Why Being a Virtual Assistant is Worth It: Working with Niche-Specific Clients, Setting Your Own Hours, and Prioritizing Mental Health
For this week's podcast, Monica sat down with Alicia who learned about Virtual Assisting when her friend sent her a TikTok video that sparked her interest. Wanting to know more, she took an online class and hired a business coach to help her make the pivot. Together, they set up a 12 week goal to turn virtual assistance into a full time career. Alicia’s niches include the fitness industry where she does lead generation and manages phone calls.
In this blog we’re going to discuss the importance of setting our own hours, prioritizing our mental health, and taking on work for niche-specific clients.
When to Hire Your Own Virtual Assistant, What You Need to get Started, and the Benefits of Working as a VA
Sometimes a virtual assistant needs a virtual assistant! When our businesses start growing, we need a little extra help with our clients workload and menial tasks. Sometimes even managing our own social media accounts. When we’re feeling overwhelmed with work, this could be a sign your business is on the right trajectory.
When it comes to educational training and background, Alicia knows firsthand that virtual assistants don’t need any specialized training or even a background in business. The key to virtual assisting is taking what you’re good at, what you’re interested in and building your ideal clients.
We count this as a benefit, but another big plus is you set your own work schedule while working from home. Alicia highlights that when she needs to take time off, she’s more than free to do so.
Us VA’s set our own rules and decide who we will and will not work with. An important thing is not tolerating disrespect from clients nor working in their negative atmosphere. Unlike working a 9 to 5, we “don’t have to put up with disrespect just because they're [our] boss”, according to Alicia. And we agree!
Prioritize Your Mental Health
Regardless of your client or how much you get paid, always prioritize your mental health! Your employer isn’t going to do it for you. We need to carve personal time to decompress. Many of our clients overwork us. To combat this, we need to have strong communication and clear boundaries.
When working, setting clear expectations and knowing that some days are a hit and a miss and others are really busy. Sometimes on less busy days your clients may think you’re not working as hard for them. It’s up to the virtual assistant to explain to clients that the work week varies and no two days are the same. Expecting constant inquiries or phone calls is unrealistic.
Also, being straightforward with our clients is essential. If we cannot express our needs and our own expectations, we will quickly find ourselves drowning in work and being overwhelmed. We cannot be afraid to ask for what we need. Alicia explains when starting out, she was afraid of asking for what she needed from a new client. Now when taking clients, she sends them a list of what she needs. Be assertive with what you need and help clients understand you are here to help them succeed.
How to Handle Those Less Than Ideal Clients
In the podcast, we talk about those Jekyll and Hyde clients. Those clients who tell us everything is going great one day, then everything is falling apart the next. Though their poor communication isn’t on us as the virtual assistant, we need to have regular communication with them if we rely heavily on them for income.
If this is the case, we need to have as many conversations with them as possible to be sure you are on the same page and keep them happy. Any work they deem as unsatisfying, we need to create an environment for them to express themselves freely and openly while possibly looking for another client or two to supplement the income we will lose when making the switch.
If, however, they are a smaller client and are more trouble than they’re worth, we recommend cutting them loose. No client should be detrimental to your physical or mental health. Either way, when you’re deciding on dropping a client or keeping them, weigh the pros and cons of both scenarios.
Our clients are our workspace. Alicia says when picking up clients she chooses those who she can imagine being friends with outside of work. So having personalities that work well together and similar goals, and belief systems are important. We aren’t just assistants, we are part of teams.
What Makes You Valuable
What makes virtual assistants so valuable? Well, we know they save on overhead costs. But a virtual assistant should have the skillset of driving sales and nurturing leads as well as finding potential clients for our clients! When we do this, we free up our clients’ time so they can step more into their CEO role.
We are both an extension of their team as well as their brand. So you need to be confident in the skillset you have! If you lack confidence, fake it til you make it! Alicia knows people feed off each other's energies. So present yourself that you believe in what you are doing and what you are saying.
If you’re looking for a virtual assistant, check out our sister site origamiconsulting.com for services!
Lastly, check out Alicia’s socials! You can find her on instagram at aliciab_va and tiktok at alicia.b.va.
Tell us what you think below and check out the podcast!
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