Welcome to another episode of the podcast that teaches you how to be a ridiculously good virtual assistant.
Today we are going to talk about what to do when something goes wrong in your VA business.
Today’s Quote: Every problem is a gift – without problems we would not grow. – Tony Robbins
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Connect with Tracey D’Aviero, VA Coach and Trainer
Episode Notes:
What do we do when something goes wrong?
How do we react to it?
How do we respond to it?
I’m not talking about something that you are doing for client – making a mistake with their work, and so on.
What I want to talk about in this episode is what happens when something unexpected happens.
It’s kind of funny that I chose a Tony Robbins quote for today because I’m not a huge fan, but it’s so perfect for this topic.
Without problems we would not grow. How do we know how to create a procedure or a boundary or a process, if it doesn’t go wrong to being with?
Problems are important – the solving of them of course.
How do you handle it when something goes wrong?
I think we are all the same – at first we are upset with ourselves, and then we try to move forward.
But if we are dealing with a lot of other stress, sometimes it magnifies things that aren’t so bad – or that can be fixed easily.
Let’s talk about real stuff. Here are a few examples of the kinds of things I’m talking about:
I Messed Up A Discovery Call
Has this ever happened to you? It has happened to me so many times.
Not as many these days, but in the beginning I messed up tons of them.
What did I do?
Lots of things – but mostly, I avoided talking money with the client while on the call.
I used to have a sales job. I was a sales rep for a courier company – package delivery. All day long we would go through our contacts and make cold and warm phone calls to talk to people who we wanted to use our services. Some of them were initial calls, some of them were follow up calls, and some of them were check in calls with clients.
But we definitely spent most of our days on the phone. Like the movies!
Sounds fun eh?
It was actually a pretty fun job, and I learned a ton of stuff about business and people, and sales.
But let me tell you when I left that job a year and a half later, I never wanted to talk to anyone on the phone ever again.
Especially in a sales conversation.
So, when I started trying to find clients for my business, I shied away from contact with people. Any contact other than email.
So my sales conversations were not great. Well they were, I made a lot of contacts – but I wanted to move so far away from talking money and handling objections that I rarely did it on the phone. I convinced myself that sending a detailed proposal after the call was sufficient.
Sometimes it was. Sometimes it wasn’t.
When I started working with a business coach, we looked at my approach and immediately saw that it was not the right way to get clients.
Instead of selling, I started identifying if I could help the person on the other end of the phone. If I could, I told them I could. And then I asked them their budget. And we went from there.
This was so much wrong at first though. It took me years to work with a business coach. And imagine – once I changed how I was doing my discovery calls, I got clients. Lots of clients!
If you have messed up a discovery call, what went wrong? Are you doing it all the time? Or did it happen just once? If once, how can you ‘save’ that call – all you need to do is to get back in touch with that client.
You can even ask for a do over if you want. Clients get that we are human.
Or you can make a plan to do it differently the next time.
Create a checklist if you missed something important. Change the way you approach the calls (not selling but helping). Make sure you talk budget with the client on the call. You can’t know for sure that you can help them if you don’t know what they are expecting to spend for help.
I Can’t Pay My Expenses or Myself
This is a big one that can go wrong in your business.
If you are operating on a razor thin margins, then you have very little room for things to go wrong.
How have you set your rates?
Did you factor in your expenses when you were setting your rates?
So many VAs don’t do this. We try to charge as little as possible so that our clients will hire us. Hello, I did this!
But we should be thinking about what our business needs to be profitable.
We can’t stay in business if we are not profitable.
I know, most of us just want to work from home and get paid. But it’s still running a business!
You can’t pay yourself, your expenses and anything else you need to run your business well if you don’t bring in enough revenue.
I still hear VAs charging $25/hour. I charged $25/hour 25 years ago … and my business coach at the time told me it wasn’t enough THEN. We doubled my rates.
How to fix this? Stop. Redo your rates right now.
Raise your rates for your existing clients. Charge more to incoming new clients.
Identify your expenses – a lot of VAs don’t have any real expenses and are still suffering because of taxes or programs they have taken that haven’t helped them find clients.
If you aren’t earning enough money, you have to fix that problem right away – what can you do now? What can you do to fix it moving forward?
If you have confidence issues around charging higher rates than $25/hour, you need to work with someone who can help you identify why you ARE worth that – and why you need to charge that for your business to be successful.
I Lost Some Work and/or Wasted My Time
This is probably the number one issue that I hear from VAs.
It happened to me recently actually – the losing work part. Twice!! And it definitely wasted my time!
I do my podcast notes in Trello. I spend a lot of time on my notes before I record and then I use them as a script when I record my podcast.
I do some research while I make my notes, and I type them out as I go.
But I write them into a comment on a card – which does not autosave.
So I have to remember to save the comment occasionally so I don’t lose my work.
No problem right? Sounds easy enough.
Yes it does sound easy! But remember when I just told you that it happened to ma twice?
It did.
Not once, but twice did I forget to save the comment at all, and closed it and went off to something else.
Of course I came back to … no notes.
And did you know that Trello doesn’t autosave? I think I mentioned that.
It also doesn’t archive anything.
When it’s gone, it’s gone. Believe me, the first time I did that, I investigated every ounce of Trello and hit up support … nothing.
So I had to redo my notes. All of ’em!
And all was well, until I actually frigging did it again a couple of weeks ago!
Unreal. Yep. Same exact thing.
I was on a roll with my notes, not really paying attention because I was following a train of thought.
And I did it again!
Was it the end of the world? Of course not – most mistakes aren’t.
But it did waste a lot of time for me – again.
So how can I ensure that it doesn’t happen again (because clearly I can’t trust myself to just remember to save!)
Well, I have to change where I do my notes – to something that autosaves (hello MS Word)
Simple, simple change that will make sure this never happens again.
Another way that VAs waste time is through doing intense unending research.
It’s unbelievable to me how much time VAs spend researching things.
Oh, I do it too – I’m not accusing you ha ha! – but it really is wild.
And it’s a waste of time, almost every time.
Yes it is. (sorry, I heard you say no it’s not!)
So how do we fix losing time when it comes to going down rabbit holes, or still looking for that ONE more fact or piece of information?
We set ourselves time limits for research – and we set a goal for the research.
Not: I’m going to investigate CRMS for my business. But: I am going to compare 3 CRMS to see which one is right for my business. I’m going to poll my colleagues (in one FB group), and I’m going to spend 60 minutes total gathering data on the 3 systems (2o minutes each), and then 30 minutes doing my comparison / pros and cons list, in order to make a decision.
That’s how you don’t waste time. In 90 minutes you will have all of your work done, some input from your colleagues, and you can make a decision.
These are three really different scenarios of how things go wrong, but I hope they give you some insight for things that are going wrong for you – either once, or all the time.
Ideally no matter what goes wrong, here is what you need to do to fix it:
- Identify what went wrong – is it a one time thing or a consistent issue? If it’s a one time thing, what can you do to fix it? If it’s consistent, what more do you need to have in place to stop it from happening over and over?
- Take responsibility for your part in it – just as we would apologize to our client if we messed up something of theirs, we need to identify what our role is in it for ourselves. Feeling bad for ourselves is fine, but it has to be short lived. Nothing gets fixed if we wallow in our misery. If it is someone else’s fault (or something else like a software issue) then make sure you know that too. Sometimes things just break, or don’t do what they are supposed to. If it’s not your fault, realize that too.
- Make a plan to fix it. This is always the most important part. Move forward. Get out of the bad place. If you have had this issue before, then it’s even more important to address it. Put some new safeguards in place to fix it in the future. Nobody wants to always hope that nothing goes wrong, but tech is tech. I use Zoom every day and it often messes up. Not my fault, but I still need to fix it if it messes up. Procedure time in your business.
- Ask for help. This is my last point, but it should always be the first I think. It’s almost always quickest to fix a mistake by getting help. Support chats are the bomb. Colleagues are amazing. Yes, you can do hours of research to fix a problem, but is that the best use of your time? (no it’s not – see mistake number 2 in this episode!). Find your people, your trusted community – and get their help to fix it.
The bottom line is you have to take action when something goes wrong.
The same as you would if you made a mistake for a client, it should become your highest priority to fix – and you should have a plan for everything that can go wrong.
Maybe these aren’t your problems.
Maybe your problem is that you can find clients.
Maybe your problem is that you have too many clients.
Maybe your problem is that you suck at time management.
All of these can be handled in the ways I described today.
I can help you fix your problems.
Let’s circle back to Tony’s quote for today – problems are a gift that help us grow.
I can help you find clients. I can help you manage too many clients. I can help you with time management.
I can help you stop losing time or work, I can help you pay yourself and set your rates properly. I can help you get better at discovery calls.
I am here to help. It’s the only reason I’m here at all, as you know. To help you become a ridiculously good VA.
I’ve helped hundreds of VAs through challenges just like the ones you are having, and helped them grow their business and build the lifestyle that they dream of. I’d love to do the same for you.
We can work together privately, in my monthly mastermind group, or you can enroll in some of my self study trainings. I have plenty of options to help you get where you want to go. Check them out in the show notes for this episode. Thanks for tuning in this week! I’ll see you next time!
What You Need to Do Next:
I am here to help. It’s the only reason I’m here at all, as you know. To help you become a ridiculously good VA.
I’ve helped hundreds of VAs through challenges just like yours, and got them on their way to growing their business and the lifestyle that they dream of. That you dream of.
I’d love to do the same for you.
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.
The Virtual Circle (TVC) is a monthly mastermind group for Virtual Assistants just like you. We get together 3 times a month for group Zoom sessions to talk about what you are struggling with, working on, or celebrating. It’s a close knit community of your VA colleagues that provides the best kind of support for your VA business. Learn more about TVC here.
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.
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.