As my Nota Bene birthday month winds up, when I look back to June 2020 when I first started working as a Virtual Assistant, it really is crazy to see the changes.

It's easy to sit here today and think I've not come very far, or I'd like to be earning more money or have more clients, but if you compare June 2020 and June 2023 what you see is completely different.

I started out on $25 an hour and I was amazed that people would even pay me that! That quickly moved to $30 an hour, and I was even more shocked 🙀 Today, well, while I'm cheaper than many, It's also not $30 an hour.

Back then, I had no clue what to offer, I knew I'd like to get into writing as that's my passion, but I didn't know where to start and thought I should learn bookkeeping, because everyone needs a bookkeeper, right?

A weekend learning (trying) Xero, lots of tears and frustration and I realised I don't "do" numbers, I like words and so Bookkeeping was out the window, and good riddance.

Almost all my work in that first 6-12 months was as a sub contractor for 3 Agencies, which was amazing as I learnt so much from each of them and I'll always be grateful to them. Even today, I'm still with one of those Agencies, but it's a lot more balanced with my own clients.

These days we (yes it's WE now, I have 1 regular contractor and 3 that I call on for very specific tasks) have narrowed our services down to content based services, and we work almost exclusively with online services, in particular, coaches.

Social Media is our bread and butter, but Pinterest is a favourite, as well as writing newsletters, blogs and even some podcast and event management. Occasionally I will get asked to do some website content, but I'm still upskilling here, particularly around SEO, but I do really enjoy it.

So although there are days when it feels like progress has been minimal, taking a step back and reflecting on the journey to here helps to see the improvements from the early days and all those hours put in. I have found my niche and my people, and what works best for me, and I couldn't be happier with the results.

I'm pretty darned proud, and I'm excited to see what's next!

Thinking you might be one of "our people"? Let's chat!!