
Do administrative work remotely for business owners — inbox, calendar, scheduling, basic marketing support — billed by the hour or on a monthly retainer.
The numbers
Each one links to its source and the day it was checked.
Source: payscale.com · checked 2026-10-23
Corroborated by indeed.com
What it is
A virtual assistant handles the recurring admin a small business owner does not want to do: email triage, calendar and travel booking, data entry, invoicing, social scheduling and customer replies. You work from your own computer, usually as a 1099 contractor, either through an agency that assigns you clients or by finding clients yourself on a freelance marketplace. The work is sold either as a block of hours per month or as an hourly rate against tracked time.
How it works
- Pick two or three services you can already doInbox and calendar management, scheduling, data entry and invoicing are the entry services. Narrowing beats listing everything, because clients hire for a named problem.
- Decide agency or self-sourcedAgencies like Time Etc and Belay screen you once and route clients to you at a set rate. Marketplaces like Upwork and Fiverr pay more per hour but you do all the pitching.
- Build a one-page portfolio and a profileA short page describing the services, your process and a sample of work (a cleaned-up calendar, a sample inbox workflow) substitutes for prior VA experience.
- Apply or pitch dailyAgency applications include a skills assessment. On marketplaces, VA listings routinely draw dozens of proposals, so a tailored pitch sent consistently matters more than volume.
- Put contracts and invoicing on railsA client-management tool (HoneyBook, Dubsado) handles the proposal, contract, invoice and payment reminders so unpaid admin does not eat the hours you bill.
- Raise rates with retained clientsBoth agencies and direct clients move rates up over time. The jump usually comes from specialising — bookkeeping, podcast or inbox-plus-CRM work — rather than from more hours.
What you need
- A PC, laptop or Mac and a stable internet connection
- A quiet place to take client calls during business hours
- Availability for at least a couple of hours inside a normal working day
- Administrative experience you can describe concretely (agencies ask for 1–3 years; Time Etc asks for 5–8 years of relevant paid work)
- Willingness to work as a 1099 contractor with no guaranteed hours and your own taxes
- A way to send contracts and invoices and get paid
The gear
The catch
The hourly rate is only paid on hours a client actually books, and nobody guarantees those hours — agency postings state plainly that hours and clients are not guaranteed, and you are a 1099 contractor paying your own taxes out of that rate. The front door is also narrower than the job ads suggest: Time Etc's applicant page asks for 5–8 years of relevant paid experience, Belay postings ask for 1–3 years of admin experience and exclude applicants in several states, and marketplace VA listings commonly draw dozens of proposals each, so the first weeks are unpaid pitching. Pay rises mainly by specialising, not by adding hours, and the generalist end of the market competes directly with offshore VAs billing a fraction of US rates.
Where the work is
Every number on this page
10 facts, each with its source and the day it was checked.
Source: swyftfilings.com · checked 2026-10-23
Source: giguphq.com · checked 2026-10-23
Source: payscale.com · checked 2026-10-23
Source: indeed.com · checked 2026-10-23
Source: timeetc.com · checked 2026-10-23
Source: sidehusl.com · checked 2026-10-23
Source: honeybook.com · checked 2026-10-23
Source: dubsado.com · checked 2026-10-23
Source: flexoffers.com · checked 2026-10-23
Source: getlasso.co · checked 2026-10-23
Researched 2026-10-23. Back to every hustle