Are You Cut Out To Be A Virtual Assistant? The VA Handbook

Working for yourself is extremely hard work, you need a different mindset than when you were an employee and it isn’t for everyone. Because you should know what you’re letting yourself in for, let me tell you exactly what it’s like to be a freelancer so you can make an informed decision and decide if it’s something you’d like to do.

Being a freelancer is not all coffee shops and jimjams

As a freelancer yes, you can take the day off from work and go to the cinema as I sometimes do, or work in your jammies all day – but you do actually need to have some work to skive off from in the first place.

You’ll also find that any ‘spare’ time is spent marketing, networking, refining your website, updating your social media, doing your expenses, learning new things and a gazillion other things that need doing when you work for yourself.

You’ll need to be a marketing whizz, learn to juggle client work with your own time, your income will be erratic, you’ll have to motivate yourself, you’ll sometimes be rushed off your feet and other times scared that the phone will never ring again.

You’ll fall in and out of love with freelancing, there’ll be times when you’ll wonder if you’ll ever be able to take a holiday, some days you’ll be terrified you’ve made a dreadful mistake and I can guarantee that you’ll have some utter nightmare clients.

So if you can get more freedom without having to leave your job then it’s something you should look into first.

Alternatives to freelancing

If it’s your working situation that’s the problem, your employer might let you work from home.
If it’s your hours, they may be happy to let you job share or go part-time.
If you hate the tasks you do or you feel undervalued or unchallenged, ask to have a review or see if you can move within the department or organisation.
If you feel you’re not getting paid enough then negotiate a pay rise.
If it’s your colleagues or boss then you should address the situation and create better working relationships.
If there are new policies at work that you don’t like, it may be that you just need time to get used to them or simply suck it up.

What I’m trying to say is that the answer might not be to leave your job. It might be that you just need to address your work situation instead.

Are you cut out to be a Virtual Assistant?

Are you up for having to constantly market yourself for the entire duration of your career?
Can you manage your own time and motivate yourself day in, day out?
Can you stomach the lack of steady, regular income?
Are you comfortable working to multiple deadlines?
Can you communicate with and manage difficult people?
Are you willing to constantly keep learning and improving your skills?
Can you follow instructions? (do this test and find out)
Can you handle working alone for days at a time?
Are you willing to invest time, energy and money in your business?
Can you handle rejection and not take everything personally?
Do you understand that running your own VA business isn’t a “side hustle”?
Do you have confidence in both yourself and your abilities?
Can you research things by yourself and not expect to be given all the answers?

I’m not trying to deter you here – I’d love nothing more than to see you become a happy, successful freelancer, but if you’ve answered no to most of the above questions, you may not be cut out to be a Virtual Assistant.

And it’s better to find that out now because you’ll save a whole load of time, money and stress.

Yup, I think I’m cut out to be a Virtual Assistant!

Righty-ho, then you have a lot of work to do, doll.

My advice is to keep researching for a little bit longer, so you should now:

Read my How to Become a Virtual Assistant post which provides a summary of how to get started.
Read my post on FAQs about becoming a Virtual Assistant.
Read my blog post on qualities you need to become a Virtual Assistant to double-check you know what’s involved.

Read my blog post on 15 blunt truths about what it means to be a Virtual Assistant because the decision is not to be taken lightly and you need to make sure any rose-tinted spectacles you may be wearing are completely ripped off your face.