Episode 316: Worried About Money? 3 Ways to Have a Stable Income as a Virtual Assistant

Full Episode Transcription:

In my time of helping all of you amazing women become virtual assistants, one of the biggest fears that I’ve heard from you guys is that you’re worried about You want to make sure that you’re going to be able to have a stable income if you journey into the virtual assistant world and not have it like fluctuating all over the place. So in today’s episode, I’m going to share with you three ways that you can have a stable income as a virtual assistant. So let’s just go ahead and jump right in. Number one, you want to make sure that you are offering services that businesses are willing to invest in. If you’re picking a service that businesses like, it’d be nice for them to outsource, but they don’t really have to. It doesn’t really help them grow their business. They might invest in your services for a few months, but then when things get tight, You might be the first person they let go of. Okay, so if you think about, you know, what types of services can I offer that actually will help a business reach more people, grow their business, get more sales, get more clients.

What services can I offer that will allow for that to happen? Those are the types of services that businesses are more likely to invest a higher amount of money in. And they’re the services that businesses are more likely to keep investing in Month over month over month. So I know a lot of people when they jump into the virtual assistant world, they start with offering administrative services. And yes, that’s a really easy service to learn. Some businesses do need help with that, but honestly, that’s not taking a whole lot of like the big meat and potatoes stuff off of a business’s plate. And so that might be the first thing that they cut if funds get tight versus if you’re offering a service that actually helps them bring in more revenue into their business, they’re going to keep you because it’s profitable for them to do so. So I hope that makes sense. You just want to think about a service that businesses can use to actually grow their business, not just taking things off their plate. The second thing you want to do to make sure that you have a more stable income as a virtual assistant is to offer a recurring service. So if you are doing a service that’s like one off, you only do it one time for a client, you know, you might do it again for them, I don’t know, six months to a year down the road, but if you’re only doing it sporadically for that client, then you’re gonna have to be constantly looking for new clients, and then your income might fluctuate a lot more than you want it to.

So, for example, website design. I’m not gonna do a website for the same client every single month. It’s going to be like a one time website project. And then later down the road, we might update it or they might end up having a new business and hire me again, but it’s not going to be consistent. I have to be constantly looking for clients. And that’s okay. That’s what I’ve chosen to specialize in because that’s what I love so much. And I know that’s one of the caveats of offering that as a service. But if you’re really worried about having that stable income, you want to make sure that you’re picking a service where you would do that, that same service for a handful of clients, let’s say five clients. Every single month. So once you actually land that client and they sign with you, you keep them as long as the working relationship is good. You can keep them for years. Okay. I have multiple students in the virtual assistant Mama Academy who have been working with their same clients for years. And it’s just a matter of like doing your work well and stepping up to the plate whenever they ask you to do something. Even if you don’t know how, you can always figure it out and just being their go to person. But also offering a service that is recurring. That is, you know, They’re going to need month to month to month. So things like social media management could fall into this category. Podcast management, Pinterest management, email marketing.

There are seriously so many services that fall into this recurring service category. You just got to pick what sounds fun to you. But again, once you pick one, you can still offer. services that are more of the one off kind of as like a boost to your income. But I would have your main service that you offer be one of those recurring services so that you can have that stable income source. All right, the third thing that will help you have a stable income as a virtual assistant, and this is Something that I don’t think a lot of people think about is having something about the service that you offer, about how you work with your clients, having something that sets you apart. And one of the biggest ways that I do this, and I teach my students to do this, is to have systems in your business that make working with you so streamlined, so simple, so much fun.

And it allows you to know exactly what you need to do for each client. You have like, a whole checklist you can go through to make sure you’re not missing any pieces. And it gives you the brain space to maybe be able to do a couple extra little things for your clients that they weren’t expecting. And then they’re going to be like, wow, I only paid her for this, but she even gave me this on top of that and they’ll be amazed and they’ll keep coming back to you. Now, I’m not encouraging you to always do things for people Like more than they paid you for but you know little things here and there. It can even be something as simple as sending them a gift once they hire you or once the project is complete for that month. I do, when I get a new website client, I send them some bath bombs. It can be something as simple as that. Something that sets you apart, it’s going to keep those clients. As your raving fans, they’ll be, you know, shouting your name to all of their fellow business friends, and it’s just going to keep them with you rather than looking elsewhere, looking for that cheaper option and whatever.

Okay, so having something that sets you apart is a really good thing to think about when you’re a virtual assistant. And I always recommend just having Really clear systems that make it really easy and streamlined for both you and your client. That’s going to be probably the biggest thing you could do that would set you apart. All right, so real quick, let me recap those three ways that you can have a stable income as a virtual assistant. Number one is offering services that businesses are willing to invest in. Number two is picking a recurring service that businesses would need every single month. And number three is offering something that sets you apart. And my recommendation for that would be working on getting your systems really streamlined. All right, if you need any help with this, I walk you through a lot of this in my free workshop, the number one way to start working from home, where I teach you the five P’s to become a successful virtual assistant. So you can go register for that at ariannavernier.com/free-workshop. You can also find that link in the show notes. But I would be so happy to help you. So, so, so happy to guide you through what it actually takes to become a virtual assistant and really make sure that you are set up for success and creating a really stable income in your new virtual assistant business. All right, y’all, thank you so much for listening to this episode and we will see you next time.