When I decided to become a virtual assistant I couldn’t have been more excited about the idea of having more control over my time, freedom, and location independence. I knew that I had skills and a unique perspective I could bring to clients. The problem is that they didn’t know anything about me. I really thought getting clients was going to be a whole heck-of-alot easier than it was for the first few months. I assumed that everyone else knew something that I didn’t. That somehow I was flawed and truthfully there were times when I wondered if I was cut out for the job at all. As I put together the last details for my social media class, I've been reflecting on my entrepreneurial journey. Specifically, what it took to get here and how I can help others so they don't have to struggle as much as I did.

When I started my budget was very limited. At the time, lots of people online promised that they could show you how to get more clients than you’d know what to do with in a few months using social media tactics that didn’t cost a penny. This seemed to be the hot new solution that would level the playing field for us little guys to compete and get the oodles of clients we deserved. Social media marketing was something I needed to study closer. There were so many options, tasks, avenues and channels that I was being told to be in all at once that I began to wonder, could this be too good to be true? Can I really gain the trust and recognition of others investing only my time? What does this even look like?!

Overwhelmed and confused but determined to get my own business off the ground and quit my job at all costs, I proceeded to invest most of what I had saved on social media training courses from various places. I read everything I could get my hands on and practiced everything I learned with my own accounts and my then current employer’s.

In the first month we had social media accounts, we grew his followers on twitter to 1200 people. My account grew to 900 the first month and to 2100 the second month. I knew that I had found something I truly loved to do but I still wasn’t sure about how this translated to dollars for anyone. I just knew that I could get the attention from others. The whole part where the relationships you make connect to purchases was something of a mystery to me. I wasn't sure how to connect the dots.

What I realized is that social media marketing is a process, it takes a long time to understand, and it won’t yield results immediately. These are things that the gurus didn't tell me from the beginning. When you think about it, it makes perfect sense. You need to build that relationship with people and not having a plan or consistency is a surefire way to fail. Things didn’t start falling into place until I developed a strategy and really stuck to it. Next thing I knew not only was I getting more clients, but they were asking me to help them with their social media efforts.

People have a huge need to get trained and qualified help with this part of their businesses. Knowing how to do this for others has allowed me to grow my business at a rate that simply wouldn’t have been possible otherwise. I’ve helped lots of VAs, freelancers and other entrepreneurs work towards the same goals.

I’ve had many VAs email me and contact me over social media with very similar questions on where to look and how to get started. After teaching the Virtual Assistant Jumpstart course in one of the first rounds, I talked to VAF founder Tess Strand about some of the challenges some of them had. We agreed that there needed to be a better path to get started offering these services, but also one that taught you how VAs get clients over social networks and what the system could look like for each VA on the backend depending on their budget. In other words, a real holistic look at what this looks like both as a service provider and an entrepreneur. This is how our new social media eBook and class were born.

I've done my best to put together the class I wish I had a year and a half ago. This covers the basics of everything from optimizing images to best practices on social networks. Here’s what students will learn:

• How to build packages (an issue many VAs bring up)
• How to price your social media services
• How to build real business relationships online
• Building a social media strategy
• What you need to know to market yourself or clients on Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, Linkedin and Google plus
• How to work on finding their brands voice
• How to work with clients to represent their brands well
• The basics on how to use each of these networks including tips on how to get your posts seen more often
• How to decide what social networks to spend time and effort in

We're doing this in a way that is different and offers a lot of support that is missing for would-be social media virtual assistants. Using Google Hangouts as a platform allows for extra benefits as does the structure of the class. Students will:

• Have up to date lessons built just for the needs of the group.
• Learn with other students and build relationships, learn from other's questions.
• A private separate forum is being created here on VAF to host the class so we'll have one place to have discussions, get documents, get valuable support and continue our class conversations.
• Students will have access to the instructor the entire time the class is going. Whatever you need, I'm here. I know where you are because I've been there and I know having help makes a world of difference.

We have a few spots left and I know many of you have been emailing and asking about the class. If you're on the fence, I just want to tell you that although I love teaching and helping fellow virtual assistants we won't have a course like this for a while and the price point is likely to be higher.

If you've been struggling with social media and marketing your business, don't give up! You can do this and I'd love to help you get there. Grab a last minute spot here and let's get started this Friday!