Many virtual assistants love the freedom of their jobs, but feel like they are not particularly flexible when it comes to advancement. To some degree, this is true. After all, you may not have a lot of upward mobility within a company if you never meet the owner in person or even correspond directly with a supervisor, as is often the case with VAs who handle help desks and customer service. However, just because you are not going to move upward within a company does not mean that you cannot enhance and improve your resume and job skills while getting paid to do so.

Talk to your employer - or your direct supervisor - to see if there are responsibilities that you can assume that might make your job easier and expand your skill set. There may be software available that could smooth many administrative processes for you and make your work more easily accessible to your employer as well. Learning to use such software can make you more marketable even as it saves you time and effort in your current position. Usually you will not need to invest in the software yourself, either, which will save you additional money.

When you are working with clients, determine which of their problems or issues you believe that you could resolve on your own, if you had the authority to do so. This is a good way to expand your skills and experience as well while making your work life easier. After all, if you can close more cases or help tickets without assistance, then you will not have to field return calls from people who fear that they will not be helped or who think that they have been forgotten.

Finally, keep track of everything that you do. While this may not directly expand your knowledge and ability to use office tools or software, it will help you keep a close eye on your abilities as they stand currently. In many cases, you will see that you are selling yourself short on your resume by neglecting to list responsibilities that you fulfill every day in the course of your work.
 

When those days get long and your bosses start to get weird, here are three things to remind yourself that you already love - or are going to love once you starting VAing - about one of the best jobs around in the virtual world:

Flexible Hours
One of the best things about working from home as a VA is that you can be where you want, pretty much when you want. If there is a school event during the day, you can usually get up earlier or work later to make up for a mid-day absence. And when the kids are sick, you definitely get less done, but you know that you can be there to take care of them.

Time with Family
When I worked in an office, I often did not get home until 6 or 7pm. I would pick up dinner on the way home and we would all scarf it down before sending the kids off to shower and bed. By the time everything calmed down, my husband and I would also be beat. My VA job has meant that our pace has slowed a little, and we are all enjoying family time now instead of barreling through it as fast as possible.

Unlimited Income
One of the best things about VAing is that if you need more money, you take another job or you expand your skill set, then you charge more. With every skill you acquire, your value rises. While this is true in most jobs, it "shows" faster as a VA because you do not have to wait on conventional promotions.

I speak from experience when I tell you that working from home as a virtual assistant is has been one of the most rewarding jobs I have ever had. You will love the freedom and the massive growth potential of this fantastic career opportunity.
 

So here I am, having been working for a few solid months. I just looked back at my first journal entry, and I feel like I have accomplished what I've set out to do with this job, although I had no idea when I started that the acclimation process was going to be quite so stressful. It had been a long time since I'd done anything outside of caring for the kids and the house - a fulltime job in itself - and I think I didn't really remember how the mundane things can make job - even a flexible, part-time job - kind of stressful and wearing.

Now that I'm settled in, though, I wouldn't have it any other way. I love that I can work and still see my kids as much as I want, and I'm so grateful that Jake became accustomed to his new morning schedule as well as he did. I know I'm lucky in that regard, but I also think it has a lot to do with the fact that I was able to work my work around the morning things that he enjoys by himself anyway.

I can definitely see myself keeping this job for the long-term, and enjoying the ways that it grows and changes. I've even talked to Landers about taking an online course on using Facebook and Facebook advertising to drum up business, and we are also going to start working on the webpage a little more aggressively to make it more user-friendly. The referral program is up and running at this point, and a lot of our "fans" on Facebook actually have posted how excited they were to get good deals on work so we've gotten a lot of attention from local customers that way as well.

Elena and I have encountered a few difficulties since she used to write the checks and now I do, but we were able to work that out. Mainly, because she still has access to the bank account and was accustomed to helping pad their joint, personal account if she had to at the end of the month out of that account by writing an extra check, we had some small issues because I was losing track of money toward the end of each month! However, we were able to resolve them and I think they are on a more effective budget now that they do not feel like they can just "dip in" for extra whenever they need it.
 

Well, I am officially working halftime now. I had some trouble deciding if it was the right thing to do, but Landers offered me a raise if I'd take on the extra five hours and promised to be flexible with me with the kids this summer when Addie is out of school. I am not completely sure I want to work this much, still, but it seems like I am looking a gift horse in the mouth not to keep the job when so many people are out of work.

One thing I've already come away with from this experience is that in a lot of ways, it's actually easier to prove that you are indispensable and make the job what you want it to be when you are working at home - maybe because they don't see you every day and so are more impressed by reliability? I don't know. I do know, however, that my taking the initiative with the social networking has really helped me develop a strong reputation with Landers and Elena; they feel like they have gotten way more than they expected from hiring me. Also, interestingly enough, the simple act of making sure that the bills get paid on time and that Landers has a daily schedule has earned me the reputation of being a seriously organized, in-control person that they don't want to lose. I am really proud of myself for this, but I also feel kind of "lucky" because I really just felt like I was doing my job.

Starting next week, I'll be working a solid 4 hours every day: two in the morning and two in the afternoon. I'll still get done at 2:30 though to meet Addie at the bus stop and hear about school with her, but I'll revisit the messages once more around 4. Other than that, if it's not office hours I don't have to answer the phone unless I want to, though interestingly it's turned out that I really do prefer to just take the messages in person unless I'm in the middle of something. Once I got a system down for that it really wasn't that bad.

Also, and I know this is silly, but the extra 5 hours a week is really making me feel like I'm contributing to the budget. We're putting the extra money toward a credit card that is almost paid off, and Tom has promised that once that debt is gone, I can add the extra onto the car or the house or we can start having a dinner-out date night once every other week with the difference. I know it's not much no matter where we put it, but it's nice to know that I'm putting into the "pot" as well as he is.
 

Disclaimer - I wrote this awhile back and never posted it.

1. Addie does not like orange Gatorade. Or red. Or yellow. Or Blue. Only pink. And if she does not have pink, she would rather stay dehydrated and scare me to death by retching and turning a rather nasty shade of green.
2. Jake thinks the process of vomiting is absolutely fascinating, and can't wait 'til Addie gives it another hurl. Yuck.
3. Landers hates it when no one is answering his phone - especially when he is the one calling it. Thank heavens he is giving me some leeway since I had a sick kid and we had not formally agreed on how to handle emergencies.
4. I cannot work when the kids are sick. If I try, I end up hanging up on customers and freaking out about both the sick kid and the substandard work at the same time.
5. I can take time off for sick kids. I don't know why it didn't occur to me to ask. If I had an office job, I would have called out for the day. Being a VA is a type of "office job" as well even though the office is in my house. I need to remember to treat it that way. Landers said he'd always rather me call in sick so that he can answer the phones or change the outgoing message than try to handle a family emergency and the business at once.

The past 24 hours have really shown me that I've lost perspective on this job. I was so busy avoiding Landers that I seriously thought about just hanging everything up, saying I couldn't care for the kids adequately with this job and going back to just staying at home with Jake. I even talked to Tom about it, who - surprise, surprise - said he thought I should think carefully before I made that decision. I thought he'd be overjoyed. But he said that not only does the money help, but it seems like I've been happier working at home than I was before. He suggested that I talk to Landers next week about how to better delineate my work time and my home time, maybe even putting some regulation on how and when I answer the phones.

I'm doing good work, and more than I was hired to do. That's fine, but I need to make sure that the work is still worth it.

Well, today is a day that I should have just taken off. No but's about it - I should have called in and said I couldn't man the phones today. That would have made things a whole lot simpler.

When I got Addie up this morning for school, she was definitely slow and sluggish. In fact, she didn't even feel like eating much breakfast. Since every once in a while she gets in a "funk" about school, I did not think too much about it. Usually she gets to school, gets involved in her school work and by the time I'm frantic with worry that she is hurling in the girls' room, she's chowing down on a snack because she didn't eat enough breakfast and heading for the playground for morning recess.
However, this morning was different. About the time I sat down to file a few invoices, the phone rang. It was Addie's school secretary, and Addie was down for the count with some nasty bug. They requested that I remove her from school immediately to care for her and prevent other kids from catching her ailment. Of course, I packed up Jake and headed for the school immediately.

What I should have done was given Landers a call on the way and let him know I would not be able to answer the phones today, or that I was going to have to let them go to voicemail and catch them up when I could. Instead, I just assumed that would be okay. By the time we hit the school and picked up Addie, then went to the doctor, then picked up her medicine, got her home and tucked her into bed, it had been several hours that I had been missing the phone. Even that probably would have been excusable, but today was one of those days when Landers needed information and couldn't get it because I was unavailable. By his fourth message, he was pretty steamed.

I am honestly scared to call him, but I know every second I waste things will get worse. Of course, Addie is still upstairs and I need to be up there with her, so I guess I'll drop him an email and hope he gets it. The calls will have to be caught up later.
 

Well, now it turns out that I don't need to go on the meetings after all. I could have told you that before I bought new work clothes, arranged for a sitter and spent all weekend having tense conversations with my husband about "just how much I plan to work." Not to mention that even though I know it's not reasonable, my feelings are a little hurt because Landers just called Sunday night and told me that I am "not needed."

Now, what that actually means is that I am needed, but that I did such a good job preparing us ahead of time for these meetings that now I am not needed because all the necessary information is assembled for early review and can be easily thumbed through to determine just exactly what kinds of needs the client has and what questions should be asked. I also included a call history and a summary of correspondence. I did a really good job.

In fact, I did such a good job that now I can stay home, answer the phones, take care of Jake and send out invoices rather than go recruit new clients. Of course, I know that I was not hired to recruit new clients, but it still sounded exciting and rewarding. I think that what has happened is that I have begun to overemphasize my own importance. I read an article on this website about that, actually. It said that VA's tend to feel like the office cannot function without them since they do tend to be the "glue" that holds daily operations together. However, a good VA does this while making the employer appear to be the one who is well organized and in control. I guess the fact that I am able to remain right where I'm supposed to be and can still get Landers everywhere he needs to go with the information he needs to have is actually an indication that I am doing things right.

I have to admit I'm still a little disappointed, though.

I had a work meeting with Landers today to talk about our projects for next week. I want to know ahead of time what he wants me to do so that I can make sure and be prepared ahead of time. It seems like basically he just wants me to keep him on track. Let him know ahead of time who we are meeting, what their particular project is, etc. That's fine with me, but I wonder why I need to go along. I had to find someone to watch Jake next Monday and Tuesday, and while the neighbor lady doesn't mind, I hate to leave him with her when I am pretty sure he can outrun her hands down. It's different when I'm still in the house and she's just entertaining him.

Also, I had to go buy some "work clothes." It has been more than a few years since I had to go to meetings, and after the two kids and the recent work-at-home weight gain, I have been struggling to squeeze into my comfy clothes, much less a dress shirt and slacks. As I could have predicted, the husband is not too happy about this. I feel a little frustrated myself - is this what I signed up for? And how do I know when I'm being taken advantage of? Landers is really nice and I don't think that he would deliberately misuse me, but it feels like my list of responsibilities just keeps getting longer. At least they are paying me for the work, but I didn't want to work 20 to 30 hours a week. I wanted to work 10 to 15.

While I'm worried about this, I have to admit it feels good to feel needed professionally and to feel like I'm making a legitimate contribution to the business. I've got the Facebook page set up and we've already got about 100 friends. I've set up system where if you friend us, you can get a coupon for a discount on your next service. Landers said as long as I didn't promise more than 10% off it was okay. We've gotten several calls already.
 

Well, I guess it serves me right for whining  about how I didn't have enough to do. Today,  Elena "resigned" from her role as bookkeeper. She and Landers let me know how happy they are with my  work and that they feel comfortable letting me handle all aspects of the books at this time. This is not really that much of a change from before. I just have to track the progress of all jobs and bill accordingly, and also make sure that the basic monthly obligations for the business are met. Landers and Elena both get paid a set amount out of the business each month, and I'll continue to cut them both checks as before. The only real difference is that now I'm in charge of incoming money as well. I'll be taking deposits to the bank and also following up on late accounts. Essentially, I just can manage the books now rather than running what I'm doing by Elena for approval.

Well, I've got the "go-ahead." I can set up Facebook and Twitter accounts for the company. I think that these options have a lot of potential for us since people often use referrals to get information about the home-maintenance companies that they use, and we can also encourage this even more by giving away promotions to reward referrals.

I need to get some images from Landers of projects that he's recently done, and he also cleared me to call recent clients for "reviews" of his company's work. He rarely gets any complaints, so he doesn't seem too worried about asking just about anyone on the client list for a review of his work, but I still think we should take the responses via email in case someone surprises us.

With all this work, I'm definitely getting my 20 hours a week in. In fact, I'm up to 25 or 30 on the weeks at the end of the month when the invoices go out. I kind of figured that went with the territory, but I know that my husband thinks I'm letting them take advantage of me. He keeps reminding me that I only get paid 20 hours no matter how many I work, but I feel like since they also pay me for 20 when I work fewer, it probably evens out. I'm going to start keeping a record of what I'm doing and how long it takes me so I have a better idea about whether or not this job is paying for itself.

Also, next week Landers is meeting with several potential new clients and wants me to go along to help with the meeting and quotes. That sounds exciting to me, and I wonder if I get good at this angle if I can earn extra incentives for bringing in new business.
 

Well, I wish that I had some great news, but I've really got nothing new to talk about. Given that I've been at the job for just a few weeks, though, that's probably just as well. I don't need any big events on the table yet.

Honestly, I'm getting a little bored. I know, you're probably thinking, "that didn't take long." I've been looking on the discussion boards on some of the VA forums, and I'm noticing that this is a common thread, though. I am definitely not alone. I think the thing is that before I had kids, I had a really exciting job in PR. I had multiple exciting projects and I always had a deadline to meet. While it sometimes stressed me out, I never felt like I was not pulling my weight. If anything, I felt like I was going above and beyond most of the time.

With this job, I'm definitely fulfilling the requirements, but I don't feel like there is a lot of room for upward movement. I know, I know: I've been working a few weeks. However, I really liked it when I worked before when I had a serious goal that I was working toward, even if it was just snagging the management of that next big project rather than a full-fledged promotion. Here, what are they going to promote me to? The only position above me is "owner."

I think that I need to start investing some time in some basic VA education. I know that I could easily help them design some basic email marketing campaigns and maybe even set up some social networking campaigns if they wanted the assistance, but no one has brought it up again since my interview. I guess I should ask Landers at our meeting next week. Of course, that would entail more hours per week to maintain those aspects of the business, and I'm not sure I really want more hours right now. Who would have thought it would be hard to work less than halftime?
 

I received my first paycheck, and it felt really good. I hadn't really thought about the fact that I would need to set up a paypal account, or that I might be responsible for figuring out how much to set back for taxes. I think that I can do it myself, but I might spend an hour or two with an accountant just to make sure I'm withholding enough money.

I feel like I'm starting to get in a groove, and so is Jake. It turns out that he really likes his morning time just like I do - and he even plays in his "office" while I'm working. So far, having the desk in the main living area works pretty well as long as I don't have anything to do in the evenings, which I usually don't. However, I know that when we start "turn," I'll probably be slammed and I'm kind of dreading it because I know that week I'll have much more than 15 hours. However, Landers and Elena have promised me that they always take the week or two after turn off completely, and that I'll be able to have that time off to make up for it.

I love working at home, but I am noticing that I always feel like I'm behind. Even once I've worked 3 hours, the usual amount of time that I would spend per day, max, I feel like there are probably things I should be doing to get ready for the next day. I find that I'm often working in the evenings after Addie and Jake have gone to bed, and, needless to say, that is not going over particularly well with my husband. He says I need boundaries, and I think he might be right.
 

Before I started working, I never realized how much Addie interrupts. Of course, Jake is a little more understandable since he doesn't really get the whole "my turn to talk, your turn to talk," thing, but with Addie, I'm noticing for the first time that she has no qualms whatsoever about walking up to me while I'm on the phone with a customer and just starting a conversation.

On one hand, I feel kind of good that she knows I'm her mother first and always available to her if she needs me. On the other hand, telling me that she wants a cup of juice could probably wait 45 seconds. I actually snapped at her pretty hard today, and I could tell that she was completely shocked. I think she honestly didn't realize that she was being rude or interfering with my ability to work. We talked about it a little later, and she has agreed to wait until I hang up the phone to talk to me unless it is an emergency. We'll see how it goes. For some reason I feel guilty, like I've sacrificed being there for my daughter to take a phone call. Tom, my husband, says that is the most ridiculous thing he has ever heard, and I think that I'm going to go with that. After all, I'm still available to her nearly 100 percent of the day, and she could get me in an emergency!

I have to say, afternoon phone calls will be a lot easier if Addie is not always interrupting me. It makes me feel unprofessional to have my kids talking in the background when I'm taking down potential customers' information, and I have to admit that it does not seem quite right to ask someone to wait on me if I am making a snack for her or helping her in some other small way.

Note to self: I need to find a way of dealing with this that makes it less obvious what is going on to the person on the other end of the phone - just for emergencies, of course!

Okay, so over the past weekend, we hit the "big box" discount store and I got a desk! It is certainly not the most beautiful item of furniture I own, but it is fast becoming my favorite item of furniture. At first, I was worried that I would not like the desk because it doesn't have drawers, but it turns out that is a good thing because I used to always lose things when I had the option of shoving them in drawers. For now, I've got the desk in the kids' playroom so that Jake can stay occupied while I'm getting things done. I have to get used to listening to "The Wiggles" while I work.

I had a couple other great ideas too that have made working so much easier:

• I got a huge bulletin board that I put behind my desk. Whenever I take a message, I pin it to the board right away so that once an hour - what Landers and I agreed - and then at the top of the hour I pull everything off of the pin and send Landers an itemized list.
• I have designated times for working throughout the morning. I work an hour and a half - if it's necessary - and another hour right before Addie comes home. I've managed to set up Jake's nap schedule so that he sleeps through the afternoon shift, and since the other time slot is fairly early in the day, he is usually pretty happy to watch the Wiggles or play quietly on the floor, so far.
• I've got a separate voice mail for work. All work calls go to my cell phone, and if I cannot answer, they go to my voicemail. Landers said that he would prefer that I answer the phone in person, but as long as it's not more than two or three missed calls a day, it's not a big deal. Just to make sure that he gets the information on time. I'm trying to be careful not to abuse that, but it does make things a whole lot easier.
   

Hmmm.I've been working for less than a week, and I've gained 2 pounds. This is so weird. When I had Jake, I did gain some weight, but I've worked really hard to get it off and keep it off. Now, I've been working a total of five days and I've gained 2 pounds? Besides, I only work about 2.5 hours a day, not counting the phone calls.

But after thinking about it, I have figured it out. I'm still working at the kitchen table, and nearly every time I come in to send an email or work on the billing, I grab a snack. Furthermore, I'm missing my hour at the gym - I used to go between 10:30 and 11:30 in the morning while Jake spent the hour in the gym's nursery - and now I'm afraid that I'll miss too many calls if I spend that time. I know I should get up early and go before the work day starts but that's the time I spend with Addie before school.

Note: I need to ask Landers next week if I can change my voicemail message to reflect the company so that if I do miss a call, people know that they can leave me a message and I'll get right back to them. On one hand, I know they hired me largely so that customers would actually get a real person on the phone, but what if I'm in the bathroom or one of the kids has an emergency?

The phone-call aspect is definitely taking up more time than I expected. I need to start charting how much time outside of my daily work it takes up so I know if my deal to get paid for 15 hours a week even if I do not clock that many is actually worth it

I'm so excited about the weekend and spending a full 48 hours without having to answer my phone. And my new desk!
 

Boy am I glad that I spent some time with Quickbooks before I got this job. I love that program, and Elena said that she was so relieved that I already knew it because she had never quite gotten the hang of it. We ran through their list of contract clients - they have several apartment complexes that they handle the entire "turning" process for that involves not just painting, but also maiding and maintenance when the occupants move out - that we bill every month in various volumes.

Next, we went through the process of entering new clients into the system. I suggested that we should probably add in some type of follow-up with new clients to see if they want additional services, are happy with the results, etc. Landers mentioned that they have a lot of referral clients, and I think that we could probably increase that number by rewarding the people who refer business to us. I learned about that about that in an internet marketing course I took, and Elena encouraged me to lay out some ideas for Landers next week at our meeting, which we may do over the phone since yesterday was kind of a disaster and it was clear both of us would have been happier in our own homes.

I enlisted our elderly neighbor, who Jake loves, to entertain him during our phone meeting. I am thinking of asking her to do that once a week during my calls with Landers in the future, but I wonder how much is too much before I need to start compensating her in some way.

I'm really glad that they thought my ideas about email follow-up and referral rewards were good ones, and I'm relieved that the billing is going to be as simple as I had hoped. I can't wait to get started, and I just wish I had some serious, dedicated time to devote to developing the ideas Elena and I talked about today.
 

Wow, so that was a little bit embarrassing. One thing is for sure: I am never taking Jake with me to a meeting with Landers again. I should have known better, but I thought that since they knew I was a stay-at-home mom and wanted to stay that way. However, in retrospect, I should have known he would be a major distraction.

I met Landers at a local deli - we couldn't meet at an office because he doesn't have one. I set Jake up in a high chair with some Cheerios and we got down to business. He loved the idea of my sending emails in increments, and told me that once an hour with a summary of any information from the calls was great - as long as I would still send on any important information or any clients that are particularly demanding about getting an immediate call back or reporting a problem. So that was good.

However, that is when things started to go downhill. Jake pitched a fit - and I mean a serious fit. I guess he got bored in the high chair. Ultimately, we had to agree to continue the meeting by phone later because I had to get him out of there and we could barely talk anyway. Landers mentioned that he was "amazed" that I was able to do the work that they asked while tending a 2-year-old full time. I'm not sure whether that was admiration or concern that poor Jake may be drowning out their customers when they call.

I'm due to get on the phone with Elena tomorrow to go over billing, since I'll be taking that over next week. I may need to find someone to entertain Jake while I do that so I can concentrate.
 

Okay, so the first thing that I am going to have to do is get a desk. I had thought that I would just work at the kitchen table - after all, it's only about 2 hours a day of work - but I am going to totally lose it if I don't have an area where I can spread out a little and leave my work where I can easily get to it.

One of the things that I promised to do in exchange for the relatively small time commitment - they're paying me for 15 hours a week whether I end up hitting that full 15 or not - is to answer the phones from 8:30 AM to 4:30 PM. I figured it wouldn't be that big a deal - I'd basically just answer the phone, scribble down a message and send those messages to my boss via email. And that is all there is to it, but it just takes a little more work - and there are a lot more phone interruptions - than I had expected. I am so afraid that I will lose a note that I take in the car, or while I'm feeding Jake lunch, or something before I get it into the computer and on its way.

One thing to be sure to ask Landers (that's my boss) this Wednesday: Can I send him all messages once every 30-60 minutes rather than as soon as they come in? Right now I am just peppering him with emails and it's taking up a lot more time than I thought and it feels kind of disorganized.

I'm pretty proud of myself. I think I did a good job today, and I was basically done with all scheduling by the time Addie made it home at 2:30. I met her at the bus, then just had a few more things to handle while she ate her snack before I got to hang out with her and go over her homework.
I definitely think this is going to work.
 

My name is Kellie, and I am a stay-at-home mom. Well, I was until just 5 days ago, when I snagged a job as a virtual assistant, with some pretty interesting responsibilities. I will be working as an assistant to a small-business owner who lives fairly nearby - about 30 minutes away from my house. He and his wife operate a small painting business, but they need help coordinating their schedules and those of their workers, most of whom are sub-contractors. I will also be handling most of their internet marketing, books and general liaison work between clients and potential clients with my employers.

I have to say, I'm thrilled with the hours. I will be working 10 to 15 hours a week, and I don't have an office to report to - largely because they work from home and simply don't have one. Once a week for the first month, I'll meet up with my employer or his wife and we'll talk about anything that needs to be changed, added or removed from my responsibilities. I specifically requested this because I want to be sure that they are happy and that I'm clear about what kind of job I'm doing and that I'm doing it well.

Furthermore, because I get to work from home, I'll easily be able to keep an eye on my 2-year-old and be around when my 7-year-old gets home from school. I'm thrilled about this because I thought that working again would mean that I had to miss that special time where I got to hear about the day's events from Addie and that I might have to put my younger child, Jake, in a daycare where someone else would be enjoying him instead of me.

I'll be keeping this journal to help me chronicle my progress as I do this job and to let you know about the different things that I learn during the course of this job. I cannot believe how lucky I am to have a job and stay at home at the same time with my kids. This is going to be fun!