by The Happy WAHM
It’s my third year, and I’m still learning.
For the first two years of our homeschooling journey, each time someone asks the name of our school, I just tell them we’re with The Master’s Academy (TMA). Until I met Tina Rodriguez. We met online, via Facebook, and she was in need of some pre-school materials, and I was just about ready to let go of some of mine, and so we agreed to meet so she could buy my old curriculum. And it was during the course of our conversation that she mentioned something about giving her homeschool a name.
Of course, I’ve read from other homeschooling blogs that they do have names for their homeschool. I just didn’t care much about giving ours a name. Or I was too lazy to think up of something that I would actually like, long term. So I just left it at that.
And then came that A-HA! moment yesterday morning, as I was writing my status update on Facebook, and out came the Aberásturi Home Academy. So simple, and it sounds so right. Because every day, as I teach my children, I learn something from them. Our homeschool will always give me A-HA! moments.
Project for the kids… make a banner for the Aberásturi Home Academy, with logo, to be accomplished before the school year ends.
by The Happy WAHM
Before starting your business, one question that you need to have an answer for is: Where will you work?
Your home office may be an unused room in your house, or a small corner of your dining room, or any space that can be used exclusively for your business. Pictured above is my office in a corner of our living room. I’m planning to make our garage my domain, but that will come later, when I have the budget for remodeling. For now, I have to make do with the space that I have. And this is where everything happens. Right next to my kids’ study area. I can put in some work while they do their seatwork. And it’s very handy when I need to show them pictures. (Like this morning, while Bea was working on combining two words to form a new word, the example given in the book was silkworm, and she has no idea what it looks like. So with just a few clicks, she was able to appreciate what’s written in her book.)
Having a work area that you can call your own will help you establish your business as a serious venture. It also puts boundaries. Like my family respects that space as my office, and they do not just get anything from it without asking for permission first.
Determine what basic equipment you need and invest on it. You can either purchase your equipment new, or if you’re on a tight budget, you can buy used equipment and upgrade later when you can better afford it.
Make sure that you have a business phone line separate from what your family uses, especially if you get or make a lot of social calls on that line. You will lose business if your customers cannot reach you at the time that they need you. With me, mobile phones work best. It allows my clients to reach me anytime, anywhere.
Working from home may take some self-discipline, especially in the beginning. You may find it hard to remain undistracted by household chores, or the children’s chatter, so setting up your own official office or work space will help you establish a mindset of “going to work”.
by The Happy WAHM
I promised to write about how I evolved from being a transcriptionist to a virtual assistant. So here it is…
Just like how I became a transcriptionist, I was pushed to the virtual assistance niche. After a year of doing transcription, and maybe not doing it properly, I started to have ringing in my ears. It might have been due to the bad quality of my headset, or it might have been due to the numerous bad audio files I picked up from the work queue.
Whatever it was that caused me to hurt my ears, it must have been God’s work. A door was closed. I could not abuse my ears, so there was no question that I had to stop transcribing. But a window opened. I found job postings at Craigslist and replied to a few ads that I felt I qualify for.
After going through some Skype interviews, I finally got hired by an internet marketing company in the UK. The task was to create one-way backlinks from high PR sites to their site. Uh-oh… What’s PR again? And what is a backlink?
Fortunately, the boss only needed someone who could communicate well, dedicated to her work, with stable internet connection, a fast learner and honest. So I qualified. He found me amusing, being so upfront about not knowing what he’s talking about and yet there I was, trying to convince him that I was the perfect VA for him.
It was quite an experience, learning SEO and internet marketing hands-on. Like I learned it as I went along. He would give me instructions over Skype, and if there’s something I don’t quite understand, I would just ask. No problem.
And then one day, the boss asks, “Do you know how to prepare a wireframe?”
My reply… “Is that the one used for eyeglasses?”
So the boss sends me a link to a site showing what a wireframe is and how to prepare one. Then he sends me a Word file that has information about a business that I’m supposed to prepare a wireframe for. And that was it.
As I accomplished more tasks, I gained confidence that I could learn more and do better. So I started to accept more projects, more clients. And in different time zones, too. Before our homeschooling days, my Google calendar was set up for schedules at PST, EST and AEST (UTC +10).
At work, when a client asks me to convert M4A files to MP3, I look for a free software that will do that. If I’m asked to take still photos from a video, I find out how I could do that. And so it was an interesting journey with every client, and I enjoyed, and still enjoying, every minute of each trip!
One thing that I can never stress enough is the importance of honesty. While it’s true that I accepted projects involving tasks that I had no prior experience with, I’ve always admitted that fact to the client. My strongest point has always been the ability to learn, and learn fast. And staying true to my work ethic.
by The Happy WAHM
In response to some queries about the start-up cost of setting up a virtual assistance business, I’m writing about the investments I made to start my home business in case there are others out there who might also be interested to know.
I’ve written about how I got started, the circumstances that led me to set up a home office, and what I did to jump-start what is now a full-pledged career. Those are the intangibles. So here now are some tangibles.
Equipment
We had to invest on a high-end computer, and a fast and reliable internet connection. Well, the fast and reliable was, and is, not within my control. So let’s leave it at having a steady connection. But if you have a choice, like if you’re living in a city where there are two or more providers, shop for the most reliable service, don’t even think about the cost. These days, they are almost level in terms of cost, but not in service. I also have a wireless broadband kit as back-up when my ISP gives me heartache, or when I travel. Important: Never ever use free Wi-Fi connections especially when accessing client accounts. I don’t. As a responsible VA, it’s considered mortal sin to put your client at risk.
The computer, in 2006, cost me Php25K. It was not branded, just an assembled unit, with all the specs I needed. My present PC now is branded, which cost me Php32K. I also have a branded laptop that serves as back-up when I really need to be somewhere else but can’t put off work. And then another desktop PC that my husband assembled for me, and is now being used by my onsite assistant. Then there are the peripherals, like speakers, a headset, a microphone (if your headset does not have one) and a web cam. A scanner and a printer are also must-haves. And if you’re considering transcription, you’ll need a pedal. Got mine as a gift from my mother-in-law. So unless you have a mother-in-law as supportive and as generous as mine, list that down as part of your investment, too. The pedal was $80 way back then.
Taking care of your investment means you also need to have a UPS and an AVR. The UPS is costly, but believe you me, it will be worth it. Think of how much time you’ll save and how much heartache you’ll be spared when the power goes off a second before you could press “save” after you’ve typed in pages of notes. Yes, it will be worth it.
Software
I’m sure you have the complete MS Office Suite. If you don’t have it yet, then don’t just sit there. Go get it! Word and Excel are the most basic. Powerpoint will serve you well for presentations, and Publisher worked well for my desktop publishing service. Access is great for database, although more often than not, I just use Excel, too. Very recently, I started using MovieMaker. It’s cool! And I’m learning Photoshop. Uh, not so cool there. But I’m getting results. So I guess it’s kinda cool, too.
You don’t really need to buy expensive softwares. You just need to know what you need, then look for free downloads. ExpressScribe is free, for those thinking of getting into transcription. I use FileZilla now for my file transfers, although I used to have FTP Commander. And Google Docs, too. Plus, clients actually provide software. So it’s not really a problem. You just need to be a fast-learner.
When I first started out, the hottest thing online was medical transcription. So I invested time and money for training. I enrolled in a medical transcription course while my son was still in the hospital. The training was flexible. We were allowed to do it on our own pace. So I just fast-tracked mine. It was actually a crash course in medicine, with all the specializations. Dermatology, pulmonology, gynecology, urology, and all the other -logies in medicine. There were 15 modules. We learned everything from physical examination to surgery. And for every specialization, there is pharmacy, and that’s where I had trouble. But, I passed anyway. The good thing about taking that course was while my son was still in the hospital, I was learning about his condition, so that when the neonatologist or the neurologist tells us that something needs to be done, we were actually making informed decisions.
The course cost us Php27K. Add to that the transportation and meal expense.
But, and here’s a big but… I never got into medical transcription. I did general transcription. Business transcription – conferences, interviews, podcasts, webcasts, speeches, focus groups – but not medical transcription. The closest thing I got to medical transcription was when I did a series of interviews for a medical program at the University of Western Ontario.
Do I regret ever spending that much money, time and effort for a training I did not put into practice?
No. Because that training more than prepared me for all the things I’m doing now. In fact, attending workshops, and networking with people who have already made a career from the four corners of their home, may be the most important investment a startup can make. And I have evolved. I no longer do transcription. Not at all. I mean, I still get transcription projects, but I also outsource them. I just proof and edit and make sure that the transcripts are client-ready. I’m finding my niche in social media marketing, search engine optimization and merchant account management. I did dabble a little in article writing, but it’s too draining for me.
Online Presence
You need to be found. And how can you do that if you’re just home all the time?
Create an online presence. These days, you have a lot of options. Create a Facebook page, be on LinkedIn, join online fora… there’s more than a dozen different ways you can get found. But to me, nothing beats having your own website.
I set up my first blog back in 2009. It was on Weebly. But my research told me that blogging will get me found, having a business site will build me a reputation. So I went ahead and created a different platform for my online services. I spent more than 6k for the domain and hosting, and I DIY’ed everything. It was a steep learning curve, but I did it.
Fortunately for you, setting up a business site now does not need to be that expensive. I have since started to offer affordable domain and hosting packages that can help jumpstart your online presence.
So there. Starting a home business? Assess your skills. Decide on what you love to do for the long haul. Be ready to learn a lot of different things. Then make some investments.
Oh, I forgot my desk. I had one made, not bought at the store, because I want my things to be exactly where I want them to be. So I had one custom-made for my needs. It cost me about Php8K.
How I evolved from being a transcriptionist to a virtual assistant, I’ll write about next time. And how to look for clients. For now I have to do the laundry and start with my girls’ school activities.
Come back soon!
