We’re back with another post in the Student Success Stories series!
Why share our students’ journeys with you? Great question!
We love featuring people who took Gina’s 30 Days or Less courses and actually got serious about working on their freelance career. Every story in the series is a little bit different from the others – that’s because they’re real journeys, and everyone is on a different path.
This month we’re featuring Carrie Serres, a business pro who is building a virtual assistant business so she can work from home and spend more time with her family.
Read on to find out how Carrie leveraged her existing skills – and leveled up her VA business over time!
Name: Carrie Serres
Website: yourvirtualassociate.com
Course enrollment date: November 2015
Business launch date: November 2015
Date hired by first client: August 2016
Hours worked per week: I was working 5 hours in the beginning. Now it’s around 30.
Average monthly income: $2500-$3000
Top three services: Website maintenance, email assistance, customer outreach, marketing
Hi, Carrie! Please tell us a bit about yourself:
I’m a stay at home mom who needs to make money from home in order to be a stay at home mom!
How did you decide to start working online?
I was already doing something similar (answering email for a friend’s business), and I came across Gina’s VA course and realized that what I was doing was a “thing.”
So I decided to take her course to learn more about what services I could offer. Turns out there was a lot I could offer, and I’ve learned more since.
How long did it take you to earn your course investment back?
I earned it back as soon as I got my first client.
What was your biggest fear before you started your business?
My biggest fear with anything is that I won’t follow through and it will be a waste of time and money.
What was the most challenging part when you were first getting started?
It was hard to start talking about it. The VA course has great ideas for getting started.
I knew that I just had to talk about my business like it was already mine and I was already doing it.
I’m a professional and I’m educated.
They didn’t need to know that nobody had paid me as a freelancer before (outside of a regular job).
I spoke about what I had done for client’s in the past. I pulled my experiences from my past jobs.
I also got small, lower paying jobs on Upwork while I was getting started. That allowed me to practice pitching, practice my skills, and it gave me something else to talk about with regards to what I had done for clients.
What has been your biggest success since you’ve started?
Making my mom proud for working so hard to stay home with my kiddos. That’s huge! I have a master’s degree and she thought I needed to be out in the workforce to be successful. Now that she sees the value in what I’m doing, that’s my biggest success. My husband is starting to come around too; another big success.
What are you working on right now?
I have four consistent clients. For one client, I’m writing three weekly blog posts. For another client, I am helping her research podcasts where she can promote her course, which I helped her complete. Most of what I’m doing is marketing related.
What are you looking forward to most over the next 12 months?
I want to get into a comfortable routine so that all my work is getting done during the week. I picked up more than half my hours in the past three months, so I’m still getting used to the heavier workload.
In the next 12 months, I would love to figure out how to scale my work so I can make more money in the same amount of time! I also started a blog so I could try out affiliate sales. I hope to give that more time this year and start making extra money with that.
Carrie is a virtual assistant and the owner of Your Virtual Associate. She specializes in content creation, social media posts and strategy, inbox management and customer list building. You can connect with Carrie on Facebook and Pinterest.