Enjoy this week’s guest post by Jen Taylor!
I think a lot of us mums have been there on maternity leave wondering how we are going to manage things once we are back at work.
Whether it’s a case of not being able to balance the books between your salary and childcare costs, or perhaps just wanting to be at home more but you can’t afford to give up work, I think we can agree that at some point we have all hoped for a lottery win to solve all of our problems!
How my journey into freelancing began
I started freelancing whilst on maternity leave with my second daughter in 2015, just really with the hope of earning some extra cash to top up my paltry maternity pay.
I signed up to a freelance job site and I won my first assignment. I won more and as my feedback grew. I started to wonder if this could be a ‘thing’. A lottery win not being forthcoming, could I do this instead of going back to work as a full-time Regional Trainer; driving 500 miles a week and working every evening to prep lessons for the next day?
I met my manager four months into my leave and found out that my request to drop to three days had been rejected with a counter-offer of four. I simply didn’t want to do it – nursery fees for the baby and wraparound and school holiday care for my eldest were near enough going to wipe out my salary.
New beginnings
There and then, I decided I wasn’t going to go back! However, going fully freelance terrified me and we weren’t in a financial position to take such a risk, so I started looking for part-time jobs and was hired on a 0.5 contract, 2.5 days a week in events and marketing at a nearby university.
Honestly, at this point my freelancing went off the boil for around a year. My daughter was a shockingly bad sleeper and I existed in a constant state of exhaustion. My regular freelance client finished up on the project I was working on for him, and I was happy just working part-time.
Out of the blue in June 2017, a marketing consultant got in touch. She had seen my profile on the freelancing site and asked if I was available for some social media support. I am proud to say she is still my client to this day!
In September 2018, my daughter started pre-school, so I had an extra day a week to myself. My friends were basking in thoughts of coffees and visits to the gym, but I had a newfound fire in my belly. The only way forward for me was to use the extra day a week to grow my business.
And grow it, I did! I set up a website and social media and started telling people what I did! I was hired by a second client, and from there things just skyrocketed. Before I knew it, I was fully booked and turning work away.
My daughter started full-time school in September 2019 and, by Christmas, I was contemplating leaving my part-time job to freelance full time. The trainer in me also had plans to create a course to teach others how to set up a Virtual Assistant business. I wished I had more time…….
Wishful thinking!
March 2020 brought Covid-19 and I lost 90% of my freelance work in a week. I contemplated abandoning it altogether in favour of a ‘safe’ full-time job. BUT, deep down I knew I didn’t want to and I had to plough on. To keep me busy and looking ahead, I started researching a lot about how to grow an online business and how to earn an income without ‘clients’.
With the nature of lockdown and isolation, finally creating my course teaching others how to earn a living from home seemed a perfect place to start.
I recorded it as soon as my kids went back to school in September 2020, and it was accepted and published within a day of me submitting!! Since then and at the time of writing I have had 55 students sign up. When I get messages to say they have found their first client or some other win, it gives me such joy.
I am still very much a Virtual Assistant
I am fortunate that my Virtual Assistant work bounced back and I have more clients than ever before, but I am still very much developing my portfolio business.
I have found a new love of blogging, and with that in mind relaunched my website as a Virtual Assistant training and resource hub, packed full of tips, tricks, and tools for Virtual Assistants.
The hybrid nature of my business means I don’t have time for 1:1 coaching at the moment, and so my offering will continue to be non-live for now with ebooks and support bundles in the pipeline, but who knows what the future will bring!
My advice to freelancing beginners
There is no sugar-coating it – there will be hard times and you have to just keep going, BUT having a solid why behind you helps to ride those times out!
I have two whys – my daughters. What started as a way to save on childcare has over the years morphed into a flexible way of life that serves our family in the best way possible. I am there for school pick-up four days out of five, and they have had the opportunity to pursue their interests outside of school rather than having to attend an after-school club until mummy and daddy are done with work.
If ever I have a wobble, I put myself mentally into a theatre watching my eldest perform on stage in a show, or at the side of a football pitch watching my little one blaze her way down the wing. They do those things because I have forged a way to not only financially, but logistically make it happen for them and essentially that is just everything for me!
Jen Taylor is a freelance Virtual Assistant based in the UK.
Jen is from an events background originally, achieving a BA (Hons) in Hospitality Management in 2006 before working in the industry and on high profile events including one for the England Rugby team! She was then a trainer and Curriculum Manager in the hospitality industry for six years prior to starting work as a Virtual Assistant during her second maternity leave in 2015.
Jen has worked for dozens of clients as a Virtual Assistant since starting out, including a dental marketing consultant, a haberdashery and sewing school, a private scanning clinic, parenting and child sleep consultants, a tutoring firm and a well-known scientist!
She now splits her week between a part time role in Professional Services at a university and running her Virtual Assistant business from home.
Website – www.jetvirtualassistant.com
Facebook – www.facebook.com/jetvirtualassistant
Instagram – www.instagram.com/jetvirtualassistant
The post How the business I started on maternity leave grew up alongside my family appeared first on Melissa Forziat Events and Marketing.