I'm Tracey D'Aviero, your Confidence Coach for Virtual Assistants, and today we're talking about a question I hear all the time:

"Where do I find good clients?"

Not just any clients. Not the draining ones. Not the $25-an-hour ones who question every invoice.

The best clients.

The respectful ones.

The ones who value what you do.

The ones who pay properly and stick around.

I'm going to say something that might surprise you. It's not about the platform. It's about the positioning.

Let's talk about it in today's episode.

A lot of VAs think there is a secret place where all the amazing clients are hiding.

They think: If I just get on the right job board… If I just join the right Facebook group… If I just sign up for the right freelancing platform…

They ask in the VA groups where do I find clients (and they really do mean tell me where to go to find them)

Then want that magic place named, and then they think suddenly the best clients will appear.

I'm not making fun of you if you have asked this question before, but it's important that if you have asked this question in the past that you lean in and listen to this episode.

There are good clients everywhere. And there are bad clients everywhere.

If you keep attracting low-paying or difficult clients, it's not because that's all that exists.

Even if you feel like that's all there are out there. I have heard Virtual Assistants that the market is saturated with VAs. Like the whole market could be! Impossible. Because there will always be more business owners than there are VAs. And every single one of those business owners should be getting support for their business - many in the form of a VA.

f you are newer in your VA business and you want help setting up your services properly, pricing confidently, and positioning yourself so you attract quality clients from the beginning, my Getting Started as a Virtual Assistant self-study program walks you through that step by step.

If you are already in business, the Getting Started program is still very beneficial because it helps you get those basics, that foundation in place, to build the VA business that you visualized when you first got started. The one you dreamed about that you haven't quite been able to build yet.

And finally if you are stuck, or don't know how to fix some of those things that we talked about today, please feel free to book a Cut to the Chase call with me to talk about it. I'm here to help! Grab a time in my calendar here: https://yourvamentor.com/links

Today we're talking about how virtual assistants get the best, long-term, high-quality clients. And keep them.

Getting hired is one thing. Getting kept on long-term is another.

Because there are a lot of virtual assistants who can land a client. But far fewer who keep that client long term, grow the relationship, and become the VA the client never wants to lose.

That's what we want. High quality clients that we can work with for a long time.

What is different about the VAs that the clients never want to lose?

They're not necessarily more talented.
They don't know more tools or stuff. 
They don't work more hours.

The difference is how they show up once the contract is signed.

So today I want to walk you through the difference between a VA who gets hired and a VA who gets kept long-term, and more importantly, how you can start positioning yourself as the second one.

Long-term clients don't happen by accident. They happen when you build your VA business with structure, confidence, and clarity from the beginning.

That's one of the reasons I created my Getting Started as a Virtual Assistant self-study program.

It walks you through how to set up your services properly, position yourself professionally, and attract the kinds of clients you actually want to work with. Not just whoever says yes first, as tempting as that may be!

Whether you want to get started the right way, or stop all the guessing and uncertainty and start building your VA business the right way, check it out.

Check out the program here: https://getstartedva.com

Start strong. Build smart. And set yourself up to work with clients who stay.

That's all I've got for you this week. I'm Tracey DAviero, The Confidence Coach for Virtual Assistants. Thanks so much for tuning in. I'll see you next time!

Today we are talking about something that every virtual assistant needs… but very few actually take the time to build properly.

Standard Operating Procedures - better known as SOPs.

Okay so maybe it's not entirely true about very few building them properly.

But there are a LOT of VAs that I have talked to that do not have anything documented. If that's you, then I'm glad you're here listening in today.

How detailed does an SOP need to be when it's for something you specialize in?

This question comes up all the time in my coaching calls, in my mastermind group, and in conversations with newer VAs who feel pressure to write SOPs that are either way too complicated or not detailed enough.

So today I'm going to walk you through what your SOPs should include, how to know the right level of detail, and how your SOPs actually make you more confident and more valuable to your clients.

SOPs don't just help you deliver great work. They help you feel more confident about the work you're doing, and they help clients feel more confident in hiring you.

If you want to get some help creating SOPs for your VA business, or you want templates you can start with right away, reach out to me anytime.

You can get in touch with me at YourVAMentor.com/links

I'd love to help you get some standards into your VA business so you can work more efficiently, get more done, and love your VA business again.

That's all I've got for you this week  - thanks for tuning in to this episode of The Ridiculously Good VA Show. I'll see you next time!

I tell you all the time that time is money for Virtual Assistants.

Literally time is money. Your time. Your client's money.

So everything you do - and how you do it - is costing the client a certain amount of money.

And, you are also doing a lot of things. Possibly for a lot of clients

Doing a lot of things at once for a lot of different people means that we can often get overwhelmed. Or busy.

So many times people will ask me how my business is doing, and then they say 'busy, eh'? I say oh yes, 'busy'.

We have created a world where busy sounds good.

At the minimum, busy means good - people are hiring us, they are working with us. That's good!

So yes, busy can be good. It has good connotations, anyway.

But if WE feel busy, that sometimes isn't so great.

Busy also denotes a state of having too much to do, or at least that seems to be the word we use to describe being as such.

And that's when we want to make sure we are making changes to how we work to handle that better.

Productivity!

Being productive or working productively takes these five things:

• prioritizing your tasks effectively
• managing time well
• automating what you can
• using technology where possible
• self-care and boundaries

And these are the things I want to talk about in today's episode.

If you are ready to get some help to manage your time and your workload better in your VA business, that's where I come in. I am here for one reason - to help you become a ridiculously good VA.

I have helped hundreds of VAs who are stuck get moving through private coaching, group coaching, and live and self study trainings. If you want to talk about how we can work together, let's connect on a Cut to the Chase call. You can book yours at YourVAMentor.com/15-min

Thanks for tuning in this week! I'll see you next time!

There are a lot of questions I answer on a regular basis - over and over and over again. So hopefully this episode will serve as an FAQ for those of you who are just starting to look at the VA industry as an option for you.

Tune in to hear the answers to these 20 questions:

Can I really make a living as a VA?
How much money does a VA make? 
What skills do I need to become a successful virtual assistant?
How can I find clients for my virtual assistant business?
What kinds of clients needs VAs?
What tools and software do I need to run a virtual assistant business?
How much should I charge for my virtual assistant services?
Do I need any specific certifications or training to become a virtual assistant?
How do I set up my home office for maximum productivity as a virtual assistant?
What are some common tasks that virtual assistants typically handle for clients?
Should I offer a discount to clients when I am just starting out?
How can I effectively market my virtual assistant services to potential clients?
How do I manage my time effectively while juggling multiple clients as a virtual assistant?
What are some strategies for building long-term relationships with clients as a virtual assistant?
How do I handle billing and invoicing for my virtual assistant services?
What are the biggest challenges I might face when starting a virtual assistant business, and how can I overcome them?
Are there any legal considerations I need to be aware of when starting a virtual assistant business?
How can I stay organized and keep track of tasks and deadlines as a virtual assistant?
How do I stay updated on industry trends and developments as a virtual assistant?
What resources are available for ongoing learning and professional development in the field of virtual assistance?

If you are ready to get some help to start your VA business, that's where I come in. I am here for one reason - to help you become a ridiculously good VA.

I have helped hundreds of VAs who are stuck get moving through private coaching, group coaching, and live and self study trainings. If you want to talk about how we can work together, let's connect on a Cut to the Chase call. You can book yours at YourVAMentor.com/chase

Thanks for tuning in this week! I'll see you next time!

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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.

Welcome back to another episode from my VA Snapshot series of The Ridiculously Good VA Show, where we talk about the specific services that Virtual Assistants can offer different target markets.

When you choose a target market, you learn about what they do in their business - how they find their clients, how they work with their clients, and what kinds of things they need help with in their business. After learning the ins and outs of what they do, you can speak very clearly sbout how your services will support them.

Why? Because you know how their business runs and what is important to them to keep it running smoothly and growing - and you know precisely the services you can offer them. Lots of them. That's the key to working with a target market. That you find large groups of clients that all need the same services - and then you can get clients easily.

I am Tracey DAviero, Virtual Assistant Coach and Trainer and in this series, we are will dive into 25 or 30 different industries and professions that use Virtual Assistants, and I'll share what kinds of tasks you can do for them.

Then you can decide who you want to work with, and start connecting with them!

In this episode we are talking about services for Business Coaches.

If you are stuck and need help creating a service package for Business Coaches, I invite you to sure to book your complimentary Cut to the Chase call with me so we can talk about the ways I can help you do that. Book your call at Yourvamentor.com/15-min

In this episode we talk about the various phases of being a VA. From the research phase to working with clients, you will probably find yourself in one of these phases. It's a pretty simple concept. No matter which phase you are in, you need to move forward so that you can succeed. If you need more clients, or more money, or if you need to be better organized, you'll need to make some changes, and this episode can help you identify what to do next.  

Check out the episode transcript here:

https://www.yourvamentor.com/blog/2024/02/podcast-the-evolution-of-virtual-assistants-navigating-the-three-phases-of-success/

If you need help getting unstuck and moving forward, be sure to get in touch with me. I'm 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 have helped hundreds of VAs who are stuck get moving. I'd love to do the same for you.

We can work together privately, or in The Virtual Circle, my monthly mastermind group, or in my Plan to Profit group coaching program, or you can enroll in some of my self study trainings. I have lots of options to move your forward. Book a complimentary Cut to the Chase call with me to discuss what might be the best option 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.

In this episode we talk about the challenges faced by Virtual Assistants (VAs) in balancing their work and personal lives. We emphasize the importance of self-care and setting boundaries to maintain the balance that we need. We talk about managing multiple clients, household responsibilities, and leveraging technology to streamline tasks. You'll get lots of tips on how to manage your communication, time management and more.

Check out the episode transcript here:

https://www.yourvamentor.com/blog/2024/02/podcast-balancing-act-your-va-business-and-home-harmony/

If you need help setting your priorities, and managing your time, and balancing your life you're your VA business, be sure to get in touch with me. I'm 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 have helped hundreds of VAs who are stuck get moving. I'd love to do the same for you.

We can work together privately, or in The Virtual Circle, my monthly mastermind group, or in my Plan to Profit group coaching program, or you can enroll in some of my self study trainings. I have lots of options to move your forward. Book a complimentary Cut to the Chase call with me to discuss what might be the best option 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.

Today we are talking with VA Jacki Hollywood Brown, about how she got started as a VA, the services she offers her clients, and what business owners should know about working with a VA.

Jacki is an organization specialist who helps her clients by designing structures and procedures to help them improve their efficiency and productivity.

Tune in to learn about:

• What expertise she brings to her clients
• How she went from military spouse to offering boutique VA services
• Why processes are essential in your business too (not just your clients)
• What you need to do to start getting your structure in place
• How you should be protecting your data from loss
• And a whole lot more!

To get in touch with Jacki to discuss your support needs, connect with her here:

Website: https://productivelyorganized.com
LinkedIn: https://[https://linkedin.com/in/jackihollywoodbrown
or book a discovery call with her here:
https://productivelyorganized.com/contact/

Jacki Hollywood Brown is a military spouse and professional organizer-turned Virtual Assistant, and she brings her outstanding organizational skills to her VA clients by offering boutique VA services. I spoke with Jacki about the importance of creating and updating procedures and processes in our business (and in our client's businesses). We also talked about what you should have in place to protect your business data, and so much more.

Enjoy!

Today I want to talk about marketing your VA business. Specifically, about using Facebook to market it.

Quote: Giving a brand personality is what separates your brand from the status quo. - Pam Moore

Hey that quote doesn't mention Facebook - I know, right? It's because the vehicle you use to gain visibility doesn't really matter - it's about what you put out there. Here's what I mean. Let's go!

We talk a lot about getting more eyes on your VA business, in order to get clients.

And a lot of VAs that I know want to know what the formula is to get that visibility.

The interesting thing is that there is no formula. At least not one that works for everyone.

Service business like VA business are very unique.

It's the first thing I tell Virtual Assistants who are looking for the pathway to success.

It's not that there isn't a framework you can follow, but because our businesses are service-based, it means that the client is, in fact, purchasing US.

And that means that the way we market ourselves can be quite different from someone else - even if the offer the same or similar services as we do.

We all have the same places to reach our clients - but the way we do it and what we put out there might be different from another VA.

So … let's talk about why I picked the quote for today - it's about personality. Your personality.

Whether you are an introvert, or an extrovert, your personality IS going to enter into your VA business.

It will come through in the way you present yourself, in the way you network, in the way your messaging comes across, in the way you communicate with people, and in the way you work with your clients.

Introverts and extroverts are not the only different kinds of VAs.

There are very organized VAs.

There are techy VAs.

There are detail oriented VAS.

There are research VAs.

There are task master VAs.

There are strategic VAs.

And as many VAs as there are, there are as many different clients out there.

With a service business, we need to have the right fit.

We need to attract the right clients.

And that's where visibility comes into play.

Not only do we need to promote our business where our potential clients are hanging out (we tell you that all the time when we talk marketing), but we also need to be attractive to them so they will feel that we are the VA for them.

Okay so now that we have that out of the way, let's talk about how to get the visibility you need by using Facebook.

Building visibility takes time, so be patient and persistent in implementing these strategies. Get the basics in place, and then show up every day where your people are. Be yourself, and help them.

You are your business's product. Put yourself out there and get clients!

‌

If you need help setting up your marketing plan, be sure to get in touch with me. I'm 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 have helped hundreds of VAs who are stuck get moving. I'd love to do the same for you.

We can work together privately, or in The Virtual Circle, my monthly mastermind group, or in my Plan to Profit group coaching program, or you can enroll in some of my self study trainings. I have lots of options to move your forward. Check them out in the show notes for this episode. Thanks for tuning in this week! I'll see you next time!

‌

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.

Today I want to talk about rates. It's a common topic of discussion with VAs at all levels of their business - and we all struggle with it at times.

Quote: Don't fall into the irresponsible trap of setting low prices. It will kill your business cold. Low prices attract cheap customers with luxurious demands. ― Mac Duke The Strategist

How awesome is that quote!? I love it - I think it's so important to recognize that most of us set our rates too low - and when we do, we struggle with those who can 'afford' us. Let's go!

We talk often of setting rates in our Virtual Assistant business.

I see lots of you posting questions about how to charge for this service or that service, and I always come in with the same advice.

Do the math for how much your services will be - don't just pick a number out of thin air.

When you ask someone in a group how much you should charge for a particular task or service, you are picking a number out of thin air.

If your business is going to be successful, you need to make sure that what is coming in will cover what is going out, and then of course you need to leave room for some profit as well.

As a service based business owner, we can often make the mistake that what we charge is what we make - and then we don't leave room for the things that we need to run our business well.

You don't need to gauge customers, but you do need to run your business like a business.

So let's talk about a few of the problems that VAs have with setting rates properly.

If you need help setting your rates properly for your VA business, be sure to get in touch with me. I'm 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 have helped hundreds of VAs who are stuck get moving. I'd love to do the same for you.

We can work together privately, or in The Virtual Circle, my monthly mastermind group, or in my Plan to Profit group coaching program, or you can enroll in some of my self study trainings. I have lots of options to move your forward. Check them out in the show notes for this episode. Thanks for tuning in this week! I'll see you next time!

‌

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.

Hey there, welcome to another episode of the podcast that teaches you how to be a ridiculously good virtual assistant.

Today I want to wish you a very happy new year - 2024 is here! - and i want to focus on the possibilities that lie ahead for you this year.

Quote: The new year stands before us, like a chapter in a book, waiting to be written - Melody Beattie

It is true that we are the master (or mistress, if you prefer) of our own destiny. The decisions we make will help us build a successful business, or not. Let's go!

If you need help doing any of these things for your VA business, be sure to get in touch with me. I'm 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 have helped hundreds of VAs who are stuck get moving. I'd love to do the same for you.

We can work together privately, or in The Virtual Circle, my monthly mastermind group, or in my Plan to Profit group coaching program, or you can enroll in some of my self study trainings. I have lots of options to move your forward. Check them out in the show notes for this episode. Thanks for tuning in this week! I'll see you next time!

‌

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.

Here we are the end of another year and it's time to reflect back on what we did well in our VA business, what didn't go so well, and what we want to do differently in the coming year.

It's not that we need a huge shakeup, but it is a good time of year to make some decisions.

i teach a process I call my Lookback Process, and what that does is helps you identify first of all what you did, second how it worked out for you, and finally, what you can do to equip yourself to achieve your future goals.

I do that by talking about a number of different areas: success, money, clients, networking and marketing.

You can watch my full training and pick up the handout here:

Lookback Handout

Pick up my handout in the show notes of this episode and you can do a monthly summary for each month of last year.

Fill it in to the best of your ability - especially the results you go.

Then do your analysis.

What is working for you. What can you change? What should you change?

How can you plan to change it?

Do your review so you can build a solid plan for the coming year.

You can do it!

Using this process helps you identify your areas of strength and weakness, so you know how to get better results in the future.

Lets circle back to today's quote: If the plan doesn't work, change the plan, not the goal.

‌You know what you want. Set your plan in place to get it and then work like hell to get there. Get help when you need it.

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If you need help getting your plan in place for your VA business, be sure to get in touch with me. I'm 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 have helped hundreds of VAs who are stuck get moving. I'd love to do the same for you.

We can work together privately, or in The Virtual Circle, my monthly mastermind group, or in my Plan to Profit group coaching program, or you can enroll in some of my self study trainings. I have lots of options to move your forward. Check them out in the show notes for this episode. Thanks for tuning in this week! I'll see you next time!

‌

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.

Today we are talking about something I think is both fun and maybe even eye-opening.

We are going to look at how you can take the skills you already have from any past job or career and transfer them into the VA services you offer.

So many new and growing VAs assume they have to reinvent themselves or learn an entirely new set of skills before they can statt their business or get clients. That is not true at all.

Most of the time the work you have already done in your life, whether it was in corporate, health care, hospitality, retail, education, or anything else, already set you up with abilities that clients need.

Your confidence grows when you realize you are not starting from scratch. You are simply repackaging what you already know, and then learning how to deliver it to clients in a business setting.

Today we will talk about how to do that, how to think more creatively about your strengths, and how to look outside the box so you can see what you are actually best at.

So today is about YOU. And how amazing you are!!

If you want to grow as a VA and step into higher level clients, better rates, and more confidence, this is where it starts. Stop assuming you need to learn more or learn something different to get started. You already have plenty to begin. You already have strengths that clients will pay for.

Your job is simply to uncover them, trust them, and build your business around them.

There is no one path to becoming a Ridiculously Good VA. But every path becomes easier when you realize you already have the foundation.

If you want some help doing this, please connect with me at YourVAMentor.com/links.

And if you haven't picked up my Skills Inventory yet, you can do that right here.

You are not lacking skills. You are simply learning how to use them differently. And that is the real shift.

Thanks for listening today. I'll see you next time!

It seems like Chat GPT is everywhere these days.

People are talking about it online - and because we spend so much of our time in various places online, we see it. Everywhere.

What is it, and why should we be using it for our VA businesses?

Simply, Chat GPT is a chat software that allows us to do research that gets more intelligent, or more specific, the more information we provide for it.

Think about Google for a second - our usual go-to for our research. At least it always has been for me!

With Google, we have to use certain, short, parameters, and in return, we will get a list of websites that contain the information that we are looking for.

In the past, we would have seen only those websites, and the ones that showed up in the top of the search were the ones with the best SEO.

It's still like that, to a point. But now you will also see sponsored content at the top of the page, and video and image content as well. That is progress.

Also, instead of 'page one' consisting of 10 top results, it seems that the scroll never ends.

Google is still a great search engine to find what you are looking for - if you are looking for a source.

But Chat GPT is fast becoming a research tool that can give you great examples and even write content as well.

In today's episode I want to talk about how to create better marketing content, more easily, and by using ChatGPT you can do that.

If you need help creating or implementing your marketing plan for your VA business, be sure to get in touch with me. I'm 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 have helped hundreds of VAs who are stuck get moving. I'd love to do the same for you.

We can work together privately, or in The Virtual Circle, my monthly mastermind group, or in my Plan to Profit group coaching program, or you can enroll in some of my self study trainings. I have lots of options to move your forward. Check them out in the show notes for this episode. Thanks for tuning in this week! I'll see you next time!

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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.

Several years ago I was invited to submit a chapter for a book collaboration. We were 20 business owners who were part of a group and we published a book called Thought Leaders: Visionaries and Influencers.

While at the time I didn't believe myself to be any of those things, I was looking to become that.

Someone that VAs like you, and business owners alike, would come to for advice, support, and guidance for their business.

I have done that, I feel, and I decided that I would love to share my chapter with you today on my podcast.

I hope you like it!

I'm very proud of it. And I am very proud of you too. I know that you are getting a lot of support through my podcast (you all tell me every day how much you love it) and I know that you can jump off that chair lift if you just stop getting into your own head.

If you need help jumping off your chair lift, be sure to get in touch with me. I'm 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 have helped hundreds of VAs who are stuck get moving. I'd love to do the same for you.

We can work together privately, or in The Virtual Circle, my monthly mastermind group, or in my Plan to Profit group coaching program, or you can enroll in some of my self study trainings. I have lots of options to move your forward. Check them out in the show notes for this episode. Thanks for tuning in this week! I'll see you next time!

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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.

You know the type. That client that is always asking you to do something now, urgently, last minute, whatever.

What do you do?

How do you handle that?

If you are like most Virtual Assistants, you will probably go ahead and do it, even if you are grumbling under your breath the whole time.

It's hard, because we are literally in the business of helping our clients. We are service professionals. We do what they need us to do.

It's what we think we need to do.

Our clients need something, and it's our 'job' to do it.

Well, I'm here to tell you that's not the way it works at all.

Yes … they are paying you.

But they are not your employer.

You don't work for them. You work with them.

They are your client. You are a business owner.

There are a lot of reasons to remind yourself of this fact, but this is one of the biggest.

Your work schedule is yours. You get to determine. You are managing the work tasks and expectations of all of your clients.

And yet, we say yes.

But here's the most important part - we don't say yes because we are being nice.

We say yes because we think we have to.

And that's exactly what the issue is.

For some reason Virtual Assistants far and wide think that we have to do whatever our clients ask us to do.

Not all VAs, of course, but most of us have gone through this stage. Some of you stay in this stage.

It's very natural of course when you are starting your business to have this kind of mindset.

Maybe natural is not the right word, but it feels like the right word.

It's not wrong to have this attitude when you first start. We don't know how to do business when we start out.

If you have never run a business before, it's new.

We have to learn how to be. We have to learn how to act. We have to learn how to communicate.

I give new VAs this advice all the time: when you first start working with a client, don't respond to them immediately. Don't turn tasks around fast. Don't do same day work!

Did I do that? Yes, yes, I did.

But I expect you not to do it? yes, yes I do.

Why? I'm not a hypocrite - I'm trying to save you from making a big mistake that is very hard to break away from.

It's why a lot of us veterans, or teachers, or coaches teach you anything we teach you.

Because we want you to go down the right path - a different one that maybe we took.

When we give you advice about how to handle something in business, or what boundary to put in place, it's usually because we know from experience that you will need that boundary eventually, and we are suggesting that you think about it sooner than we did!

Anyhow let's get to it.

You will see from the three examples I've described in this episode, that boundaries is the key to avoiding burnout and unhappy clients.

Managing the expectations of your clients is going to be an ongoing task - and the better you get at it, the happier everyone will be.

Burnout is a reaction to being overworked.

That happens when we don't manage our days well.

Take control of what you do and when you do it, and you will be happier. You will be more productive.

And you will have happier clients too!

I'm going to leave it here for today. If time management and setting boundaries and policies is something that you need help with, be sure to get in touch with me. I'm 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 have helped hundreds of VAs who are stuck get moving. I'd love to do the same for you.

We can work together privately, or in The Virtual Circle, my monthly mastermind group, or in my Plan to Profit group coaching program, or you can enroll in some of my self study trainings. I have lots of options to move your forward. Check them out in the show notes for this episode. Thanks for tuning in this week! I'll see you next time!

‌

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.

In this series we are talking about how to think about your services from the perspective of you clients.

It's easy enough to say that you provide email support, but how do your clients think about that?

How much importance do they place on that thing?

Why is it important for them to get help with a particular service?

And how do they actually use that service, or describe it?

When you really look at things like your clients do, your messaging will be so clear to them that they will know you understand their needs. And... they will want to work with you!

So let's talk about startups and the services VAs can provide for them.

When someone is starting a business, there is a lot to do, and probably not a huge budget to bring on help, but that's what can make working with a VA so appealing.

For the VA, new stuff is exciting, and can lead to some really interesting projects, setup, organization research, and that kind of thing - things that VAs always tell me is the stuff they love to do.

Startups need a variety of administrative support: email management, calendar management, document formatting and preparation, data entry, and even travel arrangements.

There is often a lot of correspondence and connection that needs to happen as they start to get the word out about their new business.

Creating presentations and reports is a great service to offer as well - the client can provide the nuts and bolts but they don't have to spend time doing the whole thing.

As customers come into the business, onboarding and communication are really important. Especially if the company is new, the first batches of customers need to have excellent support - and that isn't something that the guys in charge should be doing themselves.

It's very common to have a customer service support system for online businesses, so that customers can get fast answers or help with things that they need access to or information about.

And of course, feedback is essential for any business, but definitely for startups as they may need to change course in the early day to ensure that they are delivering what their customers needs. Established businesses should also collect feedback, but when you have a proven product or service, this gets done a little less. Very important with startups.

Almost every VA's favourite service seems to be research! And startups need support in this area. Whether it is market research for industry trends, competitors or finding pools of customers, research can be a really valuable and essential service to offer to clients who are early in their business journey.

Bookkeeping and accounting always comes into play for business owners. It can be time consuming and even confusing when it's not your area of specialty and so it's often an area that gets outsourced first.

If you offer bookkeeping services, you should never be struggling to find clients!

Helping clients get the word out about their business is, again, always important - but even moreso with a new business like a startup.

Being able to assist with managing social media pages, updates, comments, engagement or even communities is an excellent way to get ongoing work that really impacts the client's business.

That's one of the things I often try to make sure VAs are clear on - the real benefits that the client will get from bringing you in to help them.

We tell them all the time we save them time and money, but we don't really.

So we need to find the real benefits - like I just mentioned with marketing, support in this area really impacts their business - why? because it can actually help bring in clients, or help clients make that decision to say YES, or retain clients that have already purchased.

Those benefits are the ones that you want to recognize from the services you offer.

When we can see HOW the client really actually benefits from working with us and outsourcing some of the tasks they need to do, or have done themselves in the past, that can help them make the leap to hiring us.

With marketing also comes building their audience - getting more eyes on their product or service, and getting their name out there to the people who will be their customers.

That means marketing outreach, email campaigns, subscriber lists and generating leads.

Being a market VA can help you show the return on investment a client will get by working with you.

Moving right along, you can provide virtual meeting support, project management and collaboration. So many services these new companies need.

If you are tech savvy, website and IT are a great service offering. And let's not leave out SEO. Being found in searches is dependent on creating content and posting it to your website or blog, and that's more ongoing work that you can count on.

Don't forget we are always looking for the repeatable tasks that we can do for a client. We don't always want to be doing projects with a stop and start. If we do, that means we will always be looking for new clients, which can be challenging.

But if we find clients that we can do a little bit of work for on an ongoing basis, that means a long term client.

And because startups will often tell you they don't have a huge budget (until their product or service goes viral!), it may be a tough sell to get a big client. But small clients are just as good!

I know when I see anyone starting up a new business, the task list is never ending - long, and always being added to.

They need to be focusing on generating revenue, and that often takes a lot more time when they are just getting started.

Even better if they have accessed start up grants to fund their business, actually, but be mindful that budget will often be an issue for businesses in their infancy.

So even more reason to bring in a VA for a few hours a week, to get all the other bits done.

If you can provide specialized services for them, even better. Many hands make light work, and like I always tell clients, I work very quickly, so that means that we can increase the productivity that they would have on their own, at least by 2x and very often much more than that.

And like I said, if you have tech skills, or organization skills, or just plain old cheerleading skills, that can be a really good connection for your startup client to have in their corner.

We need to get the word out to startup business owners that VAs can be very valuable assets to their team. This support enables entrepreneurs to focus on the strategic aspects of their business, fostering growth and innovation, which is critical at the beginning stages - and beyond.

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So, do you want to support startups? There is so much opportunity for VAs in that community.

Put together an attractive package of services for startups today and start connecting with them.

And be sure to tune in to the other VA Snapshots in this series to learn more about other industries that might be a good fit for you.

Thanks for tuning in to this snapshot from The Ridiculously Good VA Show. Now it's your turn to choose your target market and get out there to connect with them. Let them know that you understand their business and you are THE best VA to help them with their business needs. You are awesome. You can do it. Now, get out there and find your clients!

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.

Getting the word out about your Virtual Assistant business takes time.

But it shouldn't take all of your time.

And yet a lot of VAs I talk to are spending hours and hours preparing their marketing stuff.

There are a few reasons for this.

First, we often struggle with what to put out there. So it takes more time to come up with ideas for content. We spend too much time making lists and finding inspiration.

Second, we are perfectionists. Yes I'm looking at you, but I also have my hand up here so don't worry! So we work hours on graphics or content before we ever post them.

And third, we try to 'be' everywhere. All of the marketing professionals will tell you to master one channel before moving to others. But we have FOMO so we do 't listen to that advice.

So all that to say, it takes us a lot of time.

When you don't have a lot of clients you have a lot more free time, but you should not be filling it with marketing.

Networking, yes, but not content.

To do this part efficiently takes planning and strategy ... and that's where an editorial calendar can be extremely helpful.

It is your planning tool to help you decide what to put where, and when.

Content marketing is much more than just posting stuff.

You have to know why you are there, who you want to see it, and what you want them to do after seeing it.

To create an editorial calendar, you need to know what you are promoting.

Are you looking for more visibility and exposure for your VA business?

Are you looking for clients?

Are you looking to introduce a new service?

When you know what you want to talk about, then the calendar comes into play

I suggest doing your editorial calendar for one month.

I‌t will help you with time management, but also helps you with focused content, creation process, simpler research, and helps your audience to see that you are really an expert in these things, because you're not all over the place every single day.

Oh and as a completely random note, you can also reuse content! Just because you posted an image last month doesn't mean you can never use it again. Content is not one and done. Just be careful of posting the same thing to different platforms at the same time.

If people are connected to you in more than one place, they don't need to see the same thing posted everywhere. Strive to keep things different in different platforms.

Set your calendar up in Google Drive, or a project management system, or a content marketing system. I use Metricool and I simply love it.

Take 15 minutes or so a day to connect with the people in your groups or social media platforms - ask questions, answer questions, like, comment and share.

That goes a long way in building trust with your community.

And remember those goals - what are you looking to do with this month's content?

If content marketing is something you have a lot of trouble with, get some help with it. I can help.

‌It's the only reason I'm here at all, as you know. To help you become a ridiculously good VA.

I have helped hundreds of VAs who are stuck get moving. I'd love to do the same for you.

We can work together privately, or in The Virtual Circle, my monthly mastermind group, or in my Plan to Profit group coaching program, or you can enroll in some of my self study trainings. I have lots of options to move your forward. Check them out in the show notes for this episode. Thanks for tuning in this week! I'll see you next time!

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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.

One of the things that slows Virtual Assistants down in business is the struggle to make decisions.

I know this because you tell me. You all tell me. Every single day.

And some of you don't tell me.

I like to think that is mainly because you don't realize that's the problem.

But when we talk about what you are stuck on in your VA business - whether it is getting clients, networking, making money, your mindset, or your time management … the root of the problem can very often be traced back to not making a decision.

And like I said in today's intro, I don't mean making the right decision.

Sometimes we make the wrong decision and we get scared to make another one. That happens. That's when you should go and get some support to move forward.

But I digress.

What I am talking about is simply not making a choice about something and then expecting to move your business forward. It's nearly impossible.

So today we will talk about making choices and overcoming the common obstacles that hinder our ability to decide.

If you've ever found yourself stuck in the paralysis of indecision, afraid to make the wrong choice, you're in the right place. Let's go.

I have helped hundreds of VAs who are stuck get moving. I'd love to do the same for you.

We can work together privately, or in The Virtual Circle, my monthly mastermind group, or in my Plan to Profit group coaching program, or you can enroll in some of my self study trainings. I have lots of options to move your forward. Check them out in the show notes for this episode. Thanks for tuning in this week! I'll see you next time!

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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.

Being able to get where you want to go with your VA business takes getting out of your comfort zone.

Sometimes it takes a lot of that.

We feel scared because we have never been where we want to go - and we don't realllly know if we can get there.

We think we can, we hope we can, we try to plan to get there.

But we don't really know - and that alone can make us freeze in our tracks.

So we don't do the things that we know we need to do to get there.

I know I give you a lot of advice about how to grow your business - and a lot of that is mindset work, that you have to push yourself - and we don't like to do that.

But as Eddie says in our quote - although you think you are comfortable where you are … you're not. That's why you are looking for ways to do things differently.

Like listening to this podcast, or taking trainings, or doing endless research online about how to be better, and do better.

What you need to get comfortable with is taking steps that don't feel so easy.

The best way to do that is to do it with support, of course.

Getting someone to help you through the hard stuff is THE best advice I can give you.

I have to say that the first step is always the hardest.

After that things do get easier. I promise.

But it can be hard to take that first step.

I work with VAs all the time who have that trouble, and we work together through it.

How? Listen in to find out!

You know you want to move out of where you are right now.

So let's help you do that. Let's help you grow your VA business by challenging yourself to do the hard things .. .at your own pace. You can do it! I'm here to help.

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It's the only reason I'm here at all, as you know. To help you become a ridiculously good VA.

I have helped hundreds of VAs who are stuck get moving. I'd love to do the same for you.

We can work together privately, or in The Virtual Circle, my monthly mastermind group, or in my Plan to Profit group coaching program, or you can enroll in some of my self study trainings. I have lots of options to move your forward. Check them out in the show notes for this episode. Thanks for tuning in this week! I'll see you next time!

‌

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.

Today we are talking with VA Wendy Harris, about how she got started as a VA, how she helps her clients, and what business owners should know when choosing to work with a VA.

Wendy works with clients in the health and wellness space, as well as course creators.

Tune in to learn about:

• How Wendy got started as a Virtual Assistant
• What services she provides for her clients
• How she finds her clients
• What expertise she brings to her business connections
• How networking figures into building her business
• And a whole lot more!

To get in touch with Wendy to discuss your support needs, connect with her here:

Website: www.virtualassistantsolutions.ca
LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/wendy-harris-virtual-assistant-solutions
or book a complimentary consultation with her here:
https://calendly.com/wendyharrisva/30min

Wendy Harris is a Virtual Assistant who helps her clients get back valuable time so that they can build their business. I spoke with Wendy about how she decided to start her own VA business, what kinds of services she provides for her clients and how she works with them, and what clients who are looking to work with a VA should know.

Enjoy!

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.

One of the words that VAs like you use when they first start talking to me about a problem they are having is the word STUCK.

I remember being in a coaching group once and one of my colleagues said that she got her clients 'unstuck', and our coach didn't like that word because she didn't think it defined what my colleague actually helped her client with.

But it IS the word her clients used. Just like my clients - VAs like you - use.

And it's really important to talk about, because if you are feeling stuck - and if you are describing it as stuck, then its because you are stuck - and you don't know what to do about it.

Whew!

So here we are.

What does it mean to be stuck? It means you can't take a step forward from where you are, for one reason or another.

And the solution to being stuck is to move.

But the problem is that we often don't know what to do next, and so we stay with our feet firmly planted where we are.

I want to talk about how to get moving on today's episode, but to do that first we need to talk about some real examples.

Let's look at why you might be stuck:

If you need help, let's talk. 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 have helped hundreds of VAs who are stuck get moving. I'd love to do the same for you.

We can work together privately, or in my monthly mastermind group, or in my group coaching program, or you can enroll in some of my self study trainings. I have lots of options to move your forward. Check them out in the show notes for this episode. Thanks for tuning in this week! I'll see you next time!

‌

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.

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
I Can't Pay My Expenses or Myself
I Lost Some Work and/or Wasted My Time

We'll talk about these and much more in this episode.

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!

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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.

Today, I want to talk to you about something that can feel like the hardest hurdle in this whole business: getting your first client.

If you've been trying for a while and it's just not happening, I get it.

It can feel discouraging.

You start second-guessing everything - your services, your prices, even whether you should be doing this at all.

But here's what you need to know: landing that first client is rarely about changing what you offer.

It's about changing how you connect.

So, let's talk about how I got my first client, and what I learned that can help you get yours, too.

Your homework this week is simple: talk to people. Talk to one person, or two people. Actually talk to them.

The more you do it, the easier it gets.
The easier it gets, the more confident you feel.
And the more confident you feel, the faster your business grows.

That's the truth.

Thanks for tuning in to The Ridiculously Good VA Show. I'm Tracey D'Aviero, and I help Virtual Assistants build the confidence to get better clients, charge higher rates, and create a business that feels amazing.

If you're ready to get out there and start building those connections, I'd love to help you do it. You can learn more about how we can work together at YourVAMentor.com/links

Until next time, keep showing up, keep talking to people, and keep moving forward, one confident conversation at a time.

That's all I've got for you this week, I'll see you next time!

One of the first things I ask VAs that I coach is how much money they want to earn in their VA business.

So many of them can't tell me that.

They say they don't know.

We don't like to talk about money, I get that, but if you can't tell me what your expectations are from your VA business, then that's where we need to start.

Do you want to replace your corporate salary? How much is that?

Do you want to make enough to pay bills in your household? What bills? Mortgage, groceries, car? How much is that?

Do you want to earn the fun money - savings, vacations, clothes and tickets to concerts or sporting events? How much is that?

You have to quantify what you need to earn in order to figure out how to earn it.

When I ask them if 5K is something that they strive for, many of them say yes for sure. That's a happy amount of money.

Oh,, so you do know how much you want to earn (and yes, it can be more than grocery money!)

Earning 5K usually means that you can pay yourself 1K a week and pay all of your expenses too.

Remember that not all of the revenue your business brings in is yours. Paying yourself first is a great concept but what it means is that you need to set your rates at a place where bringing in x dollars means you can pay yourself y, and still have enough left to pay expenses of z.

So now that we know we want to earn 5K a month, how do we do that?

Like I said earlier, it takes some mindset shifting, some math, some confidence, and a plan.

Tune in to this episode to learn how!

If you are working towards squeaking by - by not doing the work, by not spending what you need to spend, by letting clients nickel and dime you, then you will stay at your minimum-wage level.

Your work ethic has to exceed what you have ever done before - doing the right things, thinking the right way, and always always moving in the direction of your goal - in order to reach it.

Want 5K months? You need to map it out. You need to learn what you don't know. You need to take daily actions. You need to get help when you are stuck.

Don't be the VA who wishes for 5K months. Be the 5K VA who easily gets them every month.

I can help you get there. I can help with your mindset, boost your confidence, help you do the math, and help you create your plan.

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.

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!

‌

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.

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Today we are going to talk about the services a VA can offer to podcasters.

A virtual assistant can be a key asset for podcasters, helping them streamline various aspects of their business and improve their efficiency, time management, professionalism, and reach.

In this episode, we'll cover a whole bunch of ways a virtual assistant can assist podcasters!

So, do you want to support podcasters? It's a fantastic, growing target market!

Put together an attractive package of services for podcasters today and start connecting with them.

And be sure to tune in to the other VA Snapshots in this series to learn more about other industries that might be a good fit for you.

Thanks for tuning in to this snapshot from The Ridiculously Good VA Show. Now it's your turn to choose your target market and get out there to connect with them. Let them know that you understand their business and you are THE best VA to help them with their business needs. You are awesome. You can do it. Now, get out there and find your clients!

We are back with part three of struggles VAs face, and how to fix them.

A quick recap if you haven't listened to the other two episodes yet - a few years ago I hosted a VA conference in Calgary.

I asked the VAs in the room to privately share with me their biggest struggle in their VA business (they filled in a form at their table that got collected).

Usually the reason I ask for this at my live events is so that I can tailor the content of the event to help them the most.

This was eye-opening because most of the responses (seriously most of the 56 responses!) were not about getting clients.

To contrast this, when VAs answer the questions I ask to allow them into my FB group, or when I post in the group asking what their issue is, they say getting clients most of the time. Overwhelmingly actually.

I think the reason the answers were different at the conference was that it was confidential.

VAs struggle with a lot of stuff. And we don't talk about it enough. I think that's why I got such awesome shares, because this was a confidential ask.

So I wanted to dedicate an episode or two of my podcast to helping you with the struggles you may be facing but not talking about.

When I know what you need help with, I can help.

Today I'm going to focus on 3 more things that VAs struggle with - that ARE NOT RELATED to finding clients or getting clients.

Tune in to check them out (you won't want to miss the last one!)

After this, I'll leave this series off for a bit now and come back to it, but if you are dealing with any of the 10 things I have covered, let's hep you move through them.

You can do it. I have complete faith in you and I'm so proud of you!

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Let's circle back quickly to today's quote. It's Oprah. Speaking of confidence. Where there is no struggle there is no strength. You gain your strength from the things that you figure out. That you work through. That you research and learn from. And many times that means getting support to get through it.

Let's find your strength!

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.

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!

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.

We are back with part two of struggles VAs Face,and how to fix them.

A quick reminder, a few years ago I hosted a VA conference in Calgary.

I asked the VAs in the room to privately share with me their biggest struggle in their VA business (they filled in a form at their table that got collected).

This was eye-opening because most of the responses (seriously most of the 56 responses!) were not about getting clients.

To contrast this, when VAs answer my FB group entry questions, or when I post in the group asking what their issue is, they say getting clients most of the time. Overwhelmingly.

I think the reason the answers were different at the conference was that it was confidential.

VAs struggle with a lot of stuff. And we don't talk about it enough. I think that's why I got such awesome shares, because this was a confidential ask.

So I wanted to dedicate an episode or two of my podcast to helping you with the struggles you may be facing but not talking about.

When I know what you need help with, I can help.

Today I'm going to focus on 4 more things that VAs struggle with - that ARE NOT RELATED to finding clients or getting clients.

Let's circle back quickly to today's quote from Jodi Levine: Find a great mentor, someone who has already been through the many challenges of being an entrepreneur.

That's me. I have struggled. I have succeeded. That's why I know you are struggling with something - and 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.

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!

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.

Today we are going to talk about the services a VA can offer to non profits and associations.

A virtual assistant can be a valuable asset for non-profits and associations, helping them save money instead of bringing on full time staff. VAs can also scale their workload up and down as need be, around fundraising events and projects. VAs also offer specialized expertise without the need of hiring multiple staff members. Focusing on their core mission is always the most important thing for non profits, and having qualified VAs look after the routine tasks, the leadership and staff can spend more time and energy dedicated to strategic planning, program development and stakeholder relationships.

I've done some work with non profits an associations, but it was never my specialty, so I want to just put a caveat in here that there may be different or other services they also require. These episodes are designed to give you ideas.

Non profits can absolutely benefit from hiring one or more VAs to help them with their business. Cost effectiveness is one of the key factors, and getting great support from VAs when they need it can help them control their operational budget much more easily.

And they can access a wide range of skills without the need for full-time hires. Win win for everyone!

Put together an attractive package of services for non profits today and start connecting with them.

And be sure to tune in to the other VA Snapshots in this series to learn more about other industries that might be a good fit for you.

Thanks for tuning in to this snapshot from The Ridiculously Good VA Show. Now it's your turn to choose your target market and get out there to connect with them. Let them know that you understand their business and you are THE best VA to help them with their business needs. You are awesome. You can do it. Now, get out there and find your clients!

A few years ago I hosted a VA conference in Calgary.

Before COVID hit, I planned to host one every fall there. But it was not to be after the first one, as we could not travel, and getting together in person was shunned upon for a few years.

I asked the VAs in the room to privately share with me their biggest struggle in their VA business (they filled in a form at their table that got collected).

The reason I ask for this at my live events is so that I can tailor the content of the event to help them the most.

Some people wrote a couple of things. I ended up with 56 struggles in that room. 

Usually I would expect to hear 'getting clients'. It's the most common issue that I hear VAs say they need help with.

But in this simple request, I got so much more.

VAs struggle with a lot of stuff. And we don't talk about it enough. I think that's why I got such awesome shares, because this was a confidential ask.

So I wanted to dedicate an episode of my podcast (maybe more than one) to helping you with the struggles you may be facing.

When I know what you need help with, I can help.

Today I'm going to focus on 4 things that VAs struggle with - that ARE NOT RELATED to finding clients or getting clients.

I know you are struggling - and 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.

What Should You Do Next?

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!

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.

In this episode we will be talking about tradespeople, or as I refer to them, contractors.

What do tradespeople need to focus on in their business? First, what are tradespeople? For the purposes of this example I'm talking about your general contractors, electricians, plumbers, carpenters, landscapers, snowplow operators, HVAC technicians, tree trimmers, painters and so on.

The people who work usually independently or with a small crew, doing physical work and also needing to connect with customers and potential customers.

By working with a virtual assistant, tradespeople can manage the business aspect of their business easily while they are at the top of a ladder!

A virtual assistant can help tradespeople streamline their business operations, reduce costs, improve customer service, facilitate business growth, and achieve a healthier work-life balance, ultimately contributing to the success and sustainability of their business.

So, do you want to support tradespeople? It's a super target market!

Put together an attractive package of services for a carpenter, plumber, electrician, landscaper, or other contractor today and start connecting with them.

And be sure to tune in to the other VA Snapshots in this series to learn more about other industries that might be a good fit for you.

Thanks for tuning in to this snapshot from The Ridiculously Good VA Show. Now it's your turn to choose your target market and get out there to connect with them. Let them know that you understand their business and you are THE best VA to help them with their business needs. You are awesome. You can do it. Now, get out there and find your clients!

If you need help creating your services or your strategy to connect with tradespeople, I'm here to help!

That's literally the reason I am here. 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.

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!

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.

Where did you get your first client?

If you're like me, you likely started doing VA work for your old boss.

A lot of us start out that way, and it's awesome.

We start our business, we have work immediately.

This is going to be great, we think.

Then maybe we find another client as we start to talk about our business to people we know. Awesome!

But at some point, our immediate contacts will run dry and we are left wondering what to do to get new clients.

That's why creating a strategy to get clients is so important.

In this episode we talk about how to create a strategy that works for you.

Think about what your strategy could look like. If you need help, reach out.

It's important to me that you know I can help you do this stuff in your business. That's literally the reason I am here. 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.

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!

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.

Welcome to my VA Snapshot series of The Ridiculously Good VA Show, where we will talk about the specific services that Virtual Assistants can offer different target markets.

When you choose a target market, you learn about what they do in their business - how they find their clients, how they work with their clients, and what kinds of things they need help with in their business. After learning the ins and outs of what they do, you can speak very clearly sbout how your services will support them.

Why? Because you know how their business runs and what is important to them to keep it running smoothly and growing - and you know precisely the services you can offer them. Lots of them. That's the key to working with a target market. That you find large groups of clients that all need the same services - and then you can get clients easily.

I am Tracey DAviero, Virtual Assistant Coach and Trainer and in this series, we are going to dive into 25 or 30 different industries and professions that use Virtual Assistants, and I'll share what kinds of tasks you can do for them.

Then you can decide who you want to work with, and start connecting with them!

In this episode we will be talking about speakers.

What do speakers need to focus on in their business?

They are the talent. They need to focus on delivering their craft - speeches, talks, events - and growing their speaking business. By working with a VA, speakers can save a lot of time doing the legwork it takes to get great gigs and make great contacts.

Let's talk about what speakers do in their business – and what they services they might place value on and outsource to a VA.

Speakers – good and busy ones – have lots of moving parts to their business. I have 15 service suggestions in this episode that you can provide for speaking clients.

It's your turn to choose your target market and get out there to connect with them. Let them know that you understand their business and you are THE best VA to help them with their business needs. You are awesome. You can do it. Now, go get some clients!

I can help...

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.

You probably hear it all the time. As a Virtual Assistant, you should be blogging.

You need to be posting on social media every day.

Your clients need to see you to know about you, and know that you can help them.

Many VAs struggle with creating content that helps to get their VA business in front of their audience.

I bet if you added up all the time you spend 'marketing', it's more than 5 or 10 hours a week.

Are you getting clients from what you are doing?

If not then you need to make some changes to your strategy.

If you aren't blogging, I'm going tonfirst suggest that you start ... even thkugh it isn't the only way you can create content.

There is really one main skill you need to develop to get lots of content created for your marketing.

It's called repurposing content. Repurposing content quite simply means to reuse something you have already created in a slightly different way. I'll explain how to do that.

First things first, usually the thing that stops you from creating content is not knowing what to write about.

VAs who say they hate to blog probably don't hate to write – they just don't know what to write about.

What To Write

To figure out what you need to write, you first need to know what your audience wants to read about, or learn.

If you are a bookkeeper, your audience wants to know how to do their part better. So you can write about tax tips, organizing paperwork better, software to use, apps that are new, actual methods to categorize or post expenses, and so on. You are not trying to teach them to do their own bookkeeping. That's what you want them to hire you to do. You are trying to showcase your knowledge and expertise so that they might want to hire you.

All VAs can write about online tools to use to build or grow your business, or work/life balance, or organization and productivity, and so on.

You need to figure out what it is that your audience wants to read about, that supports the services that you offer.

Choose two or three categories of topics to start with and then you can grow from there. Start simple and develop good content creation habits.

Repurpose

Ah here we are!

Repurposing content means to reuse it in other ways, so you don't have to create something new every day.

For example, if you write one blog post, you can turn that into a number of pieces of other content. Here are 10!

1. Put it in your newsletter and send it to your email list.
2. Post it to your blog.
3. Post it as an article on Linked In .
4. Turn it into a Facebook Live 
5. Upload the Facebook live video to your Youtube channel.
6. Transcribe your video, or take notes from it as you talked
7. Go through the blog post and transcript to pull out short social media postings for whichever platforms you are on.
8. Pull out advice from your videos or blog post that can be used to create custom images 
9. Post your custom images to Instagram (or any of your social media platforms).
10. Look in the transcript for opportunities to expand on any areas – thus creating another blog post that you can link back to.

Do you get the idea?

One article gives you at least 10 other ways to use one blog post to create more content. And everything is about things your audience wants to read about.

Or Don't Write

When creating content, it's important to choose a delivery method that you enjoy. If you like to write, then blog. If you don't like to write, try doing video.

Facebook Lives are easy. video in general is easy when you get started.

If you prefer doing video, then start there and use the transcript to create a blog post.

Look at your blog posts or videos so far. Have you written something once, posted it, and thought that was enough? It's not.

I challenge you to take an existing blog post and repurpose it using the steps above.

One thing it will do is show you how much of your efforts you are missing out on.

The other thing it will do is let you figure out your favourite way to create content – so you can do more of what you like!

We all have the same amount of time to market our business. Wouldn't it make sense for you to make the most of your time to do yours?

Daily content

Everything is content. This is truly great advice- and so true.

When you struggle to create content, you have to look at things differently. And when you do, you need to find the business lessons or the common thread to advice that you can use as a comparison to your business.

People can relate to daily activities and interactions – and while I don't suggest you write all your content this way, it can be a great boost to adding your personality and some much needed relatability to your content.

Here's what I mean.

I told a story recently of how I went to Costco and had a crappy customer service experience. Long story short, they told me the debit machines were down as I entered the store, but said they took cash and credit. So I went ahead in, did my shopping, and tried to pay with my Visa or Amex. Nope. They actually only take Mastercard, which the girl at the front didn't tell me. So I had to find a bank machine and get cash to pay for my stuff. This is relatable, and you can link it directly to how you would have handled the customer service, if that's a service you offer (even if it's not – I always give my customers the right information).

When you go to the bank, they spin their monitor around and show you all your stuff and they tell you about the options they have for you – and they recommend what they feel is the best one for you. That's how you can help your clients decide the best option to with you.

Laundry – we sort it to wash it, and we adjust the water temperature and spin force for different clothing. I also sort it to fold it. This shows people how you organize yourself – how your mind works, and how you use processes.

Client stories are great things to use in content. Tell people what the client was experiencing before they started working with you and how you helped them. The more clients you have, the more you can use this kind of content. You can even inject your humour into these, as a show of how you build relationships and get along with your clients.

I was recently talking with a client about repackaging and repurposing content. I had suggested that it would be a good idea to take an audio from a teleclass and repackage it into several other pieces that the client could use in her marketing.

She didn't understand why I would suggest doing that – the audio itself was content so why didn't we we just blast the link out for everywhere so people could opt in to it and therefore get the material – no extra work required.

It's important to realize that people take in their information in all different kinds of ways. In order to reach them you need to find the way that speaks directly to them.

I love chocolate. But I'm not like most people. I like milk chocolate the best. You can give me the best Belgian chocolate you can find on this earth, and I will just think 'meh' … and still prefer a Mars Bar. I actually don't like dark chocolate at all. Even though they are all types of chocolate, I prefer the more common kind versus the higher end, better quality, more expensive type.

I do not like cinnamon. I don't like cinnamon buns, I don't like it in apple pie, and I don't like it any other way most people use cinnamon (I really can't comprehend enjoying cinnamon hearts, cinnamon gum OR cinnamon toothpaste, but I digress … !). Having said that, I always put a pinch of cinnamon in my turkey gravy when I am cooking, and I do really like the Cinnabon cereal bar. (I don't know why I like that and not cinnamon buns, but I do – it doesn't seem to burn like the other things do). So again … repackage your cinnamon and I can actually say I like it.

These are silly (but true!) examples of how to look at something from another angle to see it through someone else's eyes.

In the quest for our ideal client's attention, we have to be aware that not everyone is looking for the same thing, but if you package it differently they might hear what you are saying and like it.

So it you take that audio and break it down into 6 blog posts, or 1 article, or 3 videos … it's still the same content, but it's a different way for someone to find it.

My client's thought of sending the audio out more places was a smart idea – but by putting it into 3 or 4 new formats, we could reach people in different ways, and that could just make them jump up and pay attention. Try it yourself – and be sure to measure your results so you know what your audience is responding to (don't just do things for the sake of doing them!)

Chocolate, cinnamon or marketing materials – they are all the same thing – give your audience something that appeals to them and you may just open a door that one of them has been looking for and make a sale.

Let's circle back to today's quote from Rebekah Radice. You get a higher impact and more bang for your marketing dollar. Make your marketing time work better for you.

And you won't have the same content everywhere. You can use your categories and have the same theme across your platforms. 

You don't even need to do 10 things. Gary Vee's staff creates 100 pieces of content from one video every day. 

Bring your personality in to your marketing too. Be personable and relatable. Create regularly and work with a strategy. 

I don't know everything - and I get help in my business all the time with the things I don't know.

You can too.

I want you to know that I can help you do this stuff in your business. That's literally the reason I am here. 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.

Reach out to me if you need to talk about it. It's literally all I'm here to do is help you get there. 

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.

Market research. Target market.

Market research isn't just for big companies with budgets and focus groups. It's one of the smartest and most confidence-building steps you can take as a VA business owner.

Because when you understand who your target market is - what they care about, what they struggle with, and what they'll happily pay for - you stop guessing. You stop throwing out random offers and hoping something sticks.

Instead, you start building a business that actually fits your people.

Let's dig into what market research really is, how to do it simply, and how it helps you find your target market as a VA.

You can spend hours scrolling through Facebook groups or sending out surveys, but nothing replaces real conversation.

Talking directly with people in your potential market is where the gold is. That's where you discover what they truly struggle with, how they describe their challenges, and what kind of help they're actually willing to invest in.

And like I said off the top: most VAs shy away from that step. They worry about bothering people or not knowing what to say. But the VAs who build real confidence, and real businesses, are the ones who actually have those conversations.

If you're ready to get past the hesitation and learn how to connect with your target market in a way that feels natural and comfortable, I can help you with that.

This is one of my favorite things to work on with my private coaching clients. Helping you make real market research connections so you can identify your niche, your audience, and your value with confidence and clarity.

So if that's something you know you need, let's talk about it.

You can connect with me at YourVAMentor.com/links.

Let's chat about where you are right now, and what you need to do to move forward.

Because once you understand your target market on a personal level, everything about your business starts to click: your pricing, your messaging, your confidence, and of course, your results.

Don't be shy to reach out for a chat. I'm here to help.

It's the only reason I'm here at all, to help you become a ridiculously good virtual assistant.

That's all I've got for you this week. I'll see you next time!

Is your energy attracting VA clients or chasing them away?

What you put out there is what comes back to you.

When you are in business, your energy is an important thing to focus on.

It's not a woo woo type of thing, your energy. And I'm not here to tell you that having a positive attitude will get you VA clients.

Negative energy will chase them away.

Your energy is truly one of the most important things that drives your VA business.

Your clients will be attracted to you when they feel good about who they will be doing business with.

If you give them the sense that things are not so great, they will not have the confidence to decide to work with you.

Even more than that, keeping clients that you are already working with also depends on your energy.

If you are struggling in your VA business, you might think that no one notices.

You probably think you are doing a great job of covering it up.

Or maybe you just aren't putting yourself out there are all so that people won't notice.

You might think that it's just the way business is supposed to be. I mean everyone knows business is hard, right?

But it's not supposed to be THAT hard!

If you are having a tough time, don't just accept it as the way it's supposed to be.

Figure out what the plan is to make things better.

That starts with the energy you are putting in to the GOOD things.

Let's talk first about how negative energy affects everything you do in your VA business:

You second guess your pricing
You let clients cross your boundaries
You misunderstand clients or take what they say personally
You take longer to do things because you just aren't feeling it
You rush through tasks just to get them done
You lack creativity because you are in a fog
You feel exhausted

Those are the obvious ones … but how about these …

You keep to yourself and hope no one notices you are failing
You create content that talks about all the wrong things
You abandon your target market and start trying to find any clients at all
You agree to do work that you don't love
You let your client set your rate or tasks you do because you don't want to turn down money

If you are feeling any of these, you need to get your energy in check.

Let's do it together!

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Business is hard, yes. But it doesn't ALL have to be hard.

And you don't just need to fake energy to make things look good. We need to really find them.

Today I'm going to help you find the things you need to focus on. Trust me, they are there!

You are amazing. You are ridiculously good. And your clients (and potential clients) need to know it.

Let's start by talking about four reasons that positive energy in your business is so important:

1 Client attraction

So I don't believe that clients will flock to you if you put on a happy face, but client attraction is a real thing.

When you are in the right frame of mind, you show up every day and exude confidence. You freely share advice and opinions. You invite and participate in conversations. You actually show up and are part of the communities where your clients are.

The client attraction part happens because people see you, and they hear you, and they trust you. They see your confidence and they believe that you can help them. You know the words to tell them to help them believe that.

They might not even be feeling very positive themselves, and you can help them to see that there is a light at the end of their dark tunnel. We help people, it's what we do. So how do you help them? Talk about it!

Confidence is one of the most important qualities you can showcase to your audience, and it starts with feeling positive about your abilities.

When you believe it, and share it with others, they will see it and want to work with you.

And that obviously will boost your energy too!

Getting clients means putting yourself out there and confidently describing how you can help your clients.

I had a private client once who really struggled with getting clients, well I've actually had a lot of those, it's one of the things that VAs come to me with all the time, but this one in particular really had trouble with understanding who they could help.

So they spent all day online, job sites, rfp boards, in VA groups, just waiting for clients to say yes. It was exhausting. And it brought down their energy if they didn't get the client.

We worked together and got really clear on what they could do and who need those services. We developed a plan for them to connect with those people and guess what? Within 3 months they were hiring a subcontractor because they had too much work.

Client attraction exists because when you put the right energy out there, you find the right people. And you have conversations that lead to people saying yes.

I can help you to put together the plan you need to use every day to find great clients.

2 Confidence

If you don't believe that you are the best person to help your clients, they won't believe it either.

It's kind of a catch-22 though. If you are struggling to get clients, then you might feel like you aren't the best VA for them.

So measuring our confidence is a really important thing to do.

A lack of confidence in your abilities to either find the people you can help, or charge them accordingly, or do the things they need, is really common when things aren't going so well.

The funny thing is that you might not even realize that you are putting it out there. But I can assure you that you are.

Take some time and look in the VA groups for the conversations that are happening in them.

When we are struggling, the language we use to describe our situation proves that we have a lack of confidence.

And you know I have told you before that the brain needs to hear 5 positive things to counteract just one negative thing. So even if you aren't saying things out loud, you are dragging your confidence down by thinking these things.

You need to believe in yourself before your clients will believe in you.

When I work with you privately, we record your sessions. We talk. And this really cool thing happens when you get to your sweet spot.

If you have done private coaching with me you will know what I'm talking about.

When you start to talk about something with confidence, your whole demeanor changes.

When we dive into what you do for your clients and I ask you about something that you know really well, that confidence comes out. Your voice changes. I hear it and I love it!

I tell you after the call to 'go back to the 3 minute mark and listen to the change in your voice'. It's something we never do, get a do over, so the session recordings are really useful.

You settle in, you start to use all the right words, no tripping over words, you add all the right details … the confidence just comes shining through.

That's good energy - and that's what your clients need to hear!

If you aren't sure how to change the language you use - and find your confidence, I can help you with that.

I have so much confidence in your ability to be great, and I'd love to help.

3 Communication

Did you know that one of the most common problems that VAs and their clients have is a communication problem?

We work virtually, of course, and so we rely on online methods of communication - and there are so many opportunities for us to have misunderstandings, or leave too much to the imagination.

In fact, the majority of the complaints that I see VAs making about their clients is due to a lack of communication.

It starts because we are not used to being on equal ground with our clients. We still think the clients get to call the shots. Newsflash, they don't.

And so we do whatever they say, and sit back feeling more like an employee than a business owner in our own right.

Your clients can crush your energy like no one else, and it happens all the time.

I could spend all day giving VAs advice who have let their clients treat them badly.

It's not always the client's fault - they have probably never worked with a VA as a partner or an equal before either - and truly, if you are acting like their employee, then that's how they will treat you.

But getting a handle on your communication is something that can turn your energy like nothing else.

It's not personal, it's business.

Get GREAT at business communication - leave emotions out of it, and your energy will sky rocket!

I am pretty active in VA groups, and of course I work with my own VAs who are clients in my monthly mastermind group or through private coaching. But you will see my comments in many VA groups, and a lot of them are giving examples of how to change the words you use when you communicate with clients.

Business is business and it's so important to articulate what you want to say in business words.

You don't have to be someone you aren't, you can totally be yourself - but just state the facts in your communication.

Instead of explaining things with a million words and apologizing and asking if that's okay … stand behind what your boundaries and rates and things are, and create a way to describe those to people. Use those words all the time to be clear and concise, and in charge. That's great communication.

I can help you with this. It's something I have always done exceptionally well, and it's my pleasure to help you gain the confidence that you need to keep your energy high.

4 Credibility

Before we get a full roster of amazing clients, we have to build up credibility as an amazing VA.

To do that, you need to put yourself out there, and the energy you project is what will affect your results.

Like I've said, your audience needs to believe that you are the best one to help them - that's the point that they will make that buying decision, and say yes to working with you.

Credibility comes from what you put out there, and what others say about you too.

You know your expertise, but are you confidently sharing that with people? In your social media posts and your networking conversations?

You are probably the best kept secret - even though you don't think you are.

We have this notion that when we go into business - when we publish our website, or post on social media - that the entire world sees it.

But they don't. We have to work strategically to put ourselves in front of the people who will potentially be our clients.

That's not 'everywhere'.

If you don't have the right energy in your content or your networking, it's going to come across super obviously to your clients.

How many times have you posted 'I have a special on, I have an opening for a client, I am looking for someone to barter with.' Or even just discounting your rates in general.

Dropping your price for any reason screams desperate. Well maybe not screams, maybe states is a better word.

And guess what? It's not just you! If your clients respond to the word 'discount', then they are probably putting out the same energy that you are.

That's probably going to be a recipe for disaster at some point. Starting a relationship with a client for less than what you want to earn is a serious issue.

Don't sacrifice the money now for the money you WILL earn when you do things right.

Find your best clients, do amazing work with them, earn what you know you are worth (and need to earn) and your credibility will speak for itself.

I tell you all the time that my clients were 6 and 7 figure business coaches. That was a conscious decision. They also had to be working with a coach of their own for me to work with them. You can define these things!

Don't work with just anyone. That is one of the things that can really mess with our credibility. What if you say yes to a client that can not afford you, and then you don't get them the results they want? Or you end up fighting with them about money? That will be a client relationship that ends badly … doesn't really matter which way you look at it.

I advise VAs to find the clients that can afford them, that need them, that value them, and do great work with them. Those clients will praise you from the rooftops.

VAs who are earning what they want to earn and working with clients that they love (or at least doing work they love for great clients) … that's who we want to be!

That's how you build up your credibility. And obviously it's amazing for your energy levels too!

So there are four reasons that positive energy is so impactful in your business.

Now how do we get there … and stay there?

You have to give yourself all the help you can get.

1 Define what success means to you

When you have a clear understanding of what you need to feel successful, you can help yourself confidently get there.

I did a vision board a long time ago, my first one. I didn't know what a vision board was and mine sucked compared to everyone else's, but I stuck on pictures of things I wanted and places I wanted to go, that kind of thing. I stuck on words that I wanted to feel in my business and my life.

And I recently did a big office cleanup and I found it. At first I laughed, it was totally falling apart, but then I noticed something really cool. I had achieved a lot of the things on that board. I didn't realize it. I didn't use the board, like at all. But I did put the right things on it.

Success to me meant going those places and getting those things. And I have. I didn't need a vision board to follow. They really were the things I wanted. And I have built my business to get them. You need to define what it means to you, and start to help yourself get them.

2 Success routines

Set yourself up with routines that will instill success in your business. Figure out how you get clients, and do it every day. It's not luck, you can't leave it up to luck. You have to decide what your system is, and buy into it. Following a strategy that you know will work 4 out of 5 times is the surest way to be confident and to stay positive.

If you don't know how to do it, it's time to work with someone who can help you map out that plan. You don't need to follow someone else's plan or path. you need to follow yours. Ask for help. Invest in help. And then you do the work. You will get to where you want, I promise!

I would be nowhere if I didn't work with a business coach. Many of the VAs who have taken my Getting Started as a VA self study program say they would not be where they are without that program. You invest what you can afford and you DO THE WORK. Every day.

3 Seek out positivity

Don't do it alone. I've said it before. Business is hard. But you know what? Other VAs have had the same thoughts as you - probably right at the same time as you. Your problems are yours, yes, but you are not alone in having them. Find your people. Let them help you.

Surround yourself with people who lift you up - and who you lift up too. Did you know that when you are helping others, that gives off SO much positive energy?

I have an accountability partner and we talk every second week. Without even realizing it, we lift each other up. We also hold each other accountable for what our results are, but we do it in a positive manner - like if I share something that did not go well, my partner will honestly tell me why - what I didn't do, or should have done differently - but then just naturally she will tell me why I CAN do it. And both of our energy levels go up.

Like instantly. I know the same things about her. Find your partners, your people, and ask them for help, and give them help.

4 Banish negativity

Be really aware of what you are saying to yourself, and where you are spending your time. I know I talk often about what you say to yourself in your head, but another place that I see so much negativity is in the VA groups. We wallow in our pity when others agree with us. If we tell them that a client was mean to us, and we get all of our colleagues patting us on the back telling us, 'yes they are mean!' then we buy into it. But it's negative and it's not good for you. Get yourself out of there and go and network with the entrepreneurs who need you to be THEIR support.

And lend positivity wherever you can. Every single day. Look for it, sow it yourself.

5 When you're in it, get out of it

Am I telling you that you need to walk around in a good mood every day?

Hardly.

If I knew how to do that, I'd bottle it!

But you need to be able to identify when you are in it, and get out of it.

So to do that you need strategies that will help you.

I follow an ADHD coach of sorts on Instagram and she has put some really cool stuff into perspective for me that I think is relevant to so many of us.

She talks about energy levels as being sort of the bar for our output.

What I mean by that is that we can have habits and routines that we intend to follow every day (I encourage it!) … but what if we are having a low energy day?

We can't just toss what we need to do aside. We need to adjust it.

And that's what Melanie teaches - to have processes for both scenarios. If we are suffering from low energy, we still need to do stuff - but what is the bare minimum that we need to do to be effective?

That's what I love! On a low energy day you 'just' need to do x of xyz.

Let's circle back quickly to Willie: once you replace negative thoughts with positive ones, you'll start having positive results. Happy people seek out happy people. Your clients will seek you out when you are positive.

Assessment time.

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Let's take stock right now.

How are you feeling?
Are you struggling?
Are you feeling down?
Are you stuck?

It's time to get out of your head and write this down these 3 things:

What do I want?

Why do I want it?

How can I get it?

We all know what we want. That's the easy one.

But why do you want it?

If you want clients, it's probably so you can make money. So you can pay for stuff. But really why do you want it? So you don't have to go back to a job? So you can work part time? So you can be more present for your family?

It's really important to attach the WHY to what you want. It helps you to remember why it's so important to get what you want.

And of course the last part of that is how to get it.

And I'm guessing that if you are struggling - and if you made it this far in this episode, that you don't know how.

That's okay, that's what I'm here for!

I don't know everything - and I get help in my business all the time with the things I don't know.

You can too.

I want you to know that I can help you do this stuff in your business. That's literally the reason I am here. 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.

It's not what you are that holds you back, it's what you think you are not. - Denis Waitley

We are back with part two of Kick Imposter Syndrome to the Curb.

Last episode we talked about what imposter syndrome is and how it can show up for us. How is does show up for us. And how it shows up for 82% of other people too - what a crazy stat was that! I think I'd love to be in the 18% (but I'm not ha ha).

We also talked about adjusting your inner monologue, focusing on the value you bring to your clients and their businesses, and knowing your stuff.

This week I want to go a little deeper into it. Let's go.

Talk About What You Can Do

We talked about creating content in the last episode, and how your brain seeing valuable content on a daily basis is a good thing.

Your valuable content, of course. Sometimes we get stuck in the scroll, and we read other people's words, see their images, their videos, and we don't think to create our own stuff.

And we also talked about saying positive things out loud. That's what this tip is about.

Talk with people. Every day.

I always encourage you to have real conversations with business owners every day. Not to sell them something they don't want or need, but to make those connections.

When you talk about what you can do what happens? You get better at talking about it for sure. I remember going to a business breakfast meeting every week and practicing my elevator pitch in the car on the way there. I would record it on my phone and then play it back to hear if it sounded okay. I would re-record if it didn't. It often didn't.

You may know that I hate elevator pitches. But they are good for forcing you talk out loud!

What I want you to do is to talk to real people. Have conversations. Ask them what they need help with in their business. Tell them how you can help, if you can.

Talking about what YOU can do builds up that positivity and value muscle that you need to keep imposter syndrome at bay.

If you hear yourself saying 'I can help you with that. That's exactly how I help my clients.', that's the serotonin you need to stay positive.

And of course, the more conversations you have, the more clients you will get. It's just a matter of numbers.

Find your people, talk to them. get clients. I assure you, imposter syndrome doesn't stand a chance when you are not struggling to find clients!

Oh and just a final note on this, I see it in the VA groups too - when someone asks a question, do you feel like you don't have the experience to answer their question? You do! Maybe that's the challenge you set for yourself this week - speak up. Contribute! It really helps those positive brain thoughts!

Share Your Feelings

Okay are we getting back into the woowoo here? not really.

BUT once of the most valuable things you can do for yourself and your business is to not try to go it alone.

Get help from someone you trust. Maybe lots of someones.

An accountability partner is one of the best things you can have to walk through new processes, talk through issues.

Getting someone else's perspective that you trust - and that understands your VA business - especially when you are struggling, can be really helpful.

And in terms of imposter syndrome, it doesn't even let you go there. If you are having a tough time, jump on the phone with someone and talk it through.

You will soon realize that others have many of the same problems as you - VAs or otherwise. And that definitely helps you realize that not everyone is way better off than you.

Again, on the flip side, can you be that person for someone? For many people? Maybe you join TVC like I always tell you. You will learn in a supportive group like that, that you have really valuable contributions.

Putting yourself into a situation (regularly) where you can give and get advice automatically helps you shed imposter syndrome because you get the support you need and you also give back. I highly recomnend it!

Learn to Like Yourself

Well, this one might be a little harder to do - especially if you are having a tough time.

But if you learn to like yourself, then you will want to help yourself. We tend to help people we like!

I use this exercise all the time when my VAs are struggling to figure things out in their business.

Do it for someone else. Pretend you are doing that research for someone else. Pretend you are trying to find a solution for a client or a friiend. How would you talk to that other person if they were going through what you are going through? Or if they were hearing what you are saying to yourself?

You have to trust yourself to be in business. You have to believe in yourself. You have to be confident in your abilities and your expertise.

And yes, you have to like yourself.

I know that if I told you to do that exercise for someone else, you would pull out all the stops without hesitation.

You would say 'oh yes, I can do that' and jump into action. But trying to do the same thing for ourselves isn't as easy sometimes.

It should be - and you have to treat yourself the same way - that's why having a support network is so important. You're not alone in having trouble with this one!

Realize No One is Perfect

We all look at other people and think they have it all together. Social media can be such a bad thing, because everyone only posts the good stuff on it and that's the stuff we see every day. Most people never post the negative stuff that we all go through.

No one is perfect. And you don't have to be either.

We think we are an imposter because we measure ourself against someone else - or against many others. But measuring properly isn't possible when you don't have all the facts. You aren't comparing apples to apples.

Recognizing that everyone else has their own 'stuff' too is a good start to helping you simply not be so hard on yourself.

In my research for this podcast topic, I saw some detailed kinds of imposters. I won't detail them in here for you because, well, it's not my content - but also because I want to get you OUT of yours, not help you identify with it further haha.

But just know that no one is perfect, everyone is fighting some kind of battle, even if they don't show it on social media.

Stick to your issues and figure out how to work through them so that you are done, but don't aim for perfectionism. It's exhausting, it can keep you stuck, and no one really ever expects it anyway!

Celebrate Your Successes

You guys laugh when I tell you to start a success journal.

It seems silly to write down things that went well today. I get it, it seems trivial.

But how do we remind ourselves of all of the good things that we do every day, especially when we are having a bad day - or even just a bad hour?

We need a reminder, and we don't always have someone sitting beside us to do it for us. Your success journal is the tool to help remind you of all of the GOOD you are doing every day.

What should you put into it? Things your clients say (use their words), things that helped someone else be better or do better, things that you finally did right, things that you always do right, anything that you consider a success. Some will be big, many will be small.

But it's all about YOU and how you helped other people - or how you helped yourself. Give yourself the tools you need to keep that top of mind.

And don't forget to own your accomplishments. Have you won an award, been invited to speak somewhere, been asked for advice from someone?

All of those things are successes. And again, writing them down helps you

Articulate Your Strengths

If your client or your partner asked you to make a list of things that they were amazing at, you would sharpen your pencil and get to work on that list.

It would probably even come easily to you, just like I mentioned earlier.

I tell the story often of a client of mine who was working with me on her marketing message. She was struggling to talk about herself and how amazing she was at the services she offered. So I flipped the conversation and asked her instead to tell me why someone should work with her husband, who was a tradesman with a business of his own. She could easily tell me exactly why clients should hire him. And then I told her that she could do the same for herself. You know your own strengths. Get out of your own head -- and way -- and write them down so you can share them too.

Not sure what your strengths are? Get someone help you with the list. When we are struggling with self-esteem or self-confidence issues, we sometimes need help to see our value. So ask someone. I bet you'll be pleasantly surprised at what they say. Maybe ask them anyway!

So that's it, like 10 things maybe that can help you kick your imposter syndrome to the curb.

Get rid of it.

Let's circle back to today's quote: It's not what you are that holds you back, it's what you think you are not. - Denis Waitley

We have proven with every tip in this two part podcast that you are in total control of moving yourself and your business forward. You can change the way you think (easily, I might add).

It's not what you are. It's NOT what you are.

You are a smart, capable, skilled, educated, experienced professional.

I feel like I am reciting the line from that movie The Help - You is smart. You is kind. You is important. You is!

No, really, though, you are.

You deserve success, you deserve happiness, you deserve the recognition of others. Go get after it!

I want you to know that I can help you do this stuff in your business. That's literally the reason I am here. To help you become a ridiculously good VA.

This is what I help VAs do. As a VA coach and trainer, I help you create success, teaching you how to fix what isn't going right in your VA business. When we work together either privately or in a group we talk specifically about your business and you - every service business is unique. Your VA business is unique.

I will help you clearly understand what your biggest issues are, and help you walk through the strategy and plan to fix them.

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.

Have you ever said these things to yourself - or out loud?

I'm a fraud
Who am I to be doing this
What if I get found out
I don't know what I'm doing
I just got lucky
I'm not an expert, I'm not even good at this
I have no idea what I'm doing
I'm not good enough
Everyone else knows what they are doing, except me
I can't do this
Why does anyone want to hear my opinion on this?
Is today the day someone finds me out?
This won't last, I better enjoy it now
I can't charge someone for this
I just want to help people

These are all statements that get dumped into the idea of Imposter Syndrome.

We feel like we are not good enough to do what we are doing, to charge what we charge, to work with who we work with, to speak out loud about how good we are.

It's a real and very common feeling. As a Virtual Assistant, many of us are women who came from secretary-ish roles where someone else was the boss.

Someone else got paid more than we did to do the important stuff, and we just looked after their back end stuff.

There was always someone higher up than us in every company.

So now as a business owner it can be a hard transition to see our own value and to showcase it to others.

We are the highest up in our own company and it is a new place for us to be!

And we can have feelings of inadequacy - maybe just sometimes, maybe often.

Make no mistake, we are qualified to do what we are doing.

You are a smart, capable, skilled, educated, experienced professional.

So why does it feel like everyone is going to 'find you out' one day and it will all be over?

Why is it that you look at others and think 'they have it, they know what they are doing, they are smarter than me'.

They aren't any smarter than you. They might look like it on the outside, but how do you know that they aren't feeling the same thing as you?

I'm here to tell you that it's not just you.

Imposter syndrome is CRAZY common. I found a study on Hubspot that says 82% of people have suffered from it at one point or another. 82%!!!

It doesn't discern - women, men, young, old, experienced, brand new.

And it even affects people at different stages of their business. If you are growing, you might feel it. If you are struggling, you might feel it.

It can cause fear, anxiety, depression, self-sabotage, self-doubt, and a whole host of other icky feelings.

It's exactly as Dr. Chan puts it. I'm so aware of all the things I don't know. We focus on what other people know that clients seem to want or need. I am so aware of what some other people know that I don't know - as I'm sure you are too - but that doesn't mean that we need to learn that thing.

She also says that there are an awful lot of people out there that think I'm an expert - that think YOU are an expert. And you know what? They are right!

So how then, do we kick imposter syndrome to the curb?

Well it starts by not being the only person that you talk to every day.

For some reason, we seem to think that being a one-woman show means doing everything ourselves.

Even though we teach our clients that they need help, we somehow don't think we are supposed to get help.

And flying solo definitely impacts how we think of ourselves.

As a matter of fact, I found so many ways to help banish imposter syndrome that I am actually going to do this in two part.

So here we got with the first few tips!

Adjust Your Inner Monologue

I came across this quote and I loved it so much I knew it was how I wanted to start off.

I wish someone would invent a tape recorder that we could attach to our brains to record everything we tell ourselves. We would realize how important it is to stop this negative self-talk. Ariana Huffington

What you say to yourself matters. Keeping an eye on what you are saying out loud is easy - but you also need to be mindful of what you are saying in your head.

If you are anything like me, I can look at the clock at 2 pm on any given day and realize I haven't said a word out loud.

Just working. No meetings. No words spoken aloud.

But boy, let me tell you about the hundreds of conversations I have had in my head!

All damn day I talk to myself. And some of it is not kind.

We don't do it on purpose, it just happens.

I remember reading that it takes the brain hearing 5 positive thoughts to crush a negative one. Five!

Our brains are one of the most powerful instruments on earth. If the brain can not think positive on default, how do you suppose you can?

It's why the positive thinkers of the world tell you to speak affirmations, or stick up positive post it notes where you can see them daily.

Your brain will react to the positivity, but being able to help it along makes a huge difference.

It's manifesting without the woowoo!

Focus On Your Value

What we do comes easily to us, right?

I know what I do does.

You have heard me say that a business coach of mine used to say what comes easiest to you is what you should be charging the most for.

An awesome idea. It is your expertise that you should be selling.

But so often we don't recognize the true value of what we are doing for our clients.

We think everyone knows how to do what we do.

They don't.

Not our clients, not even other Virtual Assistants.

We are unique, and we know what we are doing. You know what you are doing.

If I asked you right not what value your clients get from hiring you, what would you say?

So many VAs struggle with this whole concept. They simply can't articulate it.

Did you know that if you were creating regular marketing content, the words would come much more easily to you?

Think about it. What do you write in your content? How you specifically help your clients. Why it is important for them to get support. How they can work with you and how you make it easy for them to do that.

All value! And remember your brain will also hear it when you are creating content like that every day.

A super easy way to focus on your value. Create great content!

Know Your Stuff

That goes hand in hand with the next thing .

What do you know how to do?
What can you do for your VA clients?

Document your expertise. Write it down.

Seeing, concretely seeing, what you are capable of in writing helps to reinforce it for you.

You can see your skill sets, your expertise, your value.

You can't showcase it to others if you don't truly know it yourself.

If you have done my skills inventory, you will have done this. Think about every job you have had, every training you have taken, every volunteer opportunity.

What have you learned? You know much more than you talk about every day, that I can guarantee you.

A lot of VAs think only about their last job or role when coming up with their services. But the list goes way beyond that.

Write it down, reinforce for yourself and then tell others about it.

Writing it down will also show you the gaps. What don't you know? Learn it.

Now that doesn't mean learn social media if you don't have clients yet, it means learn how to se a CRM that your audience is using if you offer executive admin services.

Remember we are talking about Imposter syndrome here. Nothing robs your self- confidence more than trying to learn social media, not being totally sure what you are doing, and charging clients for it.

Work with what you know already. Your Stuff. Do the best you can at it and shine!!

Now, I'm going to leave it here for this week but I have so much more to share with you on this topic of Imposter Syndrome.

And I want you to know that I can help you do this stuff in your business. That's literally the reason I am here. To help you become a ridiculously good VA.

This is exactly what I help VAs do. As a VA coach and trainer, I help you set yourself up for success, helping you fix the specific things that are going wrong in your business. When we work together either privately or in a group we talk specifically about your business and you - there is no one stop solution for everyone when it comes to service businesses like VA businesses.

I'll help you get clarity around your issues, and cheer you on as you walk through the steps to fix them.

I've helped hundreds of VAs through their challenges and got them on their way to growing their business and the lifestyle that they 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.

Time is what we want most, but what we use worst. - William Penn

This quote seems mean but it's not. None of use every moment of our time wisely. But if you are strategic with some thing in your VA business, you can use that time very wisely. And by doing so, you actually get more done. And make more money.

I am going to talk today about how you can save time while you do VA work.

Now, I am not talking about speed. I never tell you to work faster.

Well that's not entirely true.

I do talk about keeping a good work pace. I'll get to that later.

But there are 4 simple things you can implement in your business that can help you work more efficiently. And working efficiently helps you save time.

Efficiency helps you use the time you have as wisely as possible.

Productivity means getting things done.
Efficiency means working smart.

Like William Penn says, we all want more time. Why is that? Because we are spending too much on things and we are running out of it when we don't need to.

For a VA, time is literally money. Your clients pay you to do work, often by the hour.

But you physically take the time to do the client work, and that is how you charge them. So your time is their money.

And in order to earn as much money as you can, you need to be productive and efficient.

Here are some things you can do to help you do that:

1 Checklists

I am a huge advocate of using checklists.
You can set them up in Google Sheets or Trello or a project management t system or even printed on paper.

Where they are doesn't matter, as long as they detail the steps that you need to take to complete any task.

And they need to be checkable. Like I mean you can check off the tasks as you go.

I have done this a number of ways.

Some things I printed on paper and put in a transparency sleeve. I would check things off with a dry erase marker. Wipe it clean and reuse it next time. Really, I did! Simple is always best and at the time I used several checklists that way.

I have also made simple shareable spreadsheets. When I needed to share with client, it made it easy to detail all of the steps to do a project, and we could also add in deadline dates and who was responsible. It was easy to see the project status at a glance and what was coming up next.

Now I use Trello but I have also used many other project management systems. Online checklists are great, as long as everyone uses them.

But Tracey I hear you ask ... why do I need a checklist for things only I do? I know the steps. I don't need a checklist.

Well, yeah you do.

The brain saves soooo much time when you don't have to think about where you stopped and where you need to begin again.

You can also look at a checklist and do just a couple of things on it if you have some time now. You don't have to sit down and do a 2 hour task all at once.

I love it for my podcasts. I have 20 steps on my podcast creation checklist. I do a podcast every week .. of course I know how to do it. From doing my research to creating images, writing my script, recording it, editing it, many steps.

But every week I use the checklist. Because it means I don't need to do it all in one sitting. I can do my images one day if I have some time, or just feel like it. I can look for quotes for 10 upcoming episodes if that' what I feel like doing. By checking it off the checklist I know what needs to be done for each episode at a glance. Efficient!

I can help you design checklists for everything you do in your business. If you don't already have procedures for everything you do, we can start with those. Get more time back in your schedule!

2 Templates

The next thing that will help you with efficiency is templates.

Newsletter templates, email templates invoice templates, image templates, onboarding templates, rfp response templates, task and project templates.

You name it, you can probably create a time saving template for it. And if you can, you should.

Creating templates for your client work helps you churn out more stuff for them.

You can do a month's worth of newsletters faster. You can create eye catching and branded social media graphics with templates.

It is about more than efficiency and speed.

I love templates. I think everyone should use them.

Why do you want to recreate the wheel every time you sit down to create a social media post?

Now again I'm not talking about speed. At least not directly.

I'm going to back up just a bit here to talk about task pricing. Deliverable pricing. It's how I teach you to bill your clients. Why? Because when you bill your client for the deliverable, it doesn't matter how fast you do it. The faster you do it, the more you get paid.

I have an episode about billing by deliverable, so I'll tag that in the show notes below, but suffice it to say I teach you to bill that way because then you are billing for your expertise, and you don't lose money by being more efficient.

It helps you FIND ways to do things more efficiently because you can do more in less time (but the client pays the same).

Anyway I digress...

By creating templates you can get more done in less time. But still get paid for your expertise.

I don't teach skill stuff like Canva, but I sure can help you define where you can implement templates in your business to increase your work flow probably tenfold.

3 Habits and Routines

Next comes how you work every day. Your habits and routines.

Oh yes, you guys know I love to talk about this stuff!

Why? Because it works!

If you have ever read the book Atomic Habits, you will know about habit stacking which I think is really cool.

It means stacking a new habit on top of an existing one, and it's a great way to create an efficient routine.

My husband takes his daily medication after he brushes his teeth, and he never forget to take it. I should take a page out of his book actually ha ha.

But the point is that is a great example of habit stacking.

If you have trouble forming new habits, try doing it that way. Add on one thing at a time to something else that you always do anyway.

How many days do they say it takes to create a new habit? 21? So do it for 3 weeks and then it should become a habit. You can move it to anywhere you want then. And maybe stack other stuff on top of it too!

A great example of creating a new habit is taking 20 minute every morning to do your social median check ins. I actually challenge you to start this today.

I firmly believe that a lot of VAs spend wayyyy too much time on social media, and they don't have specific objectives for what they are trying to achieve with it.

What are you trying to do? Get clients. How do you get clients? Daily business conversations. That should be your daily objective on social media, so make it a habit, part of your morning routine.

Take 20 minutes and decide which groups you will go to, or which platforms. Connect with how many people. How many likes, shares, comments? Be strategic. Do it daily. Stop after 20 minutes.

I promise you, you will get better at it with practice, and you WILL get clients from it. In 20 mins a day. Yes, 20 strategic minutes.

I can teach you what to do and say in those 20 minutes that will get you the clients.

And the last thing you can do to save time in your VA business is

4 Regular Cost Benefit Analysis

This is a tricky one. How much automation do you bring into your business? What about subcontractors? Getting help to do what you do is the last time saver for today's episode.

Doing a cost benefit analysis is easy. Basically you are looking to see if paying for a person or service to help you with your work makes sense.

You compare the cost to the benefit.

Here's an example

1. You manually create social media post captions for your clients every week. It takes you 3 hours each week to create the captions, and then to repurpose some of it for social media images.
2. You then use Canva to create images with that content. Another 90 minutes.
3. You then download each image from Canva, name it and store it in your shared folders. That takes another hour.
4. Then you post the content to your planner and schedule each post to go out. That takes another 90 minutes.

So we are looking at 7 hours to do that task. If you are billing the client at 40/hr, that is $280 a week.

What could help you do it more efficiently? Post planners that can pull in csv files of content with image urls, for one.
A sub to help with the Canva part maybe, for another.
Templates for Canva images, definitely.

Weigh out what these things might cost versus how you are doing it now.
Sub doing Canva work means you can pay out 2.5 hours at say 25/hr $63.50, and you can then take on more clients to do the other steps. Would that make sense for you?

Bringing on more clients brings you in more top line revenue and helps you get more work done.

Anyway that's just one example, you see how cost benefit works to help you make decisions.

Analyzing your revenue and workflows regularly is an excellent way to save you time as you get busier.

How does that all sound??

Time Saving? I promise you it will be, give some of it a try.

Especially that 20 minutes a day connection time. It truly is a game changer!

I'm going to leave it here for today, so I save us both time ha ha!

But I want you to know that I can help you do this stuff in your business. That's literally the reason I am here. To help you become a ridiculously good VA.

This is exactly the kind of stuff I help VAs do. As a VA coach and trainer, I help you set yourself up for success, helping you fix the specific things that are going wrong in your business. When we work together either privately or in a group we talk specifically about your business and you - there is no one stop solution for everyone when it comes to service businesses like VA businesses.

I'll help you get clarity around your issues, and cheer you on as you walk through the steps to fix them.

I've helped hundreds of VAs through their challenges and got them on their way to growing their business and the lifestyle that they 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.

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 why you should consider having your clients prepay for your VA services.

Quote: A budget is telling your money where to go instead of wondering where it went. - Dave Ramsey

Now this episode is not about budgeting of course but fyi when you google prepayment services you basically get a bunch of funeral ads. Of course you do! So instead I went for prepay quotes and Dave Ramsey cane up. And it is an important factor in today's episode, budgeting. So I'm using it! Let's go!

To prepay or not to prepay?

It is a very common question in Virtual Assistant circles.

Some VAs start off getting their clients to pay up front. Some VAs make the switch at some point. Some VAs always get paid after work is done.

What you will do is up to you. It's your VA business. I can't tell you what you should be doing.

But I will tell you today why in my opinion it is better to get payment up front.

There are a lot of good things that can come out of getting paid for your services ahead of time.

I am only going to cover three today, but I bet they will help you decide that it's right for you.

1 Assurance of Payment

The first reason that it is a good idea to collect payment ahead of providing services is, well, so you will be sure to get paid.

One of the reasons that some VAs move to prepayment is because they got burned. It is part of the reason the I moved to it, I have no problem admitting that.

We often introduce policies and boundaries to our business as a result of things going wrong.

Chasing money is wrong. When your clients work, they get paid. You need to have that same expectation. You have plans for the money you earn.

When you get prepaid, the client pays you before services are rendered.

It's not unusual, especially these days. You have to pay ahead before you get a lot of stuff. Amazon, Ticketmaster, and even McDonalds.

Not all service providers require prepayment, but think of it as the client reserving time in your schedule for the coming month, and they need to lay to reserve it.

I can tell you a lot of sob stories about VAs doing work and then not getting paid for it. Way too many as a matter of fact.

There might be a lot of reasons why that happens but make no mistake, it sucks. It has happened to me more than once, and it could happen to you.

Protecting yourself is one of the best things you can learn to do as a business owner.

Making sure you are going to get paid is really is what I consider to be the main reason for you to change your policy around billing today.

2 Set Expectations

You are a business owner. You are not someone's assistant. Well you are their Virtual Assistant, but you are not their employee.

When you set the terms for payment, especially prepayment, you are asserting your position as the client's equal.

You get to tell them when to pay you. They don't get to decide that for you. They get to do that for their own business.

Imagine if you had a client whose customers prepaid them, and one of those customers tried to tell them they would pay afterward. Red flag! Your client would never say yes to that, and you don't have to either.

Setting expectations is important is everything you do in your VA business, but when it comes to money, it is even more important.

Your client will know that you are a business operator and that you are in charge of what happens with your policies and terms.

The one thing you have to do is be confident in your decision to collect payment in advance. If you are wishy washy about it the client will not have those expectations set.

Just like setting your rates, providing task estimates, and setting and holding all of your business policies, terms and boundaries, it's up to you! You set your rates and decide which clients to work with based on what they are going to pay you.

I can help you with setting your rates properly and setting your business policies, and even help you with what language to use to communicate money stuff with your clients.

3 Getting the Work

The last reason I'll cover today is simply a workflow reason.

When a client pays you in advance there is a better chance of them sending you the work you need to do.

How many times have you heard that a client needs so much help, and then it is like pulling teeth for then to send you anything?

Always remember that when our clients hire us they are usually overwhelmed, and we might be adding to that overwhelm as we try to get started.

It's another reason that I suggest getting ongoing important work tasks to do from the start.

When you are doing ongoing admin or marketing, you will need to communicate with them at least a few times a week. With projects, a week or more can go by and you don't create any kind of work flow that way.

Getting the work can be helped by them already having paid for it.

And on that note, don't roll over time. Don't let clients use hours over more than a month. If they don't need 20 hours a month yet, don't bill them that.

Start with 10 and then increase it. Only bill what you know you will use for their work. Use their budget wisely and in the best way possible for them.

All right. Are we getting it? Understanding it? Ready to do it??

Okay... so, prepayment. How does it work?

Your client can purchase a block of hours (that will be used in the coming month!) or they can buy a package of services that will be delivered in the coming month, or they can buy a project which starts this month.

They pay, you get to work.

You keep track of time or tasks and you give them weekly updates to let them know how you are managing their time. Not detailed time reports, just a summary update.

All clients want to know that you are managing their money well, keep them informed.

If you start running short tell them immediately. Turn down work or defer it till the next month instead of billing them a second time in the same month. If you are doing what you both agreed to at the frequency you both agreed to, you should be able to complete it on budget.

I will talk in another episode about what to do if things go off the rails, but I think you get the gist!

I also talk in another episode about how to estimate a client's service needs and how to bill properly for them. I'll tag that episode in the show notes. Be sure to check it out.

I'm going to leave this episode right here for you but I want to circle back to today' quote from Dave Ramsey.

A budget is telling your money where to go instead of wondering where it went.

When you ask for prepayment, your client is budgeting their work with you. You agree that xyz needs to be done this month. You agree that will cost the client this much. That becomes the budget for both of you to work with.

It makes things so clear for both of you. I highly recommend doing it.

And I can help you get it detailed out for your VA business. Services, rates, packages, client estimates, time management ... It's all part of doing this well.

This is exactly what I help VAs do. As a VA coach and trainer, I help you set yourself up for success, helping you fix the specific things that are going wrong in your business. When we work together either privately or in a group we talk specifically about your business and you - there is no one stop solution for everyone when it comes to service businesses like VA businesses.

I'll help you get clarity around your issues, and cheer you on as you walk through the steps to fix them.

I've helped hundreds of VAs through their challenges and got them on their way to growing their business and the lifestyle that they 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.

Today we are going to talk about what it takes for you to build a referral VA business.

Quote: People influence people. Nothing influences people more than a recommendation from a trusted friend. A trusted referral influences people more than the best broadcast message. A trusted referral is the Holy Grail of advertising. - Mark Zuckerberg

This quote is great for today's topic because not only is it true, but it is easy to understand by anyone who hears it. Trust is something we talk about a lot in business and marketing, but in terms of getting referrals it is one of the most important things for you to build. Let's go!

When you first start your VA business, the dream is to work with amazing clients and get people referring business to you all over the place.

It can't be that hard, can it?

I'm sure there are very few VAs who ever give marketing a second thought.

I know when I started my VA business I did not know how to get clients.
But that didn't stop me from starting.

And I bet it didn't stop you either.

There are two ways to find clients … well, maybe three actually.

One … job boards, postings, VA groups, jumping on every potential posting that you see and hoping that you are the first past the post. These methods of getting clients are all very competitive. They can be lucrative, of course, but many jobs that get posted online are looking for the cheapest VA they can find, or like I said, the first one to respond. I don't recommend growing your dream VA business using job boards. I don't discourage you from using them - just not as your only source of finding clients. It can be really depressing to waste so much time just hoping.

Two … marketing. I teach marketing, so I know it works. When you find the right people that you can help and you become a part of the community with them online or offline, you can get lots of great clients. But of course it takes the proper strategy and plan, and takes work too. I can help you with your strategy and plan of course .. and I do highly recommend learning to market your VA business well. It is worth the work, and when you find your people you can get lots of GREAT clients this way (not just any old client).

And that brings me to Three, which is what I want to talk about on today's episode. Referrals. One very underused way to get GREAT clients is to find some great people to refer business to you. Having a great source of referrals is one of the best things you can do for your VA business.

Let's talk about what you need to do that.

1 - Choose a Target Market

Tracey you always tell us to choose a target market! For everything! Yeah, I do.
Because it is one of the most important things you can to grow a ridiculously good VA business.

Choosing a target market when you are looking for referrals is even more important. How can people send you referrals if they don't know who you can help?

You have to be able to tell them who would be the best clients for you. Not all referrals are good ones. And just because someone sends you a referral doesn't mean they will be a a good fit for you.

So think about who the people are that you can help best. Whether that is because of the industry they are in, or the area they live in, or the services they need, pick one. amd stick with it!

2 - Define What You Do Clearly

The other piece of getting a good referral is making sure that the people you are communicating with (and looking for referrals from) understand what you do.

You can say general admin, or social media, or event planning. And you may have a clear understanding of what that entails. But unless your referrer is a VA, they may not understand what it means exactly.

So it's important to be able to define it well. totally about who you help, how you help them. For general admin that could be saying helping them get organized or sending their emails out or managing their schedule. For social media that could be saying you help them get their business in front of more people using Facebook or LinkedIn. That type of thing.

Clearly defining what you do is not just important when seeking referrals. It's important for your own marketing too. So it's hugely beneficial to figure it out. and yes, I can definitely help you do that.

3 - Find Your Community

One big part of getting one or more referrals sources is becoming a part of a community with them.

You don't want to just ask people for referrals and that's the end of it. You want to connect with them regularly.

Staying top of mind is important to get people to think of you when the opportunity arises.

Finding a community that you can spend time with on a regular basis is a genuine and fun way to keep in touch with people who can help you grow your business.

That could be an online group, it might be an in person group, or it might be a regular event that you attend.

And keep in mind that it might not be the same place that you are networking with your potential clients. There is an important distinction. Find the best communities you can for your business.

4 - Give Referrals

I always say it... the best way to get a referral is to give one first.

Becoming an active part of your community means that you will learn about the other business owners in it too.

Be genuine, always, don't force referrals (or requests for referrals), it never works well that way.

Also, just because someone sends you referrals does not mean that it has to be a two way street. I learned that a long time ago that people can be a one way referral.

How does that work?

Simple ... there are people that need you after they have worked with someone else ... say a business coach who has taught them strategy to implement. They then need you to implement that strategy.

And there are people that need someone else after they are working with or have worked with you. Say those same clients need a website developer or a branding expert, or a social media expert.

In both cases, you can get referrals too. The business coach can refer their clients to you, and so can the web developer. Make sense?

5 - Do Great Work

And the last part is so easy. Do great work.

The best way for people to want to send others your way is to do a good job. A ridiculously good job, as a matter of fact.

Just do what you are great at, and this part will be the easiest!

Do what you love, what you are great at, network with awesome people, be honest if someone comes along who is not a good fit for you. Everyone learns that way.

‌Building a referral VA business just takes making a few decisions, making the right connections, and doing good work. How simple is that!?

And it really is that simple. I did it, so I know it works... and how easy it is.

I built my referral only VA business exactly this way.

I worked with a business coach to clearly define who I helped, what I did, and how I helped them. We created simple packages that helped me showcase that.

Then I connected with those people and their colleagues every day. Online. In person. At events. I became known for what I did.

And I got referrals. I was highly referred and on a waiting list all the time. I grew my business with 4 subcontractors who helped me provide amazing services to my clients. And their clients!

A little bit of trust goes a long way with referrals, just like Mark Zuckerberg says in today's quote. Be genuine, be helpful, do good work. That builds trust in business!

I did it. I honestly did it really easily.

And you can do it too. Start building a referral VA business today.

This is exactly what I help VAs do. As a VA coach and trainer, I help you set yourself up for success, helping you fix the specific things that are going wrong in your business. When we work together either privately or in a group we talk specifically about your business and you - there is no one stop solution for everyone when it comes to service businesses like VA businesses.

I'll help you get clarity around your issues, and cheer you on as you walk through the steps to fix them.

I've helped hundreds of VAs through their challenges and got them on their way to growing their business and the lifestyle that they dream of.

I'd love to do the same for you.

You can work with me privately, or you can join The Virtual Circle, my mastermind group for Virtual Assistants. Check it out at [www.YourVAMentor.com/TVC] (the virtual circle) - I bet it's exactly what you need to start running the VA business you dreamed of.

Reach out to me if you are interested.

That's all I've got for you this week, see you next time!

Today we are going to talk about what you should put in your Virtual Assistant contract.

It is important for you to get your clients to sign a contract prior to working with you.

Having a contract sets you apart from other VAs, it details what you are going to do for your clients, and how much it is going to cost them, tells them how to work with you and how to stop working with you.

Professional VAs ... yes, ridiculously good VAs, use contracts.

They should include the standard stuff, client contact info, yours, but there are a few other things you should make sure to include as well. I will share those things in this episode.

But first, I want to quickly talk about putting dates on a contract. Some VAs feel the need to lock the client in to a contract with dates on it. I never did this. I actually don't recommend it unless you are working on a project.

It may feel like security for you but it really just locks both of you into something and it can be scary for the client to commit.

Some VAs do it without issue, but I prefer an open ongoing contract that you can update at a specific time (ie annually).

So let's go. What should you include in your contract?

‌Scope of Work

This is where you tell the client what you will do for them. Don't just put general admin. You want to describe in detail what you will do.

Name the tasks, describe the frequency you will do them.

This is one of the most important parts of your contract. Set the client's expectations by being as specific as you can. If you write down client care or customer service, what does that entail? You don't have to write a paragraph, but a few words to describe the task.

Include every task or deliverable you will provide.

And add in one last point that indicates you will also do other tasks as agreed upon by both of you. So you can expand or change what you do. And keeping an eye on this part is what can help you to know when yo revise your contract with that client.

Communication

You will want to set boundaries for communication with your clients. You have to, or they could start treating you like their employee.

How do they communicate with you? How do you coordinate work to be done? How often do you respond? How much lead time do you need for things?

I used to communicate with weekly production meetings and then via email the remainder of the week, so that went into my contract.

The clearer you can define your communication boundaries from the start, the better for both of you.

Schedule

When will your contract begin?

How much time are they getting from you, or what are their expectations around that? Weekly ongoing work is best!

What are your business hours, and when will you be off or away? How muchbnotice do you give before taking time off?

These are all important considerations for your contract as well.

You can have more detailed conversations with your clients about turnaround times and lead times once you start working together but schedule stuff is important to include in your contract.

Payment Terms

This is probably the next most important part of your contract.

I always say your clients want to know what you can donfornthem and how much it will cost them.

So in your contract, that refers to your scope of work and your payment terms.

How and when do your clients need to pay you? I highly suggest getting paid in advance, or taking prepayment for your services.

It makes lots of things easier, but certainly it protects you from doing work and then maybe not getting paid.

What happens if a client pays late? You should indicate that in the payment terms as well. Be clear from the start. Then if the client doesn't hold up their end of the bargain, you can handle it quickly.

Also indicate what happens if they go over budget or finish a month under budget. Do you roll hours over? Do you have a use it or lose it policy? Put it all in here.

Confidentiality

A confidentiality clause helps you let the client know that you will protect their stuff.

Tell them that you won't disclose or discuss their company info and data with anyone. Let them know how you manage secure things like their passwords or shared access files and programs.

This is called nondisclosure. It takes the place of an NDA, that's what you are covering by detailing this in your contract. Sometimes clients also ask you to sign their NDA which is also fine in my opinion.

The other thing your clients might ask of you is something called a non compete. This often means that you agree not to work with similar businesses. You do not have to agree to this and you definitely do not need to have it in your contract. Your VA business is your business. If you have a client who is worried that you will work with their competition, they might not be a good client. Some businesses need noncompetes, there are places for them. But as a service business operator an NDA is all you need.

And the last thing you need to out in your contract is

Dissolution clause.

What does that mean? It just means how you dissolve the contract, or end the relationship with that client. I include two things in this part. First is how to end it in the first 30 days. Sometimes things just aren't a fit. So give yourself and the client an immediate out. What happens if either of you want out after you have just begun?
And second, how do either of you out after that? My contracts always indicated that with 30 days written notice, either party could end the agreement.

Don't be scared that a client will leave you. If you are working well together, they won't. Do your best and you will enjoy longterm relationships with your clients.

The dissolution clause is there to help you both.

And 30 days is enough time to find a new client to replace them if you break up!

Of course, have a lawyer look over your contract to make sure it protects you and reads correctly. But you don't have to give your clients legalspeak. You can use normal business language and still have it legally sound.

That's it! That's all you really need in your contract.

I hope I have helped you see that it's not crazy technical, amd why each of these sections are so important.

Your contract is an essential document in your business. Do not do business without it.

And do be sure to review the contract at least annually with your client, or when your work scope changes significantly.

This is exactly what I help VAs do. As a VA coach and trainer, I help you set yourself up for success, helping you fix the specific things that are going wrong in your business. When we work together either privately or in a group we talk specifically about your business and you - there is no one stop solution for everyone when it comes to service businesses like VA businesses.

I'll help you get clarity around your issues, and cheer you on as you walk through the steps to fix them.

I've helped hundreds of VAs through their challenges and got them on their way to growing their business and the lifestyle that they dream of.

I'd love to do the same for you.

You can work with me privately, or you can join The Virtual Circle, my mastermind group for Virtual Assistants. Check it out at [www.YourVAMentor.com/TVC] (the virtual circle) - I bet it's exactly what you need to start running the VA business you dreamed of.

Reach out to me if you are interested.

That's all I've got for you this week, see you next time!

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 how I became a fully booked out VA - and how you can too. It's really not as hard as you think!

Quote: In the business of referrals, trust is the most important reason a recommendation is made and, conversely, lack of trust the single greatest reason referrals don't happen. - John Jantsch

Now of course we aren't operating an MLM here, but a service business grows easily when others send you more clients. And that's what we will talk about in today's episode. Let's go!

Building an amazing Virtual Assistant business is not a difficult thing to do. You find a client, you do great work, they tell their friends about you, and you get more clients. Right?

Becoming a booked out VA is something that we all dream of - and strive for - when we start our VA business.

The most difficult thing you will do in your business is find great clients.

I talk often about finding great clients because running the business you love is all about the quality of clients you work with.

When we start our VA business, we will work with anyone who asks us to. And that's not a bad thing. We need money to run a business, and when we are starting out it is totally okay to work with anyone.

But … as we build our business, we want it to be sustainable … profitable … fun … and fulfilling.

And that means finding the best clients we can.

It means finding a lot of them. And it means finding their colleagues, and getting referrals.

Today's quote tells us that trust is one of the deciding factors of whether to pass along someone's name or not. You know it yourself, you give a referral for someone when you think they can take care of your friend. Our clients are no different.

Becoming booked out is a term that a lot of VAs are jealous of - especially if they aren't booked out.

But it's what we all work towards. So let's talk about how you can do it.

I'll set the stage a little for you, about how it all happened for me.

I started working for myself in 1998 just before I had my son. I was 7 months pregnant and I was leaving my job at the head office of a hospitality company. I didn't intend to go back to that job, and I wasn't really sure what I was going to do, but for a few reasons I knew I wasn't going to be going back there.

First, I didn't like the job. I liked parts of it, but some of what I was doing was kinda dull.

I definitely didn't like the office life. Commuting, rush hour, figuring out what to eat for lunch every day, constant interruptions in my office … it just wasn't my vibe.

I loved my coworkers, but I found corporate life to be really a bore.

Oh, I suppose I should mention that I had only worked at that position in the company for a couple of years. Prior to that I had been a kitchen manager in the company. So definitely not an office job!

Some quick background: I never really knew what I wanted to do. I started working in high school in hospitality and then quickly moved on to several different admin jobs. I worked in the government, private sector, community newspaper, as a courier, a sales rep, and many other jobs until I realized I didn't love any of them. I thought about what I wanted to do and it was hospitality - so I went back to school for my catering management diploma and stumbled into the company I ended up working 8 years for. When I was in the kitchen there was a lot of admin, and I naturally gravitated to that. I loved cooking but I was really good at the admin, so I moved to corporate office. There now you're caught up ha ha.

Anyway, I met my husband at restaurant (he is still a chef) and we got married and have a 25 year old son now (who is also a chef). When I was leaving on mat leave I knew I wasn't going back, that's where we were.

I again thought about what it was I wanted to do, and actually my boss answered that question for me.

He asked me if I could contract to do the important work he still needed (the stuff I loved) after the baby arrived. I told him I didn't know how, and he said 'We'll communicate by email, meeting if necessary. You do the work, count your hours and send me a bill at the end of the month.' Voila, I was a freelancer.

Why was I a freelancer? Because my boss trusted me with the work he needed done. In fact he had done the work before me. So he knew it was valuable, and he knew he wasn't doing it anymore, so he had to suggest a ways for me to do it.

And so we began. That was great, and I did it for a lonnnnng time!

The problem was, it wasn't a lot of money to start, just working for one client … and I had no idea how to get other clients.

So the second part or the story is my struggle.

I did everything I could think of to find clients. Fiverr, Upwork (they were called other things back when I was there), classifieds, local bulletin boards, yellow pages, cold calls, direct mail, job boards ,… who knows what else I tried.

I worked my butt off trying to find clients. Did I find some? Sure I did. But I heard a whole lot more NOs than Yesses. I heard them every day.

I thought that's the way business was supposed to be.

But it's not.

If that's what you are going through right now, I want you to pay really close attention to the next part of this episode.

Business doesn't have to be hard. At least the getting great clients part doesn't.

I tell you every day. Find your people. Connect with them. Get great clients.

Why do I tell you that? Because it's the key to having a thriving business that you love - with more clients than you know what to do with.

I did it. And you can do it too.

It's not hard. I tell you that all the time. And I'm not lying.

Did I struggle? Oh yeah.

Did I fail? You bet!

Did I learn? Yep … and that's the key right there.

To find the best clients for you … you need to learn how!

I use the term 'great clients' all the time. You probably have noticed that. Because not all clients are equal.

Are they all great people? Probably! But they are not all great clients.

A great client is someone that needs the services you love to provide. They have a growing business that depends on your support to make it fantastic. They value you and your business. And you work well together. And they want you to succeed as much as you want them to succeed.

Great clients need us, appreciate us, value us, and PAY us.

Those are the clients I want you to work with. The clients I want you get BOOKED OUT supporting.

Don't fill your VA business for the sake of filling up your week.

Set your rates where they need to be for you to earn good money. Work only with the clients you want to work with (no more micromanagers!). And do only the things you love to do every day.

How did I get there?

Easy. I worked with my first business coach in 2008. Now if you're paying attention to the years in my story, that's a full 10 years after I started working for myself.

TEN. YEARS.

I didn't struggle the whole time but I sure wasn't flying for a long time.

And then when I got introduced to my business coach (through one of my clients), I learned how to find clients.

I actually joined their high-level mastermind group (which cost me $750 at the time … probably at least 30% of what I was billing at the time)

I learned a strategy, and system that worked for me.

I found the people that I could help.

I hung out with them.

I talked to them and their colleagues every day.

And … I doubled my rates overnight.

My business coach looked at what I was doing, asked me what my revenue goal was (I didn't even know!) and we made the necessary changes to put a plan in place to get me there. Within months I was booked out and on a waiting list.

I raised my rates and I focused on the services that I loved to do - that I was terrific at - and that my clients really needed. I started offering packages and prepaid retainers. No more hourly billing, no more unused hours to roll over. No more waiting on clients to send me stuff to do.

I became proactive and talked to them about ongoing work. Things they needed to have done regularly - weekly if possible. I held weekly meetings to keep us on track. I was no longer a task doer, I was a required part of their business and I kept all of their balls in the air.

I also created a high ticket service that I was able to offer my clients on a project basis, and that was a great thing for my business too. My clients referred their colleagues to me, and I was able to attend networking events and live events where all of their colleagues were.

Getting known in the community of people that I knew I could best support, that could allow me to build the business I wanted, was the key to being booked out.

And it happened fast! Once I knew what I was doing.

But the bottom line was that before that, for 10 years! I had nothing in place to build my own success. Nothing.

I was flying by the seat of my pants every day and just hoping something would stick.

I needed a plan and I got the help I needed. I learned what I didn't know, and I got to where I wanted to go. FAST.

I didn't do it alone, and you don't have to either.

I can help.

I've been helping VAs for 13 years. Two years after I made all my changes, I started teaching VAs how to do the same. It was at that time I launched my Getting Started as a VA program that continues to help VAs today.

When people trust you, they love to do business with you. That's also part of the reason I do so much free training - including this podcast. I want you to trust me to help you with your business. I have been where you are. It's not a fun place to be. I don't like to struggle and I don't want you to either.

You don't have to. I can help you get out of where you are and create a plan that will work for you.

I'm going to leave it here for you today after this quick recap:

How do you become a booked out Virtual Assistant?

• work with a coach
• set realistic rates (do the math)
• create packages
• find your people
• network every day, attend events
• ask for referrals

And of course the most important (and easiest!) part - do a great job for them!

Gathering testimonials is secondary to people talking to their colleagues about you. When you are a ridiculously good VA, your clients' colleagues will ask how they are doing so well - and they will mention you!

Becoming booked out means you being an important part of many clients' businesses. An indispensable part. The need you, They value you. They will pay you what you are worth, because they are confident that you are worth it.

Don't wait 10 years like I did. You don't have to. I can help you TODAY.

‌

This is exactly what I help VAs do. As a VA coach and trainer, I help you set yourself up for success, helping you fix the specific things that are going wrong in your business. When we work together either privately or in a group we talk specifically about your business and you - there is no one stop solution for everyone when it comes to service businesses like VA businesses.

I'll help you get clarity around your issues, and cheer you on as you walk through the steps to fix them.

I've helped hundreds of VAs through their challenges and got them on their way to growing their business and the lifestyle that they dream of.

I'd love to do the same for you.

You can work with me privately, or you can join The Virtual Circle, my mastermind group for Virtual Assistants. Check it out at [www.YourVAMentor.com/TVC] (the virtual circle) - I bet it's exactly what you need to start running the VA business you dreamed of. And I promise you, it won't cost you $750 a month! It's only $129.

If you want even faster results, private coaching could be the option for you.

Let's talk about it. I'm here to help you. If you're stuck, reach out.

That's all I've got for you this week, see you next time!

Hey there, 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 you should be sharing with your VA clients and what you don't have to share. Now I don't mean personal stuff or what you talk to them about - I'm talking about how you actually do the work you do for them. You'll see what I mean.

Quote: It doesn't make sense to hire smart people and tell them what to do; we hire smart people so they can tell us what to do. Steve Jobs

This quote is for our clients again. Hire smart people. That's us, the VAs. Then let us do what you hired us to do. Micromanagers need not listen to this episode (or maybe they should!) Let's go!

This will be a short episode today because it's pretty much to the point!

I want to talk about what you be sharing with your clients versus what you shouldn't be sharing, or what you don't need to share with them.

Because we work virtually, there are certain things that our clients need access to.

But sometimes the lines get blurred, especially when the client requests something from us, and we aren't quite sure what the right thing to do is.

So let's start with what you need to share with them.

Their files. Any of their own files you should be sharing with them. They need access, and you do too, but anything that is theirs should be theirs.

Set up a Google folder or a Dropbox folder or whatever you use, and create a simple filing system so they can find what they need when they need it.

If you do use Google, make sure to make the client the owner of the folders and files even if you create them. It makes it easier at the end of your relationship if you do that as you go along.

Their CRM. The information that comes in through a client's CRM is theirs, and you should have their own account set up for it. Same with e-commerce stuff. You should never be setting up CRM, email or bookkeeping systems and then adding your client and their info to yours.

Anything they require to run their business should be paid for by them and updated in their own systems. Then you get access, preferably with your own login and password.

There are liability issues if you don't, of course, but it is also simpler when you stop working with them to extract yourself from their stuff rather than move it all somewhere else for them.

Their passwords. This is important as well. Anything you use to help them should have a password for each of you if possible. But they definitely need password access for whatever you do for them. Using a password manager like Roboform or LastPass can help you keep all of that stuff safe and secure.

Pretty standard stuff. There are probably other things that you need to share with them, but you get the point I think.

So let's move to the other list!

What do we not have to share with them?

Step by step instructions on how to do everything.

This is the big one, and the basis of this episode.

Your clients are paying you for your expertise. You do not have to teach them how to do what you do.

Some will ask. You can say no.

In fact you may find yourself replaced with someone cheaper if a client has step by step instructions to do the things you do.

Now ... if they have provided you with those instructions then it's fine to update them when necessary. But if you have created them, you don't have to ever give them access.

If you do have a client who insists on you creating videos or writing down all the steps, you can decline. politely if you like.

To me that client is a micro manager and I would let them go.

They don't need to know how you do it, or be able invite anyone off the street to do it. They are paying you to make sure it gets done.

And they might also be able to tell you what steps not to miss(ie SEO in a blog post) but if they want to do your tasks they can learn how to on their own.

And if they want to hire someone else they need to find someone qualified.

What I have done for clients in the past is to give an overview of the task (ie create newsletter, update subject line, update content, images are found or created here, links are found here, send a test email to check all, schedule to send) etc.

This is not a process that someone off the street could complete (like click file, click open, click on subject line, update it, etc)

The person taking over had to know what they are doing. I think those processes are okay to share.

But not writing down everything you know for them.

So that is step by step stuff.

You also don't have to share your processes with them. Like how you do things or create them or research them.

Again, they are paying you for the deliverable - to get something done. So that's what they get.

Collaboration is essential so you need to define everyone's roles. What do they have to do, and when, and how does that fit in with or affect timelines, deadlines, and other people's work progress and pace?

Processes are important from a team standpoint, but not for the work you do on your own.

Content creation does not have to be shared. They may have their own Canva account, and that's fine, but it is not necessarily something they need layered access to.

That might surprise you but again they are paying for a deliverable, the completed image presumably, so draft stuff doesn't matter..You can do their work in your Canva account (though I still prefer for them to pay for their own).

Use their brand colors and fonts and create templates to make it easy to create their stuff, but still only deliver the final images unless they pay you for some templates.

And finally strategy.

This is a touchy subject for some VAs because they feel like they should be charging more for giving a client advice or strategy around the work they do.

You don't have to share anything with them unless you want to.

And it should be billable (I won't talk about you having just one billable rate today but you should only have one).

Just because you work with clients who do podcasts, doesn't mean you should be giving your client advice about where to market theirs. Doesn't mean you can't, just saying podcast support does not have to include strategy. It's one of the 'you don't have to do this just because a client asks' tasks.

There you have it.

What do you need to share with a client? Their stuff.

What don't you have to share? Your stuff. Your intellectual property, your processes, your training and expertise, your advice or strategy.

Clients will ask. You can refuse. Remind them that they are paying you for the deliverable ... to get the stuff done ... and that's what you will deliver for them.

Our clients need to remember what Steve Jobs says! Hire smart people (VAs) so they can tell you what to do. They don't need to learn what we know. They don't need to teach others what we know.

They need to stay in their lane and work in their brilliance.

Anything less, to me, screams cheap. They are looking to stop spending the money they knownthey need to spend to have you help them.

So if you think a conversation about NO will be uncomfortable, think about giving it all away and then losing that client anyway.

I choose NO every time!

‌

This is exactly what I help VAs do. As a VA coach and trainer, I help you set yourself up for success, helping you fix the specific things that are going wrong in your business. When we work together either privately or in a group we talk specifically about your business and you - there is no one stop solution for everyone when it comes to service businesses like VA businesses.

I'll help you get clarity around your issues, and cheer you on as you walk through the steps to fix them.

I've helped hundreds of VAs through their challenges and got them on their way to growing their business and the lifestyle that they dream of.

I'd love to do the same for you.

You can work with me privately, or you can join The Virtual Circle, my mastermind group for Virtual Assistants. Check it out at [www.YourVAMentor.com/TVC] (the virtual circle) - I bet it's exactly what you need to start running the VA business you dreamed of.

Reach out to me if you are interested.

That's all I've got for you this week, see you next time!

Starting a service business like your VA business is relatively easy, because there isn't a lot of startup cost, but let's see how much of a shoestring you need. Let's go!

I like a bargain. I check prices when I grocery shop.

I look for ways to save money on things that maybe others don't.

I'm not afraid to admit that I am cheap. With some things.

My husband and son tease me all the time about some things that I save money on.

But I also know when I have to spend money on something.

So, this is definitely a podcast episode about starting your VA business on a shoestring - as the title indicates.

I'm not baiting and switching you, I promise!

I do tell Virtual Assistants that service businesses can be opened relatively easily - and you don't need a huge startup fund to get going, but what I'm going to talk to you about in this episode is the following:

what you need to have to start professionally

what you will need to plan for down the road

what you may never need

and what you need to prioritize.

Need to Have

• cell phone
• internet
• office software
• dropbox account
• time tracking software
• paypal or other online payment option
• password manager
• social media accounts
• social media scheduler

You must have a dedicated space to work as well as dedicated equipment to do so.

Although you work from home and people may know that you have children, you want to keep business business as much as possible.

Yep, I said it … keep your kids away! No matter what age they are. Don't share computers, don't share space.

In order for you to maximize your work time, you need to not be distracted.

Time is money for your clients, and if it takes you 3x as long to get their work done because you are getting distracted, they will soon move on to someone else who can things turned around faster, or who charges them less for the work being done.

If you truly want your business to work, make it a huge priority.

That means your own cell phone, your own computer, your own desk and office space, with a door!

You also need high speed internet access. I probably don't need to say much more about that, but there ya go. A strong and stable connection will help you get your work done efficiently. If you waste time because you lose connection or because your speed is slow, once again that is your client' money you are wasting.

You will inevitably need office software like Microsoft 365 which I find well worth the low monthly price. I can access all of my files and work from my phone or other devices as I need to. You can also look at Zoho office or Open Office, but being that most of your clients will be using Word or something like that, you should be sure to pay for an annual subscription.

Cloud sharing is really important so our clients can find what they need when they need it. Dropbox is a great option - as is Google drive. Also if you are working for someone as a sub, they may require you to have access to one or both of these to share work. So just set it up when you start.

Time tracking software is essential and there are a lot of free options. Even if you don't want to work by the hour (it's pkay to do this) or give your clients detailed billing (please don't do this) you still need a way to track your time so you know what you have spent your time.

One of the biggest problems VAs come to me with is not knowing how their monthly billing is so low when they feel like they work all the time. They are not managing their time well, that's usually the big issue.

So track yours, so you know. It's not about working fast, it's about working efficiently.

PayPal is a great way to receive client payments. Your clients can use a credit card to pay you easily without you setting up a merchant of your own.

Yes there are fees associated with PayPal, but that is true about any online payment option (and they aren't always that much less than Paypal). The fees are a business expense deductible for you, so work them into your rates and you won't even have to think about them. You should be setting your rates covering all of your expenses anyway, but if you are wondering what you might incur, 5% should more than cover it. Usually a merchant will charge you 2 or 2.5 and sometimes a transaction fee on top of that. Paypal is on the higher end at 3% but again if you are using it, charge for it and claim it. And PayPal also allows to send and receive money in many different currencies.

Online payments are a convenience worth paying for. EFTs are an option in Canada but a US client can not pay you with one in Canada.

A password manager is essential for your VA business. If you are logging in to your client's accounts, you need a safe way to do that. There are lots of options, some are free. All are cheap. I use Roboform and I love it. I have one master password to access my list of passwords, but each password in the system is unique and can be changed at any time. I can access all of my passwords from any device I have and that makes it easy to never have to remember anything.

You will need social media accounts, and yes those are free. Figure out where you need to be and what you want to use each for. I always suggest Facebook and Linked In for sure. You don't need to use your personal FB profile for your business. I don't. I don't friend business acquaintances or clients. I join groups with my profile but that's it. Anyone who wants to connect with me on FB does so through my page and my groups (and any groups I have joined).

Set up a page for your business. That's what you will need on Facebook so people can check you out. Then link that page to your profile so that when people go to check you out, they can see your business page where they can follow you with a click.

LinkedIn is also a good place to be because it's all business. It is a great place to find VA clients.

You should also have a way to schedule posts on social media so you don't have to physically be going online all the time to post content. Scheduling also helps you to plan what you will post better, which is part of your time management.

I use Metricool and it's free!

That's all for what I think you need to have to start out. Pretty decent list and it's very reasonable.

Plan For

What about what you should plan for?

Scheduling software - this will save you lots of back and forth with clients and potential clients. There are reasonably priced options that send reminders, work with Google and iCal. It is professional and easy for clients to get into your calendar. Calendly is what I use, there is also Acuity and many others.

Graphics software - Canva is by far the most popular. There is a free version but the paid version allows you to do so much more for about $15/month.

Website - while you don't need a website to get started, you should plan for one. A hosting plan can run you $100 a year for your first year, and maybe beyond too. Some companies offer a very cheap first year to get your business. One caution, you do not want to be moving your website every year, so budget for the cost of the second year from the start. And take the discount the first year. Other than hosting, design is the other thing. If you are not offering website creation as a service, it makes the most sense to have someone else set up a simple site for you and then learn on your own time to add to it and adjust it as necessary. That doesn't have to cost thousands of dollars, but it will save you hundreds of hours of time if you try to learn it yourself. I'm not even kidding.

Backup software - whether you use an external hard drive or a service like Carbonite for $60/year, it is well worth it to make sure you back up your documents files, programs and more.

Project management - you may be able to manage your work without a project management system. If It's just you and your client, you can use email and dropbox if you like, but it sure helps having checklists and stuff to keep everything organized. For $10/month Asana is a great option. Trello is free if the visual layout works for you.

Bookkeeping software - makes things easier than doing it all manually! Quickbooks Online is a great option for about $25/month.

Training - you will inevitably take training to improve your skills or business. Budget for it and plan to implement what you have learned asap to make the most of your ninvestment.

Coach - because you know you want to work with me! The fast path to your goals.

Insurance - business insurance is not mandatory for VAs but it is a good idea if you are working with sensitive information of your clients, or managing their reputation, or accessing their client data, and and and.. Plan for it as early as you can afford it.

Taxes - plan for your taxes, because you will have to pay them! Save at least 30% and then plan for as many deductions as you can.

May Never Need

• website
• project management
• bookkeeping software

You may never need these but if you budget for them and set your billable rate accordingly, you can have them and your business will be more professional and efficient!

Prioritize This

Finally, what should you prioritize as expenses?

• Dedicated workspace and equipment
• Help with what you don't know
• Time management stuff
• Security for your client's data and info, and yours

I'm going to leave it here for today … I could literally go one for hours about how to set up your VA business, run it professionally and efficiently!

I know I covered a lot, but look at all the time I spent on what you need that isn't going to set you back tons of cash. Not too much expense, eh?

But let's circle back to today's quote: A business without a path to profit isn't a business, it's a hobby. - Jason Fried (Basecamp)

If you want to run a solid, profitable business, you need to spend money. You need to know your expenses and manage them well - and don't be afraid to invest in stuff. It's your path to success.

That's what I want you to know today. What is most important.

I hope you have a good list going right now!
‌
I can help you with advice just like this about all areas of your business!!
‌

This is exactly what I help VAs do. As a VA coach and trainer, I help you set yourself up for success, helping you fix the specific things that are going wrong in your business. When we work together either privately or in a group we talk specifically about your business and you - there is no one stop solution for everyone when it comes to service businesses like VA businesses.

I'll help you get clarity around your issues, and cheer you on as you walk through the steps to fix them.

I've helped hundreds of VAs through their challenges and got them on their way to growing their business and the lifestyle that they dream of.

I'd love to do the same for you.

You can work with me privately, or you can join The Virtual Circle, my mastermind group for Virtual Assistants. Check it out at [www.YourVAMentor.com/TVC] (the virtual circle) - I bet it's exactly what you need to start running the VA business you dreamed of.

Reach out to me if you are interested.

That's all I've got for you this week, see you next time!

Let's talk about burnout.

It's something that most virtual assistants eventually face - are you there right now?

You know that feeling when you've been pushing hard for too long, saying yes to too many things, juggling client work, admin, marketing, maybe even your family or another job …

And suddenly everything just feels… heavy?

You're exhausted, unmotivated, maybe even resentful of the work you used to love. That's burnout.

And it's something confident, successful VAs work hard to prevent, not recover from.

Burnout isn't a badge of honour.

It's a sign that something deeper in your mindset, boundaries, or systems is out of alignment.

So today we're going to talk about:

• The real reason burnout happens (it's not just because you're busy or tired).

• How to identify the specific things that drain your energy (and what to do about them).

• And the daily mindset habits that help you stay calm, clear, and in control (even when your business is growing fast).

If you're ready to grow your VA business in a way that feels sustainable, without losing your spark, your sanity, or your patience, I'm here for you today!

When you build systems, say no with confidence, and create daily habits that support your energy, your business becomes lighter, smoother, and more fulfilling.

And if you're ready to go deeper into building that kind of business, one where you grow confidently without burnout, I'd love to help. Reach out to me at YourVAMentor.com/links to chat.

It's the only reason I'm here at all, to help you become a ridiculously good virtual assistant.

Protecting your energy isn't selfish. It's smart business. Your clients do it. Their clients do it. And you need to do it too.

When your energy is strong, everything else flows better - your work, your results, your confidencez and then of course your income.

So unplug when you need to, protect your peace, and keep building your business with that calm, clear confidence that you know is in there.

You have to shine a light on it every day to see it!

Protecting your energy as a VA isn't about doing less, it's about giving yourself permission to pause, reset, and create systems and boundaries that keep you from burning out.

When you step back to recharge, you come back more focused, more confident, and far more effective. That's what sustainable success really looks like.

Thanks for tuning in to this episode of The Ridiculously Good VA Show.

That's all I've got for you this week. I'll see you next time!

It's simple fact that you will eventually come up a challenging client. What we will cover today is what you need to learn from that client, and how to proceed moving forward if you get into the weeds with someone. Let's go!

We love our VA clients don't we!

Sure we do. they pay us to do stuff we love.

But in many cases these people that we decide to work with are brand new to us. we don't know them from Adam, and so we have to get to know them through the work we do together.

And sometimes it goes well. We click. We communicate well. We work well together. Everything is great. If we have any issues, we sort them out easily.

But sometimes it doesn't go well.

We struggle.

We don't communicate well.

We don't sort issues out easily.

So let's talk about what to do when you have to deal with a difficult client.

Actually, first let's figure out what we consider to be a difficult client.

A difficult client is:

One who micromanages your work.
One who doesn't pay you on time.
One who pushes your boundaries.
One who does everything last minute.
One who communicates poorly.
One who treats you like an employee.
One who never sends you the work you need to do the work you need to do.
One who complains all the time.
One who thinks they know better than you.

That's probably enough examples. You get the picture. It's super frustrating to even go through that list.

These people exist though, and we need to learn how to deal with them.

I think the first thing I want to tell you is that none of this is okay.

Clients don't get to do any of this to you or with you. Just because your clients are paying you, it doesn't mean that they get to be difficult.

I'm totally team YOU here, but I'm about to tell you something that you might not like.

If you have difficult clients, it may not be them that is the problem (yep, so that means it could be you!)

So we will start there and then I'll tell you how to fix any of these problems if you are having them.

Yes I am sorry, but you are a big part of the problem if you have a difficult client.

The reason is super simple: you teach people how to treat you.

If a client is treating you poorly, it is because you are letting them.

So the first thing we have to do is fix how you handle yourself in your VA business.

You are a business owner.
You own your business, and you get to make allllll of the decisions in it.

You get to decide your rates, services you offer (and services you don't), communication methods, payment terms, lead times, scheduling ... every little bit of it!

Clients get to decide all of those things for THEIR business.

Not yours. Theirs.

Do their clients tell them when they will pay them, or what the rate will be? Or how they will communicate with them?

No they do not!

I'll give you an example to illustrate what I mean:

Can you imagine calling your dentist and saying I need to come in tomorrow at 1:30, and I need you to give me some full veneers, and I will only pay you $20.

Of course you can't. You are contacting another business and booking their service.

You need to find out when they have time in their schedule, if they even offer the service you need, and then how much they charge for that service.

It is exactly the same for your VA clients. They need to find out all of those things from you.

May seem like a silly example, but it illustrates how you need to reframe your mindset around being a business owner in your own right, and how you need to change your thinking... especially if you have difficult clients.

This is why policies are sooo important to create starting out. Your clients need to understand that you call the shots and that they are hiring you to provide a service, but that there are expectations that need to be managed about how that happens on a daily basis.

Okay so let's get into how to fix some of these issues if you are experiencing them.

Micromanagers - you are not their employee. They do not get to manage anything about what you do. They can tell you what needs doing, perhaps the way they would like it done, but then it is your responsibility to keep the task on track and keep the client up to date on status. Sometimes people micromanage because they aren't sure the status of something. It is your responsibility to keep the client current so that they don't need to micromanage. Provide regular updates or a place to get updates to make them feel better.

Late payers - switch them to prepayment. If you have not been paid, cease work immediately until you get paid. Once you have waited on payment, you will find it easier to ask new clients to prepay you. Don't worry, you'll get there at some point in your business. It will likely be after the first time someone pays you late. It's a policy you need to set and hold. Of course this is about repeat offenders.

Boundary pushers - you set boundaries for a reason, office hours, communication methods, response times, lead times, etc. If your clients break any rules and getting away with it, that's on you. If someone sends you a text, and that's not a comment option, respond by your correct comm method. Bad habits form quickly when you let clients cross boundaries, so hold them any way you can.

Last minuters - the only way to get away from doing last minute work is simply don't do rush work. if someone is supposed to give you xx days of lead times hold them to it. No rush fees, no 'okay just this once', it's a no. Of course this would be after you send reminders for the proper lead time. Setting the client expectation that the work can not be completed at the last minute is a simple way to get them to handle stuff on time.

Crappy communicator- You may need to teach this one. If you are doing way too much back and forth because they can't tell you what they need, Streamline your process (maybe a form or a checklist?). Or maybe they phone you every day instead of going through your project management system. Only do scheduled calls, and keep them very short and on topic. Spending your week on endless meetings isn't a good use of your time, and will eat away at your time to do actual client work.

Boss employee guy - Quite simply you are not their employee. Don't act like one.. Don't respond like one. Make sure they know that you are not their employee. Every day.

Where's the stuff - If you are constantly asking your clients to send you stuff and they don't, walk away from. them. Seriously, you can't care more about their business than they do. Get them to hire you for ongoing work that is essential, and then they will send you what they need to send you because it matters. I used to work with clients (business coaches was my niche) who were enrolled in a program with their own business coach - that meant that they had an agenda and a plan and I knew that they would value and prioritize the work they needed me to do. If you are always fighting or rushing last minute, stop caring so much until they do.

Complainers - Negativity sucks. If all your client does is complain about you, someone else, or themselves, cut ties. Especially if they complain about you and it is not founded.

Smart guy - Your clients are hiring you for your expertise. If they think they know better than you, you will continue to encounter challenges. Now I have been a great VA and I know a lot about how I think things should be done, but I trust VAs to do my work once I've said my piece. You need to help your clients feel confident and cared for, but at some point they have to accept that you know what you are doing. Like my housecleaner!

How's that for getting help with difficult clients??

I think it is super important to get your difficult VA clients under control (or fired) as soon as you can.

Like Bill Gates says, your most unhappy clients should be the ones you learn the biggest lessons from. And trust me, if you have a client you consider to be a difficult one, they are not happy. You are not happy. It's time to learn from them.

So learn, and adapt - and implement new rules and boundaries where you need to. Today!

If you started and got into some bad habits, correct them now. And be sure that any new clients you bring in are not being allowed to do any of this difficult stuff.

If you haven't experienced any of this yet, create your policies for all of the above and make sure your clients know about it.

Change your policies, hold your boundaries, adjust your mindset and run your business.

Fire clients who don't fit or who don't adapt.

Your business will thank you, and it will flourish when you set and keep all the rules!!

‌

This is exactly what I help VAs do. As a VA coach and trainer, I help you set yourself up for success, helping you fix the specific things that are going wrong in your business. When we work together either privately or in a group we talk specifically about your business and you - there is no one stop solution for everyone when it comes to service businesses like VA businesses.

I'll help you get clarity around your issues, and cheer you on as you walk through the steps to fix them.

I've helped hundreds of VAs through their challenges and got them on their way to growing their business and the lifestyle that they dream of.

I'd love to do the same for you.

You can work with me privately, or you can join The Virtual Circle, my mastermind group for Virtual Assistants. Check it out at [www.YourVAMentor.com/TVC] (the virtual circle) - I bet it's exactly what you need to start running the VA business you dreamed of.

Reach out to me if you are interested.

That's all I've got for you this week, see you next time!

Rates are a tricky thing, and trying to jam everything a client wants into our schedule often leaves us feeling like we need to charge them less because they need our help.

And they are willing to hire us if we can do what they need.

But today I'm going to talk about how to break down your tasks, time them and track them, and use that information to work within your client's budgets.

Let's start with breaking down your tasks.

Everything we do has a length of time it takes to complete.

I'm talking about picking up or managing emails, scheduling an appointment, creating a newsletter, creating a Powerpoint, making a travel arrangement, writing social media, running reports for KPIs … everything.

And it's your job to figure out how long everything takes to do.

Does that sound exhausting? Ha ha it doesn't have to!

There are two kinds of tasks: one with a clear start and finish (I call these 'set' tasks), and one that I call 'open-ended' - that could take 10 minutes, or could take an hour, depending on the volume of 'stuff' involved.

For a clear start to finish task - like, say, a client newsletter, we can time it.

We know when we start and we know when we finish. Easy to time track, eh?

But time is money as a VA and we need to make sure we are working more efficiently.

With recurring set tasks, getting procedures in place is easy - but often something that VAs don't bother doing.

I suggest you do!

One of the things that VAs tell me so often is that they don't know how to charge for a task a client needs.

This is becuase they have no idea how long it takes them to do it.

How do you know how long something should take to do? You do it! and time it!

Here's how:

Do the task, start to finish.

Document every step and time it as you go.

Do it again, and this time follow your process document.

Check your work time against your original times. Any changes?

Why or why not?

Figure in what ifs - is your internet slow today? did you get distracted? did you program or software force you to update and restart your computer before you can keep going on your work?

Settle on an average time for that task. Done!

Oh … then multiply the time that task takes by your billable rate.

There is the cost you bill your client, every time you do that task.

I used to do this for newsletters. A client would pay me $50 for every newsletter they needed to send out. That was an hour of my time, based on me pulling it together from they sent me. But I didn't bill them an hour, I billed them for a newsletter. Task time.

So once you have your rate per task figure out, that's what your client gets charged every time.

Revisit your time often to ensure that the timing is still correct. If it is longer than your estimate, you need to make changes to reflect that. If it is shorter than your estimate, you just got a raise.

Set tasks are easy to time and cost. They are the same steps each time, so they are easy to document and set.

And that's how you do it!

Now let's get to the open-ended stuff.

But Tracey, what about things like checking email, or doing research, or creating a Powerpoint? I have no idea how long these might take me.

Well, it's your responsibility to know!

I'll share a story of open ended task going wrong in a bit, but here is basically how you should be handling these.

It's start and stop times, gang. You know, those buckets of time that I always tell you to use to manage your time better?

They come right in here for your recurring open ended tasks.

Let's take email management as our example.

If you are looking after email for your client, and you are checking it all day long, stop doing that. It's not efficient or effective.

Instead, decide how many times a day you will check it.

Two is great - three is standard - four is probably acceptable for a very high volume client.

Set a start and stop time to check it. 15 minutes, 30 minutes max,

These time slots should be short because you are managing your time - not letting the email dictate the length of the task (which can often go off the rails).

So let's say 15 minute time slots for a client that doesn't have high volumes of email. 30 minutes at a time for clients who have lots.

You can process a LOT of email in 15 minutes. or 30 minutes.

How many times a day are you checking? 2? 3? Add up your total daily time - 15 mins? 30 mins? You are charging the client for the check in and processing. That's why the frequency is so important. I often find only twice a day is lots - that is 30 minutes to 45 minutes of time which is plenty even for the busiest clients. But you aren't going in every day and trying to account for two minutes here or there.

And this is about quoting the client a daily rate for that task.

So back that that. Multiply your daily time by 20 or 22 for the business days in the month. 15 mins a day works out to about 5 hours per month for email. 30 mins a day works out to about 10 hours per month.

Multiply that by your hourly rate - $40? That's $200 per month for email or $400.

That's how you bill your client - again, not by the hours, but by the billable task rate.

Then it is your responsibility to process the client's email in 10 hours per month, by checking on it twice every day. No one needs their email tended to every hour, unless they are in the middle of a huge launch and it's customer service email. Trust me!

Set the client expectation, get the work done and everyone s happy.

It's about working with averages for your open ended tasks - and it takes some practice, but once you set that process in place, you will free up so much of your time and you will be very happy!

Time is money - for you and for your client. Use it wisely.

Quick story: I once hired a VA for a 10 hours to help me do a project. It involved research, creating a spreadsheet to track the research, and then some initial follow up from the research contained in the spreadsheet. Simple enough right?

She got to work, and I was happy that I didn't have to do all that work. I didn't instruct her on how to do it since I hired her = she should know, right?

Well, she did not. Well … at least she didn't know how to use my budget of 10 hours.

After the first week I hadn't heard from her and I didn't see any updates in the spreadsheet we shared. I reached out to ask her how it was going, and she told me that she had used 6 hours of research already but she hadn't gotten too far. Um .. what? She wasn't finding what she needed … or what I needed, I guess … but she still kept at it. Spending my money. Instead of reaching out. Of course I was not happy! We had used more than half the time already, and had very little to 'work' with, which was the point.

Because I was a VA myself, I knew how I would have handled this. And how I handled all research projects - If a client gives you a budget of 10 hours from start to finish, then you need to work within that budget. 20% in, check in!

She should have done 2 hours - and then reported back to me. Is this what we are looking for? Or, I am having trouble. I could have helped! But 6 hours without saying anything? No, not good.

So … research. An open-ended task LOL! And one that I want to describe for you.

How do you price it?

Simple. Start and stop times. Those buckets of time that I always tell you to use in your business.

Have a research project? Set an amount of time to get it done … and then get it done in that time.

Communicate super clearly with the client if you are struggling to get something done in a decent amount of time. You are the expert, never forget that!

For research or open ended projects it's fine to give the client an estimate if you don't know what you might be up against.

Like I said, work with averages - get an idea of how long something should take (we give our client's estimates all the time) and then work within those.

Yes there will be extenuating circumstances sometimes, but for the most part averages work.

Next step is to write all of this down (as you are doing it, of course)

Procedure documents are important so that you can do that detailed time estimates - so what do I suggest, doing it 3x and writing it down. Then referring back to it every month or quarter or whatever, to ensure that your timing is still accurate.

But one step further is working with your client budgets - and that's the final step today!

If your client has a budget of $750 in mind, but they want you to do all of the things they need, your instinct might be to give them a deal because you want the client, and you know they need your help.

Let's get back to today's quote - the concept of which I like even though it says you'll get less if you pay less. I don't want you to think of it in that way. I don't believe if you pay less you get less quality - you can simply give them less WORK.

Working within a client's budget is easy. Okay you can pay this? Then we can only do this, this and this.

Clients don't get everything they want unless they pay your rate.

But you can do things less frequently for them if their budget is lower than you expect.

Two newsletters a month instead of four.

Email - check it once a day instead of 3x a day.

A research project that they can have done in 2 hours instead of 10.

What does that take to do? Often they need to do more legwork on their end. Frequency of tasks done goes hand in hand with the client's budget.

You know how long something takes - with a set task, you can do it less often to fit into the client's budget. With an open ended task, you can adjust the time you spend doing it to fit.

The client still pays your full billable rate, but for less time or less work.

Mastering this time process and costing will pay you in dividends - it works!

I still do it. And the client just gets told $$ instead of hours, which is another great thing.

Your quote or estimate for them is super clear and based on deliverables, not on hours.

I hope you implement this in your business today! You'll see a huge change in how you manage your time.

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This is exactly what I help VAs do. As a VA coach and trainer, I help you set yourself up for success, helping you fix the specific things that are going wrong in your business. When we work together either privately or in a group we talk specifically about your business and you - there is no one stop solution for everyone when it comes to service businesses like VA businesses.

I'll help you get clarity around your issues, and cheer you on as you walk through the steps to fix them.

I've helped hundreds of VAs through their challenges and got them on their way to growing their business and the lifestyle that they dream of.

I'd love to do the same for you.

You can work with me privately, or you can join The Virtual Circle, my mastermind group for Virtual Assistants. Check it out at [www.YourVAMentor.com/TVC] (the virtual circle) - I bet it's exactly what you need to start running the VA business you dreamed of.

Reach out to me if you are interested.

That's all I've got for you this week, see you next time!

Time management is something that so many Virtual Assistants struggle with.

Time is literally money for VAs and other service based businesses, and so making the most of the time you spend doing client work is essential to your profits.

The big thing I see VAs doing that is impacting their time management is very simple: doing too much, for too long.

I'm going to repeat that. Doing too much, for too long, is what VAs do wrong - and that's what eats away at their day, their client's budgets, and their profits.

Write that one down!

Whether we are working with a couple of busy clients, or lots of little ones, whether we are doing one-off tasks or ongoing ones, whether we are incorporating our own business tasks into our regular day or after hours, we have a lot to do.

Running any business is hard and requires a lot of 'doing'. We. Do. A. Lot.

The to-do lists seems endless, the new work keeps coming, and we still have to run our own business stuff too. It's a lot.

But today, I want to talk to you about doing less to get more done. Really!

First let's talk about why it's so important to be able to buy into this objective.

Here are 4 reasons that managing your time well is essential to your success as a VA:

Better Clarity and Focus

Many of the tasks we take on for our clients are 'full' projects. We manage things from start to finish - whether it's client care, marketing, social media, bookkeeping, creative work - usually a VA is hired by a client to look after the whole thing.

And many of the things we do have lots of steps to complete them. It's part of why we are valuable to our clients - because we have the expertise to manage their projects and keep everyone on task and on deadline.

By using a project management system that the team can access we can break things down into all the steps that need to get done, assign each a deadline and the person who is responsible to do it on time.

Everyone can see the status of the project is and what needs to get done next.

The reason that doing less helps you do more is that it helps avoid extra back and forth communication or even status meetings that are a waste of time for everyone. The PM system does that work and everyone can peek in when it's convenient for them.

Increased Motivation

When we are organized it helps us get more done.

But when we break our tasks down into smaller chunks, we can do them in shorter bits of time, and everything we do still helps us get closer to completing the whole project.

It is much easier to get motivated to do something for 15 or 20 minutes, than it is to try to find time to do a 90 minute project. Chunking your work down into more manageable pieces helps a lot with that.

Who doesn't like to check things off of a to-do list? It gives us a sense of accomplishment, and can even inspire us to keep going, maybe on the next task. That creates momentum.

The reason that doing less helps you do more is that momentum - when you get going because you are seeing progress and you feel like you are moving forward, it's a lot easier to keep at it, or do one more thing.

Better Time Management

Working efficiently takes a few things, and efficiency comes when you map out the steps to complete any task. You can estimate the time required to complete each step, and therefore schedule your own time or other people's time better.

Prioritizing work is important to keep every project moving forward, and making sure you aren't spending too much time doing one thing is very important.

I suggest setting start and stop times for every tasks... then once you have estimated that, it is your responsibility to complete the rtask in that length of time.

The reason that doing less helps you do more here is that you are literally managing your time - and getting things done in less time than you might if you weren't paying as close attention.

Better Problem Solving

Collaborating or even just coordinating projects and client work also gets an advantage when you manage your time better.

Sometimes we need to find the best way to get something done, and breaking the project down into the steps we expect it to take can help us make sure that we are doing everything in the most efficient way possible.

You can brainstorm solutions and implement them step by step and that can help keep overwhelm at bay, especially if something you are working on has a lot of steps.

Staying calm and organized is an excellent skill to build as a VA, and will definitely help as you start to work with more clients.

Whether you are managing large projects for your big clients, or managing a lot of small tasks for several smaller ones, being able to recognize that the better organized you are the better.

The reason that doing less helps you do more is that seeing the big picture helps you to avoid roadblocks or things you weren't expecting.

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Understanding that every large project can break down into multiple small tasks is something that every VA should focus on.

If you are one of those VAs that blocks in 2 hour blocks of time for client work, you need to try blocking in smaller time slots.

Identifying the time it takes to complete tasks is the other really important part of managing your time well.

Like I said earlier, if you know how long something 'should' take to get done, that means you really know your stuff.

And it also means that you can work to get every task done in the estimated time - that is the definition of good time management.

You will also know whether your estimates are right, and how you are doing in terms of workplace and profitability.

Time is money for all VAs and even though you may not (or may not want to) bill your clients by the hour, it is still really important to monitor how much time you are spending doing their work.

We will get into work pace and packaging your services in other episodes, but know that the more you master your time management, the more money you will make in your VA business.

Now let's circle back to today's quote: Break down the unreasonable into little reasonable chunks. A big goal is only achieved when every little thing that you do everyday gets you closer to that goal.

When we think of our business, our own marketing, our own networking, this quote takes the principles of actually doing tasks and time management with our client work and shows us how to make it work for us.

We've talked a lot about chunking your work, small tasks, and managing your time around those.

But that last part is what I want to reference - a big goal is only achieved when every little thing you do gets you closer to that goal.

This is something I did myself a few years ago. I set a big goal, and then everything that I did to grow my business pointed in that direction - my connections, my copy writing, my marketing, my newsletters, all that stuff.

Everything I did moved me in the direction of that larger goal, even though they were smaller tasks or goals themselves.

It is amazing how quickly your business can grow when you focus your efforts in that way.

I loved that quote and it fits so closely with time management and today's lesson that I wanted to share that part of it too.

I hope I've helped you see that doing less can help you get so much more done. Stop booking long periods of time to do anything, and start working in shorter spans of time. You will gain greater focus, get more organized, manage your time much better, and literally get more done than you realized. I can help!

‌

This is exactly what I help VAs do. As a VA coach and trainer, I help you set yourself up for success, helping you fix the specific things that are going wrong in your business. When we work together either privately or in a group we talk specifically about your business and you - there is no one stop solution for everyone when it comes to service businesses like VA businesses.

I'll help you get clarity around your issues, and cheer you on as you walk through the steps to fix them.

I've helped hundreds of VAs through their challenges and got them on their way to growing their business and the lifestyle that they dream of.

I'd love to do the same for you.

You can work with me privately, or you can join The Virtual Circle, my mastermind group for Virtual Assistants. Check it out at [www.YourVAMentor.com/TVC] (the virtual circle) - I bet it's exactly what you need to start running the VA business you dreamed of.

Reach out to me if you are interested.

That's all I've got for you this week, see you next time!