The Harsh Reality

outofsightos — Thu, 27 Aug 2009 23:51:49 +0000

I used to think that starting my own business would be easy. I’ve picked a name, I’ve got a website set up, and I know exactly what I want to do and how I want to go about doing it. Sounds like a great start, right? Well, that stuff was the easy part. Now, I’m stuck faced with the tough part of starting a SUCCESSFUL business – getting clients. I know for a fact that once I get my business off the ground and gain some clientele, there will be no stopping me. I’ve always been great at helping people; it’s just been my thing – my niche, if you will. When someone wanted something done, they would call me first, no questions asked. I just never figured that I could ask money for helping people. I mean really, what kind of friend would I be to charge my friends and family to help them? I should have been asking myself “What kind of business person would I be if I didn’t charge for my help?”.

It was when my husband and I were watching “The Devil Wears Prada” for about the fifth time and he said, “Babe, I think you’d make a great Andy, ” that a light went off inside my head. You know what, I would make a great Andy (watch the movie, if you haven’t, it’s absolutely hilarious). But I don’t just want to work for one person; I want to own my own company and have many clients that I work for. I wanted to be a virtual assistant. Of course, the thought had entered my mind on multiple occassions over the last 5-10 years. I had just never heard of the term virtual assistant. What I thought in my head was that I used to work for temp agencies. You know how it works: you go to the agency, they match you with a client, and you do work for them on a project or temporary basis. Well my idea (or what I thought was my idea) was to cut out the middle-man and not to use a temp agency. I just needed to find clients that wanted me to work for them on a project. I didn’t find out until earlier this year that this career has actually been in exisistance for about 10-15 years already.

So what if I’m a little late on the idea of virtual assistance? So what if I don’t have any clients right at this very second? The harsh reality is that life is tough, and business can be even tougher. All I can do is put my nose to the grindstone and start making a real effort at getting my business ball rolling. So here I am, Sophia Mathelier, Virtual Assistant and Owner of Out of Sight Office Support.

A Virtual Assistant's Tale

The Harsh Reality