The TRUTH behind making $50,000 a month

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Abbey Ashley

Ever see those people who are like, “I made $1,000,000 in just 14 days online”.

Bleh.

Gross.

Here’s what NO ONE tells you.

Those “overnight successes” usually had YEARS of hard work and dedication put into them.

My business currently makes about 50k per month.

That sounds CRAZY town, but let me tell you some realistic things about touting that number:

  1. I don’t PERSONALLY make that much money. This is a business and I have team members I support, software I need, etc. I pay myself a good salary out of that income.
  2. It didn’t happen overnight. In fact, I’ve been running my business since 2013. There have been ups and downs, but I’ve stuck with it and now I’m seeing the crazy fruit of my labor that I used to dream about.
  3. I work hard. I started out working as a virtual assistant (which I’ll talk more about later) and was just working 15-20 hours per week. Over time, I have transitioned to full-time work, which is usually 35 hours of work.
  4. It started by offering services. I truly believe that offering services is the BEST way to enter into the online world. I had my first $10,000 month as a virtual assistant and believe SO much in starting out making money by SERVING others with the skills you already have.

My goal in this post is to give you an inside look at working online.

I hope my journey inspires you to take action today. I want you to see what REALLY is possible!

Let’s take it back to the beginning.

THE BIG SURPRISE

In 2013, I never could have imagined that in 5 short years, I would be buying my own home, with a business making 50k+ per month.

That’s because in 2013, my husband and I were living off of my (super small) income while he did an unpaid internship with our local church.

We were broke… but in love : )

Our apartment was a mere 600 sq. feet and was built in year 1901.

While it was tiny, it had some SUPER incredible views of the Capitol building.

And just a few short months into our marriage, we got a HUGE surprise.

We were pregnant!

EEEK!

My daughter would be due to be born ON our one year anniversary (couldn’t have planned that better, right?) and we had some BIG decisions to make.

See, I always had dreamed of being a stay at home mom.

My mom was a stay at home mom when I was growing up and I remember her ALWAYS being there for us whenever we needed her.

I was currently working as a student advisor for an online university, and I was DONE.

I had worked there five years which, admittedly, was the longest I’d ever held down a job (I’ve always said I am an AWESOME entrepreneur but a TERRIBLE employee!).

Yes, I was bored at my job…

But here was the real kicker…

I truly felt there was something fundamentally WRONG about me sending my baby girl to daycare so that I could go to a job I HATED.

Nothing against daycare (again, remember that I now work full time which means my kids go to daycare!)… but I just couldn’t bear to send her there to go to a job that I didn’t want to be at.

STARTING MY BUSINESS

I think I’ve always known I was an entrepreneur.

I continually thought up business ideas when I was really little.

Throughout high school and college, I woke up suddenly and frequently with various business plan outlines.

I’ve bought domain names in the middle of the night and/or when I would think of random business possibilities. (I think I’ve owned over 100 domains.)

I just knew it was inside of me somewhere to create my own business.

So here I was, super pregnant, and looking for a way to stay home with my kid.

That’s when I started doing something VERY dangerous…

3 AM Googling.

Maybe in the same way you ended up on this blog, I started searching for “work-from-home” ideas.

I had attempted a few at-home businesses before.

For a while, I sold textbooks online. I also re-sold thrift store jeans on eBay.

However, none of these business ventures got the traction I was looking for to replace my full-time income. My daughter was due in a few months, and I REALLY needed to work on my own terms so I could be at home with her.

That’s when a friend of mine suggested I looked into virtual assistance.

To be honest, I had never even heard of a virtual assistant.

 

Are you in the same boat? Read this post to find out exactly what a virtual assistant is.

I went home to search and scour every blog post, email, and ebook out there on how to become a virtual assistant. The more I researched virtual assistance, the more I thought… I can DO this!

In 2013, there wasn’t a TON of info on the internet about how to start my own virtual assistant business. So I found everything that I COULD find and began calling myself a “VA”. 

HOLY CRAP… PEOPLE WANT TO HIRE ME

Can I tell you the craziest thing?

I wasn’t 100% convinced that this whole thing was going to work when I first started.

I mean – it made sense that small business owners would want to outsource some of their tasks, but I had SO many questions.

What services would they hire me for? 

What kind of rate should I charge?

How in the WORLD am I going to find clients!?

But sure enough I started getting myself out there and the craziest thing happened….

PEOPLE WANTED TO HIRE ME.

My first client was a massage therapist that paid me to put data into a spreadsheet for her.

Then an insurance agent paid me to make appointment setting phone calls.

A health coach, a florist, a blogger, a personal stylist…. the clients just kept coming.

HOLY CRAP… I was on to something.

I was actually my own boss.

And if you are doing the math this whole time, YES I had my daughter as I was building my business.

YES I was writing emails in my hospital bed.

Was it difficult? You bet.

Was I happy I did it? Absolutely.

Because by the time my maternity leave was over, I had replaced my full-time income by working only 20 hours per week.

NOW EVERYONE WANTS TO KNOW

I couldn’t believe it. Here I was, able to work from home with my daughter and have the flexibility I always wanted.

And the business just. kept. growing.

I eventually took on subcontractors to help out with all of the extra work.

I even hired some of my talented stay-at-home mom friends to take on some of the work.

SO many people asked me “Abbey, how the HECK were you able to do this!?” that I decided to start my own online course.

It totally helped that one of my best clients was a course creator that had multiple six-figure course launches every few months.

(Did I MENTION how amazing it is to work as a virtual assistant and start networking with some seriously incredible people!?).

Working for him was like working a super high paying internship. I learned so much about course creation that I decided to launch my own online course.

I had slowly built a list of about 1,000 email subscribers and in December 2016 I sent an email out, pre-selling my online course for aspiring virtual assistants. 

One week later, I had $8,000 in the bank from my course sales and I knew it was time to make a BIG SHIFT.

FINDING MY TRUE PASSION

The moment that I realized that people actually wanted to buy MY course…. it was like a whole new world opened up for me.

I finally knew what I wanted to do.

I wanted to train other people on how to find the freedom that I had through virtual assistance.

That’s when The Virtual Savvy was born.

(I would be remiss if I didn’t mention my coaches and mentors – Bryan Harris, Dana Malstaff, and Mariah Coz, I am so grateful for the guidance as I scaled my course!)

Now – the community that started out as 1,000 aspiring VAs has grown to over 30,000 and every day I get to help people change their lives through starting virtual assistant businesses.

I’ve helped working moms quit their 9-to-5’s to stay home with their kids.

I’ve helped men and women start working while traveling the world. 

And I’ve seen HUNDREDS of students finally believe in themselves and know they have something powerful to offer.

It’s the best feeling in the whole freaking world.

THE SavvySystem

My signature course, The SavvySystem is the course I launched in late 2016 that over 1000 students have used to launch their own at-home business.

Like I said, it’s not always an easy road, but these students are working their BUTTS off and seeing serious results…

They are booking out their services.

Getting contracts signed…

And replacing their full time income with at-home work.



Here’s the truth….

Virtual Assistance changed my life. Since I started my business we have lived in 4 states, suffered a job loss, lost family members, and had our share of bad days. 

It wasn’t always easy, but I’ve treasured every moment.

It’s the best life I could have imagined.

 

AbbeyAshley3-21Print-5033

Meet Abbey

Abbey Ashley is the Founder of The Virtual Savvy. She helps aspiring virtual assistants launch and grow their own at-home business from scratch. She's since gone on to grow a multi-six figure business and retire her husband ALL from her at-home business. It's now her passion to help others start their own VA business so they can taste the freedom and flexibility of entrepreneurship as well.

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This free one-hour training combines thousands of hours of research, years of experience in growing a virtual assistant business!

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9 Comments

  1. Roslia santamaria on January 23, 2019 at 5:50 am

    I was really enjoyed to read this topic and I Got some good idea by reading this topic.

    • Abbey Ashley on January 23, 2019 at 12:11 pm

      I am so glad that you enjoyed it and got some great ideas!

  2. Fiona Manoon on January 29, 2019 at 2:52 am

    Thanks for sharing your views.

  3. Jenena on February 11, 2019 at 11:08 am

    I am very interested but, as you mentioned earlier to not let fear take over, I am. I love working on a computer, typing, editing, proofreading, all of that jazz! I am currently working at a law firm as a paralegal and am just wondering if this has potential for me along these lines, as I have worked in the legal field for 20+ years. Help! I believe I would truly love VA work!

    • Abbey Ashley on February 11, 2019 at 9:18 pm

      Jenena, your experience in the legal industry can totally translate to the virtual assistant world. There are so many services that would cross over to other industries if you wanted to make a transition. There are also VA positions available within the legal industry. You have choices!

  4. Dana on May 14, 2019 at 5:15 pm

    Love this! Thanks for sharing your story!!

    I’m a VA Bootcamp member, running at a slower pace, but excited about building a successful business. Thanks for offering this game changer for so many of us!!!

    • Abbey Ashley on May 15, 2019 at 3:00 pm

      One of the best things about the Bootcamp is that you can take it at YOUR pace. There are no deadlines and timelines. The course if for you! Please don’t hesitate to reach out to my team at [email protected] if you need any support!

  5. Patrick Ehimen on January 3, 2020 at 11:32 am

    Coming across you and your contents is a big blessing. I like your energy and passion. Looking foward to starting my own VA biz

    • Abbey Ashley on January 3, 2020 at 1:55 pm

      Patrick, thank you! Can’t wait to see you succeed! We are here to cheer you on!

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