In this article, we will explore the world of part-time freelancing. We will enumerate the benefits of being part- time freelancer, the challenges they usually face, and the things needed in order to be successful.

Benefits of Part Time

You can earn more income while enjoying the employment benefits of you regular day job. – This is one of the reasons why most employees are afraid to leave their regular job. If you work as freelancer full-time, you will lose the employment benefits such as SSS, health insurance, retirement benefits, 13th month, Christmas bonuses etc.

Gives you the opportunity to test the waters first. – There’s a huge money opportunity in freelancing but not all people can make it as a freelancer. Working just part-time can help you decide if you are really for freelancing business while still being safe of having a regular monthly salary.

You can earn extra money. – Part-time freelancing can help you buy things you can’t afford by just relying on you regular monthly salary. It’s also a big help especially for married people.

You don’t have to worry on finding steady clients to be able to sustain your needs. – If you’re freelancing full-time, there’s always a pressure to find lot’s of steady clients for you to pay utility bills, banks, landlords, etc. but if you have a sure monthly salary  aside from you freelancing work , you won’t have to worry on how to pay these bills during lean season.

The Challenges

Shortage of Time- This is the usual challenge that part-time freelancers experience. Working full-time on one job and then freelancing during evening’s means that you’re going to have limited hours on your freelance job. You will have to sacrifice other things such as social life in order to fulfill your commitment with the clients.

Limited Projects – Since you have only few hours to work, most part time freelancers cannot accept huge and time consuming projects. Limited project means limited income as well.

Keeping up with clients and other commitments–This is hard for full-time freelancers and is even harder for those who work part-time with day jobs. Working with many clients can be difficult especially if they give you lots of projects with short deadline. If you reject them, there’s a tendency for the client to look for other freelancers who can finish the project on their terms.

Things to Remember

Beware of Conflicts! – Before accepting part-time projects, make sure that it won’t cause a problem with your full-time job. Not being careful may sabotage both your full-time and freelance job.

Think before you bid –Don’t bid on too many projects at once or you could find yourself in a tough situation. Full-time freelancers can easily adjust on additional projects by putting in extra hours in the evening or on weekends but you can’t do that because you already have other commitments to remember.

Don’t be a Workaholic! – Combining a day job and part-time freelancing work can give you lots of money but you should also remember that working too much is bad. It fine to add 10 to 20 hours of freelance work a week but more that that may risk your health and your relationship with your family .

Make sure you have full support from your family- Always include your family in every decision you make especially if you are married and have kids because this will affect them as well. Make sure they understand your work and why you do it. No matter how busy you are, you must also not forget to make time to bond with them.

Are you working 10-14 hours and yet, still not satisfied with the outcome? Many of us still believe that in order to be successful, we must work longer hours, give up social life, sacrifice the time with family etc. Yes, you are a virtual assistant and you have the perks of working in the comfort of your own home but, are you enjoying its benefits?  If you don’t incorporate the “Work Smarter, Not Harder” mantra in your daily life, then you’ll  end up being a loner workaholic with just enough income to sustain daily financial needs.

“Work Smarter, Not Harder”

Working smarter means making the right choice to make sure your job doesn’t take over your life.  A true successful freelancer can create a balance between professional and personal life.

Tips on how to work smarter at home…

Make a to do list

List all the tasks according to priority in your planner and the deadline when you need to submit all of it. This will allow you to not waste energy on trying to remember tasks. This can also be a great way to make you think quickly.

Organize your workspace

Tidy up your workspace and keep everything organized so you’ll spend less time searching when you need to get something. This will help the work flow become more faster. Make your workspace inspiring by adding decorations such as pictures, paintings, plants, and other things that will help you concentrate. Choose comfortable chair and table. Comfortable environment will result in improved productivity.

Know the time when you are efficient

What time of the day you are mentally alert? Some people like to work at night while some are more efficient and effective during day time. Some becomes tired after 3 hours and opt to take a rest for an hour or two then continue working again. You may also choose to do hard tasks during the time you are fresh and mentally alert then do the less stressful task on the times when your are already tired.

Don’t push yourself to work during down time

To avoid burnout, don’t push yourself too much. Do other productive things on the time that you are too lazy to work. Exercise, go to grocery, pay your bills and, spend time with family. Thru this, you can accomplish your other obligations without wasting time. Efficient right?

Don’t just confine yourself in your workspace

Learn to enjoy the benefits of being a freelancer by not limiting yourself in your workspace. You may travel while working, work on your favorite coffee shop, work on your kitchen, living room, or anywhere comfortable. Sometimes completely new surroundings will help you work better and faster. Plus, it’s more fun!

 Focus on your skills

In order to be successful you must do what you love to do. As they say, it’s difficult to be highly successful when you don’t love what you do. If you like your job, you can finish the work faster and you will be more inspired to work. Don’t just bid on different projects to earn money. Focus on your forte and hone it so you can be great at what you love to do. Asses yourself if you are happy with your current tasks. If yes, continue what you’re doing. If not, then it’s time to make some changes.

A website can be viewed as your online business location and the platform from which you sell your products and services. Just like a real on site business, you will need to stock your website, monitor, maintain it regularly, and see to it that it that the information you supply from your website reaches your target clientele.

In a regular business setting, business owners hire professionals/experts and now they’re investing as well in getting a virtual assistant in a specific area of their business for it to run smoothly. They hire accountants to manage the financial aspect; they hire HR staffs to manage the employees etc. If you want your website to succeed, you must also hire professionals to take care of it.

Let say you already have a great website created by your web designer, the next step is to hire SEO Company/Experts or virtual SEO specialist to advertise your site so it will be noticed by web surfers.  These people need to be chosen carefully as they are the one who will help you gain profit from your website. Hire someone who understands your business, your goals, and objectives.

Professional Search Engine Optimization Increases Search Ranking Quickly

The goal of every business that has a website is to increase its search engine ranking that will eventually lead to more sales. Some do not bother to hire SEO professionals and do the optimization by themselves, but if you want quicker and better results, you better hire the experts. They can’t make your website rank high on search engines overnight but at least it’s faster than doing the optimization alone. Hiring SEO professionals will also give you the assurance that your SEO campaign is on the right tract since they know the trends well and they are experts on SEO field.

Search Engine Optimization more Bang for your Buck

Search Engine Optimization has many advantages over other methods of advertising. It is worth investing especially if you found the right SEO Company for your business.

Some of its advantages include:

World wide advertisement-people all over the world can easily find your products through the use of internet. It can help you reach them in just a short period of time.

Targets specific clients- It helps you to target specific clients who are more likely to visit your website or buy your product. This is not like other methods of advertizing that advertise to mass audience.

Drives Traffic- this is the best method to increase traffic to your website. If your website belongs to the first page of search engines, web surfers are more likely to visit your site,

SEO is really the best form of advertising today. After paying for your site optimization, you’ll never spend another dime. All you need is to learn the tricks to maintain your ranking.  Also, SEO can give you fast & better Return on Investment.

Personally, I recommend getting an seo campaign in every websites. It’s your call, whether hire a SEO specialist or get an SEO company to do the job for you.

Are you thinking of jumping to home-based online business bandwagon?  This is a common trend nowadays.  Some even go for it without knowing the facts and other things to consider.  In this article, I will give you the common misconceptions about putting up a home-based business to help you decide if you’re going to pursue your home-based plans or not.

1.  They think anyone can start a home-based business

Yes, anyone can start a home-based business but not everyone will succeed. Just like any other businesses, online business takes a lot of work and planning. This can be a tedious process and if you are not patient enough, you might as well forget this plan.  Some people are just looking for quick money, and more often than not, they tend to have not learned the appropriate skills. They must first understand the process and how everything works.

Always remember: It takes discipline, determination, patience and good guidance to be truly successful working online.

2.      Working at home is always fun

There are lots of advantages working from home. No more commuting, no need for make-up, no need for corporate clothes etc. but working from home is not always fun. The lack of interpersonal interactions can make you become irritable, sluggish or sad for no reason.  If you are the kind of person who is used to seeing many people; then, home-based business might not work for you. If you are already in this kind of business and you are experiencing loneliness, you must find ways to combat it in order for you to  enjoy your new career.

 3.      Your business won’t be able to compete with firms with offices

 Some people are having doubts about putting up a home-based business because they worry that their future clients might not take them seriously.  Yes, you don’t have a luxurious office or meeting space but you must keep in mind that your customers will mainly care about the products or service you provide them.   If personal meeting is necessary, set up a place in your home where you can have meeting without interruptions. Also, make sure that you present yourself and your business to your clients in a professional manner. A great website can help you reach to more and bigger clients; be ready with your business cards, brochures, presentations and others stuffs needed for your business.

 4.      Personal Life Cannot Be Separated from Professional Life

 Some new home-based business owners think that it is impossible for them to separate their personal life and professional life with the kids and other family members around making noises and distraction. For me, the answer is simple.  Working at home is not easy, it is about sacrifice and hard work. To achieve this, you need to create a dedicated work space with a phone meant only for business purpose. You may also set up working hours and let your family members know that during these hours, they cannot interrupt nor disturb you.

 5.      Freelancing is easy and you can get rich quickly

In home-based business, there’s a huge possibility for you to get rich but not as quick as you think. Building a business takes long hours and hard work. You must build your name, continuously upgrade your knowledge/skills (or else you will be left behind by other freelancers) and you must be able build a solid base of clients who support you and your work.

These steps will really require huge amount of time and dedication. Some freelancers even work longer hours than someone who’s conventionally employed. If you’re still considering on becoming a freelancer, read articles, forums, and blogs on freelancing and learn from the experts.

 6.      Freelancers are Anti Social

 Not having a social life is a choice. Whether you’re working in an office or at home, you may choose or not choose to have a social life. Keep in mind that work is not the only place to meet people. Yes we don’t have the advantage of having coworkers, but most of us find other ways to connect.  Our job requires a lot of networking and being social is one of the talents every freelancer must possess. If you got bored, you can always go out and have fun with friends/family or you can always look for a community or organization where you can mingle with people that share the same interest as yours.

 7.       This is a lot less stressful than working for someone else.

This is not true. Most of the time, having a home-based business is a lot more stressful than having a regular job.  You have to work with lots of client with different attitude and you must be able to make them happy. You also have to worry about other aspects of you business like finances, deadlines, invoice and track payments, and everything else that make your business run all by yourself.

 8.      This is not a real job

 Who said so? Having a home-based business is not just a sideline or a hobby for bored home makers. This is a serious career and tasks should be done in professional and ethical standards. We build long term relationships with clients, we ensure they get high quality work on time, we do our work based on their specifications. Now who said it’s not a real job?

What about the virtual assistants? Sadly, virtual assistants don’t have this benefit. We have to pay for health insurance voluntarily to secure our medical needs. Some opt not to invest on health insurance because they thought it’s expensive but virtual assistants must be aware that it will be much expensive if they got hospitalized without any health insurance. What if you don’t have cash by that time? How will you pay for your huge hospital bills? Lack of health insurance is a serious threat.  The high costs of hospitalization, medicines, treatment and other health care services are obvious; and no one is exempted from illness, accidents and other health-related issues.

Here are some options you must consider in securing your health:

Choose wisely! Just like buying clothes, canvass first the different health insurance companies. Check their prices and plan offerings before choosing what suits you the best.

Research first before making a deal. Check if the health insurance company is affiliated with your preferred hospital and doctor.

If you’re still unsure of what plan to get, you may ask the advice of a health insurance broker. He/She can help you find the best deal for your needs and situation.

You may also open a Health Savings Account (HAS) –This is just like personal savings account but the money can only be used for health-care expenses.  You can withdraw the money for other financial needs but you will have to pay taxes for it.  This is perfect for younger, healthier people who need less medical care.

You may think that you don’t ever get sick, or that you’ll never use the benefits associated with your insurance. However, medical conditions can often be unexpected. Insurance coverage offers peace of mind that bills will not be a primary worry in a time when you ought to be focusing on your health.  Think about it! think of getting one for yourself or members of your family.

Never let search engine optimization take over your online business! True, SEO is an integral part of building your website. SEO should never be as critical as satisfying your customers, though. If you spend so much time on search engine optimization that you discover yourself to be neglecting customers, you need to reevaluate your priorities. Don’t forget to investigate your competitors’ SEO campaigns. Seeing what techniques the competitors are using to get to the top of search engine results pages can help you rank your own website. Learn from their success, then adapt and expand on the SEO methods they are using and use them on your own website. One of the greatest mistakes budding SEO experts make is having titles on their site that are way too long. Remember that most search engines put a 60 character cap on keywords for a title, so the shorter, more informative you can make your title, the better off you will be. When setting up your site with SEO, pick a few keywords to optimize and focus your efforts on those. Trying to use too many different keywords will result in keyword dilution, where the weight of your keywords is lost in the text. If you must have many different keywords, create multiple pages that can link back to your product pages.

When establishing your site for SEO, monitor keyword density. You need to have your major keywords at about 3 to 7 percent of the total text. Anything higher than about 10 percent starts to look suspicious to the search engine, as if you are using keyword stuffing to boost page rank. When using SEO, avoid keyword stuffing, or keyword densities which have been artificially inflated to exceed ten percent of your total text. Search engines will generally view websites like these as possible spam, and may also ban your site from their listings altogether. Using natural text will avoid this concern and still drive traffic to your website.

As a freelance virtual assistant, it’s important to know just how imperative it is that you impress current and potential clients, in order to make your business succeed. There is a not set plan that you can follow to achieve this, as every client is different, and every freelancer will have their own unique way of providing a superior service to their client. However, there are a handful of things that you can do to show future clients that you are committed to landing their job, and to make the client-freelancer relationship a more pleasant and productive one. Here are a few ways to impress a client, which you can customize to create your very own plan for success.

Make them feel important. There is nothing that will impress a client more than making them feel special and important. In the business world, it is often the norm to feel as though you are simply one among many, so try to treat your client as though they are the only one you have by handling their project promptly and with care. Of course, chances are that you have a number of other projects currently in the pipeline, but each client should be made to feel as though theirs comes above all others.

Be personable while still remaining professional. It’s always a great idea to be friendly with your client, but you should always remain professional while doing so. Make an attempt to add humor into your conversations or keeping the banter light every now and again, as this will show your client that you understand they are human, rather than just a dollar sign. Keep in mind, however, that some clients simply prefer to keep things strictly business, and its best to respect that.

Communication is key. If you need more information from them, then ask. If you notice that you might be a behind or ahead of schedule, then let them know. Communicating with you clients is key, as it allows for them to feel more involved with the process and shows them that you are keeping active with their project, even if it’s an extended one. You may want to consider weekly progress reports via email or phone calls, just to keep them up to date and in the loop.

Deliver more than they might expect. Go above and beyond when it comes time to deliver the project. For instance, if you’re a website designer, add on an extra graphic or page and say that it’s on the house, or try delivering the project a week early. By demonstrating that you are willing to give them that bit of extra service, you are not only impressing your client, but increasing the chances that they will return for your services again or refer others.

Follow up with a small token of appreciation. It’s doesn’t have to be anything grand, but following up with just a small token of appreciation, such as a thank you card or a customized pen, will express your gratitude for their business. It will also make your client feel as though you cared enough to take a bit of extra time after the fact to drop them a note or mail them over a little gift.

An impressed client is one that will offer you the job, or come back to you for another one if you’ve successfully completed a project for them already. Most of these things mentioned above are probably already things that you put into practice when it comes to impressing a client, but making sure that you implement them for every single client and continue to do so will almost guarantee a sterling reputation for your freelance business.

            You enjoy a steady paycheck. A steady income is usually not part of the freelancing equation. Given that you’ll only get paid for the jobs that you complete, you’ll often experience times of feast of famine. If you are used to receiving a paycheck each week or every other week, then you’re in for a big shock when that paycheck only arrives every so often, and you are left with next to nothing to pay your bills on occasion.

            You love working in an environment with other people. If you’re a people person who thrives in working environments that are packed with people, then freelancing is probably not an ideal choice. Usually you are busily working alone, without anyone to communicate with. Therefore, freelancing is not exactly a good fit for those who crave interactions with others.

            You think that freelancing will give you more time with your family. It’s actually quite the opposite when you choose to begin your own freelancing business. You will often find that you have very little time for anything other than getting your business off the ground and doing your best to please clients so that you can see success as soon as possible. Thus, if you want to to into freelancing to get more quality family time, then you might be sorely disappointed.

            You think freelancing will be easy. Freelancing is, quite possibly, one of the most difficult things you will ever do professionally, and maybe even personally. It takes an enormous amount of hard work, dedication, and sacrifice to make a go of it, and even more of the same if you succeed at it. Though it will pay off in time, you will have to understand that you’ll have to truly devote a large part of your life to it, especially in the beginning.

            You believe that work will find you, rather than you finding it. You will have to diligent and work tirelessly in order to get the clients that you need to make your new freelancing career thrive. You can’t simply sit back and expect for the clients to come to you, you have to go in search of them and compete against others in your field to secure them.

            You expect to be able to sleep in and stay up late whenever you like. A common misconception about working for yourself is that you will have the freedom to do whatever you like, whether that be staying up until all hours of the morning hanging out with friends or sleeping in until noon. The truth is that you will have to work long hours in order to make your business a success, and many start ups don’t get much sleep at all in the first few months. You see, when you are a freelancer, it can be difficult to shut work off at 5pm and resume it again at 9 in the morning. You will want to see your business thrive, so you will be more likely to work nearly round the clock to achieve your professional goals.

While you plan to jump the bandwagon of virtual assistant, you need take into consideration that the community of freelancers includes thousand of members. The competition is high but healthy here. Everybody looks for a good virtual assistant. So, when you look through the communities and notice thousands of members, do not worry. Everything is up to you.

Thinking of joining the bandwagon of virtual assistants, the first thing you to do is to define what you can do best, the field at which you are excellent and enjoy most. You have to compete with lots of competitors. Thus, make a trick and choose the field that will match and suit your abilities, and not on the contrary, do not try to tailor your abilities to match any field even if it seems to be a “cashcow”.

When define your bests and choose the matching category, the key point comes. Now you must reveal what you can do. One of the best ways to make an impressive advertisement is to look through the competitors’ advertisements and pick up the main points they have in common. So, you will have possibility to determine the interest and needs of customers. Pay attention to the latest trends in the field and include them in your service. Underline your strong sides. If you possess any certificates, do not miss them. They are proofs of your success. Try to be clear and convincing.

Also, when joining the bandwagon of virtual assistant, you should remember that your reputation is the key issue. It is a proof of your words. Thus, care for it and make each task thoroughly to get positive feedback from your employer. It will give you higher rank and more customers.

It is a good idea to attach your photo to the ad since it will arise more confidence toward you in the potential customers. Choose the photo that is taken in an official environment and reject the ones that demonstrate your appearance even then you are too pretty. Such photos may leave the impression of a frivolous person.

Virtual space gives you numerous opportunities to access people and potential customers as well. If you are a member of different social networks, you can expose your service to lots of users of these networks.

As work from home becomes more and more attractive today, the competition grows, too. But do not worry. The competition is high but it cannot expand to the possibilities given to you by the virtual world. Here you can plan and handle your career, use online resource as much as possible and access across the earth.

The Benefits of Co-working with Freelancers.
     As previously mentioned, co-working is a great way to fend off loneliness while you work. A fair number of individuals who are new to freelancing find that the busy office or store that they were used to has been replaced by an empty room in their home, and this is remedied quite quickly by choosing to co-work with other freelance Virtual Assistants, either at home or in a shared office environment. This fact also leads to another great aspect of co-working, given that you can get yourself out of the house for awhile each day to work at this shared office space. Having things to do around the house or bills staring you in the face while you’re working at home can be unnerving and limit your productivity. But, if you are sharing the cost of a work area with others, then you will be free to work without distraction.

In addition, you’ll gain the benefit of whatever skills the other freelancers whom you are co-working with have their knowledge base. For instance, if you are a writer who doesn’t know the first thing about designing a website, why not have the web designer on your co-working freelance team help you make one to show off your books or articles. This is a great way to avoid having to pay someone else money that you may not have, and, in turn, you can help them with anything they might need assistance with in the future. It’s a mutually beneficial situation.

The Drawbacks of Co-working with Freelancers.
     There are a few drawbacks to co-working with freelancers, one of them being that you may not be compatible with the other members of your freelance team. It’s a given that some personalities simply don’t mesh, and you may find that is the case with one or two of the freelancers you are co-working with. Maybe it’s the a bad habit of theirs that irritates you, or the fact that they invite people over to your shared work space without asking you first. Whatever the case is, conflicting characters is definitely a cause for concern when co-working. Also, the shared responsibilities of the shared office space may prove to be an issue between you and your team. What if one of you has trouble coming up with the rent each month, or seems to always be late on paying their portion of the electric bill? If you’re going it alone in your freelance venture, then you are only accountable for yourself. However, if you are co-working with others, their financial woes can also, potentially, become yours.

Overall, co-working can be very beneficial to freelance Virtual Assistants, if you find the right people for your freelancing team and iron out all of the kinks before you join forces. Remember to set some ground rules, like how you are going to utilize your shared workspace and when it’s alright to have visitors, so that you won’t disturb the work of the other freelancers. Whether you’re choosing a more solitary path or one that involves a group of freelancers…good luck and enjoy all that the exciting world of freelancing has to offer!