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The evolution of your business involves periods of being steady and shifting. #vatip 
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Hold your business steady and get ready for the shift. #vatip Gotta Tweet!
Shifting is a good thing, even if it feels like something is being taken away. #vatip Gotta Tweet!
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Hi, and welcome to episode number 104. I’m your host, Tiffany Parson, and you are listening to and watching The Business of Being a Virtual Assistant.
Today’s episode, I want to talk to you about the evolution of your virtual assistant business. There’s been past episodes where I talked about getting over the fear of getting started and, you know, just really helping with that. Last week, we talked about balance versus harmony in your business, and so we’re going to talk about the evolution of it.
I think it’s really important to know that the way it looks right now is not how it’s going to look a year from now. You don’t have to worry about certain specific details because that’s just information that you do not have.
The way I even came up with this week’s topic is I’m experiencing this in my own business, Virtual Hired Hand. We are at, I would say, a level three where there is a change, a shift, and then it’s like a restart and then it’ll get steady, and then you’ll have a change, a shift, and then it starts again, and then it gets steady, and then you have a change and a shift.
That’s pretty much the evolution of your VA business. It is always evolving, always evolving.
It doesn’t matter if you have been in your business six months, two years, five years. Your business will always evolve because you’re learning, you’re growing, you’re changing and that affects your business as well.
First thing is first. We all have a starting point and that is with whatever skill we have to get going with it right now. Along the way in your business, you’re going to learn about yourself, and this week I actually had a huge, huge monumental lightbulb thing happen. Oh, you know, the stars came out. There was a rainbow and all this good stuff. I’m totally exaggerating, but I want you to get the point that it was like boom, that is it.
Magic happened this week and I have been on cloud ten ever since. For the last few months – and I don’t know if I’ve even mentioned it on the podcast. I may have. I have been in this transition and it’s like I knew I was in this transition but nothing was moving. Like I didn’t know whether to go left or go right, so I just stayed at what I call level two and just be steady. But I knew it was either time to eliminate or time to add on. I felt it. I knew it. I just wasn’t sure.
I have been getting frustrating with some past experiences where people didn’t know what they want or they didn’t have the content for me to set up the website and all this stuff, or they had no idea how I could serve them even after me providing what I actually do. But this week, it all came together. It was like this was puzzle and this was a puzzle and it’s been like this for a long time, and then all of a sudden this week, boom, and the door opened.
Here’s why I am very excited and it just fits. Everything just fits perfectly with what I do naturally.
Here’s what happened in a nutshell. Talking to a past client, we worked together years ago, many years ago, and she was totally honest with me and let me know that she really didn’t know what she needed from me, but she knew she needed some help, and she said the magic word. “I need strategy. I need strategy planning.”
Guess what, you guys? That’s exactly what I have been doing very casually, very naturally to different people that I’ve talked to. With clients, I haven’t been able to dive in it as much because that’s not what they hired me for. They hired me to do the technical part, so it was kind of like I could touch on it a little bit and ask certain questions, but the main nitty-gritty that I would need to get down to would take some time and that wasn’t, you know, again, what they outsourced me to do.
So talked to her, I mean, it was crazy because I’m like that’s exactly what I do. Because for my clients, I’m not their business coach. I am their technical virtual assistant. But there was a missing link and the missing link was that whole strategy planning. For some people, they just need the strategy. They could take off with the technical part, but the strategy, they didn’t have.
Those are just things that have always come to my mind naturally. I’ve been giving out little nuggets and ideas since I first started in 2008, didn’t even realize it. I’ve probably been doing it way before then, but that’s when I noticed I would drop a nugget here and there, you know, for people to pick up, and in most cases, they weren’t. It was just like missed opportunity.
Anyway, for the past several months, I’ve been wrestling, you know, trying to decide what to do and all this stuff. But she put it into words to me and it also communicated that it was much needed with the very people I’m already working with. Guess what? As a result of all of that, that is being added as a service offering and I’ve already got two clients on the books ready to go, paid, for strategy planning sessions.
This is my tip for you. Go with the evolution of your business.
Right now, maybe you started with bookkeeping or email support, but you know eventually that’s going to change. You’re going to want to add on something, or maybe you’re at the point where you’ve holding steady. You’re like, okay, this is good. I have the clients that I could support. I’m at my max. I am good.
Well, guess what’s coming next? A shift, transition, change, whatever you’re going to call it. It is coming because it’s inevitable. Things happen. You grow. You want to do more, and that is coming. When it comes, it’s a good thing when you’re able to match it up with whatever it is that your natural advantage is. That is what I’ve been able to do is match up this new service with my natural advantage and it’s going to be awesome.
I haven’t even put it on my website yet, already have two paying clients, and I only have so many slots. Like I think there are only seven slots. But now with the two, there are only five slots. So it’s really exclusive, but it is so satisfying and when I tell you I’ve got two blog posts already ready to go in here, got to get it all down on paper.
On Friday, I participated in a Sip and Shop. I also do direct sales. If you’ve been following along in the podcast, you know I do that so I can get out of the house, meet people and just kind of talk and have fun in a relaxed atmosphere. So I had my jewelry table set up, but I could not help myself. There was a local author there and I went to her table and her books were just amazing.
But I don’t have kids and I was trying to, you know, my wheels are turning trying to figure out, you know, how could we get this in front of some people, and being the natural strategic planner that I am, I dropped some nuggets on here and gave her my name and phone number and all that good stuff. We exchanged information, so hopefully we’ll be working together soon. I didn’t overthink it. It wasn’t hard because it came natural.
For years, I have heard business coaches say you should be doing something that you could do in your sleep, something that comes really natural.
Yes, the technical aspect does. I enjoy that a lot, but there’s been this missing hole like I know there’s more. What else is it? That was it. They need a plan so they can go somewhere from there. That’s awesome. I’m excited about it. We’ll be updating my website to add that on as a service. It just really made me think about how our virtual assistant businesses evolve because we evolve.
Just know there’s a start, there’s a steady, and then there’s a shift. Ooh, three S’s – start, steady, and a shift, and it’s just the natural evolution of your business. When you’re brand new, your start may be several different skills you’re trying to figure out. It might be everything because you don’t know what your specialty is, and so you just get it started with the things that you know and are willing to do, and then you have a steady flow. You know who your clients are you’re working with. Things are going.
Then the shift happens, which at that point if you’re providing everything, it’s more than likely time to narrow it down to the things you really like, really enjoy, and wouldn’t mind doing at all on any day, whether you got paid or not, but you always want to get paid. But you’d be willing to do that, so you kind of shave those services down.
That’s the shift, and then you start again, and then you get steady, and then that shift happens. It’s just awesome. There isn’t a certain time period between level one, two, and three. It looks different for everybody, but just embrace and know that that’s going to happen.
Wherever you are, embrace that place that you are right now.
If you’re still on the fence after hearing different podcast episodes or maybe this is your very first one, you did a Google search and stumbled upon this podcast, do not be afraid. You’re at the start. Go with what you already know. What is that? What are you doing on your job right now? Whatever that is, somebody could use that right now virtually. You don’t have to be in front of you. You don’t have to be at your office. They could use that service right now.
We all have a start. Hold it steady and get ready for the shift.
I don’t know, maybe you’ve been feeling already yourself. Even before I started recording this podcast, I felt a little stirring in my gut and it’s like ah. I don’t know if that’s excitement or nerves or whatever the case may be, but I feel like somebody needs to know the shifting is a good thing. Even if it feels like something is being taken away from you, the shift is a good thing.
Anyway, thank you for tuning in. Let me know if you have any questions or share on my Facebook page if you could relate to this, if you feel the shift, or you’re just getting started, or maybe you’re holding steady. Wherever you are, I want to hear about it, so share that with me on my Facebook page: Facebook.com/TiffanyParsonBiz. Let me know about that.
With this whole adding the strategic planning services, you know, the technical part, I know there are a bunch of you that are interested in learning these skills, and so that is the next step is to build up some VAs to provide those technical services that I do so we can partner up. So you’ll know exactly how to do these things – setting up webinars for clients, setting up the opt-ins, putting all that together, knowing about testing, how to approach different software, and just really get you comfortable in that realm, those of you that are interested in adding on the technical service.
If you’re not my email list, make sure you get on that VIP list. When you go to my website: TiffanyParson.com, click on Free Training. Just put your name and email there. That will put you on my VIP list and you’ll get information once that gets released, and it’ll be released in the next couple of months. I’m working out what the outline and all that good stuff will be because I need to have some go-to VAs.
I believe in building the strategic part of it, then the technical part will grow as well because now everybody will have a plan, and most of the business owners are not into doing both. If they’re coaches, they’re not setting up webinars. If they are trainers, they may write their blog post, but as far as setting it up and formatting, they really want somebody to take over those things, especially the technical aspect, and during the webinar to be able to be available for technical support or email support in case anything happens.
You have no idea how much that frees up our clients so they can do what they do best.
Anyway, let me know. Make sure you get on the email list. Also, share with me how you were able to relate to this episode. If you’re watching on YouTube, simply comment below and let me know there as well. Thank you for always tuning in. Thank you for listening and watching. If you’re brand new, come back again. You have a wonderful day.
Thanks so much for tuning in. If you like what you heard, stay tuned. We’ll be back. Tell me what’s going on with you. Come on over the Facebook page: facebook.com/tiffanyparsonbiz, or if you prefer a little shorter message, come on over to Twitter: @tiffanydparson.
See you next time!
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