For this week’s podcast, we sat down with Virtual Assistant Shanna. Shanna is someone who prioritizes organization and focuses on understanding her clients’ needs and navigating the work around that. She began her small business by doing word of mouth marketing with family, friends, and through growing her social media.

Transition Due to Covid

When Covid hit, she was uncertain (like all of us) about navigating through that difficult time. For her, she was uncertain about charging people as most of us took a hit financially. Before becoming a Virtual Assistant, she worked with an Events company but her mentor advised her to pivot full time to Virtual Assistance.

Though unsure, she did it anyway because she had an inkling that this was what she was meant to do. After posting to social media, Shanna received a lot of inquiries and quickly put a team together consisting of her sister and other family members. Then, eventually expanding on that.

Setting Rates

When she started, she delicately increased her rates matching it with what she knew she was worth. Shanna recommends when getting started, you should look at what others are charging and charge a similar rate.

The question, though, is should you charge hourly or by project? There’s no reason why you shouldn’t do both! Shanna charges a higher hourly rate so clients will find the package more appetizing. Still, it’s a good idea to give the client an option between the two if possible.

What makes a VA Valuable and How to Set Boundaries

Shanna answers this by saying the fact that having a virtual business allows you to be flexible with your time. Also, another part of being a VA is knowing when to fill in the gaps of a client as they may not have the time to strategize or even necessarily cover all their bases. You need to be a second brain, as it were.

Though we love working with our clients, we do need to set aside time for ourselves. Having no boundaries leads to burnout. It’s up to the VA to be firm with their time and boundaries and communicating that to the client. Shanna and her team take Fridays off so they can have an extra day to recuperate and feel energized for taking on the work for Monday.

Traits and Tools of a Good VA

A good VA should be compassionate and have strong communication skills with clients. You should be able to mix and blend the two as some clients may not know exactly what they want nor how to communicate it.

As a VA, you should be able to use a whole range of tools. Some of the tools Shanna and her team use are: Telegram, Google Docs/Drive, ClickUp to track hours and tasks done as well as Airtable.

Having a Mentor

Shanna explains that having a mentor reminds you of what you’re capable of and what you can do. Shanna’s mentor helped her with her work and how to charge clients for her services. Some key takeaways from having a mentor include:

1. Learning from those in your field or niche

2. Paying attention to how they work

If possible, perhaps volunteer to shadow with them and see hands-on what you can learn. Another important aspect of having a mentor is being able to connect with someone and directly getting your questions answered.

Shanna says anyone looking to be a VA should dive right into it! Now’s the best time to do it so start putting yourself out there! We can attest that being an VA is absolutely amazing!

You can find Shanna on Instagram at Shanna_Antonio and her business account at askshannaandco and check out her website if you’re interested ins services at askshannaandco.uk