The Ridiculously Good Virtual Assistant Show

Starting a service business like your VA business is relatively easy, because there isn't a lot of startup cost, but let's see how much of a shoestring you need. Let's go! I like a bargain. I check prices when I grocery shop. I look for ways to save money on things that maybe others don't. I'm not afraid to admit that I am cheap. With some things. My husband and son tease me all the time about som...

It's simple fact that you will eventually come up a challenging client. What we will cover today is what you need to learn from that client, and how to proceed moving forward if you get into the weeds with someone. Let's go! We love our VA clients don't we! Sure we do. they pay us to do stuff we love. But in many cases these people that we decide to work with are brand new to us. we don't know the...

Rates are a tricky thing, and trying to jam everything a client wants into our schedule often leaves us feeling like we need to charge them less because they need our help. And they are willing to hire us if we can do what they need. But today I'm going to talk about how to break down your tasks, time them and track them, and use that information to work within your client's budgets. Let's start w...

Time management is something that so many Virtual Assistants struggle with. Time is literally money for VAs and other service based businesses, and so making the most of the time you spend doing client work is essential to your profits. The big thing I see VAs doing that is impacting their time management is very simple: doing too much, for too long. I'm going to repeat that. Doing too much, for t...

Today I am going to talk about why VAs don't work for free. This episode is for VAs and business owners alike - and it's just the simplest concept ever. When someone does work, they should get paid for it. Quote: I don't just sing for free. It's my work. You're paid for what you do. And I work hard. - Celine Dion Yeah Celine! There's a fire in my belly over this one, folks. Let's go. This week I s...

Having lots of clients is a good thing, but if you can't manage your workload then it can be really stressful for all of you. There are many times when having too many priorities comes up, but handling your workload well on a regular basis helps you manage that better. Let's talk about your first clients - we get excited, and then we get into the habit of answering their emails quickly, finishing...

Today I am going to talk about email lists and why Virtual Assistants need one of their own. So many VAs I talk to do not have a newsletter, and I admit for a long time I didn't have one of my own either, but it is a really good way to market your business. Let's go! Creating a newsletter for your VA business probably seems like a waste of time. You don't need hundreds of clients, right? Right - y...

Today I am going to talk about affiliate marketing - or referral marketing if you prefer to call it that. If your motivation for doing it is right, it can be a very lucrative way to add some revenue in your VA business every month. Finding extra revenue streams for your VA business is a great way to augment your income every month without taking on more client work. There are a lot of ways you can...

If you shy away from networking, this episode is for you! I was doing some research about networking for this episode, and I came across some advice in a whole lot of articles and blog posts ... it was everywhere! And that advice showcased exactly why a lot of the VAs and other business owners I know do. not. network. It was brutal. Everywhere I turned there it was. Conversation starters like: man...

It's a very well known fact that good daily actions create success. Why? Because the more you pay attention to certain things in your business, the better you can control and adjust them. I am going to talk about 5 things in particular today that, if you focus on them every single day, will make you become a better VA. 1 Money You need to look at your money every day. Sales, account balances, paym...

If you Google the word framework in relation to business, you are going to see a whole bunch of colored images and matrices that come up. There are many, many official or famous frameworks that you can use in business. Porters, Hamrick and Frederickson's etc. But you know me by now ... I don't want to confuse and complicate things for you. I want you to consider your business, but find you simple...

Today I am going to talk about how to explode your thinking with a success journal. It's a tool that helps you focus on the positive, every day. First of all, focusing on success is a good idea in general. What we focus on grows, and success does too. When you are looking for good, when you are looking for positive, you need a source - and the success journal can really help you do that. Sure, get...

Today I am going to share the truth about billing your VA clients by the hour. I'll tell you why all VAs should be doing it - no matter what their invoice looks like each month. Billing by the hour is an interesting topic, let's go! As a business owner, you can choose to bill your VA clients anyway you want. No one gets to decide how much you charge, how you work, or anything else. Its totally you...

Today we are going to talk about sales conversations. You may remember last week we talked about how to answer what you do - and being able to do that well will lead to more sales conversations - so if you didn't listen to that episode yet make sure you do! Quote: Most people think selling is the same as talking. But the most effective salespeople know that listening is the most important part of...

Today we are going to talk about how to talk about what you do. This is a big sticking point for a lot of VAs, and it actually keeps them from networking. Today we are talking about how to talk about what you do. This comes up when you are networking, but it also comes up anytime someone asks you what you do. I still struggle with answering this question well sometimes. Why? Because a lot of the p...

Today we are going to talk about how choosing a niche for your VA business can help explode your success, among other things. If you want to explode your VA business, you need to get focused. Not just on the work you do, but on the marketing side of things. A lot of Virtual Assistants don't like the idea of a niche, or a target market - but it really is the key to getting lots of great clients, wi...

Hey there, welcome to another episode of the podcast that teaches you how to be a ridiculously good virtual assistant. Today we are going to talk about your qualifications to be a ridiculously good VA Quote: Do what you do so well that they will want to see it again and bring their friend. - Walt Disney A classic quote that definitely describes going to Disney. They do what they do well - and you...

Today we are going to talk about business. When we start our VA business, it becomes very personal to us. It's the most personal thing we can own in the business sphere. But business is business, it's not personal, and it's important to keep that in mind as we move through it. Let's go!   You have probably heard me say more than once that business is business, it's not personal. Michael Corleone s...

Welcome to another episode of the podcast that teaches you how to be a ridiculously good virtual assistant. Today we are going to talk about raising your rates the right way. Quote: Your most important sale is to sell yourself to yourself. - Maxwell Maltz Very hard to find a quote about raising rates - with inflation and all of the industries that got nailed by the pandemic, everything has gone up...

Today we are going to talk about accountability and the very important role it plays in your VA business. Running your VA business takes a lot of time and effort - and when we are working on our own it's easy to let ourselves off the hook for stuff that should be getting done. We'll talk about why all VAs need an accountability partner in today's episode. Let's go! Getting things done is what we d...

Today we are going to talk about time management and profitability. As a VA, time is always money, and yet a lot of us don't manage our own time well. I'll say it again. Time is money when you operate a service business like we VAs do. So that means a few things: First, it means that you need to be meticulous in measuring your time so that you know you are profitable. Second, it means that you als...

Today we are going to talk about meetings! Everyone hates them because they often end up being time wasters, but they really do serve a purpose, and today I'm going to talk about how to make them super efficient so they work for you! Meetings are very useful, but so many people don't use them properly. They take up too much time. They aren't run properly. They don't achieve anything. And yet, I te...

Today we are going to talk about social media platforms, and which ones you should be using to market your VA business.  Social media is a huge entity. There are so many places that you can 'be' online. A lot of it is personal - not related to business. So what I want to talk about today is where to do your VA business connecting - and marketing. I'll talk about the five main platforms - Facebook,...

Ah networking. That thing that VAs hate but need to do to build their business. Let's start by talking about why we don't like networking. Yes, it's true - a lot of VAs are introverts. I don't have a statistic on that but because we have always played a support role, we are comfortable being in the background - taking care of things for the people who go out there and make the sales, make the spee...

Today we are going to talk about momentum - it can be hard to get started or keep going with a lot of things in our VA business. Stuff like marketing, networking, setting goals or even just updating content - all impacted by momentum. Momentum. So much fun when you get going! How do you get to where you want to go? You start. And then you keep going. Sometimes when something is exciting - like a n...