This October (2023) marks one month since I started focusing on my Virtual Assistance service. It has been challenging, and I’m far from seeing success yet.

I’ll be honest: being unemployed is stressful, even if I had prepared for this moment, had savings, and had worked on Fiverr as a Freelancer for years (you can check my profile here). Nevertheless, I don’t regret my decision (not yet), as I can finally focus on my personal growth and dedicate time to my proofreading, editing, and virtual assistance business.

Starting on the Virtual assistant path.

Becoming a virtual assistant was almost an accident. I started working as a Virtual assistant for a coworking company in New York after one of the team members contacted me. He wanted to create a database of emails of CEOs and Owners of companies in New York. I handled a small team in Venezuela and used different resources to find those emails.

After a brief period of not working with them (maybe I’ll share the reason in another post), I contacted the CEO, and he again offered me my position. Now, my job was different, as I worked on LinkedIn Lead Generation and handled the CEO’s LinkedIn Profile.

I worked in that position for a year and then quit and started my journey in the harsh world of call centers and Customer service (Working in Colombia granted me access to the health care system, so I needed it). 

Changing paths, once again.

I have had a lot of different jobs during my life, and only one of them was related to my Bachelor’s degree in Biology. I have changed paths so much because I wanted to make sure I find something that I like and allows me to grow and learn. I wasn’t sure if I was a good fit for the Customer service industry at first.

Nevertheless, I worked as a Customer Service agent in two BPOs for three years. Then, I got promoted to Quality Analyst. During those years, I realized I had a knack for helping people. I was good and felt great helping them. Some people were awful to me, and the job was stressful. Still, I thrived there because I had the opportunity to assist others, and every issue I solved made me more confident.

However, everything good comes to an end. After three years, I felt that I stopped growing. The workload had increased, my salary got stagnant (and inflation was rampant), the flexibility was reduced, and my time had come to take the jump and work on my business.

Focusing, hyperfocusing, and procrastinating.

After taking a vacation in Venezuela (my home country), I returned to Bogota to give my 100%! So I did… for a few weeks. 

I started and completed a course about Google Sheets on the Google Cloud course platform (100% recommend), created a blog in WordPress, studied how to improve said blog, updated my Fiverr profile, joined Facebook groups offering jobs for virtual assistants, and got more active on LinkedIn, and then… nothing happened. 

Yes, I know, it’s silly to expect immediate success, and I wasn’t expecting it. The issue is that I was unprepared for the first weeks to be such a failure. You see, when I activated Fiverr, I usually had more orders than I could handle, but this time… I’ve got almost nothing (except for a life-saving returning buyer, if you read this, many thanks).

So, I got disappointed and stopped studying, writing articles for my blog, and publishing on LinkedIn as frequently as before. Also, I ignored a reply to one of my comments on a Facebook group for virtual assistants. Not good, I know.

However, despite the major setback (aka, my mind wanting to give up), I still can feel the desire burning deep inside of me. What I can offer is good despite my self-sabotaging self. I’m still here, and I will keep on trying.

 The path ahead

Oh, the dread of thinking about the uncertain future. No one likes doing so; for some of us, it is way too easy and tempting to search for ways to distract our minds. 

Those evil voices whisper in our ears, “I have savings… I can relax… I deserve to relax… I can do that tomorrow,” even though sometimes what they say is true, relaxation cannot be the cover for procrastination. There is a time to relax, and there’s a time to work, and there’s no way to skip work and get results.

The path ahead of me is unknown, as it is for all of us. If you reach this point, take a deep breath and focus on your next task. Work towards your goals, and why not? Consider delegating some tasks and hiring a talented and kind virtual assistant who is great at proofreading, editing, and customer service, and is becoming knowledgeable on Google Sheets 🙂 You won’t regret it! You can check my Fiverr profile here.

About the Author:
I’m Astrid, a biologist who made a career shift to become a virtual assistant and an accountability partner. My journey from the world of science to customer service and freelancing has given me a unique perspective on life, and I sometimes share it here on WordPress.

Do you need a capable and reliable accountability partner? Contact me on Fiverr or LinkedIn.