Virtual Expert®
News and Views
June 2020
Welcome,
Virtual Expert® News and Views is a monthly newsletter for Virtual Assistants, and written exclusively by Virtual Assistants. Keep current with tips, tools and industry information. Also stay up-to-date on what is happening at Virtual Expert® Training; one of the world's most elite and respected virtual assistant training programs.
Kathy Goughenour
Business Coach & Trainer
Founder Expert VA® Training / Virtual Expert®
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3 Rookie Mistakes that Damage Your Virtual Assistant Business
Just like most new virtual assistants (VAs), when I first started my VA business, I made many costly mistakes. One of my primary goals is to help others avoid those mistakes.
Here are three rookie mistakes and how to avoid them:
- Chasing the “hot” skills: Many VAs who are not earning the kind of money they want to earn make this mistake. They spend a lot of money learning the latest skill that they’ve heard is in demand. VAs who do this believe that if they learn the skill that is needed by a lot of people those people will magically call them and say, “I need you!” Unfortunately, that does not happen. To avoid this mistake, and get all the high-paying clients you can handle, focus on building a foundation for your virtual assistant business.
- Setting prices too low: As women, we tend to undervalue our experience and skills and believe that we aren’t “qualified enough” to charge higher prices. Without emotion, assess your skills and knowledge, then set your prices according. The average hourly rate for USA-based VAs is $45. If you’re charging less than $25 per hour, raise your rates. As your expertise increases, continue to give yourself raises until you’re at (or above) the national average.
- Getting stuck in analysis paralysis: Should I create packages? What hourly rate and project rates should I charge? Does this logo make my website look fat? If you find yourself in a never-ending spiral of uncertainty, make a decision and go with it for a while. If that doesn’t work out, it’ll be easy to change it. That’s one of the many benefits to running a virtual assistant business: It’s very easy to make changes.
If you’d like a sounding board to get out of your analysis paralysis, consider signing up for the Expert VA® Training course that fits your needs. As part of every training program, you get unlimited access to me and other successful VAs via our forum and twice-a-month mastermind calls. Together, we can quickly help you make decisions, get answers to questions, and achieve your goals.
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About Kathy and Expert VA® Training/Virtual Expert®
Kathy Goughenour is an experienced and savvy business coach and trainer.
Kathy Goughenour’s 25+ years of marketing experience encompasses everything from print advertising and brochures to outdoor signage to the internet. She has an undergraduate degree in Marketing and an MBA.
She has worked in corporate settings, built multiple profitable small businesses herself, and created a 6-figure multi VA team. Her passion however, lies with helping others to achieve their own entrepreneurial goals through her extensive knowledge of the virtual marketing and virtual assistant field.
As a business coach and trainer, Kathy has quickly become a vital resource for helping women achieve their career and income goals as work-from-home Virtual Assistants.
Why Kathy Created Expert VA® Training
As her success grew, more and more colleagues sent their friends and family to Kathy for advice on how to start their own virtual assistant home-based businesses. Kathy enjoyed sharing her secrets to building a highly profitable Virtual Assistant business, and in 2008 started her own Virtual Assistant training program. She has now trained hundreds women (and a few men) to create success on their own terms as Expert VA®s and term she coined … Virtual Experts®.
