Important Lessons Learnt

Last month, I celebrated my 1st work anniversary as a virtual assistant!

Having done my research before taking the leap into self-employment, I was confident that my new lifestyle would bring me the complete freedom and satisfaction I was craving. However, despite my thorough preparation, I found it surprisingly confusing and scary to begin with!

Thankfully, over the course of the last year I have found my groove. As with all things in life, it doesn’t matter how many books you read, nothing will quite prepare you like diving in headfirst! I’m sure the freelance community will nod in agreement as I share three things I wish I knew before starting out…

1. The first few months are terrifying!

For the first few months, I suffered terribly with imposters syndrome! I was constantly worrying about whether I’d be good enough, if I had enough clients and was convinced my venture was going to fail! Once I got a few regular clients and fell into a new routine, these feelings soon dissipated. Every now and then, on a quieter week, the inner-critic in me still might make an unwelcome appearance - I’ve had to learn to be strong and push those negative thoughts away!

2. It takes a while for you to realise you are now the boss!

Every so often, I remind myself why I became a freelancer – I craved the freedom of working the hours I wanted from wherever I wanted. Having been employed for 13 years prior to becoming a VA, I guess you could say I had become institutionalised – it took me some time before I accepted that I’m in complete control of how I work and the tasks I take on.

3. It’s nothing like what you had in mind…!

When starting out, you have this romanticised vision of what it’s like to live the freelance lifestyle – you imagine you’ll go running every day before starting work, take coffee breaks whenever you like and that you’ll always finish on time. It can sometimes be like this, but there are plenty of occasions when your day ends up looking very different from what you had in mind! It’s best to have a bit of fluidity to your day, as you never know when a last minute brief might land in your inbox!

Despite these realisations, I don’t regret my decision at all. Like anything in life, freelancing has its good and bad sides and there has been a lot to learn along the way. Life’s too short to not give things a try!