7 Reasons You Should Quit Your Job in Therapy and become a Virtual Assistant (VA) [and make money from home] Updated December 2020

4 years ago I took the leap. I quit my full time job as a Physical Therapist’s Assistant and began work as an entry level VA.

It was a tough decision to make.

I had no experience, no training, and no clue where to begin. It was a massive pay cut (over $20/hr less for the very first job) but in the end it was one of the best decisions I ever made.

Don’t let the pay cut scare you. It starts off that way but ramps up really quickly. My pay now rivals what I made as a PTA and it goes up every year.

The pay cut is definitely the hardest part for most people. Thinking of going down in pay after so much hard work and time went into growing yourself as a Therapist is a tough pill to swallow. All I can say is, “It will be worth it in the end.” It isn’t a step down. It’s a path forward. It’s going to feel wrong and like a setback at first. It does get better and has the opportunity to be the best thing you’ve done in a long time. Try not to let the short-term initial pay cut keep you away from what is a lucrative and much-less-stressful career.

Why I Left the Rehab World

Let me start with the disclaimer that I didn’t leave it completely. I still do PRN work every once in a while. Just enough to keep up my license and maintain contacts for networking, but the main bulk of my work time is spent in the online blogging world.

I began as a PT Specialist with the Army Reserves, which is a dream job! You get trained as a Medic first (which is the military equivalent of an EMT) then you go to your skill school. In the military world you don’t have to deal with the various insurance companies and their ever changing rules and you have access to all the rehab equipment you could imagine.

After getting out I went to a civilian PTA school and got my license and dove into the traditional rehab world. Talk about an eye opener! Back then notes were still done on paper and in SOAP note form. All that changed pretty rapidly over the next few years when computerized notes began to be the norm and insurance companies got crazy with the terminology.

If you’ve been in the rehab world you know just how frustrating those notes can get. Hours on end are spent documenting your treatments. The worst part is, you know another therapist will understand them, but you don’t know if the person from the insurance company that is reading them will. SO FRUSTRATING!!

The main reason I left was the way I felt restricted to provide a service that was fast and efficient for the sake of being fast and efficient, not for the sake of the patient. Like I was a rehab robot shoving therapy down someone’s throat, instead of a clinician doing the best care possible. The productivity, the computerized notes, the limited time overall, all of it led to a burnout. The system seems to set us up for it.

And just when you get used to it, they change the laws and you have to figure it out all over again!

Why Switching to Virtual Assistant Work Was THE BEST Decision I Ever Made (career wise)

At my full time PTA job I was not happy. It was the perfect storm of job unhappiness, new legislation coming down the line, life issues, and a new job opportunity all within the same month. I took a long hard look and asked myself, “Where am I?” and then “Where do I want to be?” With everything in the rehab world getting ready to be turned upside down again (hello PDGM/PDPM), it was time for a real change.

Ask yourself the same questions. IF your final answer is NOT to be in rehab 5 years from now, what’s holding you back? Time? Money? Fear of the unknown? Guilt?

This leads to more questions like: What should I switch to? How do I get started? How much is the training? Who will hire me? etc…

You’re going to groan when you read this but…. There is no time like the present. It’s a cliché because of how true it is.

If you have a job you don’t find fulfilling and you have the resources available to change that, then why not?

Let me launch into all the ways my life has improved as a VA. There are so many I’m just going to make a list of a few of the top ones.

Work from anywhere– literally anywhere. Want to work from a booth at your local Chick-Fil-A, do it. Have a favorite coffee shop or library, go there. I even take my laptop on vacation and just plan out 2-4 hours a day to work and make it a work/vacation. This past year it allowed me to take a 2 week beach vacation and still make money at the same time. The kids got their vacation. I got my vacation (because I only worked 4 days of the week, it equaled 16 hours/ week). Everyone was happy.
Specialize and do only the work you want to– Want to work for a podcast, data entry, edit books/ videos/articles, answer emails, customer service, surf social media sites, Pinterest, research, create pretty images, etc… There are hundreds more topics you could specialize in or just get good at a bunch of things and do it all.
The skills translate into the real world as well– I say the real world as if the online world is another planet, what I mean is into a brick and mortar typical business. I get requests regularly from people I meet out in public to come work for them once they find out about the work I do online. If you ever get tired of working from home, you can always take your talents to a job site and easily transition back to a regular job. EASILY. In the past year alone I’ve had 3 legitimate job offers from local businesses.
Easy way to start and own a business– You don’t have to start a VA business BUT YOU CAN. As a VA, you will typically be a 1099/ freelancer. You work for yourself as a contractor, but you don’t have an official “business”. There are VA businesses out there that are LLC’s or S-corps, but if you never want to take that step you aren’t obligated to. I began as strictly a contractor then got hired on as a salaried VA so I never started an actual VA business. Many VA’s start a VA company where they just hire out other virtual assistants- like a task agency, and just take their cut of the work that other people do. That is a management and owner title, so if you ever get tired of that, you could take that experience and market yourself to manage almost anywhere.
Work as much or as little as you want, anytime you want– You take as much work as you want. Most days I plan out 3 hours in the morning, and another 2 hours in the afternoon. As long as I hit my total hours for the week it doesn’t matter when I get them done. Sometimes I’ll spend the whole day doing whatever I want, and then work a few hours at night after the kids go to bed. This sort of flexibility is amazing for parents that want to be able to stay at home with the kids and need to work around naptime, sports, MD appointments, sick days, carpool, grocery shopping, etc. It is also a very lucrative way to make money for college students doing clinical rotations. We all remember the sting of pinching pennies during that time frame. If you know any students that are struggling to find a compatible job, send them to this post. It’s also a great way to get that elusive “experience”, since most jobs want you to have some before they’ll hire you.
It costs almost nothing to get started– This is one of those jobs that you do need some current knowledge. Things on the internet change so often and so quickly. Training is imperative for this but you won’t be breaking the bank, no matter how you go about it. Especially when you compare it to the cost of going back to college. You may spend a few hundred to a few thousand over the course of years to keep up with the changes in software or operating systems but it’s offset by the amount you’ll make back on it. To date, I’ve spent around $65 over the past 4 years. (work 2 or 3 hours and you’ve made that back) And there are a lot of free trainings that you can do in between to bulk up on skills, but the initial actual training will need to be paid to get any real learning done so you can make money ASAP. (Along with the link to the Become a VA course, I’ll put some links below in the next section to some free trainings that will give you basic info on VA work and what you can do with it- with a much more exhaustive list than this post has)
The money potential is unlimited– In the very beginning you’ll be making name for yourself and still learning the ropes, so you won’t be making money that rivals your current job. BUT that goes away quickly if you are focused on gaining new skills and improving the ones you already have. I now make enough per hour to rival my old PTA wage and it is still climbing. I’ll surpass it in no time and then who knows… One of the reasons is that there is almost no limit to the way you can be profitable as a virtual assistant. And since it can be easily transitioned to a regular job you can take all your knowledge and slide into your new career with ease. Most VA’s start out around $10-15/ hr but $50-75/hr is pretty common as well. (If you start your own VA company you can make upwards of $100-250/ hr)

I didn’t mention it as a benefit above but it really is one- This is not a MLM. Everyone and their sister seems to want you to Join my team! or Buy my product! You don’t have to deal with any of that stuff as a VA. The only thing you’re selling are your job services.

How You Can Get Started as a VA

***The green lettered words are links. Click on them to check out the courses and articles***

*Updated Dec 2020*

The Horkey Handbook Course is being retired. The course info is current for all current subscribers (it was just updated weeks ago) but it is no longer for sale. The new flagship course will be the Fully Booked VA course. More info on that to come shortly….

My journey to becoming a VA was the hard way. I did it through mentorships and self learning. But that took years of work. IF I HAD KNOWN there were courses I could take in the very beginning to teach me the fundamentals, I would have done that in a heartbeat.

This is THE BEST resource I’ve found to date for getting up and running. The best thing about Gina’s course is it’s easy to follow. It will get you up and running to make that cold hard cash sooner. There aren’t many courses we take as clinicians that can change our income nearly immediately. It’s nice to finally take one that will have real time income results.

Horkey HandBook – This is the flagship course that teaches you how to become a VA and get started on your new career in 30 days. If you want (or need) a career change FAST, this is the way to go. What better way to get a job than to create it yourself! No interviews, applications, or waiting to hear back. Win-win-win.

As far as quality goes, there is almost no better return on investment education wise. The course currently is $498 if you pay the full price in one payment – this saves you $99. There is a payment plan offered for 3 monthly payments of $199 as well, for the full price of $597.

The reason this is such a good deal is because you get returns back on that within the first 2 months. I know when I take a continuing ed course for therapy, I may or may not get to use the skill for additional paid services. Yet the price is basically the same as a single 3 day/ 20 credit class. The course comes with tips on how to get jobs, teaches you how to market yourself and you become eligible to get access to the job leads Facebook page. That’s a return of thousands ($1000s!!) in what you’ll make back in income with the things you’ll learn in the course. And what other class can offer you a job board?

Become a VA – This is a post where you can find a list of all the jobs you can get as a VA. Just in case you want to check out the real possibilities before you dive in. On this post you’ll find a free workbook that can get you prepped for the bigger course. The info is GOLD. (Like literal gold since you can make so much money with it.) I recommend grabbing the workbook before buying the bigger course above to get you familiar with the type of work you’ll do in the course, and the terminology involved.

How to Become a VA Blog Post – If you need a post dedicated to process behind becoming a Virtual Assistant this is the place to find it. It goes into to what a VA does, what services they provide and what steps it takes to become one. It’s basically a giant FAQ answer sheet for anyone interested in becoming a VA.

Breaking Into VA Work Webinar – This webinar already happened but it may happen again. If it does I’ll post the link on here. On these webinars Gina will be talking to anyone interested in becoming a VA. This is a great way to get any questions answered in real time. It is pretty far away though so if you don’t have the time to wait you should go to the 150+ VA Services and the How to become a VA posts to get info immediately.

30 Days or Less to Virtual Assistant Student Stories – This testimonial page is full of details! Each person includes how long it took them to start making money, how much they make, and where they work from (spoiler- it’s from home). This info is really nice to have so you can see just what you can get back from your investment.

The main thing to remember is that this is more than just a class. I keep using the word investment because that is what it truly is. You are investing in yourself, to change your trajectory and grow your income in a very short time span.