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Referenced Links:
- 21 Day Upwork Challenge
- Upwork
Tweetables:
If we are settling for less, we’re not getting all that’s meant for us. #vatip 
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Taking a step towards your dream shows you want it. #vatipGotta Tweet!
Settling for less doesn’t always look like less. #vatip Gotta Tweet!
In Words:
This is for beginners. It’s for experienced. It’s for professionals. It’s for everyone. It is for you if you’re listening to this episode.
We all know when we are not reaching our full potential individually. You know internally when you’re just doing enough. You know when you’re not putting your 100% effort into something, or when you’re pulling back because maybe you don’t want someone else to feel a certain way.
It’s time to stop settling for less. It’s time to stop giving less than who God created us to be. You know there’s more inside of you. Just like I know there’s more inside of me. Every single day, we strive to make our dreams come true. Hopefully, that’s where you are. If not, you’ve got to go back and listen to episode number 53.
You’ve seen that quote graphic or picture or whatever it is that says, “You were meant to do more than live, work, pay bills, and die.” You were meant to create an impact, whether it’s an impact on the world, an impact on your state, an impact on your city, your county, your street, your church, your family. It doesn’t matter how big or how small your impact is supposed to be, but there is supposed to be some type of impact.
People should know that you were here, and we have control over that because every day we make choices about what we’re going to do for that day. We make choices about who we let in our life. We have choices about the actions that we’re going to take or not, because every right decision is not a yes.
I’ve had a couple of conversations lately talking with people about their dreams. You know, what do they want out of life, because we’re not just meant to be here to live, work, pay bills, and die. That is not what God created us to be. Otherwise, we wouldn’t have been, because we all serve a purpose, whether we’re actually going through that or not.
If you’ve been wrestling with what to do next, you’ve been wrestling about, well, I don’t know what I want this to look like, if you’re just in your virtual assistant business because, you know, I need to make some extra money, then there’s nothing wrong with that. Hopefully, once you’re in it for a while, you’re seeing a bigger picture, whether it leads to more in your VA business or it leads to a different type of business or a different type of accomplishment or whatever.
When you own your own business, you are responsible for everything. You have to do everything. We are like hunters. We eat what we kill. Our food is based on what projects we go and we attack. It’s based on what clients we get. It’s based on how we sell ourselves.
Okay, so recently I’ve been watching this show on Netflix. I think it was on National Geographic when it first came out. But you know how you binge watch stuff, and it’s on Netflix. It’s called Filthy Riches, and I can’t wait. I’m on season one and I plan to finish it all out this weekend, you know, season one and season two. It follows people who are entrepreneurs and they make their money based on what they catch. So there’s an eel fisherman, there are bloom work diggers, there’s burl hunters, ginseng diggers or hunters, mushroom hunters, and I think that’s everybody.
As I’m watching different episodes, I’m just taking notes because I’m learning all kinds of things in relation to business. Some things were reminders and some things were new. So when I give you the analogy of like we eat what we kill, that’s their whole thing. But they’re not eating to live; they’re eating make money. They’re getting paid for their catch.
We’re the same way. We get paid based on what we catch. Now, it’s not just random where whatever’s falling out the sky, you know, that’s not how it works. It’s about us going out to get it.
If we are settling for less, we’re not getting all that’s meant for us.
Perfect example of settling for less is sitting back and just depending on referrals. It’s easy to sit back and depend on referrals. I know what that’s like. You get busy. You get client work. Things happen and you stop marketing.
The most important thing for us is marketing. What does that mean? Letting people know who we are and what we do so that when and if they need us, their peers need us, or they happen to hear a conversation wherever, we come to mind. How do we do that? We’ve got blog posts, social media, paid advertising, networking, and cold calling. There are all kinds of ways you can market yourself.
Job boards – you all know that’s my favorite number one to get started is the job boards because people are already looking for us. It’s like we’re going to fish in the pond that’s got all the fish. They’re looking for us. Why would we skip over that? Some people don’t like the job boards because they think, well, people are low-balling on rates, things like that. That happens, but those aren’t your clients.
There are real people on the other side of those project requests and everybody’s not low-balling. It requires you to take the time and sift through. Start recognizing when those things happen. Once you encounter a few low ballers, you’ll learn what the signs are, and then know how to avoid them. You’ll know how to market yourself and stand your ground and be confident in what you provide.
At the very beginning, you may not be totally confident. You may know that you can do it, but you may not be confident in selling yourself, and that’s okay. I’ve made plenty of bumps and mistakes, mostly mistakes on rates. Not getting out of it everything I put in, and that’s okay. You get, I think it was, an $11 or $13 check and you figure out some things.
I’m very efficient in what I do, so hourly rates don’t work for me because I’ve been doing this for a long time and I’m efficient, and it would hurt me to charge hourly. You may be in the same boat and it’s time to just forget about hourly rates and charge a flat rate. It works for both you and for your client. They know what the rate is going to be, and you feel good about what they’re paying, and you feel good and confident that you can do the work they hire you to do, and you get it done, and there you have it.
Why are you shortchanging yourself, for those that are just sitting around waiting on word of mouth?
You may say, “Well, Tiffany, I’m not sitting around waiting. I’m going out there. I’m going after the fish. I’m on the job boards. I’m submitting proposals, but nothing is happening.” If that’s the case, step back and look at your profile, how you answer the questions, if their project has questions.
Step back and look at things from the point of view of your client. Become them as you review your information. When you do that you may find that what you said wasn’t clear, need more information, more details, more specifics. Maybe it was too general or maybe it just wasn’t a fit, and that’s cool. We don’t buy from everyone. We don’t work with everyone. It may just not be a good fit. Don’t settle for less.
You’ve got word of mouth, job boards. Are you blogging to show off your knowledge? Blogging, sending newsletters, are you communicating in some way what you can do?
There was an article that kind of ruffled my feathers. It got me a little hot and I had to just talk to myself like, okay, this is for people looking for VAs abroad, and I don’t fit the category. You may not fit the category. What I didn’t like, it wasn’t the rate so much because I realize rates vary if you’re in the Philippians versus the United States, so I’m not even looking at rates. It was the way things were worded and telling people to hire VAs like you would hire an employee.
If a client wants to hire you like an employee, that is not your client if you are a virtual assistant business owner. There are virtual assistants and there are virtual assistant business owners. Okay. It doesn’t matter what side you’re on. What matters is that you know what side you’re on.
The first thing that was like a red flag was they had posted an ad on Craigslist. Caribbean Craigslist was where the ad was, and it said, the last thing, “Please attach a resume.” If you’ve been around listening to my podcast for a while, you know that is a BIG no-no for a virtual assistant business owner.
A resume? When do we give resumes? When we’re looking to be hired by a company, you know, we’re looking for a job. Do you ask your doctor for a resume? Do you ask your CPA for a resume? If you are parents and your kids are in daycare, did you ask the daycare owner for a resume? Do we ask our hairstylist for a resume, our nail technician for a resume? The list goes on.
Think about people who have their businesses that provide a service for us. Do we ask for resumes? No, we don’t ask for resumes.
We do not ask for resumes. We look for testimonials. We look for reviews. Someone that’s maybe worked with the person in the past or portfolios, something like that, to let us know whether this is a good fit for us or not. How did you pick your doctor? Did you pick your doctor because of a resume? Most likely not, you know, we’re given a list of doctors that fit our insurance company and you kind of have to pick one. Now, whether that’s a good method or not, I don’t know. The point is, we don’t ask for resumes.
If someone’s asking you for a resume, they’re not your client. How can they be your client if they’re asking for a resume? They’re trying to become your employer. They’re not your client.
I realize like the context of this particular one, but I thought it’s important to share with you guys that tidbit. If you see that, don’t think you have to do a resume. Somebody’s asking for that, that’s just absurd. I’m not going to link up the article in the show notes. I don’t want it to be misconstrued how I’m referencing this article. If you want to dig around on Google, you can for it.
But anyway, somebody’s asking you for a resume, it’s a no-no. Then there’s a test. She recommends a test, that you give your VAs tests. This is important for us to see this side of this so we can understand how people think. Now, this person wouldn’t be my client. It’s not a good fit. But like I said, it’s good for you to know how people think. This is information she’s sharing to a coaching group, giving them advice on how to find virtual assistants abroad.
The test, basically, is seeing if they can do the task that she would like to outsource to them, and really she’s looking to hire an employee. So I get the whole test. She stresses not paying them for the test. People have different opinions on that, about doing free work or whatever it is. My thought is this: if you’ve got your portfolio and things already set up, you don’t have to worry about doing free work. It’s already done. She wants to know if you can post a blog. Well, if you’ve been posting your own blog, you can point her to your website. She wants to know if you can post videos to YouTube. Well, post one of your own things on YouTube.
Point being, do for yourself what you would like to do for clients.
I probably have gotten all off track about settling for less, but this is part of settling for less because if you settle for these hoops, you’re settling for less. You’re no longer a business owner if that’s your plan.
Now, I talk even more about what to provide and how to get clients on the job boards in the 21 Day Upwork Challenge. I’ll start promoting that very soon. Elance will be shutting down May 30th. They’re not closing. They’ve become Upwork, but the Elance site is going away and totally going to be Upwork. We’re going to get started with the 21 Day Challenge very soon in May. The way you get on that is if you are on my VIP email list, you’re going to get information that way.
If you’re a podcast listening, you’re not on the list yet, if you go to tiffanyparson.com and click on Events and you will see 21 Day Upwork Challenge. Just hop on that. Right now it’s going to say there’s a waiting list. You just put your name and email in there and that will get you on the list. Let me know that you’re interested and you’ll get more information about registration and all that good stuff.
All right, so that is this article I was talking about, information I’m sharing. Just an example, you’re giving out your resume. That is settling for less, if you’re wanting more, right.
Are you waiting for somebody to give you permission to start your business?
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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