I wanted to introduce you to my friend, Tawnya Sutherland. A lot of you over the years have asked about starting up a service business to grow income while waiting for your passion project to become profitable.

Well, she's doing her annual VA Virtuoso Training and it's all about how to be a rock star Service Provider.

And what I want to say is this.

If you've been learning for awhile and studying and have been in this space, you CAN be a VA and get clients that start to pay your bills.

You DON'T have to struggle.

You DO know enough.

Just make a list of the tools you use on a regular basis. There are tons of coaches, authors, speakers, and more who will PAY for help with those things!!!

One of the biggest needs out there is excellent customer service! So if you can answer emails and learn a help desk (you can!) you're golden.

Even if you start off doing research for a client, you can grow into bigger things.

Get paid to learn.

When Virtual Assistants come to me, a lot of times, they charge me a discounted rate because they want to learn while they earn. And they do.

That's what I did when I was an Affiliate Manager. I had a few gigs that more than paid the bills, and I had my regular income coming in which was nothing to sneeze at. But… the key reason I did it was that I was also learning by DOING. And that's the best kind of learning there is.

For instance, I'll message my VA now and say “How do you do X,Y, and Z in Infusionsoft?” (Assuming this is complex question and not something simple she should know.)

Her answer? “I don't know, but I'll find out and get back to you.”

She's literally getting paid to go figure it out and fix it for me and explain it to me. So, when she runs into the problem later, for another client or her own business – she knows what to do!

She's getting paid to learn.

So, if you've been blogging for awhile and you're just not getting leverage yet, or you're posting on social media really well, but are just not profitable yet, or if you're a constant learner and you know ConvertKit or Thrive Themes or some other tools inside and out, consider earning while you're learning.

I did it. And I've helped a lot of people do it over the years. It works.

Don't get me wrong. Obviously you need to bring something to the table when starting your business. But even if you start with a small gig, you can build up your skillset while growing.

If you're interested, here is my best recommendation where to start and it's totally free.

Click here and sign up for this FREE VA Business Kick Start package and you'll get all of this…

1. VIDEO: What to Expect in a Career as a VA Plus Top 10 Resources
2. EBOOK: Kick Start Your VA Business
3. CHECKLIST: 200 Services a VA Can Offer Their Clients
4. CHECKLIST: Virtual Assistant Start Up + Why Get Started in Business
5. #VAforum: Virtual Assistant Networking Collaboration Forum
6. VIDEO: Setting Your Price, Getting Paid & Making it Legal
7. WORKSHEET: The Hourly Pricing FORMULA
8. CONTRACT: Independent Contractor Agreement (Word .doc)
9. GRAPHICS: Images for Social Media Marketing
10. EBOOK: Getting Started With Affiliate Marketing (& Video)
11. VIP LIST: Notification of Market Leading News in the VA Industry

Again, you can see everything you'll get and sign up here.

Becoming a Service Provider is not just for women. I've hired a lot of Service Providers over the years who are men. Writers, editors, tech, graphics, book design, audio, video, and more.

Here's what I want for you if this story resonated with you:

1. Get a few clients and get some money coming in.
2. Take a big sigh of relief. It's hard to be creative and productive when you're scared and frustrated.
3. Schedule your work for your clients. AND schedule your time to work on your own business.
4. With some money coming in, get back to building YOUR business.

Stay tuned for more awesome stuff.

Warmly,

Nicole Dean