How The Life of a Virtual Assistant was Born – (Guest Post)

Today I am honored to have guest blogger Trivinia Barber as my host as she discusses how the life of a Virtual Assistant came about, and how she answered His call.

I often wonder what it was that Simon-Peter and Andrew were thinking when a man they had never met before approached them and said, “Come follow me”. Without a second thought, they dropped their nets and went with him.

It was several years ago when God spoke into the lives of my husband and me, directing us to care for His children. We ended up adopting a precious daughter, who needed intensive therapy, and extra time and care with us as her new family. While I know we “left our [safety] nets” to obey him in our call to adoption, our call to business wasn’t answered with the same trust.

I had spent my time working part-time in my corporate office and part-time working from home. Around the same time we began to really understand the level of care our daughter required, my company was bought out and the new owners gave me a choice: work full-time from the office, or part ways.

No matter how you look at it, life as I knew it was ending and there was a fork in the road of the path before me. Family comes first, and I made the obvious choice to care for them above a corporate commute.

I began working solely from home. It wasn’t too long before the requests and demands for my services and experience were becoming unmanageable. I had an a-ha moment: I couldn’t be all things for all people, but I could find the right people these potential clients were needing. Out of necessity to protect my own time, and help clients achieve their dreams, Priority VA was born.

The entire foundation and principle of our business is making sure clients get the service they need, from the people they connect best with. We remove the overwhelm by pairing them with a Virtual Assistant who adopts their business principles as their own. I love what I do and I especially love when the magic happens and just the right client is partnered with just the right VA. Part of what sets us apart, is my unique perspective into the working relationship. Not only am I a Virtual Assistant, providing services to high-profile clients, but I’m also an entrepreneur and have my own VAs to assist me in my business. I see the business from both sides, and have insight as both a VA and a client.

It isn’t always easy, though. It was very clear, in the timing and the circumstance of our adoption and my corporate job going away, God presented this business opportunity before us. I trusted and believed that, but I struggled – and still struggle – to leave everything I know and follow Him.

I invest personally and emotionally into each client, each virtual assistant, and each area of Priority VA’s nuts and bolts. If someone is dissatisfied, if someone decides to pursue other avenues – I take it personally. I start to doubt or question my calling, I start to doubt or question who I am as an entrepreneur and business visionary, and I let the fear of the unknown creep into my heart.

One of my biggest struggles is remembering God has already seen this through to completion – and the last thing He’s going to do is leave me high and dry. When he says “Come follow me” I try to argue. “But I need to finish this project first… But I really liked that person… But *this* expert said to do it *this* way…”

I sometimes feel like I’m always operating in crisis-mode. When a situation arises, my entrepreneurial instinct is to solve it immediately so no one else is affected by the ripples. If I can’t solve it immediately, I am pretty hard on myself for my shortcomings. I have to be reminded – often – to be still, seek His will, and implement His answers.

I wish it were as simple as a problem presenting itself, God calling in on a loudspeaker right away, and shouting the answer at me. I could work with that. I would appreciate that. That isn’t how He works, though. Sometimes He uses other people to speak to me. Sometimes he uses critical moments to teach me critical lessons. Lately, though, he’s been using the faces of my children (and husband) to remind me not only of why this business is our “baby”, but of his mercy in getting us to this point to begin with.

Even in that, I see and believe God has shown His favor on our business, and on our obedience to follow His call. I am continually learning, growing, and working hard to improve who I am as an entrepreneur, and how I am obedient to His call on my life as a wife, mother, and CEO.

Our process is simple: Pairing a VA who adopts their client’s business, mission, vision, and values as their own, and works alongside them to help them meet and exceed their goals.

Our position is even simpler: Family first. I started this business to care for the needs of my own family, and to provide other VAs the opportunity to work from home and care for their family as well.

Our process and our position are all based on a single promise: God is God. He has begun a good work in us and will see it through to completion.

Guest Post Bio:
Trivinia owns Priority VA, a Virtual Assistant Placement firm. Speakers, authors, entrepreneurs, podcasters and bloggers seek the services of Trivinia and her team to unburden them from the tasks they don’t like, aren’t good at or don’t have time for, so they can focus on what they do best.

Trivinia can be found on: Twitter, Facebook, or on her website