6 Ways You Can Earn Money As A Virtual Assistant

You probably didn’t think it was possible to have more than one source of income when you work as a virtual assistant, right?

Well, you’re wrong.

Today’s post leans slightly towards personal finance because I was inspired by one of my favorite local personal finance bloggers who posted about the income matrix.

The reason why I decided to really go head-on with my virtual assistant business (I ended up earning $20k my first year) was that I knew it came with a lot of benefits.

Things like:

• having more control of your time
• having more control of your income
• being able to choose clients to work with
• being able to choose projects to work on

Now, what if I told you that you can actually earn money beyond offering your services?

Not convinced? Well, here are the ways you can cash in that well-deserved $$$ as a service-based business owner.

1) Income from Your Services

This is the income that you make from your services.

If you are thinking about running a business and want something that allows you to earn money fast, offering services is the best way to do so. The only downside with this is that your income is directly affected by you and your efforts. If you have to go on vacation or sick days, it could also mean that your income will dwindle a bit.

You could, however, decide to grow your business bigger and run an agency and hire other virtual assistants to work for you.

Depending on your set up, it will still need some level of work on your end (management, client negotiations, etc) but the amount of effort you make could be lesser. Ideally, because you have multiplied yourself (on the implementation and delivery part, that is), you will have made more money than you would if you were still a one-person show.

Also Read: The Most In-Demand Services You Can Offer As A Virtual Assistant

2) Income from Your Team/Agency

When you become a team or have an agency, some of your income may also come from your business profits. This means that the amount you charge for your offers are higher that what it would cost you to deliver them, even after expenses such as employee/subcontractor fees and so on.

I highly suggest you read the book Profit First and follow the principles being taught in there if you want to have a profitable business.

3) Income from Affiliates

As a service provider, you have probably found yourself recommending certain tools, platforms or even courses to clients and even non-clients. The best part about working on the laptop is that you have access to so many things nowadays, including being able to recommend products AND earn from it at the same time.

I love applying to be an affiliate of tools that I know very well and use a lot – more so if I use them in my own business. Not only do I get a recurring income out of it, but I also get to use the tools that I am familiar with in behalf of my clients.

4) Income from Your Digital Products

Once you feel like you’ve already acquired a lot of experience and feel confident enough to share it to the world, you can actually turn your knowledge into something that can help others follow the same path as you do AND allow you to earn at the same time.

Royalty income comes from money that you generate after building, generating or making something unique and charging people to use it. In our case, it can be from sales of your productized offers such as:

• templates (for lead magnets, sales pages copy, sales page design, social media posts, etc)
• mini workshops and training
• online courses
• eBooks and printed books
• and so many others!

5) Income from Coaching

Another way to make a living out of your knowledge and experience would be through holding coaching and mastermind sessions.

Because these types of offers require more hand-holding with your client/student, it also requires more time from you, which means you have the right to demand higher prices for these types of services.

I’ve seen group coaching programs go from $497 for 3 months to a $25k year-long mastermind program to even $100k for 1:1 coaching.

This Might Interest You: The Complete Beginner’s Guide to Starting a Freelancing Career

6) Income from Your Online Real Estate

If you’ve been around in the online world for some time now, chances are that you’ve also acquired some amount of online real estate in the form of domains and websites. I personally have around 10 domains and 5 ready-to-blog sites, and I know mine is still in the *mild* form of hoarding. Haha!

You might think that it is just a waste having to pay for these things every year but guess what… a lot of people actually earn a living buying and selling domains, starter websites and even full-blown income-generating ones!

I haven’t quite gotten the time to work on it yet but I’ve been following people who have successfully sold their 3-month-old starter websites for somewhere between $500 and $2000. Websites that are already earning income are able to charge far more than this!

Read More: 15 Essential Tools You Need to Run A Virtual Assistant Business

Which one is for you?

I’ve seen a lot of people ask where and how they could earn money online and fast, and for me, it’s always from offering your services.

The good thing though is that all the activities that you do to get income from these sources are all interconnected. As a virtual assistant, there is a huge chance that you will have worked with clients that earn their living from one, two or even all of these areas!

The key is to start with one, roll the money to build a team or hire contractors, and then venture out into other opportunities to gain other income streams. Of course, bringing it offline is also highly suggested – build physical businesses if you can. Remember: don’t put all your eggs in one basket!