Episode 313: 4 Tips for Working Your Virtual Assistant Business as a Side Hustle

Full Episode Transcription:

A lot of my students in the Virtual Assistant Mama Academy start their virtual assistant business as a side hustle while they’re still at their nine to five, at least until they’ve mostly replaced their income. And I know a lot of you are interested in doing the same thing. So in this episode, I’m going to share with you four tips for starting your side hustle as a virtual assistant while you’re still working your nine to five. One of the biggest questions I get asked is how many hours do you actually need to like build a successful virtual system business starting out. And I really think that if you have a game plan and a map of your goals, and you know exactly what you need to do, and you’re not wasting time, you can absolutely do this in five to ten hours a week. You don’t have to, you know, go work your 9 to 5 for 40 hours a week and then spend 40 hours on your virtual assistant business.

Like, that’s not, that’s not gonna happen. You’re not gonna be able to spend that amount of time on your virtual assistant business when you’re coming home exhausted from your 9 to 5. So I think five to 10 hours starting out a week is great. So tip number one to help you with working your virtual system business as a side hustle is time blocking. So you need to bust out that paper planner and get really clear on what time frames you actually have available to work your side hustle. Time blocking is a really powerful technique that helps you improve focus and manage your time effectively. And when you set aside specific blocks of time for different types of tasks, such as client work, marketing, personal development, that allows you to stay in that zone and get really focused and get Probably more work done than you thought you could. So during those dedicated time blocks, you want to make sure that you’re eliminating any distractions, like put your phone in airplane mode, close all the other tabs, whatever you need to, and commit to working solely on the task you’re supposed to be working on during that time. Now, time blocking will help you, again, maintain focus and it helps you avoid getting overwhelmed by multitasking, because multitasking doesn’t actually work like we hope it will, okay?

So if you need help more with time blocking, I really recommend you go check out episode 233. It’ll do more of a deep dive for you into how to effectively time block. Alright, tip number two to help you as you get your virtual assistant business going going as a side hustle is to prioritize the top three money making tasks in your business each and every day. So I like to use what’s called the cake method. I didn’t come up with this. I really need to Google who came up with this because every time I talk about it, I’m like, I should probably figure out who came up with this, but whatever. So you want to think of it as three layers of a cake, so that means you’re going to focus on three big tasks for your day. So each task is a layer of the cake, okay? So if you get those three tasks done, then that’s amazing. And if you get anything else done on top of that, that’s just sprinkles. Now it might fluctuate where like maybe one of those tasks is like something big in your home you need to do, and two are your side hustle.

It doesn’t have to be, you know, three or Layers of cake in every area of your life because that’s going to be overwhelming. But you want to make sure anything related to your business are tasks that will actually lead to more income in your business. So maybe taking the time to follow up with people that would probably lead to more income in your business versus creating a new Instagram post. Alright, tip number three is to ask for help. This is a really hard one for me and I know it is for a lot of you, but we don’t have to be super mom, we don’t have to do it all. We can absolutely ask for help and there are so many people in our lives who are probably willing to help us. Your spouse can be a big one. I know when I was starting my business. I had my daughter with me all the time, and it was hard to get some tasks done when I had her around. And so one evening a week, like as soon as my husband got done working, from 4 to like 9 p. m., he was in charge of her. And I was just up in our office working. So that gave me a dedicated, like, 5 hours to bust out tasks that, Or harder to do with her around, that I didn’t want to have that interruption and I needed my brain to like stay in work mode.

So that might be possible for you. You could also get a mother’s helper, which is just someone who comes into your house, typically like a kind of a young teenager. And you’re still in your house working, but they’re there, you know, occupying your kid. So you’re still there if needed. But You’re not like fully in charge of your children. You could also hire a babysitter and then maybe go to a coffee shop nearby if that helps you focus more. That does require more investment obviously, but it is an option. And if you’re looking for another way to like just not really spend money on the child care aspect while you’re building this, you could even swap child watching with a neighbor.

So maybe one day a week, like you’ve got the kids at your house, while I’m That mom does something and then one day a week she’s got your kiddos like all day so you can bust at work. So it’s really about what works best for you and what you think you need. But don’t be afraid to ask for help because there are so many people who are willing to help you. All right, tip number four is to eliminate distractions. It’s really easy to get distracted with all the different, we call it shiny objects. syndrome, like, Oh yeah, I should learn this. Oh, I should take this course. I should take this and this and this. And then you’re, you’re just learning, not doing I always say the best way to start your virtual assistant business and to learn new skills is to just get clients in those skills.

There are so many businesses willing to hire you. Even if you’re a beginner and they’re willing to train you, so you can learn on the job. You don’t need to take 10 million different courses. And if there’s a skill that you do want to learn a little bit more of, just go to YouTube. You can figure it out. I promise you. just look up that, that tools, like training videos. Like every online tool probably has training videos that they created that you can go and learn from. So eliminate that shiny object syndrome, eliminate distractions, and focus on what’s really going to help you make more money in your business, and that’s actually landing clients, okay?

All right, so real quick, let me recap those four tips for you to help you start your side hustle as a virtual assistant faster, also working your nine to five. Tip number one is using time blocking effectively. Tip number two is to use the cake method and prioritize those top three money making tasks in your business each day. Tip number three is to ask for help. And tip number four is to eliminate distractions. Now if you need help with this and you want a game plan to really help you succeed as a virtual assistant I would love to invite you to come and join us in the Virtual Assistant Mama Academy I will give you an entire roadmap to help you land those clients so that there’s no questions for you You can just jump in do the work You got me in your back pocket to help you if you get stuck and you have that accountability and support that you need So, you can check out everything that’s included in the Virtual Assistant Mama Academy at virtualassistantmama.com. You can also find that link in the show notes, but I would be so honored to support you in your journey and help you to make those dreams come true. All right, y’all. Thank you so much for listening to this episode, and we will see you next time.