Encouragement for New Virtual Assistants who are Struggling!
Hey Y’all + Happy December!
I’ve been thinking a lot lately about my goals for my business in the coming year.
I’ve got some big goals I want to accomplish both with my Virtual Assistance business and with my blog for VAs {which I’m moving to a new site soon… But more on that later! ;) )
And sometimes when I start to think about all that will have to happen in order for me to accomplish what I want to accomplish, I get a little overwhelmed.
And discouraged.
And I start to feel like “Who am I to try to do this? I’ll never reach my goals!”
It reminds me, in fact, of when I first started my VA business in 2008.
You see, I didn’t have any clients my very first month.
Or my second month.
Or my third, fourth, or fifth months.
In fact, it took me right at 6 months to get my first client…
(Side note: Looking back, I know that it’s because I wasn’t putting in much {or any?!} effort to look for clients. I was expecting clients to just randomly find my website on the world wide web {because we all know people search for “The Virtual Peacock” when they are looking for an assistant ::insert eye roll:: lol}. )
I spent those first few months in business crying all the time thinking my dream of having a successful VA business would never come true.
{And I’m not exaggerating… call my momma and ask her about all the crying!}
But once I started working with my first client {who I connected with through a client referral program I was a part of at the time}, I gained a little confidence in myself as a VA and was super inspired to find more clients.
And it wasn’t too long before I started working with my second client.
Then my third client.
And with each new client I started working with, I began to get more confident in my business building skills.
Now here we are 10 years later, and I have a very profitable and successful Virtual Assistance business, supporting clients who I love and doing work that I thoroughly enjoy!
And I know I’ll be working hard in 2019 to accomplish my goals and that I am capable of making my own business dreams come true.
So if you’re a Virtual Assistant and you’re reading this and are currently struggling to build your own VA business, I want to encourage you and empower you to keep following your dreams!
YOU CAN DO IT!
Even when you might be dealing with naysayers or self doubt!
Keep reading for some encouragement and how to handle it when those moments arise…
Encouragement for New Virtual Assistants Who Are Struggling!
Friends and family not supportive of your dreams?
Starting a VA business is scary. It would be much easier to work a typical 9 to 5 where someone else has to worry about client acquisition or where you weren’t responsible for your own health care {can I get an amen? lol}. Being an entrepreneur is definitely not for the faint of heart…
So if you have people in your life who aren’t supportive of your entrepreneurial dreams, stop talking to them about your dreams. By no means do you have to have to cut them out of your life or stop being friends with them {I mean, that’s a little extreme!}, but you can find other people who will be supportive of your dreams. And those are the people you should share your dreams with!
Struggling to make money but don’t want to quit?
If you’re struggling to find clients but don’t want to give up on your VA business, get a part time job. There is NO SHAME in putting money in the bank with a part time job. Let me repeat that… THERE IS NO SHAME.
If all my clients decided today to work with someone else, I would go and apply for a part time job at Bed, Bath and Beyond right away so that I could pay my bills and I would continue to work on my VA business while still making sure my electricity stayed on. You gotta do what you gotta do to make your dreams come true, right? :)
Not sure you have the skills potential clients want or need?
If you don’t feel like you have the right skills to offer potential clients and this is holding you back from putting yourself out there, I want to encourage you to do this:
During your office hours that you don’t have any client work to do, use that time to learn new skills. Sign up for trial offers of software's or programs you want to take and play around and try to train yourself. Read articles or take free webinars about different skills you have. Sign up for inexpensive training's on Lynda.com. The internet is full of so much FREE knowledge… Make good use of your time while you don’t have clients and educate yourself.
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I feel like there’s soooo much more I want to say to encourage you to keep pursuing your dream to have a profitable and successful Virtual Assistant business, but I’ll end with this excerpt from the book I’m reading, “Girl, Wash Your Face” by Rachel Hollis:
I just LOVE this little paragraph I ran across the other night and I hope you’ll feel inspired to keep pursuing your dreams and won’t let anyone - INCLUDING YOURSELF! - stand in your way to reaching your goals. :)
PS: I’d love to hear from you if this post resonated with you… Leave me a comment over on my Instagram - http://instagram.com/thevirtualpeacock!
