23-year-old reveals how she earns $9,000 a month working from home: 'I learned everything as I went'

Alex Lasker

August 21, 2020 at 10:42 AM·4 min read

A 23-year-old woman has piqued the interest of social media users with a video explaining how she rakes in $9,000 a month from the comfort of her own home.

Jessica Ward, a North Carolina native who currently lives in New Jersey with her husband, Colin, shared a glimpse into her life as a virtual assistant (VA) on TikTok earlier this month.

In the video, which has since been viewed over 100K times, Ward explains how she is able to make a killing while working for herself and creating her own daily schedule — without having a college degree.

Ward told In The Know she first became interested in the prospect of virtual assisting after exploring a few career paths that just weren’t right for her.

“I have had a job since I was 16,” she said. “I was a shift manager at a clothing store, a barista, a dog walker, and finally a chiropractic assistant for 4 years. I went to Nursing School for two years before deciding it just wasn’t right for me.”

After learning about virtual assistant work through a friend, Ward said that she, like many others who have seen her viral TikTok, thought it might be too good to be true. (“Isn’t this…. a pyramid scheme,” one user commented on her clip.)

But, seeing as she was working 50+ hours a week at the time at a job she didn’t love, Ward decided to give it a shot.

She hired her first business coach in April 2020 and dedicated her Instagram to the promotion of her personal VA business shortly after that. Within two months of social media networking, her services were entirely booked.

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by VA & VA COACH | JESS ♡ (@itsjessicaward) on Aug 19, 2020 at 3:04pm PDT

Now, Ward’s day-to-day work schedule consists of a little bit of everything, which she says keeps her life interesting and her skillset expanding.

“The fun part of being a virtual assistant is that my work is different every day,” she told In The Know. “Some common tasks that I take over for people include Pinterest management, social media management, email marketing and E-commerce support. But those tasks are different all the time, so some days you can find me creating web pages and doing graphic design as well.”

For those worried they may lack the skills necessary to handle such varied assignments, Ward says one of the best parts of VA work is that you are constantly learning on the job.

“I wasn’t an expert on any of those tasks when I began,” she revealed. “I learned everything as I went. The beauty of 2020 is that we have so much information at our fingertips. You can learn a new skill or troubleshoot a program within 15 minutes- 1 hour.”

Of course, as with any job, being a virtual assistant isn’t all fun — but for the most part, Ward says the career pivot has been absolutely worth it.

“Being your own boss comes with downsides, it’s easy to compare yourself to others and it can be hard to manage your time,” Ward shared. “But, the pros always outweigh the cons. I’m able to travel, sleep in (I never realized how much I valued this until I woke up at 6 am for four years straight), choose my own salary and help people grow their businesses every day. The possibilities are endless when you start living for yourself.”

If you’re looking to take the plunge and launch your own VA career, Ward says the first step is simply diving right in — she has even put together a guide on how to do just that.

“We are so afraid of new things that it can push us to always stay in our comfort zone,” she shared. “I would rather look back at my life and be glad that I went for my dreams even if I failed than look back and regret not starting. I was able to build up a business during a worldwide pandemic that is on track to bring in six figures my first year.”

“If you want to go to college and work a 9-5 job, then go for it!” she added. “But if you have dreams of working for yourself and having that freedom, don’t let the pressure of what others are doing hold you back.”

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The post 23-year-old reveals how she earns $9,000 a month working from home appeared first on In The Know.

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