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Managing Commitment Will Make You a Better VA

Here’s the story of when my piano teacher fired me for a lack of commitment. When you start learning something new, it’s not too hard to find your commitment – and motivation – to want to do it well. As time wears on, and the shine wears off, it becomes harder to keep up the initial level of commitment. We need to find ways to get motivated to keep going. Much of the time if we don’t get help with motivation, we simply give up. It’s why most New Year’s resolutions don’t last. It’s also why my piano teacher fired me when I was 15. I was a very good piano player. I could pick up a piece of music… Read More »Managing Commitment Will Make You a Better VA

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Looking for the Upside During Challenging Times

The world has been slowed to a crawl because of Coronavirus. How are you coping? When things aren’t going the way we want them to in our business – we don’t have enough clients, or we don’t make enough money, or we burn ourselves out because we don’t charge enough (or can’t say no to a client) – it is easy (oh so easy!) to get down. It is easy to let the bad stuff overtake your mind, and your thoughts. With a pandemic, many things are out of our control. It can be even harder to see the upside. You might realllly have to look for it some days. Here are a few tips that might help: 1. Talk… Read More »Looking for the Upside During Challenging Times

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How To Take Time Off From Your VA Business

Is your VA business set up for the unexpected? I recently had to take some personal time away from my business. I had no notice – it was a family emergency – and I had to be off right away. There will be a time in your business when you need to be off – whether unexpectedly or planned – hello, vacation? –  🙂 When we first start our business, we often don’t think of this until we need it. That’s normal. So if you have not got yours set up yet, here are a few tips for you: 1. Write everything down. Build procedures for each of the tasks that you perform in your business. Write them down and… Read More »How To Take Time Off From Your VA Business

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5 Great Things About Turning 50!

This week I turned 50 years old. 50! Holy cow. It looks pretty good from up on top of this hill. I can look around and reflect on where I have been and where I am going. In my travels, I have Googled turning 50 (I Google everything!), and this neat little article popped up that I thought I would share with you. The fact that it’s on the website seniors.lovetoknow.com stopped me for a moment, but then you are only as old as you feel (senior, though? yikes!), and I continued reading the article. It’s titled 50 Good Things About Turning 50. I realized that it was easy enough to share the whole article with you rather than reinvent the wheel. It’s a… Read More »5 Great Things About Turning 50!

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Are You Just Wasting Your Time?

Do you ever look up at the end of a day and wonder where the time went? Losing time is very common for Virtual Assistants – and anyone who works on their own, or from their home. With no one around but us, it can be easy to start a task and not really keep track of where the time has gone. I’m not really talking about client work – if you aren’t keeping track of that, that’s bad! I’m talking about when you are not working on client work. Maybe you are on social media, maybe you are writing blog posts or creating content. Many VAs I know do not set blocks of time to get these types of… Read More »Are You Just Wasting Your Time?

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Are You On Your Way to Burnout?

How’s it going in your business? Are you stressed? anxious? nervous? excited? tired? BUSY? When we are asked this question, often the answer is BUSY. We don’t ever mind sharing that, but we would probably be less inclined to use any of those other words to describe how things are going if someone asks. Why is that? Isn’t it normal to be stressed or excited in business? The point of being an entrepreneur is that we have a fire lit in our bellies that we want to work towards every day. But the truth is, we often just keep those feelings inside and share that we are ‘busy’. To me, when you filter the response you give people, that could… Read More »Are You On Your Way to Burnout?

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Do You Make Time for Self Care?

I think it’s a female thing. Taking care of others before taking care of ourselves. I don’t do it on purpose, and you might not either, but it happens. It’s often instinctive. That never-ending list of things we need to get done ticks away in our heads and sometimes we forget that we need to slow down. We need to take time for ourselves. To care for ourselves. Do you make time? I remember way before my VA days, I was in my early 20s trying to figure out what I was going to be when I grew up. I was working as a courier driving packages around the city. It was a good job and I was able to… Read More »Do You Make Time for Self Care?

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How Do You Take Time Off as a Virtual Assistant?

Every month when I send out my client billing, I let them know which days I will be out of the office in the coming month. It’s an easy habit to get into – I can book off whatever days I want, and they get enough notice so we can make plans to get their work done on their deadlines. I have done it for quite a while now and my clients now just have to take my email and update their own calendar. It’s quick and easy! How do you take time off? Do you take time off? Maybe that’s the first question to ask! I used to never take time off. I was usually the only support staff… Read More »How Do You Take Time Off as a Virtual Assistant?

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