When I decided to start my business, it sounded absolutely crazy.  My background is in early childhood development and my work experience has been in teaching children. So never in a million years did I  think I would work from home offering services in things that did not relate to that whatsoever.

When choosing to start my business, I thought to myself, I need to choose something  that I’m great at, and something that I love. But as it turns out, my life was on a new journey to discovering new skills and talents that I wouldn’t have known I possessed without putting my doubts and fears to aside and simply taking the risk. It’s risky to learn something new, and it’s scary to start something so far out of your comfort zone. But what I did realize, is that it doesn’t take virtual assistant experience to be a successful virtual assistant.

So what’s the secret to starting a successful virtual assistant business? Here are 4 questions, I asked myself when I decided to start my VA business from scratch with ZERO Virtual Assistant business experience.

1. What are you great at and love doing? What are you great at but hate doing?

First, I started by jotting down old school pen and paper, what I  was best at and what I  am good at but would hate doing.  Just because you’re great at something does not mean you should do it. If you’re not passionate about it, forget about it.

This can be a scary thing because sometimes the things you are best at, can be the most profitable skill you possess, but what you’ll learn as a VA is that you can build on those skills and do something completely different that you truly love. My advice is, never offer services you don’t absolutely love, even if you’re great at it.  Trust me, you’ll be thankful for this advice and far more successful if you apply it to your business.

2. Who’s your ideal client?

Secondly, I thought about my ideal client. Who do I want  to work with? Who  is my dream client? I wrote down every little detail I could think about my ideal client.

3. Are your skills, and passions in alignment with your ideal client?

Thirdly, I thought about, how do my skills, passions, and vision for my business align to my ideal client’s needs? What do  they need?  You may have someone you would love to  work  with,  but what if you just don’t seem to have skills or a passion to fulfill their business needs? Skills can be attained, if you’re willing to learn,  and to take on  opportunities that may be out of your comfort zone. But, also think to yourself, are you passionate about fulfilling that need. If your passion and skills are not in alignment with your ideal client’s needs, then you need to attain those skills that best suit you and your ideal client, or perhaps reconsider your  ideal client to someone a bit different that  does fit into your passion, skills, or future skills.

4. Am I ready to take on clients?

Once I figured out what I loved doing, what services I wanted to offer, who my ideal client was and know how my services would fulfill their business needs, I asked myself this question. So what can you do to get yourself ready to take on clients?

• Have the appropriate equipment needed

•  Legally register your business

• Open a business bank account

• Have a payment method set in place

• Have an invoicing system

• Decide on how you will track your time and offer time reports (For those working hourly)

• Have an on-boarding, and off-boarding process

• Prepare a welcome packet that outlines how you work and what a client can expect from working with you

• Have legal contracts ready

• Have a plan for your discovery call

These are just some of the essentials you need when starting your business and preparing to take on clients. You may find that you may need other things as well.  But this is a good start.

Also for invoicing, time tracking, payment scheduling, client communication, contracts, and setting up your onboarding/offboarding processes, I highly recommend you join Dubsado! Trust me, you’ll be SO thankful you did! You get up to 2 clients FREE and once you gain a more steady flow of clients you can go onto a paid version which is worth every penny.

I started my business with free alternatives, but seriously, when I discovered Dubsado, I was like, why did I not do this SOONER? It upleveled my business so much, and you’ll find yourself transitioning into a system as such rather quickly in your business anyway, so you might as well just get started on the right foot from the start!

Seriously check it out! Use my referral link and you get 20% off when you do decide to go to the paid version, which of course, you totally will!

>>> Join Dubsado NOW! <<

Also if you need assistance starting up in Dubsado, because I know there can be a learning curve for anyone not familiar with it, I would be happy to help, feel free to email me at: hello@womensglobalva.com

When you have all these things in place, you’ll find that getting clients is as smooth as butter! So are you ready to take on clients?!

Let me know in the comments, what is holding you back from starting your VA business?