I 'fell' into virtual assistant work — and now I make 6 figures a year doing it. Here's how I built up my client base and income.

• Hannah Dixon became a virtual assistant after wanting a more stable career and better income.
• She developed her skills online using blogs and courses.
• Here's her career journey, as told to writer Robin Madell.

This as-told-to essay is based on a conversation with Hannah Dixon, a 34-year-old virtual assistant based in Bangkok. Insider has verified her income with documentation. The following has been edited for length and clarity.

I always say that I "fell" into being a virtual assistant. Now I'm making six figures a year doing it.

I took to creating my own path from a young age. Academia didn't feel like a correct or nourishing path for me, so I left school before heading to university and wound up working in the luxury fashion house Karla Otto in London's West End, where I was part of a small logistics team, purely by convincing my employers of my ability to "figure things out." 

I stayed only a short time, long enough to save up a large chunk of change and take a trip around the world. That was 14 years ago, and the trip never ended. Whenever I ran low on money, I would go back to the UK, where I grew up, work two to three months in a bar to save some cash, and then get back out into the world. 

This transitioned to doing long-term work exchanges, where I worked in bars, on farms, and in hostels. I even worked with sled dogs in Austria for some time, all in exchange for food and board.

But eventually, I decided I needed a change. I wanted money. I wanted to be able to afford a few things I had missed, like new clothes or my own accommodation. I decided to go back to the UK, get a job, and do life the way everyone else seemed to. 

That's when I met someone on an online dating website who told me they worked from home doing SEO and building websites 

I didn't need to hear anything else: I was already sold. I could work from home or anywhere with Wi-Fi and continue traveling. I could keep the freedom and flexibility I'd grown accustomed to. 

She and I worked together, and she generously taught me as much as she was able to. I volunteered to take on some of the admin (like email correspondence) for her existing operations and supported us in getting more clients through social-media outreach efforts. 

I learned a lot from blogs like Social Media Examiner but mostly from trying things, failing a lot, and trying again. At that time, I wasn't thinking smart, I just figured it was a numbers game. I tweeted (a lot!) about our services, used all the hashtags experts told me to use, started commenting on potential clients' posts, and sent some cold emails. It was messy, but it was my start.

Ironically, I didn't know what a virtual assistant was until one of my clients referred to me as her 'VA'

That's when I realized there was a whole industry surrounding what I was doing.

Kimra Luna, a business strategist, was one of my biggest sources of knowledge, and they granted me a full scholarship into their paid business-building program, as they had identified me as someone who was a helpful member of their free community. This program — along with teaching me the essentials of how to market and grow my business, build a brand, and improve my skills — became a huge source of referrals, as it was buzzing with entrepreneurs who were making big waves and needed support along the way. 

Through the growth of my business and my appreciation for the power of communities and mentorship, I created a Facebook group. Members of my group began asking about how to land great clients and earn the kind of money I was earning. This is when, after three years as a virtual assistant, I turned my attention to supporting others as a virtual-assistant coach. 

Here are three things I did to hit the six-figure mark:

1. I followed the money 

This was more than simply "picking a niche and sticking to it." I niched with money in mind, throwing myself into entrepreneurial communities, both free and paid, and networking my way to the top. I didn't use gig sites as a source for clients throughout my career, and I firmly believe that building yourself a bountiful network is the way to having full freedom, flexibility, and control over who you work with and how.

I found communities to network in by using the Facebook search function and typing in keywords — for example, "online business," "entrepreneurs," "virtual assistants," and in time more niche-specific ones like "coaching." 

Facebook's algorithm starts to serve you many relevant group suggestions when you're in and active in other groups already. Many of the entrepreneurs I was learning from also had their own free and paid groups that I was able to join. I began keeping a spreadsheet detailing the most engaged groups, who they were targeting, and whether they had dedicated "promo days" — days when you can talk about your offers.

A simple thing I did to support people was create content that answered their most common questions. That way, whenever repeat questions came up, I was able to become known as a go-to person for these types of tasks. People began to tag my name when questions related to my areas of expertise came up. I was showing up online for an hour a day, meaningfully, and work was coming my way.

A referral from a big-name entrepreneur to my first client in the medical field caused things to really start to change. This client very quickly referred me out to other well-established doctor friends for very well-paid short-term and long-term projects.

I then decided to work exclusively in the medical and wellness field, and my content and online presence were overhauled to speak to my target audience: women doctors. This was probably the single most impactful thing that led me to earn six figures. Everyone was winning, and it felt so good to support powerful women who were literally changing people's lives.

2. I took on fewer clients and offered better service 

Eventually, things got so busy that I had to streamline to avoid exhaustion and ensure I could deliver high-quality work. I had frank discussions with each of my clients about what the future of our working relationships could look like. I actually let three clients go in this process as the workload had become so sporadic that it took unnecessary brain space.

In these discussions, we mapped out everything: the work I did for them, their upcoming needs, and turnaround and communication expectations. I told my clients what I liked working on best and turned my attention to the more technical and creative tasks where I was excelling. I threw myself into learning advanced tools and light coding to truly justify raising my prices. 

I had previously been working on an hourly model, billing each client for blocks of 10 to 15 hours at a time for tasks that ranged from very simple to extremely complex. We scrapped counting hours and agreed on monthly retainer prices that felt fair for everyone involved.

Moving into monthly retainers gave me a sense of security knowing how much money was coming in on average and allowed me to plan my schedule accordingly. I also felt more compelled to deliver a high-touch experience for my clients in response to their trust in me not tracking hours.

I worked with my four regular clients who were paying between $500 and $3,000 per month. With each client, I had dedicated half-days or full days when I worked on their business. 

My higher-paying clients naturally had more of my time  — the $3,000 retainer client had me 2 1/2 days of the week, with occasional overtime for weekend launches, whereas my $500 client was on an as-needed basis and consisted of short jobs with 24-hour turnarounds. 

I received additional income from high-level, project-based work stemming from existing client referrals. I also began offering one-time calls for those who wanted to DIY and made some income through being an affiliate. Virtual assistants are uniquely positioned to make excellent side income through affiliate marketing. 

3. I let myself fail

As someone who's trained plenty of VAs, I've seen that inaction due to perfectionism, self-doubt, imposter syndrome, and the general fear of failure are the most common roadblocks preventing success.

Virtual assistants work in a space where the willingness and ability to figure things out are often far more valuable than education or even experience.

I found myself doing many things that I wasn't experienced in, but I was learning by doing. I moved fast, failed fast, took feedback graciously, and was able to learn so much in just one year that I radiated confidence. 

This story was originally published in April 2022.