How to Create Your Virtual Assistant Portfolio When You Have Little Or No Experience

Posted on by Rose Odoemelam

You want to be a virtual assistant.

You have basic knowledge about what it takes. Heck, you’ve even taken my free course on how to make money from home working as a virtual assistant in Nigeria.

So you’ve done your research and you know this is what you need to make money while working on your own terms.

But, now, they said you need to have a virtual assistant portfolio.

Potential clients are asking for a portfolio.

Job boards are asking you to share work samples in your application

They don’t get it. How will you get relevant experience when you need to get work to gain experience.

You have no clue what to do to get started.

In this post I share how to create a virtual assistant portfolio from scratch. Even if you have no experience, no client and no website.

But first,

What is a Virtual Assistant Portfolio?

A Virtual Assistant portfolio demonstrates your skills in your VA niche. It contains samples of your best work as a virtual assistant in the niche you want to get paid for. Your portfolio should only have relevant, up-to-date content that showcases your best work.

Some potential clients won’t hire you unless they have seen samples of work you have done.

That said.

Here’s How to Build Your Virtual Assistant Portfolio from Scratch

1 .) Decide On The Services You Want To Provide.

Before you start anything, you need to carefully choose the virtual assistant services you want to get hired for. This is also known as niching down. If you put too many things on your portfolio, it might be difficult to attract the right clients. You have to choose what you are good at and can bring results. If you have no idea, you might want to look at the skills you already have and see if any of them fits with working virtually.

Some Services You Could Provide Are:

  • Executive/Administrative Virtual Assistance: this includes services like email management, data entry, calendar management, minute taking etc.
  • Technical Virtual Assistant: this type of VA completes tasks like website creation, website management, landing page design etc.
  • Course Launch Virtual Assistant: VAs in this category focus on helping course creators create and launch their online courses easily. They might also double as technical virtual assistants and are savvy with a lot of membership platforms and learning management systems.
  • Digital Marketing Virtual Assistant: This type of VA focuses on marketing. Think facebook Ads, Google ads etc.
  • Social Media Virtual Assistant: this covers VAs that manage social media platforms like Instagram, Twitter, Facebook, community Facebook, Telegram WhatsApp or Linkedin groups etc.
  • Podcast Virtual Assistant: this type of VA completes tasks like podcast setup, research, podcast editing, guest scouting, transcription etc. Essentially everything a brand needs to run a hassle free podcast
  • General Virtual Assistant: a general virtual assistant is responsible for a wide variety of tasks. It may include a little of everything other virtual assistants do.

2 .) Profile Your Ideal Clients

When you profile your ideal clients, you’ll know the best way to present your portfolio for it to attract them easily. Like flies to poop. Tailor your portfolio to your ideal client. Always keep your niche and your ideal client in mind.

3.) Create Work Samples

The easiest way to gain experience and work to flaunt on your portfolio is working for yourself. It doesn’t have to be work for an actual client. Just make up a name, do the work and add it to your portfolio. There’s even a fancy name for it and everything. It’s called a mock client. Your portfolio gives you ‘street credibility’ as a virtual assistant. All potential clients care about is that you have work experience.

For example, if you want to provide website creation services, build one for yourself first. You can then display your website as a work samples in your portfolio.

If you offer canva graphic design services, you could create some fancy canva graphics to display on your portfolio.

If you provide writing services, start a blog or guest post on someone’s blog. Writing a guest post means you’ll write for a blog for free so you can have something to put on your portfolio. Don’t forget to take screenshots, create mockups, and have stuff to show

You might also decide to work for free. All you have to do is pitch your services to your ideal client. If it is something they need help with, they’ll be happy to have you take care of things, especially since they won’t be paying you.

4.) Make Sure Potential Clients Can Reach You

This seems like a no brainer, but some virtual assistants miss it. You must add your contact details on your portfolio. Not just a link to your Instagram account. Add links to your relevant social media accounts, website, your email address, and phone number (if applicable)

5.) Choose How to Display Your Portfolio

If you’re a general VA or offer a variety of services, I recommend organizing your portfolio into categories.

· Text-only list portfolios

This option is usually taken by writers. They just add a bunch of links to their work. Zero effort. It feels like they are saying, here’s a bunch of links just because everyone says I need a portfolio, take a hike. I think making a little more effort to add other visual elements makes it look better

. Visual-only portfolios

Using only mockups, screenshots and other graphics without any text isn’t a good idea. If it’s a mockup or screenshot, a little 1 to 2 lines descriptive text just before the graphic always looks better than just slapping a couple of graphics on a page and calling it a day.

Text + Visual portfolios

A title, photo/graphic, some text and a button or link to view more is always the best option. It entices the reader to want to learn more. There’s a huge difference in appeal between a text-only or visual-only list of samples and one with both text + visual items.

6.) Choose The Platform To Display Your Portfolio

You have work to flaunt on your portfolio.

And you have a mental picture of what it should look like.

Great!

Now you can create your virtual assistant portfolio. Thankfully there are multiple platforms you can display your portfolio. So you are spoilt for choice. There are two main ways you can display your portfolio.

  1. On-site (on your virtual assistant website)
  2. Off-site (off your virtual assistant website)

What You Need To Know About Displaying Your Portfolio On Your Virtual Assistant Website

The most commonly used option is to display your portfolio on your VA website. It makes sense because you own your website and it houses content you have already created. It’s just like with my social media link in bio, I created a page with all my relevant links. Instead of using sites like linktree. This is because bringing people to my site often (instead of a third party) means they’ll likely click around. Perhaps to learn more about me and/or my services.

Not to mention the fact that you can employ SEO best practices to help you get found when people Google stuff.

You can display your portfolio on WordPress, Wix, Squarespace, Weebly etc. I use WordPress So I’ll only talk about it. You can create a page in your WordPress site and name it Portfolio or Virtual Assistant Portfolio. After that, design it with a page builder like Gutenberg, Elementor or Thrive Architect and add your mockups, links, and screenshots. Alternatively, you could also use a free WordPress portfolio plugin like TLP portfolio to make your work easier. 

What You Need To Know About Displaying Your Portfolio Off Your Virtual Assistant

If you don’t have your own virtual assistant website yet, all hope is not lost. You could create it elsewhere. There are multiple free off-site portfolio creation sites that can help you put together samples of your best work in an hour or less.

These type of portfolio creation sites are designed to make it easy to create your portfolio even if you have zero coding or design skills. The best part is that you can build your portfolio very quickly too. However, most of them have a freemium option. If you want to unlock all their features, you’d have to pay. Like I mentioned earlier, pointing someone to a site that isn’t yours has it downside (why I don’t use linktree etc. and preferred to create a links page on my own website).

5 Off-Site Platforms To Display Your Virtual Assistant Portfolio

· LinkedIn

This has been on my to-do list for the longest time. Writing this post, I have set out a deadline to get it done and finally tick it off my to-do list. Linkedin is perfect to find clients. So I recommend creating a portfolio on Linkedin even if you have a portfolio setup elsewhere. It solidifies your authority and potential clients can see that you’re the best thing since sliced bread without even leaving the app.

LinkedIn provides a section to add additional content–links, images, videos, PDFs etc. Use this to display your best work. One thing I’ve seen and you can also copy is to include link to your work in the experience section. However, using the portfolio part is better, in my opinion.

Before you create a portfolio on Linkedin, you need to optimize you Linkedin profile to attract clients easily.

  • Crevado is a free and easy-to-use portfolio builder. You can get your portfolio up and running in very little time.
  • Google docs
  • Canva: Create your portfolio with canva for free. Or grab my own portfolio template here.
  • Google Drive/ Dropbox: Create your portfolio as a PDF and save it to your drive. Get the view only link, shorten it with a link shortening tool like bit.ly.

Don’t have the money to start a website, or don’t have enough time or design skill?

Go the off-site route. Using an off-site option is better than waiting till you have all your ducks in a row before you flaunt your work to attract your ideal clients.

Have some money for a website (or a website), basic design skills and have some time on your hands?

I highly recommend that you display your virtual assistant portfolio on your own website.

If you need a website and don’t have design skills or time to DIY, I’d be happy to create one for you in 7 to 14 days.

According to this survey, only 17% of virtual assistants have websites. So it is a “nice to have”, not a must have.

7.) Have A Simple Link To Your Portfolio

Always have a handy link ready. I do not subscribe to having your portfolio in a PDF. Let it be online. Some clients request only a link and not a document. All the platforms mentioned above give you a quick link to share. Make your link simple.

8.) Fill Up Your Virtual Assistant Portfolio

So you have only one item on your portfolio?

That spells inexperienced starving VA in font size 1,000

You need more.

My advice is to have at least 3 items on your portfolio for a start. The good thing is you can create as many work samples as you need.

Make sure everything looks neat and tidy. Don’t make your portfolio an endless scroll. Like I mentioned earlier, spice things up with images and organize your portfolio into sections with headers. This is to make it easy for potential clients to navigate and find the information they need.

9.) Create Multiple Portfolios

As a multi-skilled VA, coming up with a single portfolio to house all my work samples can be hassle. I’ve been looking at a lot of Linkedin offers and have been inside a dozen facebook groups for VAs trying to find relevant info. First for work I can do and secondly, for offers to share with the new and aspiring VAs I coach.

One thing I have noticed with most of these offers is that they are very specific. For example, when a content writing job wants a portfolio. It is not great to send in my general portfolio, they might not look through 75% of the page before realizing I’m a badass content writer. Especially if the portfolio page starts with my website creation samples and they aren’t looking for a website creator. They get hundreds of portfolios to go through.

A solution I found for myself is to have separate portfolios for everything. So my content writing portfolio is separate and focuses on only my work as an SEO content writer. While my website creation and management portfolio is different etc.  I still have the general portfolio just in case. So depending on what I am applying for, I have a portfolio to match.

10.) Educate Yourself

Educating yourself is very essential. When I pitch for a content writing job, I tell them I have two SEO certificates from yoast. Those courses were free during the pandemic and I took advantage of them. There are no longer free. A digital marketing certificate course by Google is free. You should seize this opportunity while it lasts).

I also have multiple certificates from Linkedin but have never paid for Linkedin premium. I used the free trail to acquire as much knowledge (and certificates) as I could.

I’ve taken other paid courses but chose to highlight the ones I got for free so you can see that getting an education doesn’t have to cost an arm. Find free certificate courses in your niche and complete

You don’t need a university education or even any certificate to qualify or succeed as a virtual assistant. In fact, virtual assistants without a four-year degree earn $3 more per hour on average than those with one. This was one of the many fascinating insights from the virtual assistants survey I mentioned earlier.

Note however that some clients ask for a background in a particular field e.g. marketing. Sometimes, a certificate course can be used when you don’t have a degree. Always have this at the back of your mind – hundreds of other savvy VAs are also applying for almost every job you apply for. So you have to seize every opportunity to stand out.

11.) Update Your Portfolio Regularly

Your virtual assistant portfolio isn’t something you should create and forget about. Your portfolio is always a work in progress. It needs to be updated with your best work as often as possible. My best work of 2017 dwarfs in comparison to my best work of 2021. As you gain experience, your work will improve, and you’ll quickly replace sample work you needed to fill in blanks, with work from reputable brands.

12.) Flaunt Your Portfolio

No one is going to know how great you are unless you show off your work. Add a link to your portfolio on your social media bio link, website navigation menu, share it on your WhatsApp status and anywhere you can. Don’t keep your portfolio a secret

Looking to Get Real Experience and Build a Professional Portfolio Fast?

If you want to take your portfolio from basic to pro, I have two opportunities to share. You can grab my own portfolio template and customize it for yourself here or heard over to my virtual assistant training program at Go Virtual Academy (GVA)! The program gives access to:

  • Hands-on experience: Work on projects that you can proudly showcase in your portfolio.
  • Professional feedback: Have your projects vetted by me before adding them to your portfolio, ensuring they stand out.
  • Portfolio template: Download my portfolio template and create a polished, professional VA portfolio in no time!
  • Skill-building courses: Learn the in-demand skills you need to attract high-paying clients.
  • Ongoing support: Access a thriving community, client onboarding documents, and live feedback to help you launch and grow your VA business.

Don’t let lack of experience hold you back. With GVA, you’ll gain confidence, hands-on experience, and a portfolio that gets noticed. I hope you have seen that nothing can stop you from creating your virtual assistant portfolio today. You don’t need to have a website, experience or even clients to make one. Your virtual assistant portfolio can help potential clients decide you’re the right fit or not.

How Much Does It Cost To Start A Virtual Assistant Business In Nigeria?

Posted on by Rose Odoemelam

I blinked twice when I saw the minimum cost of starting a virtual assistant business on starter story.

According to starter story, it costs $7,466 minimum.

$7,466 is a lot of money for a Nigerian.

At the time of writing this, it is NGN 3,733,000

If I had over three million naira lying around in 2019, I wouldn’t have started my virtual assistant business.

I was already working as a Medical Laboratory scientist earning over 100k and still getting financial support from my parents.

My rent was paid by my parents and I got a steady supply of food stuff (sometimes cooked food).

I lived a stone throw from the hospital I worked, so I strolled to work on most days. So I spent most of my salary on roasted plantain (bole) and fish, data and fast food.

I was a baby girl and had no worries.

But When I started, I didn’t start from scratch.

I had two years blogging and digital marketing experience. And I knew how to save on tools and could do some things myself (like website creation and design). That saved cost.

So if you are considering starting a virtual assistant business in Nigeria you’re in luck.

This is one of the reasons I started focusing on helping new and aspiring virtual assistants in Nigeria become VAs.

Generic information doesn’t work in these streets. It is probably normal for a virtual assistant in the US or UK to spend that. But in Nigeria, it is not realistic. 90% of Nigerians do not spend that on their entire university education.

According to a report by the National Bureau of Statistics, 40% Nigerians earn about NGN137,430 ($274.86) per year.

Which is very true.

A lot of ad hoc staff at my PPA worked 8-4 for 5 days a week for NGN10,000 ($20) a month

That further brings it down to NGN120,000 ($240) a year.

And they dress up everyday to work early. Pay their way to and fro every day and still smile at people.

I’d be devastated, to say the least.

Thankfully, you don’t need $7,466 to start a virtual assistant business.

Or a full fleshed virtual assistant agency in Nigeria even if you buy laptops for a team of 5 and provide data.

The cost of starting a virtual assistant business in Nigeria is not even a quarter of that amount.

Or up to 10%

Depending on your skills and what you already have, you might need 1% of that amount or zero naira.

I started with zero naira.

Recommended: Step by step process to become a Virtual Assistant in Nigeria

Here’s How Much It Cost To Start A Virtual Assistant Business In Nigeria

Like I said earlier, your startup costs depend on your skills and what you already have. Most of the startup costs involve digital tools.

So, if you’re wondering exactly how much it cost to start your virtual assistant business in Nigeria pay attention.

First, let’s separate the most common expenses to two categories (compulsory and optional) so you know exactly what to expect.

Compulsory Expenses When You’re Starting Your Virtual Assistant Business

1. A Smart Phone

If you already have a smart phone, you can use it. If not, you need one immediately. You can get a good smart phone anywhere from NGN30,000. Even before you do anything, you need a smart phone. These days you can do everything from creating a free website to email marketing etc. All on your phone. If you provide a service like social media management or canva design, you can run your entire business from your smart phone.

2. Internet

You’ll be spending a lot of time online so you need good internet connection. As a virtual assistant in Nigeria, you already know how frustrating the network can be. It is important to choose the best service provider in your location. This is because when your internet service is down, it can make you lose business and slow down your turn around time for client work.

I spend about NGN15,000 to NGN20,000 on data every month. If I wasn’t a virtual assistant, I’d be spending a lot less. Depending on the VA services you provide, you might need a smaller or higher subscription.

3. Email

You need a separate work email. It doesn’t matter if it is Gmail or a custom email address. You can use Gmail for free

4. Invoicing System

How will you send invoices and receive payments? Paystack and Flutterwave are easy options. You can create invoices in 5 minutes or less and get paid easily. You can even set it to charge your clients automatically until they cancel. The more recent option I found is invoice.ng, you can create and send up to 5 invoices for free. It integrates with PayPal and other payment gateways which is great for receiving international payments.

5. Power bank

As a Nigerian, you already know you can’t bank on NEPA. You need to get a good power bank from a reputable brand like Chuvis. This is will serve better than getting a power bank that might end up draining your phone to charge itself. I got my new age power bank 18 months ago and it is good. A good power bank costs anywhere from NGN5,000.

Optional Expenses to Start Your Virtual Assistant Business In Nigeria

In addition to the compulsory startup costs, you need the items below in the long run. I separated your startup costs this way because there are things you can implement over time and don’t need to cough up a lot of money upfront.

The things listed below are equally VERY important but they are just not an absolute MUST to start a VA business in Nigeria.

1. Laptop

Depending on the service you provide, a laptop might be a compulsory expense. So if you don’t already have a laptop, you may need to get one. All your work will be done online and some of them can’t be done with a smart phone.

The potential cost of this can be NGN150,000 or more. My laptop cost NGN250,000 in 2017, and it was a birthday present I got even before I started my virtual assistant business.

Buying a laptop for your virtual assistant business is an investment. So I don’t recommend anything “fairly used” or “UK used”. You need a strong laptop that will serve you for several years. If you must get a fairly used laptop, it is best to buy it from a reputable brand that offers a warranty period. Just to be safe.

2.      Website

Every virtual assistant business needs a website. But I understand that a lot of aspiring VAs in Nigeria don’t have the money for a website. So I offer helpful alternatives in my free email course for virtual assistants in Nigeria.

Although I recommend starting without a website, a website is very important in the long run. So you’d want to put it at the top of your to-do list once you start making any money.

There are two ways to get your virtual assistant website up and running in no time.

Outsource it:

A functional virtual assistant website costs anywhere fromNGN50,000 depending on the exchange rates. I charge NGN75,000 for a basic VA website.

Do It Yourself:

If you have experience creating websites, you can setup your VA website. Here are some of the actual expenses associated with your website:

Domain: Usually this will run you anywhere between $6 and about $11. You can get it for next to nothing if you catch a special sale like on black Friday. I use and recommend namecheap

Hosting: This starts at about $30/year. I use and recommend namecheap

SSL: A lot of hosting providers give this for free in the first year. It renews at $30 or more.

Content Management System: WordPress.org is free and I use and recommend it. It is idiot proof.

Theme: A theme is what gives the aesthetic part of your website. Depending on your budget you can get a free virtual assistant theme. There are lots of premium virtual assistant theme ranging from $15 to $350.

Page Builder: Getting a theme is not enough. You need page builders like Elementor and thrive architect to customize your pages and build awesome landing pages. I use and recommend both elementor and thrive architect.

Elementor starts at $49/year (I use the free version of elementor)

I got thrive architect when it was still a stand alone product. Now you have to spend $19/month for thrive suite (which is thrive architect plus many other useful plugins).

Want to learn how to create and design WordPress websites? Join the FREE waitlist for my course launching this July 2023.

3. MiFi/Router

You can get a MiFi or router to connect to multiple devices. I work with my phone and laptop at the same time so I got an airtel 4G pocket MiFi for NGN12,000 in 2019 (it is now NGN9,999 and comes with 25Gb data). It helps me keep my data costs minimal because I only have to do one subscription. I can connect with up to 10 devices.

4. Generator

You need one if you live in an area with inconsistent power supply. Even if you have consistent power supply, it is wise to have a standby generator for when NEPA disappoints and you have a deadline. The cost of generators has hit an all-time high since the pandemic. A basic tiger generator (aka I pass my neighbor) starts at NGN45,000. I bought a sumec firman 2900 generator in Port Harcourt in March 2022 for NGN129,000 and a family member got it in Calabar in November for NGN200,000. So factors like location, inflation etc. definitely affects these prices. You should research for what is affordable.

5. Virtual Assistant Training Costs

I started my business without taking any training. So it is not a compulsory thing. Howbeit, I would have paid to learn if I found a coach for Nigerian VAs. Because I could not afford to pay NGN 400,000 and upwards (when you convert to naira) for training. I eventually took trainings when I could afford them.

That said, training can be in a variety of ways, memberships, masterminds, coaching, e-courses, ebooks etc.

You can get a lot of free and affordable information to help you start your virtual assistant business in Nigeria online. I have provided

However, if you have a little money to invest and want to shorten the learning curve, avoid trial and error, costly mistakes, and grow faster, then training is a MUST.

One simple and affordable way you can get training is by working with me. I offer one-on-one, group coaching and courses to help you go pro fast.

One thing that training does is that is gives you step by step info. Consuming information online can lead to information overload very fast. A lot of aspiring virtual assistants never implement and enter into analysis paralysis mode. I highly recommend training if you can afford it. It will help you grow faster.

Read Also: 15 Common Mistakes Virtual Assistants Make (and how to avoid them)

6. Business Name/ Company Registration

You absolutely need to have this on your to-do list if you want to go far. You don’t want to build a business online and find out your competitor has registered your business and prohibits you from using the name all your clients you know by.

I recommend registering a company instead of a business name. It’s more cost effective. Registering a business name costs anywhere from NGN20,000 while a company costs anywhere from NGN70,000

7. Templates For Contracts, Getting Client, Getting paid Etc.

Templates have been a business saver for many virtual assistants. There’s just about a template for everything. You can get contract templates for virtual assistants in Nigeria, instead of hiring a lawyer every time you have a new client.

Recommended: Shop for templates to make your business processes a easier

8. Email service provider

Building an email list is a very important part of any digital business. An email service provider like sendfox is a great option for virtual assistants in Nigeria. It currently cost only $49 for a lifetime plan of 5,000 contacts (which is a steal and you should take advantage of before the price increases!). Other email service providers take up to $25 every single month.

9. Cloud storage

You need a secure place to store your important documents and google drive and drop box offer free versions. Both options store your info “in the cloud” which keeps your info secure and safe.

10. Booking system:

You need to get on discovery calls to close potential clients. A booking system will eliminate the back and forth emails to sync schedules. I use and highly recommend tidycal. It is very easy to use and very affordable. It cost only $29 for the lifetime plan. Calendly costs $8 every single month. Both tidycal and calendly have free versions for when you’re bootstrapping.

11. Social media management tools 

You’re going to need some tools for things like scheduling, hashtag research, fancy texts, graphics etc. Scheduling tools like preview and planoly are free to start with paid upgrade that range from $29/month to up to $100. The free version of canva is great for graphics.

12. Project management tools:

Project management tools like trello and asana, have the free versions. You can start with that and upgrade as your business grows.

13. Time trackers: 

You already know you need a time tracker if you bill hourly. Although I do not bill hourly, I use and recommend toogl just to see how much time it takes me to complete tasks. There are other time trackers that also have free versions you can start with.

14. Office Space Expenses

This depends on if you are building a one person business or an agency. You can set an office space in the spare room in your home or rent out a space. Costs to consider are rent, utilities, equipment, furniture etc.

Rent depends on your location. For an average space in a developing area in Port Harcourt you’ll be considering at least NGN200,000 for a single room. Sometimes without a toilet. Things like NEPA bill depends on if you are using pre-paid or flat rate, and the cost of equipment and furniture depends on the quality and quantity you need.

Depending on your budget, a workspace like kowork located in Port Harcourt and Lagos might be what you need. They provide furniture, stand-by generator etc. Their prices start at NGN10,000 and go up to NGN150,000 per month (which is very affordable). If you decide to start a full blown agency, there’ll still be room for you and your staff and you won’t have to worry about setting up a space, cleaning and all the tax (and tout) platforms that disturb businesses all the time.

What Is Total Cost of Starting a Virtual Assistant Business In Nigeria

  • Minimum cost of starting a virtual assistant business in Nigeria= NGN 0.00
  • Maximum cost of starting a virtual assistant business in Nigeria= NGN 3,500,000
  • Average cost of starting a virtual assistant business in Nigeria= NGN 600,000

The total cost to start a virtual assistant business in Nigeria ranges from FREE to NGN3,500,000. It depends on a variety of factors like the digital assets you already have, the skills you have, the service(s) you want to provide and how big you want to start.

Bottom line is that you don’t need a lot of money to start your VA business in Nigeria. If you ask me how to prioritize to minimize the upfront cost of starting your virtual assistant business in Nigeria, I’d say:

Do all the compulsory things first. Then choose the recommendations in the optional category according to your budget.

I hope you found this post useful and actually take action to start your own virtual assistant business

Virtual Assistant Contract For VAs in Nigeria (why you need it and what to include)

Posted on by Rose Odoemelam
virtual assistant contract

An iron clad Virtual Assistant Contract is one of the must haves for every VA business. Regardless of if you’ve been in business for 100 years or you’re still in the start-up phase. This is so important that I made it a one day lesson in my free email course for virtual assistants in Nigeria.

When I started my business, I didn’t know I needed a contract and I regret not having one from day one.

And when I eventually got a contract, I felt like it was too rigid and would scare potential clients away. So I left it on my laptop until it gathered virtual dust.

I fell into the hands of wrong clients until I finally decided it was time to get a Virtual Assistant contract.

But I couldn’t afford one because all the great templates were too expensive for a new Virtual Assistant in Nigeria (exchange rate sucks).

So I settled for a free copy online and used it for some months.

And I was happy with it.

Until I showed it to a lawyer who was also helping out with my business CAC registration. The loop holes in my contract were too many.

That’s the thing with free stuff.

That’s why I decided to write this post.

So you’d know why you need a Virtual Assistant Contract as a VA in Nigeria, the things to include and how to get an affordable iron clad contract.

Why You Need a Virtual Assistant Contract As A VA in Nigeria

Your strategy to get clients to cooperate should NOT be to call them out on social media. In fact, it’s best to avoid them altogether with a contract instead of chasing them down for payments. The moment you start your VA business, you become a business owner.

As boring as a virtual assistant contract might sound to you, it is a very essential part of your business setup. It protects your interest at all times (even after you move on from the client). It also gives your clients peace of mind knowing that you are legally bond to not share their information among other things.

Asides protecting your interest, a virtual assistant contact will help manage expectations, set boundaries. And give your client the feeling that they are dealing with a professional.

10 Non-Negotiable Things to Include In Your Virtual Assistant Contract

#1: Names of both parties     

For obvious reasons you need the name of your client on your contract.

#2: Date the agreement commences     

The exact date your work relationship commences so that both parties know when they become legally bond.

#3: Outline of services to be provided:

This largely depends on the way you price your services. If you charge per hour, you need to set a time limit to how they’ll use their hours. Decide if un-used hours will roll over to the next month or expire. This sets expectations and a client doesn’t pay for 10 hours and goes without using it until after 6 months.

On the other hand, if you work with packages, things are a little different. You have to clearly state the service(s) you will provide at X amount of money to avoid the dreaded scope creep. Scope creep is what happens when a client ask you to do other things that were not originally agreed on. Without wanting to pay more. These things may be small but will add up in the end. Your virtual assistant contract should explicitly state that you’ll be charging for them separately.

#4: Payment terms And Processes

Are you going to invoice weekly, at the beginning of a project, at the end of a project, monthly, at the beginning and end of a project or it’s recurring so they’ll be charged automatically?

You need to state how you will receive payments, how you will invoice and when payments are due.

Will you accept direct bank transfer or use payment gateways like PayStack and Flutterwave?

Another important thing you must add is what will happen if a client pays late or refuses to pay. If you use the payment gateways above, you can send automated payment reminders to them.

If you want them to pay a late fee, then you’ll find the getting paid kit for VAs helpful. It contains templates to communicate this professionally.

#5: Termination/Cancellation policy:

Things don’t always go as planned so your termination policy helps you break up with a client that isn’t a good fit. You need to state who can terminate the contract, for what reason(s) and even what is expected of each party after the termination. You’ll find the breaking up with client kit useful

#6: Confidentiality Agreement

Your client needs to know their sensitive information is safe. They’ll give you access to their trade secrets, including their passwords and other private information. You need to outline how you will treat this information.

#7: Rush Job Policy

What happens if a client wants you to do something over the weekend or just needs something in a hurry. You’ll need to put away other client work or even your rest time to deliver. So you should charge more for it. Decide what timeframe fits into a rush job and how much you will charge. I use 48 business hours or less.

#8: Independent contractor agreement

Outline the kind of relationship you have. You are not your client’s employee so you must state that you are an independent contractor, along with some of the things that differentiates you from an in house employee

#9: Non solicitation agreement

Your Virtual Assistant Contract must clearly state that you are not there to steal your client’s clients when they give you access to sensitive information like their client’s contact.

#10: Contingency plan

You need to outline what happens when you are sick, or otherwise unable to complete your work as a result of circumstances beyond your control. This is essential so that you are not held liable for breach of contract if you miss a deadline.

You might also need time away like when I was on maternity leave. Clearly state when and how your client will be notified.

These are only a few of the terms that must be clearly outlined in your virtual assistant contract. A lot of free virtual assistant contracts do not have some of the things mentioned that’s why you need to move past freebies and get an iron clad contract that protects you and doesn’t leave a hole in your purse.

Where To Get Affordable Virtual Assistant Contract Specially Made For VAs In Nigeria?

To get a good virtual assistant contract template online costs from NGN 48,500 ($97). Some even go as high as NGN 225,000 ($450).

Getting one offline isn’t any better because Lawyers in Nigeria are required to put their seal on every document they create for you. You can’t afford to hire a lawyer to write a new contract every time you have a new client.

That’s where rinse and use templates come in. Together with a lawyer, I have prepared an iron clad virtual assistant contract for VAs in Nigeria. It is the contract I wish I had when I first started. You can use it to work with clients locally and internationally.

It’s tailored to Nigerian laws so it’s the perfect document. You just have to plug in your client’s detail every time you have a new client and send it to them to sign online. The best part? You’ll get all future updates for free.

Easy peasy!

Whenever, you’re ready, grab your virtual assistant contract for VAs in Nigeria.

How To Sign Your Virtual Assistant Contract Online     

There are a couple of free tools you can use to sign your contract online. The tool I love using is smallPDF. All I do is upload the PDF version of my contract, sign it and email it to my client to sign too. Once the client signs it, I am automatically notified and we can both download our copies.

What If Your Client Doesn’t Want To Sign A Contract?

Red flag!       

As long as your terms are reasonable, a good client will have no problem with signing it. In fact, clients will commend you for being very professional when you have a contract because it shows that you take your business (and their business) seriously.

Some clients may have a few good questions before they sign your virtual assistant contract which shows they actually read the thing. You should answer their questions as clearly as possible because they need the information to decide if signing will be to their detriment. Wise people understand a contract before they sign.

However, if a client doesn’t want to sign any contract. And wants you trust them or do their work in a hurry because they don’t have time to sign a contract, run very, very, far from them.

Recommended reading: Become a virtual assistant in Nigeria (use these exact steps)

Wrapping Up

I hope you now know why a virtual assistant contract is important, what you should include in your contract and how to get one at an affordable rate as a virtual assistant in Nigeria. Do you use a contract for your services?

Photo credit: freepik.com

How To Price Your Services As A Virtual Assistant In Nigeria

Posted on by Rose Odoemelam

“How do I price my virtual assistant services?”

“What is the hourly rate for a virtual assistant in Nigeria?”

“Am I not getting clients because I am over charging?”

“How do I price my services as a new virtual assistant without cheating myself?”

“How much do virtual assistants in Nigeria earn?”

“Should I charge in naira or in dollars?”

“Hourly, packages, monthly salary, retainer, project based, value based pricing. What’s the best for me?”

If you’ve ever asked any of those questions, you’ll want to pay close attention to this blog post. I’ll answer all your questions about pricing your services as a virtual assistant in Nigeria.

Pricing is a very important part of setting up your virtual assistant business. It’s one of the things I talk about the most in my one hour strategy calls and private coaching for new and aspiring virtual assistants in Nigeria.

Before I get into the meat of this post, I must say that one of the worst things you can do for yourself, is copy what other people are charging.

Even if they are your mentors.

I say this because what you want your business (and life) to look like, could be completely different from someone else’s.

I might want to work 1 hour a day, 4 days a month and charge more (in fact this is my dream).

Someone else might want to work 8 hours for 6 days a week, charge less and totally love it.

You might like 6 hours a day for 5 days a week.

And we can all earn the same at the end of the month. Or I might work less and earn more.

If you’re like me, you want to make money but don’t want to be tied to your work all the time. That means that your pricing has to reflect your own personal needs and desires. You have to take a holistic look at your life, your skills, experience, and expertise.

And most importantly, your target client.

If you still don’t know who your target clients are you should not be reading this post. You can’t build a house without a foundation.

Even if you take all the right steps to price your services, you’ll still hit a brick wall when it comes to getting clients who’ll pay your rates. So you can’t be setting up your prices when you have no idea about the kind of client that will pay you that price.

That said,

There are many ways to determine your price as a virtual assistant.

In fact, if you ask 5 coaches you’ll get 10 different answers from them. And they’ll be likely great answers. But you don’t want “great” answers. You want to know the best way to price your services as a virtual assistant in Nigeria.

2 Easy Steps To Take Before Pricing Your Virtual Assistant Services

1.) Start With What You Know      

Don’t go offering copywriting services just because you heard you can make $10,000 monthly even as a new copywriter. Start with what you know and grow from there.

I remember when I just started using Canva. Someone needed a graphic designer and since I was posing as an “expert”, I got the job. I still cringe when I see the flier I designed for the brand. Needless to say, it wasn’t accepted.

Thank God it wasn’t. The godfathers of graphic design were turning in their graves (for sure!). While I wasn’t good at graphic design, I was great at writing SEO blog posts. I had experience writing on two blogs before I wrote my first paid blog post for a client. So things picked up really fast when I focused on what I knew. Now my canva skills are much, much, better and I design fliers, ebook, social media graphics etc for clients but it was a skill I needed to hone.

When you’re just starting out, start with what you know. You’ll price more confidently and know for sure that your work is not what is scaring clients away.

Yes. Your work might be scaring clients away even if you get your price right.

They may be able to afford your rates (and maybe more), but they won’t work with you because you’re not good at what you do.

2.) Understand That Low Doesn’t Always Equal More

If your strategy is to look at what your competitors or mentors are charging and charge the same or a little lower, you are shooting yourself in  the foot.

Some VAs lower their rates in an effort to take all the clients from competitors.

Wrong move.

If you charge too low, you’ll scare some deep pocket clients away. Some clients would not want to work with you because they think cheap equals low standard. And that’s only the bad part.

The worst part is that you will attract the annoying category of clients.

The ones that will nickel and dime you till you go crazy. You probably know them. They’re the ones who’ll second guess you all the time, call you at 2am and stress you out.

Is that what you want?

No? I thought so

Now that we’ve agreed you don’t want to offer services you’re not good at. Or copy prices from your competitors/mentors, let’s get into 3 practical ways to price your services as a virtual assistant in Nigeria.

3 Practical Ways To Price Your Services As A Virtual Assistant In Nigeria.

1.) Start With The End In Mind And Work Backwards 

How much do you want to end in a month?

This isn’t a chance for you to write $1,000,000.

I want to earn $1,000,000 monthly too but we’ll get there some day.

Be realistic.

Look, when you start with the end in mind, you know your livelihood depends on it and it will keep you grounded. So let’s say you need NGN 100,000 every month

Then break that number down like this:

Monthly cost of living = NGN100,000

What I have to earn each day to cover my living cost (we’ll take an average of 22 business days per month) 100k / 22 = NGN 4,545 per day

If you are working for 6 hours

4,545 per day / 6 hours a day = NGN 757.5/hour.

Approximately NGN 760/hour.

You can do the break down according to your figures.

This immediately gives you an idea of how much you must earn each day (and hour) to meet up with your living costs.

However, the above method doesn’t consider your sick days.

What if you go on an impromptu trip or fall sick or have a family emergency?

In addition, it stresses you to do it every month because it changes as your needs for the month changes.

So if you want to remove the stress of figuring out what to charge every single month because of an unstable hourly rate (which your clients will HATE)

2.) Decide On A Pricing Method

“Hourly, packages, monthly salary, retainer, project based, value based pricing. What’s the best for me?”

A lot of experienced VAs would say you should price your virtual assistant services using the hourly rate when you’re just starting.

It is good advice but as a virtual assistant in Nigeria, my advice to you would this.

It depends on the location of your clients.

If your clients are Nigerian based, sorry o.

99.99% of Nigerian clients do not pay per hour.

If you like, take 7 red candles to your village river naked to pray

 E no go work

So what works instead?

Project based, value based or salary.

I’ve used all three methods so I’ll explain. But first let’s talk about hourly rate and why you should not work hourly after your first few projects as a virtual assistant.

Hourly rate:

Your hourly rate largely depends on the type of service you provide as a virtual assistant.  The hourly rate of a VA providing web design services is much higher than that of a VA offering data entry services.

Why I don’t recommend charging by the hour is because you get penalized for being an expert. When you’re just starting out, designing a graphic might take you 5 hours, but over time you might start doing it in 1 hour or even 30 minutes.

The client will pay you less than a rookie VA who is 5 times slower than you are.

But what if my clients are not based in Nigeria?

Then you’re in luck. Because you can not only afford to charge in dollars but also charge hourly (when you’re just starting out).

The odds are in your favor because of the exchange rate. Even if you charge as low as $5/hr and work for 6hrs a day you’ll be making as high as NGN 330,000 a month (if you work for 22days).

Project based:

This is when a client pays you for an entire project that may take a few hours, days or weeks. You’d look at the time it’d take, software you’ll use and other tools and the skills it requires before giving lump sum. This is usually charged at least 50% before the project starts and the balance after the project is completed.

Value based:

This is when you price your services based on the perceived value. For instance you ghost wrote an ebook for a client. This positions the client as an authority in that subject so the client is not only getting monetary benefits by selling the book, but also the recognition as an author that knows her onions. When you factor in what the client stands to gain, your pricing will be different.

Another example is when you write a sales letter for a client and the client sells a product worth NGN10,000.000 while you charged only NGN20,000. Value based pricing looks at the value your service will bring the client and charge based on that. Regardless of if it took you only one hour to complete and nothing else.

Salary:

Some virtual assistants are paid monthly. So the client enrolls you into their pay roll and you get paid X amount of money at the end of every month. I’ve been paid this way and don’t recommend this. Instead take at least 50% of your money at the beginning of the month (if it’s a recurring fee).

3.) Package Your Services

Before you even think about packaging, you have to have worked for a while. You need to know exactly what you do for clients (and what you DON’T do).

You need to know for sure how long it will take you to complete a task and the cost implications (if you’ll be paying for software to work with).

Because things could go south really fast. When you give a quote for a project, you have to be absolutely sure because if it ends up taking more time than anticipated or cost more, the client won’t pay you more.

So experience is what will help you set the right prices and know what goes into a package and what doesn’t. That why an hourly rate is recommended for when you’re jut starting.

Wrapping Up

You might have already learned the basics about pricing but you still want to know specific details like:

  • How to design a package that clients love (what goes in and what doesn’t) + sample packages to get your creative juices flowing even if you’re new
  • The only time you should negotiate on price and how to turn things to your advantage
  • Mistakes a lot of VAs make when pricing
  • Hidden expenses that keep a lot of VA businesses stagnant (most VAs don’t even know they are losing money)
  • Scripts to increase your prices if you realize you’ve been undercharging (if you’re just starting, you’ll still need this for later)
  • How to deal with scope creep and use it to increase your income
  • How to determine the exact amount to charge for your specific VA service(s)….even if your service is finding photos of poisonous spiders
  • The MPFN pricing framework that makes everything pricing make sense and will leave you saying omo × 1000 (you can’t even Google it because I created it)
  • The only time to factor in what other VAs are charging and what to do with the info

If that is you, then you absolutely need my pricing 101 for VAs mini course. You can join the waitlist to get first hand details and early bird price when it launches this October.

How to Onboard Clients as a Virtual Assistant In 6 Easy Steps

Posted on by Rose Odoemelam

Knowing how to properly onboard clients as a virtual assistant is a very important aspect of structuring your business. Sadly, many virtual assistants in Nigeria make this mistake and there’s no organized flow of things.

What is a “client onboarding process”?

Well, I’m glad you asked.

It is simply everything you do immediately after a prospective client inquires about working with you.

You don’t have to wait till this happens before get organized.

Steps You Need To Take To Onboard Clients As A Virtual Assistant

By taking the steps I’ll discuss in this post, you’ll start displaying your professionalism from the start. This is makes a good impression of you to your client. And ensures you take necessary steps to protect your business while working for others.

Step 1: Set Up A Discovery Call

A discovery call is important to get clear on what your potential client needs. It provides an avenue for you to get to know your client’s core frustrations. And how to match your services to give them the solutions they desire.

However, it is important to have an idea about what the client needs before scheduling a call. For my business, I have a quick and easy to fill form that collects basic information about the client; what they need help with; and their budget. This helps me prepare for the call beforehand.

When I receive their completed form, I immediately review and send them an email. The email contains a link to my booking system on tidycal (you can use other alternatives like calendly).

Using an automated booking system is important because it allows you to set your availability ahead of time.

This ensures your potential client views, and confirms a time that works for them without the need for the back and forth emails about picking a time that works for the two of you.

As soon as you get the booking out of the way, be sure to schedule a reminder for your prospect. The location of your meeting may be Zoom, WhatsApp, Skype etc. Whatever you choose, your booking system will display this on your booking page and your client will get the info in an automated email immediately their book the call.

Step 2: Prepare And Show Up For The Call

Once your client picks a time, you’ll get an email from your preferred appointment booking system (in my case, tidycal). When you get this confirmation email, it is important that you set aside time to do your homework.

Remember the form they filled in step one above? Use the details they provided to do background work like, check out their website, social media etc.  And be sure to jot down important notes because these will be your talking points during the call.

Carrying out this simple task will take 20-30 minutes of your time but it is worth it. Why? Because when you are finally on the call with your potential client, you’d know exactly what to say; what questions to ask and how to advise them.

Before you end the call let them know you’ll be sending them a proposal based on your call. This is when some clients would want to put you on a spot and ask for a quote. It is best to take your time and craft your proposal. This is because that’s when you’ll truly know the workload and price correctly. You can however give a price range.

Never leave them guessing what the next step is. 

My client discovery call workbook does a good job of walking you through what to do before, during and after your discovery calls including templates I use in my business. The discovery call workbook is part of my client onboarding kit which is a must have for every serious virtual assistant.

Step 3: Send In Your Proposal

Take out time to craft your proposal. For this I have a proposal template I use. It will get pretty tiring to craft a new proposal from scratch every time you have a new client. So, have one template so that you can easily edit based on the client’s needs.

What will your proposal contain?

I’m glad you asked.

Two must haves for every proposal include; the tasks included in your service (based on what you discussed in the discovery call), and pricing.

Need a copy of the proposal template I use to win clients? It’s one of the resources available in the client onboarding kit.

Step 4: Follow Up (Just In Case)

After sending your proposal, be sure to follow up if you don’t receive a reply after 2-3 business days. I made this mistake early in my career. I sent in a proposal to a client and didn’t follow up because I felt like I’d come off as desperate.

That couldn’t be more wrong!

Following up actually tells your client you are ready to work and are proactive about working with them. You are aiming to impress. Right?

Not to mention, your proposal email might have gone directly to spam or gotten lost in your potential clients’ inbox. So it is your duty to stay top of mind. Most times the client may not contact you again and feel like you’re not interested in working with them.

Step 5: Send In Your Contract, Invoice And Welcome Packet

  • Contract: Your virtual assistant contract is an essential part of your onboarding process. This is what protects you and your business. A good virtual assistant contract must contain a confidentiality agreement (also known as a non-disclosure agreement); an independent contractor agreement, payment terms, etc. This must be duely signed by the client before any other steps are taken. I use small PDF  or Signwell to sign my contracts.
  • Invoice: Use free platforms like Paystack or zoho invoice to send your client an invoice. Of course this will be based on the amount agreed on in your proposal.
  • Welcome Packet: In my business, I send a welcome email that contains the welcome packet in PDF format. A welcome packet typically contains basic information about your work processes. How you will be contacted, business days, how you will receive payments and what you require to start work. Requirements usually include things like Client Logos, fonts, login details, photos etc. Requirement may also be collected with the help of a form.

PRO TIP: Never send an invoice to a prospective client before your contract/agreement is signed. 

Related: How to Create a Welcome Packet for your business.

Be sure to follow up with your client to ensure your client sends in the details you need to start work. 

Over time I’ve found that some clients delay this step because they either have no idea what basic things their brand colors, fonts are or they are too busy to gather all the information you need. Be patient, reasonable and help them make your work easier.

Side note: Get a copy of my client onboarding checklist, onboarding toolkit etc. inside the client onboarding kit. 

Step 6: Schedule A Kick Off Call

You’re almost done now. This call is necessary to confirm all the final details, timelines etc that weren’t clear. You can ask each other questions to get on the same page and even make a plan of action.

Your Turn

Taking these 6 simple steps to onboard clients as a virtual assistant is all you need to look professional, be organized, confident and get only the right kind of clients.

I hope this information will help you structure your virtual assistant business better.

Do you already take these steps to onboard clients? Reply in the comments and let me know.

How to Become a Virtual Assistant in Nigeria (Use these exact steps)

Posted on by Rose Odoemelam

I accidentally became a Virtual Assistant in 2019. Now, I want to teach you how to become a virtual assistant in Nigeria with no experience, using free tools. I had started blogging two years before that and knew that a lot of people made money from home. It appealed to me and I set up my content shop to sell products online from articles, email series, e-book templates etc.

I knew I wanted to make money online like other bloggers. So, I stalked other Nigerian bloggers to learn how they were making money and everything was about beauty, skincare, fashion, books or natural hair. I wasn’t really interested in writing about all that and could not bring myself to consistently post on Instagram so I could gain popularity.

I knew it had to be a product or service for me.

Then I thought maybe Nigeria is the cause of my problem. If I were abroad things would have been different. I would have been able to make money from home and even make money while I sleep. Trust me, it’s easy to get sucked up in the hole of self-pity.

I decided to keep learning until I figured things out. That was the best decision I made for myself and it lead me to becoming a virtual assistant in Nigeria.

So when the opportunity rose, I offered my service for free. Someone needed an ebook and I volunteered to do it for free. After I submitted the job, she went on to a platform of over 200 bloggers and sang my praises. Honestly, it made me feel good. I neither recognized the impact I had made nor the fact that I had just gotten my very first testimonial.

I got a few inquires and jobs from other content creators on the platform before it was short down.

About two months later, I got a direct message from a stranger. It was a pleasant surprise.

When she talked about needing a virtual assistant, I told her I didn’t know what that meant and had no experience. She explained a little and I immediately knew it was a fancy name for what I was already doing. And in the next couple of hours, I signed up my first retainer client. We’ve been working together for over two years now.

Truth is, I didn’t know what to expect or how to do a lot of things. I wasn’t even tech savvy but I was determined to learn quickly.

I started googling about virtual assistance and how to make something out of it. I checked out a lot of online courses but they cost anywhere from $300. They weren’t even courses by Nigerians for Nigerians.

I started putting myself out there and telling people what I did and word spread. I started making enough money to sustain me for the month working from the comfort of my bed.

For me, virtual assistance sort of clicked.

In the last year I have learned a lot, built this website by myself, packaged my services etc. It sounds so easy to say now but it did take a lot of hard work, grit, costly mistakes and learning to get to where I am now.

But I know that if someone was willing to teach me how to start the right way and sell my services better and most importantly price the right way, I would have signed up without a second thought!

About six months after starting my virtual assistance business, I started getting a lot of questions about how to make money online. Like me, most of them didn’t know what a virtual assistant was or what they can do to make money online and I spend a lot of time explaining things to everyone individually. That can be tiring.

So I decided to create a segment on this blog dedicated to teaching people how to make money online. I do this with the free blog posts I publish on this website and my free email course.

If you are still reading this, then you might really be interested in becoming a virtual assistant and making money online.

I’m here to help as much as I can.                       

Who Is A Virtual Assistant?

A virtual assistant is someone who works virtually (online) to help people achieve their personal and business goals. Virtual assistants can work from anywhere and don’t all fit into one box.

Related: Benefits of becoming a virtual assistant in Nigeria

What Services Can You Offer As A Virtual Assistant In Nigeria?

The services provided by virtual assistants vary greatly. In fact, there are more than 100 services you can offer as a virtual assistant. So there’s a lot for you to choose from and you can easily find something that you are passionate about and good at.

Services You Can Provide As A Virtual Assistant In Nigeria 

  • Copy writing
  • Book keeping
  • Editing
  • General research
  • Web design
  • Email management
  • Blog management
  • Calendar management
  • Community management
  • Graphic design
  • Ghost writing
  • Social media management
  • Customer Service

So from this you know that a virtual assistant can provide any service, as long as they’re willing to learn it.

From my experience, I’ll say this- you really don’t have to know the exact services you want to provide at least before you start. With time you’d surely discover what you like and build on that.

If you’re like me, you’d want to try out a couple of services and pick your strong points. You can always switch when something is just not working for you.

virtual assistant business in nigeria

8 Easy Steps To Become A Virtual Assistant In Nigeria (Without Experience)

The good thing about becoming a virtual assistant is that you don’t need to have a degree or be a guru. A lot of people think you need to be tech savvy in order to become a virtual assistant. That’s so wrong. If it were that difficult, I would never have become one.

All you need to be is self-motivated and organized. I said self-motivated because it is super simple to get carried away with a lot of things these days. From working as a social media manager, you might find yourself scrolling through the profile of your secondary crush and stalking all the girls that have liked his recent photos.

It’s easy for you to lie on your bed all day doing nothing. You have to be disciplined enough to set a schedule to work and rest. Becoming a virtual assistant doesn’t mean you get to be lazy. You’d have to pick your lazy days.

1.) Decide To Start

Really. It’s that simple. All you need to do is decide to start making money online. It’s easy to get caught up with worrying about how you’ll make it work because the only thing you know how to do is update your WhatsApp status. You can take all the time you need to plan and give yourself numerous reasons why you’d fail. Or you can simply decide to start and see where it goes.

Take it from someone with zero tech background. I don’t even know how to type with all my fingers on the keyboard. Even Marvis Beckon was unable to teach me typing.

But I type a lot of blog posts and documents for my clients anyways.

So if I am doing it, then anyone can. Literally.

Except my great grandmother, because she’s dead.

So what’s your excuse?

Are you dead too?

Okay, I’m not saying becoming a virtual assistant is as easy as pie. It will actually require effort especially at the beginning.

You’ll have to invest your time and money into learning new skills and improving the ones you already have. It’s like that with every kind of business.

If you aren’t willing to do the work but want to make money in your sleep, then you will fail even before you start.

What’s your decision? Have you decided to start or you’d rather rest because you can’t kill yourself?

2.)     Choose The Services You Want To Offer

Remember I mentioned that you can offer a variety of services as a virtual assistant? Trick is, it is better to offer a variety of services especially when you are just starting out. What you are trying to do is test the waters and see what you like and what you should build on.

Whatever you choose, there’s always a market for it. All you have to do it put yourself out there and tell people what you do.

Note: In my free email course I go into detail and tell you the exact virtual assistant services that are currently selling in Nigeria so you can narrow down more easily.

3.)    Get The Tools You Need To Work As A Virtual Assistant

I know everyone talks about how you can start your virtual assistant business for free. However, you’ll need some basic things like a phone/laptop, internet and a working email.

Note: In my free email course I share a list of some of the FREE tools (20+) I use in my VA business. These apps make my job easier and help me look like a pro at everything I do.

4.)    Legally Protect Your Business Or Get Screwed

When I just started working as a virtual assistant, I didn’t know that it was important to protect my business legally and I lost a lot of money. Now I have an iron clad virtual assistant contract clients sign before working with me.

This isn’t a long document and I recommend hiring a lawyer to write one for you instead of writing one yourself. The free versions available online are either too lengthy (clients are looking to hire you to save time, you won’t be helping with your textbook sized contract) or just not comprehensive enough.

You can get some good virtual assistant contracts online anywhere from $200 and above. Or take advantage of my contract template. I got a lawyer with more than 10 years experience to co-write it for virtual assistants in Nigeria. I understand that you are trying to make money online and don’t have $200 (or more) lying around. Your contract should contain the key points below and a dozen more:

Recommended Reading: Virtual Assistant Contract For VAs in Nigeria (what to include and why you need it)

·         Work Overview

I did this wrong from the beginning. This made me do a lot of work for free. Don’t make the mistake of not explicitly explaining what you’ll be doing. Don’t leave room for assumptions please. You’ll regret it like I did. Take time to give a description of the work you are going to do for your client so they know what they are paying for and not pass on extra work to you.

·         Payment Terms

Don’t play with this please. You need to clearly state how much you will be paid for each service you provide, how you will get paid (payment structure and details), When they’ll get your invoice and when payment is due.

Note: I share the free tool I use to create invoices for my clients and how I set up my payment structure in my e-course

·         Non-Disclosure Agreement

There’s no doubt that working as a virtual assistant might require your client to give you access to sensitive information like their passwords, marketing strategy, and clients personal information. As a virtual assistant, you’ll need to clearly inform your client about how you store their information and basically create a non-disclosure agreement so they can have their peace of mind.

·         Termination notice

Like every relationship, working with some clients might not be possible. You might need to part ways with some clients and it isn’t pretty if you don’t plan in advance. You’d need to have what is called a termination notice in your document. This notice includes information on payment at the time of termination, who can file for a termination, and how it will be delivered. Trust me, you don’t want to complete your work and your client decides to terminate your appointment because they don’t want to pay (True story, it happened to me).

·         Independent Contractor Agreement

Emphasis on independent. You need to be treated as a business owner because you work with clients and not for them. You’re not their employee but an independent business partner meeting their needs, so you need to be treated as such.

·         Non-Solicitation Clause

This is an important document you need to take seriously. Some clients will not want you to market your services to their clients. Even if you aren’t in the same niche.

So they might present you with a non-solicitation clause and ask you to sign. It is important to read it carefully and have a lawyer vet it before you do. Why? Because it may sometimes be too broad. So if you include one in your own welcome packet, you’d put them at peace and they might not need to present you with their own more rigid documents.

5.)    Price Your Services

I assume you have chosen the services you want to provide. Now you want to choose how much you’ll charge for each service. Well done!

If you read materials online about how much to charge for your services you’d see anywhere between $15 to $100/hr. That would be easy if your business wasn’t based in Nigeria or if you aren’t looking to work with Nigerians. But I assume you are (that’s why you’re reading this). My blog is focused on becoming a virtual assistant in Nigeria.

So I’ll say this; people really don’t like paying per hour in Nigeria. They pay per project, week or month (retainer).

PS: You’d want to sign on more retainer clients even if you’d be required to charge less (I explain why in my course).

That said, there’s no single price that covers all the services you can provide once you become a virtual assistant in Nigeria. But you’ll find my post on how to price your services as a virtual assistant in Nigeria useful. So you don’t cheat yourself like I did when I first started.

6.) Create Your Virtual Assistant Portfolio

A VA portfolio contains samples of your best work as a virtual assistant. If you have no experience, or have no work samples to show, all hope isn’t lost.

The easiest way to gain experience and work to flaunt on your portfolio is working for yourself. It doesn’t have to be work for an actual client. Just make up a name, do the work and add it to your portfolio. All potential clients care about is that you have work experience.

For example, if you offer Canva graphic design services, you could create some fancy Canva graphics to display on your portfolio.

You might also decide to work for free. All you have to do is pitch your services to your ideal client. If it is something they need help with, they’ll be happy to have you take care of things, especially since they won’t be paying you.

Recommended Reading: How to build your virtual assistant portfolio even if you have no experience

7.)    Market Your Business And Get Your First Client           

Market your business on social media- Facebook and WhatsApp groups are good places to start. Try cold emailing and asking people in your network. It might look like nobody is listening but keep getting the word out. Something will eventually click.

I can’t emphasize how much having a website for your VA business helps you position yourself as an expert. Although I had a blog when I started, it as a health/wellness blog. I hated it and eventually shut it down and started this blog. (Long story for another day).

However, I still made it work and looked professional even without a website. Hiring someone to start a website for you in Nigeria cost an average of 50k (I charge a minimum of 50K). I know that might be on the high side for you especially if you aren’t working yet, so I have lots of alternatives. (Of course I’ll share them only in my email course).

Be sure to send clients a welcome packet before you start working together because it is part of your onboarding process. (I provide a FREE welcome packet template for my email course students).

Ready To Become A Virtual Assistant In Nigeria?

From the steps I’ve laid out it’s really simple to become a virtual assistant in Nigeria or anywhere! A lot of people have taken the first step even when they weren’t sure it would work out. Remember, I got my first VA job even before I knew who a virtual assistant was and have grown since. I currently make a 6 figure monthly income from my side hustle and it is growing. I work only one week in an entire month because I have a full time job.

Choosing to start my VA business and improving my skills is one of the best decisions I’ve made in my life. And all you really need to replicate my success, is data and the resolve to start right now.

8.)    Take Action Now

What’s that thing they say? Erm… you can lead a horse to water, but you can’t make it sing. Or something.

If you’re interested in becoming a virtual assistant in Nigeria, but still need guidance and knowledge, I highly encourage you to sign up for my email course

I’ll walk you through the process of becoming a virtual assistant in Nigeria, step-by-step, so you don’t have to worry about missing or forgetting anything.

If you’re wondering about how much it costs to start a VA business in Nigeria, don’t be. I shared all the details here

If you prefer the option of working with me one-on-one to get your VA business up and running successfully in no time, feel free to contact me

Have you thought about becoming a virtual assistant? Need to bounce a few ideas off me? I’m ready.

virtual assistant business in nigeria

How to Create a Welcome Packet

Posted on by Rose Odoemelam

When I started my business, I didn’t know what a welcome packet was. I had no idea how to create a welcome packet and when I learned about it and the stress it could save me from, I regretted not having one earlier on.

I accidentally became a virtual assistant so I was just winging it for a long time. One time I designed an e-book with a 3D cover that had over 10 revisions for a client who decided she didn’t really want to become an author and so never paid.

Bad experiences left a sour taste in my mouth and I honestly almost threw in the towel. Then I got some advice. My blogger friend advised me to have clear terms and conditions, always take a deposit before commencing any job and receive full payment before delivering the finished product.

And I did….

I wrote some terms down and had it saved on WhatsApp. I was excited at first and shared these terms whenever I remembered, which wasn’t very often. After a while, I knew it just wasn’t working.

I am constantly trying to improve myself so I constantly research on how I can be a better virtual assistant. Then I found out about creating a welcome packet. I read up and realized that it was just what I needed. I have been using welcome packets since and it has saved me a lot of headache. My clients are happy and I am happier.

So if you are a virtual assistant or create content at any level that requires you to work with people online, I recommend you create a welcome packet to protect yourself and your business.

What is a Welcome Packet?

A welcome packet is basically a road-map that leads your client through your services, your policies, and your work processes.

Your Welcome Packet will transform your clients into amazing ones who know exactly what to expect and what they need to do in order to get the results they want.

You can use your welcome packet to communicate important and necessary details. Too much information can make the welcome packet tedious to read. Strive for a maximum of ten pages. Your client is hiring you in order to save time and you don’t want them spending all their free time reading your textbook sized welcome packet

How To Get Information For Your Welcome Packet

Getting the information you need to create a winning welcome packet is very easy and I do it in any of the ways listed below.

  • Google forms: Use a Google form to ask a couple of questions. You can share the link with prospects
  • Embedded form on website: If you have a website, you can create an embedded form to collect information from prospects
  • Free discovery or clarity call: you may decide to do a clarity call for 20-45 minutes to get clear on what your prospect needs and how you can be of service.

I do a free 30 minutes discovery call after reviewing the details on the pre-call form my prospective clients fill on my website. During the discovery call, I get clear on what the client needs. The call gives me all the information I need about the prospect and helps me prepare a mutually beneficial proposal (if required). Sometimes all the details are agreed on the call and a proposal isn’t required. This is important because it is only after your proposal is accepted, contract signed and invoice paid, that you can send a welcome packet.

10 Things to Include In Your Virtual Assistant Welcome Packet

1.) Welcome Letter To Your Client

A warm welcome and the simple act of saying thank you can go a long way when starting your new client relationship. Reassure them that they’ve made the right decision and provide a brief summary of the services you’ll provide.

Your welcome letter should also have your branding on it in a visible place. Having a distinctive and established brand will not only look memorable, it will also help you look more professional to clients and will solidify their trust in you as an expert.

This should be brief, but intentional.

2.) Services You’ll Be Providing

Restate the client’s goals and how you’re going to help them achieve them.

Have you ever worked for a client and they think you were supposed to do something else too? A welcome packet clears all that. It is a document you can always refer your client to if the client is trying to pass on more work than you originally agreed on. Some clients will milk you dry.

If you are a social media manager how many times are you going to post in a week? Are you going to run promotions? If yes, who’s going to cover the cost? Getting all these details in your welcome packet (and contract) prevents difficult clients from overworking you.

3.) Activities, Timelines, Deadlines.

It’s great if you can say a few words about how each one of these connects back to your client’s goals. You may call this an activity log or workflow. Based on the client’s demand, I list out each task and schedule a date for completion so that the client already knows when everything is supposed to go out and is kept in the know about how I am assisting them.

For example, if I write an SEO blog post for a client that also requires me to create a pin for Pinterest and publish it on their WordPress website, I send a scheduled date for completion of the task in my welcome packet. This helps me finish in advance and schedule the post to go out on the set date whether I remember or not.

It’s also important to specify whether you’re working singly, working for an agency, or subcontracting certain parts of the work that you don’t specialize in.

4.) Communication Details

You must include your contact details, preferred method of communication, when you can be reached, how frequently they can expect to hear from you, how you’re going to meet (phone, zoom, zoho, Google meet etc), any necessary details (software, phone numbers, directions), and how you are going to share project updates.

Just because you work online doesn’t mean you’re available at all hours. Clearly state your service hours and your time zone. For example: “I’m available Monday–Friday, 9 AM–5 PM WAT. Public holidays are off.”

This way, clients know when to expect replies and won’t be disappointed if they don’t hear back on weekends or at midnight. Listing out your work hours clearly will prevent a client from throwing a tantrum because you didn’t reply the email they sent you at 2:00am on Sunday. If you are virtual assistant to the core like me, you’d only meet your clients online. You should state it clearly that your meetings will only be online and if you are open to meeting in person you should also state how frequently this will be and who will cover the cost of commuting back and forth.

I remember a client who wanted to meet me in person for a social media management gig. I was open to calls, emails, chats but somehow the person could not get over why I was too busy to meet him in person. I immediately knew I couldn’t work with him.

5.) Client Responsibilities & Tools You’ll Use

Explain what your client needs to do if he/she needs to cancel an appointment (e.g a strategy call) and if there’s any preparation that he/she needs to complete prior to your sessions (and how to submit it).

You might also want to share basic tools you’ll be using and quick tutorials on how to use them with your clients. This doesn’t mean you’d have to create tutorials from scratch. You can link to a good one you find on the internet. I’m sure the creator will be happy about the traffic you are sending their way.

Tutorials to basic apps like Zoom if you’d be using it for video calls, Google sheets, Asana if you’d be using it for project management etc. will be helpful.

6.) Payment Details.

Clarify how (and how often) clients are going to be billed, identify installment amounts, and explain how/when you’re going to get approval if expenses pop up that weren’t calculated into the original package. Your contract is going to have some of these details but there is no harm in adding them to your welcome packet too.

When it comes to project based jobs, it is best to take a certain percentage before you start a job. You can take the balance after the job is completed. And before you hand over the final product.

On the other hand, you may collect at least 50% of the total cost and collect the balance two weeks later. This is to avoid completing a job before client decides they no longer need it. You can easily create an invoice with paystack, zoho invoice or wave. This way, you can see how much you’re expecting, when it is due etc. These are free to use and a complete timesaver.

7.) Privacy Policy

This is where you should reassure your client that you take their security seriously. Let them know if you are willing to sign a non-disclosure. As a virtual assistant, clients are required to share sensitive information like passwords with you. You have to do everything in your power to not only keep them safe, but ensure that you put their minds at rest.

I highly recommend you have this in your contract but as always, there is no harm in stating it in your welcome packet.

8.) Rush Job Policy

Sometimes clients will need things urgently. That’s fine—but it should come with a clear policy. Define what qualifies as a rush job (e.g., any task due in less than 48 business hours) and explain the extra charge. For instance: “Rush jobs will be billed at 1.5× the regular rate. A ₦100,000 project needed urgently becomes ₦150,000.”

This ensures you’re compensated for rearranging your schedule and keeps last-minute requests from overwhelming you.

9.) Vacation and Sick Leave Policy

Life happens. Vacations, rest days, and even emergencies. Clients will appreciate knowing how you handle time off. You might say: “I provide at least two weeks’ notice before vacations and share the dates in advance. If I’m sick, I’ll notify you as soon as possible and let you know how it may affect deliverables.” This reassures clients that you’re organized and transparent, while also reminding them you’re human with boundaries.

10.) Referral Policy

Word of mouth is one of the fastest ways to grow your virtual assistant business. That’s why it’s smart to include a simple referral policy in your welcome packet. It’s very simple to do. When a client refers someone who becomes a paying client, they earn a reward. For example: “You’ll get 5% of your referral’s first invoice applied as a discount to your next service with me.”

11.) Conclusion and Next Steps

This is where you reaffirm how much you’re looking forward to working with them, how their goals get you excited and you are ready to help them. They will see no need for buyer’s remorse when they see your eagerness to please. Tell your client what the next steps will be. Will you need any document/information from the client? Will you like to set up a Zoom/WhatsApp meeting to solidify project details before you start?

You must make sure your client knows what is going to happen next and what he/she needs to do right away.

The first ever welcome packet I created wasn’t effective just because I missed this step. The client claimed that he didn’t read it. You can imagine working for the entire month only to find out you weren’t on the same page.

Now, I ask them to acknowledge that they have properly read the welcome packet and either agree to the terms have questions etc. They must have a reaction. I include that going on to work with me means that they fully agreed and are bond by the welcome packet.

How to Design Your Welcome Packet

The goal of a welcome packet is to aid in clear communication and leave your client with all of the information they need to confidently go forth in this new relationship and to save you both loads of time in the process.

Designing a welcome packet for new clients takes a little time and effort but it is well worth it. You may use any of the following apps to design one for yourself;

  • Canva
  • Google Docs
  • Microsoft Word
  • PowerPoint
  • Google Slides

Don’t have time to create from scratch? You now have two easy options. If you just need something simple to get started, you can grab my free Google Docs welcome packet template here. It’s straightforward and will get the job done.

But if you want to wow your clients, look polished, and stand out as a true professional even if you are on a budget, then the Canva Welcome Packet Template is for you.

  • Fully customizable in 30 minutes or less (even on your phone).

  • Drag-and-drop editing—no design skills needed.

  • Sleek, modern design that instantly elevates your brand.

  • Comes with a how-to-edit guide, so you can confidently make it yours.

While most premium welcome packet templates sell for $9 or more, you can get this one for just ₦3,500 (about $3). That’s less than the price of a cup of coffee but it will completely change how clients see your business.

So do you want to look like every other beginner VA, or do you want your clients to instantly trust you and feel confident in your professionalism?

Your Turn

Do you have a welcome packet for your business? Have you learned anything you’ll like to add to your Welcome Packet? Let me know in the comment section.

How To Get Noticed By Recruiters On LinkedIn

Posted on by Rose Odoemelam

While going through LinkedIn this morning, I saw an Ad for a WhatsApp class. The Ad was for a 2day masterclass on how to get noticed by recruiters on Linkedin and it cost 5k.

About a dozen people had shown interest and were asking for account details. So like with everything else, I went to the calculator app on my phone and clicked 12X5. The answer was 60.

That was less than 3 hours after putting up the post, so there was a possibility that more people would join the class.

After pondering on the meaning of life and how an extra 60+k would help me replace the hair extensions I lost during my wedding, I realized I could easily do any of the following:

  • Do the exact same thing and call it a ‘LinkedIn optimization class’ and have you pay me 5k for it.
  • Password protect this page and send you the password only after you pay me 3K.
  • Add it to the services I provide and charge you to optimize your LinkedIn profile on your behalf.

But because I’m a benevolent queen, I decided to teach you for free. You’re welcome.

But why do I need a LinkedIn profile?

This is one question I’ve been asked a lot lately. If you already have an optimized LinkedIn profile, this might come as a surprise to you but I got asked why it was necessary more times than I can count on one hand. I found out A LOT of millennials didn’t know they needed a LinkedIn profile in 2020. Shame on you Rapheal!

LinkedIn is one of the most important platforms out there with over 530 million members worldwide. It’s sad that a lot of millennials (including Virtual Assistants) have inactive LinkedIn accounts or don’t even have any because they are busy being savage on Twitter.

So if you don’t know why you need a LinkedIn account or how to optimize your LinkedIn profile like a pro, then keep reading. If you already have one, congratulations. Still hang around, you might learn something.

3 Reasons you need a LinkedIn profile in 2020

  1. It helps you get noticed by the right people

If you are working as a Virtual Assistant or any kind of professional, you need to make sure that when someone looks at your LinkedIn profile they clearly see what you do, who you do it for and whether you’re any good at it. Trust me, nobody will hire you if they’re not sure exactly what you do for people and how you can help them.

  1. Google loves LinkedIn

LinkedIn’s SEO is so good that if someone Googles you, your LinkedIn profile will come up at the top of page one and before your own website (if you have one). So imagine people being greeted with a fully optimized LinkedIn profile. Plus, you’d easily dominate for your name on search engine.

If you are a virtual assistant or any kind of freelancer, people will most likely Google you. PS: You should consider Googling yourself once in a while.

  1. LinkedIn is more flexible than your resume

You can write a lot more on your LinkedIn profile than you can on your resume, and you get to show exactly how you’re good at what you do and why someone might want to work with you.

Your resume is tailored to a specific job, while your LinkedIn contains all you need for a general job search. Both documents should have the same job titles, date ranges, and basic information regarding each job. However, you’ll need to present the information in different ways.

I sent a connection request to someone only yesterday and in ten minutes, he had checked out my profile and sent me a direct message recommending a job opening to me because from my profile, he saw all my skills and immediately knew I’d be a perfect fit for the job.

I however didn’t apply for the job because it is Lagos and my husband gets panic attacks just thinking about visiting the state I’m really not looking for a medical laboratory job right now.

This further expands my point that LinkedIn profile is more flexible than a resume. So I could get recommended for a job, even when I wasn’t looking for one based on that skill set. I hope that makes sense.

But what would I publish on LinkedIn?

Many people asked me this question, rightly so, I didn’t know what to publish for too long too.

I kept staring at my cursor blink when ever I tried to write a post and closed it without writing a word every time, until I noticed what others were doing. They use the platform to share professional stories, milestones and challenges they face at their jobs or while job searching.

They shared information about new skills they are learning or had learned, and every single educational qualifications they acquired. Most importantly, they were helpful and useful. Some even shared tips and tricks to help job seekers, recruiters etc. You can do any of these too. Just make yourself useful.

LinkedIn is not just a platform for those looking to get jobs, it’s also perfect for you if you have a job. It’ll be useful you ever consider changing jobs, become self employed, or something. It is no news that some countries and recruiters, now go through social media profiles before accepting people. Be useful. Package yourself. You are today’s bread so make sure your profile isn’t stale.

This post will show you exactly how to optimize your profile to get noticed by recruiters on LinkedIn.

But first….

Decide who your profile is for before you edit a word.

This is the first thing to think about. Who do you want reading your profile and what do you want them to know about you? When you know this, you can easily optimise your profile and get noticed

Turn off the alarm

There’s this annoying feature I need you to change just so your enemies don’t always know what you are up to. It’s turned on by default. You’ll have to go to settings and change what people can see about you otherwise all your connections will get a notification each time you change something and save it. It is rude to bombard everyone with your updates. You’re trying to get noticed by recruiters, not annoy your village people.

  • Go to your profile and click on the settings button located at the top right corner of your screen.
  • Choose ‘Privacy’, then click the ‘Share job changes, education changes and work anniversaries from profile’ tab and then click ‘No’ to turn off notifications.

This is important because you don’t want LinkedIn to send all your connections a notification to congratulate you on finishing secondary school 10 years ago.

Get Noticed By Recruiters On LinkedIn With These Exact Steps

These are the exact steps I used to optimise my LinkedIn profile, get it to rank number one for my name and get it noticed by recruiters. Since making these changes, I have gotten more search appearances, profile views, enquiries etc

#1.) Write a Catchy Headline:

This is the sentence that appears next to your photo which should say what you do in a nutshell as it’s the first thing people read. You only get a set amount of characters so make it snappy. I’ve found that unless you create your own Headline, LinkedIn will just bring in the generic wording from your current job which is #boring

There are basically three (3) ways you could write your headline:

List your skills as keywords:

  1. Medical Laboratory Scientist || Virtual Assistant || Blogger || Creative Writer
  2. Public Health Enthusiast || Volunteer || Social Media Manager || Author
  3. Event planner || Organizer || Events || Planner

You could write a sentence:

  1. Medical Laboratory Scientist and experienced blogger, using her blogging and creative writing skills to help clients remotely.
  2. Public Health Enthusiast currently volunteering in IDP camps in Nigeria
  3. Event Planner organizing events and managing schedules for busy marketers

You could write your strapline:

  1. I diagnose diseases and write catchy articles
  2. Helping busy entrepreneurs get their shit together
  3. Organizing events that rock since 2016

#2.) Add A Good Background Image:

It’d be really nice if you could upload a background image. It could be you at work or in a position that makes you look professional. Your logo or an infographic of what you do. You can easily design an infographic on canva in five minutes or less. Alternatively, you could use the LinkedIn background image already there until you have something really good to replace it.

PS: You can’t edit your background photo from your phone. You have to do it from a desktop and the perfect dimensions are 1584px by 396px.

#3.) Don’t look like you were attacked by white walkers

There’s a digital marketer I admire very much. And when I started optimising LinkedIn, I decided to find her and connect because you know, meaningful connections. What a disappointment. The photo she had on there was from at least 10 years ago probably when she was young and dumb. I’d talk about the details on the profile except they was nothing there.

This person was #killinit on Twitter, Instagram and Facebook but somehow didn’t think LinkedIn was worth it. It goes to show how much millennials are sleeping on LinkedIn.

Forgive me, I digress.

Please, don’t use the blurr photo you cropped from your sister’s wedding photos, group selfies, the sexy photo with pouty lips and lots of cleavage (it will do well on Instagram or tinder, though), etc.

Instead, use a friendly and professional head shot that makes you look approachable and responsible.

#4.) Complete the About section

This is where you state your value, what you want to be known for and why someone might want to work with you. Trust me, you can’t rely on people having the time to go through your entire profile to realize you are the best thing since cold stone. Forgive us all for not realizing your potential just yet.

Don’t leave the bio LinkedIn generates for you either. Every recruiter and their dog, can smell it from a mile away. You’ll need to make an effort if you really want to get noticed by recruiters on LinkedIn. Take the time to write one for yourself. This is one the most important sections of your profile and will need to be updated as often as possible. It’ll get better with time.

#5.) Give Details About Your Work Experience

Writing out only your job title is not enough. You need to give details of what you did at your job. Sometimes you’d be required to do extra work that isn’t really your thing and might gain a skill or two. You should add that to the stuff you did at that job.

Summarize the skills you used, the outcome of your efforts and any key achievements so people can see your value. This isn’t where you should lie, exaggerate or play small. You worked hard so you deserve the accolades!

You can give other details like the types of clients you worked with, the size of budgets you worked with, the number of people you oversaw and percentage of ROI you provided so everyone can see your level of experience and how good you are at what you do.

How to write each job experience

So instead of saying ‘Virtual Assistant at The Rosepreneur’ and leaving it there, give a brief intro into the company so that people know what the company actually does and then list out specific tasks you carried out.

For Example:

[Insert Company Name] is one of the best digital marketing companies in Nigeria. They specialize in so so and so. My role here involved:

– Write what you did
– Write another thing you did
– And so on etc.

This will help you get noticed by recruiters on LinkedIn and tell them you know exactly what you are doing. You have to package yourself in the best possible way.

#6.) Include your Education

This is where your university degree(s) come in. Some people add their secondary school education but I think that is unnecessary. Anything after secondary is good, except secondary school is your highest level of education.

PS: It doesn’t matter if you are in a field that is unrelated to your degree. I’ve seen medical doctors leading in fashion and all that stuff so it all depends on how you position yourself.

#7.) List out your licenses and certifications

List out your licenses and certifications. It builds your authority. If you don’t have any, there are a couple of free certificate courses you can take to boost your profile and position you as an expert in your industry. When you get these certificates, list them on your profile and don’t be lazy about it.

#8.) Endorsements are good.

Make sure you turn on endorsements if you have it turned off. Endorsements are the skills that LinkedIn suggests you have to your connections (usually from the list of skills you add to your profile) and they might not be things you actually want to be endorsed for. So instead, have a few more focused skills rather than 50 skills that don’t make you standout in any way.

#9.) Give and receive recommendations

This is 2020 so you should already know the power of testimonials. It is largely a give and take process. If you don’t have any recommendations, then you can privately ask your connections to write some for you. It is really easy. Ask them to specifically mention a skill or service you provide to highlight at least one thing instead of allowing them write a generic one.

Now this isn’t a reason for you to ask Tony Elumelu for a recommendation. Please dear, be guided. Ask people that actually know you and can write about you honestly. This will help you get noticed by recruiters on LinkedIn

I honestly wish I had known about this earlier, I’d have asked my clients for LinkedIn recommendations instead of the ones they wrote me on WhatsApp. This is because I can easily copy any recommendation from LinkedIn to my website (as a testimonial) but not from this website to my recommendations tab on LinkedIn.

You should however be willing to write some for others. You can’t keep taking from everyone without giving.

What so great about givi recommendations to others is that you can get noticed by recruiters from the recommendation you write for someone. Remember your details are there and just a click away. It’s a win-win deal.

#10.) Add media where required

You’ll see the option to add photos,videos or link to external documents, sites and presentations. Use this opportunity if you have good quality media.

#11.) Update your contact And personalize your custom URL

Make sure your email still works and your twitter account is active. Most importantly, if your LinkedIn link looks like this linkedin.com/in/your-name0965896. You are wrong.

Go to ‘settings’ and click ‘privacy’ then click ‘edit your public profile’. Now edit whatever you have there to linkedin.com/in/yourname (example: linkedin.com/in/roseodoemelam). No numbers, signs or symbols.

#12.) Hide your competition

Let’s pretend a chevron (insert your dream company) recruiter decides to hire people from LinkedIn and the recruiter stumbles on your page. They get impressed. Then they scroll down and see one of your connections that looks just as good and innocently decide to check them out. Thirty minutes later, they realize the person is much better than you and decide to hire him/her.

You want them to contact you and not run into the sunset with someone else, so seal the cracks!

Go to ‘settings’ and click on ‘privacy’ then turn off ‘viewers of this profile also viewed’. So that other LinkedIn users with the same job description as you (your competition) don’t appear when someone is viewing your profile.

That’s a mild way of putting it. You’re doing that so that no one will appear on your profile and the focus is only on you without perfect connections flaunting their certificates and flawless expertise and enticing your recruiter which will ultimately lead to stealing your dream job. You’re not being selfish, you’re securing the bag!

#13.) Make meaningful connections

In order to get noticed by recruiters on LinkedIn, your connections have to be intentional and meaningful.

You’ll only be ready to make meaningful connections after you have optimized your profile. You have to look like a serious person with a profile photo and everything. People will send you a connection request/ accept your request even if they don’t know you personally just because you share the same job, skills and look like someone that has their shit together. They know networking is important. Now you know too.

Spoiler alert: Let’s connect, I’m a meaningful connection.

Since I optimised my profile, I’ve noticed that people from my University and job easily find me. LinkedIn also recommends them to me. So don’t feel too big, sending that connection request isn’t merely a friend request. LinkedIn is serious business.

Confession: I consciously avoided checking people’s profiles for years, because LinkedIn always told on me. It didn’t make sense that everytime I checked someone out, LinkedIn told the person. So I stopped viewing profiles so nobody feels too important or feels like I’m a stalker.

Do you also feel that way? Yes? You’re happy someone finally understands, right?

Wrong. That’s just dumb. Don’t do it. Don’t be unfortunate. View anyone’s profile you want, as many times as you want with your chest up. Especially if they are doing something right and you’re trying to learn from them and optimise your profile.

#14.) Try to personalize every connection request

If you really want to get noticed by recruiters on LinkedIn, you’ll have to make extra effort. These people get a lot of connection requests every day and your request should stand out to them. It’ll only take a few minutes and you’d be happy you did.

I had a very generic one I used not too long ago. It said- Let’s connect ASAP!

On the bright side, I only sent that to really close friends and would never send it to strangers. Thankfully, I found some perfect templates you could customize and use for every type of connection request. You’re welcome

Next Steps

Check out LinkedIn profiles of others in your niche (your competitors) to get ideas and see what works and what doesn’t. Feel free to creatively optimize your profile using theirs as a template if you want to actually get noticed by recruiters on LinkedIn.

Did you find this post helpful? Have you always been active on LinkedIn? Tell me about your experience on LinkedIn in the comment section and don’t forget to share this post with one, two or twenty persons you really want to help get their shit together and get noticed by recruiters on LinkedIn.