Wendie

Hey Julie, Kudos on having the insight to recognize your best fit and the courage to return back to your VA business despite not having the initial success you (and others close to you) might have envisioned. I truly appreciate the reference Jusy made to "net fulfillment" ... which is priceless. Well stated. I am on the opposite path you are traveling; I am transitioning from onsite work to becoming a VA. I have the same reservations about being financially viable as you expressed, but your journey cemented for me that I need to keep moving in the direction of my heart and what's best in the long run for my emotional, physical, mental, and spiritual well being. I also have become disenchanted with certain office politics and the sense that I too often am forced to play a supportive role under supervisors whose decisions compromise my values and belief system. As a contractor of my services, I look forward to having the autonomy to stay true to self in a way that was becoming inceasingly difficult as an onsite Executive Assistant. To me, this alone is worth its weight in gold. There are productive stressors (such as what inevitably comes when growing your own business) and negative stressors that only tear down one's soul and body. Like Judy expressed, I look forward to this new season in my journey where indeed nothing is certain, but where I can make my health (in all areas) a higher priority than perceived success in the eyes of others or a great, steady income. I sincerely hope the best for you. Much success in your second run!

Hi and welcome I'm also a brand new member and look forward to getting to know you. Do you have an established business or are you just starting out? Wendie

Hi everyone, My name is Wendie and I don't think I can adequately express how thrilled I am to have discovered such a comprehensive support network for Virtual Assistants. Just by visiting this network over the past few days, I am gaining confidence to make a much desired transition from traditional Office Assistant to Virtual Assistant. I feel that here I will receive the professional guidance, resources, and encouragement that a newbie to the industry like me needs . A little about myself… I’m single with no children (except the hundreds I serve at work) and live in southern Maryland (Washington DC metropolitan area). I enjoy reading, creative writing, arts and crafts, decorating, party planning, computer graphic design, baking desserts (please don’t confused this with cooking actual meals), and spending times of solitude in nature. Not that I take the time to do the things I love the most….but hoping that having my own business will change that! I also have a passion for missions service and human rights/humanitarian outreach ministry. Current Status as Virtual Assistant… As you can guess, I’m at the very beginning stages of becoming a virtual assistant. Formerly, I worked 3 years for the federal government as a Marketing and Graphic Design Assistant and am currently ending my 3rd year as an Executive Assistant in a private school setting to (at various times) the Director of Operations, Director of Academics, Director of Human Resources, and School Principal. My desire is to use the knowledge, skills, abilities I’ve gained through both these positions as a Virtual Assistant. Because my faith plays such an important role in my life, I’ve decided to target my services to Christian ministries and businesses. Despite my experience as an assistant in traditional settings, I know I have so much to learn in order to gain the level of competencies I am noting from the veterans in this field. I've just ordered the VBBS Lite Start Up System and am eagerly anticipating its arrival. I’m just SO GRATEFUL to have found a network where I can receive step-by-step guidance, personal coaching, and a wealth of industry resources and training opportunities. But most importantly, daily encouragement to keep moving forward! I've already established a name for my VA business and processed the paperwork to register in my state. Of course, no web presence as yet -I only have a domain name with place holder for my upcoming business. In fact, it was while researching the personal websites of some veteran VAs that I came across a link to this network. What a blessing! I was relieved to see that the VBBS program will walk me through this process, sparing me alot of time in researching and helping me avoid newbie mistakes. My Back Story: I have longed to have my own home based business for several years but have made countless "reasonable" excuses to myself as to why I shouldn’t pursue it. Not to mention the confidence level just wasn’t there. I mean, I was already earning a decent, steady income and there are just SO MANY VAs already out there – breaking in and being successful seemed too risky and daunting a venture. I'm sure you’ve all had those similar conversations with yourselves at some point. The defining moment for me has been a recent illness that placed me on bed rest for nearly a month. I was allowed to work from home which ended up being a heaven-sent turn of events. I was AMAZED at how much I could accomplish without actually being at the office! In fact, it seemed like I was MORE effective and efficient in many ways because I didn't have the constant personal interruptions that had become an inherent part of my office workday. For some reason, it seemed like supervisors and staff ate up a lot of my productive work time in nonessential ways simply because I was physically “there” . While on medical leave, I continued to schedule appointments, set up meetings, keep my supervisor’s calendar, communicate with staff, families, and outside entities (by email, phone and text), coordinate daily substitute schedules, resolve emergency situations, draft letters, fulfill graphic design requests, and proofread, format and edit documents...I even coordinated an entire dental health assembly from my bed! Long story shorter - my illness turned out to facilitate the revelation I most needed. Many who I support frequently checked in to comment on how I was continuing to meet their needs without missing a beat even though I was not physically present. That's when I knew I might actually be able to do this ! So here I am...nervous, somewhat overwhelmed, but excited - ready to take a large leap of faith towards the goal of starting my own full time business as a VA. I truly look forward to getting to know other aspiring and veteran VAs more personally while sharing this journey with you. Hey - If you’re still reading this far into my ramblings, thanks for being such a trooper