7 Reasons Why People Fail at Launching a Virtual Assistant Business

Are you thinking of starting a virtual assistant business? If so, you’re not alone. A quick search on the internet will yield hundreds of results for articles and blog posts about how to start a virtual assistant business. So, what’s stopping you? It could be that you’re worried you won’t be successful. Or maybe you don’t know where to start. In this blog post, I’m going to share seven reasons why people fail at launching a virtual assistant business. Armed with this information, you can avoid these common traps and launch your own successful virtual assistant business. 

 

Common Mistakes Of Launching a Virtual Assistant Business:

1. Lack of Preparation 

Running a successful virtual business is an amazing thing, but when you are first starting out it can feel overwhelming and challenging. Sometimes you might not prepare as much as you should have because you see all of the Instagram posts telling you how easy it is. The truth is, sometimes it might take you a bit to get your first client. Most businesses grow over time, slowly. You can’t compare the start of your business to someone else’s 5-year journey.

You shouldn’t hold yourself back from launching your business, but you also shouldn’t launch in a day. Make it a process and create a plan, map out some goals, and set yourself up for success!

 

2. Unrealistic Expectations When Launching a Virtual Assistant Business

The number one reason some virtual assistants and service providers fail is this one here – unrealistic expectations. As a virtual assistant, you are running a business and as I mentioned, it’s not always easy to get your first or second client.

Sometimes it can be easy but for the majority of service providers, it will take you a bit to find that first client and grow your business. If you go into it with unrealistic expectations you can start to doubt yourself and want to quit before you’ve even gotten started.

 

3. Poor Time Management Skills 

One of the most important things when it comes to running your business is learning how to manage your time. You won’t just be investing your time into doing client work. As a business owner, you also need to have great time management skills in order to:

• Grow your business with new leads by marketing, creating content, and networking
• Streamline your onboarding processes and systems
• Organizing your business
• Handle client inquiries, communication, meetings, and discovery calls

The truth is, you’ll be wearing a lot of hats when you first start your virtual assistant business and all these things require time management.

If you don’t manage your time properly you’ll be left feeling overwhelmed, burned out, and wondering why the heck you started this entrepreneurship journey in the first place.

 

 

4. Underestimating the Competition 

In recent years, the remote work and virtual industry have been booming. Every year more and more people are excited to learn how to start their own business and work from home. A growing field is great but it also means higher competition, especially if you are relying solely on freelance sites or Facebook groups to bring in work and find more clients.

You should have multiple ways of finding and bringing in new clients, not just one method that usually has higher competition.

 

5. Inability to Delegate Tasks 

One of the biggest challenges as your business grows and you bring on more clients is learning how to delegate and outsource for your own business. 

As one person you can only do so much in a day, which is especially true for service providers who are charging hourly. Hourly pricing is great if you love a variety of projects or are just getting started. But eventually, you’ll hit an income ceiling. You won’t have any more hours left to take on more clients or grow your business without hiring help and delegating some things yourself.

 

6. Fear of Failure

Fear of failure or imposter syndrome can hold back the most skilled and incredible entrepreneurs from finding success. It can be tough to put yourself and your expertise out there, but one of my favorite sayings is:

Nobody can hire you if they don’t know what you do. You need to talk about it and share it!

 

7. Not Charging Enough

I’ve worked with many service providers who were struggling because they weren’t charging enough. Usually, these people end up with 2 problems:

• They aren’t charging enough so they take on work that isn’t a good fit or work with clients who aren’t a great fit. The result? They’re frustrated, stop enjoying their work, and end up going back to a day job.
• They aren’t attracting clients who wouldn’t bat an eye at someone charging $2,000 for a VIP day vs the clients who think $20 per hour is too much.

The solution: Raise your prices! You can do this slowly with new clients. Increase your price by a small percentage for each new client, and let your current clients know that you’ll be increasing their rate. Make sure you give your current clients some notice, however much (or more) that is required based on your contract.