You started out your business as a virtual assistant and over the first few weeks or even months, you took on jobs at a low rate just to get started. These jobs have continued to provide you with a dripping tap of low hourly rate, but money each week. Some of these jobs may now be driving you to distraction and it’s easy to forget how glad you were...

The IRS considers you to be self-employed if: You carry on a trade or business as a sole proprietor or an independent contractor. You are a member of a partnership that carries on a trade or business. You are otherwise in business for yourself (including a part-time business) By this definition, a virtual assistant is a self-employed service provider...

Getting Ready to Launch Your Virtual Assistant Business You have the knowledge.  You have the skills.  You have the motivation.  And now you have made the decision to start your own virtual assistant business.  There is no question that you have what it takes to be successful, but it can be overwhelming when considering the many aspects to starting...

When you’re working hard to start your own virtual assistant business and you’re juggling the responsibilities of children and family, it can be easy to get discouraged. In order to keep your focus and maintain that high-excitement energy you need to get through the startup phase, seek out inspirational stories of other stay at home moms...

Balancing Business, Babies, and Bubble Baths One of the things a Virtual Assistant has to deal with is finding that ever-elusive ‘work-life Balance’.  I’m often asked how I do it and the ugly truth is:  I totally don’t. I suck at work-life balance.  In fact, I wonder if there even is such thing as ‘work-life balance’.  Some days I’m...

10 Commandments for the 2012 Virtual Assistant 1. Thou shall not take on a new client without a deposit and a signed contract.Period. 2. Thou shall be tolerant when viewing a $4.00 an hour overseas virtual assistant advertisement. Plenty of work is available for all VAs at every rate. Establish yourself as an expert and you will attract those...

The Top 5 Mistakes Virtual Assistants Make Here’s my short-n-sweet list of the top mistakes often made by new (and not-so-new) Virtual Assistants.  Your success depends on how well you can avoid these bad business practices: 1.  Not Charging Your Worth – In this economy too many VA’s are slashing their rates to try and compete for clients.  Competing...

Healthy Virtual Assistant-Client Relationships That list I wrote last week applies to most everything, but I was particularly thinking of virtual assistance when the sequence first came to mind. It’s my perception that those seven steps will build your VA-client relationship on a sure foundation for the long haul. It’s like this: Focus – Both...

Building Business Relationships It’s the first requirement of virtual business relationships. Focus. You have to be willing and able to work on making it work. The effort is well worth it, but you have to generously give your attention to the endeavor. The virtual assistant/client relationship works best if it is keenly focused on two key areas: clear...

For many virtual assistants, offering a pre-paid monthly ‘retainer’ package can be a valuable option for both the VA and their clients. I offer my clients their choice of being billed on an hourly basis for actual use at the end of the month or purchasing pre-paid hours at a discount. When a client purchases a pre-paid block of hours for the month,...