Does A Virtual Assistant Need A Business Coach?

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Virtual Assistants are taking center stage as more small business owners become comfortable with freelancers and remote work. The VA industry is exploding and it’s no longer hard to find clients and be fully booked.

When it comes to launching and scaling your Virtual Assistant business, there are many things to consider. One of the most important decisions you’ll need to make is whether or not to take a course or hire a coach.

In this blog post, I’ll explore the pros and cons of getting Virtual Assistant coaching and training. I’ll also share my tips on how to choose a course or program without wasting your hard-earned money.

When To Hire A VA Business Coach

Jolie was feeling stuck. She had been working as a Virtual Assistant for approximately eight months, and her business wasn’t growing. As a talented ghostwriter with basic knowledge of Canva, WordPress, Convertkit, and Instagram, she knew that she had the knowledge, skill, and ability to earn a stable monthly income that would contribute to her family’s financial stability.

She was having trouble picking a niche, potential clients kept haggling with her over her rates, and she wasn’t sure how to move forward. Jolie was starting to wonder if she needed a course or coach to take her business to the next level.

On a tight budget, she struggled with the investment. Virtual Assistant coaching and training is expensive! And it’s hard to know who is really qualified and trustworthy. Jolie wrestled with the decision for a while, but in the end, decided to go for it.

Jolie found a course and coach who she connected with. Someone who had a lot of experience working as a VA and helping hundreds of women start their own businesses.

Through coaching, Jolie was able to identify some key areas where she could enhance her skills and increase her prices. She slowly transitioned from ghostwriting blog posts to long-form sales page copy, email nurture sequences.

She also gained some valuable insights into her marketing weaknesses and put a system in place to generate new leads every month and grow her email list.

Since working with her coach, Jolie’s income has increased. She no longer feels frustrated with her business and as a mom of three, she has the work-life flexibility she needs.

Before You Invest In A Coach

Is it the right time for you to invest in coaching or training? I believe in being a good steward of your money. So, here are 5 questions to ask yourself before you make the investment:

1. Do you feel stuck, like your Virtual Assistant career isn’t going anywhere?
2. Are you having trouble finding potential clients and wasting lots of time every month?
3. Do you struggle to demonstrate your value to potential clients and hear negative comments about your rate?
4. Do you feel like you’re working on your business 24/7 with nothing to show for it?
5. Are you looking for someone to help you bridge the gap from $1k months to consistent $3k or $4k months?

If you answered yes to any of these questions then Virtual Assistant Coaching and Training is probably what you need.

The right program can help you with things like marketing your business, nailing down your offers, and developing standard operating procedures. A good coach will also be able to give you direct feedback and help hold you accountable for your goals.

Here are some pros and cons to consider:

Pros of hiring a coach:

• You’ll save time and increase your confidence by quickly learning how to market your business and communicating your value.
• You’ll make more money faster by avoiding common mistakes.
• You’ll have someone with experience to objectively evaluate your knowledge, skill and ability. This is invaulable for developing your packages and offerings.
• You’ll get feedback on your business operations and suggestions on how to improve them.
• You’ll have someone to hold you accountable to your goals, which can help you stay on track.

Cons of hiring a coach:

• Virtual Assistant coaching can be expensive, so it’s important for you to do your due diligence and make sure you’re getting what you pay for.
• If you are on a limited budget, the investment may be better spent on a specific skills course to enhance what you can actually do for your clients.
• Virtual Assistant coaches may not be familiar with your specific niche or services so they might not be able to give you the best advice that’s applicable to you and your business.
• If you want lots of handholding, this relationship may be another source of frustration in your life when you have to wait for a response to your questions.

How To Find The Right VA Coach: 7 Tips For You

If you’re a Virtual Assistant that is still on the fence about coaching and training, here are 7 tips for you:

1. Make sure you choose someone who has experience as a VA. This will ensure that they understand the unique challenges that come with running a VA business.
2. Ask around for recommendations from other Virtual Assistants. A personal recommendation can be worth its weight in gold.
3. Look for someone who can demonstrate a proven track record of helping their clients achieve success.
4. Take the time to check out Virtual Assistant coaches and see if they offer a free webinar. This can be a great way to test out whether or not their teaching style and energy is a good fit for you.
5. Make sure you are clear about what you want to achieve through coaching. This will help you communicate your needs and measure your success.
6. Make sure to read reviews. This will give you an idea of what other people have thought about the program.
7. Set realistic expectation and don’t expect miracles. A good coach is a human being, not God. A good coach can help you set and achieve your goals but you still have to pray and do the hard stuff to make your business work.

As with everything, the best way to make a decision is to gather as much information as possible so you can make an informed choice.

Virtual Assistant Business Mistakes A Coach Will Help You Fix

Are you struggling to break through with your Virtual Assistant business? It can be tough to get started and even tougher to make a profit. But don’t worry, a good coach will help you fix these 4 common mistakes

1 – Offering Too Many Services

With service-based businesses, you need to maximize your time and efficiency. The best way to do this is by niching down certain services you have perfected. It can be easy to offer more services to get people to sign your contract; however, this will only eat up your time and make for a poor return on investment. So instead, be sure only to offer the services you know you can get done in a reasonable amount of time.

2 – Only Having One Main Client

Having one client is no way to grow a business. In fact, this is setting yourself up to be treated as an employee instead of a profitable business. However, just because you offer services doesn’t mean you can’t maximize your schedule to fit in more than one client. It’s simple, the more clients you have, the more revenue you make. Niching down and only offering certain in-demand services makes this easier to accomplish.

3 – Not Having a Website or Online Presence

You can’t expect people to find you or trust your work without an online presence or website. Many online want to work with trustworthy people that won’t defraud them. Creating a website allows you to share more information so potential clients can trust working with you.

4 – Keeping an Employee Mindset

While employees are vital to businesses staying one won’t allow you to become scalable and make more profits. Growing a team of virtual assistants is a wonderful way to become sustainable within this industry and get you out of this mindset.

5 – Offering Free Services to Start

Never try to persuade people to become clients with free offers. This hardly turns into longer-term paying customers. Many of these customers will jump from business to business, searching for free services to take advantage of. Meaning they are only there to take up your valuable time and resources. 

Virtual Assistant Coaching and Training

There are many Virtual Assistant coaches available, each with their own program and way of helping clients, or students. So, how do you decide which one is right for you?

To help you make a decision, I’m spilling the details on four popular Virtual Assistant coaches:

• Abbey Ashley
• Gina Horkey
• Esther Iman
• Tawnya Sutherland

What do they have in common?

First, I’ll share what they have in common and why I feel comfortable highlighting their programs. Each of these lovely ladies believes:

• VA’s provide value first – this is a growing industry and “A rising tide lifts all boats“. You need to work hard and treat your clients right!
• Va’s need to be paid their worth – don’t lowball your rates, or worse, do something crazy like work for free!
• Being a soloprenuer and working from home doesn’t mean that you should isolate yourself. Make a reasonable investment in networking and building camraderie with other people in the VA industry
• The time you work on your business should complement your lifestyle and family circumstances; the whole idea of a VA business is to create work-life flexibility
• Start your business the right way legally. Use the proper client agreements, pay your taxes and don’t cut corners

Abbey Ashley

Abbey is a virtual assistant coach who offers one-on-one coaching, as well as group coaching and mentoring. She has over 15 years of experience as a virtual assistant, and she is also a certified life coach. Abbey’s prices range from $75-$250 per hour, depending on the type of coaching you need.

Abbey Ashley started her VA business while pregnant with her first child. She scaled her VA biz into a six-figure agency (Ashley Assistants) before becoming a business coach and course creator. Abbey’s blog posts, YouTube channel, tech membership, and courses fall under The Virtual Savvy umbrella. Forbes Magazine has featured Abbey on the Next 1,000 List as an “upstart entrepreneur redefining the American dream.” With Abbey Ashley, you’re getting a seasoned coach who has been through each step and teaches from personal experience. I love Abbey Ashley as a mentor because she has plenty of experience running an agency with a team of subcontractors working for her. When she talks about scaling up to $10,000, $12,000, or even $15,000 per month, you can trust her advice. I immediately enrolled in the Savvy System after discovering Abbey in 2018. You can read my review of her signature course The Savvy System here.

Abbey’s Free Resources For You

• Become Booked Out VA Webinar
• Virtual Assistant Checklist & Starter Kit

Gina Horkey

Gina is a virtual assistant coach who offers group coaching and mentoring. She has over 20 years of experience as a virtual assistant, and she is also a certified business coach. Gina’s prices range from $50-$200 per hour, depending on the type of coaching you need.

While working in the world of financial planning, Gina Horkey knew there must be more to life than a career that left her paying day care bills and feeling unfulfilled. She was desperate for a lifestyle that would allow her to spend more time with her two babies. She thought freelance writing seemed like an opportunity worth exploring. As the breadwinner for her family of four (now five!), Gina needed a consistent and predictable income before leaving her 9-5. She went from Freelance Writer (where earnings can fluctuate wildly month by month) to Virtual Assistant. I love Gina because she understands the “messy middle.” She launched her biz slowly while juggling motherhood with a high-salary, high-pressure job. She was working from her cold basement couch at 4:30 AM, while nursing a baby…. before showering, putting on a suit, and running off to work. Yikes! Today, Gina is fulfilling her dreams as a VA coach. Her mission to teach others how to start a money-making home business. She launched the #FullyBookedVA System and the rest is, as they say, history! Gina is also the author of the best-selling book Make Money as a Virtual Assistant.

Gina’s Free Resources For You

275+ services you can offer as a Virtual Assistant – you’ll find yourself saying, “I can do that!” and “I LOVE doing that already!” more times than you can count!

Esther Inman

Esther is a virtual assistant coach who offers one-on-one coaching. She has over 25 years of experience as a virtual assistant, and she is also a certified business coach. Esther’s prices range from $100-$300 per hour, depending on the type of coaching you need.

Esther is a former military wife and Mom. She’s been teaching other military spouses, Moms, and travel lovers how to work online for 7 years and has helped dozens of them get training in the most requested virtual skills and then helps them get their first online jobs.

Esther’s Free Resources For You

Free Class – How to work from anywhere as a Virtual Assistant!

Tawnya is a virtual assistant coach who offers one-on-one coaching, as well as group coaching and mentoring. She has over 30 years of experience as a virtual assistant, and she is also a certified life coach. Tawnya’s prices range from $75-$250 per hour, depending on the type of coaching you need.

So, which Virtual Assistant coach is right for you?

If you need one-on-one coaching, Abbey, Gina or Esther may be a good option for you. If you need group coaching or mentoring Abbey, Gina or Tawnya may be a good option for you. And if you need a life coach, Tawnya may be the best option for you. Ultimately, the decision of which virtual assistant coach to hire is up to you!

I hope this blog post has helped you decide whether or not Virtual Assistant coaching and training is right for you! If you’re still on the fence and have a question, please feel free to contact me and I’ll try to help. Thanks for reading!