I have been an executive assistant for over 25 years but I have also done other things in between
in between my roles as an executive assistant I bought a cafe in America in 2016. I was
responsible not only for the business but also for eight employees sold my business in 2018 and
came back home to Australia having had a taste of not working for anyone but myself I decided
to go it alone and become a virtual assistant I wanted the freedom to work the hours I wanted
boy was I wrong about that but I will elaborate a little later with my executive assistant and
my marketing experience I wanted to offer my services as a virtual assistant I went to work
trying to get clients by going to networking events sending messages through Linkedin the
funny thing is I now get a lot of messages in my LinkedIn inbox and I consider those messages spam
I targeted real estate agents and solar power companies because I knew that industry the clients
I got were mainly American companies and one was an American company branching out in Australia
now before I go on about why I didn't enjoy being a virtual assistant I want to add a disclaimer
some virtual assistants love what they do and don't mind going out there looking for leads
and if that's you they're more power to you this video is about my experience and to give
you food for thought before venturing out to become a virtual assistant yourself but before
we get started with the list please consider hitting the Subscribe and like button to get
more content like this okay now let's get started on the things that made me realize that being a
virtual assistant wasn't for me number one I was always hustling to get clients this is so not me
number two always chasing up clients to pay their invoices number three when it came to invoicing
time a few clients wanted to negotiate the cost of the invoice it was frustrating I never cheated
anyone in fact I sometimes went beyond expectation and didn't charge them for it number four I was
competing against virtual assistants from other countries that could charge way less than what
I could charge number five potential clients wanted to haggle my hourly rate to make me come
down to their budget but I never negotiated my rate I believe whatever their budget was wasn't
a concern of mine I wasn't going to budge from my rates which were very reasonable for my experience
I know some virtual assistants use overseas virtual assistants to do their work and charge
an extra margin on top of their cost and I could have done that however I found when I used these
cheaper virtual assistants their workmanship wasn't great and I wasn't happy to put my name
on the project they completed I had to go in and fix it up before I sent it to my clients
and to be honest after managing staff in my restaurant business I was over managing people
number six by the time I paid taxes and for the hours I put into my work I really didn't
find it financially beneficial and I found I was working more hours for less than what
I would have got working for someone else in Australia an employer has to pay 10.5 percent
of an employee's base salary into a retirement fund of their choice when I was working for
myself to put money into a retirement fund I would have had to charge my clients more
number seven when I was a virtual assistant it was before they had zoom and team calls it was hard to
have the face-to-face meeting and different time zones were hard to manage without that visual
feedback where I could share my screen completing projects were harder than they should have been
number eight I didn't like waiting for a response from a client before I could
continue a project especially when there was a due date this was quite stressful
not because I can't deal with stressful situations but because I had no control over when they came
back to me and sometimes it was days number nine the myth that I had the freedom to work my own
hours is a scam I found that I was working more hours to get things out and please my clients
than I would have been if I was working for a company number 10. finding clients was really hard
I would send out an email or message introducing myself and my services only to be met with silence
number 11. when finding clients some only had one-off requests and other clients wanted me
on sporadic days I might be needed a few days a week sometimes and then I wouldn't hear from
them for weeks after eight months of doing this I decided I was done and started going through
interviews and wound down my company I got a job working for someone else when I started
working for someone else I knew how much I was getting and there was no fluctuations in my pay
I like the fact that they were contributing to my retirement fund and my hours were set
I know some of you might say that eight months is too soon to give up but I haven't looked back
since knowing what I am getting I can budget I can invest and plan for my future I also get paid
for my annual leave and don't have to worry about not getting paid while so I go away I'm not saying
there are no benefits to working as a virtual assistant especially if you're a single mum or
on maternity leave looking for some extra cash but I don't have young kids they are all grown
up and I would rather someone else worry about the bookkeeping the clients and everything else that
comes along with owning a business I do have side hustles but I don't rely on anyone for them just
myself I hope you found this video informative please subscribe and like and thanks for watching