Episode 57: 3 Mistakes to Avoid as a New Virtual Assistant Who Wants to Work from Home

Full Episode Transcription:

(00:07):
Hey my loves. Welcome back to the Ditch the Classroom podcast. Before we dive into today’s episode, I wanna extend a special invitation to y’all. So if you’re new to the virtual assistant and freelancing world, and don’t even really understand what that entails, I wanna invite you to my free virtual assistant workshop. This is where I’m gonna really go in-depth and teach you what a VA does, what services they can offer so you can pick services that really would light you up, where to find paying clients so you can replace your income faster, and much more. Now, if you are ready to take that first step into freelancing and virtual assistance, then my Ditch the Classroom Toolkit is for you. In this toolkit, you’re going to figure out what services you want to offer that you would love to do each and every day, what to price those services at, and how to package everything in a pretty bow to send off to potential clients that looks really professional and will really attract them easily and effortlessly. Now, if you’re really ready to go all-in and go 100% into this thing so that you can ditch the classroom completely and start working from home with your baby sooner, then the Teacher Turned Freelancer Academy is for you.

(02:04):
This program has everything you need, the ongoing support, the accountability, seriously, everything you need to take your virtual assistance or freelancing business from zero to 60. It has 10 different modules and each module has bite-size lessons, workbooks, and templates to help you really build this business from scratch. So if this is something you’re looking for, you want that ongoing accountability and support to get your questions answered, then I wanna invite you to join the Teacher Turned Freelancer Academy. You can find the links to the workshop, the Ditch the Classroom Toolkit, and TTFA in the show notes. I cannot wait to see you in there.

(02:53):
Now, in today’s episode, we’re gonna be breaking down the three mistakes that I made as a new virtual assistant. I wanna save y’all as much time as possible, and I know it can be really challenging and confusing getting into this world and just being a new VA. So I wanna help you avoid some of these mistakes.

(03:16):
So mistake number one was working with anyone that would pay me. I know when you’re first starting your business, like making that money is probably the number one thing you wanna do, but you really wanna think about who would I love to work with? Who would light me up and make me wanna get out of bed, to work with them each day. If you are working with anybody and everybody, they’re not gonna be in alignment with you. Maybe they don’t understand that you have kiddos at home and aren’t okay with your kiddos being around while you’re working. Maybe they don’t understand that you’re not gonna work evenings and weekends because you spend that time with your family. You really wanna make sure that they understand your boundaries and what this business is for you. And they’re respectful of that.

(04:08):
There are so, so many business owners who will appreciate you for all that you do in their business and respect when you work, and who is around when you work. Let me tell you my biggest mistake. I brought on this client who I saw red flags from the beginning of how it was gonna be working with her, but, you know, I just, I wanted that income honestly. And so I brought on and it was a nightmare. We were, I was supposed to work for her hourly, but everything I sent her, she would want redone, everything. She would tell me one thing and then come back and pretend like she never said that and say something else. And it was just so stressful and that money was not worth. I took so much time and energy and poured it into that client. And it just wasn’t worth it.

(05:07):
So have those boundaries in place. So make sure that your clients understand that while you love their business, and you’re gonna support them the best that you can, you’re not gonna work for them 24/7, and they shouldn’t expect that from you. So again, it’s just easier from the beginning. If you figure out who you want to work with, that would just light you up and make you excited to work every day and really pay attention. If there’s red flags from the beginning, just move on. Maybe direct them to a Facebook group where they can find other assistants, but you don’t need that extra stress in your life

(05:45):
Now, mistake number two, I already mentioned a tiny bit in mistake number one, is that I didn’t set clear boundaries. I started this business and I know a lot of you are too, to have more time with my family, to spend more time with my babies and get to do what I wanna do. But my first year as a virtual assistant, I did not set those clear boundaries. And I ended up having to work on Christmas day. Let me tell you, when that happened, I was like, what am I doing? I need to fix this because this is not gonna happen teaching. I never had to work on Christmas. So why am I doing that now? This is not what I envisioned when I signed up for this. And I’m need to figure out how to make this never happen again. So setting those clear boundaries of, I only work this many hours a week. This is when I’m available. I will never work on holidays. In the beginning, you may have to work a little bit more on the weekends and evenings, but set clear times for that so you don’t go overboard and you still get that time with your family and really quickly, you’ll see that you can reduce that amount of time you’re working during family time more and more so that way you’re only working during the day and have the evenings to give to the people that matter. So I already did an episode really breaking down the boundaries that you need to set in your business with your clients. So go check out episode 35. It’s all about boundaries with clients. And that’ll give you some really good ideas on where to start with this.

(07:33):
Now, mistake number three that I made was not niche-ing down sooner now there’s two kinds of niche-ing down. You could niche down into only working with certain types of businesses. So like female-owned businesses, for example, or you can niche down to just a specific type of service. So what I’m talking about here is that I didn’t niche down to a service that I loved. I thought I wanted to be the go-to person to be able to do everything in someone’s business, even if it wasn’t in my zone of genius. But I quickly realized that those services that, while I might be good at them, they didn’t light me up. Those services just drained so much energy from me. I didn’t wanna do them. And I started feeling a little bit resentful about my business when I was still offering services that did not light me up.

(08:31):
So once I really realized that graphic design and website design was my zone of genius and where I just felt so excited to work every day, and I told those clients that I was still doing other services for that, “Hey, this is our last month. I’m gonna help you find somebody to replace me, but I’m really niche-ing down into this one service that I love”. Once I did that, my business grew so much because people could see my passion again, and they could see that I was really good at what I did and not just kind of good at everything, you know? So I really recommend either A: niche-ing down to a specific business you’d like to work with and/or niche-ing down to a specific service that just lights you up and that you’re really good at.

(09:17):
Now, let’s recap. Mistake number one was working with anyone who would pay me. Mistake number two was not setting clear boundaries. And mistake number three was not niche-ing down sooner. So these are mistakes that I really wanna help y’all avoid. And that way you can have a very successful business that really aligns with what you’re looking for. It doesn’t take away from your family and it gives you that time-freedom that you’ve always been looking for. So let me know if this was helpful, send me a DM on Instagram. I love hearing from y’all so please feel free you to reach out. All right. I love you guys and I will see you next week.