How Do You Take Your Virtual Assistance Business to Six Figures?

August 29, 2007

That is the question I am most often asked by people who want to do what I do or who are currently doing what I do but just aren’t able to take it to that next level. How do you make six-figures a year and still have time for family, a life and all other fun things?

The answer is actually quite simple - time management and doing ONLY what I need to do to push my business forward.

Time Management

Have you ever wondered where your days go? Do you find that you look back on your day and think, “Gosh, I didn’t get done anything I set out to get done today!” I used to be like that. Once I realized how little I was actually getting done, I made it my mission to change that. Now, I follow the following guidelines:

Make Lists
Lists are important in many ways. They act as your guiding path to getting things done. If you write out a list of what you need to accomplish every night before bed, you’ll have a perfect starting point for your morning. You’ll be less distracted by blogging, checking others blog feeds, answering pointless e-mail, etc. You’ll know what you need to do and as you sleep, your subconscious will already be working out solutions to your problems.
Get Up Early
Sometimes it’s tempting to sleep in after working a really late night but don’t! Get up early and do what I do. Each morning I get up around 7:30 AM and before I even venture into my office to my computer I clean my house. I put laundry on, I do dishes, etc. Whatever needs to get done is done before I go to work. Therefore, I don’t have that guilt clouding up my head while I work!
Set Your E-mail Up the Right Way
Don’t let it send/receive every two minutes. That’s just way too often and you’ll spend more time checking e-mail than you will doing work! I have mine set to every ten minutes and I’m slowly pushing that back. I want to move it to once an hour. I use Basecamp to manage projects so if there is a real emergency that can not wait the hour, my client will post it in Basecamp.

In the next blog entry, I’ll focus on what I mean by only doing what you NEED to be doing as opposed to what you think you SHOULD be doing or WANT to do.

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