Is anybody here a virtual assistant?

[PerfectFifth]

I'm looking into VA work to supplement our income, but I'd love to hear from someone that has already BTDT. The work itself seems straightforward to me, but I'm really curious about how you handle hours and billing. Do you work a set amount of hours for a client, or do you charge for the amount of time it takes to complete a client's tasks? Is it better to charge an hourly rate or something different, like a weekly or monthly rate? Plus, I'm having a little difficulty deciding how much to charge in the first place. I'd love to hear some perspective on this!

[breefawn]

I realize that this is an older thread, but I've been a VA for 3 years if you still have questions

[rellasmommy]

bump! any companies you recommend?

[breefawn]

I am actually self-employed. I seek out (or am recommended to) potential clients. I started out using hiremymom.com and flexjobs.com to find clients-you have to apply, just like a real job, but I now have three clients that give me about 25 hours a week. I LOVE what I do. I get to be a paralegal (my degree is in pre-law), a copywriter, and communications guru. It's fun. I've also *kind of* used elance.com and freelanceswitch.com

I will caution you that most of those are paid sites. I've tried the free sites, and it was a total waste of time. BUT, I recouped my investment in less than a week once I found a contract. Let me know if you have other questions