I saw a post by a lady the other day who wanted to leave her job and become a VA as an interim step to setting up another business. She was given some good advice by other existing VAs on what to do but it was obvious within a 24 hour time span she was getting impatient. She didn’t want to spend time networking or building a business. She simply just wanted to earn money as she spent time building up what she really wanted to do.
Is that how some really view our industry? Has it been so hyped up generally by those ‘not in the know’ that this is a quick way to earn some money?
No business is a get rich quick scheme. Otherwise that’s what it would be – a ‘scheme’. All businesses take time to build up. Some businesses provide a quicker return than others, but all have a time frame that needs to be recognised.
For a successful Virtual Assistant business you need a minimum 1 year but I would say at least 2-3 years, to be bringing in a profit that is reasonable. You need time to develop a reputation with clients before they will refer you to other clients, and for the business to be really successful, those clients need to be long-term. It’s much harder finding new clients all the time rather than continuing to serve those who you’ve already built a relationship with.
In this case, the lady already had a 1 year plan to build something else and was hoping becoming a VA would quickly return her a yield during that time of building something else. WRONG! She’s better off staying in her job or doing some temp work that brings in an income, rather than trying to be something that actually requires time and effort on her part to build up. And that’s not going to work if her heart and mind is elsewhere.
Lisa Olinda says
Thank you for this post Kathie. I am frustrated with people thinking it is an easy field to get into. For me personally here in the US it took me a good 2 years of being online before I had a full client list. It is also hard work once you reach that full client list to maintain balance with clients and personal life. I am blessed with awesome clients but without networking it would not have happened.
Debra Barber says
Excellent post Kathie. It took me some time (about 1 year) to build a client list that I was happy with and I had to work hard with the first few, build the relationships and keep them on board. Without networking, both online and face-to-face, I would not have experienced any success in my business. Now, after two+ years, I still network a lot however, most of my business now comes from word-of-mouth referrals.
Thanks again.