*Edited to withhold names!
Prof has requested that her students interview a VA assistant. I am truly looking forward to learning more about you and your business.
How did you decide to get into the virtual assistant business?
I wanted to stay home with my 2 kids and not have to pay for daycare or try to work nights while my husband worked his day job.
What have been the greatest rewards/challenges of owning your own business?
Rewarding – my kids are with me 24/7 except when my daughter goes to Preschool. My daughter will be in Kindergarten this fall all day and my son will start Preschool this fall (part time) but excited – because then I can focus more on my clients while they both are away. Challenges – at first – trying to get everything figured out. A bit of worrying of how I was going to contribute to paying family bills – been in the business for almost 3 years and now I have lots of faith and know next week – will be just fine. I haven’t marketed my business since Fall of 2009 because the referrals keep on coming in. Couldn’t be more happier and it is really rewarding – I am helping my clients with what they need and providing for my family too.
What is the main type of planning/work that your VA business requires?
My VA business is mainly focused on techie tasks. I have lots of tools and resources at my finger tips – so between my computer, software programs and other VAs I have met along the way – I can easily help almost any client with their requests.
What are the two or three most important reasons for the success of your business?
- My family. Personal
- This is my career. Professional
- Reason for why I’m here – Passion of helping others
What advice would you give to me if I were to start a VA business someday?
Figure out what you like best and stick with it. I have done some tasks for clients when I first started because I didn’t know. You will do tasks that you won’t like – you swear you will never do them again – but you have to go through the life experiences so you can learn from them. I would not say there is anything I won’t do again – just prefer not to.
What are your plans, hopes, dreams, or goals for your business 5 or 10 years from now?
Goal in 5 years – to continue to help clients and provide for my family. Like I mentioned – I have been in business for almost 3 years and this year is definitely helping me and my husband reach one of our goals – get a house that we will live in for years to come. We have been moving for the past 3 years because he hasn’t been happy with his job or where we have been living – we just moved in August and found a house that we will be moving to in June – we couldn’t be more excited to get settled down. Without my career choice of being a VA and my very successful business and a huge THANK YOU to each and every one of my clients I have helped/served – we would not even be getting the house that we have had a vision for. Vision what you want and make that dream come true – because it really can happen.
If you had it to do all over again, what would you do differently this time for your VA business (if anything)?
As you can tell – right now – there is nothing I would do differently. I have been trying to figure out how to get a work at home career since my daughter was 6 months old – but it is a struggle to figure out the HOW.. you can read this and that online – but WHAT do you believe? It was really hard until my co-worker told me she was working from home plus doing her full-time job – so that’s when I asked LOTS of questions to grasp what she meant and now I understand and am loving what I am doing.
Do you recommend the business of virtual assisting? Why or why not?
Yes – I have helped 2 people to build a virtual assistant business. One decided it was not for her and another is working for a client that I work for as well. The best advice I can give is – try it out – don’t quit anything you are doing today – do it in addition to your full time or part time job then see how you like it and what you are doing. If you can give it more time – then great – because you will probably get more success out of it. I literally worked non-stop until March 2010 then decided – wow that’s enough working – I need to get boundaries and family time and now I have tried really hard to keep a balance between family and work. So far it is still a win-win.
Best of luck with what you do and Keep moving forward!
– Staci