1. business and industrial

How to Make the Transition from
Employed PA to
Self-Employed Virtual Assistant
Step-by-step strategies on
how to prepare to leave your job
and launch a sustainable VA business
The Virtual Assistant Coaching
and Training Company
Welcome to your new and exciting journey to becoming
a Virtual Assistant
My name is Carmen MacDougall and I am the
Founder of The Virtual Assistant Coaching and
Training Company.
My team and I would like to thank you for taking your time out to read this e-book on
the topic of ‘Making the transition from full–time employed PA to self-employed
Virtual Assistant’.
This is aimed specifically for those of you who are still employed, are temping or in
the process of being made redundant and are looking at their options for making the
move out to leave your job and become a VA.
Just the fact that you are reading this e-book means you are consciously
heading towards a change in your career.
You may not be ready right now and just want to get a flavour of what being a VA
could mean to you or you may be absolutely raring to go and want to get started as
soon as you can; in fact, now that you have shown an interest, you will probably find
that you are coming across more people who know a VA or even someone who is
themself a VA.
It is amazing, isn’t it, what you start to notice when you start something new.
Whatever stage you are at in your journey right now, please note that myself and my
team are here to safely guide you in the right direction and on the right path at your
Continued over 2 | P a g e own pace, as we have done for many PAs around the world since 2002. After all we
know the industry inside out having been involved since it’s conception in 1999 in the
UK.
No doubt you have lots of questions, you have been conducting lots of research, you
are feeling quite excited about this possible new venture, and yet, you are hesitating
slightly...due to the ‘What If’ questions.
These may possibly be affecting your confidence in yourself, perhaps, in taking the
first adventurous step in this world, which is so new to you.
This is a perfectly normal feeling to experience as it is stepping into the unknown.
Well, by reading on it will help you to start to feel more confident about this new
journey. You just need your questions answered by an expert who can give you an
honest outlook and realistic advice about what you need to know. ‘Follow the leaders
not the followers’, as many millionaire mentors I know tell me.
Perhaps you are just so excited about this and realise now, that this is DEFINATELY
something you do now want to pursue, and yet you are not complacent enough to
think you can do it all on your own. Of course you want and need to do this right first
time...after all, why would you want to make all those costly mistakes or perhaps
take much longer to achieve your particular goals? You want the valued guidance
and support don’t you? Well you have come to the right place on all accounts you’ll
be delighted to know.
Your journey begins here...so enjoy!
Continued over 3 | P a g e What is a VA?
Now for those of you who are not particularly sure what a Virtual Assistant is, let me
just explain that to you very briefly.
A Virtual Assistant is somebody that is self-employed,
normally from a PA or secretarial background; they will
work for themselves providing traditional PA services and
sometimes other specialist skills as well, and to different
people who will be their clients.
Those clients could be anyone from a one-person band,
up to a small to medium sized organisation; it can also
include larger organisations, even an international
company.
The Virtual Assistant will communicate with their clients by email, telephone, online
communication or Skype, and on occasions in person. Now, of course, this does
depend on the location. The beauty of being a Virtual Assistant means you have
complete flexibility in where you work, how you work and with whom you work. You
can choose the number of hours you work when your business is more established.
What does becoming a VA mean to you?
Before identifying how to actually make the transition, I would like you to think about
the following first:
Continued over 4 | P a g e •
What it is that you want and what's your reason for wanting to become a
Virtual Assistant?
•
What will it actually give you? Is it freedom and flexibility you are looking for,
more independent, perhaps you're fed up of the commute?
•
What will happen if you were to now experience being in charge, being
independent, and working how you want to work and with who you love
working with?
•
If you were to stay where you are, in your comfort zone, in your current job or
temping rols, what will stay the same for you and what will not happen?
•
By starting to think about what you want and what you no longer want helps
you to focus on your vision, your ideal situation that can positively affect you,
both professionally and personally.
•
What do you need to earn?
•
Are you willing to make some sacrifices and REALLY commit to making stuff
happen?
Whilst you are setting up a business, especially when you are still at work, I'm not
going to tell you that it's all going to be very, very, easy.
This is something that you are going to have to make a commitment to, so I'm afraid,
it's not the case of coming home after a long day's work and thinking "I can't be
bothered to do anything this evening, I'll wait until the weekend".
You are going to have to make some sacrifices, but I'd rather tell you the realistic
story rather than try to fluff it up all pretty and nice for you, then suddenly you get into
it and say, "Carmen this is not easy‟.
Continued over 5 | P a g e However, it's amazing how simple it becomes to make those changes when
you want something enough and can see the end result.
The actual process or model is simple, and by following the simple model, especially
the one so many of our graduates have followed with us, and you committ to it, and
you're making sure you get relevant support, well then, there is no reason why you
can't make that transition.
I do always advise that, before you make the transition, before you actually leave
your employment, make sure that you have saved up enough money that will sustain
your living, at least to cover the basics in any case and this is where the sacrifices
might have to come into play, to cover you for at least three to four months.
Why? Quite simply because you will have a mindset of desperation and worry if you
leave your job and you have no money to survive. There is nothing worse than
smelling 'l'eau d'esperation' from a new business owner. And of course, it means
you can concentrate your efforts on building your business and enjoying the journey,
without worrying about how you will pay your bills. So, work out exactly what you
need to cover your essentials!
What do you want?
As I asked you earlier, why do you want to set up as a VA and what do you
think it's going to give you?
Continued over 6 | P a g e Now for many people who are successful at their VA business, it gives them
flexibility, independency, freedom in many ways, confidence and a sense of true
accomplishment.
How many hours a week you want to work is completely up to yourself, you may
wish to work 10 hours a week or 30 hours a week or only 5. You may be a parent
and you have young children, therefore you want flexibility around the nursery or
school runs. And of course, you may be in the process of even retiring and the
reason you want to become a VA is because you still want to keep your mind active
and ensure income is still flowing in.
Some people just want to become a VA because they want to be in control of their
earning potential, in control of how they spend their time and in control of who they
work with.
If it's because you want to become more successful, because where you are now
you've reached the ceiling in your career and without a degree or relevant
qualifications and skills you can't move further up the ladder in your company. The
great thing about becoming a Virtual Assistant is that the sky is literally the limit.
How and when will you work?
One of the best ways of 'trying' to fit it all in, is simply to plan. By creating a timetable
of when you will apply your attention to your new business, detailing in your diary
Continued over 7 | P a g e what specific actions you will take in that time, having your business strategy in
place, will help.
You know that you can start working on developing your business whilst you're stil at
work. However, please never make use of your employer's facilities - it will mostly
be against company policy and not only that, if you use your company computer to
carry out work, especially for your clients, then you could be in breach of
confidentiality as the work is shared via this system! So invest in a laptop or tablet
and take yourself off at lunch times or when you can, sit in a cafe and do what you
need to do. And you know what? SO many people have done this before you, so
you CAN do it. 'What the mind can conceive, the mind can achieve', remember that!
Create a PLAN
We have had many clients who have come home from work and sometimes it's late
because they've got the tube, or the train or perhaps got stuck in horrible traffic and
the day they wanted to get home early there's been an accident on the road etc. But
they have still made that time for their business. Because they want it badly enough!
You have to believe in yourself. Have faith. Take Action.
I would suggest that you create a timetable, because I don’t know about yourself, I
know for many, that when they tell themselves that they will do two of three hours
work of an evening, they get home, they cook the dinner, they eat dinner, they might
watch half an hour of TV and then think “oh I did say I was going to do two or three
hours this evening, I’ll just get round to doing that in a few moments” and then a few
moments become longer and longer and it gets harder and harder to actually
Continued over 8 | P a g e approach the work and it then becomes a chore. Sound familiar?
If you create a timetable for yourself, it’s very simple yet really effective, and be strict
with yourself to say right on a Monday, Wednesday and Friday, between 7.00pm and
9.00pm I’m going to be doing something to build my business, to work at my
business etc.
What could you do in that planned time?
This time could be focused on attending an evening networking event, it could be
meeting with a prospective client, it could be networking online or doing some fee
earning work. With the availability of social networking today, it has created a huge
opportunity for business marketing online, opening up huge opportunities to connect
with other business people anywhere in the world at any time of day. To name but a
few: Twitter (you can follow me on www.twitter.com/vatrainingpro),
www.Ecademy.com, www.linkedin.com or www.facebook.com to start with just a few
of many.
Think about people around you who can help keep you accountable with your
timetable, or you could time yourself using an alarm as another option, it’s very easy
to get carried away when you are online and can eat into your personal time if not
careful as you know. I’m very strict now that when the alarm goes off I stop and I
leave the computer and I go back to what I was doing before that.
There is a really good book that I recommend you read and it’s called “Take Time for
Your Life” by Cheryl Richardson and you can get this on Amazon. Within her book,
there is a chapter on time management with an excellent exercise in there that will
Continued over 9 | P a g e enable you to really re-evaluate where you are focussing your time. Even things like
sending out emails, going on the internet or watching TV, now I wouldn’t say to
sacrifice going to the gym, because I think it’s very important that you have that self
care management, but can you alter when you go perhaps?
I’m not trying to tell you how to live your life here, what I am trying to do is to create
awareness of what you do with your time. You should never have to say to yourself
that you never have time.
Who do you want to work with?
I
t’s about the choices that you make. Once you’ve started to make that choice, taken
that first step, changed the way you think and behave and can approach the way you
work on this, you will start to see results happening quite quickly. I suppose it’s a bit
like going to the gym, at first it’s a real effort just to get your gym kit into the bag and
to walk out of the door and walk or drive to the gym. The more you do it, the more
you start to see very subtly and very slowly some results, you might start to notice
that your bum cheeks aren’t wobbling as much or that your bat wings (I am talking
about myself by the way, I don’t mean this to yourself) aren’t wobbling as much, and
even in your face you start to notice a healthy glow about you. This then spurs you
on to continue going because, even though you’ve had to sacrifice your time and
really make a commitment, and it’s been a great effort when you’ve been tired, once
you’ve done it, you feel better about it and you’re really delighted you’re starting to
see the results. You then create a new habit, a new behaviour.
This is the same with your business: at first it may seem uncomfortable, you’re tired,
you really can’t be bothered to do it, but you know you have to do it. When you start
Continued over 10 | P a g e making those little steps and you start moving forward slowly, you start to see those
results. And then you start to notice other people that you start to meet in the VA or
business industry as a whole are other people who are also trying to make the
transition and you also start to support one another, because you are all so likeminded and that really is fantastic when that happens.
It’s about taking an old habit and creating a new supportive one; it can take about 14
to 21 days to create or break a habit that is either unwanted or wanted. Giving
yourself 2 to 3 weeks to really get at it with a timetable, where you know Mondays,
Wednesdays and Fridays, between 7pm and 9pm is when you are going to be doing
some work and maybe on a Saturday morning, it might mean you have to wake up
an hour early on a weekend to be able to have some reading time for instance,
however, it will all be worth it in the end...just remember why you want this. These
are some of the changes in terms of how you want to work, when you are getting
things started.
Starting to make headway
You’re starting to make headway, perhaps you’ve started to get your first website,
had some business cards printed, and you’ve started to make the effort to create
awareness about your business and raising your profile. You notice that, due to your
effective marketing strategy, people are starting to get in contact with you,
connecting with you online and interested in finding out more about you. All very
exciting! Then...they ask if they can speak to you or meet with you during the day.
How do you respond? Do you tell them that you are at work? How can you fit this in
if you are working?
Continued over 11 | P a g e One of the things I always say is, that as much as you can, you want to avoid having
to go and meet people all the time, because actually it’s not a good use of your time,
but of course, being a Virtual Assistant, it does mean virtual. But the only thing that
could stop you is that you are working during the day, so what do you do? Do you
take time off work; do you go during your lunch hour? What I suggest here is that
you have an initial phone call and if you can possibly have that phone call during
your lunch hour or may be just arrange to have a phone call later on in the afternoon,
then that is the place to start. It’s not ideal, but of course, it’s better to have that
contact than nothing at all.
Dealing with an enquiry
There is a process of dealing with this enquiry, and it doesn’t involve you telling them
what they need or what you will do for them as this means you are entering pushy
sales mode and making assumptions.
There are particular questions that you
should go through with this person, to ascertain whether they would like to take
things to the next level and maybe at that stage, if you can, you can meet up with
them, if not, you can have a prospective client consultation, which is pretty much the
type of conversation you have before they then go ahead.
Of course, this may not happen straight away, with your marketing it’s all about
relationship building and a varying amount of verbal and written communication as
part of the process.
Building relationships - not selling
Building relationships and allowing people to get to know you and what you are
capable of is essential, you cannot expect people to sign a contract with you
Continued over 12 | P a g e immediately. I hope you would not do this yourself, although I did hear a story the
other day which I will mention to you, but hopefully you wouldn’t go to a bar, see a
nice man or woman standing there and say “you look nice, I’ve got a vicar outside,
let’s get married!” Because they would turn round to you, and ask who you are.
They would want to get to know you first before even considering making a
commitment. Of course, that’s why people date. So someone did tell me the other
day that their friend got into a taxi and shared it with another lady and by then end of
the journey, he’d proposed to her, so it does happen.
The thing is that people don’t like to be sold to, and therefore you’re not going to be
speaking to people in your spare time and saying “right when can we start, you’d be
my perfect client”. The relationship needs to build and that is through you creating
awareness, through things like your website, your newsletter, maybe it’s come
through referrals, the relationship has been built slightly because they trust the
judgement of the person who passed your details to them, through blog writing,
through sending information to interested parties, through having the odd phone call
here and there, and maybe even meeting at a networking event or chatting on a
social networking site, so they are getting to know you, like you and trust you.
It’s a step by step educational guide to them really telling them what you can do and
what you can’t. And it’s always very important to share information, I suppose in
such a way that I am doing here, sharing this e-book with you or hosting my free
information calls once a month.
It’s because it allows you to receive useful
information as well as to understand who I am and what I can offer you (although this
really is tip of the iceberg!). Of course you may not sign up to anything immediately,
you may want to speak to me next or attend the information call, or continue reading
my newsletters until you get to know me, like me and trust me.
Continued over 13 | P a g e Of course, through your marketing activities, you start to gain interest. You start to
receive more enquiries, however you are noticing that, as you are at work in the day,
you are finding it a challenge trying to get back to these people, or you may be
missing calls.
Those opportunities are coming in – so be prepared!
It is about taking opportunities and of course you don’t want to make your life
difficult, so one of the things I suggest you look at is a call minding service. You then
have somebody who can take any enquiries by phone on your behalf during the day,
because, can you imagine the awkward situation you’d be put in, if someone calls
your mobile and your sat at your desk at work, it’s sods law that your boss is
standing right behind you, you answer your mobile “Hello VAs are us”, “ Hello there,
I’d like to enquire about your services.”, “Well I’m really sorry, at the moment, I’m
just at work. Can I call you back when I finish?”, or you might not answer it and let it
go to answer machine or lose the opportunity altogether.
That’s not the ideal
situation.
Therefore, what I would suggest you do is go to a website called smartnumber.co.uk
and that will allow you to register a local number or an 0844 number and you can
create some business cards as well if you wish, you can go to a company called
moo.com or solopress.com where you can get them done professionally, quality
driven cards, for around £50 and you can get about 500 cards. At least then on your
business cards you would have your 0844 number, so it doesn’t dictate where you
are located, of course, you want to have your opportunities based all over the
country, indeed all over the world if you can.
Continued over 14 | P a g e You can put your mobile number on there and make sure that your mobile message
says something along the lines of “Hello, thank you for calling Carmen MacDougall’s
office, as we’re currently not available to take your call at the moment etc.”, so
something that is professional, rather than “ Hi you called Carmen’s phone, I’m not in
at the moment, leave a message”, which is more personal.
You can register a domain name through a website called 123Reg.co.uk, and you
don’t have to have your website by that point but you can create an email address
such as [email protected]. Next is to employ a call minding company, now they
don’t have to be a lot of money, there are various different companies out there for
use on an ad-hoc basis.
At least then you’ve got somebody taking your calls for you in your company name.
You will tell them your availability, so you might say “If anyone calls up until 12:30 or
after 1:30 please let them know that I’m currently out of the office or on another call
and I’ll be able to call them back between 12.30 and 1.30 or between 5 and 6.30”.
So they answer as your receptionist, and it’s far more impressive when someone
actually picks up the phone, especially in your company name and they are acting on
your behalf, it does create a very good first impression.
And of course it means that people will leave a message, because most people tend
not to like to speak to and answer machine, they don’t always know want to say, and
of course they then go onto the next person.
Continued over 15 | P a g e Working with other VAs
On the VA Mastery Course we do outline, in a very comprehensive way, how to take
on board a team of VAs to support you, and I recommend VAs to the people that I
train because of course at this stage you may not know any other VAs. I launched
the first National VA Conference and Awards in 2007 to 2012, now run by
Bemyva.com, and the Regional VA Conferences and the National VA Conferences
www.vaconference.co.uk are great places to meet VAs if you ever get the
opportunity to go along. In the meantime, there are other opportunities to meet other
VAs or get in contact with them, and again I’m happy to make introductions. We
have a great group of VAs on The VA Mastery Club, so you can join here for £1 and
see for yourself!
The reason to have an associate VA, is not the fact that you are helping other VAs to
build their business, it means that if in the event that someone takes a call for you
and it’s an enquiry, it could be from someone who wants to speak to you urgently,
but your call minder knows that you definitely can’t be disturbed as you are at work,
you have someone else to support you.
They will send you a text with a message of the call that has come in and you might
possibly be able to make a return call. However, let’s just imagine for now that you
are doing something urgent at work, you’ve got your boss standing behind you
waiting for you to reach this deadline, it’s absolutely impossible for you to go out and
make the call, therefore, by having another VA, who is your associate, they operate
under your company name, they’ll have a dedicated email address and what will
happen is that the message will go to your associate VA.
Continued over 16 | P a g e They will call the enquirer back for you and they will help answer the questions and
talk about your business. If that person wants to go ahead with your services, then,
because your associate VA knows your diary, they will make an appointment for you
to speak to this particular person within the timeframe that you are free and capable
of making the phone call. The model is simple yet it does take a bit to manage, and
this is what I train you how to do, many others have done it, so be rest assured you
can do it too with the right guidance.
What this does mean is that, because you are employed in the day, you are not
always in the position to operate your business and you cannot expect people to
always get through to your mobile answer phone as it does not provide an efficient
service. Therefore, by having a call minding company and an associate VA it takes
a lot of the pressure off you and allows you to get started and avoids you losing
opportunities to the next person. By having an associate VA you would ensure that
when you take on board a client, they are there to do the work on your behalf.
What about income, do I still earn something if an associate is doing the work?
Yes you do, although you take a percentage of the hourly rate as you would pay the
associate for their time. If you imagine now that you have 3 VAs supporting you
during the day, doing the work on behalf of your company, for your clients, working
20 hours a month on your behalf, that’s 20 hours each a month, you earn around
25% to 30% of your hourly rate as your management fee per month through an
associate working for your client on your behalf.
This process, as I mentioned earlier, does take a lot of careful management and
regular communication, whether it be early morning, lunchtime or of an evening.
You must also ensure that you still have some communication with your client, and
Continued over 17 | P a g e this is all possible I can assure you. Again this is something I cover in huge depth in
the training I provide, and I cover how to choose the right VA for your business, how
to keep in contact, the fee structure, communicating with the client, contracts (you
MUST have contracts and you receive these as part of your material), effective
delegation skills, what happens if it does not work out with an associate...and more.
Your associates don’t just have to be VAs
It could be other professionals who have specialist services. Think about the type of
clients who you’d be working with and what else their needs may be? They might
need a website built or managed, they might need IT support, they might need a new
logo designed, they may need support with social media etc. If you were to have an
associate who built websites, or provided any of these services, their fees would be
much higher so you’d be taking a higher rate of income per hour or project
completed for your client. Therefore boosting your income further. Start to think
about people you might even know now, that can carry out some of these services
on your company behalf.
In addition, you could also be carrying out some tasks for your clients, some of
whom do not require a day-to-day service, just something ad hoc which you can
manage easily in between working as a PA. There may be clients who require you
to carry out urgent tasks in the evening, you could carry these out and be earning
your full hourly rate, in fact any tasks which your client needs you to carry out after
6pm means you can charge x1.5 of your hourly rate. Do bear in mind that if it is your
choice to work in the evening, you cannot charge your client a higher rate.
Continued over 18 | P a g e If you’re really committed to making this happen, the more you manage this process
and focus on your marketing, then the more likely you’re going to achieve making the
transition. What is that worth to you?
What now? What is next for you? What action will you
take now?
So hopefully this is giving you a picture of how you can actually get the business
started, and of course, this is just the tip of the iceberg.
As many of the millionaire mentors that I know have said, ‘Never follow the
followers, follow the leaders if you want to achieve success!’. And they are
absolutely right.
Having that mentoring support to deal with any challenges is really important and
also hopefully you’ve got people in your family group or your friends group who will
support you as well (although, if they are not experienced in running a business, they
cannot always give you the right advice). Sometimes, however, your friends and
family might tell you something that appears negative, but it could be because they
want to support you or perhaps they just can’t put themselves in your shoes and
understand why you want to be building a business, especially how you could
possibly do this whilst you are working.
When you start having the knowledge and the tools and you’re shown the direction,
you’re shown a model, you’re shown what to do and you are given useful
information, what that does, it helps you to start to become much more confident and
Continued over 19 | P a g e much more aware of what can be achieved and what perhaps you can’t achieve.
They say that knowledge is power and that really is very true.
Of course, once you start to become aware of what you know and what you can do
and you start to create those results, slowly but surely, eventually that fear starts to
go. You might have a fear because you are having many first business experiences,
such as the first time you’re going to meet a new client, the first time that you go
along to a networking event, or the first time presenting at a networking meeting.
However, if you know the right conversations to have (avoid following everyone else)
that work, and you have been provided with the tools and information, then the first
experience can then become a very empowering one for you.
As you start to notice yourself starting to achieve those subtle results, it really does
boost your confidence to no end and you feel so pleased with yourself that you want
to carry on going. It’s similar to when you are working with somebody who praises
you often and tells you what a fantastic job you are doing, you want to do more for
them don’t you; you want to please. It’s the same in your own business as well.
Be patient with yourself as well. You’re coming out of your comfort zone. You may
be scared about coming away from where you are now. However, your comfort
zone may be comfortable but it doesn’t necessarily mean that you’re happy with
where you are right now. It’s just what you know now, it’s your security blanket isn’t
it.
Therefore, if I were to ask you now to imagine yourself as an 89 year old person, and
looking back on your life, are you going to be telling a story that you’re really
delighted, that you did something with your life, that you made the choice to step out
of your comfort zone, you made great choices that allowed you to really stretch you
Continued over 20 | P a g e mind, stretch your personal development and it allowed you great opportunities and
it allowed you to meet some fantastic people who all became your friends, your
clients or great support team around you?
Or, are you going to be looking back and saying “I should have taken that
opportunity when I was faced with it but I was just too scared. It’s a shame really but
I wish I did it, but that’s life”.
Well it’s not “that’s life”, you have the power to do something about it now and
just taking that first step, which could be making a phone call, speaking to a friend,
whatever you do, only you can commit to that.
And it’s amazing, once you start making those small steps you start to take the leap
forward, those steps create actions, create results, and before you know it you’ve left
your job and become a full-time VA. And as you get older, time seems to pass by
much quicker, so even more reason why to make the choice but no man or no
woman is an island.
Your journey
You should never expect that this is a journey you take completely on your own.
This is where having people around you, business people, mentors, coaches,
whoever you choose, should be there for you. They will be there, such as myself, to
help you take each step, a baby step, one step at a time, because nobody climbs a
mountain in five minutes. You must plan and prepare, you must ensure that you
possess all the tools to be able to take that journey – in the right way.
Continued over 21 | P a g e Therefore, what I want to end with is what I started off with, which is: What do
you want?
Think about really specific goals that you want to achieve, a vision for yourself. Now
this could be six months time or a year’s time, maybe five years time, but whatever
you choose as your vision, it must be something really compelling. It has to be
something that, no matter what, you want that badly enough. It’s something that you
are willing to make those commitments, those sacrifices and importantly, willing to
take action. By not achieving this vision, is it going to fill you with regret? How
important is it that you achieve this vision and this goal? What would it mean to you
now, if you knew you could achieve that goal?
If you had the support, the tools and the knowledge, what would it actually
mean to you?
How would it make a positive difference to the way you live or the way you work?
How would it be different compared to how you are living and working now? And if
when you think about that vision, you think, well if I don’t achieve it, it’s not that bad,
then it’s not compelling enough. You need to step it up and raise the game and
make it something that, when you think about it, or when you see it written down, it
drives you.
It drives you through times when you are tired and you think to yourself, why on
earth am I doing this? Why am I putting myself through this, I must be mad! And
then you see an image or you read anything that is related to your vision and you
remind yourself why. And this is why you need support around you because if
anything, to create accountability. I don’t know how many times, maybe you can
relate to this as well, it’s almost embarrassing to say it, but so many times I’ve made
Continued over 22 | P a g e these New Year’s Resolutions, because I haven’t always told people, then I don’t
have to feel embarrassed about telling people that I’ve given up, it’s because I
haven’t got any accountability.
When you tell people what you are doing and you describe your vision and you’re
telling the world “I’m setting up in business and I’m really excited about it”, if you
were to turn around and tell them that you have given up, what would that say about
you and your credibility? Or imagine how it would feel if someone said, “how are you
doing with your business?” and you replied “oh well I’m not doing it now, it was too
difficult” It’s not about failure, it’s about not letting yourself down and it’s about
treating yourself as an important individual. You matter.
You can really make a difference, not just to yourself but to the people around
you. Life is worth living and we don’t want to work to live, I prefer that each day that
I work is doing something that I am passionate about. I love what I do but that’s
because I made the choice to do it.
So really the choice is yours, life is in your hands, AND there is the support here if
you want it now.
See over page on what YOU can do next…
Continued over 23 | P a g e Do you want to book a free 30-minute consultation with Carmen
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Continued over 25 | P a g e Please note that most of the information contained herein is based on personal
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