do what you love

A Change Is As Good As A Rest

Have a look at your business. Your clients. Your revenue. Your marketing. Your website. Your general attitude. Do you still get up every morning raring to go? Does your task list get you excited to start your day? If you’re like many VAs (this one included sometimes!), you probably said no to that last question. It’s easy to settle into a routine that you just don’t love. When you get the clients and they start to pay you and then you stop looking for new clients … you can get bored. Or burned out. Or both! I challenge you to take some time to step back and really look at what you are doing on a day to day basis.… Read More »A Change Is As Good As A Rest

This Is Why VAs Have Trouble Finding Clients

Before I get started, be aware that this article will probably turn into a rant against Virtual Assistants. Feel free to stop reading if you don’t like what I’m saying! It’s not meant to be mean-spirited or accusatory, simply telling you how things are for successful VAs versus the unsuccessful ones. Recently, one of my clients needed a task completed that I don’t normally do for her. It was a very simple PDF update, and we needed someone to use full version Adobe to do the changes. The project was not complicated – her branding had to be updated. We had a new logo for the cover page. We had a few headings that needed a font color change, and we needed… Read More »This Is Why VAs Have Trouble Finding Clients

What Inspires You in Your VA Business?

I recently had a conversation with my accountability partner about what inspires me in my daily work. It started with a conversation about what we had done over the past two weeks and what was coming up work-wise. I mentioned that there was one thing I was doing lately with my clients that was really fun. It made doing the work easier, just being able to get excited about it. Not everything we do in our business will be fun, of course, but it brought us to a conversation of what we enjoyed most, and how we could each do more of that in our businesses. I teach people to set up their businesses the way they want – so… Read More »What Inspires You in Your VA Business?

Add New Skills To Your Virtual Assistant Business

Recently a Virtual Assistant asked me about adding new skills to her business. She felt that she wanted to raise her rates, and that adding new services was the way to do that. When we talk about expanding our service offerings, it’s important to start by stepping back and looking at the big picture. Ask yourself the following questions: 1. Why am I considering adding a new skill or service? 2. Why am I considering adding THIS new skill or service? 3. Where can I learn about this new skill or service? 4. Is the training free or paid? Can I afford the time if it’s free, and can I afford the time and money if it’s paid? 5. Is… Read More »Add New Skills To Your Virtual Assistant Business

The Number 1 Reason You Don’t Have Enough VA Clients

I recently came across an old teleclass I did from 2010 – 3 Secrets to Get High Paying Clients to Call You – and as I listened to it I realize that this is really important information for you to have and practice – so I reran the class as a webinar, with a new Powerpoint presentation. I speak with many VAs in my networking who are struggling to get clients – and though there are many reasons for this, there is one that is the most important … they don’t know who they can best support. They haven’t figured it out. Is this you? If so, don’t worry – it’s easy to do … and it’s an absolutely essential… Read More »The Number 1 Reason You Don’t Have Enough VA Clients

June Membership Registration

Have you registered for the Your VA Mentor Membership Program yet? New content for June is being pulled together as you read this! Each month we select a topic – and the topic for June is Service Offerings. Setting up (or adjusting!) great service offerings for our clients sometimes goes by the wayside after we start to work with them. On our June teaching call, Analyzing Your Services to Streamline and Increase Revenue, we are going to talk about: how to identify packages of services we can offer our clients how to stop doing things we don’t want to offer as services analyzing the rates we charge, and easy ways to increase them to make more money and much more!… Read More »June Membership Registration

What’s your VA specialty?

What is so special about your business? Have you narrowed it down yet? As you build your business, you will realize that being very specific about what it is you are best at, is an essential part of your success. Many VAs start out as generalists, providing various administrative services to their clients … working with everyone and anyone … and building their business very slowly. As time moves along, in order to really recognize success, you realize you need to focus on one (or two) specialties… and you also need to work with one (or two) types of clients. Specializing is something that can help you see more success for various reasons: 1. You provide fewer services, so you… Read More »What’s your VA specialty?

Who Is Your Ideal Client?

I had a conversation with a VA last week who was trying to decide who her ideal client was. She had selected a market to work with that she thought would be a ‘good market’ because they needed a lot of support.