I started my VA business in September of 2018. I had been doing administrative work most of my career. Sure, I had worked in several different industries but when it came down to it, I loved being the support and administration behind a team.
I thought this would be easy.
And in some ways, it is.
But there is still a learning curve.
For those considering starting a VA business, here is what I have learned so far:
- Get clear on your strengths and interests. While I have different clients from different industries, I know what tasks I can do, what I am willing to do and what tasks I can’t do and not willing to learn. See the difference? I believe we can all learn things, but I also know that if I take on a task that is outside of my strengths and interests, I will end up losing interest pretty quickly which doesn’t serve either the client or myself.
- Time management. I have had to find a system that works for me. And truth be told, it is a work in progress. I started with time blocking but because of my desire for flow, I started to feel restricted, sitting down to do a particular task at a particular time stifled my creativity for that task. So now I wake up, think about what needs to be done, and flow between tasks doing what feels good. It doesn’t have a lot of structure but I rarely miss a deadline.
- Learn to lead. Clients come to me when their biggest challenge is having too much to do and not enough time to do it. But then we usually hit this wall of what they are willing to let go of. And this was where I started to transition more into the management side of business. Helping clients to let go of the control or need for perfection. That we are on the same team and that together we are stronger. It takes leadership skills to do so because I come up against resistance but being an entrepreneur myself gives me the insight of how hard it is to trust others to do work to your standards, as much as you want to.
- Everything is learnable. There have been times where a client asks me to do something and all of my doubts run wild. I am sometimes paralyzed by the imposter syndrome. But everything is learnable. It is having that desire I mentioned in point one on whether you want to learn it or not. And be very honest with yourself as to whether or not it will hold your interest. If a client invests a lot of time and money into training you, the last thing that you want to do is bail after a few months because you have realized that you no longer want to keep doing that thing.
- Progress over perfection. This is one of my many guiding principles in life. But something I say to myself and clients all.of.the.time. It is better to keep moving forward than to stop and trying to perfect things.
These are the main lessons I wanted to share so far. Stay tuned as I reflect more and share more.