Everyone has an Origin Story… This is mine!

Let me start by saying that I didn’t seek out the life of an entrepreneur, I stumbled into it. And I am forever thankful I did. Being an entrepreneur in the Virtual Assistance industry has completely changed my life.

My journey to entrepreneurship started when my teenage daughter asked to go on a school trip to Iceland. Having never been anywhere myself and always regretting it, and hearing my extremely introverted child talk excitedly about going on an amazing adventure, outside, with a group of strangers… well, I just knew I had to make it happen.

I TOOK A CHANCE

At the time I was making a decent wage. My bills were paid and I was chipping away at my debt but I had no savings. I didn’t have an entertainment or clothing allowance in my budget. And I certainly didn’t have a “Here young one; take this wad of cash and go to Iceland” fund. But, as it happens, a friend had recently told me about Fiverr so I decided to check it out. That was my first step.

Within a few months I had made more than enough to cover the cost of her trip and was trying to decide how long I could keep it up for. It was hard work and long hours but it was making a difference financially so I wanted to keep it up for a little while at least.

My best friend, and employer at the time, was the first to suggest it. “How many clients do you have?”, he asked. “You could totally make a business out of this!”

After talking it over with my husband and a few close friends I decided to make a go of it. I negotiated a part-time contract as a sub-contractor at work and pushed off into the murky waters of the self-employed.

I was terrified and I had no real idea of what I wanted to do. I started as many Virtual Assistants start, by offering general administrative tasks like transcription services and data entry. I knew there were a lot of things that I could do but I didn’t feel like there was anything I was really stellar at other than Customer Service and I did not want to sit around answering phone calls and emails all day.

I MADE A DECISION

For a while I was lost and I started to think I had made a mistake. Perhaps entrepreneurship wasn’t for me. But even though I was working long hours and I felt lost about what I wanted to, I was enjoying being my own boss; being in control of my schedule and knowing that everything I did was for my dream and not someone else’s. So I made a decision. I decided I wasn’t going back. I was going to do whatever it took to keep moving forward.

As luck would have it there was a coworking space in my town that was putting together a lab for freelancers and small business owners and they were offering the beta version for free to 6 lucky applicants.

Joining a group like this was WAY out of my comfort zone. I am incredibly anxious about meeting new people and, at the time, I wasn’t a big fan of accepting help or even admitting that I needed help. But I knew that this was the right way to go so I swallowed my pride, put on my big girl pants and steeled myself for 6 weeks of intense discomfort.

It was hard and uncomfortable, and each week I thought about not going back but I stuck to my guns and kept moving forward.

The lab was the best thing that could have happened to me. I learned A LOT! About my business, about business in general, and about myself and what I was capable of. I also met some amazingly wonderful people, some of which I continue to work with to this day.

I TOOK ACTION

The information and clarity I gained from the lab was amazing but it wasn’t going to do me a heck of a lot of good unless I put it into action. So I sat down and developed a plan to upgrade my services, increase my pricing and sign on some new clients.

More than that though I decided I was going to put myself out there more. I was going to get out of my comfort zone, go to events, meet new people, ask for help and start keeping an eye out for opportunities.

And I did. I made it a point to reach out to someone or something every day. I joined a mastermind group, found an accountability partner. I went to networking events and made sure to have meaningful interactions with at least two people while I was there. I went to conferences and when I found my self inspired by one of the speakers I did something I would never have done in a thousand years and went up to them and spoke to them.

I set goals and I actively worked towards reaching them.

I REPEATED THOSE STEPS

So when opportunity knocked in the form of a vague Facebook post that popped up in my feed from someone I hardly knew. I jumped at it.

OPPORTUNITY: Am seriously considering the fact that I need a content partnership with someone. Someone to help take on the educational components to the insiders membership to really make this life changing.

Who wants to help me make collections of business guidance & inspiration to create a life and business women love.

Have you created bundles of amazingly beautiful and crafted tutorials and guides? PM me and let’s get talking.

I had never created what I would call “amazingly beautiful and crafted tutorials and guides” but I knew how to create walk-throughs people could follow and processes that worked, so I took a chance.

ME: Saw your post about a partnership and the word tutorials caught my eye. Would love to talk about this with you.

We met, had a fantastic conversation and opportunities enthusiasm was catching but after I left the meeting my analytic and conservative mind started weighing the pros and cons and pointing out all the things that could go wrong. It was an aggressive timeline; could I meet it? Would we work well together? So many questions battled around inside my head but I made a decision.

I decided it didn’t matter. All those things that could go wrong didn’t matter. I loved the idea. I loved that I would be able to use all of my skills. I loved that I would have someone with me to cover my weak side. And I loved that I would be able to help others grow their own practices. As far as I was concerned it was a win all around, no matter what happened.

I took action. I signed up. I worked my butt off and I have never looked back. This is the kind of decision that moved things forward in my life so many times over the past few years, and this time was no different.

What about you? What are you willing to do to move yourself and your business forward?