People who want to work from home but do not have any experience may find this guide useful. Over the past 10 years, more than 7,000 individuals have been trained to start their own businesses from home. One key finding from that experience is that a special degree is not required.
A specific background or technical experience is not required; many people already have skills that they could use to pursue remote jobs. This guide lists 20 remote jobs that may be available without experience and provides information about each job to help readers determine whether it is suitable for them.
Many individuals began by looking at what they already had. What skills might be transferable to the online space? That is the focus of this guide.
When evaluating remote job opportunities that do not require experience, it is important to assess available skills and contributions. This can be an important factor.
These 20 remote jobs are divided into three separate categories.
The categories are administrative services, creative services, and specialized services.
Administrative Services
1. Email Management
Most people have email accounts and answer their own emails, even if it is just back-and-forth communication with a child’s football coach. Managing emails is a service that small business owners need. Individuals who can learn to manage their own inbox can learn to manage a small business owner’s inbox. This is important because it can be done without a resume showing executive assistant experience or similar qualifications.
Individuals who can answer an email can offer this as a service.
2. Calendar Management and Appointment Setting
Small business owners are busy. The back-and-forth involved in scheduling meetings—such as confirming a location, date, time, and place—can involve substantial communication. Individuals who can remove that scheduling burden from a small business owner can perform this job for them.
3. Data Entry
Data entry was one of the first services Abbey Ashley offered when she started a virtual assistant business in 2015. A client provided a large spreadsheet and requested that all of the information be extracted and placed into other documents. This process had to be completed manually. AI has now made the task easier.
A person could take a picture of the material, upload it into a tool such as Claude or ChatGPT, and have the work completed more quickly. However, the task still needs to be completed. Even though tasks like this can now be performed faster than before, small business owners may not have time to do them.
That is why they hand them off to a virtual assistant, freelancer, or another person who can perform the job remotely.
4. Travel Research and Booking
Travel research and booking is a service because travel requires planning.
Families often look for travel deals. When they find them, substantial planning is involved, from booking flights and hotels to planning itineraries and coordinating the entire schedule. This is something that can be done for business owners.
The travel may be personal, or it may involve planning a conference or another event they will attend. Travel research and booking can be added to a list of services.
5. Market Research
Competitor analysis is a skill that can be brought to the table.
AI has made this easier than before, so a person can conduct competitor analysis with AI and provide a deliverable to a client. Even when a tool is used to complete it, the task may still be something the client has been meaning to complete but has not had time to address. These services can also be completed using AI.
This does not eliminate the job. Virtual assistants are not necessarily being replaced. Virtual assistants who use AI and learn how to apply it may replace those who do not.
This should be kept in mind when considering these services.
6. Survey Creation and Analysis
Many companies regularly survey their students.
Questions may include: What do students want to see more of? What do they want to see less of? Sometimes the process involves actual interviews. A contractor may be paid to reach out to current students who have been successful, capture their stories in a guide, and ask them questions. Testimonial collection cannot be fully taken over by AI, but survey collection and analysis—including creating spreadsheets or presentations of gathered information—can be valuable services.
This is a skill that business owners are willing to pay for.
7. Community Management
Communities exist in many places.
Many groups ask a series of questions before allowing someone to join. Some people must be denied entry if they do not answer the questions. Once people are in the group, the community must be monitored to prevent spam and maintain a healthy, spam-free environment. A community manager may post engaging questions.
They may also respond to people’s questions. These are all tasks that can be performed. The work could involve a Facebook group.
It could involve a LinkedIn group. It could involve an online community, such as a school community or a Kajabi community. Different platforms now host communities.
Therefore, community management extends beyond Facebook groups.
8. File Organization
The back end of a business can become difficult to manage without consistent organization.
Whether the work involves organizing email files, a Google Drive, another platform, or a project management system, file organization may require a person to take the time to remove the burden from a small business owner.
9. Email Organization
The work may involve the actual file system, but it can also involve setting up filters. It can include setting up autoresponders or drafting emails and templates.
These are resources that a small business owner could use in day-to-day operations.
Creative Services
People have different strengths. Some are more administrative. These are often checklist-oriented and precision-focused individuals.
Others are more creative. Abbey Ashley identifies as more creative. Attention to detail may not be her strongest skill, but she works with contractors who have that skill. Many business owners are visionaries, while others may need a creative person because they are more administrative.
There is a place for different skill sets. Individuals do not need to possess every skill. Not every service listed here should be included in a service list.
People starting a virtual assistant or freelancing business should consider the tasks they are naturally inclined to perform and then consider adding those skills.
10. Blog Writing
Blog writing was one of the first higher-level skills Abbey Ashley offered. She started with general administrative work involving customer service email and eventually determined that she enjoyed writing.
She then acquired a client for whom she wrote blog posts of more than one thousand words. AI can now write blog posts in a person’s voice and produce a first draft. It can be trained to write in a particular style, but human review is still often preferred for adding personal details.
Publishing content also still requires human involvement. Blog writing and the entire process before and after it can be added to a service list.
11. Graphic Design
Some people may have studied graphic design, while others may have spent considerable time using Canva. In either case, there is still a need for graphic designers who can take a vision and turn it into reality. In many businesses, AI may be used for certain tasks. For example, many carousels may be AI-generated.
However, when it comes to creating custom slides or a landing page with a particular look, businesses may still prefer to have a designer physically create the work.
12. Newsletter Creation
The Virtual Savvy sends out a newsletter every week.
However, a great deal goes into creating that weekly newsletter. The process includes compiling content, placing it into the newsletter, ensuring it is formatted correctly, scheduling it, and potentially creating graphics.
This is a skill that still needs a human in the loop to complete. It can be added to a service list.
13. Social Media Content Creation
Social media can mean many different things. It could involve Facebook posts. It could involve Instagram reels. It could involve carousels.
It could involve posting on a platform such as Substack or LinkedIn. Social media covers a wide range of work. People who have posted on their own social media or know how to schedule a post may find that clients will pay for that service. Some clients may want to create their own social media and may not want to hand it off, but the repetitive task of scheduling it can be removed from their plate.
14. Pinterest Management
A Pinterest manager may approach a small business owner and offer to help generate more traffic to the owner’s site. The small businesses primarily using Pinterest at this time are fashion brands and food brands.
Although other businesses still use it, people who enjoy working in that niche or industry can learn how to post engaging content on Pinterest to drive traffic to a site. This can be a skill that can eventually be learned. A person may not know how to do it now or have experience in it, but it may be possible to learn it.
Some people may already have experience in it, while others may think, “I do not know how to do this, but I could learn how to do it.” One principle taught to students is that a person may not know everything, but can learn anything. Most people can identify something they did not know how to do five years ago that they know how to do now. People can learn new things.
Specialized Services
Some people may think, “I do not have experience. I do not know how to run a business. I do not know how to be a virtual assistant or a freelancer.”
They may not have worked in administration in the past. That is acceptable. Nurses, teachers, and people in the nonprofit field enter these programs every day.
They are able to change their lives by using transferable skills to help small business owners. Some of these services may involve skills a person does not currently know but could potentially learn.
15. Guide Editing
Tools are available that make this easier. A tool such as Descript is effective for guide editing, but human involvement is still needed.
There is a great deal involved. Simply placing a guide into Descript may still result in errors. Managing the entire process of using tools that make the work easier while a human oversees it is likely to become increasingly common in the online virtual assistant freelancing industry.
Guide editing may be a skill that a person already knows or could learn. A person could also oversee AI systems that perform parts of the work.
16. YouTube Management
The Virtual Savvy has a YouTube channel.
A significant amount of work goes into a guide. Trending topics must be researched. Thumbnails and titles must be researched, and the hook for the guide must be determined.
Guides may be scripted, though not necessarily word for word. Some clients prefer to script their entire guide.
Others prefer bullet points but still need an outline to follow. An outline must be prepared before the guide.
After the guide is completed, it is edited and uploaded. Descriptions are added, and the guide is sent to the email list.
Sometimes clips from the guide are repurposed into shorts or social media posts. A great deal goes into creating a YouTube guide. This can be a service people learn, especially if they have their own YouTube channel or are interested in YouTube.
A person may not know everything, but can learn anything.
17. Podcast Editing
Podcast editing is similar to YouTube management, except without the guide element. It may involve editing the actual audio. It could also involve inviting guests onto the show, following up with guests, and sending thank-you notes afterward.
There is a great deal involved in creating a podcast, including show notes and interview questions. People who enjoy doing this work, or believe they would enjoy it, may add it to the list of services they would like to learn.
18. PR and Outreach
PR and outreach involves connecting small business owners with people or opportunities that could expand their brand. This could involve getting them featured in publications such as Entrepreneur magazine or Forbes. It could involve guest posting and exchanging those guest posts. It could involve other ways to increase visibility.
A recent student had experience in this area. She entered the program thinking, “I want to be a virtual assistant. So I guess I have to offer all this data entry and the beginner services.”
However, she had a PR background and could freelance using that experience. This is important to keep in mind when considering potential remote jobs: previous work experience may include skills that can be performed remotely on a freelance basis.
19. Website Design and Maintenance
The same principle applies to website design and maintenance. People with experience building a website can offer it as a service. When it comes to freelancing, ongoing services may be more beneficial than only one-time projects.
For example, someone who decides to work in website management should not simply create a website and then leave the client. They can identify ways to provide ongoing services, because stacking monthly recurring revenue can support a business model.
A freelancer might complete a one-time $$2,000$$, $$5,000$$, or $$10,000$$ website project and then offer a $$199$$-per-month upkeep fee. This could include updating plugins, ensuring the site runs well, and making necessary adjustments.
This can be an ongoing service.
20. Bookkeeping
The last specialized service is bookkeeping. Many bookkeepers enter the community and say, “I want to be a virtual assistant.” That is appropriate.
However, they should not overlook the fact that they have a valuable skill that small business owners are willing to pay for. Whether the experience is bookkeeping, tax preparation, or another field, people can begin offering that service. People who do not know how to perform these skills do not need to offer them.
Conclusion
The list began with general administrative skills and became more technical throughout. People can review this guide and think, “I could start with data entry, calendar management, answering customer service emails, or community management and responding to people’s posts inside a community.” Some people have already spent time doing these tasks. These skills may be turned into a remote job.