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If you’ve been reading this blog for any length of time, you know I’ve been doing virtual assistant work for other bloggers since 2015. But I still regularly get asked, “How much money can I make as a virtual assistant?” There’s not an easy answer to this, so today I wanted to dive into a blog post to cover the topic further.
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Let me start with this….
Everyone’s journey is different. You may be looking at starting as a virtual assistant as a side hustle, you may want this to be your full-time job so you can leave the corporate world, or you may be the mom who wants some extra income to supplement finances while you stay home and raise the kids. Regardless – becoming a virtual assistant can work for many people! I truly believe the income potential with this position is limitless if you want it to be. 🙂
What about the money?
Please know that I am NOT writing this blog post to brag. Goodness, there are virtual assistants out there making significantly more money than I do! But I know that for my current situation, I am doing what works well for my family – being home with my kids each day, balancing VA work with other aspects of my business, and providing a regular income for my family.
With that being said, I want to take you to the very beginning of my business and show you the income I’ve had over the last three+ years. I hope this helps you realize the possibilities and answers the question, “How much money can I make as a virtual assistant?”
If you want the abbreviated version, here are the numbers:
- 2015 average income per month = $350 (started in June 2015)
- 2016 average income per month = $600
- 2017 average income per month = $2,060 (but please read below to see how my expenses also went up as I had associate virtual assistants working for me)
- 2018 average income per month (through August 2018) = $2,407
Please keep reading so you can learn the story behind the dollar amounts above. I’ll break it down a bit more so you have a better idea what you’re getting into.
The Full Story
My VA journey started in June 2015. I was approached by a friend who runs various online blogs. The conversation went something like this –
- Friend: “Hey, you’ve been running an online business for awhile now. Would you want to be my VA?”
- Me: “What’s a VA?”
- Friend: “VA stands for virtual assistant. Basically I would pay you to help write and edit blog posts, do SEO on my blog, schedule things to social media, and other random tasks. Are you interested?”
- Me: “Um…..I think so. I’ll talk to Andrew about it and let you know in a couple days.”
With that – I had my first virtual assistant job by complete accident. I was getting paid $15/hour for doing five hours of work per week. That meant I had an income of $300/month.
For three months I worked exclusively for that client, but I knew I wanted to do a bit more. (VA work was more steady income than many other aspects of my online business at the time.) In September 2015, I landed my second client.
The third client came in early 2016. At that point I had decided to raise my prices to $20/hour (which I firmly believe is the minimum you should charge. Live and learn!).
The fourth and fifth clients came in pretty easily over the next month or two. Then a friend gave me a nudge that I was pretty good at this whole VA thing, so I should expand by hiring on associate virtual assistants.
That’s when the income jumped up. I realized I couldn’t work more than 20 hours per week as a VA if I wanted to keep other aspects of my online ventures in tip top shape. (And, to be totally honest, I really didn’t want to work more than 10 if I could help it.) So I needed associates to help me keep my business growing.
I hired my first associate VA in November 2016, and I’ve had 1-3 working for me ever since.
My highest grossing month was just over $3,000. That was July 2018.
The Other Side —- Expenses!
Now before you think you can work 10 hours a week and make $3,000 a month, let’s run the numbers. The month I made $3,000 I had to pay roughly 1/3 into taxes. (Your tax bracket may be different than mine, but I always calculate about 30% of my income as going to the IRS for taxes.)
Then I had the following other expenses as well:
- about $80 in fees – Each month my clients pay me, typically through PayPal. But there’s a fee associated with that. So I end up paying a little each month to utilize an online payment service.
- about $500 to associates – I pay my associate VAs based on the projects they complete for me in a given month. The amount I pay can vary from month to month, but I know it’s about $500 per month (at least through most of 2018).
- $30 for my timer – While there are online timers you can use for free, I utilize the program Freshbooks because it allows me to track my time and communicate with one of my associate VAs each month.
What that really means…
So let’s break that down. My best month was $3,185. But then I had $630 in expenses – bringing my income down to $2,575. And then I save a third for taxes – which means my take home pay was roughly $1,725.
When you figure that I typically only work about ten hours per week, I’ll take that $40/hour for working at home in my PJs while being with my two children!
(That’s not an exact science. I am currently charging $40/hour for most tasks or I have packages set up where my clients pay me a flat amount so that I can have my associates help me out. And then I pay my associates typically on package rates as well.)
That’s the overall jist of it. But – like I said at the beginning – I know virtual assistants that are grossing five digits or more each month. So know these numbers are that of a “small” virtual assistant. You can make this as big or small as you’d like!
If you found this blog post about “How much money can I make as a virtual assistant?” helpful, then you’re also going to love my VA ebook. You can check it out here. This ebook will help you get started as a virtual assistant, PLUS give you access to a Facebook group where you can find potential clients. It’s worth a look! 😉
Not quite ready to commit to buying the ebook? I get it! Try this FREE five day email series to get the basics of starting a virtual assistant business. Click here to sign up now!
Here’s a podcast episode of one of my ebook purchasers who was able to turn what she learned from the ebook into a monthly salary more than her teaching income in just a few short months. Stephanie also gave this review on the book – “This book really helped me start my VA journey. I highly recommend it to anyone who may be considering this career path. Heather Jo is SO very helpful, and provides tremendous support to people seeking VA services or looking to be hired. She has been a true guiding force to me, and I have loved being part of her Facebook group community that comes with this purchase!”
Another purchaser said – “Seriously this has been an amazing purchase for my husband and his VA business. I was SO happy to have found this and think that HoJo has done a fabulous job to compile this eBook for Virtual Assistants who are getting started and want to make sure they are covering all the bases out there.”
And one more review of the ebook – “This e-book is an incredible resource for VAs and those who are seeking to hire a VA! There is so much helpful info and HoJo has spelled out everything you need to know! Grab it now–don’t hesitate!!”