Episode 138: 3 Common Mistakes to Avoid When You Become a Virtual Assistant

Full Episode Transcription:

(00:07):
Hey everybody. Welcome back to another episode of Quick Tip Thursday. This is the first day of December. Crazy to me how fast 2022 has flown by, but in today’s episode I’m gonna be talking about the top three most common mistakes that new virtual assistants make because I’ve had a lot of people asking me, what do you see new virtual assistants doing that they shouldn’t be doing, and how can I avoid those mistakes? So we’re just gonna go ahead and jump right in.

(01:43):
The first most common mistake that I see new virtual assistants making is that they don’t get paid up front. You should never, ever, ever do any work for a client before you are paid. I typically recommend getting paid a hundred percent of the payment up front. But if it’s a bigger project, like a thousand dollars or more, you can break it up into a 50 50 payment where you take a 50% deposit and then 50% due about halfway through the project. I would not allow any payment at the end of a project because then a lot of times you’re just – you just end up chasing down clients. And even if they don’t mean to, they just forget. They get busy with other projects, they forget to pay you and you don’t wanna have that hassle. So get paid up front. Never do work for any clients until you are paid.

(02:32):
The second biggest mistake that I see new virtual assistants make is that they don’t have boundaries set in place to hold their client to them. Your client has to know from the very beginning of working with you when you’re available to work, how quickly they can expect a response from you, how quick of a turnaround time on projects they can expect, when you’re not working, the ways that they can contact you. All of those things are really crucial for you to be very clear with your clients up front. You also have to hold your clients to those. If you say that you’re not gonna answer emails on weekends and then you still do, that’s not an issue with your client. That’s you not holding firm to the boundary. They’re not overstepping boundaries to be mean usually, but they’re just doing it because it’s easier for them. And if they know that you’re not holding to them anyway, they think that they can ignore ’em too. Even if they send you an email on the weekend, for example, don’t respond until Monday and they’ll get the message. Maybe they just had a thought real quick, they didn’t wanna forget. They didn’t wanna wait until Monday cuz they were afraid they’d lose it. So they sent it to you then, but they didn’t expect a response cause they knew that boundary. So if you go ahead and overstep your own boundary, then you’re just confusing your clients. So set those boundaries up front from the get-go in your welcome email with your new clients and then hold to them.

(03:59):
The third mistake that I see new virtual assistants make is that they don’t have a contract in place to protect them. You wanna have a contract that outlines the terms of all of the things in your boundaries, so when you’re working, how they can contact you, all of that, but also what’s included in their scope of the project and what you’re gonna charge if they go outside of that scope. So if they wanna add anything on what the charges would be, how many revisions they’re gonna get, and after that many revisions, what do you charge per revision. How many meetings they get with you, and if they need more, how much does that cost. All of those things should be in the contract to protect you in case there’s ever an issue.

(04:42):
All right, so real quick, let me recap those. First mistake I see new virtual assistants make is not getting paid up front. Second is not setting boundaries with clients. And third is not having a contract to protect you. Now, if you wanna avoid all of these mistakes from the get-go, I invite you to join us in the Teacher Turned Freelancer Academy. I teach you exactly how to get paid up-front before you do any work for clients. We set boundaries and get those plugged into a welcome email that’s super easy for you to plug in your information.

(05:14):
And then also, I have a contract template where you go swap out your name, your info, and you’re done in five minutes and you’re legally protected. You also get the tools, accountability, support, everything you need to become a virtual assistant and make this your full-time job forever and ever. TTFA is everything you need, and I invite you to go check it out and join us at teacherturnedfreelancer.com. And if you have a question that you would love for me to answer here on Quick Tip Thursday, I invite you to come into our free Facebook community that’s at facebook.com/groups/ditchtheclassroom. Scroll to our quick tip Thursday post and drop your question there. I would be more than happy to answer it for you. All right, y’all, I love you so much and we’ll see you next time.