Episode 320: Is Working as a Virtual Assistant Sustainable as a Long Term Career?

Full Episode Transcription:

One big question that I have received recently from somebody who’s interested in the virtual assistant world is they were asking if working as a virtual assistant is sustainable as a long term career. Like they don’t want short term. They want to do this for years and years to come. And they wanted to know, is that possible? Now, my answer is going to be absolutely 100%. Yes, it is possible to work as a virtual assistant long term as a sustainable, stable career. I’ve been doing this for five years now, and I have no plans of stopping.

It is something I absolutely enjoy, and so many of the women that I’ve helped in the Virtual Assistant Mama Academy have been doing this for years now as well, and it’s something they absolutely love. So I have two recommendations for you when you’re thinking about making sure that your virtual assistant business is something that is able to be long term. Number one is to pick a recurring service that you love, something that clients need every single month on a recurring basis. and picking a service that businesses are willing to outsource consistent consistently for. Okay, so if you think you would love website design and you just feel like that would be so fun to do, that’s great. Many businesses are willing to outsource for that because it’s something that will help them grow their business and look more professional, but they’re not going to come to for a new website every single month. So that’s really something to consider. You would have to continue finding multiple clients every single month to make sure that you had that income and it’s just not as stable of an income.

So I think a lot of people who want to leave their nine to fives, they want to know, like, I’m going to have a similar amount of money, a similar amount of income every month. And so if you know, you’re interested in website design, you’re gonna have to be okay with your income fluctuating more because maybe you might have like three websites you’re working on one month and then one website this month and then five this month. It’s gonna fluctuate more. And so you have to be able to prepare for that and set aside money for like the slower months and whatever. But if you pick a service that is ongoing that you would only do for, you know, five or five to seven ish clients every single month, those same clients, you wouldn’t have to get new ones all the time. Then it’s a lot more sustainable for you and you’ll be able to somewhat rely on that income. Typically, you have a contract in place where your clients need to give you at least 30 days notice before they sign off. stop working with you. And so that gives you time to look for someone to replace them. So then you would know, okay, at least for the next couple months, this is the income I’ll be able to get.

And then if you want, you can just add on a one off service on top of that recurring service. So maybe you’re doing, I don’t know, you’re writing blog posts for people as your recurring service. And then once in a while, you take on a website client to get that boost in income, but it’s not something that’s going to happen every month. So I hope that makes sense. You just want to pick something that you can do for the same handful of clients every single month and that businesses are willing to outsource. for every single month. So not just like a one time project, not something that you do for them and then they implement because then they’re not paying you anymore. You want it to be something that they regularly need your help with and that actually helps them grow their business because then they’re more likely to outsource for that service.

All right. So if you need help picking a recurring service, I walk you through all the different services you can offer in the free workshop that I offer The Number One Way to Start Working From Home. And in that workshop, I walk you through all five P’s that you need to know to become a successful virtual assistant. Get it started as your long term career. So make sure you register for that. I know I talk about that in every episode, but it’s seriously such a great resource for you. If you’re curious about the virtual assistant world.

So you can register for that at ariannavernier.com/free-workshop, or find that link in the show notes. All right. If you have a question that you love for me to answer here on the show, you can drop it in our free Facebook community that’s at facebook.com/groups/virtualassistantmama, drop your questions in there and I would love to answer them here on the show for you guys. All right, y’all. Thank you so much for listening and we will see you next time.