Advice on starting own business

[Olive20100]

Hello everyone, I am currently employed in the public sector and work remotely. I am considering transitioning to part-time work and exploring freelancing opportunities. I am seeking advice on how to advertise my services as I aim to establish my own virtual business. While I am aware of virtual assistant businesses that offer sign-up options, I am interested in pursuing freelance work independently. I intend to provide a personalised service tailored to the unique needs of clients, including tasks not limited to those listed. The skills and services I plan to offer include email inbox management, appointment scheduling for both business and personal purposes, invoicing, payment processing, handling complaints, sourcing gifts, making callbacks, audio transcription, minute-taking, proofreading, and data entry. Any guidance or insights on how to get started in freelancing would be greatly appreciated. Thank you! 😊

Spend some time working on your elevator pitch. You need to be able to describe your business in 30 seconds. Think about what your core offering is, and try to sum it up succinctly.
Then you can advertise it easily. At the moment you don't seem fully clear on what you'll be offering.

You mention the services but not the role or skills you have. Or what sector (eg healthcare, arts, logistics). Do you have a good professional network; are you good at promoting yourself, and setting up meetings? Who is your ideal client that is local to you?

Have you thought about getting started via Upwork? I worked for a start-up before owning my own and we used VA's from the platform a lot.

I am just finishing my profile on there! Did you find it pretty easy getting jobs on there? Thanks for your advice too! :)

I’m in an administrator position currently, with skills such as customer service, organisation, project management, Microsoft software. Thanks for the advice.

Ooh, I think the project management is a really good thing to be offering. I would definitely use that as a selling point. Being able to buy in some project management could be really useful to small businesses.

I’m in an administration role with customer service, software, organisation, project management skills.
In terms of network, probably not yet no. Once I get some advice and guidance I will try my best with promoting myself.
ideal client, I would probably say start ups/property investors. I worked as a personal assistant to an investor before so that industry I would say is what I know need some help. I need to look at more industries that would benefit from these type of services. I also would really like to get into HR work, preparing contracts/recruitment side of things.
Thank you for taking your time to reply to me.

Business Plan
Work out your hourly rate and factor that into pricing jobs
Decide on your profit margin and stick to it
Put 25-30% minumum away each month for tax etc
Get networking - but only the decent stuff and not loads of coffee with people who will never be useful ot helpful

I used it as a client for four years in my previous job at a start-up. I now use it now and then for my own start-up. Good luck!

I agree, project management would be a good option for many small businesses.