Episode 321: Burnt Out in Your Virtual Assistant Business? 5 Hacks to Try

Full Episode Transcription:

Are you currently a virtual assistant who’s been experiencing some burnout in your business, just wondering if you want to keep this going, just kind of feeling exhausted? If you are, I feel you because I’ve been in that exact same position. So in this episode, I’m going to share with you five hacks that you can try to help you overcome that burnout so you don’t give up your virtual assistant business. Before you really should, okay? So, the first hack that you can try is to pivot your services to something that actually sounds fun to you. If you’re offering services just because it’s what you know how to do, but it doesn’t really light you up, Then it’s probably time to change. You can absolutely learn something new. You can pivot. You can still keep doing the services you’re doing while you’re learning the new thing and just like slowly transition if you’re worried about, you know, you don’t want to drop all of your clients right now. But if you, Are seriously burnt out and not having fun anymore, then it really might be time to find a service that is fun for you. That does light you up because you shouldn’t stick with a service just because you’re good at it. If it’s not bringing you joy. Okay, that’s a really beautiful thing about having a virtual assistant business is you get to pivot. Whenever you want and you can explore something new, even if you’re not sure if you like it, you can try it, offer it for one client and if it’s not a good fit, pick something else. But if it is a good fit and you love it, you can easily transition into just offering that service and letting other ones that don’t bring you joy. 

All right. The second hack to help you if you’re feeling burnt out in your business is to streamline your processes. If you’re having to bounce around and do a ton of different admin tasks in all these 10 million different programs, that’s going to take a lot of time from you. It’s going to just be It’s going to weigh you down. It’s going to hold you back from doing the tasks in your business that are fun for you. And so there’s a lot of ways that you can simplify those different things. For me, I very quickly invested in a program, Dubsado, D U B S A D O. Yes, it is an investment, but it has saved me So much time, stress, energy, all the things, because I can manage my clients from one single platform. They can book a call with me. They fill out the discovery call form. They can pay me through there. I send my proposals, my contracts, my invoices, all the things, all in that one platform. I only have to log into there and click a few buttons and it’s all right there. All of my emails with my clients are all in one spot in there. It is fantastic. So if you are interested in looking into Dubsado, you can go to ariannavernier.com/resources. And I do have an affiliate link in there that will save you guys a little bit off the cost. But that’s a great tool for you to be able to streamline your processes so you’re not so bogged down in the weeds of your business.

The third hack to try if you’re feeling burnt out in your virtual assistant business is to audit your goals and your boundaries. So you need to make sure that you’re looking at your boundaries and making sure that you have a really good work life balance. If you’re working too much and in that hustle mindset, that’s most likely why you’re feeling burnt out because you’re not letting yourself chill, take a break. I find that when I get stressed about where’s my next client going to come from, where’s my income going to come from, that’s when I start going into hustle mode. And that doesn’t work. You guys know I’m very, um, open about my faith, and so when I feel like I’m getting that way of stressing out, that’s my cue to take a step back, stop working so much, and pray more. And then God usually sends me the best client that is the best fit and so much fun to work with and brings back my joy. So if you are finding yourself stepping into the, I have to hustle, I have to find the next client, I have to get more income, all of that, It might be time to take a step back, pray, set some boundaries around work, make sure that you don’t have your phone near your bed so you’re not working in the middle of the night checking your email all the time.

You guys, I know. I’ve done this. I’ve been where you are. So I get it. I, I’m raising my hand too. I do that too when I get stressed, but you gotta start learning how to identify those cues in yourself and figuring out how can I realign with what God has planned for me and stop stressing about my own plans. Okay, so when you’re thinking about your goals and establishing boundaries around your work, I want you to think about where you would like to be one year from now, and you want to realign your goals to match those priorities. So if you want more time with your kids, well, you shouldn’t be. Creating services where you have to work hours and hours and hours and hours. You need to go more package based services so it’s not, you know, being charged hourly. And then, or charging hourly. And then you’re just offering package model services so you can get them done a lot faster, but still make a good amount of income and be with your babies more. So that’s just an example of something that you could pivot. But. You want to make sure that whatever your big goals is as far as your family, your faith, what God has planned for you, all those things, whatever you’re doing in your business should reflect those goals. So instead of modeling what you see someone else doing, maybe they have a beautiful house and you’re just trying to model and get to where they’re at. I want you to actually model the lifestyle that God wants for you, that God has for you. If he’s calling you to spend more time with your kids, then let go of that dream house. And focus on your family and design a business that focuses on your family and allows you that time with your family as well.

Alright, the fourth hack to try to avoid burnout in your virtual assistant business is to take a break. Maybe you just need to set down your business for, I don’t know, a long weekend? Maybe five days? Maybe a whole week? Take a break from it. And you might find that if you set it aside for a week. You’ll come back restored. You’ll come back just with ideas bouncing around in your head of what you can try. You’ll feel really excited. I know for me, when we go to our, what we call our Tucky cabin, it’s, it’s our rental property in Kentucky. When we go there and I take the time to not work when we’re there and try to avoid my phone. I get so many ideas because I shut everything off and let my brain just rest and that’s when I get the most creative and figure out, okay, what do I want to try next? What sounds fun? What am I excited to dive into when I get back to work? So taking a break can be really helpful. I know it’s hard, especially if you’re worried about income, you’re worried about taking a break and slowing down, but trust me, it’s actually going to help your brain calm down and get those creative ideas that could potentially lead to more income for you. 

And then my fifth tip to help you overcome that virtual assistant burnout is to get help. You know, maybe you don’t have the funds to outsource permanently right now, but what could you trade for maybe a testimonial? What could you trade like a service for? If there’s something that you’ve been dreading doing, could you trade a service that you offer and have somebody do the thing you’ve been avoiding and then you do the work you actually enjoy for them Transcribed And it’s a good trade because they did what you didn’t want to do and you did something that’s fun for you. So you don’t have to, you know, pay a bunch of money to get help in your business. You can trade services. You can have somebody do services for you in exchange for a testimonial. If they’re new, they might love to do that. And so there are different options for you to be able to get help in your business and overcome those things that are holding you back, burning you out, and all the things.

Alright, so real quick, let me recap those five hacks to help you overcome burnout in your virtual assistant business. Number one is to pivot services to something that sounds fun to you. Number two is to streamline your processes. Number three is to audit your goals and boundaries. Number four is to take a break, and number five is to get help. Now, I want to invite you that if you want to streamline your processes, you want to totally rework your packages to fit more of the lifestyle you want, you want to be able to get help and organize your business and just figure out what you really want to do and where you want to take this business, then I invite you to the Scaling Virtual Assistant Mastermind. This is my private mastermind. I host with just a couple very small amount select amount of students and It is where I have my hands in your business helping you figure out exactly how you want it to look. You will just get my eyes all over your business and we will be able to make it into something that you have only been dreaming of so far.

Okay, so you can check out everything that’s included in the mastermind at ariannavernier.com/mastermind. Or you can also find that link in the show notes. But I’m closing the doors on applications soon. So make sure if that’s something that you’re interested in, go check it out, apply for the mastermind. I cannot wait to see you guys in there. All right, y’all. Thank you so much for listening to this episode and we will see you next time.