6 Ways to Make Your Virtual Assistant Business More Sustainable

Running a virtual assistant business is tough! There are so many things to worry about – how can you make your virtual assistant business more sustainable? Here are 6 ways to make your virtual assistant business more sustainable and build a long-term growth strategy.

Why is Building a Sustainable Business Important?

A sustainable business is one that lasts and one that is able to scale long-term. As a virtual assistant or service provider, it’s easy to get burned out quickly – which is why it’s so important to build a sustainable business as an entrepreneur.

Building a sustainable virtual assistant business is no easy task. There are plenty of ways to make your virtual assistant business more sustainable – from charging higher rates, to limiting the number of clients you take on at one time, to scaling up by hiring another virtual assistant or two!

Let’s dive into all of the ways you can start to think about and build a more sustainable business model.

1) Charge Your Worth

It’s one thing to have a virtual assistant business that can help you make more money, but it’s another if you don’t ever charge your worth. You need to start thinking about how much you want to work per week or per month. Then, think about how many clients you would need at your certain package rates to meet that goal.

2) Stop Charging Hourly

If you’re trying to make your virtual assistant business more sustainable, then the first thing I recommend is that you stop charging hourly. This might be a tough decision for some of us virtual assistants who are used to being paid by the hour – but it’s one worth making if we want our virtual businesses to last longer and work better in the long run.

3) Create Your Systems and Processes

Another way to build a scalable and sustainable business model is to make sure you are creating back-end systems and processes for your business. Having these steps in place can allow you to stop being so IN your business. It allows you to take time away, as needed, and stops your business from depending entirely on you to run it.

Create automations, workflows, and stop letting your business run you!

4) Hiring a Team or Subcontractor

If you’re feeling like you can’t hire some virtual assistants to help with your workload, think again! You may not be able to afford that right now. But what if instead of hiring them full-time and paying their salary every month, you hired them on a project basis?

Outsourcing or hiring allows you the space to take on more clients, and focus on the work that you truly love to do. You don’t have to go so huge that you build your own agency (unless you want to!) but it’s easy to hire some help with tasks that aren’t in your zone of genius in order to scale.

5) Time Management

In order to build a sustainable business, you have to figure out a time management system and process that works for you. We are all different and have different strengths, so figuring out a system that works specifically for you is key.

I, personally, love batching my work and using a project management system, ClickUp, that has really increased my productivity and time management skillset.

6)  Enhance Your Skillset

If you are a virtual assistant, it’s likely that your client is outsourcing work for the first time. In order to provide them with quality service and help make sure they have all of their bases covered, it’s important that you learn as much about virtual assistance as possible.

It’s easy to build a sustainable business by offering your current clients additional services that you also love to do. Or even transitioning into additional skillsets, like moving into more of an OBM (online business manager) role.

Conclusion

Hopefully, these tips have gotten you started thinking more about how you can scale your business into a more sustainable business model moving forward. You need to think about where you want your business to be in 2 years, 5 years, 10 years, and start planning your sustainability plan now.