Happy New Year! New year, new you, right?
Sometimes that’s easier said than done, but if you didn’t get what you wanted out of your VA business last year, now is the time to plan for change.
And I’ve got three quick questions to ask you, to help you get your plan in place.
1. Did you make enough money last year?
We all have goals, and revenue goals are common in business. Did you make what you expected to make? If you did, congratulations! If you didn’t, why was that?
Did you struggle to find clients? Did you discount your rates? Did you not raise your rates when you knew you weren’t earnng enough? Did you miss out on billing your clients for hours that you worked?
Figuring out WHY you got a certain result when you expected another is key to solving it and making it work for you moving forward.
2. What was hard for you last year?
Think back to the things you did on a daily basis – or a monthly basis – or client work that you did. What was difficult? What was easy?
What made that thing difficult? Did you not have the time? the experience? the desire? the technology? There are so many reasons that stuff doesn’t come easily to us.
That’s why we tell you to focus on the stuff that you know how to do well – that you have experience with, or training with. It makes the days fly by faster – and you enjoy what you do.
Whatever was hard for you – get help to make it easier this year – or stop doing it altogether if it’s a service you are offering. Do what you know!
3. What didn’t work for you last year?
Did you try a new strategy? Why didn’t it work? The key to fixing things is getting to the bottom of why something did not go the way it should have.
Sometimes we get bad advice, but sometimes it’s our implementation that needs work.
Identify where the wheels fell off, or why something didn’t go well for you – many times if you are following someone’s training, it’s because you don’t quite understand what the right steps are – and that’s fixable too!
Why am I bringing you down by asking you these questions!?
Because the beginning of a new year is PRIME time to make a plan so you don’t repeat mistakes, and so that you can confidently plan for your new year in business.
Here’s what you need to do:
1. Set a realistic revenue goal for the coming year.
What do you need to earn? Where will it come from? If you don’t know, get help to make your plan and your action steps.
How do we get clients? We target them and then we connect with them.
But there is more to it than that, and you need to make sure you have all of your systems in place with a process that feels good to you, that you will actually do every day – and you WILL get clients (and as a result, make more money!)
2. Focus on your strengths, talents, and experience.
Whatever you decide to offer clients, make sure it’s something you are excellent at. You have SO much experience with admin work – but it’s not all within your area of expertise, or what you love to do.
We all know that when we enjoy what we do, we do it better, we find ways to improve it, or take training in it, we stay up on trends, and we talk about it with a lot more people.
That’s what you need to do – decide what you are best at, and get that message out to your audience.. Doing what you love makes everything more fun – and easy!
3. Plan your strategy – and follow through.
Whatever didn’t work for you last year, you do not want to repeat this year. Doing the same thing over and over will yield the same results.
But that doesn’t mean that the strategy was wrong – it could have been the action steps, or your dedication to doing it, or your habits, or your ego. So many things can go wrong when we are struggling. I know!
So you need support to move through the stuff you need to do to reach your goals.
Get that support, and make a commitment to yourself to do what you say you want to do!
Planning for the new year of business can be daunting, but it doesn’t have to be a big process. It starts with where you want to be at this time next year. And then a solid plan of how you will get there.
As always, I recommend daily actions – because it keeps your goal in focus, and it also keeps the action piece manageable. You have to try it if you don’t believe me. It works!
Did you know that if you get 1% better at something every day (which is soooo little!), you will be 37X better at it at the end of the year?
Imagine us having this same conversation next year! I can hardly wait!
Baby steps, take daily action. and you’ll be on your way to big success within a few short weeks!
It’s time …
What You Should Do Next:
To take daily actions and start building your VA business now, you need to join The Virtual Circle.
TVC is a small group of professional VAs who are getting things done in their business through weekly support and training.
It’s a low cost, high-value coaching alternative to private coaching a monthly mastermind group that helps you get to where you want to go.
If you are struggling through your VA business at all it’s time to sign up. Your investment of $129 can translate into clients in just ONE month, because we will help you set up your plan and take those daily actions. Let’s go! If you are struggling through your VA business, check out this group to see if it’s the right time for you!