There are no 2 people alike. We all react differently to situations and changes based on our up bringing, adaptability, and other factors that makes up who we are.
Transitioning from working in an office to working from home is one of those times in a person’s life where we feel like we’ve been thrown at the deep-end of the pool, clueless on how to get to the safe side.
Lucky for us, we have helped many who have walked the path before you and that you can learn from.
Here are some scenarios each Virtual Assistant went through and how they solved the situation.
“It gets lonely”
This is something you should have known from the beginning before making the “switch”. Working from home means you will be working alone most of the time. The only interaction you will have (and only if you have teammates), is via Skype.
Don’t worry; it’s not the end of your social world. Working from home should mean you have more control of your free time. For example, schedule and coordinate your breaks with your fellow VAs. This allows time for you to connect with others, motivate each other, and still stay on task. You also should schedule meetings with friends during your off time so that you can feel more connected.
“The payout is only once a month, how will I make it work?”
Working from home has many advantages and this is might not be one of them. All our clients pay every 4 weeks. While the pay is more than most other firms, it still means, you need to be prepared to manage your cash flow so that you don’t end up with more days than money.
Financial management 101: For the first 1-2 months of you working from home, it can be challenging to adjust your cash flow. Make little sacrifices. Do you really need that Starbucks? New dress? Or other non-essential? For the first month or so, only purchase those items that you and your family really needs. Think of it as an investment in your career. As time continues, you can then add back those items that you want to splurge for.
Ideally, you should have enough money set aside so that you can comfortably make the transition and then some for savings going forward. An easy way to do this is take your bills and divide them by the 4 weeks and then make sure that you reserve that amount each week + 10%. If you are diligent in this, you will find that you will increase your savings and be able to easily cover your bills each month.
“I am not used to working night shifts”
Part of our requirements is that you have previous night shift experience. However other firms may not be as firm on this policy. The nature of working from home as a Virtual Assistant to foreign clients is not different from working in a BPO office. If you have not worked in a BPO before, you should probably think long and hard about working for a US client and probably start with an Australian client first.
Assuming you want to try and get accustom to working the night shift, you need to adjust your body clock. What does it mean? You need to start staying awake during the night. Figure out the sleep schedule that will work best for you. Some of our VAs go right to sleep after their shift, others stay up until the midday and sleep until 6:30 or so and then some split their sleep schedule by sleeping 3-4 hours getting up and then sleeping another 3-4 hours later (which I don’t think is the best solution, but whatever works best for you). The best way to think about this is in 8 hour intervals. You need to work for 8.5 hours, sleep for 8 hours, and then you have 8 hours for personal time to have fun and socialize.
“My client is not always there to answer my question. Its as if I don’t exist”
Working independently is one of the qualities your client required when they hired you as a Virtual Assistant. Most of our clients don’t have free time hence they sought help and hired you as an assistant.
Being a virtual assistant means you are a business owner yourself. You have to take courage to make decisions for your business, and your business is to keep your client happy and providing a great service to them.
Make sure that you are reaching out to your client as well and reiterating the value you bring to them. Communication is a 2-way street and therefore, being able to effectively share concerns, ideas, and solve problems reinforces the fact that your client needs you to help them with these types of things.
Working from home is a great way to earn a living but it is not for everyone. You need to be driven by motivation to make this work. There are major differences and adjustments but it should not outweigh the advantages working from home.
Think you have what it takes to work with us? Send your resume to Careers@5StarVAs.com.
