I have officially been in business for myself for 20 years.
I always remember it because I was 8 months pregnant with my son when I was leaving the office to be off for a while, and my boss asked me when I could get back to work. I worked for a local restaurant chain’s head office.
I sort of motioned to my big belly and said, ‘Um, having a baby here, not sure how you expect me to come back to work.’
And he suggested that I could do my work from home whenever I was able, and as soon as I was able.
He needed the work I was doing to continue, and he just said to track my time and invoice him. Voila. My VA business was born (though I didn’t know it at the time).
It was an odd request but ended up being one of the best conversations probably of my entire life. He valued what I was doing so much that he wanted a plan in place to ensure it could continue.
And it did! When my son was 4 months old I realized I needed to get back to work and so I did about 10 hours a month starting then, and by the time he was 18 months old he was in daycare half days, then full days, then school. He is finishing his first year of college this month. Time goes so quickly!
But I digress!
Although I was very lucky to have someone like my old boss to help me get started, I had no clue what I was doing. I didn’t end up applying for any type of maternity benefits, because I started earning on my own. I knew how much money I needed each month to contribute to my household and that’s what I worked under. I billed him at what had been my salaried rate per hour plus ‘overhead’, which worked out to $18/hour.
No business plan, no business sense either, and I just happily worked for him and billed the company each month.
I was super comfortable doing the work for my old boss. I knew it well, I knew him well, and I acted like I was in charge of it. I took charge of it. I told him what I would deliver and when, and I billed him. Just like a real business owner!
Fast forward to dealing with other clients. I didn’t have that same relationship with them. It was more difficult.
When it came time to grow my business, I needed more clients and my un-plan did not work. I didn’t realize it right away, but $18/hour would not cover anything that I needed to pay for.
I also tried to find more restaurant clients and realized all too quickly that other restaurants were not run the way my amazing current client’s business was run. They didn’t have any spare money to pay people like me. They didn’t understand the value of the cost analysis work I was doing. It was a hard sell.
It was an impossible sell actually. I could not find good clients.
To make ends meet, I worked as a contractor for a liquor inventory company with many bars in the city. I did inventory counts for restaurants and bars. I also travelled to help people open new restaurants. I contacted other chains in my city to try to avoid travel, to run the same kind of analytics for them, and they didn’t bite.
It was hard. I worked nights, weekends, holidays. I was chasing clients for payment. One client told me 5 times that there was a cheque waiting at the bar for me, and 5 times I drove into town and it wasn’t there. (I drove straight to his house on that last trip, and waited for him to write it out). I knew it was going to be hard to run a business, but I just didn’t expect that.
And finally, one night I was standing in the basement of a well-known hotel downtown, counting wine bottles in their wine cellar at 3 in the morning, and I realized there had to be a better way to make a living.
I loved being my own boss, but I wasn’t being a good boss at all!
I knew I had to change markets to make my business into what I wanted it to be.
I had to figure out how I could use my skills with a different clientele so that’s exactly what I did.
Getting started is more than just hanging out your shingle and starting to work.
It’s about honouring yourself, and what you want to do to be in business.
Getting into business and staying in business are totally different!
And that’s why so many business owners don’t stay in business – and so many VAs.
If you just do what others tell you to do, you basically are just in a job.
To run a successful business that stimulates your mind and that makes you happy and proud, you need to make the decisions.
Or I should rephrase that … you GET to make the decisions!
You decide what you do, where you do it, when you do it.
And – trust me on this one – when you act like a successful business owner, your clients will pay you for it. They will be happy to pay you for it.
When I changed industries, I was sad. I won’t lie. I love the hospitality industry. But I can’t build a business there. It’s not viable.
You have to figure out where you can fit, and where you can showcase your expertise.
So I looked into my own experiences. I had previous jobs in journalism, so I found a publishing consultant as a client. I started doing transcription and meeting notes. I did training manuals and procedure documents. I built a great base of clients using different skills I already had.
I had training as an EA, and I put those to use for a referral to a business coach. I helped them with their client care and their on-site events (from afar!), creating their workbooks and doing their communication.
Then I took some business courses and marketing training. And I changed my clientele again. As I grew, my business changed.
For those clients whose EA I had been, we brought on someone else to manage that part of the business, and I moved into the marketing side. We grew together.
I started working only with business coaches. I loved what I could do with them and I have had a referral-only business since about 2009.
Finding your place is essential to staying in business.
So when I tell you to start with what you know, it’s because it’s the fastest way to get clients.
When I tell you to work within your expertise, it’s because it’s the best use of your skills.
When I tell you to learn what you don’t know, it’s because that’s how you grow.
And when I tell you to find an industry or a market that you can really serve and support, it’s because that’s where your business will take off.
I hope that gives you a bit of insight into my journey. It was not an easy start and that’s why I teach the shorter path now!
If I can help you on your journey, don’t hesitate to reach out!