This post and video series was inspired by a post inside our Facebook Group. If the following post resonates with you, then take some time to bookmark this and go through it all. It will be well worth it, so be sure to absorb all the details including checking out all the links.

I’m hoping that this post will really help you when it comes to the approach you take in your career as a virtual assistant, but not only that, will give you the knowledge, perspective and solutions you need to move forward and not stay stuck in the loop like this person who wrote the post in my group 🙂

Let's begin!

Know The Purpose of Free Content

Watch the video above! Here are the "Key Takeaways" from this video:

Marketing

Freebies are created as a marketing tool, to provide an experience, so you can then make a decision.

Answers

Freebies are not designed to give you all the answers, they're designed to give you the ‘what’ - but not the ‘how’.

Mentor

Use the freebie not to find the answer, but to choose a mentor, to help you decide if you like, trust and want to learn more from that person. Piece-mealing free content from various places isn't the most ideal (or most efficient & effective) way to start a business, because you can easily confuse yourself with conflicting information which can then create doubt, which obviously stunts your business growth. Use freebies to take away ‘nuggets’ of information that stand out to you, and keep notes.

Samples

Consider freebies as ‘free samples’, just like if you went to the supermarket and sampled a small square of cheese on a cocktail stick, where once you try it and decide you like it, you can then invest in buying the block of cheese. You can’t make the whole meal from the free sample.

Investing

It’s wise to know that investing is better for YOU. For example, we go into the supermarket to buy the apple because we know what we're getting; a nice ready-to-eat apple (a result) and also, yes, we could of got that apple for free if we had a seed, planted it, worked on it, and waited for the tree to grow to get the free apple. 

Start-Up Programme

The start-up programme mentioned in the video is The Freelancer, which contains everything you need to know to begin your Virtual Assistant journey.

How to Use Free Content Effectively 

Once you have used your freebie to decide on your mentor (or you may have a selection) you then go into the next phase of the process..

Watch the video above - here are the "Key Takeaways" from this video:

Mindset 

Check to see if the mentor has incorporated any mindset work into what they teach and share, because this is crucial, and if not, then find a good mindset coach, because this is really 80% of the process... or, just watch Morning Mindset!

Immersion

Immerse yourself in them and their products and services. Explore what they have to offer including, LinkedIn Groups, Facebook Groups, private community, training, social channels, testimonials, other freebies and more. The free content feels much more effective and useful (and less conflicting & overwhelming) when it’s coming from one source, or a very small number of sources.

Source

Freebies from people you like and trust give you the source of the answers you seek, so stop seeking answers from outside and go direct to the source. The key with your source is you find someone reputable, who you can really trust - beware of catfishing (VA’s pretending to care about a genuine connection with you but are outsourcing this), and scams.

Ask!

Contact the mentors you have chosen, and ask them what specifically they have available to help you get started, as this will save you time searching and pondering on what to do. 

Budget

If they don’t have anything in your budget, then you can ask if it’s possible to do something in your budget, (you don’t ask, you don’t get right?) If they don’t offer any flexibility, then move to the next mentor - you will find the right mentor for you by communicating!

Assumptions

Don’t assume you know everything they have or what they will say with this approach; assume they will be supportive and try to help you achieve your goals. 

If you think I would be a good person to learn from, you can have access to me by investing as little as £7.50 up to £2500. I’ve made sure I can cater to the budget of everyone out there in some way, so just ask! Contact us on support, tell me about yourself and let’s see how we can help you. 

The Cost of Free…

Let’s now look at this… I know you want the answers for free, but is it really the best or optimal approach? Is free the best for YOU?

Watch the video above - here are the "Key Takeaways" from this video:

Importance

Virtual Assistance is a service, and generally we serve clients to help them in their business. Take a moment to imagine how important someone's business is to them… It pays for their lives, their family, it’s pivotal in their lifestyle. It's important. The same may go for you too.

If you treat the VA industry like it’s less important than any other industry, then it’s fair to have the expectation that you'll be seen as less important to some potential clients, as compared to someone who has invested in themselves - and this is why a lot of people learning for free are experiencing the wrong type of clients - so please, take working in this industry seriously.

Trust

Imagine if you went to a doctor's surgery and the doctor had learnt from blog posts, youtube videos or freebies on the internet; would you trust that? Apply that to any profession, whether lawyers, dentists, hairdressers, etc… Now I’m not saying you need to get a ‘qualification’ (I don't have any and have been doing this for a couple of decades) but if you don’t know something and you want to know something, and it holds value and importance to you, it would be wise to invest in learning from someone who is a reliable and trusted source - to not only get you there quicker, but most likely more successfully, especially considering a lot of free content these days is generated from AI as clickbait.

 Perspective

Let’s give this some perspective, I shared my story of how inside a workshop in my Virtual CoWorking Space, my members could invest £7.50 (it was a special offer) and in there I gave them a 5 part video series which at the end of the 5 days, I manifested a client from (with evidence in the members area) - now that client paid me approximately £2000, so would you pay £7.50 to learn how to make £2000 or do you want to spend hours and hours of wasted time, looking for a free answer (which as we learnt from video 1) doesn’t really exist, so you will need to do lots of trial and error, for years, which I did much of myself to get where I am… Then I put that start-up knowledge in a programme that costs £97 that tells you everything you need to know to get started. 

Unregulated

Yes being a VA is easy to get into - because essentially it's an ‘unregulated’ industry but it does require an investment, in one way or another, because if you want everything for ‘free’ it will still require an investment of time, research, trial & error, and extensive learning which will ‘cost’ you way more over the long term than £97… Starting a VA business is not a get rich quick scheme, but learning how to start a VA business will get you earning faster, because instead of searching for hours and hours for free answers, you can begin working with clients directly. 

Stop Looking - Start Building

If you want to make serious money in this industry, and take advantage of 'the dream' like me, then you need a business, not a job. A VA Job and a VA Business are very different, and you can't be approaching them in the same way, so recognise the difference and make a decision. I encourage you - if you're serious about making this work, and making a decent income from it, then stop looking for ‘VA jobs’ and start looking for clients, and learn how to be responsible for those clients. Clients come from a combination of mindset, concept, approach, responses, communication, presentation and organisation. Invest in yourself fully and the clients will be there.

Without a professional approach though, you will end up being open to the scams, pyramid schemes, low paying ‘jobs’ and other undesirable opportunities. The choice really is yours.

My Suggestions on How To Start Your VA Business

Let's unpack this..

Watch the video above - here are the "Key Takeaways" from this video:

Business Mindset

The expectations mismatch success. Look at your business mindset and ask yourself why it’s so key for you to get something so important, for free? For example, if your clients had a business giving everything away for free, they wouldn’t be able to pay you, and there would be no VA work for you to enter into… 

Development Mindset

Through the law of reciprocity - cheap clients will seek cheap VA's, good clients seek good VA's, the best clients will seek the best VA's - so therefore, some kind of investment is required for these types of clients - you choose what that will be, but basically the investment you need to make in yourself will reflect back to you with what type of client you attract.

Money Mindset

Instead of seeking to get everything for free, switch to making an affordable investment, a small financial investment to get you started with a training course, that has proven results from a trusted mentor OR, you'll need to make a time investment spending years, piece-mealing free content, posting in groups, while doing trial and error until you self-teach your way forward, or give up. 

Creating Your Business

This is the exact process I use in my consulting to help anyone create their perfect service business, which I have also adapted to product businesses too. 

First...

We go over these questions.

• Do you have any formal qualifications? (If you do) it generally doesn’t matter. 

• What are you good at?

• What do you enjoy?

• What don’t you like?

• What must you avoid?

• What intuitively would you do, if you knew anything you do could be successful?

• How much money do you want to earn, per month?

• Do you have any specific client-base in mind? 

• Describe your personality...

• Do you prefer project work with a start and end, or ongoing work within a daily routine, or both?

Then…

When you get clear on this, you'll be able to:

1. Determine your services.

2. Create a 4-8 part concept, with 6 being optimal (An example of this would be my Corporate Service).

3. Determine your roles - these are various descriptive titles that fit in with the concept.

4. Determine your packages / offer. 

5. Determine your clientele. 

6. Determine your prices and volume of clients required to reach your financial goals.

This infographic is breaking down a 6-Part Concept - the concept for a VA business is what I teach inside my 1nSourcing System. This is very effective (instead of selling the service, you sell the concept) as clients are able to clearly see the result of the service to know it matches with their vision.

Then…

Once you have all that together, you will go create a presence, somewhere. I use Podia, although you can use Canva or any free web builder tool.

You then begin focussing on creating awareness - putting yourself in as many places as possible (my 1nSourcing Dossier is great for this, and was used to create my Corporate Concept) and using my Master The Art of Claiming Clients Workshop inside Virtual CoWorking Space or working on mindset from these Free Morning Mindset Videos.

Master The Art of Claiming Clients Introduction

Key #1 - Confidence

Key #2 - Decisiveness

Key #3 - Commitment

Key #4 - Creation

Key #5 - Navigation

There is no single way to get clients, which is why the ‘How do I get clients?’ question can be difficult to answer, as there are a million ways you can do it, but they will only work if you’ve got the right mindset. You also need to be clear on who that client is and the result working with you will have to them, or you can end up in a situation that you don't feel good about.

You can also use the ‘one’ most effective practical action taking technique for getting clients from my course The Freelancer or within my Level 5, in 1nSourcing Clients - (these courses are not free by the way). 

How to Get Support From Me to Start Your VA Business

So… This is how to start a VA business using completely free information - and pretty much why you shouldn’t… 

This is something you need to consider, because being a top notch VA is a serious business. A virtual assistant business (or even a job) requires functional equipment, internet and online systems, all of which require money. Is an investment in information, consulting or training to show you how to pull all this together really too much, when a great deal can be found for as little as the price of a cup of coffee to begin with?

If you want to go "All-In" just check out my 1nSourcing System for Virtual Assistants. This is for VA's at any stage of their business.

If you're really sincere about this journey and you want to go on to start a VA business, contact us using any options from this page or on support@virtualmissfriday.com and share your situation, and we will make arrangements to help and support you with getting into one of my professional support options, so you don’t waste any more time or money, and you can get everything you need immediately to begin focussing your attention in the right direction to actually achieve your goal(s). 

Thank you.