Know what I felt when I signed up my early retirement letter from a global prestigious firm?
I felt FREEDOM. With this feeling comes the realization that having a good paying job is not
an answer to a great fulfilling life. I worked in a corporate office for 29 years! And after 5 months of not working at the office, did I miss the office? I’m afraid not. It just fueled a desire to look for a job outside an office.
I have several options on what to do after corporate office. I could find another corporate job as a consultant or I could open up my own business or I could be an online freelancer and a virtual assistant. So why did I choose to be an online freelancer and a virtual assistant? Because pandemic happened and quarantined happened. Because with freelancing comes the flexibility to work at home and to find a job that is suitable to my working hours.
But my dilemma was that I don’t know anything about being a freelancer. I don’t know where to start or how to get a job. I often heard the word “niche” associated with freelancing. But what the heck is a niche? So I started to research and read articles. But still there are a lot of questions in my mind.
So if you are like me, just starting to realize that you wanted freedom and you want to be a freelancer and a virtual assistant, here are my tips:
Write notes about yourself. If you can write a biography, that would be good. Highlight your office skills, your soft skills and your strengths. Know what are your interests. These strengths will assist you to look for your “niche”. If you are like me and is still undecided on what niche you will choose, look for online freelancer jobs that are in demand and that you feel that you can do and look for trainings about these freelancer jobs.
Invest in yourself. Look for good training online sites. The coaches will be your partner in your freelancing journey. Before enrolling in Filipino Virtual Assistance (FVA) academy, I registered in free webinars, I searched for training sites for freelancers. I found out that free webinars can be a waste of time. I attended several webinars and spent several hours and days just listening. There was even one which promises a free coaching session and I grabbed the opportunity. I listed my questions and scheduled the coaching session. Unfortunately, the coach didn’t show up 2 times! And in another free webinar, I have some questions about the assignments, but the coach just sent me links to her websites that are old and are not structured that I wasted again precious time just to look for the saved videos.
In looking for good training sites, send email or private messages to the academy to check if you will be replied to. If there are no replies to your emails or messages, then there is a high probability that the training site is more on marketing and not on training you to be a good freelancer.
Create accounts in Upwork, Onlinejobs.PH and update your LinkedIn profiles. Upwork is one of the most recommended site for freelancer. And LinkedIn is the social media site for businesses, business owners and professionals. As soon as I started my connections in LinkedIn, a recruiter and a plant manager contacted me to apply for a job.
When doing your trainings, be humble to accept that the coaches may be a lot younger than you are but they have the expertise to teach you. Some of my coaches are in their 20s, which are the same ages as my daughters! And all of them are definitely younger than me. But is this stopping me from doing the freelancer trainings? No, I respect their abilities and knowledge. And I am grateful for online freelancer coaches like them who have patience in teaching.
Practice time-management especially in doing the trainings and assignments. Target a realistic time when you can finish the trainings. When I enrolled in FVA, I enrolled in 4 courses just for one month! It was a good thing that I heeded the advice of one of the coaches and scheduled only 1-2 courses per month. Training with FVA is not a walk in the park. It is viewing the videos countless times and sleepless nights in doing the portfolios.
Make your resume and proposals look professional and you can use these resume and proposals to submit to recruiters and business owners in Upwork and OnlineJobs.PH platforms. You can base your resume from the biography that you wrote about yourself. And you can make use of Canva to look for professional templates.
If you have savings from your corporate life and you can afford it, do not rush into looking for a job right away. When you have a few online skills, you will realize that what you learn at the office may not be useful in the online world. Build your skills first by doing online freelance and virtual assistant trainings. The more skillful you are, the better pay awaits you.
Look for jobs in several online platforms and apply for virtual assistant jobs that not only will pay higher but also jobs that are fulfilling.
Hope these tips will help your journey to being a virtual assistant and online freelancer. Good luck. God bless.
If you need virtual assistance services, feel free to contact me in my Facebook page. You can also visit my webpage.
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