July 23, 2024 was the 7 year anniversary for PSH Virtual Solutions! When I started my business I told myself I would give it 2 years to make a go of it. And now here we are 7 years later and still going strong! The Lord has truly blessed me and my business!

I’ve been able to serve 40+ clients in those 7 years and build over 30 WordPress websites and sales pages for clients. It has been an amazing journey!

In this post I want to share some of my biggest lessons from my 7 year entrepreneurial journey. Let’s dig in!

Don’t be afraid to say no

When I first started my business I felt like I had to say yes to—and pitch— every opportunity that came my way. But I learned quickly that I didn’t have to do that.

Over the years I’ve had several offers to work as part of VA agencies. But I don’t want to do that because I enjoy working with my own clients one on one.

When I first started I would have jumped at those offers, even though they weren’t what I really wanted to do, simply because I would’ve been afraid to say no.

When something isn’t what you truly want, don’t say yes just because you’re afraid to say no!

The opportunities that are right for you will come along. And you don’t want to have to say no to those right opportunities just because you said yes to the wrong ones do you? I know I don’t.

Be confident in your brand

One time, a client and I were discussing me taking over her Pinterest account. We were looking at mine so I could show her some examples of pins I created and she noticed that I pin content from other VAs.

She asked if I wasn’t concerned about promoting my competitors. What if someone chose them over me?

I explained that I wasn’t worried about that as there are so many different types of services that virtual assistants offer that I didn’t really see them as competitors. Plus, I can’t possibly take on all the clients out there. She was satisified with that answer.

But I kept thinking on our conversation. And I was reminded of this quote:

“When you brand yourself properly, the competition becomes irrelevant.”

—Dan Schawbel

One of the reasons I don’t worry about my “competitors” is I’m confident that my brand will speak to my people and because of that they will choose me.

Notice that I put competitors in quotations because I truly don’t see other VAs and Web designers as competition. There are plenty of clients out there for all of us.

Are you confident in your brand? If you can gain that confidence, I promise you you’ll never be worried about showing support for others in your niche.

Consistency needs to be doable

Success comes from consistency. I truly believe that. But here is the thing we forget, consistency needs to be doable.

You see what happens when we start out is that we are so excited about our businesses that we overestimate what we can do. We take on way too much and set these lofty goals that aren’t sustainable.

We think, “I can write a new blog post every week, email my list three times a week, post three times a day to Instagram and Facebook, create a new YouTube video every week…”

And it doesn’t take long before you are burnt out.

If you have a team of people working with you, you can get it done… but if it’s just you… it can be too much! Especially if you are trying to balance all of that with your client work.

So what I did in my own business was to decide “One is good enough.” This means I post one blog post and one newsletter per month. And I have been able to be consistent in that for years! There are times I post more, but every month I at least put out one newsletter and one blog post.

Starting small and building up works for me. It is doable! Where can you start small and create doable tasks to build consistency in your business? What is doable for you?

Mondays don’t have to be the worst

Mondays are the worst, right? Well they don’t have to be!

While I’ll never be excited about a Monday, I have figured out a way to make them a bit more bearable.

1. Don’t schedule calls on Monday. I’m introverted and calls especially discovery calls with someone I’ve never met before take a lot out of me so I completely removed the ability for leads to schedule calls on Mondays. I do occasionally take calls with my current clients, but for the most part Mondays are call free!
2. Schedule easy repetitive tasks for Mondays. Mondays are great days for admin tasks, scheduling social media, filling up the Pinterest queue or any task that requires a lot of copy/paste work. For me these types of tasks don’t take a ton of mental energy and when I see them on my schedule I don’t feel overwhelmed by the day.
3. Listen to a Podcast or Audio book while you work. This has actually made me look forward to Mondays because I can listen to an audio book or catch up on my favorite podcasts. If the task requires a bit more mental focus I’ll choose to listen to music instead. Whatever I choose it helps brighten my Mondays and makes them more tolerable.
4. Protect your weekends. Or whatever your days off are. I don’t work weekends. If a client has a launch or something big happening then I don’t mind being on hand for it. But for the most part I don’t work weekends. It’s much easier going into Monday after taking a break from work and allowing myself to rest.

What can you do to make your Mondays a little better?

Take your days off!

When I was at Walmart, I had been there long enough to have 4 to 5 weeks of vacation a year! Pretty awesome, right?

And I did not leave my day job to work more! I want to work less!

Besides it’s important to have intentional time away from your business. Time where you and your clients know that you’re not working. Time where you don’t have to think about work.

So one aspect I kept from my old Walmart days is that I plan my vacations out ahead of time.

When I was an assistant manager, every December the store manager would have all of his assistants turn in a vacation request form so he could plan out vacations so that only a few of would be on vacation at a time. Most didn’t like planning out their vacation for the entire year, but I did.

And by continuing to block time out on my calendar for vacations, I ensure that I actually take my vacations.

I encourage you to do the same. You don’t have to plan the whole year out, but look at the next six months and start planning days off and vacations. Once you do that…

• Go into your booking calendar and immediately block that time off to show you’re not available.
• Create a task for yourself in Trello, Asana or whatever you use to send emails to your clients to let them know about your vacation. I usually give three weeks of notice for a week-long vacation.

You can always move your vacations around and allow for last-minute trips that might come up that’s the beauty of owning your own business. But by intentionally planning out some days off, you won’t let a whole year or more go by without having some time off.

Take tours of your business

Another important and useful habit I picked up during those years in retail is touring.

As a manager, you are expected to walk your area of the store looking for anything that needs improvement like incorrect signing or out of stock merchandise, etc. Your job is to find what is working for your area and what isn’t, and of course to fix what isn’t working.

Touring can also be helpful when you apply it to your website and business!

Do you ever visit your own website? Doing this will give you an opportunity to make sure that everything is working and looks the way that you want it to. Look at your site like a visitor would. Is it easy to navigate and read? How does it look on mobile?

Also, when we tour in retail, we don’t tour alone. It’s important to have another set of eyes along to help you catch opportunities. So how can you do this for your blog? I look at plugins as another set of eyes on my blog.

There are plugins like Akismet that will help keep SPAM out of your comments. WP-Optimize will help keep your database clean. Updraft will back up your files in case something happens to your website like if it’s hacked or deleted you can easily put it back online.

Also, you can ask other business owners for advice! One of my favorite ways to do this is through Facebook groups. If you’re not sure about an idea, ask your fellow entrepreneurs in your favorite Facebook group!

Spring and the end of the year are both really great times to take on this task of “touring” your website. Though you can also do this quarterly if you like. And by taking a tour of your website and business you can create plan of what you need to do to improve them.

How to know what tasks to focus on

“What should I be focusing on?” or “How do I know if I’m working on the rights things?”

It’s so hard to know what you should be focusing on when you’re building your business.

There are so many to dos! But what are the most important tasks?

Here are a few questions I ask myself to help me decide what my focus should be.

• “Is this a money making or potential money making activity?”
• “Will it help me grow my email list?”
• “Will it drive potential clients to my website?”

If the answer is yes to one or all of these, it’s a task that needs my focus.

For example, if you’re a service provider, pitching clients should be a top priority. Clients are where the majority of your income comes from, so any tasks that involves pitching or promoting your services is a worthwhile task. Spending an hour creating one Pin is not a worthwhile task. (This is why I love templates!)

Creating an opt-in freebie to entice subscribers and potential clients to your list? Worth it!

Tweaking your theme for the 100th time? Not so much.

So when you’re not sure what you should be doing, ask yourself will this task help me make money? Will it help me grow my email list? Or drive potential clients to my website? If the answer is no, switch your focus to a task that will help you grow your business in one of these three ways.

I’ve also learned to ask myself, “How can I turn this task into a money making task?” For example, if I’m writing a blog post, I can include affiliate links to products I mention. Or add an opt-in form that leads to a tripwire.

This has really helped me learn to prioritize my business tasks.

It’s ok to play small.

To have a business online, you have to put yourself out there.

Be in the spotlight. Play big!

But I’ve never been one to want attention. I don’t like it. Not everyone wants to be the center of attention. We understand the sidelines cheering on others is a nice place to be too.

I understand that this may seem odd as I also like being in charge. 🤷‍♀️

When I was in retail management I did management my way. Quietly.

Quietly I worked hard, treated everyone with respect and kindness, and got it done. I don’t strive to stand out. There’s nothing wrong with that if that is who you are. But that’s not me.

Don’t get me wrong I stand up for what I believe. I go to bat for others and myself when needed. Just because you’re quiet doesn’t mean you’re a doormat.

The quiet, simple life is what I want. And because of that, I do business my way.

That means my marketing looks like SEO, Pinterest, and building a referral network. That means I’m more about pretty images than dancing in reels. That means I won’t be starting a podcast, or Webinars, or a YouTube channel just because every guru out there says I should. Never say never obviously but as of right now -no.

There isn’t anything wrong with reels or podcasts or videos but they don’t feel like me. And my business should feel like me. Quiet, but always getting the work done.

And I know there will be people who will say, “but you need to step out of your comfort zone!” And they are right! But stepping out of your comfort doesn’t mean you shouldn’t be true to yourself.

I started my own business. I’ve been interviewed on other blogs and podcasts. I did a collaborative video mini-training with a client. I’ve presented at summits. I did a residency in client’s Facebook group about Canva. And I was featured in a local online magazine. These are all things that challenge me to go outside my comfort zone but still feel true to me.

How to handle stressful and hectic weeks

Here are a few things I do when weeks are very hectic and stressful.

1. Focus on one task at a time.

It’s so easy to get overwhelmed when you think about all things on your to-do list. But you can only do one task at a time, right? So when that overwhelming feeling would come up, I’d take a deep breath and remind myself to focus on one task at a time.

2. Knock out the easy tasks first.

This is a trick I use a lot. I look at my to-do list and see which tasks are 20 minutes or less and do those first. This helps me to build momentum and feel motivated to get even more done.

3. Take regular breaks.

When I get in work mode, I can forget to take breaks. Luckily I have a friendly reminder in two furry little balls of energy named Buffy and Riker. About every 90 minutes so, they will ask to go outside to play. So we go for a walk around the yard for 10 to 15 minutes. They play and I get to stretch and rest.

4. Order out

I cook almost every night, but when work is heavy we do a lot of take out. Taking this one task off my list is super helpful and luckily we have some great restaurants in out little town so it wasn’t fast food every night.

5. Adjust your work load as needed

I usually work on creative projects in the morning and other tasks in the afternoon. When I wake up with no creative mindset, I simply adjust my schedule to work on more repetitive tasks to let my brain rest a bit. This small change can make a huge difference in my productivity for the day.

6. Have grace with yourself

When you’re super busy in your business, other things will fall to the wayside. If you have to let some things go around the house for a few days, that’s ok! Your house will survive until things get back to normal.

I hope you enjoyed this reflection of my 7-year journey as a business owner! It has really been a wonderful journey and I am grateful for my clients and my business. I’m very excited to see what the future holds! Here’s to many more years of growth, learning, and success!