So, as a virtual assistant, or with any other business you start out on, you're not starting a business to be an employer. You are starting a business to be the CEO. When we start, we are not used to doing certain things the right way because we have never done it before. Some of us have done it for years as an employee, manager, leading projects, etc. When it is our own business, we are the whole enchilada. Now we have to make leadership decisions. We are not just focused on a particular project or managing a team under someone else's company; we are it. When it comes to your business, you have to make leadership decisions. Leadership decisions that will be right for your company, including people you hire or subcontract and your clients or customers, including their wellbeing. It is a huge responsibility.
What do Clients Want?
When you are the CEO of your business and working with clients, what do clients want? Clients want results, period. If you're a virtual assistant who is supporting a business owner, that's what you should be delivering. In any business that you?re in, you should not be doing it just to make money. I hope you have identified your WHY for starting this business because as long as I have been in business, people I have worked with, whether subcontractors or clients, have seen my vision and passion. If the people you work with are not aligned with your vision and passion, they are not the people you should be working with. This is one way of displaying leadership in your business as the CEO.
What Is Your Why?
Again, go back to your WHY for deciding to start your business. I always encourage you to create a journal for your business journey. When you continue writing your vision and making it plain, God will never steer you in the wrong direction. He is not a God of confusion; it says it in his word. Even if you have a bad day or something didn't go right in your business, write it down. As to why maybe it was something that you did or something that you've been doing that resulted in certain things that can happen in business. And sometimes it may not be a person you thought it was, it could be you, you know, it's not always someone else. Sometimes you have to do a self-evaluation and say, ?Okay, well, this is not working. So maybe it's something that I'm not doing, maybe it's the communication style, maybe I let things go and brushed them under the rug." Those are the things that we need to be doing in our business. Now, when I say to be the CEO of your business, that includes everything you?re feeling, how you treat your team, how you communicate with your team. Think about what you expect from your team and expect your team to carry out.
I have been learned a lot of things. During this entrepreneurial journey and being a CEO of my VA agency, it is a lot of responsibility, especially if you are a single parent, are parents, or have some responsibility of guardianship; this is a different kind of responsibility. A business is different. A friendship is different. Business is business. If you continue to be on track to being the CEO of your business, you may find it difficult to not get your feelings involved if you form a good relationship. For example, if a team member consistently makes mistakes, you have to make decisions for the business, not because you like the person; it can be detrimental to your business. If so, you're not a leader. You're not being the CEO of your business; you?re basing things off your feelings and letting things slide. And then things will just not get done the way you want them to. If you're hiring a team, you expect your team to be an extension of you. So, if you hire a team and say, for example, you have your editing team, your video team, and social media team and things like that, you're the CEO of your business, you're the visionary, the visionary of your business. So whatever you say, you want people in that position to carry out what you?ve said, right? That's where communication comes in. They have to carry out what you say. This is the second most important part of a leader in your business, communication. You're the expert. This is why I hired you, right? You're the expert on this. So now you?ve communicated what needs to be done, the team member must follow the direction. You?re, therefore, the CEO of your business.
You Are Now Solo
Now you?re solo; you are in a virtual assistant business where the majority of us start off solo, and you have to do everything. You have to do social media. You have to reply to clients and do the work until you get to the point where you're close to leveling. Eventually, you would want to next level from being a virtual assistant, booking clients, and taking care of clients' tasks. You?ll want to do that for a while soon after building your virtual assistant agency. You want to get to a point where you need to climb up the levels so that you're hiring people under you to take care of and support your clients while you're doing something else. This could be a coach, a trainer, starting your digital courses, all so that you can make an extra stream of income. In addition to your business, you're now expanding the business into an agency, so now you're hiring people underneath your agency to take care of your clients, but you're still overseeing all the projects. So now you're the CEO, and you're branching out like a tree: digital products, VA agency, or a coach. Sound good, huh?
I have my VA agency, a project manager assisting with the projects, and my sub-contractors taking care of the clients. Let's not stop there, you?re next leveling to the next level, where now you may do speaking engagements, virtual workshops, or inhouse workshops, or whatever that may look like. My thing is, you have to be ready for it. And it starts with you. It starts with you being the CEO, the boss woman that you are in your business. Separating business from personal. Because if you're not able to separate your personal from your business, then things will not be right in your business, and people will either take advantage of it or slack. They may think, ?Oh, she's okay with it. I made a mistake. I won't do it again. Oh, it happened again. You know, she?d be alright with it. She'll be okay.? But no, you are not going to be okay. Because whatever mistakes are being made cause a ripple effect. This means that if you hire someone to do your job, they are supposed to do that job and do that job well.
So, this is why I want to ask you, are you passionate about what you're doing in your business? Because it shows when someone hires you to do a job. If you are passionate about what you're doing, people will see it. Clients will see it and like knowing that you're so invested in your business. They?ll think, ?I know that just as much as you have invested in your business, you are going to invest in mine because this is your bread and butter. This is your legacy; this is your business.? You are bringing an extra stream of income into your family household. Whether you're a single mom, or this is in addition to maybe a part-time or full-time job. Now you want to branch out to really launching your business so that you can do this full time and be able to spend more time with your family so that you can go on those trips and not have to be so tired or not have the money to do them because there's no money there. So, this is the reason why we got into this business. Now, it?s the same for someone that you take on as a client. Don't you think that this is their dream too? They want time with their family; they want time to do things in their business as well. So, being the CEO of your business, you are taking on responsibility for yourself and others. Especially if you are expanding your company.
Write the Vision and Make it Plain
So, if you are someone who's looking to expand your company, take out that journal and map out what your CEO role is and branch out to who's going to be that second man in charge, who's going to be the doer, the action taker, and the speaker of your business. However, right now, if YOU are just starting your business, you are in all three roles: You are the visionary. You are the speaker. You are the doer. Eventually, as you expand in your CEO role, you will want to be just the visionary. You will have someone who will be the speaker and someone who will be the doer, as you next level. When you are in your business, I just encourage you to step into the role of CEO. Even if you're just starting your business, it doesn't matter; you've already stepped into the role of CEO, so be the CEO of your business. If you are a virtual assistant just starting a business, you are the CEO of your business; you are not just a virtual assistant; you are a business owner; you are a CEO. You are the executive of your business; it doesn't matter if you go solo and are the CEO, the visionary, speaker, and doer for now.
If you are taking on clients, and you're sure that this is what you really want to do, do it with passion because it will show. If this is ONLY to make extra money, then let it just be that. That's it! I highly suggest you take on small projects to make the extra money from the small projects. I know people working full-time and have a virtual assistant business because that's what they love to do. They love their full-time job, and they love being a virtual assistant on the side, ONLY to supplement their income. The income that they earn at their job is only enough to pay their bills and food. Therefore, the VA biz on the side is to go on family trips and do or buy things they want. Everyone has their own reasons and whys for owning a virtual assistant business. It could be because of the extra stream of income to allow them to do more in their life; maybe time is not what they're looking for; they're just looking for the finances to do more. So whatever that reason is, make sure that you identify what that reason is and what your role is in your business, because if it's just a side hustle, then let it be a side hustle. If it's you building your business, then get serious about it and be the CEO or be the leader of your business because being a CEO comes with many hats, and there are lives that you are responsible for as well. Because if you are hiring your team, these are people that you're responsible for; you're telling them what needs to be done in your business, they're carrying out that responsibility, and your responsibility is to acknowledge, encourage, pay and reward them for being in alignment with your vision of your company. You?re providing the WELL DONE for what they are doing in their role. Right? That's my responsibility. I like happy people. I love making people happy. I love giving, that's who I am, and I give more when I can see that you are going one extra mile to do whatever for my company and me. I don't care where I have to pull from to make sure that I give you the extra so that you?ll know that if you take care of me, I'm going to take care of you. That is what we do. But that's what I do in my business; I like to take care of people, and I'm building my team right now, and I am happy about it. I already see and visualize how my team is going to be. I want someone who is a goal-getter or someone fun, somebody who could be laid back and joke around, but at the same time get down to business. We get to have fun. I like to have fun; I like to joke around. I like to be able to call you and say, ?Hey, you know, let's have a co-worker thing, and we'll get some coffee, and let's just work together,? you know, things like that. That's just how cool I am when I'm working with my team.
The Leader in You
If you need help with leadership in your business, take some courses in leadership, management, or anything that will help you in your business. This is not something that you just wake up and say, ?Oh, I just want to be a CEO, and I'm going to do this.? It takes work, and it takes a lot of trial and error, and also experience. I have been in a role in my job where I was a leader on projects. I was a supervisor over a staff of six. I?ve played a lot of different roles over the 20+ years I?ve had in corporate America. I don't know if anyone knows about the certified Six Sigma Green Belt where I took on projects. I didn't train for my job, whereas I trained other executive assistants to do Excel, Access, and all those things. So, I learned and developed leadership skills, but there are still some things that I need to work on because sometimes I can get very soft. In certain situations, I let things go by. But now that I know that I'm ready to next level, I have to think about certain things that I'm doing in my business and how I'm operating in order for me to get to the next level.
I hope that you have taken some key points about being the CEO of your business. You have started to shift your mindset from being an employee to now being the CEO no matter what services you are providing as a virtual assistant. You may be somebody who gets overwhelmed, as being a business leader is not something for everybody, and it may not be for you because, like I said, it's a responsibility. Being a leader in your business, you have to keep your eyes on everything that goes on in your business; you have to know about everything in your business. For example, I have my VA agency, and I hire a project manager. Guess what? I can just leave it to my project manager and just go ahead and run it and stuff like that. But it is still my business to oversee; I still have to make decisions. As a leader, even though I'm ready to next level, I still have to oversee all other projects below me to ensure that everything is running the way I want my business to run. That's taking on the leadership and determining how your business is run and how successful your business will be, based on your leadership style. There are different leadership styles, and you can be successful at whatever leadership style that you choose.
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Teekwa Scarborough
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