I've been trying to decide what I "want to be when I grow up" and where I would like to take my career. Since I'm self employed now, it is possible that I can do anything I want. So, one conclusion I've come to is that I simply don't like being the boss.
The good news, however, is that I'm doing what I like doing! I'm in the right line of work. I like real estate, helping people, paperwork, filling, administrative work, and so much more of what I'm actually doing. I don't, however, like doing it by myself. It's hard being the boss and not having anyone working with me.
I want to own my own company, be in charge, and have lots of flexibility to do what I want, when I want. Who doesn't? But now that I have my own company and I'm in charge... I'm finding it very lonely. In no particular order here is what I know for sure:
- I want my company to be more than just me being an assistant to a bunch of real estate agents.
- I want to teach other assistants. This includes teaching others to be an excellent real estate assistant and those who already are real estate assistants to become virtual. This will help them make more money and will save their agents money in the long run.
There is more money in training others than in just being a virtual assistant myself. Which is fine because training sounds like more fun anyway.- I want to be a writer, or publisher, or both, and make my "Shorts Across America" a reality.
- I struggle with social media. If I had it my way I would hire someone to do all of that for me. If it was all I had to do every day I would love it. I understand it and appreciate the importance of it, but I simply don't have as much time as I would like to dedicate to it. I find that it takes up too much time if I don't stay on task while doing it. Creating a calendar is VERY important to keep from spending too much time on it.
- I've noticed that there are others who are already doing what I would like to do, but they seem to all have a team helping them. They have "people" who help with marketing, social media, web design and creation, copywriters, and others that help with various things. Talented, knowledgeable people to run ideas by and talk to about their business.
- I have a wonderful, amazing, loving, and supportive family, great friends, and the friends that I've made on LinkedIn who help me when I have general questions. However, no one that can help me with the specific things I need help with. No one to brainstorm with who is working with me to make my business more successful. It's tough knowing what needs to be done, trying to find free ways of learning it, then doing it all myself every day.
- I would like to have an office in Salt Lake City and in Ogden that are "Virtual" offices. Here is a link to an article that explains it. Co-Working Spaces I think this would be great! What if it were so successful I could hire an assistant to be at the office fully-time and those renting the office space could use the secretary and pay her salary? I have a friend in Texas who is doing this and it's working great. It would also be a great place to hold networking events. (I would need an investor to start something like this.)
- I really, really, really NEED a partner. Someone who is technically capable preferably. It is simply not possible for me to accomplish this all by myself. I've been trying and it just won't work. If I were technically minded and had experience with the technical stuff I would need someone to help with the ideas and administrative work. So, I need a partner. Period.
- What I am good at and LIKE: Paperwork, bookkeeping, budgeting, Microsoft Software, especially Word, PowerPoint, and Excel, creating reports, real estate listings (start to finish), follow through, scheduling, planning, research, creating, graphic design, and almost everything administrative.
- I've also realized that I've spent all of my career helping others be successful and not promoting myself. Time to change that! I can still help others be successful, but I need to work on making myself successful also.
Where does all this self discovery leave me? Well, it leaves me right where I am but smarter, more informed, and more prepared. Now I can make a plan. Before I didn't really know what I wanted so I have been frustrated and unfocused. Now time to get the ball rolling down the right hill.
- Start Earlier! I'll be getting up an hour earlier to work on MY business, including Saturdays. It will be tough, yet necessary. I already get up at 6:00 to get the kids off to school. But, this business has to get better so I'll need to do more for my own business before I continue helping others be successful.
Create a social media calendar This will start tomorrow and will be done each Saturday. I'll plan what will be posted on each site from Facebook to LinkedIn each day Monday - Friday the following week. I'll get up early and post before work. I'll do research through the week and send links to my Evernote so on Saturday I'll have some ideas on what to put in for the next week. A few things I've noticed....1) People on Facebook only comment and Like funny little things. Anything too serious or business like gets ignored. The more likes and comments the more exposure. 2) People on LinkedIn like things that are a little funny and entertaining, but teach them something to help them in their business. 3) People on Twitter...Haven't figured them out so I'll probably just Tweet what I put on FB and LI and then retweet my followers links. I have found that Twitter seems a little impersonal and I have yet to start an actual conversation with anyone on there. Not sure of its value yet honestly.- Redo my Facebook headers for LeapFrogVA and my personal site. This will be the most enjoyable part of my weekend. I love graphic design! I have a friend who is a photographer and he has agreed to let me use some of his photography. Should be fun!
- Look for a partner. Somone who has experience building and promoting websites. Someone who is willing to work with me, not for me because I can't pay them yet. If they had marketing and copywriting experience also that would be amazing! But, I'm not holding my breath. I have the ideas but don't know how to implement some of them. So, someone who wants to grow with me for a portion of the business would be great! And almost impossible to find I'm afraid.
- Write an ebook for Virtual Assistant wannabe's. This will help me start an email list.
- Contact other virtual assistants who would be willing to work on a referral basis. My ebook will refer my email list to other virtual assistants that train in other areas outside of assisting small businesses and assisting real estate agents.
- Create a training program for real estate assistants. Then, convert it to work for virtual assistants. I'll need to do lots of research, interview current assistants and a few agents to make it complete. I'll need some free stuff, emails, newsletters, video presentations, and schedule some webinars also.
- Redo my website to include the training, once the training is complete of course.
- Create a plan for small businesses and add a section for them on my website. Through networking at the SBA I'll try to drum up a few new clients.
- Food Trucks! I'm going to create a small marketing plan for food trucks and go to Salt Lake City and pitch it truck to truck. I'm going to offer them help creating a Facebook marketing plan for very low cost. Just a one time thing. I'll also ask if I can put a jar at their food truck and offer a free lunch drawing for business cards. This will also increase my email list. I will only do that on one truck a month so the cost will stay low.
- Kibosh on the real estate referral website. I don't have enough technical skills to get it working, and no partner to help with it. I'll have to have a developer to make that work. Plus I only had about 9 agents reply. I'll email all of them soon and let them know.
- Purchase Microsoft Outlook so I can manage all of my email addresses in one place. Also, I need to be able to have a graphic signature and add newsletters and fliers inside the content, which I can't do with my current email providers.
- Start a Mastermind Group for Real Estate Virtual Assistants on LinkedIn. I've got about 10 REVA's already lined up and I'm hoping it will help with creating my training materials.
I'd like to have everything done and going by the end of the year. Sooner would be better, but it will have to be perfect if it's going to work. I'll probably only get one shot. If I mess it up my credibility will go down the toilet!! I may find a few guinea pigs to test it out on. If you want to be one, just let me know!
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