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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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How to Stay Positive and Optimistic When Being a VA is Hard

The power of positive thinking in your Virtual Assistant business is an excellent skill to learn. Do you have trouble staying positive? When we start our VA business, it is easy to be optimistic. But as time goes on, it is very easy to let negativity set in. Sometimes we just have a bad day. Sometimes we get overwhelmed by client work. Sometimes we struggle to find clients. Sometimes we feel like it’s too much, and it’s probably just easier to go back to a J-O-B. There are any number of things that may take over that positive area of your brain and bring you down. Wow, nice optimistic article, eh?! But this is a real issue – especially during… Read More »How to Stay Positive and Optimistic When Being a VA is Hard

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How To Fix the Biggest Problem in Your Virtual Assistant Business

What is your biggest problem in your VA business? I recently had a conversation with a VA who was just getting her business started. I had offered her a complimentary consultation to answer some of her questions about getting started. Her question list was very, very long. That’s not a bad thing, but when you have lots of questions, guess what happens quickly? … OVERWHELM. She was overwhelmed by the things she thought she needed to do. She was overwhelmed by the things she wanted to do. She was overwhelmed by the things that she didn’t even realize she should be doing. She was kind of a mess. She felt overwhelmed, and confused, and really lost. The first thing I… Read More »How To Fix the Biggest Problem in Your Virtual Assistant Business

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Finding Motivation to Promote Your VA Business

What keeps you from getting out there and networking or marketing your Virtual Assistant business? I ask this question of many VAs when they are struggling to find clients, and it often comes down to one thing… lack of motivation. If we are not motivated to do something, we can convince ourselves that it’s not important, or that we are doing it the wrong way, or that we need more information or research done before proceeding. And because we work alone most of the time, we need to find ways to motivate ourselves to get a lot of things done that maybe we don’t feel like doing. “Be miserable. Or motivate yourself. Whatever has to be done, it’s always your… Read More »Finding Motivation to Promote Your VA Business

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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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Does This Bother You?

One of the most important decisions you will make in your business is what you charge. Revenue is what drives your business. Without money coming in the door, your business can not sustain itself. But what is the right rate? What is enough, but not too much? What takes into account your value, without being exclusive? What are you and your clients comfortable with? These are the questions that you need to consider when setting your rates. But many VAs don’t have the confidence to simply make that decision. They have to ask lots of others what their opinion is. And that’s okay, don’t get me wrong. Advice is good! But once you ask around, you still have to be able… Read More »Does This Bother You?

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Do You Really Have What It Takes To Be a Successful Virtual Assistant?

Getting into business is easy. Staying in business … not so much. There is the basic stuff that you have to know, like business and marketing, of course, but that’s not what I’m talking about. I’m talking about you. Your personality. Your perseverance. Your personal strength. Arlene Dickinson talks about this in her book All In. She says if you don’t have the personal strength (she calls it a few different things – mental muscle is one of my favourites – but basically it is really about resilience and personal strength) then you will not be able to cut it as an entrepreneur. I totally agree with this. Not everyone has the mental strength to be a business owner, and… Read More »Do You Really Have What It Takes To Be a Successful Virtual Assistant?

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Are You Striving For Perfection? You Should Read This.

I am making some changes in my business and that means moving some clients on while bringing on new (different!) ones. My business has changed from providing VA work to running my training and coaching Your VA Mentor business, along with running my VA associations, CAVA and GAVA. So the time comes to move my VA clients over to new VAs. I have moved many clients in and out of my business over the last 20 years, and I always strive for excellence when I do it. That means doing it fairly swiftly, while providing the new VA as much information as possible so that the transition can be seamless. That means making sure that the new VA can succeed and that… Read More »Are You Striving For Perfection? You Should Read This.

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