Submitted by Anika on
My journey as a Virtual Assistant, based in Solihull began back in 2015.
I’d had a bit of a rough ride in my last corporate role as a Personal Assistant; and decided the 9-5 hamster mill just wasn’t for me. I was fed up with the whole yes sir, no sir way of life, forever changing goal posts, being on call 24/7, the constant carrot dangling. Even though I put my heart and soul into my job every single day, it was never enough! The pressure to start early, finish late all because it looks good to the powers above, always trying to be one step ahead of what ever my director needed eventually took its toll.
I burnt out to the point of no return. I refused to go back to that way of life, there had to be something better out there, there just had to be.
I’d never actually heard of a Virtual Assistant before and had never even thought about running my very own Virtual Assistant business…. I had zero experience, I’d worked in the corporate world for 20 years, only people who have money or degrees started their own business is what I told myself.
But I was intrigued, I wanted to know more before completely writing this idea off. I had lots of questions…. What does a Virtual Assistant actually do? Who uses them? Where do they work? How do they find clients?
After doing a bit of digging I found out that all I needed to become a Virtual Assistant was a laptop… check! A printer… check! And business cards…. Cue Vista Print!
I recruited some friends as clients and boom I was in business!
Hmmmmm all work completed in the first week and I was sat twiddling my thumbs… where was I going to find more clients?! So, I googled just that, and what came up was… Networking. Again, I’d never heard of networking, but thought what they hell I will check this out.
I made the phone call and booked myself in for in two days’ time. All I needed to take with me was a brief description of what I do and business cards, how hard could it be?! Fast forward 4 years and I am still in business, my diary is full of fantastic clients and I now have an assistant helping me!
It hasn’t been all plain sailing, but I will save that for another blog!
An ex-boyfriend who was ex-forces told me once about the 7P’s they use to use as a bit of mantra in his army days…………
“Prior Planning and Preparation Prevents Piss Poor Performance” excuse my French!
I’m not sure that this is something all soldiers used but it is something that has always stayed with me and the longer I have been a Virtual Assistant the more it rings true.
Planning a preparation is paramount if you want to remain at the top of your game. The competition out there is rife in this economic climate. The number of business start-ups in 2017 was up by xx% on the previous year according to an article in the Financial Times. Unfortunately, not all of these businesses will survive however the number of people “doing it for themselves” is on the rise. Therefore, you need to stand out from the crowd in all areas.
How many of you wake in the morning and sit at your desk with no plan? You have an idea of what it is you need to do that day but no set times to carry out those tasks.
The added bonus of planning your diary in this way is you protect yourself from agreeing to anything you don’t have time to do. Ensuring your time is not compromised and more importantly .
