Episode 266: 5 Tips to Set You Up for Success as a New Virtual Assistant

Full Episode Transcription:

All right, y’all, before we jump into today’s episode, I just have to remind you about our free workshop coming up this Thursday, January 11th. This workshop is going to teach you everything you need to know in order to start becoming a virtual assistant so you can work from home with those babies, never miss out on one of their first times, and be the present mom that you’ve always wanted to be. I’m going to teach you how to figure out what services you would love to offer, where to find paying clients, the top three mistakes that new virtual assistants make. I want you to be able to avoid those and save yourself time, money and energy. And it’s just so packed, full of goodness, absolutely free for every single one of you. Even if you can’t make it live and tune in live with us, which I would absolutely love if you could, even if you can’t, because I know you’re a busy mama, you can grab the replay.

Simply by registering for the workshop now, and then once the workshop is over, I will send you an email with that replay link for you to watch on your own time. So come get registered for the workshop at ariannavernier.com/free-workshop. Or as always, you can find that link in the show notes. All right. If you are listening to this show, you are probably interested in becoming a virtual assistant. So in this episode, I want to share with you my top five tips to set you up for success as a new virtual assistant. So let’s just go ahead and jump right in.

Tip number one is to pick a service that you absolutely love. I see so many new virtual assistants just pick the service that they think, you know, I kind of have a little bit of experience with this. I’m just going to go with this because it’s the easy route. That’s great and everything just to help you, you know, start getting a little bit of income, but even if you know how to do it, if it’s not something that just lights the fire under your butt, then you’re going to find yourself burnout just like you might already be in your nine to five.

So I want you to pick a service that you would absolutely love to learn you think would be. So much fun to do for your clients every single day. And I want you to know, you can absolutely figure out how to do that service. You don’t need, you know, to spend 10 million on training for it. You can figure it out on the job. There are so many businesses who are willing to teach you their methods and just. You know, pour into you, train you, and all the things. So just right from the get go, pick a service that lights you up. Don’t go the easy route of just picking a service you think you might be able to know how to do right from the get go, because you’re gonna end up burning yourself out.

And the really great thing about virtual assistants, Is that even if you pick a service you think you’re gonna love and then you end up figuring out that you don’t really like it You can always pivot at any point in time. Nobody is holding you to offer that service for the rest of forever. You can change whenever you need to. First I thought I was going to be a social media manager. I thought I would love it. And then when I started doing it, I was like This is not what I wanted to do. So you can absolutely figure out What service you want to love, and then if it doesn’t end up lighting your fire, you can always pivot down the road. Tip number two to set you up for success as you start working into this new virtual assistant role of yours is to figure out who your dream client would be. Now, this might start out really broad, it might just be, you know, female entrepreneurs or mom business owners, business owners that have kids, whatever it is, I want you to at least get an idea in your brain of who this might be because then you can start really making sure that the language that you’re using when you’re looking for jobs Is the language that would connect with them if you’re trying to work with, you know, bigger like corporate businesses And you’re talking about how you’ve got kids running around and diapers pooping themselves That’s probably not going to connect with the corporate business, but it would with the mom owned business.

So I want you to really think about Who is my dream client? Who would I love to work with? Who would I be so passionate about helping them further the mission of their business? Okay, so like I said this might start out broad over time But it can get more narrow as you start working with clients and figuring out. Okay. Yeah, I like working with this type of client No, that was not my vibe working with that type of client. I thought myself that I would love working with people who had teacher businesses. One of my first clients had a very teacher based business, and that was not my cup of tea. So, like I said, this will change over time, and that’s okay. It should narrow down over time so you can get even more specific on who you’re talking to. But just start out with a broad idea at first. All right, tip number three to really set you up for success as a new virtual assistant is to put yourself out there even when you’re scared. Here on the Virtual Assistant Mama podcast, we are all about done, not perfect. When you figure out your packages, you’ve got your portfolio, you know, the rough draft of it created, start putting it out there. Do not wait for yourself to feel a hundred percent confident in the skills you’re wanting to offer or the services you’re wanting to offer. Do not wait for, you know, every single thing to be absolutely perfect in your portfolio because nothing is ever perfect.

You can always adjust over time, but just start getting your name out there and making those connections. And you will be so surprised by how quickly you can land a client. But if you, you know, hold on to that portfolio, never send it out because you keep trying to tweak it and make it the best it can be. Well, it might become the greatest portfolio in the world, but if you haven’t sent it to anybody, it’s not going to do anything for you. Okay. So you have to put yourself out there. Even when it scares you, even when things aren’t perfect, or you feel like they’re not perfect, just do it. Anyway, do it scared, have that faith in God that he’s going to give you the clients that you need either. You might need to learn a lesson from them or they’re just going to be, you know, the best fit and you’re going to be with them forever. He will give you the clients that you need, but you have to be the one that puts yourself out there to get those clients.

Okay. All right. Tip number four is to stay consistent. I see so many. New virtual assistants that give up, you know, six months in a year in, and they give up because they think that, you know, this just isn’t working for them. But the problem is that they weren’t consistent enough in their business. They weren’t treating it like a business. They were treating it as a hobby and only doing it when, you know, they had a little bit of time in their week. Well, when you don’t make it a priority. That time’s going to run out and get eaten up really quickly, and then you’re not going to have any time to work on growing your virtual assistant business. And you’re going to think, okay, I just don’t have it in me, I don’t have the time, whatever. But if you set the time aside from the beginning, from the get go, and don’t let anything come in between you and getting that work done, you’re going to be able to stay consistent, you’re going to be able to show up, and you’re going to be able to land those clients.

Now, I know many of you listening to this podcast have kids, and so things are going to come up, and you’re going to have to rearrange your schedule, and that’s fine, but there are other things that could come off of your to do list or your plate, rather than your virtual assistant work. Working on actually growing your virtual assistant business. So this isn’t something that you should just push to next week. This is something that should take priority over, you know, your time scrolling on social media or your favorite show that you could just wait and watch next week instead. I just want you to make growing your virtual assistant business a priority and stay consistent with it. This kind of also ties into tip number five, which is never give up.

Becoming a virtual assistant, like it can absolutely be a blessing as a side hustle. It’s something that you can do in just a few hours a week, even with your nine to five, just to boost your income. And it can also fully replace your income, but that does take time. Anybody telling you that this is going to replace your income in a month or two months? Like, yeah, it’s possible, but it’s not likely unless you’re giving it a crap ton of time, okay? So tip number four, stay consistent, but tip number five, just never give up because you never know when your breakthrough is going to happen. And how would you feel if you just gave up right before you were about to make that breakthrough and really start hitting those goals you’ve set? Okay, so never, ever, ever give up on your dreams, keep chasing them. And even if it’s a side hustle for longer than you want it to be, at least it’s still helping you financially and you’re working towards that big, big goal.

All right. Real quick. Let me just recap these five tips for you to set you up for success as a new virtual assistant. Number one is to pick a service you absolutely love. Number two is to figure out who your dream client is. Number three is to put yourself out there even when you’re scared. Number four is to stay consistent. And number five is to never give. Again, I will be covering this in way more depth during the free workshop that we have going on this Thursday, January 11th. So make sure you get registered for that at ariannavernier.com/free-workshop and I cannot wait to pour into y’all even more during that workshop. Thank you guys so much for listening to this episode and every episode as always. I love you so, so, so much and we will see you next time.