Find a Way or Make a Way {My Virtual Assistant Journey}

In January 2015, I checked off an exciting milestone: two solid years since I officially began my journey as a Virtual Assistant. I have never been so proud, or excited about a profession as I am about my Virtual Assistant job. But getting here has been a long journey. Today, in honor of the book that changed everything for me and my work-at-home dream, I want to tell you my story.

Note that this post contains affiliate links to one of my favorite work at home books. Your clicks and purchases help support this site at no extra cost to you.

The Impossible Dream

I think my journey to working from home started a long time ago when I was a child. But adversity forced my hand to take it from dream to reality. Right after Christmas, in 2009, Scott and I both found ourselves suddenly jobless. The aircraft company he’d worked at for the last few years and that I was now officially working for, hit some huge financial bumps as the economy wavered. We, along with over a hundred others in our small community, were suddenly without work, and prospects in a little town in Northern Idaho were naturally pretty scarce.

Scott and I had been married for just six months. We were just getting started in life, and the job loss knocked us down flat. For the next six months, we struggled and searched for anything regionally that we could do. But Sandpoint is small. Spokane didn’t have much economy going for it.  And with the job market suddenly flooded with unemployed families looking for work, finding anything decent was even harder. There just wasn’t anything for us there anymore.

With nothing to lose, and with the hope of a better working future we loaded our few possessions in a small moving truck. On our first anniversary, we locked up our first home and headed east and south to Tennessee.

And that was the beginning of two and a half years of one of the biggest lessons of trust I’ve ever experienced. With nothing to lose by failing, “find a way or make a way” became my motto.

Chasing an idea

I’d worked from home before as an inbound customer service specialist for some big companies. I’d even tried my hand at web design. I’d known for 10 years that my dream job was a job I could do from my living room. After working odd jobs or underpaid jobs that made us both miserable just to keep a roof over our head, I was determined that it was now or never. I bumped into the idea of “Virtual Assistant” online. I knew that this was it. Virtual Assisting was exactly what I wanted to do and what would best use the skills I had developed.  But I had no idea how to get started, and the more I read about it online the more confusing and impossible it sounded.

Half of the information was vague and unhelpful, and half of it was a scam. I felt lost and confused. I began to think that my dream of working from home was actually the impossible dream. I just wasn’t quite willing to let it go.

And then I found a book

About the time when I was at the depth of my discouragement, I was introduced to Lisa Morosky and her soon-to-be-released book, The Bootstrap VA. That book changed everything for me. I’m not trying to be dramatic when I say that it changed my life. Because it really did.

I went from feeling absolutely hopeless and confused to feeling more and more excited with each page I read. For the very first time, I believed I could do this. I could be a Virtual Assistant. For the first time, I believed that I could work from home to bring in a viable income, and love what I did. 

Lisa explained everything simply and concisely. She told me exactly what I needed to know without making it feel like it was too overwhelming to attempt. She told me:

• What to expect.
• How to get started.
• How to identify skills I already had.
• The importance of networking.
• How to find clients.
• How to set up the foundation of your business for success, and how to keep it going.

Her book, The Bootstrap VA,  helped me to get a realistic plan together and know how to execute it properly. It helped me to pinpoint my ideal client and play to my strengths from the start.

It was all so simply written. There were no vague references, no scammy tricks. It was down to earth, honest-to-goodness facts and inspiration. I felt so inspired and so encouraged and so very grateful. Hands down, The Bootstrap VA is the best book I’ve read on how to work from home successfully as a virtual assistant, and I cannot recommend it enough. 

I literally devoured the book in one sitting, and then read it again. And again.  I might have cried a few times from relief and happiness. In fact, when I think about how much The Bootstrap VA helped me, I sometimes still choke up a little. I am incredibly grateful to Lisa for writing it, and to God for allowing me to find it when I needed it the most.

A few months later, I launched my own site and business as a Virtual Assistant. I was terrified, but I was determined to give it everything I had. I got my first client a few months later, and I was officially a VA. And I’ve been slowly but surely growing my business ever since. I’ve worked with some great people. I’ve learned so much. And every single morning as I sit down at my desk to begin my day, I thank God for this journey.

I love what I do as a Virtual Assistant.

I love being able to work from home. I love that it lets me be the boss of my time and that I still get to enjoy being a Wife and Mama. And I love helping other women find their way to their dream of working from home. I’ve told so many people about Lisa’s book. I get asked about what I do, and how I started working from home all the time, and it’s become a passion of mine to help others find the resources they need to pursue their own dream. I get so excited to share The Bootstrap VA with them because of how much it’s meant to me. I even started a group on Facebook for women who are self-employed or work from home!

I’m super excited to share my story. I hope it inspires you that you can do this. Because you absolutely can work from home, too.

Note that this post contains affiliate links to one of my favorite work at home books. Your clicks and purchases help support this site at no extra cost to you.

It’s not always easy, but it is possible to make your own way in the work from home field. Working from home is not something that only a lucky few can do. I truly believe that with creativity and determination and some good information, anyone can build their work at home dream.

As the years have passed, I’ve learned countless things about working from home, being a VA and what works for me. I’m excited about new opportunities, new goals and about what the future holds for Scott and I and our independence from the traditional 9-5 lifestyle.

Finding your footing and working from home won’t be easy. But it will be worth it. That much I can vouch for!