Bonus Episode: 3 Easy Steps to Map Out Your Virtual Assistant Business Goals for 2022 and My Word for the Year

Full Episode Transcription:

(00:07):
Y’all may or may not have noticed, but in last week’s episode, I said that it was going to be our last episode for 2021. And then God had a different plan. I really was feeling called to create an episode sharing how my business has grown in 2021. What my goals are for 2022, the words I’ve chosen for 2022 and how you can map out your goals for the next year. Now, I wasn’t really sure if y’all really wanted that, but when I posted in our free Facebook group asking for episode topics, someone specifically requested this. So that was my sign. And so here we are. So I’m just kind of going to walk you through, like I said, my business growth in the past year, how I did it, I’m really gonna give you some tangibles on how I grew my business so you have some tangible ideas for growing yours. Share my words for 2021, why I chose them. Share my words for 2022, why I chose them. And my personal business goals for 2022. And then I’m really gonna map out for you a three step process to help you figure out your goals for 2022 and how you can achieve them.

(02:15):
All right. So let’s go ahead and just jump on in. Like I said, first, we’re gonna talk about my business growth this year in 2021. So from 2020 to 2021, I actually tripled my income in my business. Now, like I said, I’m gonna give you some tangible ways that I did this so that you can really apply this to your business. I don’t want this to just be, you know, I’m not bragging. I wanna show you what you need to do to really grow and scale your business. So, one of the first things I did was narrow down and get really specific on what services I offer. As y’all know, on the freelancing side of my business, I do website and graphic design, and I created a service called a VIP day, where I build my client sites in three-to-five days. This is a premium service. It only takes me, like I said, three-to-five days to build an entire website. During those days I’m focused solely on that client. But it really allowed me to narrow down to just that service and stop trying to come up with all these different services to offer to different clients. It’s really one service with a few tweaks inside of that service, depending on the client’s needs. If you want a little bit more of a more in-depth breakdown of how VIP days work, go check out episode 27. I really broke that down in there. And if you have any additional questions that I don’t cover in that episode, feel free to come in to the Facebook group and ask me any questions you have.

(04:00):
Now, another thing that I did was I networked a lot. I was always in different communities, online meeting people, offering advice where I could just helping where I could, and that has had a huge impact on my business. I have multiple clients that I did not apply for jobs for this year. They just found me because they saw me answering questions and being helpful in the different groups. So networking, y’all know, is my number one tip for growing your VA business. And I go really in-depth on how to do that in episode 29. So make sure you go check that out as well. Now my word for 2021 was serve. I really wanted to shift my focus to how I could help others in my business, rather than just stressing over the income goals. I felt like I was always just trying to hit that target number every month and that wasn’t bringing me joy. But what does light me up is serving women whose businesses I love. So I really tried to focus on the number of people I could serve, and that would help me hit my income goal, but that wasn’t my focus anymore. I wasn’t focused on that number as much. So, serve was my word for 2021 and looking back, really another word for this year would be “simplify”. Like I mentioned, I simplified the services that I offer and I also simplified my life. We sold our house, sold a shit ton of our belongings, moved into an RV. We’ve just reduced a lot of the extras in our life and it has been wonderful. So I cannot recommend that enough. If you have the chance to live fulltime in an RV. It’s really fun.

(05:51):
Now. My words for 2022. So I’m a little bit of an overachiever and I couldn’t narrow it down to one. So I’ve got three and I’m gonna kind of explain to you why I chose those three. So number one is surrender. I really wanna surrender my life, my business, my marriage, my motherhood – I wanna surrender those all to God and just let Him take the wheel. And I want to listen to Him more and follow Him more. So I’m surrendering my pride, my ego. I’m giving that all to Him. And I just want Him to guide me where He wants me to go. My second word is presence. So I really want to be more careful about being present in every moment, specifically in my motherhood and my marriage. I just noticed I was trying to multitask too much and just missing a lot of the little things. And those are what matter in the long run. And so I really wanna focus a on being present, removing idols from my life like social media. I was spending way too much time on there. And I know I can grow my business outside of social media. So that’s what I’m gonna be focusing on.

(07:10):
And then my word number three is growth. So how can I grow into the woman that God wants me to become? Now I wrote a quick journal entry surrounding these words, and I thought it would be kind of fun to share with y’all. So I’m gonna read that to you guys real quick. She surrenders to God’s path for her. She is relinquishing all control and letting go of all idols in her life. She is patient and present. Whether it’s in her business, motherhood or marriage. She pours into those she loves so much. She is growing into the person He called her to become. You see, this is why I cannot narrow it down to one. I needed all three of those words. They just – they’re speaking to me so much.

(08:00):
So my business goals for 2022, I mentioned between 2020 to 2021, I tripled my business income. That’s my goal again. I’m planning to triple this year’s income in 2022. So how I’m doing this, I’m focusing on the number of women want to serve. I know how much I charge per business that I serve. And so I came up with that number and broke it down into monthly goals. So basically divided it by 12. And yeah, so that’s really scary to think about tripling my income again but I did it this year so I know I can do it next year. And I really want to take a minute to help you guys map out your income goals, ’cause I think this is so important and especially if we’re aligning our goals with God and what He wants for us, you’re gonna see that if you take the time to do this at the end of next year, if you go look back, you’d be pretty surprised by how many of these you achieve basically. So I’m gonna share three steps for how you can kind of backwards design and hit your goals.

(09:17):
So step number one is determine what your income goal is. Step number two is divide that number by 12 to get your monthly goal. And then step number three is figure out how many clients you would need to hit that monthly goal. If you’re charging too low and you would need like 15 clients a month to hit that goal, then you need to raise your prices. You either need to raise your hourly prices or – bonus tip – it’s way easier to offer packages instead of hourly rates. Hourly rates are very time specific. You only have so much time you can offer, but if you switch to packages, it’s not time specific. You don’t have to track your time, which hallelujah, ’cause I hated tracking my time back when I used to. And you can offer more premium services without having to, kind of keep track of everything, all the nitty gritty details. You just have a clear layout of, “this is what I offer in this package”. This is the price. You don’t have to ever worry about tracking your time again and you can start to charge more premium packages, or more premium prices for premium packages. Okay? So when you switch to packages, you’re no longer charging time for money. You’re charging money for how you can impact somebody’s business. So that’s kind of the difference. And if you guys want me to do an episode, going more into how to structure packages and what the difference between packages and hourly rates are, let me know in the Facebook group and I’d be happy to do that. All right? So I walked you through mapping out your income goals. Again, step one, determine what your income goal is. Step two, divide that number by 12, to get your monthly goal. Step three, figure out how many clients you would need per month to hit that goal.

(11:27):
And if you need way too many, it’s time to raise your prices. Now, I would challenge you guys to choose your word for 2022. If you have not already. And then, also, map out your business goals and come and share both in the Facebook group. I’m giving you homework. I wanna hold you accountable, ’cause this is so, so, so important. As I’ve shared here, I did this process last year and that’s how I was able to hit my goals this year. And that’s how I’m gonna hit my goals in 2022. So come and share so I can celebrate cheer you on. I would be so, so excited to see what your goals are. And, last but not least, I want to invite you to sign up for the free workshop we have coming up on Thursday, January 13th called The Number One Way to Leave Teaching in Six Months or Less.

(12:27):
So this – not challenge, this workshop will be hosted again, like I said, Thursday, June 13th, 6:00 PM Eastern time. If you can’t make that specific time, there will be a workshop of it – oh my God, what are my words? – there will be a replay available, but you only get access if you register. So during this workshop, you’re going to learn exactly how you can replace your teaching income from home, with your babies by your side, and finally pay off that debt or take those dream family vacations. So like I said, make sure to register for the free workshop at ariannavernier.com/free-workshop. All right. Y’all I hope that this episode blessed you. I hope you had a beautiful Christmas and spent so much quality time with family and friends. I hope you have a wonderful new year and we will see you next year. Bye y’all.