Are Money Worries Keeping You From Becoming a Virtual Assistant?

Just last week I hosted a three-day workshop called Leap Into Your Virtual Career. I had 500 people register. In preparation for the workshop, I asked participants during a Facebook video to answer this question for me: What fear is holding you back from becoming a VA? 

Several answers came piling into the comments, from failure to confidence to not getting clients. But the most prevalent answer had to do with money. Repeatedly, women talked about paying the bills, making a steady income. 

Just look at these real comments from women aspiring to become VAs; their fear is palpable.  

• I am so nervous about leaving the stability of my job and that income. - Lisa
• Not making enough money. -Angel
• I am scared to fail and lose money or not have enough money. -Brandy
• My fear...not generating enough income to pay my bills and afford health coverage. -Ligia
• My biggest fear is not making enough money to support myself. -Marian
• What's holding me back is fear of not being able to bring in enough income to sustain a work from home business -Marleen 

These fears aren’t new to me. I have nearly twenty years of experience in the Virtual Assistant space, so I’ve felt this fear myself, and heard this a thousand times from others. 

What I also know is that it is totally possible (actually PROBABLE) to generate a steady income to pay the bills, afford healthcare, and sustain one’s self and family. I know this because I’ve not only done it myself, but I’ve trained over 200 others how to do it, too. Hundreds of them have thriving businesses, fulfilling lives, and are making more money now than they ever did in their traditional j.o.b. 

Yes, you heard me right. Hundreds of women are making money as VAs and making more now than they ever did. You can hear some women talk about their journeys here. 

So, what’s the secret? How do you overcome the fear that you won’t make enough money and the bills won’t get paid as a VA?  

LEARN WHAT YOU DON’T YET KNOW

The best way to overcome your fear is to learn what you don’t yet know. They say that fear comes from the unknown. And it’s no different when it comes to taking the leap and becoming a VA. 

The women who are worried about not making enough money or not paying the bills often don’t know the following:

• What kind of services can be sold
• What work experience and skills can be leveraged
• Who needs those services 
• Where to find clients
• How to get clients and keep them
• How much you can charge
• How to market and promote 
• What makes a business sustainable (or scalable) 

These are all key components to setting up a business that is profitable. If you don’t have the insight into these answers, you can’t wrap your mind around the possibility of leaving your day job and making enough money on your own to sustain yourself. So the first thing that needs to happen is you need to get a clear understanding of how a VA business works. 

TRANSITION IS DIFFICULT BUT NOT UNSURVIVABLE

Next, you need a slight perspective adjustment.

Anytime we start anything NEW, we are fearful until we aren’t. We don’t know something until we do. And we don’t know it until we invest our time and energy into learning, understanding, experiencing, or trying it. Whatever ‘it’ may be. Once you know more about the thing you fear, it’s not as scary. 

Most of us have probably been working so long for someone else that we’ve forgotten way, way back (and for me that’s decades) to when we first entered the workforce as a spry, young thing, just out of high school or college, with no real world experience yet. We probably were terrified of the whole job search and employment process. How do I find a job? How do I interview well? What questions should I ask? How do benefits and salary work? What if I can’t find a job? How do I negotiate a salary? What if the job I get doesn’t pay all my bills? (And let’s face it … there are plenty of people in traditional employment that have salaries that aren’t cutting it.) We probably fret during the whole process until we finally landed a job. 

But that fear, worry, and anxiety probably crept right back in the time you chose to (or had to) leave that job that you had grown accustomed to. Wasn’t that idea of starting over somewhere else, doing something else, for someone else nauseating? Until you finally started the new job, learned what you needed to, and got comfortable again? 

My point: choosing to jump on the VA path isn’t much different than starting a new job somewhere else (home), doing something else (VA services), for someone else (yourself!). Once you learn your surroundings, your responsibilities, and your role you’re comfortable again and things become “business as usual.” The transition is always the hardest but it’s survivable. 

RECOGNIZE NOTHING IS EVER GUARANTEED

Once women (and men, too) come to understand what they can do as a VA, who they can work with, what they can charge, how to set up their business - and hear from real women who have seen real results - life as a VA becomes more tangible. The picture is more clear. The light bulb flickers on. “Now I see how this works. Now I understand how I can make money from this.” With the key questions answered, it replaces some of that fear and doubt. 

I won’t say that the fear goes away entirely. In fact, it’s unsurmountable for some. Those who never overcome it, never become VAs. And I don’t judge anyone for being worried. The stakes are high when you’re thinking about feeding your family and keeping your lights turned on. 

But even a traditional job doesn't have any guarantees; it’s not permanent or guaranteed. Neither is the salary, or benefits, or pensions, or 401K plans that may have come with that employment. Truthfully, there is as much risk or uncertainty in working for someone else as there is working for yourself. Be it having to trust the CEO knows how to run a company so that it’s always profitable and can pay it’s people or trust that some force beyond anyone’s control (think: COVID) won’t wipe the business out. 

Leaping into a new career as a VA may be scary, but it’s not impossible. It may be full of uncertainties, but anything new always is. You can overcome the fear by gathering all the info you need to replace the fear with knowledge and make an informed decision.  

AN INVITATION TO LEARN WHAT YOU DON’T YET KNOW

I have the perfect way for you to learn more about what you don’t yet know. 

Next month is my Virtual Expert? Virtual Event: Claim Your Throne, Rule Your World: The 3-Day Virtual Event for Virtual Assistants Ready to Rule their Businesses and Lives. October 9,10, and 11th. You are invited. Anyone interested in life as a VA should be there. 

Join me and hundreds of other Virtual Assistants and Virtual Experts? who have overcome their fear of leaping into a VA career and have lived to tell the tale of their successes in business and the positive impact on their pocketbooks. 

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Kathy Goughenour is an experienced and savvy business coach and trainer. From corporate marketing to Virtual Assistant to business coach and trainer.

Since 2008 she's been training and coaching women to build successful Virtual Assistant home-based businesses through her program Virtual Expert? Training.

For more information about what Virtual Experts? do and how to start a successful Virtual Expert? business, visit my website, and get yourself registered for the Virtual Expert? Virtual Event: Claim Your Throne, Rule Your World: The 3-Day Virtual Event for Virtual Assistants Ready to Rule their Businesses and Lives. October 9,10, and 11th.