08 September 2017

Taking one step at a time

I haven't written very much on the blog lately or been doing much of my art as I have been super busy getting a business up and running.

After 8.5 years as a full-time, stay-at-home parent, it's been hard finding a job, or returning to the career you once knew. I found myself doubting my abilities and my confidence was low, I wasn't sure if I could do the job as well as I used to.

For the past 8 months I have been searching for a flexible part-time job so I could still be there for my girls in the mornings and afternoons, and attend events at the school, but had no luck in finding anything that was local (nearly everything was in Sydney) or part-time (most company's ideas of part-time was 4-5 reduced hour days), which didn't work with me collecting the girls from school.

With all the jobs I looked at, I couldn't find anything that was close to being flexible full-time jobs, part-time jobs, or even job share jobs, that promoted a work/life balance, or the ability to work from home. I guess I was a little picky, as I could have just gone back to temping through an agency.

Love this quote.

Its taken me awhile, but I finally reassessed my skills, and had a big think about what it is that I want. I knew that I wanted to be there for the girls, have flexibility with my time and workloads, I wanted to be my own boss (as scary as it seems, as I need to find clients and network - as a little anxious introvert it's a big step out of my comfy comfort zone!) and be accountable if I fail, so in the end I decided to take the plunge and start my own virtual assistant business from my home office.

Starting my own business is such a huge learning curve. The whole idea that I am going to be my own boss and need to look after sourcing jobs scares me a little, but it also excites me.

This week I've had Popette performing in her first school dance festival, which has been very exciting, while fighting a cold I've been completing a job for my first client! Hurray!

I've also been writing like crazy, doing lots of research on 'what it means to be a virtual assistant', listening to courses about becoming a VA, comparing the competition and the services they provide to what I want to offer....so so much to do. But I'm trying not to put too much pressure on myself, and taking one step at a time.

I'm slowly launching my business, first through social media outlets like LinkedIn and Facebook, while I continue working on content for my website which I still need to develop.

If you would like to follow me on Facebook, I can be found at JAM Business Support Services.

Do you run your own business? Do you have any advice for a new startup / small business?

4 comments:

  1. Congratulations starting your own business and my advice is to take it slowly. If you try to achieve it all in one day you will burn out and become overwhelmed. Make a list of priorities and work through those. Good luck1
    Sue from Sizzling Towards 60 & Beyond

    ReplyDelete
  2. I'm jumping back into freelancing this year too. It has been a few years since I've made any non job income so it feels like starting fresh.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Good Luck with your new business, it sounds very exciting! I'll check it out because I'm interested to know what's involved in being a Virtual Assistant!

    Di from Max The Unicorn

    ReplyDelete
  4. Thanks for sharing your progress with your business. Can't wait to read more.

    SSG xxx

    ReplyDelete

Hello! Thanks for popping by, I love hearing from my readers. Feel free to leave your comment here :)