Many people will tell you that they are drawn to the virtual assistance profession because they believe it will be a flexible fit with their family life. Interestingly, that sounds a LOT like the reason so many women are attracted the education profession.

I have worked in both fields and, while there are clear benefits to support this way of thinking, it’s not as easy as it seems on the surface.

Before you have built a substantial client load, you can probably shield your business life from your personal life. Once you are at the half-time level, you will probably experience some “disturbance in the field,” so to speak, wherein your work overflows into family time and vice versa.

Let me illustrate this challenge with one of the mistakes I made early on after I left my teaching career and launched my virtual assistance practice: At first my office was just a little desk in the corner of my bedroom. My railroad car of a living room began to hold a lot of appeal since it was wide open, airy, had wonderful natural light and I could keep an eye on who was walking into my driveway throughout the day (kids, clients, delivery people, missionaries, etc.).

For all those reasons, it was a disaster. If I wanted to work late, the room was filled with kids and spouse, noise, T.V., etc. If I needed to meet with a client it was fine during the day while everyone was at work or school (far superior to meeting in the bedroom!), but when the kids were on vacation from school it was just an impossible situation whether I was working on a project, reinstalling my operating system (holy cow!) or trying to speak on the phone with a client. Never mind that my children thought that I was just playing computer games day and night. It didn’t work.

When you are just building a new business, you probably can’t believe that the day will come when you may need a virtual assistant of your own. Not just as a contractor to whom you hand off overflow work, but as the person who keeps some of your systems in place. If you are there already and you have already tried to solve your overload by hiring part time help with your children or housekeeping, it may be time to look for your own VA.

As a profession, we are selling sanity to our clients. THEY are in the rat race so they need us. Take a look at The Rat Race Rebellion’s site and check out the table comparing those who are in the rat race versus those who are in “The Rebellion.” After you think about your clients who you’ve saved from that rat race, think about your own life for a few minutes. Are you ready to join that rebellion yourself?!

Becoming a virtual assistant just might be the way for you to get your life under control, but it is imperative that you plot out a well executed transition so that you don’t become a victim of your own success.

Image of ratrace upper right hand corner from digitdesign.com/blog.

Related material can be found here:
Virtual Assistant Resources
Life of the Virtual Assistant
Prospective Virtual Assistant F.A.Q.