Episode 218: The Secret to Scaling Your Virtual Assistant Business

Full Episode Transcription:

[00:00:00] Do you find yourself sitting down to work on your virtual assistant business but not knowing what to get done? So you end up focusing on tasks that don’t really lead to any new income, and then you start stressing out about not making enough and having to go back to teaching. I’ve been where you are, and in this episode I’m sharing my number one secret to help you scale your virtual assistant business so you can make more income while working less and spending more time with your family.

[00:00:30] What is that secret sauce? It’s workflows. Workflows are going to help you automate as much as you can in your business. This is not automating as in getting more tech, although maybe, but it’s automate as in get everything you do for your business, put into a routine so you can implement those tasks with ease and allow yourself to have time to focus on the projects and tasks that are gonna help you grow your business. So I’ve got three steps to help you set up your workflows so you can run your virtual assistant business as efficiently as possible.

[00:01:06] Number one, you’re gonna do a brain dump. Make a list of all the daily, weekly, and monthly tasks that are required to manage your business. You need to identify what you’re supposed to be doing in your business, and then break that down into the all the tasks it takes so you understand all the steps to get there. So, For example, if you have a goal to create 20 social media posts for the month to market your business, you need to break that down into all the steps it’s going to take to get those 20 tasks completed. Okay? So list out all the tasks you’re doing, whether it’s to grow your business, any client work you have, any of those things, list all the tasks out, and then I want you to organize those tasks. You’re gonna put the similar tasks together and then write out an estimate for how long that group of tasks is going to take you. Some of these might just be a yearly task that you have to do maybe once or twice a year. Some of them are gonna be like once or twice a month, and then some are gonna happen every single week or every single day.

[00:02:14] You have to take the time to do this step. It is the most critical piece because you need to map out your tasks. So you’re, so you know what you’re supposed to be doing when you sit down to work. If you have no idea what your tasks even are that you do on a recurring basis, start by just making an inventory of today, of yesterday’s tasks, of last week’s tasks. When you look backward, you can see what you’ve been doing, so you can identify those daily, weekly, and monthly tasks that you do on repeat. Okay. So that’s the first step is just getting it all out of your head onto paper and organized into different groups and assigning how long it’s going to take you to get those tasks done that are in that group.

[00:03:00] That way you can then plug them into your week where you have the time to get them done. So this brings me into tip number two, which is to get organized by scheduling your time. It is so crucial that you’re using a digital planner or, or a calendar to schedule tasks and set deadlines. Personally, I actually like to use my digital planner and a paper planner to break this all down the simplest way in my brain. So in my paper planner, which is by Horacio printing, H O R A C I O. In that planner, I put all of my time blocks of like when I have my morning routine, when I’m spending time with my family, just the personal things I have going on in my life. And I also put in there when my work blocks are, when I know I’m gonna be able to sit down and focus on my work.

[00:03:54] But I don’t put in the planner all the different tasks I have to do in my business. No, I might put, like in my work block, I might put “podcast”. So I know that I’m gonna be focusing on my podcast in that time. But my digital task management program or digital planner, which I personally use Trello for this T R E L L O, that’s where I put the different tasks I have to do. Every day, every week, every month in my business. And it makes it really easy because I can drag them around to whatever day I know I’m gonna be able to get them done because I have a big enough work block. If something comes up with my kids, they’re sick or something, I can move it around really easily.

[00:04:38] So I like putting my actual tasks I have to do in my business into a digital task management program. So I actually have for y’all the same exact template I use for my weekly work schedule. I have that laid out for you in Trello in a free Trello board that you can get your hands on ariannavernier.com/free-weekly-planner. You can find that link in the show notes if you didn’t catch that, but this is going to give you the roadmap for starting to figure out your tasks that you have and where you can move them around and allocate them to throughout your week. So you need to figure out when your work blocks are going to be, and that’s where you’re going to use the regular like paper planner.

[00:05:27] Even if it’s just a quick 15 minutes that you know you’re gonna have open, you’re gonna know what to do with that 15 minutes. Okay? You need to know where your time is. You need to be able to visually see, okay, this is one I have white space where nothing is assigned. So if shit hits the fan, I can move some things to there, but if not, I’ll have a little bit of free time and that will help you not feel so overwhelmed. And so you’ll know when you’re getting the tasks done that you have to get done throughout the week. And when you sit down during that work time, you’ll know exactly what you need to focus on. Okay. The third tip that I have for you is to simplify. So this is through using programs like Dusado or different email marketing platforms, different social media scheduling platforms by automating the repetitive tasks in your business, like sending contracts, sending invoices, scheduling social media. All of those things. You’re gonna free up more time that you can use to focus on other aspects of your business, such as the planning and the strategy and the growing it. These automation tools will help you maintain consistency and streamline your processes. That way your business can run smoothly, consistently, and you can focus on growing it.

[00:06:50] So I walk you hand in hand through this exact process of setting up your workflows in the Scaling Virtual Assistant Mastermind. Not only do we set up your workflows, we also help you step into that expert role so you can start charging way more for your services. I teach you how to market your business consistently. I help you with learning how to generate those passive income ideas. We get all of that set up in Scaling Virtual Assistant Mastermind. There are very limited spots in this because I want to pour my all into y’all, and so I can’t do that with 10 million people, so it is limited. You can find all of the details for the Scaling Virtual Assistant Mastermind at ariannavernier.com/mastermind, or again, you can find that link in the show notes.

[00:07:45] Go over there, fill out the application. First of all, see even what it’s all about. I’ve got all the content that’ll be throughout the program listed out there for you, and then apply. Get your name in there. Get ready to take your virtual assistant business to the next level so that you can double, triple your income that you had in your nine to five. This is totally possible for you to do in even less time than you’re working now. And I would love to help show you the way, so go check that out. Can’t wait to see you in the Scaling Virtual Assistant Mastermind. Let me know if you have any questions and we will see you in the next episode. Until next week, y’all keep following the dreams that were placed on your heart so you can be the present Mama you’ve always wanted to be.