Q&A - How to Transition from a 9-5, What Childcare Looks like for Us, How to Gain Confidence in Starting Your Business, and more!
I figured making a blog post would be a fun way to just answer some questions that ya’ll submitted in a very casual, bff’s chatting over coffee, way and if you like this type of post, let me know and we will do more of them!
Let’s dive in!
Alright the first question is:
How to leave teaching to become a VA without losing income?
So I know I have a lot of teachers in this community and I actually left the classroom myself in 2018 so I often get messages that are similar to this one or maybe even like, I want to leave teaching and be at home with my babies but I just don’t know where to start so I wanted to kick today off with this one!
One of the best things about being a virtual assistant is the flexibility of it. This is why I also think that being a VA is one of the best, if not the best, side hustles out there. Since you pick your hours and your availability, you can absolutely work it alongside your full-time job. And that is why I would personally recommend that you start working as a VA on the side, and then once you are comfortable with where your income is at with your VA business, you can take it full-time IF that is something you want to do!
Everyone’s family and work and income situation is different so while I know there are people who do quit their full-time jobs and just start their business and hit the ground running, I think for most of us, we started out businesses as a side hustle while working full time. That’s how I started my first business, I was a teacher and I was also community about 1-1.5 hours each way, so like 3 hours total of driving a day, on top of also coaching basketball at the time. Now at the time, I didn’t know that being a virtual assistant was even a thing. But if I did, I think I would have started doing this then!
So I think no matter what you currently do full time; whether your work a 9-5, you’re a teacher, whatever it is – you can start your business small with 1-2 clients, and just start building it from there on the side AND THEN if you want to take it full time, you can! Especially if you don’t want to lose any income.
Something I do with the students in The VA Roadmap is helping them come up with their services and prices, right? And part of that starts with creating an income goal and then creating an hourly rate or packages that get you to that goal, while also remaining competitive in the market.
Most business owners are comfortable paying between $15-35ish an hour for a VA, and that obviously depends on the VA’s experience, testimonials, etc.
So my advice would be to figure out how much you need (or want) to make with your VA business, then figure out how much time you have to work with clients (keep in mind you need at least an hour or two a week to actually work on your own business too if you were totally booked up with clients), and when you have that figured out – calculate what your hourly rate should be OR what packages you can offer and how many clients you need with those rates to hit your goal!
I am a big fan of goals, but I am an even bigger fan of PLANS that are going to help you get to your goal.
So long story long – if you don’t want to lose any income while going from your current career to building your business as a VA, I would start your business on the side, set some income goals, and when you get to a point where you feel comfortable ENOUGH (because to be honest, it will always be a little scary making a career change… they don’t call it a leap of faith for nothing, right?), you take your business full time!
Okay, next question!
Do you have help with childcare to help you balance your work life?
I am really glad someone asked this honestly because I have been wanting to talk about what childcare looks like for us but honestly just keep forgetting lol. BUT it has looked so different for us in different seasons and I don’t think there is a right or wrong way to do it but we have really found what works for us and I am loving it.
So I started Your Behind the Scenes BFF when my son was 17 months old? 16 months old? Right around there! And I was also pregnant with my second. At that time, we did not have childcare. I worked during nap time and after Luke went to bed, or before he got up. Just pockets of my day! At one point we did get a gym membership that has childcare for up to like 2/2.5 hours a day depending on their age, so I would also a couple of times a week, take Luke to the gym, workout, and then work for an hour or two in the cafe while he got some much-needed playtime with the other kids and they did activities and what not… he loved it there lol.
Now at this time, Luke had been on the waitlist for a preschool that I LOVED and wanted him to go to very part-time, just so I could get some consistent and solid work time in, but I don’t know what it’s like by you but our waitlists here are crazy long. But since I didn’t NEED childcare we just made it work and waited.
So then I had my second, I went on maternity leave, and then right when I was about ready to come back to work, we got a call from the preschool (10 months after they had a part-time spot open for Luke. Which was a HUGE blessing. So then for a couple of months, Luke went to the preschool part-time, I think he was doing 2-3 days a week, and then I had the baby home with my full time.
Then in January of this year, we decided to put Jackson into the same little preschool/daycare that Luke is in (they have classes for different ages, all the way up to like after-school care for elementary kids) because I was honestly finding myself really struggling with work-life balance. So being able to have like focused and intentional work time, and then focused and intentional mom time, was really important to me. My husband also works a lot, and the hours are really odd, with long days.
Fast forward to now, we have actually decreased the boy's time since then, because honestly, I missed them. They were going 4 days a week so I could have a true 4 day work week but idk, just the last couple of months, I have wanted them home with me more and a big reason why I am an entrepreneur is so I can design a life that I want, and that includes my schedule!
So now we have childcare through that preschool and daycare two days a week, from about 9-2 or 9-3. So on those days, I am head down in work, or doing coaching calls.
The other three days of the week, I work during nap time, or my husband has Mondays off usually so he spends quality time with the boys while I go work for a couple of hours at the coffee shop or whatever if I absolutely have to get some things done.
I really wanted to walk you through kind of the journey we have had with childcare because I think there are just different solutions for different seasons! For the first 21 months of my oldest life, I worked during naptime and in pockets of time (between this business and my previous one), and now I have two consistent solid days of work that I think really helps me be intentional with my time, both with work and with.
So in case you are wondering what that might look like for you, it can look however you want! You 100% can build a successful business during naptime and pockets of your day, and you can also utilize childcare if that is an option for you and something you want to do! There’s no right or wrong way to do it, it’s whatever is best for your family.
How do you gain the confidence to launch a new business?
I honestly really loved this question – it was something I don’t think I have really been asked before.
I think when it comes to gaining confidence to launch your business it really comes down to three things:
01: Your Why
02: Your Belief
03: Your Action
Your “why” is the thing that is going to get you out of bed in the morning. It is the reason I am recording this podcast episode before my kids get up for the day. It is that burn in your belly, that drive that is going to carry you through – even on the hard days. You can’t have confidence OR success without that.
Your belief is next and I think this includes both belief in the business you are building or services you are offering and how it has the ability to serve others, but also belief in yourself that you can do it! I think it’s the latter that people maybe struggle with the most because that is that confidence piece right? So then fall back on, “Do I believe in my business and what I have to offer?” Yes? Okay, then what the heck is holding you back from believing in yourself to deliver that? That might be a good journal question to dig into if that is something you struggle with. However, I think the next part is what will really help
I believe the majority of confidence comes from action. The more action you take toward your goals and dreams, the more confidence will come because you will start to see that positive feedback, whether it be from other people, or it is from gaining clients, or starting to make an income, or even intrinsically like being proud of yourself for taking the leap of faith and following through on something you said you would!
I think it’s inaction that holds a lot of people back not only because in order to start a new business there are obviously things you have to do for it, but because inaction allows for self-doubt to creep in. But if you are taking action and moving forward, it doesn't allow for the time or space for negative feedback loops to start spiraling out of control.
So get really clear on your why and visualize it daily, create a business that you believe so deeply in you can’t help but HAVE to share it with the world, and then take action on that!
Onto the next question:
Ways to not forever trade time for money?
Love this question and this is something I talk about A LOT in The VA Roadmap and with my students. At the beginning of your business, you may be working with an hourly rate or hourly retainer. That means you are getting paid directly for the amount of time you are working, right? I really do think this is a good way to start out in the beginning because you want to figure out how long it REALLY takes you to do things! Plus in the beginning, when you are learning, it will take you longer but after a few weeks or months, you will obviously get faster. But when that happens, now you are getting paid LESS for the same work, however, you are faster and better? It doesn’t make sense to me for you to take a pay cut because of that!
So I think that’s when it might be smart to consider package options that are like okay for this package I will include this this and this for X amount of money. That way you can not only price it for the time you are spending on the tasks, but also your expertise and the quality of the work! So packages would be a great fit here. Generally, when people are ready to start offering packages you have also started to figure out what services you really like the most or what you want to niche down into as well.
And then you can also create and offer passive products like templates for small business owners, courses, etc! This is also something that might come a little easier as you get further into your business and see what people need, what you like to educate on or support people in and then create solutions that you can sell that once they are created you can just promote them and that becomes passive income.
You ALSO could scale to an agency model where you have other service providers working on client accounts with you, so you can bring on more clients that you could only handle yourself.
There are really a lot of ways to scale and stop trading time for money, but I think it all typically happens in stages! The opportunities are endless though which is another reason why I love helping women start their businesses as VA’s! It just opens the doors to so many other opportunities. So while you may start out as a VA working 1:1 with clients, that might just be a stepping stone for you! You never know what you might come across.
Last question is:
What does taking time off look like for a VA?
This is also a common question I get actually and I think it is a valid thing to worry about but also, it really is simple and like any other career IMO!
If you know you are going to be out or on vacation or whatever – just plan that with your clients! Let them know as soon as you know and give them good notice like, “Hey I will be out these dates.” And then you can come up with a plan together! Maybe that looks like doing work ahead of time so that there's just nothing to even do for you or the client over that time, or maybe the client is cool with just taking over for that person of time… it just depends on how you want to do it! But communication is the biggest piece of this! Just talk with your clients about what you both would like that to look like.
Now if it’s like a sick day or something came up, etc. Again, just communicate! I personally schedule projects or tasks to get completed before they actually HAVE to be just in case something happens unexpectedly, I feel like this is just best practice for really any line of work – even when you are in school and you are studying for a test or needing to do homework, you aren’t going to want to wait until the very last minute right?
But you can AND SHOULD absolutely take time off! I took maternity leave after having my second and what I did was I actually hired a VA for myself who took over my client’s accounts for that time! But I also communicated this with my clients like 2-3 months before leave started, we came up with what my VA would do and what they would do during that time, and all was good! I have also had times when my kids are sick or I am sick and I just communicate that with clients. That’s the biggest thing. Also if you haven’t yet check out episode 18 because I talk about setting boundaries with clients and time off can be one of those boundaries!
An example is I don’t work weekends, so I communicate that before I even take a client on. So def check that out! But you don’t need to be available all the time, just communicate, plan ahead, etc just like you would with any other job!
Okay, that is all the questions I had for this go around! This was fun for me because I was able to see exactly what you were wondering and dive into that so I hope this was helpful! If you want to do this again let me know and I will make more blog posts as such!
Links & Mentions
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