This post is dedicated to so many different people who have recently told me I have inspired them. Thank you!!

You can be a six-figure Virtual Assistant. I’m a live and breathing example. But realize there are stages a business must go through and your journey will be different than mine. Embrace the journey and know this, “Wherever you are, it’s OK.”

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Want to build a strong foundation for your business? Reduce your learning curve and increase your confidence.

Thank you for sharing this Michelle. It really is important to know the big picture. People are often mislead by "get rich quick" systems into thinking that success comes easily. But usually, success takes a lot of work and sacrifice.

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Suzanna Kiraly
AbundantIdeas.com

Thank you for sharing this with us Michelle. You are truly an inspiration to a lot of women and you should be proud of all you have accomplished

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Arista Professional Services - the business solutions experts
www.aristapro.com

This is a great article. Helps remind me to not just look at dreamy appearance of things and look into the grunt work & sacrifice that must happen in order to get to those "happy endings". Amazing.

I read your article yesterday and besides wanting to congratulate you on succeeding in your entrepreneurship, I would also like to tell you how much I admire you for being a fighter and facing all difficulties in life.
Bravo!

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Anna Kourteli - Owner & Solo VBA Professional
Sui Generis Business Sevices -when credibility matters

Great Article Michelle! Thank you for sharing something so personal!

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Desktop Deputy Virtual Assistant "In Charge and At Your Service!" www.deputyva.com

Great article for a newbie like myself to read! You should be very proud for how far you've come and this gives me inspiration in knowing that I too can do this. Not so much for the money but just to work for myself and be happy with what I'm doing. Thanks Michelle!

Ahhhh I just wrote a long question here and lost it due to my "magic mouse" (disappeared like magic). For those of you on a Mac with a magic mouse this may have happened to you before, you accidentally slide your finger over the top of the mouse (it operates similar to a laptop trackpad) and it "goes back" to the previous page and bingo all parts of my question are gone. Now that I'm frustrated I probably won't write it as well so bare with me.

I have a question to ask and I hope its not too invasive. I really don't mean it to be but I'm still in the start up phase and trying to figure the entire VA thing out. I'm not necessarily asking Michelle but just everyone for the sake of brainstorming.

I have a friend that keeps telling me in regard to my VA business that I'm wasting my time selling MY time for money because there are only so many hours in the day. I certainly understand her point. She has an online business (and a unique expertise) where she sells ebooks, webinars, site membership, etc.

Her point is that if I charge $30 an hour and actually can bill 50 hours per week and work 50 weeks a year I'm making $75k per year. Nothing wrong with that but.... it isn't a 6 figure income is it? And it isn't, like her business, an unlimited income. She has people plunking down money for her stuff as she sleeps and she works half as much as I mentioned above and makes twice as much money.

Again I'm not saying I wouldn't be happy with 75k but I'm pretty sure that I don't want to work 50 hours a week forever.

So here is my question to everyone..... Do the VA's that make that 6 figure income make it off of only VA work or do they make some/a lot of it off of the sale of ebooks, seminars, webinars, and the like?

And to take that a step further... are many of you thinking of somehow expanding out in that way somehow? And how many courses, ebooks etc before the market is saturated with them? (and no at this point I'm not thinking of doing any of that as i don't have the expertise at this point)

Susan

Hi Susan, to clarify - Michelle (the author of the article posted) does not sell books or courses, her practice is 6 figures because she works twice as much as the rest of us AND has a team. She is literally a powerhouse. The books you see her promoting are mine and the course she teaches is for me, via VAF, she makes a percentage of the course fee from each registration.

She's not making money while she sleeps, she just doesn't sleep

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Did I misunderstand your post - you're referring to a friend who sells books, etc.? If so, apologies! Just wanted to clarify in case it was a reference to Michelle...

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Thank you so much for sharing! You are truly and inspiration!!

I guess I wasn't clear, I'm so mad I lost my first post, it made more sense. I have a personal friend that sells her expertise on the internet (it is not Michelle). It is my friend that keeps telling me that selling my time for money is limiting, which of course it is... there are only so many hours in the day.

In regards to Michelle or any VA that makes a 6 figure income...I'm just curious if part of their income is some other sort of added on income or is the 6 figures all made from VA work? But by reading your first comment I can see that if you have a team working for/with you then of course you have the ability to make more money.

Again, I'm certainly NOT trying to anger anyone, be too curious, or challenge anyone. It's hard to express oneself fully and in the manner I mean to express this, with text. I can tell that Michelle is a powerhouse and works like crazy but I'm not (!) so I'm hoping I can make a good living doing this. And I'm just trying to figure out if the top VA's make the bulk of their money from VA work.

If you go to Google and search for VA info it all seems to be sold by VA's (which of course makes sense, I wouldn't buy VA info from a dog trainer) but I'm wonder if a lot of their income comes from those books and courses or is that really just a small part of their income?

I'm sorry if I've confused everyone.

Susan

Hi Susan, no worries! Nothing you've written would or should upset anyone here

I think you CAN absolutely make 6 figures working with a team, but even that is a lot of work - not exactly passive income.

I am not a workhorse like our beloved Michelle , nor do I maintain a team of VAs, and so I do not make 6 figures. I choose to work less and I choose to work specifically with higher-end clients on projects that are going to tip the balance of trading my time for money more in my favor - and that's the key for me. Lifestyle balanced with income. (That was true before I wrote the eBook, etc. also). I don't want to speak to Michelle's biz model too much but I do know that she does the bulk of her work herself, her team is a small extension of what she does and relatively, responsible for a very small part of her income. Michelle literally makes 6 figures because she works hard and gets referrals left and right (so much so that she started a referral list to help those clients she can't work with find VAs). Her stellar reputation at this point is very much reflected in her income .

I think that if you A) truly specialize and B) REALLY know your market you can easily make more money than $30 p/h. If you're really good at what you do and even if you are "just" offering admin support you should still be charging more than $30 per hour. How to charge more than that is the real question and the ultimate goal if you want to make more money and NOT work 50 hours a week.

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Thanks Tess, great information. I'm not really even a VA business yet but was just trying to figure this all out. Yes Michelle does sound like a dynamo! I'm not..... well I take that back, I am but in short bursts. I'm a lot older then some of these great VA's here so I'm stopping each day to smell the flowers a bit too.

Thanks for all the great info here.

Susan

Susan, I hear what you're saying. I'm trying to work from home so I can spend more time w/my kids, not less. I admire Michelle's work ethic. And while I feel I'm a workhorse, I'm more of a pony compared to Michelle.

I'm hoping to (eventually) make up for the hours I'm not working by taking advantage of affiliate programs and by selling my own stuff... which I have yet to develop.

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Shiloh Buchman
What are you waiting for? Hand It Over!

Susan, sorry I'm jumping into this conversation a bit late (it's been a bizzee-day). There is absolutely nothing wrong with anything in your comments. We're all here to learn, ask questions, etc. so I'm glad you asked what you did.

Tess is right, I do have a few people who help me with some things - some things are my own and some are client things. I'm not a multi-VA firm though and don't really plan on heading that direction. Regardless of what I hand off I do quality control, follow-up, etc. and that time isn't billable. In 2012 I paid out about $22K as sub-expenses.

Of my almost $116K less than $900 was made during my short bursts of sleep - mainly affiliate sales for the few trusted products I mention in some blog posts and a gig on Fiverr.

Only about 60% of my daily time at the computer "working" is actually billable. So that makes for really long days. I'm fighting to re-gain my life. I'm almost 40 and would someday like to get married, travel a lot, etc. I've just recently quit working at least one weekend a month. My goal is to eventually not work on the weekends at all.

With the help of my business coach I'm hoping to work with more bigger clients - I have some that are less than $50/month. I also hope to develop some info products/training courses. And, of course I'll keep teaching the Virtual Assistant Business Jumpstart class for VAF/Tess.

I think your friend has the right idea regarding developing products and you'd want them to be consistent with what you offer so you aren't "buying VA advice from a dog trainer" One of the things I mentioned during a recent brainstorming call with Tess is that I wish I had started developing passive income streams sooner.

Anyhoooo, I have to run out for an appointment. Feel free to ask any other questions you may have. Here to help!

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Want to build a strong foundation for your business? Reduce your learning curve and increase your confidence.

And a huge thanks to everyone else who has commented here and on the blog. I can't even begin to describe how thankful I am that this post has resonated, given hope, etc. with so many. xoxo

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Wow what a schedule. I'm impressed but I know I can't physically and emotionally keep up a schedule like that. I guess I'll either have to settle for less money, get higher paying clients, or develop a passive income stream (or all 3). I don't and won't work on weekends (and I don't even want to get married!) I need space and time that is my own.

Being new at the VA business I better develop passive income streams in something I really know like the back of my hand (is that the top part or the palm?) Uh, oh, I'm in trouble!

Susan

Great conversation here. Michelle is a work horse but also has positioned herself to make the moves she makes. One thing that has not been mentioned is the Michelle invests in her business (sorry to speak for you Michelle) by hiring a coach, subbing out tasks and jobs and I am sure other things.

I am not a 6-figure business, pretty close but not there, however I am comfortable with that. Like Michelle says, sometimes it is not pretty and she is now learning work-life balance but that is what works for her. I try not to work weekends because that is what works for me.

6-figure is doable as a VA and if that is your goal, go for it! If it is not, don't feel bad or like you are settling for something less than everyone expects. Whatever your "success" own it and be proud.

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Lee Drozak

Susan, your hand comment made me chuckle. When I first started my biz the goal was to make at least 75K so I could be close to what I was making at my job. In hindsight I wish I would have had more money in savings - I wasn't really anticipating the money pit to take up so much of my resources. And I didn't see my son's liver disease + associated doctor bills either. In my case it seemed I got further and further behind so I worked harder and longer to keep up - treading water - in a sense.

In 2011 it was necessary to come with almost $1000/month to feed into that crazy property in WI (which I bought at the height of the market and then couldn't sell it due to lending changes) and I nearly decided to let it go into foreclosure. I kept telling a friend - do you know how many hours I wouldn't have to work if it wasn't for that damn property? Luckily I have a land contract on it now so I'm not pouring money into it anymore.

Basically outside forces + fear is what drove me to keep saying yes to things that came my way and lead to intense working hours. I def never thought I'd be working on the weekends when I started and it's not how I had defined my "ideal" workweek.

Lee's point of investing in my business - that's a crucial one too. It is the investment with my business coach that is turning things around for me - mainly by helping me improve my positioning which will lead to higher paying clients, learning to say NO (I have a big problem with that one word!) and making "me" time in my schedule. Aside from Charlie I have invested in a lot of classes over the past few years to get confident with skills.

I don't know if you clicked the link in the post that lead you to Charlie's book - he talks in the book about how we get to one place and then there is somewhere else we want to go. For me I believe that once I am debt free again I'll scale back considerably.

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Want to build a strong foundation for your business? Reduce your learning curve and increase your confidence.