When I first started freelancing online, I had no online work experience, no network, no highly specialized technical skillsets, no portfolio either, and no testimonials.
I had a pretty tight budget because I was a corporate intern at the time so I also didn’t have money to invest in starting up something.
I did have a degree (I want to disclose that and check my privilege), but it wasn’t particularly relevant for working online.
So because I had no idea where to begin, I decided to start online essentially as an admin & content assistant. (I have a whole detailed video about how I got started online that I’ll link HERE!)
But I really credit that first role as a content assistant back in 2016 with everything that followed: my growth into a freelance digital business manager position, scaling my hourly rates, being able to travel full time and being location independent, and of course, eventually, hitting all my financial and freedom goals.
That first step I took is the most important step I have ever taken, so I thought it’d be fun to chat about those beginner-friendly, get your foot in the door, first-step roles!
To clarify – what we mean by beginner-friendly freelance jobs with low barriers to entry, we mean:
- Low Barrier to Entry – it’s relatively easy to get into it in terms of lack of requirements or pre-requisites – these are not highly technical jobs where you need a lot of experience or training or specific qualifications to do them.
- Not Expensive – it’s not expensive to get into it – you don’t need expensive tools or software to operate these types of freelance roles.
And what I mean by a ‘realistic‘ online job is that:
- It will not take years to make a decent income off of it – like Youtube, blogging or affiliate marketing would, these take a long time and a lot of work to see ROI.
- It’s not high risk so you can realistically expect to make money with this service right away. Unlike drop shipping which is a skill that you develop over a long time and is not a good beginner job. Remember: If it sounds too easy to be true, it is.
- It is long-term – We won’t be talking about doing one-off small tasks or taking surveys and testing websites.
🔮 Disclaimer: Reality Check
Before we dive in, we want to issue a quick disclaimer.
First of all, there’s no such thing as ‘get rich quick‘ or ‘get rich easy’; everyone is looking for this magic solution that will help you make money fast and with low effort. There isn’t one.
There are lots of things that will help you get started quickly, and there are a lot of things that will help you get rich slowly but they will all require good, honest work.Our best advice on these beginner-friendly freelance jobs: You don’t need to see these jobs as a forever thing (unless you want to); you can instead, treat them as a stepping stone.
Treat it as a way to get started, to begin developing skills and experience. To begin getting to know clients and business owners who may refer you to higher-paid work or promote you within their team – all of this is possible once you get started.
You will grow your skills and your experience, which in turn you can then use to grow your rates, which in turn you can use to grow your freedom.🍳 7 Beginner-Friendly Freelance Jobs With Low Barriers To Entry
Becoming an assistant in anything is possibly the easiest role to get started with online.
And if you’re thinking, “I’m not qualified to do that – I don’t know how to do that.”
Oftentimes you don’t even have to worry too much about knowing 100% how to do the task. A business owner is not looking to you to have some ground-breaking tactic or strategy to doing a task, they’re just looking for extra time.
They don’t have time so they’re paying you to help them save their time. You just have to commit to the time commitment, be willing to figure it out, self-study via google, and be diligent about it.
Here are more specific examples of services you can offer as a freelance assistant and who needs these services:
1. 🤳🏼 Social Media Assistant
What to offer:
- Help with creating graphics for Instagram using Canva
- Help with writing captions
- Help with scheduling things into an online scheduler
Who needs this: Any business that is actively using social media or wants to be – which is most businesses nowadays.
How to get started: Look up small businesses that you know are doing well – for example, book authors that are best sellers, Etsy shop owners who are selling very well, course creators who have hundreds of students – and who have a lacking presence on a social media platform that would work well for their target audience.
Pitch them why they NEED to be on that platform, how it ties back to their business goals aka, how will it help them make more money, and create a first 30-day plan.
2. 👋 Community Assistant
What to offer:
- Offer to help with creating engaging posts for a community
- Moderating the community posts and comments
- Hosting events for the community
Who needs this: Any business that has a monetized community on Slack, Circle, Mighty Networks, or Facebook.
Are you reading this as a Virtual Assistant and wondering if there is more to working online than being a VA? Check out this free interactive journey below on how to level up your Virtual Assistant skills:
Want to Scale Your $$$, Passion, Impact and Freedom *Sustainably* as a Virtual Assistant
3. 📇 Blog Assistant
What to offer:
- Help with blog ideas
- Outlining or doing research
- Uploading blog posts
- Formatting them
- Creating promotional graphics
- Publishing them online
Who needs this: Anyone wanting to prioritize monetization of a blog – so someone who is taking blogging seriously, not a hobby blogger. Someone who is consistently creating content and has been for at least 6-12 months.
Think about ALL the niche blogs out there – some of them are 6 and 7-figure businesses – they do not run those blogs by themselves.
Think of a dream blogging niche you are interested in, (Dessert blogger came to mind immediately🧁). Look up a list of 20 – 30 bloggers in that category that are mid-sized, so not massive followings – you can check how big they are on Instagram – and pitch them your time and services.
4. 📲 Tiktok Assistant
What to offer:
- Content research – coming up with ideas by doing research on TikTok
- Writing scripts
- Editing Tiktok videos and publishing videos
- Responding to comments
Who needs this: Every business owner who wants to prioritize TikTok but doesn’t have time or doesn’t want to figure it out.
Advice: Find a few business owners whose topics you think could really do well on Tiktok, pitch them with a few ideas and a trial project, and make sure to emphasize the impact it could have on their business.5. 🎥 Youtube Assistant
What to offer:
- Researching content ideas
- Helping outline scripts for content
- Helping with light editing
- Writing shownotes and descriptions
- Publishing videos
Who needs this: Any business owner that wants to prioritize Youtube as an organic growth channel – which is a lot of business owners now that paid media is less effective.
How to get started: Look for YouTubers with at least 10,000 subscribers who are posting regularly and you can tell they’re taking it seriously. Even better if they potentially have some income potential to invest into hiring.
Another route would be to search for business owners that you think would do really well on youtube.
Pitch them what you could get set up for them as a one-time project and why they need to be on that platform while tying it to their goals. Make it easy for them!
6. 🤝 Public Relations Assistant
What to offer:
- Pitching to podcasts
- Pitching to journalists
- Pitching to publications
Who needs this: Any business that wants to prioritize features in news articles to grow their credibility or any business that wants to work on organic partnerships to drive traffic to their business.
Other Less Specialized Assistant Freelance Jobs:
7. 👩💻 Generalized Virtual Assistant
You can be a generalized virtual assistant that offers a range of services – that’s totally possible, too.
This is a super basic one – this can just be any and all administrative help.
What to offer:
- Email management help
- Calendar management and scheduling
- Taking notes during meetings
- Data entry, and research
- Miscellaneous day-to-day tasks
An example would be starting as a content intern and then growing into a content manager and from there possibly becoming a project manager and finally, a digital business manager where you’re managing all aspects of the business. #truestory!
This is a GREAT first step and learning opportunity with high-growth potential.
So – which one of these roles sounds the most interesting to you? Let me know in the comments of this video and I’ll give you the first step to working towards that role.
As always, thanks for reading and I’ll catch you in the next one! 🙂
Want ALL the juicy details on how to work online as a digital business manager?
Check out my FREE intro class which goes over what exactly a digital business manager does day-to-day, how much I make as a DBM, my 5-step plan to get you started and more!
What's in this post?
Want ALL the juicy details on how to work online as a digital business manager?
Check out my FREE intro class which goes over what exactly a digital business manager does day-to-day, how much I make as a DBM, my 5-step plan to get you started and more!
