Noted!: Business Lessons Learned from Twenty-Two Years of Virtual Assistance

By Chela Hardy

When you've been a Virtual Assistant for over twenty years, you're bound to have picked up a few things along the way.

In

• Language: English
• Publisher: AskChela LLC
• Release date: Mar 4, 2024
• ISBN: 9798990023918

Chela Hardy

Chela Hardy is a former Executive Assistant who transitioned into a career as a Virtual Assistant (VA) in 2001. Since 2013, she has shared her knowledge of the industry as an instructor teaching an Adult Ed course on how to start and successfully run a home-based VA business. Author of the ebook Become a More Confident Virtual Assistant, she is the creator of Chela's BizDev Binder for Virtual Assistants and the founder of AskChela.com, where she blogs about the industry and offers coaching and mentoring services to guide VAs at every stop on their journey. Chela also delivers creative services and publishing project management through her website AuthorAndSpeakerServices.com.

Book preview

If you ask ten Virtual Assistants why they started their businesses, you’ll likely get ten different responses, though many will likely include some variation-slash-combination of being unhappy in a current job, a need to work from home to resolve challenges related to affordable childcare or caregiving, the desire to cut down on a lengthy commute, sudden unemployment, wanting to spend more time with family, et cetera.

We all have our personal and professional reasons for getting into this industry. And I would venture to say that most come into this with a positive mindset of yes, I can do this…I can make a success of a career as a Virtual Assistant. Some go it alone, picking up whatever strategies they can from around the internet and on social media. Some sign up for and take self-paced courses or programs to learn what it takes to start a VA business. Others immediately seek out professional coaching to get ahead of the learning curve and set themselves up for more immediate success. Whatever path they take, they typically have a positive outlook when they begin.

Then reality sets in, and many new VAs realize it’s going to be a bit harder than they expected to land clients and bring in the income they need to sustain their business and their financial needs. After a while, some decide that perhaps virtual assistance is not the right career choice for them after all, and they go back and forth about whether to keep going.

This is where remembering their why can be helpful. Why they decided to pursue this career path. Why they felt excited and hopeful about getting started. Why they were initially convinced they could make this work—even when family members and friends around them didn’t get it, didn’t offer up emotional support, or who flat-out refused to believe that a whole segment of the population actually makes their living as VAs.

Is this where you are right now on your journey? Perhaps you’re facing a lack of emotional support, or you haven’t landed the paying clients you need. Are you thinking of giving up on being a VA? What was your why for setting out on this career path? Do you remember?

I hope you’ve literally written it down and posted it somewhere you can see it easily so that you can quickly call to mind why you said you wanted to do this! And if you haven’t already, please do so right now.

Right this very moment.

I’ll wait.

In my ebook Become a More Confident Virtual Assistant, there’s a section on visualizing success. In it, I talk about the power of a good vision board. Honestly, I never gave the concept much weight until I attended an in-person event during which everyone in the room created their own board based on their specific wants, needs, circumstances, et cetera. Going through the exercise of getting my thoughts out onto something large-sized and tangible was cathartic. Suddenly, I felt empowered at a time when I was doubting myself and my abilities.

So now I teach my coachees and mentees that creating their own vision board can help mute the noise of their negative thoughts. A proper vision board offers a visual representation of the things you want to accomplish in your life in general, but it’s also an amazing tool to help you think through and gain clarity on what you want your VA business to look like for you.

Maybe you’re wondering just what to put on your board. Don’t overthink it! Consider any or all of these things (and anything else that comes to mind and factors into your personal visualization of success):

Logos of VA organizations you’d like to someday join

Magazine covers featuring positive VA headlines

Inspirational quotes from the blogs or social media accounts of some of your favorite VA industry thought leaders

Screenshots of a few VA colleague websites that give you ideas for creating or refreshing your own business website

Images of exotic places or getaway destinations you’d like to visit—and work from remotely if you decide to

Photos of your loved ones as a reminder of what having a successful business can do for your family

Cutouts of guilty pleasures (that fab pair of shoes, stunning piece of jewelry, new car)

et cetera

Seeing it all laid out in a collage of words and pictures can motivate you to focus on what you need to bring your SMART Goals (Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Realistic, and Time-bound) within reach. It can inspire you, help you get unstuck, bring feelings of opportunity and passion, and connect your emotions to those goals. It can help you be confident even during the times when you just…aren’t.

So what’s your why? Have you still not written it out? Take a moment and do it now.

Right this very moment.

Now post it somewhere you can clearly see it.

You’ll thank me later.

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There’s so much talk today about identifying and finding one’s ideal client. It does, after all, help you clarify your business message and present it in such a way that it more easily reaches the consumers or clients who would be most interested in what you have to offer. That has always made sense to me. Why would I, after all, spend precious time and resources pursuing people who have zero need or interest in my services?

But when I first started my business in 2001, I had absolutely no idea who I considered to be my ideal client. Being in business for myself was, after all, completely new to me, and the virtual assistance industry was still in its infancy, so I didn’t have anyone to advise me on how to land clients at all, let alone ideal clients. Who I preferred to work with wasn’t really even a consideration. I just knew I needed an income. And I was willing to take on almost anyone.

And I did! I had a small list of occasional clients who hired me to do the usual administrative stuff—mostly typing, stuffing envelopes, sending faxes, simple database-related activities, etc. And though my work was mostly remote, my clients were typically local to where I was living at the time, so there were some tasks that I was asked to do in-person or on-site (for events) as well.

As time went on, however, a much clearer picture of who I preferred to work with began to come into focus, as did a fuller acceptance that my clients and I could live states, even countries apart, and still get work done. Though I had a slow start in actually landing those preferred professionals, I began to explore ways that would put me in the same circles as them so that I could learn what they wanted and, even more importantly, determine how I could fulfill their specific needs with my services.

I knew I wanted to someday work with authors, and I began to wonder if it was possible for a Virtual Assistant to design a set of services that would appeal