The Ridiculously Good Virtual Assistant Show

When you are a ridiculously good Virtual Assistant, you strive to do better and to be better as often as you can. In this episode we will talk about why habits can make or break the success you want to achieve - and how to break bad habits to create better ones.

If you haven't read the book Atomic Habits by James Clear, you should.

The habits we have and the things we naturally do each day can make or break our business.

In the Atomic Habits book there is an interesting statistic, and it is this: if you get 1% better every day for a year, you will be 37% better by year end. Doesn't that sound great?

But how can we get to where we have never been before if we don't know the way? Well it takes some planning, learning, and action. This is the system that you have to put in place to walk towards your goal, that thing you want.

Habits are important because we do them without thinking. Routines are what can help us build good habits.

Atomic Habits talks about habit stacking - that means doing something when you are already doing something else naturally - so that you build the new habit alongside the old one.

What about bad habits? How can we change those? We need to identify them and then consciously change the behaviour, the timing, the circumstances. Shake it up!

For a new habit to become a habit, you have to practice it. It helps to think about what you are gaining from the new habit.

You don't want the new habit or thing to do - you want what it will give you or allow you to do. Focus on that - if I do THIS, I get THAT.

If I can help you start changing habits in your business, reach out to me at [email protected]. i've helped hundreds of vas through their challenges and got them on their way to the next thing. I'd love to do the same for you. I do private coaching, and my new mastermind The Virtual Circle is kicking off shortly. Maybe one of those is the right option for you.

In today's episode we are talking about what you can do for your clients that is in-demand - so that you can also be in demand as a VA.

Ideally we want to have a few great clients to work with, and do what we love, and not really have to be looking for new clients every time we turn around.

At least that's the way it was for me. I had a great group of clients who all needed specialty services, who were growing their businesses, whose work I was proud to do, who pushed me to learn new things as they learned them, and who referred me to their friends who also needed support.

I did that by deciding what service I wanted to provide for them, charging appropriately for it, and then knocking it out of the park when I produced their work.

There are lots of things that you can do for clients that I would consider in demand. Why in demand? Because it means that the clients NEED you. These aren't the clients who are learning as they go. These are the clients that have a vision of where they want their business to go, and who are taking steps to get there.

This is the first part of providing an in demand service. That the clients actually want you to do it. So start there.

Here are 5 services that I would consider to be in demand - and each of them in itself is huge, and has lots of different branches that you could decide to provide for your clients, depending on what you love to do.

General Admin

Being a general admin VA gets a bad rap, I think. People think it's where you start and the grow out of. But think about it. How many business owners are there in the world? Why did they start a business? Because they have some kind of talent or product or service that their clients need (or want). The thing or the service they are selling is the most important part of their business. It's their 'thing'. But to keep their business - in business - they need to do all of the other things that need doing. But these things are not usually within their wheelhouse of talent or ability. So that's where we come in. Every single business owner needs general admin support - especially if they aren't good at it. So this to me in so in-demand that I always put it first in my list! If you are providing general admin services, that doesn't mean that you have to do everything a client needs. You can still suggest they get different people to help with certain things if you don't like doing them. Only do what you love - scheduling, email, crm, research, bookeeping, lead management, business documentation. Trust me, there are other VAs that will love to provide support for the other stuff.

Online or Digital Marketing - if the last 3 years has taught us anything, it's that online marketing is very important for any business. That could mean an email list,. affiliate marketing, content marketing, or just social media presence. There are an awful lot of facets to digital marketing. Figure out what you love to do and then create services around that. I always used to provide email marketing to my clients because it meant ongoing work for me. When they were doing newsletters and email blasts or broadcasts to their clients, that meant that I was the one to do them. When you are looking to become in demand as a VA, you need to be working with your clients regularly. Not that websites are not a good service to provide, but you are constantly working with new clients. I preferred online marketing initiatives because we could see the results of having me help the client (money, clients, etc). Launch management is also a really good digital service to provide. Launching a program, a group, a book, a podcast, anything like that takes a lot of work and has a lot of step (balls in the air) that a client most definitely needs help with. Great online service.

Social media is digital as well, but of course it's in a category of its own because it is so vast. Lots of social media services you can offer, from creating content, to scheduling it, to reporting, community management. And they are all very much in demand. Why? Because they are time consuming, because they take special skills, because they take interpretation. Because it is necessary for many businesses to do well with their social media in order to keep their pipeline of potential clients full, and to communicate with their clients that they are working with or want to work with. So many people are already on social media, using it all day long, so it's a great place to be able to find clients. Community management is probably one of the emerging services in social media. Paid ads are also a specialty I remember taking social media right out of my service offerings way back when because it changed to frequently and I didn't want to specialize in it. So we had other people on the teams to do that part. But I feel that I could now handle a community manager role as part of a customer service role.

Blog and website services - definitely still very much in demand. It's a huge time suck for people who think they can learn to do it themselves. VAs try, and it often puts them months and months behind of getting their business started. You have to invest in getting something done properly - and quickly. It's so worth it. The only thing you really need to be able to do it easily make changes to content once it's live, so no custom work. But as a service for VAs it's a great one - offer levels of service packages so that you have different investments for people. Blogging is a great hand in hand service for website VAs too, mainly because it happens more frequently - like weekly. Once a site is done, it's done and maintenance packages can be hard to sell. But if you also offer blog publishing along with a maintenance package you can continue working with your clients after their site is done. If you want to ha ha Funnels and lead magnets can also fall under website development. Setting up people opt ins or registration pages (landing pages) can also be part of tech support which is our final in demand services.

Tech support is the final in demand service I want to talk about in this episode. Again it takes a certain level of skill or training, but it also has a variety of services that you can offer your clients. What can be part of tech support? Well landing pages, opt ins and registration pages or sales pages can be , as I just mentioned. But tech also includes things like CRMs, events (all the new online meetings but there are still online trainings). Course creation. Membership sites, Ecommerce sites. Podcasts. All of these things are really in demand, and some clients even use all of them, depending on which industry you have decided to target.

What does providing an in demand service do for you, the VA? You can earn more money, you can work with higher level clients, you can only do what you want, you can invest in training that is useful for your growth, and more.

There are a lot of services that bridge more than one of these categories, but I hope I've given you some tips on what you can focus on - or change in your business - to start bumping up your rates and finding even better clients.

Clients who will appreciate you, value you, rave about you to their colleagues - who will also want to work with you (that's what happened for me!). Be in demand, with in demand service offerings!

Need Some Help?

If I can help you pick the best services you can offer your clients (and price them right!), reach out to me at [email protected]. I've helped hundreds of VAs through their challenges and got them on their way to the next thing. I'd love to do the same for you. I do private coaching, and registration for my new mastermind group The Virtual Circle is open now. Maybe one of those is right for you!

Many of us are not just Virtual Assistants, but we are moms … wives/spouses … daughters … (insert your other roles here!).

We want to be there for the family but still earn what we need – like Jack Welch says – you need to work efficiently and smartly to support the lifestyle you want.

Working from home allows us many things:

• helps us lose the commute
• saves us money on lunches out
• reduces the need for daycare or child care
• helps us get kids to and from school without after school care
• allows us to go on field trips
• makes keeping kids home with illnesses easier than working outside the home
• helps us schedule appointments more easily into our schedule

While that all sounds great, you can't spend all of your time being a mom and housewife because you have to earn enough money (ie work enough) to allow you to do all of those things.

If we let the family stuff always come first, our business suffers.

Being there for family means something different for each of us.

My son is grown now but it still means being able to sit down together for dinner, have company on our schedule, not working evenings, weekends and holidays, and being able to go to appointments during the day

There are 5 things you need to manage better to make sure you preserve work life balance

1. Family
2. You
3. Boundaries
4. Distractions
5. Services

Family

First thing to think about is how to provide services that allow you to work flexible hours. You need to set business hours and hold to them. Advise your family when you will be working and when it is their time with you. Set your schedule and take breaks so you don't need to get interrupted.

Other things to do: manage child care well, meal plan, put buffers in between tasks so you don't work hours at a time

You

Prioritize your needs – what does your ideal day look like? Work towards that vision – and do whatever you can to help yourself achieve it, most days.

Close your door when work is done for the day – and that should include your 'work' phone too.

Don't work early mornings and late nights so that you can waste time during the day – this is so common! Work during business hours and do family or personal stuff after work.

Prioritize your work – it is what is allowing you to be home with your family. Don't take on more work that you have time for live and die by your to do list – get good at it. Plan your schedule well and work efficiently – don't let anyone tell you what to do when, it's your schedule!

Exercise – an hour before everyone else gets up if you can't find the time during the day (I never can!)

Know when to fire a client and when to take on a new client.

Plan time off and holidays and hold yourself to it. Even a short work day or a 4 day work week prioritizes YOU.

Work with an accountability partner to vent, get support and advice when you need it.

Boundaries

Learn to prioritize what is important. Don't be shy to say NO when necessary/more often. As I've said before, live and die by your schedule. Get really good at it.

Set and hold those office hours, and lengthen all lead times and deadlines to give yourself the best shot at getting things done on time.

Limit meetings – most of them are not necessary. Never answer your phone live – it is disruptive. Do scheduled calls only – answer voicemails. Check emails 3x a day max, not 15. Work with clients who don't need you / expect you to be available all day long.

Be tough, be in charge.

Distractions

Communicate what you need and when to your clients.

Delegate, outsource, or get help with what you need help with.

Stop getting distracted by research or gathering information. Set STOP times on open -ended projects and make sure you set an alarm to stop when you are supposed to.

Create and use processes and procedures.

Let others know when not to disturb you, especially your family. Post a schedule on the door of your important 'quiet' times.

Leave your phone in other room for an hour if you get distracted by it.

Schedule your social media breaks – and stay off of it during business hours unless you need to work in it (and then set start and stop times). Turn those notifications off! And if you need to leave them on, then that's when you definitely need to start leaving it in another room for periods of time.

Get help with child care – when my son was 18 months old I worked 9-5 business hours and put him in daycare half days to make sure I got enough time to work. He kept going before and after school till he was 12! (I guess it worked). 🙂

Services/Time Management

Set your schedule to maximize your work time – whatever works for you. Think efficiency, always!

Organize things like social media in batches – ideas one day, content one day, images one day, captions one day, scheduling one day. There are a lot of ways that you can work more efficiently – I often find that doing things in short time blasts works much better. It's easier to schedule, and you get more done every week.

Take short breaks every hour if possible – even just 5 or 15 minutes. Clearing your head makes a world of difference, especially when you are very busy.

Don't work with clients who need you in front of your computer all day long – ie service offerings like client care, customer service, scheduling, email management, and things like that may require you to be 'at the ready' more than others. If you want to manage your own schedule more, work to build other services that can be done at the times that suit you best.

Stop doing tasks back to back – put small buffers into your schedule. No one needs to bill non-stop for 8 hours a day (and if you do, raise your rates!)

There are so many things you can do to help balance your home and your work – whatever is important to you, prioritize it – and use the tips I've given you today to make the changes you need to improve yours, starting today!

Daily improvements in your work habits, mindset, productivity and more – that's how you become a ridiculously good VA!

If I can help you learn how to efficiently manage your calendar and schedule, reach out to me at [email protected]. I've helped hundreds of VAs through their challenges and got them on their way to the next thing. I'd love to do the same for you. I do private coaching, and registration for my new mastermind group The Virtual Circle is open now. Maybe one of those is right for you!

I have so many tips for you today on how to build your VA business so you will be around for many years to come. Let's get right to it – I hope you have a pen and some paper!

Set your expectations – make sure you know what you want from your business – what do you want it to be able to do for you? how will you help your clients? how will that help their clients? and them? What is your vision from the time you decide to start? Set those expectations – why you are in business, and why a job just won't bring you the same things.

Focus on your main initiative all the time – I started doing thing several years ago and it works. Look at the things you are doing on a daily basis and check in with yourself. Is what you are doing right now contributing to the main goal you have? If not, it is not serving you. For example, look at what you are doing to market your business. Is everything you are doing (ie social media) working for you? If not, adapt it or simply stop doing it and replace it with something else that will get you further to your goal.

Do what you love – this is kind of a no brainer but it bears repeating! You must love what you are doing to stay in business long term. What is the point of doing anything for a long time if you don't enjoy it?

Build relationships – to grow your business, the people that you connect with every day are important. Make sure you are connecting and building relationships with great business owners – and don't be afraid to change up your clients when a better one comes along!

Set your rates properly – first of all, set it and forget it is NOT the right way. You have to consistently raise your rates or change them so that your clients are always paying you for your expertise. No matter what level you are at, this is one of the main keys to success. No money, no business.

Know your numbers – Don't be afraid of analytics or money. You need to know what to look at in your business to see how things are going. You need to be able to see where your time is being spent, where your leads are coming from, where most of your revenue is coming from, and many other things. That way when you need more revenue, you know what to do. These are called Key Performance Indicators and they are different for everyone. What should you be tracking?

Money – know what you need to bring in to run your business (the bare minimum, and the daily sales). Keep a daily revenue tracker – it shows you how much money you have brought in – but it also shows you the opportunities. If you are only getting paid on the 1st you are leaving money on the table.

Pay your bills – make sure you pay what you owe, to the government, to your suppliers, to your team, and to yourself – you can't stay in business long term if you run out of money = or people who want to work with you (including yourself!)

Create systems and processes for growth. When you document all of your business processes, it is easy to have people step in and help you in the areas that you need it. Whether you bring on subcontractors or team members, or engage other independent contractors or VAs to work for you, make sure all is being done according to your high standard ways.

Outsource when the time is right. If you need a bookkeeper, a VA, a gardener, a house cleaner, a web developer and project manager, or just a one off project like a course system setup, someone to build your processes, or building your website – find great people and trust them to do the things they are best at.

Diversify your revenue streams when the time is right – teach, consult, create passive income. But not till you are maxxxxxed out on client work! Become an expert and then showcase them with different services/revenue streams.

Stand out – be visible, connect, build relationships, but also brag! Tell people about who you work with and how you help them. Collect testimonials. Provide amazing service to all of your clients all the time.

Stay the course – keep at it. if things seem hard, get help to course correct. It shouldn't be crazy hard. Keep your goals and your focus in mind all the time. Keep an eye on your important trackable stuff – money, connections, KPIs. Don't be afraid to grow in the areas that build up quickly.

There is no such thing as an overnight success. It takes time, but when you walk the path one step at at time, you will get there. I promise!

That's all I have for you this week. Go out there and be a ridiculously good VA!

If I can help you set up your VA business for long=term success, reach out to me at [email protected]. I've helped hundreds of VAs through their challenges and got them on their way to the next thing. I'd love to do the same for you. I do private coaching, and registration for my new mastermind group The Virtual Circle is open now. Maybe one of those is right for you!

It is always so exciting to get a new Virtual Assistant connection or client.

It is gut-wrenching to have them suddenly stop communicating with us. We feel personally insulted … but did you know it's not usually about us at all?

First thing we need to do is take charge of what is happening in our business. Every facet of what we are doing – our processes, our people, our own skills (like communication). What are we doing well? What couuld (honestly) use some work?

We need to not take things personally or get hurt by things that go wrong in our business, but instead figure out what the actual issue is and then fix it. Simple, right?

Here's a newsflash: no one in business is trying to make you feel bad.

If something goes wrong, it's our responsibility as the service provider to make it right – no matter who might be at fault.

Taking charge and getting everyone back on track is what a ridiculously good virtual assistant does.

So let's talk about what happens when a client disappears or stops communicating!

Our clients hire us when they are overwhelmed. And sometimes when we are getting started we ask them to provide us with all kinds of things – like signing up for new accounts, setting up or learning new project management systems, processes or procedures. It can be a lot of 'extra' at a time when they are already overwhelmed. It's your job to keep things clear and bite-sized steps so that they feel supported and not more overwhelmed than before they called you.

Another situation that can arise is that once the initial task is off their desk (and on to yours), they may feel a sense of relief and therefore they move on to something else that is pressing in their business … and they stop communicating. It's your job to get them back on track.

How to do all of this:

• Reminders – simple emails – 'just making sure I didn't get lost in your inbox' can go a long way to getting a response
• Call and leave a VM with one question they need to answer = again simple
• Make sure you have a simple onboarding process
• Determine how you will communicate and be sure the client understands that too
• Schedule weekly meetings from the get go, they go a long way in establishing control and clarity
• Keep them brief and very organized – always have an agenda!
• Run them, don't let the client run them or make the client run them
• You need to remain in control because you are the service provider
• Always be prepared and ready

Sometimes, though, it is our fault. What could we be doing wrong that can cause a client to ghost us?

• Do you overcommunicate? Do you confuse them with your requests or communications?
• Do you undercommunicate? Are they unsure of what you are doing, or when, and therefore they think you aren't doing anything?
• Are you a task taker? Strive to be in charge – in command of the things that you are doing for the client.
• Do they need to manage you too much? Learn how to be a self-starter and more independent. You are not an employee.
• Do you have disagreements? This could be caused by communication issues? You must resolve these things if the relationship is to be saved.

And honestly, sometimes we just need to move on.

This is normally because we wait too long to sort out the initial issue, but not every client is a good fit to work with you.

If they have ghosted you and you let them go days or weeks without communication, you are showing them that what they need done is not as urgent as they thought. So stay on top of things from the beginning so that doesn't happen.

In summary:

Great communication is essential, above all.

Regular meetings help you stay in touch and often help solidify the client-VA relationship more quickly than project management systems alone.

Keep the starting gate actions bite-sized. Overwhelm isn't pretty and we want to remove that for the client, not add to it.

Keep everything simple, simple, simple. The easier you are to work with – connecting, communicating what needs doing, and getting it done – the better you will serve your client. And they will WANT to keep in touch with you. You can do it!

If I can help you learn how to manage your clients better, reach out to me at [email protected]. I've helped hundreds of VAs through their challenges and got them on their way to the next thing. I'd love to do the same for you. I do private coaching, and registration for my new mastermind group The Virtual Circle is open now. Maybe one of those is right for you!

Why is time management so important in your Virtual Assistant business?

We all have a lot to do – no matter what stage of our business we are in.

Starting out, we have a lot to learn. We have a lot of set up to do. Maybe we are also still working a job while we do that. What about managing family time around all the new stuff?

Time management is something that is a good skill to perfect in general, but particularly in business as a VA.

We work alone, time can often get away from us.

As a Virtual Assistant, time is money and we need to maximize our billable time and managed the rest so we get things done.

Good time management will:

• Reduce stress
• Improve focus on everything
• Improve the quality of your work
• Improve productivity
• Improve your success
• Make you a better decision maker
• Keep you healthy
• Give you more free time

So how do we do it better? Like everything, it starts with a plan.

You have to actively decide where you will spend your time so that you can use it most effectively. Use your calendar and set deadlines for everything – especially if you find yourself losing time with anything.

Not everything is urgent. When a client sends you something to do, prioritize and book non-urgent things into your schedule appropriately.

Use tools that work for you – that could be a program or a notebook – find something that you naturally turn to, and use it for everything.

I use my Google Calendar and my Bullet Journal religiously every single day to help me stay organized.

Book meetings – don't take unexpected meetings. Scheduling everything. One unexpected meeting in your morning can derail your whole day.

Work with buckets of time – start and stop times for everything you will do (and stop at the stop time!). One of the things that VAs get stuck on too often is getting lost in a project, or going down a rabbit hole. Don't allow yourself to do that. Focus on the time it should take to do something and then it's your job to get the work done in that time.

Don't multitask – focus on one thing until it's done, or progressed, and then move along to the next.

This is essential for client work. Don't check emails from 10 clients at once. You can't possibly bill the right time for that.

Batch your work from each client so that you focus on it for 15, 30 or 60 minutes. Work only on that client's work, and then stop at your designated stop time and move on to another batch of work.

Keep a distractions list. When you are working on a designated task, and you think of something else, write it down on a notepad. Then you won't forget about it later, but you don't need to interrupt what you are doing now to think about it. Schedule distractions time into your calendar and look after your distractions items then.

Manage distractions and interruptions of all kinds and if you are regularly derailed by these things, find a solution – office hours, post your work times, schedule meals or breaks or free time with family, etc.

Be aware of time wasters and get better at handling them:

Social media – no one needs to be on social media as often as we are. If you work on social media, schedule your time to get your work done and ignore everything else. If you do need to check in, schedule a bucket of time to do so, and stop when the time is up.

Email – no one needs to check email 10 times a day, unless your client is paying you to work for them all day long, you should be checking in at regular intervals. I often suggest a morning check in, a midday check in and an early afternoon check in. Three times is more than enough (even too much) and you will not be distracted by things in there unnecessarily.

When you do check your emails, be sure to schedule out the new client requests in your calendar.

Tech issues – sometimes we get slowed down by tech. If this is you, identify whose issue it is. If it's yours because you do things you shouldn't, then consider delegating to someone else. If it's your tech providers, consider changing them. Allow for tech issues but don't let them take over your whole day if possible.

Procrastination – why do we procrastinate? Because we are doing something we don't like, we don't know how to do, or we are overwhelmed by the time it will take, or the investment it will be.

Time management doesn't have to be a strain. It can actually be very free-ing once you get a system in place that works for you.

The biggest issues I see with VAS:

• Not calculating the time it takes to do something properly
• Mismanaging distractions
• Allowing going down rabbit holes
• Being a perfectionist
• Skipping breaks

If you can get even one of these things under control this week, do it. And then pick another to work on the following week, and so on. Before long your new habits and routines will be freeing up your time and you'll be working more focused and have more energy too.

You'll be one step close to being a ridiculously good VA!

If I can help you learn how to manage your time better, reach out to me at [email protected]. I've helped hundreds of VAs through their challenges and got them on their way to the next thing. I'd love to do the same for you. I do private coaching, and registration for my new mastermind group The Virtual Circle is open now. Maybe one of those is right for you!

That's all I've got for you this week, thanks for tuning in to learn to become a ridiculously good Virtual Assistant.

It is so common for Virtual Assistants to avoid or not focus on goal setting in their business – and then wonder why they are struggling.

It's probably true for many types of businesses, but I think it's true for VAs because we are naturally the behind the scenes people – often shy or introverted, focused more on just operating a little business instead of trying to attain success.

Goal setting is often equated with success and that's why many of the VAs I talk to have shied away from it.

But in order to move yourself in the direction of the success that you want from your business – no matter what level – you need to set goals.

And of course, you need to develop a system that works for you to attain those goals.

The first thing I do when I'm working with a VA who has trouble setting goals is to slow things right down. I teach short term goals. Don't ask me what my 10 year plan is. I hardly know what to make for dinner tonight.

But ask me what I want to accomplish in the next 30 days and I can definitely tell you that.

So that's where we begin.

Let's go.

Ask yourself one question – what do you want? Then get more specific.

I want more clients … how many? …when do you need to get them? …what do you want to do for them? …how much will you charge them? …where can you find them?

Examples: 3 new clients by July 30th … OR … 3 new social media clients from LinkedIn by July 30th

The next step is to set up the actions you need to take daily to reach that goal. It's possible, trust me!

1. Focus on your goal – everything you do should move you in the direction of the goal you want to reach.
2. Write out your daily action steps (2 to 10)
3. Take action.
4. Monitor your progress and alter your course if something isn't working.

For instance, for our goal of looking for 3 new clients on Linked In in 30 days:

1. Reach out to 2 people daily – in groups or directly
2. Post one piece of content daily on that channel that shows your expertise in social media
3. Seek out posts from people that you are connecting with and like, comment and share them – look for genuine connections
4. Track connections in a simple spreadsheet – in one month you will make 60 connections, tracking is essential
5. Invite 5 people each week to have a conversation with you
6. Track your sales conversations too – if you are not converting at least 5/10, seek help with your technique.

Let's do the math – 2 connections a day, 1 post per day, help a few people a day – 60 people that will see your posts and also will notice your activity on theirs.

Invite 5 of them to sales conversations each week (as the need arises) – that's 20 in a month.

Convert even 2/10 of them – that's 4 clients.

When you first start out you will not get all 5 to agree to conversations. What you are doing is getting better at networking and conversations with people.

But the point is that everything you are doing in your daily actions is leading you to connecting with people, getting better at having online conversations with them, getting better at inviting them to speak with you, and getting better at signing them from your conversations.

That's all goal setting is – setting a reasonable goal that you really want to reach, setting up a strategy (that's usually brand new to you, so needs tweaking and practice), and taking daily actions to reach it.

It works.

When you are looking at something every single day you won't forget about it. It doesn't take a long time. It becomes a habit, a routine, a process, a system that can work fo ryou every single day.

So let's recap:

• Set your goal
• Write it down
• Choose who you will connect with and where
• Focus on one place to network
• Keep track of everything
• Know your numbers and work to reach them
• Be consistent – do it every day
• Stop spinning your wheels

If you have not done well with goal setting in the past, try working only with short term goals until you perfect a process that works for you

If I can help you learn how to set better goals, reach out to me at [email protected]. I've helped hundreds of VAs through their challenges and got them on their way to the next thing. I'd love to do the same for you. I do private coaching, and registration for my new mastermind group The Virtual Circle is open now. Maybe one of those is right for you!

That's all I've got for you this week, thanks for tuning in to learn to become a ridiculously good Virtual Assistant.

Do you really need a business plan for your Virtual Assistant business? Short answer, yes.

To succeed in your business, you have to have a plan. And it starts with a business plan

I teach a Virtual Assistants to create a simple business plan – one that contains only what you need to get your business off the ground – essentially it is used to make sure that you have made all the decisions necessary to put a solid foundation under your business.

Here are the components of a VA business plan that I'll talk about today:

Executive Summary Business Model Finance/Revenue Forecasting Services and Rates Clients Competitive Analysis Marketing Plan

Business Model

A business model helps you design your business. How will you earn money or charge your clients?

Will you charge hourly? Will you have your clients pay by prepaid retainer where you tick off time or tasks? Will you operate a team, or work with subcontractors? Will you take on part-time work while you get your business started? Or will you start your business full-time? Will you work on a commission basis?

There are a lot of ways that you can decide to 'get paid'. The business model helps you make all of these decisions. And it also helps you to forecast revenue as you make changes if you are moving from a corporate job to a full time contractor.

Speaking of revenue forecasting, it's important to then think about how much each of your clients will pay you – that determines how many clients you will need to work with to earn the money you need to meet your goals.

Services and Rates

Choosing your services and setting your rates go hand in hand. Your experience with the services you will offer your clients plays a part of what you will charge. You also need to do the math for what your business needs to bring in to run at a profit.

Your revenue levels will dictate what you will offer and how much to charge. When you know how much you need to bring in each month, you can create packages or levels of services for your clients, and fit your services into those accordingly.

That doesn't necessary mean packages, you can still charge by the hour, but you do need to work it all out based on what you need to bring in every month.

Clients

Next you need to decide who you will work with. It can be a target market or industry or location, whatever makes sense for you. But you must plan to target a large group of people in order to find any level of success quickly.

Tailoring your service offerings to a specific group of business owners is the fastest way to fill your client list.

Competitive Analysis

Checking out your competition means more than just seeing what they charge. It's a great way to get an idea of what you might want to model, though.

Look at how the present their service offerings, who they connect with, who they support. This is the kind of information you want to collect for the competitive analysis portion of your business plan. Research is your friend here. Decide what you need to know about them and research it.

Marketing

The final part of your plan is where will you find clients. Where will you promote your business?

When you know who you need to target, you have to find out where they are congregating online, offline and wherever else they are. Once you know where they are you have to figure out what you will say to them when you find them and start networking with them.

How many people do you need to connect with so you can sign clients. That's marketing!

Executive Summary

Now pull it all together and you have your business plan. The Executive Summary is the place to tie it all together and summarize each section. If you can do this easily, you have compiled the right information.

Your business plan helps you to answer a lot of questions that you need to answer to set your business. It's okay to not know the answers to these questions, but you do need to make some decisions and do a little math.

As you go through each section, find the answers. Once you do, it's time to get going!

Once you finish your business plan, consult it often. Update it regularly. Use it to build your business – it's not meant to be a one and done thing.

If I can help you build your business plan (or answer any of the questions you don't have the answers to right now), reach out to me at [email protected]. I've helped hundreds of VAs through their challenges and got them on their way to the next thing. I'd love to do the same for you. I do private coaching, and registration for my new mastermind group The Virtual Circle is open now. Maybe one of those is right for you!

That's all I've got for you this week, thanks for tuning in to learn to become a ridiculously good Virtual Assistant.

Being a Virtual Assistant is much more than doing the tasks your clients need.

Great VAs help the client feel more supported, but also help you get more done, make more money, and become more in demand.

In this episode, I'll share 10 qualities that make a Ridiculously Good VA.

Making clients feel more supported can not be understated. They need help because the tasks we do for them are not in their area of expertise.

Admin, marketing, money, tech, do not usually come easy to them but they need it to make their business succeed.

They depend on us to know our role, to take care of the pieces they can't.

Today I'll share 10 things that I think will help make you a ridiculously good VA.

1. Be a Serious Business Owner. Run your business like they run their business. Your clients are invested in their business by working with you. And you need to do the same for your business.

2. Be Invested be a long term VA, not the one looking for fast money. You want people to know you are planning to stay in business. And take an interest in their business (what they do, who their clients are) too.

3. Be Time Wise. Always focus on the time it takes to do things. As a VA, time is money and that means that every minute we spend on client work affects them. Keep an eye on your time, work pace and the client's budget.

4. Be Organized. One of the reasons clients hire VAs is to get better organized, and to get things done. You need to keep the wheels moving for yourself and your clients – especially if they aren't good at keeping all their balls in the air.

5. Be Responsive. One of the main things clients want to know is the status of the projects they engage you to do. Keep them informed and be responsive, even before they need to ask how things are going.

6. Follow Through. Don't leave it to the client to ask about where things are at. Following through helps you maintain the expectations of your client, and is a huge part of being a ridiculously good VA.

7. Be Resourceful. There are many things we need to figure out as we work together with clients. Be resourceful – find the answers, do your own research and make good decisions.

8. Have Integrity. Integrity is an essential skill for a great VA. Do what you say you will do, when you say you will do it. Own the deliverables you take on. It's a very good quality to nurture.

9. Grow Your Business. When you grow your business, you stay in the same lane as your clients who are often doing the same. Always be looking to see how you can improve your services and your skills.

10. Be Big Picture Focused. The big picture of your business is good to focus on – when you know what you want your business to look like, and you work to get there, you will be a happy business owner. And that means you will provide better service to your clients.

Being a ridiculously good VA is not difficult.

In fact, many of the tips above are pretty simple to implement. Focus on the things you can do to uplevel your mindset, your business ability, your services, and everything else in your business.

If I can help you get better at upleveling yourself so you can be ridiculously good, reach out to me at [email protected]. I've helped hundreds of VAs through their challenges and got them on their way to the next thing. I'd love to do the same for you. I do private coaching, and registration for my new mastermind group The Virtual Circle is open now. Maybe one of those is right for you!

That's all I've got for you this week, thanks for tuning in to learn to become a ridiculously good Virtual Assistant.

In virtual work, communication is essential to get right, and it can take practice.

We do not usually have the luxury of having conversations all day long like in an office setting, so we need to use the methods that we have to facilitate communication.

Bad communication can make or break relationships and in business, even moreso.

It can result in wasted time, unnecessary back and forth, misunderstandings, crunch deadlines, use up retainer time unnecessarily, frustration by one or both parties, and confusion.

Good communication helps you save time – there is not so much back and forth. You are more organized, everything is clearer, expectations that are set are met, you manage the client's retainer better, and you increase productivity. When yours go up, so does your client's.

So how to be brilliant at business communication? That's what we are going to talk about in this episode: 10 tips to massively improve your communication right now.

If I can help you get better at business communication, reach out to me at [email protected]. I've helped hundreds of VAs through their challenges and got them on their way to the next thing. I'd love to do the same for you. I do private coaching, and registration for my new mastermind group The Virtual Circle is open now. Maybe one of those is right for you!

That's all I've got for you this week, thanks for tuning in to learn to become a ridiculously good Virtual Assistant.