If business is a little quiet lately, it could be that you need to ask yourself these questions. What leaps and bounds have you made in your VA business lately? Do you have more than one client? Are you working more than 5 hours a month or a week? Or, you could simply be working for hours on end but not getting paid appropriately.

Well, guess what, if you answered no to the above questions, then something is terribly wrong. The scary fact is, you probably haven’t even noticed you have a problem. News flash, it’s all you’re ever going to do unless you recognise there is an issue, and generally, there is more than one. My five big hitters for warning signs are below, do any of them look familiar to you?

HOW TO GET YOUR MOJO BACK

I love working from my home office. Most times I’m inspired by what I see out my window. The beauty of the day, the sound of the birds and the wind rushing through the trees; it’s my favourite place to be. Working from home inspires me to be better and to do better. Unfortunately, that isn’t the same for everyone and certainly wasn’t always the case for me.

Working in a corporate office, getting dressed up every day, running the office was motivating and inspiring to me. I walked into the office every day, happy to be there. With my game face on I could take on the world and solve all of its problems.

ONLY YOU CAN GET YOU ORGANISED

How often have you looked at your workload and said to yourself, “Yes, I’ll do that later.” Somehow, later never comes does it? You get yourself so caught up in doing stuff, that you allow a mess to pile up, that get to it someday type of mess. Some people call it procrastination, others laziness, others don’t see the fact that they need to do something or go down with the ship, ignorance isn’t bliss.

When was the last time you took a PD day (Personal Development)? I was talking with one of my clients’ and he mentioned that he was going to have to schedule some time for PD time. It got me thinking; I have PD time, this is what my Friday’s are for. Every Friday I have blocks of time allocated to reading blog posts, reading books, learning a new skill, brainstorming new ideas for JMJ – EA for a Day and The VA Project or simply spending time reflecting on where I am at.

FROM VICTIM TO PERSECUTOR TO RESCUER AND BACK AGAIN

Chances are if you work in the administration sector or run your own Virtual Assistant business you bounce around between Victim, Persecutor or Rescuer, modes and you don’t even realise it. You’ve been in this cycle for years and it is a normal way of life for you. I know that I have been all three modes as a corporate executive assistant. I inadvertently carried my three different personalities into my business, it’s easy enough to do without even knowing it.

Do you ever have days in the office where you feel you can do no right, everything you go to do just breaks away on you? Someone else is relying on you to get a particular job done, and you can’t because you need someone else to do their part first. You follow-up, check on progress but nothing. The deadline comes and goes and you beat yourself up over it. You tell yourself you should have done this or that, been this or that. You vent to others; you share your frustrations around the water cooler, and then go into fix mode, saving the day, so all is right with the world again. So here you have it, you’ve gone from persecutor to the victim to the rescuer and then often, back to the victim again.

HOW TO LOSE BUSINESS IN 10 SECONDS

When was the last time you listened to your voice mail message on your mobile phone? I’d wage a bet (if I were a betting person) that you haven’t listened to it or updated it since you got your phone. If you run a business, chances are you advertise your mobile number for people to be able to contact you on. It’s on your business cards, your advertising material, and your website. So you must want people to be able to contact you on it! For many customers and clients, contacting you via your mobile phone may be the first contact they have with you and your business. So, it stands to reason, you want to give a wonderful first impression.

Here is a little personal scenario that happened last week. I wanted to give a business, some of my business; a client of mine was after something unique, and I thought this particular business would have been perfect. I rang their mobile number and after a few rings it went to their voice mail. Well, it wasn’t their voice mail, it was the standard message, you know the one.

I’d love your thoughts; please leave a comment in the comment section below.