5 LESSONS I’VE LEARNED FROM MY FIRST FIVE YEARS IN BUSINESS
Next month marks 5 years since I started Emma West VA and Design Studio (where did that go?!) and reflecting on the past few years has honestly been quite therapeutic!
So here are 5 lessons I’ve learned, including the highs and the lows from setting up my virtual assistant business…
1. Set boundaries and stick to them…
If I’m honest, this one is still a bit of a work in progress, but something I now value as being super important!
I am regrettably a people pleaser, and as things got busier in my business, I started to find that I was stretching myself a little thin and struggling to juggle everything.
But yet despite feeling a little overwhelmed, in the first few years I still found myself agreeing to deadlines that I would struggle to meet, and taking on work that I didn’t particularly enjoy or that would eat into my evenings and weekends, all because I didn’t want to say no!
Working remotely, whether that be from home, a coffee shop, or wherever your preferred location, is amazing and I truly love the freedom that comes from being location dependent.
However, one downside I quickly discovered was that with this comes a pressure to feel that I should constantly be working on my business.
Going from working in an office, where I shut down my computer at the end of the day and left work at work, quickly changed to feeling like I should always be available to work on demand if needed by clients as I technically could as my laptop is right there in the other room ready to be opened whenever I or my clients needed!
I thought that if I said no to taking on a client that I knew wasn’t the right fit, or if I agreed to a deadline that I knew would mean working over the weekends or late into the evenings, it would all pay off in the end and lead to strong relationships with my clients or be good experience, and ultimately lead to the business and work-life balance I wanted to create.
However, what I actually learned was that this isn’t really the case!
“You can’t pour from an empty cup” is so true! And something I often heard but now appreciate even more. Carving out time in the diary to do things that are non-work related and allow me to recharge has become really important, and not feeling guilty about doing this is a valuable life lesson!
So I learned that setting boundaries is super important in order to continue to enjoy what I do, offer the best quality service I can, and also for my own happiness and wellbeing!
Everyone’s boundaries will be different, but personally for me two things that I decided on were generally aiming not to work late evenings or weekends, I work one long day and then try to finish by 6pm on all other days and take the majority of Friday off from client work.
I’m slowly getting better at sticking to this, and it’s made a huge difference so I only wish I had been stricter with this at the beginning!
2. It’s ok to make mistakes (& learn from them!)
So I’ve already touched on the fact that I may be a bit of a people pleaser, so naturally making mistakes is not something I handle very well, as I hate letting people down and not doing a good job.
One thing that I have slowly come to accept over the past five years however is that we are all human and imperfect and are going to make mistakes especially when starting something new, learning new systems and software, and working with new clients and ways of doing things - nothing is always going to go swimmingly well unfortunately and there are times that I have made mistakes.
So there may have been tears at times, and feelings of self-doubt.
“I can’t do this…what did I think I was doing trying to start something new…I can’t get anything right!”
But once I’d got that out of my system and of course apologised to my lovely client for the mistake, and made every effort to correct said mistake, I realised that while mistakes are inevitable and aren’t pleasant, the important thing is what I learn from them.
And actually, when I’ve made mistakes, my clients have generally been super nice about it and it’s improved my way of working and the systems we have in place, so lots of good has come from them!
3. Don’t compare yourself to others…
Do you find yourself scrolling through social media posts from others in your industry and feeling massively inadequate and like everyone else is doing a better job than you?
This is probably one of my biggest time-wasters and regrets - I spent a lot of time comparing myself to other people and how they run their business, and feeling a sense of imposter syndrome every time I opened Instagram, not all that healthy!
So one thing I’ve definitely learned is to not fall into the comparison trap, which is of course still a challenge, but has become helped by becoming more clear on my business direction and that it’s ok to do things differently to other VA’s sometimes.
This follows on nicely to my next learning curve…
4. You don’t have to do everything…
When first setting up an online business, I found there is a cocktail of not wanting to leave any stone unturned and thoroughly research everything, marketing your business on every platform to find clients and setting up a website, while also setting up essential systems and processes in your business, along with of course the client work that is the whole point of doing all of those things!
In trying to set everything up properly, I found myself comparing myself often to other virtual assistants and online business owners, and feeling that in order to find clients I had to do everything - social media posting every day, blog posts, networking in Facebook Groups, business networking events and more!
The problem was that while I appreciate that it’s a very good thing to push yourself outside of your comfort zone and trying things that don’t come naturally to you can have good results, it is equally not essential or beneficial to try to do everything and that what happens is you actually end up not doing anything well, and then your results and energy and stress levels can suffer!
So some excellent advice I received was to choose a few key marketing methods and stick to being consistent on these, which has been a game changer for me!
The same principle applies to my client work. When I first started working as a VA, I felt that I had to offer every online skill that I owned to clients, as well as train to learn new skills, and accept any work that came my way as it was work and I needed to pay the bills!
While this is true and necessary when starting out, I soon came to discover which services I enjoyed more than others, and then could start to tailor the work I accepted or declined based on this much more which has been great!
5. Don’t give up when you don’t find clients, be patient and they will come…
You may be familiar with the inner panic that comes after setting up your brand new shiny business.
The prolonged waiting period where you feel that you’re putting in a lot of effort and work to find client work, but perhaps not seeing the results as quick as you would like!
However, the advice I discovered is indeed correct - have patience, put in the work, and you will find clients.
For me, my first clients came from a mix of previous employers, friends, referrals, Facebook Groups and Instagram, but it did take about 6 months to reach a point where I was comfortable with the amount of work I had,.
I even starting turning work down which wasn’t the right fit or I didn’t have capacity for.
So there you go, those are my top 5 lessons I learned in my first five years of business:
Set boundaries (& stick to them!)
It’s ok to make mistakes! (& learn from them)
Don’t compare yourself to others!
You don’t have to do everything!
Don’t give up or despair when you don’t find clients, be patient and they will come!
