New Way to Work

How Jasmine Powers Found Her Fit with Virtual Assistance

I’ve been thought to be the inevitable failure. Behavioral issues in school. Detention. Standing in corners, and having the time extended because I was caught dancing while in the corner.  Yeah, a troublesome and mischievous girl I was.

My separation and difference from everyone else characterized my remaining school years and my early career.  I couldn’t stand still. I was never satisfied. Some jobs where exciting, yet my team playing ended up being me playing, trying to figure out why the team was out and about while I chose to buckle down and get my work down.

It started to seem like I was the sore thumb, the one that was good but just didn’t fit in this corporate office, or this one. That continued until the spring of 2007, when my employer sent me packing with a going away present and a kick in the rear. They loved my work but neither they nor I was happy with me being there.

What was an unemployed, talented, yet, attention deficient girl to do? Invest. I took my severance pay and called my IT whiz friend and we headed off to store, after store looking for the best laptop for running multiple programs, with dual processing, loads of memory, and wireless internet connectivity. What I needed was the final touch for my already established home office, fit with a desktop PC, printer, scanner, copy, fax line, land line and of course, my handy cellular phone.

I’d decided to take the leap into Virtual Assistance. I’d researched for years before and up to a few days prior to my Aha! moment to head to CompUSA for my uberlaptop.  I scoured sites with pages about Virtual Assistance like AdminProf.com, now DeskDemon.com, and VirtualAssistantNetworking.com. Then there were articles posted in Entrepreneur and Essence, which led me to Guru.com and Elance.com.  What was stopping me?

At that point, clients. That was short lived because I wrote several proposals and won two bids within about a month of signing up on Elance.  I was off to a start.

Though there were slow periods, I worked part-time and took courses to be able to compete in this market. Software classes, accounting classes, even notary classes since some of my clients are realtors, I wanted to build on the sharp skill set gained during years supporting executives and project teams.

Hard work pays very well. What I don’t have in terms of company luncheons, I have with home cooked meals and lunch dates with clients.  Since most companies don’t quarantine employees, as I think they should, working from home allows me to work while sick, or to not work while sick. Neither am I as susceptible to much airborne disease, bad indoor air quality, nor politically incorrect coworkers. I mean, who wants to know about your weekend rendezvous when we don’t really know vous.

As a Virtual Assistant, I’m able to spend time with my mother who suffers from a severe lung condition called sarcoidosis.  At times she needs assistance, and when she does, I can offer it. My sister and her children are also beneficiaries of my virtual assistance and her telecommuting.  (My sister works for a fabulous company that allows her to work from home.)  Sometimes midweek, I take a drive down, of course with laptop in bag, to her sunny SoCal home.  I can tie into her printer via Bluetooth, print what I need, or just shoot an email to my clients, even if they call me at 8 p.m. with emergencies.

A new way to work has evolved in this age of increased technology and high unemployment rates. I can be anywhere and always be in a position to service my clients. It works for me and for them. It works for my family and it works for my budget. I’m a Virtual Assistant, and this is exactly where I fit in.