ABC Office Services
Established in Punta Gorda/Port Charlotte, FL 1982

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 Should I Become A
Virtual Assistant?

        Many would-be Work at Homers contact me looking for work. I do not hire anyone.  I've read stories of secretarial services making $20,000+ a year. However, all those services were in Large Cities. Being in a midsize town and in business since 1982, I've seen many come and go. My advice is: 

Do not go in debt for equipment. 

Do not rely on it as your sole source of income unless you are lucky enough to get enough regular monthly clients. 

Get a separate business line and get listed in the yellow pages.

Put an ad in the local "shopper" paper. 

If you put an ad in your daily paper, put it under "Help Wanted" and advertise resume service. 

Send flyers to any and all nearby colleges and high schools.

Go out once a week and put your flyers up everywhere you can. 

Give "talks" to groups. 

Recently, especially working virtually, transcription of digital tapes is becoming very popular.  You can get a free transcription program from Express Scribe and you can also purchase a foot pedal from them.

Best, but most difficult to do, go to local businesses, introduce yourself and your services.

The above is about a secretarial service for local clients.  But, now, with the Internet, we can be Virtual Assistants, doing this work virtually via e-mail, snail mail, etc.  So, to get virtual work is a bit different.  Hopefully, the list at www.abcsvcs.com/typists.htm will help us out. 

To sum up, it is possible to make it, BUT it takes time and effort. As for advice, I have none other than what I have posted here.

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