So, you may or may not have noticed that in June, Orchard Virtual Assistance turned a year old! The time has flown by, and I can honestly say that it has been one of the most incredible and rewarding periods of my professional life. (This blog has been a couple of months coming due to how busy the last two months have been so bear with me).
How it all began
The decision to set up Orchard VA followed my redundancy last year due to COVID. In some ways, it was an obvious step – I had the experience and knowledge to go it alone. Still, it wasn’t an easy choice. Whenever you decide to set up a new business, you always worry about the financial implications: will I bring in enough money quickly enough? An even tougher consideration when you have a family.
To balance this uncertainty, I took up an administration position at a local university for three days a week – to ‘tide me over’. This ensured I had a regular income whilst leaving me two days a week to concentrate on Orchard. However, this arrangement did turn out to be a bit of a juggling act with its challenges . . . the most significant being that I couldn’t take on clients who needed daily support.
To manage this, I took up contracts on an ad hoc basis to suit my diary, or which allowed me to complete work at my discretion. I could therefore balance my different commitments successfully.
Soon, my VA diary was filling up, and I was on a role.
Business contacts and professional support
When setting up the business, choosing a name, designing the brand and marketing myself came relatively easy. This was because I had a background in sales. This sales experience also meant I had an existing network of good contacts I could draw upon through LinkedIn. I dropped a line to those who I worked with previously to offer my services.
LinkedIn also provided a means of targeting those people I wanted to work with. . . I didn’t have to waste time searching or qualifying business leads or potential clients through other means.
I also sought advice from the wonderful VACT Training Academy, run by Amanda Johnson, and quickly decided to join her VA membership group. The guidance, tools, webinars and training all provided as part of this membership proved extremely valuable. I was also pleasantly surprised by the sense of community spirit found amongst my fellow VA’s. I’ve never met such a supportive and welcoming group.
During this initial period, I made some mistakes. In particular, the feeling that ‘I had to’ join each of the programmes or groups on offer and acquire every piece of software. Many times, I merely felt overwhelmed. It is crucial to step back, evaluate what you want to achieve and how best to get there—don’t choose everything on offer, but what is suitable for you.
The breakthrough . . .
When April arrived, my part-time job at the university came to an end. At this point, I decided to put my big girl pants on a take the plunge to go full time as a VA. To do so, I needed to get my existing clients to commit on a retainer basis to guarantee my income. All of them agreed. During the preceding months, my relationship with these clients had become one of trust. Each had the confidence in me to deliver the services they required.
“Have I mentioned that I think you are awesome btw”
Lovely WhatsApp message from Aly Young, Solicitor – comments like this make being self employed totally worth it to have happy, appreciative clients
Within a month, I had completed my target number of working hours and revenue and was in essence at full capacity – one of my main goals. I became successful enough to appoint an associate VA to help with new requests (and since starting this blog I now have a marketing associate, and a copywriter joining my team!). This all means I can add more value to my existing clients whilst expanding my search for new clients.
So, in short, Orchard Virtual Assistance is now a ‘team’ of VAs, able to provide a broader range of services to more clients.
My experience has taught me to be patient in moving from a full-time contractual job to managing my own business. Although unable to become a VA from the get-go, I made it by taking a series of smaller steps. This allowed me to maintain a regular income and gave me the breathing space to establish myself with clients. The move to becoming a full time VA was longer than expected, but the transition was smoother because of it.
Here’s to the next chapter of Orchard VA . . .
Please get in touch if you’d like to discuss how Orchard VA ca support your business with remote administrative support. I’d be happy to help. HELLO@ORCHARD-VA.CO.UK
