Episode 336: Balancing Your Business and Family as a Virtual Assistant

Full Episode Transcription:

Arianna Vernier: You find yourself struggling with balancing your work and your family when you’re trying to work from home? I have two kiddos at home and one on the way so I totally understand that dilemma. So in today’s episode I’m going to teach you two key components that will help you find that balance between your business as a virtual assistant and your family. So the first component that’s going to help you find that balance is boundaries. You have to have boundaries in your business and also with your family in order to be able to find that balance. So how do you do that? Well in your business, my biggest tips for you are to Have a welcome email and a contract in place with your clients from the get go That sets those boundaries in place So in your welcome email, that’s typically where you lay out like how they can contact you when the due dates for the projects will be when payment is due and Things like that. And then in your contract, that’s where you really have the nitty gritty details of if payment’s not paid by this date, then this late fee will apply. If you don’t get what I need to get the work done by this date, then your project is considered completed as is. So, it’s those nitty gritty details that are listed out in your contract that will really enforce those boundaries for you.

I do have episodes on like what to include in your contract and your welcome email, so if you need help on that you can just go search through the podcast and find those, but those are really important to have in place because then you’re setting those boundaries up front and then it’s much easier to hold them those boundaries. Now you do have to hold the boundaries. You can’t let your clients start stepping over those lines because if you start letting them toe the line a little bit, they’re going to push a little more and push a little more. And it’s not really to like, you know, be mean or anything, but they just, probably don’t remember the boundaries you set in place. You’ve been letting them do it this other way for a while. And so then it’s kind of hard to backtrack. So you want to make sure when you set those boundaries in place from the get go that you hold to those. And if you do have to send a reminder, you can say it really nicely and just send an email and say, hey, um, just wanted to remind you that according to the contract, this, this, and this. And then they know that they might’ve, might’ve stepped over, they might apologize, and then you guys can keep working. So boundaries in your business as a virtual assistant, that’s super important, but you also need to have boundaries with your family, specifically your kiddos. So your kiddos need to know when your working hours are and they need to know when The time is that you are going to be focused on them if they know that they’re gonna get that time with you They’re much more likely to leave you alone when you need to get work done.

For example, my kiddos know I’m recording podcasts right now So they’re up playing a video game in my husband’s office because he can work with headphones on and ignore them in the background so having that dedicated time of the time where I’m with them versus when I’m working, they know that distinction and they know to leave me alone when I’m trying to get work done. If you’re always working and always looking at your phone when your kid’s around, then they’re going to be asking for that attention from you and they’re going to be constantly interrupting you because they don’t know when those two different times of mommy’s focusing on me and mommy’s focusing on work are. So having that distinction is going to be really helpful for them. If the second tip I have for you to help with balancing your business and your family as a virtual assistant is time management, I really, really highly recommend that you implement time blocking in your life to help you figure out those work blocks.

When are you going to be able to sit down and focus on your work? This doesn’t have to be hours at a time. It could be 30 minutes here, an hour here, et cetera, but having it kind of mapped out You can see it. Your kids can see it. It’s not all just stuck in your brain. It’s gonna help you so much because if it’s just in your brain, then you’re less likely to realize how much you actually got done, and then you might feel behind when you’re not really behind. And so it’s much better to just have it mapped out so you can visually see, okay, when am I going to be able to get this work done so that I don’t have to stress. When my kiddos are around. So I always recommend time blocking and a planner. You guys know, I love the Horatio planner, H O R A C I O. They have just a beautiful layout. I just think it’s really easy to customize to exactly what you need for you and your family. And it is a little bit pricey, but the quality is amazing. It will look fantastic. Even at the end of the year of you using it, it’s a great planner. Now, if you need help with time blocking and figuring out what you’re actually going to do during that work time, I recommend checking out episode 65 here on the Virtual Assistant Mama podcast.

That’s called five time blocking tips for the busy teacher turned work at home mom. Even if you’re not a teacher, this podcast episode will definitely help you. So make sure you go and check that out. All right, y’all. I hope these two tips helped you as far as trying to figure out that balance between your business and your family when you’re trying to work as a virtual assistant. Again, the component number one that’s going to help you find that balance is boundaries, both in your business and And with your family and then the second component that’s going to help you find that balance is time management through time blocking Workflows and all of those things. So let me know if you have any questions. You can drop them in our free Facebook group That’s at facebook.com/groups/virtualassistantmama, and I would love to answer them for you Thank you so much for listening to this episode, and we will see you next time.