Welcome to another episode of the podcast that teaches you how to be a ridiculously good virtual assistant.
Today I want to talk some straight talk – I want to talk about mistakes that other VAs have made, and how those mistakes made them more resilient.
Today’s Quote: Resilience is not about overcoming, but becoming. It is about finding yourself in the process. – Sheryl Sandberg
Click the play button above to tune in, or choose your favourite podcast player below:
Connect with Tracey D’Aviero, VA Coach and Trainer
Episode Notes:
Every VA journey is unique. Yours is different than mine was, and mine was different that hers was.
We try to learn everything we can, and yet still some things don’t go the way we want them to, or the way we expected them to.
There can be tough moments.
Your job is to figure out a way to get out of them – and not repeat them again.
Tough situations help us learn how to do things better.
Let’s talk today about a few things that might go wrong – and how to fix them and move forward.
These examples have been gathered in the 14 years that I have been training and coaching VAs – they are not specifically issues that any of my VA clients had, they are examples, although they may be.
However, I’m not talking about any one in particular so please don’t think I’m breaking any confidentiality by sharing these examples with you. For the purposes of the examples I will refer to all of the VAs as Jane.
Maintaining Cash Flow
You must be able to maintain cash flow in your VA business. Without money, you have no business.
Jane took all the money her clients paid her and paid herself with it.
At the end of the year Jane didn’t have enough money to pay her taxes. She had to use her line of credit to pay them.
Jane also was shocked by the increase in her webhost fee, which went from $40 for the year to $150. Of course when she signed up, she knew that the first year was a special rate, but she panicked when the renewal came through and started looking for alternative web hosts, to no avail.
A conference came up in a nearby city that would have so many of her ideal clients at it, but Jane didn’t have the cash flow to pay the $300 ticket, the rental car to get there, and the hotel bill for a couple of days, so she missed out on the conference. But the return on investment would have been made back so easily by signing just a single client. The odds of getting more than one client at this event was enormous. The opportunity was missed.
These are real scenarios for Virtual Assistants.
It’s so important to get a hold of your finances in business as soon as you can.
The longer you wait, the worse it gets.
Begin with a budget. Know what your expenses will be a budget for them. Know how much you need to bring in to cover those expenses and pay yourself.
Keep an emergency fund if you can, to ensure stability when you lose a client or get sick – or even want to travel to a conference where you can get clients.
Start small with your financial plan and build from there. Always be aware of what is coming in and what is going out, and manage those things to the best of your ability. Create a budget a work with it.
If you find that you are constantly struggling, you need to seriously look at your revenue. You may need to raise your rates, or you may need to find new clients.
Always try to bring more revenue in, rather than cutting expenses too quickly. Struggling over the annual hosting fee of your website is a nonsense struggle. It’s s business expense that you pay once a year and the second year is the regular rate.
Budget for that higher rate your first year, even if you get a special deal in year one. Don’t be trying to cut something as simple as a website hosting plan a year into your business.
Instead, focus on getting clients and pricing your services correctly.
Handling Client Relationships
Jane worked with a new client who was very demanding.
They paid her well, and they were referred to her by another great client, so Jane wanted to go above and beyond to produce for this client.
It wasn’t hard to do, because the new client was a micromanager in the worst way.
They were very vocal, very direct, and even sometimes very rude.
They had set extremely high expectations for their team, and team meetings were tough as she barked orders at people in an effort to get things done.
Jane took the abuse, because that’s what it was, and although she didn’t like it, she liked the money.
This client would phone Jane and expect her to pick up at any time of the day or evening, and if she didn’t response, she would leave a rude voicemail.
The client figured if she was paying her VA $50 an hour, she better be available when she needed her.
This woman was a workaholic (a lawyer actually) and she thought everyone else should be too.
Clients do not get to talk to you any way they want to.
They do not get to demand when you are available, what you charge, when you do your work, none of that.
They are retaining you to do certain tasks for them – at the simplest – and you get to decide how they communicate with you, when you respond, when you deliver their work, and certainly how you manage your own schedule.
You need to set very clear boundaries with all clients around all of these things, and hold yourself and them to those boundaries.
You teach people how to treat you and Jane was letting this woman walk all over her, so she just continued to do it.
Jane struggled to do this with this client because as I mentioned, she was paying her well, and she had been a referral.
It didn’t matter if she knew someone. Jane fought back and was instantly fired from the team. Oh no!
It was the best thing ever, and Jane never got treated like that again. She replaced her with another client within a week.
Be confident in your ability to work with your clients, and knowing your value, and understand that walking away is always a good choice.
Overcoming Burnout
Jane’s VA business started off with a bang – a couple of great clients, and a super networking community.
She was providing good service for her clients, and the people around them knew it.
Clients were singing her praises in the networking group and other members of the group wanted Jane’s help too.
Jane said yes to everyone, and her business grew faster than she was prepared for, and she became overwhelmed.
Jane was so busy with client work that she stopped going to the networking meetings that her clients were at.
She worked tirelessly because she had so much work and she had negotiated lower rates with the people in the group because they were part of her networking community.
She had set her rate, but when it came to negotiating in person, she always caved and agreed to a lower rate.
So not only was Jane really busy, but she wasn’t making the money she had planned. She couldn’t get help from subcontractors because she couldn’t afford to pay any.
Enter burnout. Overcommitting, especially if you aren’t making the money to compensate for it, can be a terrible thing in business.
You will compromise self care, communication, and balance when you enter burnout – and it can be really hard to get out of.
If you drop deadlines, clients will not trust you anymore. If you dump your networking community, they may lose that connection with you.
Jane got burned out and hid from the world. She lost many clients, and much revenue.
She knew she could get new clients, but now she had a lack of self confidence that wasn’t there before when she was SO busy.
The road back was harder than the road she had taken to get there.
Always be checking in with yourself and be true to the business person that you know you are.
Set your rates properly and make sure to charge clients properly. Everything you do for clients is billable to them. Everything.
Bring in clients at a correct pace. Document your systems and processes and use them.
Build your business with the intention of bringing in support, even if you never do. If you have the revenue to support support, you will be much better off.
Review your workload often and make sure that you are working efficiently on your own, and identify areas where automation or assistance might benefit you.
Business Failure Rebounding
It’s not fun to fail. No one likes it.
Certainly no one likes to share the details with anyone if they do fail. We prefer to keep our failures secret, don’t we?
Jane signed a big client. She didn’t really want to the client, but they had been a referral and the payday was the largest she had ever made.
It was a four month project, similar to projects she had managed for clients before.
But she didn’t know this client, she had never worked with her before. She had a cursory 15 minute discovery call, identified that she could certainly help with the project, the client had the budget, so she said yes.
Imagine signing the biggest client ever and not really scoping them out enough.
Jane got to work and immediately realized that the client was not organized at all. Fine, she thought, I can fix the project system. She actually took on extra work to make her contract go more smoothly. But this wasn’t work that was included in the contract.
As the project progressed, Jane was doing her part and then slowly got handed the parts of several other team members who were not as experienced as Jane was.
Again, she took the work because it facilitated her getting her stuff done.
The project just never got on the right footing but that didn’t matter because the event was approaching and needed to get done.
The client and Jane clashed about many details – and Jane realized that this was simply not going to work out. She had two months left to go on her four month contract.
She had earned half the large payday, and she was spending way more time than she had planned helping this client.
Her other client work declined as she had so much less time than usual. Her regular clients were noticing, and were letting her know they noticed.
If she left the team of the big project, she would have been a failure – and she would have left the woman stuck.
But if she stayed, she would disappoint her clients that would remain after this event took place.
She quit. She chalked it up to scheduling even though it was so much more that that, and it was more the client’s issue than hers, but she took it as a business failure.
Jane lost not just that big client, but the respect of some of the people in the community they both networked in. She also lost a couple of her smaller clients who got frustrated with how busy her scheduled had gotten, fully expecting that this could be a recurring experience as she continued to grow her VA business.
Although it feels devastating at the time, we need to be resilient and go out and find that new client and do things differently moving forward.
Jane put in place a new vetting procedure and onboarding process that helped her show the client what their responsibilities are when she does big projects like this.
Being able to identify problem territory before you approach it is key.
This last one is me. This happened to me when I signed that client on to run a very large virtual conference for them.
The details are unimportant, but the lesson is there.
I put in some non negotiables to my process after that client.
I had firm lead times, communication boundaries, and the client had to have certain foundations set up like a CRM and an email client and an ecommerce system, before I ever helped them do anything.
Trying to do it all at once while launching an event was nearly impossible. So they need to lay the ground work first. I turned down many virtual conferences after that if the foundations were not in place.
I had been worried yes about losing the revenue, but I was more worried about my reputation in my chosen community. What I realized is that putting these non negotiables in place moving forward would help me do that, never mind what happened with this client.
It’s a good choice. And it’s a result of rebounding from a failed experience.
I’m going to leave it here for today, mainly because that’s enough! 🙂
Failure will happen, things will go wrong, and it’s how you bounce back from those failures that will help you grow in your VA business.
Obviously we hope nothing ever goes wrong – but sometimes it does and we need to handle it.
Learning to deal with things in a professional manner, without letting one walk all over you, is resilient.
It’s the much better way to be!
What have you experienced that has made you feel like throwing in the towel, or running away to hide, or dumping a client, or even is just giving you stress of any kind?
Fix it. And move on. That’s the advice. Jane says you can do it, and I agree with her. You deserve everything you dream of.
Let’s circle back to today’s quote by Sheryl Sandberg: Resilience is not about overcoming, but becoming. It is about finding yourself in the process.
Staying in business long term means building that resilience. And it’s not about overcoming things, really, it’s about you finding yourself as a business person. Not just a VA, someone’s helper. But a bona fide expert in helping others. That’s you!
Seek out support if you can’t do it on your own. It will be money well spent.
You can do this. It’s time. I’m here to help. It’s the only reason I’m here at all, is to help you become a ridiculously good VA. But it’s you who has to take that first step.
Do You Need Help?
If you are looking to build the kind of business I’m talking about – a 50K and beyond VA business, that’s where I can help. I am here to help you become a ridiculously good VA.
I have helped hundreds of VAs who are stuck get moving through private coaching, my monthly mastermind group The Virtual Circle, my group coaching program 50K Bootcamp, and my self study trainings like my Getting Started program, my monthly email membership The Virtual Toolkit, and more. If you are ready to get my help, let’s connect on a Cut to the Chase call. You can book yours at YourVAMentor.com/chase
Thank you again for trusting me to teach you and to guide you. I truly love to be here for you every week.
If I could ask you a favour – to subscribe to the podcast or leave me a review if you haven’t already. That’s something I should say every week and I never really do. But it matters and it will make sure that I know you are finding value in what I create just for you every week.
What You Need to Do Next:
PRIVATE COACHING: Let’s work together privately to get you to your really big goal. It’s the fastest way to get results and we can start right away. Learn more about private coaching here.
GROUP COACHING MASTERMIND: The Virtual Circle is a group coaching mastermind option that costs less than private coaching, and can help you achieve the goals you set for yourself. . Check it out here: The Virtual Circle Group Coaching Mastermind for Virtual Assistants . We’d love to have you join us!
50K VA GROUP COACHING PROGRAM: If you have been struggling to build your VA business, get in on this live coaching program where we will help you create the framework for a business that can earn you 50K a year and beyond. LAUNCHING FALL 2024, stay tuned!
MONTHLY EMAIL MEMBERSHIP: I also have a brand new low-cost monthly membership program that will help you build your VA business – and it doesn’t require you to be on social media! It’s an email membership that I call The Virtual Toolkit! Every Monday morning you’ll receive a lesson and a downloadable resource in your inbox, that you can use to take a step further in your VA business. Get more details and sign up here now!
SELF STUDY PROGRAM: My self study program Getting Started as a VA can help you get your VA business started easily and quickly too. You can sign up right away and be on your way to getting clients by the end of the program, with all the right foundations in place. Check out the program here.
COMPLIMENTARY CONSULT: Reach out to me if you need to talk about where you are stuck and what the right option might be to get you moving. It’s literally all I’m here to do is help you get to where you want to go. Book a complimentary Cut to the Chase call with me here.