Fully Booked VA Blog

Student Success Story: Kathryn Alexander

Welcome to another incredible Student Success Story here at Horkey HandBook! 

In this series, we’re featuring people who took Gina’s 30 Days or Less courses and took action with great results. Every story in the series is different from the others, and since everyone is on a different path there’s unique insight and wisdom in each one.  

This week we’re featuring Kathryn Alexander. Kathryn has a truly awesome story about how she landed her all-time dream job as a virtual assistant. Ready to hear about it? 

Here’s Kathryn!

Name:  Kathryn Alexander

Website: The Social Wizard

Course enrollment date: January 9, 2017

Business launch date: April 2017

Date hired by first client: June 2017

Hours worked per week: Project job – about 10 hours per week

Average monthly income: I make $2000 a month now

Top three services/niches: Social media management, content creation, WordPress design

Hi, Kathryn! Tell us a bit about yourself.

I am a mom of four kids. I’m also a wife, and Harry Potter fangirl. I enjoy traveling, vegan food, wine, a hot cup of tea and building my online business. I dream of traveling more with my family and living on acreage growing our own food.

What about your business?

I am a social media manager and virtual assistant. I offer social media management, content creation, WordPress design and other types of virtual assistant work.

How did you decide to start working online as a VA?

I ran my own licensed home daycare for five years, but wanted to change careers and move away from child care.

I have a college office administration certificate. I wanted to expand on that, but stay home and work so I can work around my family’s busy schedule. I researched possible avenues and virtual assistant came up. That’s when I started reading everything I could find about it.

I knew I wanted to specialize and niche down to social media management and a few other services. I signed up for Gina’s 30 Days or Less to VA Success and a few free courses on different social platforms and started building my website.

Once I started working on my website, I approached a few people I know to do free virtual assistant work in return for a reference and to put the work on my portfolio page. I did this for a winery and a non-profit. I then landed my first paying job from a reference from the winery.

I also signed up for a six-month internship for a social media manager position for a magazine.  I landed my dream job at the end of it, as they kept me on as the only paid social media manager. I’ll even be taking my own interns to train in a month.

If you’re still not sure what virtual assistant services you can offer, we’ve put together a list of over 150 services that webpreneurs need help with.

How long did it take you to earn your course investment back?

Once I put myself out there and pushed through selling myself, I made the course fee back on my first job in June 2017.

What was your biggest fear before you started your business?

My biggest fear was approaching people and trying to get clients. Selling a product is easier than selling myself as the product or service they are purchasing.

What was the most challenging part about getting started?

The challenging part about starting a home virtual assistant business is explaining it to family and friends. Most don’t understand what you will be doing, and think it’s weird to not want to go to a job outside the house.

How did you overcome that?

Just stop telling people what you are trying to accomplish or what you will be doing. When someone asks what I do, I just say “office work from home.”

What has been your biggest success since you’ve started?

My biggest success was going through the intern position and putting in a lot of free work. I proved to them that I’m a go-getter and I can do the work without being micromanaged.

I also let them know I wanted to stay on after the internship and I had to interview for that position.

Landing a 20-hour a week social media management position for a magazine is beyond exciting for me.

Exactly what I envisioned as my dream job and I got it the first year of starting my business!

The team I work with at Almost Fearless Magazine is amazing as well. I feel very lucky and humbled to be offered the position and work with this team.

What are you working on right now?

My only position right now is for Almost Fearless Magazine as a social media manager for 20 hours a week. I am hoping to take on one more client to work 25-30 hours a week.

What are you looking forward to most over the next 12 months?

Building my business up and working hard with the clients I have. Everything about building my Virtual Assistant business is exciting and keeps me busy. I will also be starting a family blog about life and travel.

As a Social Media Manager and Virtual Assistant, Kathryn Alexander helps small business owners de-stress and gain freedom by taking on tasks that consume so much of their time. She specializes in engaging with target audiences online, designing websites, creating amazing content, and posting content on social platforms. You can keep in touch with Kathryn at The Social Wizard.

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Gina Horkey

Gina Horkey

FOUNDER & CO-OWNER

Gina Horkey is a married, millennial mama from Minnesota. Additionally, she’s the founder of Horkey HandBook and loves helping others find or become a kickass virtual assistant. Gina’s background includes making a living as a professional writer, an online business marketing consultant and a decade of experience in the financial services industry.

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