business strategy tips for vas

Are you making excuses? Or do you just need a little help?

Are you enjoying your business every day? Do you feel like a success? A lot of Virtual Assistants – no matter what stage of their business they are in –  just fly by the seat of their pants, and then they wonder why they are not successful. I hear from them every day. When I ask them how their business is going, I get a lot of the same responses I don’t know where to find clients. I am not making enough money. I’m stuck on a business name. I can’t start marketing until my website is ready. I’m still working on my logo. I’m no good at networking in person. Some of these problems are just excuses to not start… Read More »Are you making excuses? Or do you just need a little help?

What is your biggest struggle with your VA business?

How’s it going in your VA business? Are you happy? Fulfilled? Excited to get to work every day? Okay maybe that last one might be a stretch every day (!) but if your business is not exciting for you – and if you aren’t generally happy to do what you do, it’s time to step back and take a quick assessment. What is your biggest struggle with your VA business? When I ask VAs this I usually get the following answers: not enough clients, not enough money, not enough time to market or network … that type of thing. It’s always a matter of not enough of one thing and too much of another. Many of these problems have very simple solutions.… Read More »What is your biggest struggle with your VA business?

The Simplest Way to Build Your Virtual Assistant Business

Take a step back for a moment and have a look at your VA business. How many clients do you have? How do they work with you? How do they pay you? Are you making as much as you expected to make? Are you happy with the tasks you are doing every day? Sometimes the answer to that last question is yes, sometimes it’s no, and sometimes it’s a bit of both. Today I challenge you to really look at your business and ask yourself these questions. Especially if you are not happy! If you don’t have enough clients, you need a plan to get new ones. If you are still offering a laundry list of tasks for your clients,… Read More »The Simplest Way to Build Your Virtual Assistant Business

Do I Really Need a Virtual Assistant Niche?

It seems one of the most controversial topics about being a VA is whether you need to specialize, or ‘niche’, your services. The conversations take place in networking situations, often started by newer Virtual Assistants who honestly don’t know what they should provide as services. More seasoned VAs are quite opinionated about the answer – and it’s largely due to the circumstances of their own experiences (which of course, is exactly where our opinions come from!). To Niche or Not to Niche? There are two schools of thought on this: School #1 says that you can offer any services you know how to do to any clients and build a bigger and better business. This group believes that your business… Read More »Do I Really Need a Virtual Assistant Niche?

What’s working in your virtual assistant business? What’s not?

Ah the end of the year…! It brings with it mixed emotions for many. Sometimes we can get excited about the coming year and what’s in store for us. Sometimes it’s a time to reflect on what didn’t go right. Let’s face it, when you are doing your year end reports, sometimes they don’t look as great as you had hoped. Maybe you didn’t make as much money as you had expected. Maybe your expenses got out of control, and your profit is down. Maybe you worked really hard and are now in a position to need help but overwhelmed about how to do that. There are lots of emotions at play. I like to break this whole activity down… Read More »What’s working in your virtual assistant business? What’s not?

What I have learned (and from whom!) – a peek behind my VA business curtain!

I am a big advocate of professional development in business. I believe that in order to keep growing, you need to keep learning. And it’s definitely why I choose to teach! Of course in order to grow from your learning, you need to implement what you learn into your business. So although I suggest learning as much as you can, you still need to monitor what you are doing (especially the free stuff which can get out of control quickly!) so that you are only doing as much as you can implement. There will always be another social media class or planning day, but if you can’t put into practice what you are learning then you should think twice about… Read More »What I have learned (and from whom!) – a peek behind my VA business curtain!

Make Sure You Don’t Miss The Point!

When you are in a conversation with someone, are you really listening to what they are saying? Or are you just waiting for your turn to jump in and speak? Or even worse, are you just looking to point out their errors? If you do any of these things, you are not alone. But you should try to stop. A long time ago in a performance evaluation I got told by our HR Director that I didn’t wait long enough after someone else spoke to respond. I hadn’t noticed it before, but as I reflected on what she said, I realized she was right. I was a fast responder! She said that my mind worked very quickly and that I made… Read More »Make Sure You Don’t Miss The Point!

7 Simple Tips to Building a Sustainable Virtual Assistant Business

This week I am celebrating my 7th anniversary of Your VA Mentor (I began teaching in 2010). It’s very exciting, and it occurred to me that perhaps I should share my tips with you, for how to remain in business long-term. They are simple tips, and they are ones that I have lived by over the last 7 years. Now granted I have not run Your VA Mentor full time up until now, but I have spent a lot of time and money keeping it in business to serve you – and I’ve done it by using the tips below! 1. Start with your passion.  Whatever you decide to do in your business, know that you will have hard times.… Read More »7 Simple Tips to Building a Sustainable Virtual Assistant Business