Which comes first, the chicken or the egg?

It’s an age-old question that really usually has no answer. In most places in life, there’s no clarity about it—because if the egg didn’t come first, the chicken wouldn’t have happened, but if the chicken hadn’t come first, the egg couldn’t have been laid.

Blahblahblah...you can drive yourself batty thinking about stuff like that.

In your Virtual Assistance practice, I know of no other place that chicken/egg thing shows up more than in the discussion VAs have with themselves (and the stories they tell themselves and listen to from some industry leaders trying to sell them the latest and greatest success pill) around what needs to come first—clients or hard skills.

It’s not that you can’t get clients without first building your skill set---you can, by knowing how to handle the gaps between what you currently can’t do and what the clients need. It’s also not that you can’t get skills without having clients, first—you can, by focusing on learning things that help you make more of your strengths.

To believe anything else is to clutter your brain with lies.

But there’s one place that’s really not talked about in the same light. Instead, it gets talked about rarely at all (except by me, evidentally!), when, in reality, it needs to come before either clients or new skills.

That’s in building a strong foundation under your business.

I’ve written about this before, and it really is worth repeating. It’s foolhardy at best, and grossly negligent at worst to start a business on a wing and prayer.

The foundation should absolutely come first. And not a foundation created by looking around the net, seeing what others do, and making it up for yourself. That’s not a solid foundation. That’s a wobbly floor.

You’d never let a builder put up the walls on your house before laying the foundation. And why? Well, because there’s an order to things, and because to do that would mean that the foundation, laid later, if at all, wouldn’t be especially solid. Slipping it in under the walls would really be backwards.

So why would you go into business without having a proper foundation?

Listen… I train around foundation. If there’s anything in the world I know it’s this. Why God chose to make me brilliant in this, I’ll never know, but that’s the gift I have. And I look at VAs, many of whom believe themselves to be successful, but who come to me and within my asking one question, let me know that they don’t have a solid foundation.

Let me pose said question to you.

How did you set your fee?

What I mean, specifically, is that your fee is $X. How did you arrive at that number?

If you say anything like, “I joined a group and saw what other people are charging,” or, “My best friend Sally and I kicked it around and thought it sounded good,” or, “A VA coach told me that’s what I should be charging,” or, “I used a calculator on xyz.com web site and it suggested I charge this,” then I guarantee you are walking on one really wobbly floor. Your walls may be really nicely decorated, but your floor? It’s scary.

Here’s the reality of things. I’d bet that the majority of VAs are not profitable in their businesses. It’s not that they don’t want to be. But they don’t know how to know if they are or if they aren’t, so they wing it. Looking at the gross income, they may think they’re doing really well. But after taxes, expenses, and the like… well, let me say that I heard about someone today who was KEEPING less than $5/hour of what she was billing.

She’s better off with a job at McDonalds.

And the money piece of things is just one piece of the puzzle.

With the skills you brought with you to your business, you can be a great technician. But the technician should not be running the business—the business owner should. And if you know next to nothing about being a business owner, running the business as a technician will, ultimately, do nothing more than keep you running on that gerbil wheel you probably find yourself on.

Want to get ahead? Just stop. Stop chasing the clients. Stop chasing the skills. Stop chasing the work. Take the time to get help with laying your foundation, and then move forward again. To keep doing what you’re doing and expecting to see different results—well, that’s the definition of insanity.

Comments

[Pat Williams]

I started MY business on a wing and a prayer. I wish I had known you 10 years ago, you would have saved me a lot of struggle and wasted time.

[Stacy]

I wish you'd known me ten years ago, too...for oh-so-many reasons!! :)

[Jess]

Love this post, A! LOVE it!

[Stacy]

Thank you, beautiful Jess!