5 Mistakes VA’s Make When Starting Their Business (And What to Do Instead)

Written By Kate Scholtes

I talk a lot on the podcast and my Instagram and blog about different things related to your business as a VA but one thing I really haven’t talked much about is what mistakes I see new VAs making when they start their business and how those things can really hold you back from growing a career you love in this industry, or even starting in the first place!

But listen you know that I am a glass-half-full kinda girl. I am not one to just tell you what things you shouldn’t do without giving you tangible things that you should do instead so that is what this episode is all about: 5 Mistakes VAs Make When Starting Their Business (And What to Do Instead)

Some of these things are mistakes I have made in my business and have learned from, some of them are things I have seen other people make and have coached them through it, and others are ones I am seeing people making right now… and maybe you are reading this blog post and this will be the thing to encourage you to make some changes!


That being said, let’s dive in with the 1st mistake I see new VAs making when they start their business:


01 Stressing about a business name, logo, or a website


I see this time and time again, you are so excited to start your business, you are excited about working with clients, you might even know what you want to offer in terms of services BUT… what is your business name? Or what about a logo and brand colors?!

Let me be the first person to tell you that these details are not details you need to worry about when you are just starting out. They just aren’t. I am a sucker for all things on brand and aesthetic, if you have seen my IG and my website YOU KNOW. But when I first started my business, I didn’t have professional branding, I didn’t have a logo, and I didn’t even really have a website! I went from launching my business to being booked out with clients in one week, meaning that in the first month of my business, I made more than I made in one month of teaching.

Now if you already have a business name, brand colors, logo, etc that you want to run with GO FOR IT! But this message is for the gals who are not STARTING because they don’t have those things in place yet. Please hear me when I say you don’t need these things when you are just starting. And that is a hill I will die on.

So what to do instead:

When it comes to your IG handle or website or whatever, just using your name is a good place to start. I started out as “Hey Kate Scholtes”. Your Behind the Scenes BFF didn’t even come about until a couple of months into my business and it really just came to me one day! And then I went down the road of doing a professional website, branding, etc. But those things are an additional investment in your business whether you are hiring someone (an investment of money) or if you are doing it yourself (an investment of your time).

The most important thing for you right now as a new VA is to start booking your clients. The rest will come! I promise! But when you keep things simple, keep things your name or more of a personal brand even, it will be able to transform into whatever you want down the road!


In terms of a website, in the beginning, you just need a place for people to go so they can learn more about your services and inquire! That could look like a free link in bio situation like bio.sites which is the one I most often recommend, and then you can link your inquiry form that you can create via Honeybook, which if you haven’t listened to that podcast make sure to go back and listen because it is super valuable and will explain what I am talking about a bit more. And you also want people to be able to see your pricing, I really believe in pricing transparency in the online space so having your prices out is important. You can even have this be in your inquiry form but also as a carousel post on your IG pinned to the top!!

But if you do want a low-cost option for a website, I do have an affiliate link to my website designer of like 5 years now haha to snag one of her templates! They are lower cost options, they are prebuilt but fully customizable sites, and if you want to have that professional, on-brand, fully functional site that is 10000% the place I would start.


BUT AGAIN, you absolutely don’t have to. The most important thing to me is that you are taking action that will actually drive your business forward (aka help you make money) and not getting hung up on the details!

02 Under (or over) charging


When it comes to setting your rates there is a lot of noise in the online business space. At the end of the day, when it comes to rates, you want to 1) make them make sense to your business and your income goals etc, and 2) remain competitive in the marketplace for your services.

Rates for VAs can be all across the board, but with my 6 years of experience in entrepreneurship and having a very large network of other entrepreneurs who would be your clients, the general range I see and recommend is between $20-$35/hour (if we are talking hourly rate). I talk about this in our program that there are different ways to price your services (I think I actually have a podcast episode about it too that I will link for you) so it won’t always be hourly you might also have package type of options, but generally speaking that can be a good place to start.


Now with more experience and skills, you should charge on the upper end of that range. Do not discount yourself and your skills. But what I recommend to the students that go through my program is that if you are just starting out, as a beginner BUT you are clearly investing in your business and education through the program, start at $20 an hour.


I think about it this way. We pay our babysitter $20 an hour. We pay her to help support us when it comes to childcare and my kids are THE most important thing to me… My business, however, is also important. Not quite as high up there on importance obviously BUT it is the thing that provides FOR my family. So when I am hiring someone to help me in my business and support me there, I should pay them a rate that makes sense not just for me and my budget, but also supports the service provider, in this case, the VA, to handle things that need to be handled. 


My recommendation when you are brand new starting your business, is to start somewhere around there. Your prices aren’t set in stone, they should change, you should increase them as you start working with clients growing your business, and investing your skills and education!

I also find that when you are charging a rate that you are proud of, and you are excited about, you are way more excited about the work itself as well. Undercharging or even doing work for free can really make people resentful of their work (and this is in any industry). So set your rate, know the payoff and the value that the client is going to get from hiring you and from your services, and stick to it!

On the flip side, I have seen content out there that is saying “Make $100/hour as a VA” and while I don’t know for sure if these people are making that and neither do you… I DO know that is not a competitive rate. Again, everyone I talk to, and I have these conversations a lot, the range is $20-$35 an hour, and if you are more specialized maybe in tech or systems, you might be charging more! But typically a VA is the first hire someone makes in their business AND it wouldn’t make sense from a business perspective to pay someone $100 an hour to do admin tasks.

Of course, you can end up charging much higher prices for more specialized services down the road, but we all have to start somewhere, and I want you to have realistic expectations of what is trending in the marketplace and what clients are looking for when they are ready to hire.

03 Not having a solid onboarding process

In this blog, you are going to hear a lot of things that I am telling you that you don’t need right? But here is one thing I really think you DO need, and it’s a solid onboarding process for your clients.


Everything from how your potential clients get in touch with you, to how you run your discovery call, to how you send out your proposals, what you need from them for onboarding, etc. It doesn’t have to be perfect, in fact, I have changed mine a lot over the years! But I do recommend that you have a basic one in place because staying organized and on top of how you are bringing clients in and integrating yourself into their business is really important in accomplishing a seamless transition. 


Here are a couple of steps you should 100% have in your onboarding process:


Inquiry form – how are they going to get in touch with you

Scheduling tool for discovery calls -

Hosting discovery calls - what is the flow going to look like, what questions do you want to ask them to make sure its a good fit?


Contract and invoicing system -


Onboarding questionnaire and a way to gather relevant logins and SOPs from the client

This is an entire module in our Beginner To Booked VA program because I think it’s such an important piece for YOU in your business but also for your client experience as a whole. The VA’s who give their clients a great, professional experience are going to stand out compared to VAs that don’t have this kind of process to guide their clients through! HoneyBook is a great resource to help you have a solid onboarding process for you clients!


I have even had friends of mine who have gone through our BTS BFF Connect Membership which is the lead program we use to connect business owners with graduates in our program and they have all said the preparedness of VAs they get on discovery calls with or even reach out to schedule one with compared to VA’s who haven’t gone through our program is noticeable. And it really doesn’t take a lot to get it set up! It’s worth the effort to give your client a great experience AND allow for you to feel more organized and ultimately have the ability to scale your business.


Okay, this one is kind of a biggie…

04 Accepting every client that reaches out to you wanting to work with you


I know that it can be easy to want to just book whatever client walks through your virtual door when you are trying to build that client roster but here me out: not every client is going to be a good fit for you and your business AND you might not be the best fit for every client as well! And it can be tough – maybe there’s a client that you would love to work with but maybe their budget is $10/hour LESS than your rate. Or maybe they are looking for more hours than maybe you REALLY wanted to make available. At the end of the day, it’s your business and it’s your decision who you take on and what feels “worth it” to you. But from experience, anytime I have bent on my standards or how I operate in my business for a client, it hasn’t worked out long term. And there are more extreme cases than others, I am not talking about the situations where okay maybe your rate is $28 an hour and their budget is $26 an hour and everything else is all green flags ya know? That might be still a great opportunity to try out if YOU feel that it is. I am talking more about just accepting whoever comes your way even if you know in your gut that some red flags are sticking out. And I do think you know. We have talked a lot about this in our monthly office hours with the graduates of our program that sometimes we feel like “Well it could be a good opportunity or you know money is money and I like the client but I just dont know” I think right there, it’s a sign that maybe it’s not a good fit OR MAYBE there is some negotiating that can happen to make it a better one!


My point is there are clients out there that want to work with you. Don’t settle for less-than-ideal ones because they are 100% out there and you will see a huge difference in the relationship, your business, and the way everything flows, etc when you work with people you are excited to work with and who are excited to work with you!



Okay and last but certainly not least and honestly, probably the #1 mistake I see…

05 Thinking you have to have it all figured out before you start


Can I let you in on a secret? None of us have it all figured out. Sure, some of us who have been in business for longer and have worked with more clients have gotten more experience and have figured things out due to those experiences or training or what have you – but I swear I learn something new every single day. And even if it’s not learning something new, it’s learning how to do something better or more efficiently! 


And if someone says they do, that they have it all figured out –  run the opposite direction.


Business in general is a lot of learning as you go. I mean even shoutout to all my mom friends out there, MOTHERHOOD is learning as you go haha. You can prepare all day long, read the books, take the courses, etc but when you actually become a mom and you are in it day to day, you learn so much because everyone’s experience is different! Every baby is different, every mother is different, every birth and postpartum experience is different, everyone’s home and work situation is different. So while you can prepare and get some things in order, you learn a lot just going through it! I always say the transition from 1-2 was easiest on my vs 0-1 because I KNEW what to expect. I already have experience. Sure some things were different and there were learning curves with having two under two, but overall I was more confident and learned a ton from my first pregnancy and the first you know, 20 months of motherhood with my first son!


It’s the same for business. You of course can learn and put things in place that are going to help you get where you want to go which is exactly why I created my program 30 Day VA to help you build that strong foundation, but a lot of it is also just taking action and learning as you go. If you wait to start bc you want to have it all figured out, you will never start. That’s just the truth. 


So just start. Start before you’re ready. Start while it’s messy. You are going to learn and change and grow and adapt and pivot and all the things on this journey. Very few things are permanent, and that is such a beautiful thing!


I hope that you loved this blog post and if you are ready to start your business as a VA and you are reading this before the doors close to our next round of 30 Day VA which is Sunday, April 14th at 11:59 PT, you can visit the link in the description below or in our show notes to get signed up and learn everything you need to know in order to start your business and get to booking clients in 30 days or less!

 
 

If you enjoyed reading this blog post, check out our podcast!
We release new episodes every week to help you grow and scale your business! 🎧👩🏻‍💻

 
 
Kate Scholtes
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