For this week's podcast, we sat down with Cymone, founder of She’s Virtual. Before pivoting to Virtual Assistance, she worked as an executive assistant in the beauty industry where you can find their products in Target. Cymone says part of running a successful business is remembering where your power lies, and surrounding yourself around good people. From clients to contractors, these people shape the businesses we have, especially for smaller businesses.
One of the takeaways from this week's podcast is virtual assistants have the power to choose who they work with and knuckling down and overcoming what Cymone calls the “desperate” phase of your business, where a va is on the prowl of finding their first handu of clients to supplement their income from a regular 9-to-5.
Which Clients to Take
Clients come in all shapes and sizes. Some good, some bad. One of the important things is that a client should respect your boundaries and trust the work you’re doing. If you feel you have to constantly prove yourself to clients, it can quickly become a stress-inducing environment to work in.
A good client will trust the work you are doing and your process, vibe with you (synergy) and you won’t feel like a burden. You know right from the bat that you fit in with their team and the virtual workspace.
A bad client, however, is if they show signs of struggling monetarily. When you’re interviewing a potential client, you should try and discover their financial baseline (without asking of course!) because as Cymone puts it, “[You’ll] just be another bill they can’t pay.” This might involve doing a bit of research on the client before signing that contract!
The VA Intuition, Organization, Communication, and Flexibility
If you know what you’re feeling, go with it. Whether that’s accepting work or passing it along, you need to go with that gut feeling. It’s important to trust your intuition when interviewing clients. Your intuition is never wrong. If something doesn’t feel right for you, then take that feeling to find a more ideal client.
Another side of being a virtual assistant is being organized and having strong communication skills. These are just a couple of skills a virtual assistant must master. Your clients are busy. You need to be organized and maybe even help them stay organized. Your client should really feel your help and care. You are their professional support system, they need to sense you have their back.
A part of that is having strong communication. Always keep clients in the loop and let them know what’s going on with their business and give them any information, no matter how small, they need to stay competitive.
To keep clients competitive you will need to be flexible. Cymone talks about being on a business trip in New Orleans during the Essence Festival with her client and vending in four different locations without having wifi. Cymone thought on her feet, quickly locating a Verizon where she bought Ipads and activated service, and brought them back to her team. The lesson? A good va has to think on their feet and never let clients see you sweat. A va must move, navigate, and pivot through any issue.
Relieving Stress
When all is said and done, there’s a lot a va has to carry. Wearing many hats so to speak. Boundaries are important, especially with your time. Setting time aside to relax and decompress is a must. Though this may take some practice. You have to be intentional with your time. There’s only so many hours in a day and don’t forget that you have to have time for running and maintaining your own business.
If you don’t, you’ll quickly feel the burnout. You can’t pour from an empty cup. You need to be a va to yourself before you can be a va for anyone else. Clients come and go, but at the end of the day it’s just you and your business. Prioritize yourself and show up for you first.
Count on Your Previous Work History
Many va’s don’t think they can add their previous work experiences to their resume. But you definitely should! For example, Cymone was a youth leader and planned services for her church for years managing hundreds of guests. She’s done weddings and worked as a social media manager. She took inventory of these skills to leverage and move her business forward. So grab your shovel, dig deep, and investigate what yielded results in the past.
Learn from Failure
Cymone recommends putting in as much effort into offboarding clients as we do onboarding them. If your professional relationship came to a premature end, you have to be okay with knowing where you failed and learning from it.
Ask what you did right and what you did wrong. Ask for any and all feedback. Sometimes a client may want to maintain a certain level of professionalism so they may not be completely open and honest with you. After the contract has been closed, you may want to take this time to approach them for their full honesty. Keep in mind, though, there may be things you probably don’t want to hear. But a good business owner takes ownership of their failings and learns from them.
It’s all about intention. When you’re intentional, you put extra steps into action.
You can find Cymone at:
Instagram:
@cymonecheri
@shesvirtual
Website:
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