Best Virtual Assistant Training Courses in 2023

With more businesses moving their operations online, the demand for virtual assistants is exploding. There’s never been a better time to invest in your own virtual assistant business. In today’s post, I’m sharing some of the best virtual assistant training courses in 2021.

This post will cover:

• A detailed overview of #FullyBookedVA System, one of the most comprehensive virtual assistant training programs online
• A list of free virtual assistant courses and resources that I’ve curated from around the web

(While you’re here, check out our latest recommendations for virtual assistant laptops.)

This post may contain affiliate links. See my disclosure for more info.

An All-in-One VA Training Program: #FullyBookedVA System

If you’ve been searching for a complete step-by-step system for launching your virtual assistant business from scratch, all the way to growing it into an agency (if you so choose), you’ll find it in #FullyBookedVASystem, by Gina Horkey of Horkey Handbook.

Gina started her freelance writing business in the spring of 2014 while working a full-time job in personal finance. She’d write on her basement couch at 4:30 in the morning before nursing her baby, showering, and going to work. That fall, she began to offer virtual assistant services in addition to freelance writing.

Within six months of starting her freelance journey, Gina was earning $4,000 per month on the side of her full-time job, with a baby and toddler in tow. And within eight months, she’d quit her job and left the 9-5 world behind for good.

Gina’s virtual assistant business gave her unlimited income potential and the freedom and flexibility to work from anywhere on her own schedule. She now teaches aspiring virtual assistants how to build successful businesses and has changed the lives of thousands of people with her training programs.

What Is the #FullyBookedVA System?

If you spend any time reading VA and work-from-home blogs, you’re probably already familiar with Gina’s flagship virtual assistant and freelance writing courses, 30 Days or Less to Virtual Assistant Success and 30 Days or Less to Freelance Writing Success. These two courses have helped thousands of virtual assistants and freelance writers launch successful businesses.

Gina has produced some other courses as well, which teach VAs how to offer services in an in-demand niche, such as real estate or email management. Previously, these courses were available for purchase separately, ranging anywhere from $197-$297 per course.

Now, Gina has revamped her course offerings to bundle ALL of these courses, including the abovementioned flagship courses, into the #FullyBookedVA System at a monthly membership price of $199. (There’s also a lot more included with #FullyBookedVA, which I’ll cover in detail below.)

To put it in perspective, if you had purchased all of Gina’s courses and resources separately before, it would have cost $2,538. The “catch” is that membership is now on a subscription basis, so you don’t get lifetime access to the courses, as you would with a one-off purchase. You know what that means: Take good notes!

I think this revamped training is a huge improvement, because previously many students found it overwhelming trying to decide which of Gina’s virtual assistant courses to enroll in – e.g., real estate, freelance writing, social media management, and so on. Now you can have access to all the courses at a lower price than it would have been to purchase only one of the courses before. (The popular 30 Days or Less to Virtual Assistant Success course, for example, used to cost $498.)

In addition, Gina offers a seven-day money-back guarantee, so if you find out right away that the training isn’t the right fit for you, you can send her an email and she’ll refund your purchase.

What does the #FullyBookedVA System include?

In a nutshell, here’s what you get with the #FullyBookedVA System.

Phase 1: VA Foundations Course, #FBVA Community, Access to Leads, and Specialty Skills Courses

In phase 1 of #FullyBookedVA, you get immediate access to the #FBVA forum, where you can discuss the course material with your peers and Gina’s team.

You also get access to the VA Foundations course, which is an updated version of Gina’s most popular course, previously called 30 Days or Less to Virtual Assistant Success. Most students are able to work through the VA Foundations course in a couple of weeks to a couple of months.

In the VA Foundations course, you’ll learn how to:

• Choose your primary service offerings and target market
• Set your starting rates
• Establish your online and social media presence, including two easy ways to display your services online without having to set up a website
• Collect and display client testimonials
• Find clients, including almost a dozen strategies for landing your first few clients
• Pitch your services (including templates you can use)
• Interview with clients and get hired
• Set up a proper business entity, use contracts, and onboard and invoice clients
• Avoid the dreaded freelancer “scope creep”
• Streamline your business and manage your time efficiently with systems (tip: today’s best virtual assistant CRM software can help with this!)
• Niche down and raise your rates
• Create a long-term marketing plan

Next, you’ll take the final exam, which you must score at least 70 percent on to receive certification and unlock access to the leads and skills courses. (Gina assures students the test isn’t hard if they’ve worked through the material.)

The leads you get with the course include proprietary leads (businesses that are interested in hiring Gina’s grads) as well as a weekly roundup of VA leads that Gina and her team have sourced from around the Internet.

The specialty skills courses bundled with #FullyBookedVA include:

• Social Media Virtual Assistant
• Real Estate Virtual Assistant (this VA niche is in high demand)
• Email Management Virtual Assistant
• Project Management Virtual Assistant
• Virtual Assistant Agency

The VA Foundations course, the leads pool, and all of the specialty skills courses are included in the monthly membership price of $199. However, you need to pass the VA Foundations exam to unlock the leads and the skills courses.

Phase 2: Specialization Tracks

Some students might just decide to sign up for a month or two, work through all the bundled courses, and then cut loose and launch their businesses.

Students who stick around for ongoing mentorship and peer support will be able to choose one of the following specialization tracks and receive advanced-level training with their peers in that same specialization track. These specialization tracks include:

• Customer Service and Admin
• Social Media and Community Management
• Content Marketing
• Tech and Automation
• Marketing Strategy

This phase of the training program is where you’ll become a specialist in the area that interests you most, and you’ll learn how to charge premium rates for those services.

It’s a lot to pack into one virtual assistant training program, so if you’re still confused, make sure to check out this video where Gina explains it all in detail.

How long will it take to finish the courses bundled with the training?

The course material is self paced, so it depends how much time you have to put into it. Some students have made their way through the VA Foundations course in a weekend of focused study, while others take a few months. Most students are able to finish the material and begin launching their business in about a month.

After the VA Foundations course and the final exam, you could probably work through the rest of the bundled courses in a month or two.

What kind of services can I offer as a VA?

As a virtual assistant, you can offer anything from administrative support to high-value services like marketing strategy and community management. You can be a jack of all trades, or specialize in a specific industry, like real estate.

If you need some inspiration, Gina has put together a very helpful free list of over 275 virtual assistant services you can offer.

How much can I earn as a virtual assistant?

The average North American virtual assistant earns $35-$50 per hour. Gina says that she’s seen people in her community charge as little as $15 per hour, while others, including herself, earn more than $100 per hour doing VA work.

Gina states, “Some students have the goal of bringing in a few hundred extra dollars each month, while others want to replace a six-figure salary. We’ve watched numerous students accomplish both goals over the last several years – most land somewhere in between.”

Because a lot of VA work tends to be on retainer (that is, clients pay a recurring monthly fee for your services), this business is highly scalable and you can easily make back your investment with your first VA client.

Another advantage about running a VA business is the low overhead. Most clients give you access to the cloud-based tools and software that you need to complete your work for them.

How will I get clients after I complete the course? How long will it take to get my first client?

Learning how to market your business and get clients is (in my opinion) the most exciting and important part of any business course. The #FullyBookedVA training program is designed to get students fully booked as quickly as possible, and it covers almost a dozen prospecting methods.

You’ll get access to all the prospecting methods before you complete the final exam, since they’re included in the VA Foundations course.

Here’s a sample of what you’ll learn in the prospecting section of the course:

• How to use social media content to market your VA business
• How to network in person
• How to cold pitch clients

Most students make their way through the VA Foundations course in a month or less, and many end up getting hired by their first client before they finish. (Remember, the VA Foundations course is only one course of several that you get access to in the #FullyBookedVA training program.)

Besides learning how to market your business and get your own clients, you’ll also get access to exclusive leads from Gina’s own proprietary network of business owners. These are people who are actively seeking to hire Horkey Handbook graduates. Many #FullyBookedVA students get most or all of their leads from this service.

As Gina states, “With just one client landed from our lead pool, you could easily earn $200-$2,000 per month, and more than pay for your investment in the #FullyBookedVA system (for a whole year).”

Is the #FullyBookedVASystem a good fit for me?

The #FullyBookedVA virtual assistant training program is probably a good fit for you if:

• You’re ready to put in the work long term to build a virtual assistant or freelance writing business, but you’re not sure how to find clients.
• You’re curious about what kind of services you can offer as a virtual assistant, or you want extra training in a specific virtual assistant niche, such as real estate or email management.
• You’re sick of low-paying gig work and you want more control over your earning potential and the types of projects you work on.
• You already have a virtual assistant business, and you’re ready to take it to the next level, niche down, and charge premium rates (or start a VA agency).

The #FullyBookedVA training program is probably not a good fit for you if:

• You’re looking for a way to make a quick buck online. Good businesses take work (and often money). If you just want to get a work-from-home job as quickly as possible, I have plenty of those listed on my site for free – for instance, this list of part-time online jobs and this list of 75+ work-from-home transcription jobs.
• You don’t have at least a few hours a week to dedicate to the course material. Although $199 per month is a great value for all the skill courses that are bundled with the training, it’s still a considerable financial commitment.
• You buy a lot of courses about how to make make money online and never take action on them. As Gina says, “Point blank, you’ll get results if you do what we tell you to. But if you think that all it takes to start a new business is spending a little bit of money to become a member (and not doing anything as a result), you’re going to be sorely disappointed.”

Recap: #FullyBookedVA System

So to recap what’s included in the #FullyBookedVA System, for the duration of your membership, you’ll have access to:

• The VA Foundations course (an updated version of 30 Days or Less to Virtual Assistant Success)
• The #FullyBookedVA Community
• Client leads (both proprietary and non-proprietary)
• Virtual assistant certification
• 5+ specialty skills courses, originally costing $197-$297 each
• Specialization tracks
• Live coaching and masterminds
• Templates, workbooks, and trackers to give you a turnkey approach to building your business

If you still have questions about Gina’s virtual assistant training program, check out this interview with Gina herself, where she answers all the most frequently asked questions about #FullyBookedVA.

Free Virtual Assistant Training and Resources

Here are some free virtual assistant courses, e-books, and resources I’ve collected from around the web.

Free Course: Pinterest Primer. Pinterest management is an increasingly popular service offered by virtual assistants. In this free Pinterest course by McKinzie Bean of Moms Make Cents, hosted on the Teachable platform, you’ll learn how to optimize your (or your client’s) Pinterest profile, create viral pins, and drive more blog traffic. If Pinterest is your thing, I’ve also written a post about my top-recommended Pinterest courses for bloggers.

Free Course: Start a Money Making Blog. Starting a blog and recommending products that you love is a good way to make some extra money while running your virtual assistant business. For example, I sell interview ranscription services on this site, but I also earn some affiliate income by recommending my favorite transcription tools and courses. In this free online course, created by Ana Skyes of The She Approach, you’ll learn how to create, grow, and monetize your first blog.

Free PDF Book: How to Start a Secretarial Service from Home by Someone Who Has. This free PDF book is written by Deborah Devitt, owner of Pioneer Transcription Services. Deborah started her transcription agency in 1990. The book has been revised since then, but some of the information is still outdated (such as the tip for submitting your website to search engines using a service). Overall, however, this book is a useful guide for people who are interested in starting a transcription agency. Some of the topics covered are marketing, setting your rates, billing clients, and subcontracting. If you’re interested in transcription specifically, I also recommend reading my step-by-step guide to becoming a transcriptionist.

Free Virtual Assistant Courses on Udemy. Udemy is my favorite marketplace for free and premium online courses. I have enrolled in 121 courses on here to date! They have over 130,000 courses on every subject imaginable. You can filter for free courses by typing into the search bar and then setting the “Price” filter to “Free.” Udemy offers sales every few days where almost all of their premium courses drop to less than $15, so if you’re interested in a premium course on Udemy, I recommend waiting a few days for one of their sales to come on so you can get a huge discount.

Thanks so much for visiting my blog. Please come again soon! And if you have a virtual assistant training program or course to recommend, feel free to contact me directly or leave a comment.