As business owners, we can put immense pressure on ourselves to do everything on our own.
Have you ever considered outsourcing anything as a business owner?
When you are in an employed position, if you need someone to help you with an IT issue, you may have a tech team on hand. If you need to find something out about finances, you may have a bookkeeper or a finance team.
Read MoreOne year in business!
June/July marked my one year business anniversary! Although the idea of becoming a Virtual Assistant came to me many months before, it took me some time to officially start it. I say June/July, as in June I bought my domain name and paid my hosting fee but I didn’t officially start marketing my business until July 2020.
What a rollercoaster it has been! There have definitely been some highs and lows. Learning and growing is definitely something that I have done this year!
Starting a business can be scary and daunting as there is a lot to think about. Every business is different and therefore will have to consider a number of variables.
As a VA I have done the following to get my business up and running (some are compulsory and some I chose to do):
đź’Ą Registered with the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO)
đź’Ą Took out professional indemnity insurance
đź’Ą Registered with HMRC
đź’ĄBought a domain name for my website
đź’ĄBought an email address with my business name in it.
💥Registered on social media platforms (LinkedIn, Facebook, Instagram….)
💥Opened a new bank account (I didn’t go for a business account)
đź’ĄJoined Facebook groups linked to business- some are industry specific and some are generic ones
đź’ĄRegistered with free directories
đź’ĄCreated the content for my website
đź’Ą Regularly posted across several social media platforms whilst making some lovely connections
đź’Ą Updated my website regularly
đź’Ą Completed courses and training
Some common questions that I get asked on a regular basis:
Where did I gain my clients from?
Most of my clients were found through social media, primarily Linkedin.
How do you know what to post on social media?
If I am being honest….I post about everything & anything. It doesn’t have to only be business related. One post that created lots of engagement was over cereal packaging!
Is posting enough?
I believe that engagement is a big part of social media too. People buy from people and you need to gain virtual relationships. One of my clients said she chose me to be her VA, as I have supported her posts etc from minute one.
How long did it take you to get your first client?
It took me just under 2 months of regularly posting on social media to gain my first client. She is still my client now!
What services should I offer?
Whatever your business is, you need to offer services that you feel happy and comfortable with. How many you offer is up to you too.
One of the biggest things that I have learnt since launching my business is that you have to follow your own path and don’t compare yourself or other businesses, even those in the same industry to you. I have also had to accept that mistakes happen and things change. I have grown a lot in this last year and changed certain services that I offer, my branding and prices. These are all aspects of a business that will continue to change especially as you find your feet at the start of a business and see what things you most like and dislike.
Don’t forget that trying is better than not starting.
For information on business organisation, please check out my previous posts https://ghvirtualassistant.co.uk/2021/05/24/business-organisation/
Read MoreWith holidays now fast approaching, have you thought about your business and ensuring that you have everything covered if you are due to take some time off?
Planning a holiday when you are self employed isn’t quite as simple as taking that time off. You need to think ahead. There is lots that you can do in advance but you need to factor time in, a few weeks before your break.
Read MoreLife can be busy and it can feel like there is never enough time to do everything. My friends think I am extremely organised but I am always trying to find new ways and ideas to make my life even more so. One of the reasons I became a Virtual Assistant was to offer my organisation skills to other businesses.
Read MoreWe all know the importance of social media but yet there are so many businesses not actively using it.
Recently, one of my clients gave me the task of finding information on local businesses and wanted to follow them on social media. I started on Google to establish what businesses were local to my client. However, in a short space of time, it became apparent that there were a lot of businesses not on social media at all or they hadn’t posted in months.
Read MoreWhen starting my business, I didn’t think in great depth about how I would market it or whether I had a niche or even a pricing structure. From the early days, I kept on hearing the words niche and ideal client. I started to have a disliking for those words as I felt like, as a Virtual Assistant, that I could work with any industry and undertake various types of admin tasks. If I wasn’t familiar or confident with a piece of software, I would be honest but say that I was happy to try it out.
Read MoreWhen I started my business just over 7 months ago, I wasn’t actively using social media; even for personal use. It was all new to me and it felt scary. I knew that by being a Virtual Assistant one of the best places to promote my business for free would be on social media.
Read MoreThe thought of home-schooling whilst trying to work is a new experience for me. I started my business in June 2020, by then my children were back to school, albeit part-time. I have thought a lot about how I will manage to support my children, whilst completing client work that I have committed to, on top of continuing to grow my business.
Read MoreEmma Woodgate joins me for a guest blog on how COVID-19 has affected her small business in the photography industry
Read MoreYou can lose a customer in a heartbeat if they don’t feel valued, with many rating customer service as the most important factor of their relationship with a business. But how can you ensure you always provide the highest level of customer service? Here are some things I always ensure I do:
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