After 1 Year of Full Time Business:
10 Lessons I’ve Learnt
Celebrating & reflecting on 1 year of full-time business!
It’s truly incredible that it’s been one year since I left my 9-5 job to pursue my virtual assistant business full time! This was something I had been working to manifest for several years. I can remember vividly the day I virtually handed in my resignation from that job and completed my last day. This all happened while working from home, but it still felt monumental and dramatic. I can remember feeling excited, happy, and having background feelings of overwhelm and anxiousness. Since then, I’ve been on an emotional and intense journey growing my business, my skillset, and getting more comfortable with my new role as a full-time entrepreneur. It’s also been an incredible transformation from trying to wing it as a travel blogger, to not being in my zone of genius as a photographer, to now comfortable as a VA.
With this year now under my belt, I thought I’d write a blog post sharing my top ten most felt lessons in business that have helped me get to where I am now and have given me the ability to chart an exciting future. Grab a cup of tea and some snacks, this is going to be a long one. And, it’s a vulnerable post!
Time is truly your own, but use it Wisely.
When I had my first full entrepreneurial day, I remember sitting at my desk at home dumbfounded. I couldn’t believe how much time I had in front of me.
No more squishing in my business around my 9-5, no more sitting through pointless meetings, no more working on things that didn’t light me up.
And best of all, I discovered I can schedule personal things like a hair appointment in the middle of the freakin’ morning if I had the time! I mean, what sorcery was this?! This felt weird and took some time to get used to. Even to this day I get some sort of weird thrill when I take care of something personal or fun in the middle of the day, like I’m breaking the rules!
At the same time, I realized that I didn’t need to sit in front of my computer just waiting to pounce on the next email or message. It’s such a waste of time. I can time block my tasks, revisit my emails later on and even take a break by going for a walk. Sometimes this doesn’t always happen, because of urgent tasks that come up that need to be dealt with in a timely fashion. And I’m still learning to unlearn this habit inherited from the corporate world. The fact remains, I have these options and I love using them! And you should too!
Managing your emotions is fundamental.
Ah, this is a sticky one. I’m not sure if you are like me, but I take almost everything I do in my business personally. It all matters. Everything. All the time. With that, comes BIG emotions. I can get defensive, upset, triggered, impatient, and over-dramatize things. Sometimes these emotions aren’t telling the truth and I have to figure out what is fact. (This is reassuring!) Sometimes this is a me issue that I have created. Sometimes I need to take a break, journal it out, and then pick up the pieces and soldier one. Other times, I need to rely on a template of prepared statements for various situations just in case my brain freezes. It’s definitely multi-faced and something I’m still determined to work on. I thank my therapist and business coach for helping me through some rough patches!
The Importance of learning your enneagram type.
Learning about your personality type is so helpful. I can’t recommend it enough. Maybe this appreciation comes from being an introspective person, but whatever it is I love it! There are so many different ways to learn about yourself such as Myers Briggs, astrology birth chart, and my latest favourite, knowing your enneagram type. If you are unfamiliar, enneagram is based on 9 personalties that are organized in a circle formation, allowing these types to be interconnected. It also shows you your type when you are at your healthiest mentally and emotionally, as well as the type you are when you are not your best self. Based on this description, this personality typology definitely doesn’t hold anything back, zeros right in on your sore spots and your biggest lessons. Oh, I felt this one for a while after I learnt my type! At the same time, it helped me see things I was blind to, explained why I reacted a certain way, and give me helpful tips on how to manage myself. Any guesses as to what type I am and do you know yours?
Getting quality Support you can count on can help you soar.
I cannot stress enough how important it is to get consistent quality support when you are building a business. This can come in many ways: co-working communities, entrepreneurial groups on Facebook and IRL, stellar podcasts, mastermind, and having a business coach. I have found all those options helpful at various times in my business journey and they have all positively impacted my growth. I do however know what it’s like to not get the right form of support; signing up for something and realizing that it’s not a great fit. This is really frustrating, isolating, and a reminder to always listen to your intuition! On the flip side, having the right support is so comforting and makes you realize that you can soar unobstructed! Such a powerful feeling. I am here for it!
5. Get your accounting books in order to welcome in more money.
From Unsplash
I am a firm believer that money needs a comfortable and orderly place to rest and grow. If your accounting system is a mess, so will your finances and you won’t hit your goals. As soon as I reconciled my Quickbooks, learnt how to properly categorize expenses, inputed my services for faster and tidier billing, I was able to pay myself and watch my revenue grow. Alongside this, I highly recommend making a spreadsheet to track your revenue, expenses, payments to yourself and team, savings for taxes and remaining cash. Always knowing your numbers and where you stand is so key. Even though it feels overwhelming and annoying to do, there is peace of mind of knowing where you stand.
6. Schedule in rest. Seriously do it now.
This is one I struggled to believe was important and crucial to my continued success. Back when I had my 9-5 and I was also juggling this business, I burnt out regularly. I also had poor time management skills and ignored scheduling rest. “Why rest when you can do more work?”, I often thought. But then as I took on more work, I hated how I felt. I realized that this was not how I wanted to feel in the business I was building. Not to mention, I missed opportunities to connect with potential businesses for stability and achieving the goal of leaving my 9-5 because I was so tired. I was ruining what I wanted. That was a huge wake up call. I then started off small. I took a weekend off, I stopped working every weekday, I booked a massage at a nice spa in town, and took short local trips for a change of scenery. But my biggest flex of all, taking the Christmas holidays completely off with out of office message on. The difference in how I felt before and after each time I rested was dramatic.
7. Working on the business is just as important as in the business.
Here’s another one that I sometimes still struggle with. Taking my focus away from client work and completing tasks that ensure the business continues moving forward is not easy for me. I use to think that I’m not directly getting paid to write blog posts, update my service and pricing guide, tidy up my inboxes, upgrade my systems, make reels, whatever it is. As well, I was triggered by thinking that working on the business felt like a time when my business was barely a side hustle. I was wasting a lot of time on tasks that were just keeping me busy but doing nothing to move the needle forward, such as website design updates. After some time, I realized that of course I wasn’t in the same place as my early days. As I have been told, creating a solid foundation to ensure the structure is there to support what I’m doing now will allow for more to come in. If I can’t handle what I have now, there’s no way I will be able to make room for more. Mind blown! I now highly value working on the business tasks.
8. Stop the Peaks and Valleys Cycle By not setting yourself up for These
From Unsplash
It’s really hard and discouraging to have moments in business where you are absolutely killing it - clients are coming in, money is staking up, you are expanding your skillset, and truly helping people. Then all of a sudden it goes quiet, like really quiet. Like where are the crickets type of quiet. It is very unsettling. I have struggled with getting out of these moments. Before I have tried to solve it by going on a pitching rampage, which meant I would go through my Instagram home feed and pitch to whoever could use VA services. Sometimes this meant almost everyone! Obviously, this was a time waster as I wasn’t reaching the right people, I wasn’t building relationships, and worst of all I wasn’t getting out of a slump. A key strategy I have found in getting out of this is not letting myself get there in the first place, otherwise this cycle will just repeat itself. I’ve made sure I’m always promoting my services, sharing tips, and how my business can help others on social media. I’ve followed up with past clients and worked to ensure I have a group of raving fans who can mention me to other business owners. This definitely takes time to build up, but once you get there, all the hard work is so worth it.
9. Face Those Mistakes Head On
This one makes me feel really squeamish to talk about. If you read #2 in this post, you know about my big emotions and how much I care about what I do. When mistakes happen, it makes me cringe. I have learnt with time and plenty of mishaps to not focus on how bad I feel about making the mistake, but rather being proactive in solving it and preventing it from happening again. There’s taking responsibility for my action (or lack there of) and focusing on how the client is doing. Of course no one is perfect and mistakes happen, but having these processes in place has helped me move through the icky moments. As well, having strategies in place to reduce these occurrences such as recording client meetings, taking detailed notes, asking clarifying questions, doing independent research, and just frankly believing in myself that I can do it have been gold. I have realized through these moments that I am actually more resilient and capable than I think. Sometimes I have wanted to do so well, that I have gotten in my way of just completing the damn thing, you know? I remind myself that I am likely making it harder than it needs to be and that seems to usually bring me back to Earth and soldering on.
10. Celebrate Your wins.
I, like many entrepreneurs, am pro at achieving a goal and just immediately going to the next thing. This has made things feel flat and joyless. As I am starting to put plans in motion to make my first hire, I realize how important it is to have a company culture of celebration, fun, and joy. It’s also important to enjoy the fruits of your labour. Sometimes this can be something small but meaningful to you like treating yourself to gourmet pizza delivery, a fancy latte, a new notebook, whatever you want that sparks joy and reminds you that your hard work allowed you to have or experience that thing. Want to know how I’m celebrating my one-year of full business anniversary? Tune in to my Instagram stories at the end of February!
Here’s to the Next Year of Full-Time Business!
As I’m sure you can see from my list of lessons, I’ve had quite the year as an entrepreneur! Despite the challenges and hard lessons, I do not regret one bit having left my 9-5. I think it’s the best decision I’ve made. There were times when I thought I would never make it, but I’m so glad I’ve persevered. Of course, I wouldn’t be here without the unwavering support of my clients, such as those who have stuck with me from my early days, returned, and those one project wonder clients. I thank-you all so much for trusting me with your business, allowing me to work alongside you, witnessing your growth, and learning more to become a better VA and entrepreneur. I am already looking forward to year two as a full-time entrepreneur. I genuinely can’t wait to see what will fill my calendar, Asana projects, and notebooks! Thank-you for reading this blog post - I hope some of these lessons resonated with you and can help you along your business journey.
Lots of love & good vibes,
Kathleen
Kathleen is the founder of the Virtual Spell. She loves dogs and horses and hopes to own at least one of each some day soon. As a virtual assistant, she loves helping small business owners take back their time, feel less stress, and build out a top notch CRM system. You will find Kathleen at a future networking event in Vancouver and on Instagram (@the_virtual_spell) - come say hi! Kathleen is committed to becoming an anti-racist and ally to the BIPOC community. Read her full anti-racism mission statement here. Read more about her here!