Empowering Change: How Virtual Assistance Opened New Doors for Me

Do you feel like sometimes your life is in freeze mode? Maybe you’re in a job that is unfulfilling, or doesn't let you feel empowered by your disability. Or, you’re not working at all because no jobs on the market are adaptable to your needs. All of these situations are becoming a far too common story for disabled Australians these days. 

The disappointing reality is, only 53.4% of working-age people with disability are employed, compared with 84.1% who identify as able-bodied. We are often undervalued and not accommodated in standard work environments, leading to higher unemployment rates, an urge to hide our disability to get employed, or dissatisfaction with our career opportunities. 

In fact, that was me just a few years ago. I went from a degree in visual communication (ironic right? The vision impaired person earning a visual degree), to a retail job I held for 8 years, to unemployment during Covid. Like many others during this time period, I hit a roadblock in my career, but the downtime gave me the opportunity to re-focus my energy on what I loved and I turned that unemployment into a thriving, busy and most importantly rewarding business as a virtual assistant. 

You might assume the most rewarding part of my journey was creating a successful business from nothing, right? But actually, I have found passion in training and empowering other people to do the same. 

Due to the nature of my disability, when work started to pick up beyond my capabilities, I encouraged a friend from a previous retail job to apply for an ABN, trained her in the basic skills of my VA role, and began contracting her to assist me with the extra workload. Supporting her in navigating her own disabilities in this field, encouraging her to adapt the systems to work for her, and seeing her thrive in the administrative roles has been the driving force behind why I wanted to develop resources and training for others.

Virtual assistant work is one of the most versatile, adaptable jobs you can do and the world of virtual assistance is vast; you can specialise in social media content creation, video editing, inbox and calendar management, running membership platforms, providing business strategy and administration support, running payroll and generating invoices. Like I said, it’s a vast world and I strongly believe there is something for everyone with any ability. 

Some other benefits of becoming a virtual assistant include:

• As a VA working for yourself as a sole-trader, you set your own hours. Whether that be 8-4, 2-5, or maybe you are a night owl and prefer to work evenings – it’s all down to you and how you prefer to schedule your time and other commitments
• As the name suggests, virtual assistant means you can work from virtually anywhere (pun intended!). Work from home, from your local café, or even from the beach if that’s where you thrive. It’s all possible as a virtual assistant. Due to the nature of my disability, I work best from my desktop at home where the screen is large and I can set up dual monitors, but I have been known to work from my laptop on the lounge or at a café before!
• Everything is adaptable to you and your needs. This is the selling point, the big thing that separates VA work from the standard administration job in an office; it’s customisable to you. You can choose the platforms you work in (Microsoft not accessible for you? No worries, work in Google suite instead), you choose the tasks you offer and what industry you work in. I’ve worked for clients across a range of industries, but found the one I consistently enjoy and come back to the most is those clients working in the disability space, creating services and resources that support other people with disability.

Becoming a virtual assistant wasn’t a career I had ever considered until it unexpectedly found its way into my life in 2019. Since then, it has been a source of consistent joy, growth, and independence – a career I’m deeply passionate about and one I’ll happily shout about to anyone who’ll listen.

Curious if virtual assistance is the right fit for you? Get our free ‘65 Common Tasks as a Virtual Assistant’ resource to explore how this career can work for you and hear more about our foundational course to support your journey, launching soon.