Working in Corporate America was simple – you go to work, you voice your opinion and thoughts when needed and you leave at the time your shift ends, or when you can no longer accumulate any more overtime for the week. At that point, I would travel about 30 minutes to go pick up my daughter, 2 and son, 2 months old at the time, from daycare. I just knew I wanted something different – but how?
I had heard about a virtual assistant opportunity but just didn’t think this was possible – could this be true – I can work from home and bring in money for my family – really?? I asked more questions of the person I heard this from, Tanya Watson from watsonva.com. She was also a co-worker of mine, she sat across from me as we both worked our corporate jobs and then we would both leave work – heading home and picking up our children from daycare on the way.
How could we have a different life?
Tanya introduced me to MomMasterminds (which was just re-branded to SoloMasterminds) and told me you can learn a lot through their resources, plus you can start out by offering 5 hours of work for $40 and start learning how to work for others. I said – okay – if that is what you suggest – I can definitely start there. It did take my business from April 29, 2009 when I purchased my domain until August 2009 to really “take off”. During that time I would gobble up as much information and ask as many questions as I could to help me learn and understand this new adventure more and more. I was still breastfeeding my then 6-month-old son, when I left my Corporate America job and was determined to make this work.
My first goal was $500 a month.
I reached that goal and thought… could I make more? Let’s shoot for $1,000 by December 2009, and I reached that goal. Then my goal was – okay how much can I work and just let the money flow in. At this point, I was working around the clock for clients and still managed to take care of my kids and even take a nap when they did, and I just kept moving forward. I have added to my skill set as time goes by and I believe that has been one important part of my success.
Additionally, I have had an amazing Life and Business Coach, Erica Rueschhoff who has helped guide me to this success. She first told me – you need to blog – I said about what? She said – in January 2010 – come up with topics you want to blog about and just get information out there. Share with others what you know and what you have learned. I said – Okay – I can do that. So I made a list of over 100 topics and started to write blog posts about those topics – I then created my first info-product Freebie guide.
Shortly after that I created EcommerceQueen.com with Erica’s coaching leading me through this adventure. I took what I learned and put it into writing and screenshots.
By February 2010, I was working with expert moms in all areas other than the area where my focus was – so at this point I started getting new clients through referrals and I haven’t looked back since. I enjoy what I do, and that is helping others achieve their passion – they take care of their business and do what they enjoy and leave the rest to me to handle for them.