Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Holly Smith. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.

Hi Holly, thanks for joining us today. Being a business owner can be really hard sometimes. It’s rewarding, but most business owners we’ve spoken sometimes think about what it would have been like to have had a regular job instead. Have you ever wondered that yourself? Maybe you can talk to us about a time when you felt this way?

I have this thought at least once per week. A lot of the time it’s after an incredibly hard day or a day where I’ve felt an immense amount of pressure. Granted, I often put this pressure on myself, but it doesn’t feel great either way!

Being a business owner is incredibly challenging, and sometimes difficult to explain to other people because they see you working remotely and think you have it easy or don’t do much work. This couldn’t be further from the truth in most cases. You wear all of the hats, all of the responsibility is on you, all of the decisions need to be made by you, and every aspect of your business needs to be thought about at all times. There’s no switching off or days off in fact. It’s a mental commitment you make as well as a career commitment when you decide to become a business owner.

When I have the thought of what it would be like to have a regular job, I think back to when I had regular jobs! I look at people around me with regular jobs and see (sometimes) how unfulfilled they are, how bored they are, and how they wish things could change. I’ve had jobs in the past that I loved and jobs I hated, but at the end of the day, I could never go back to a regular job.

We spend the majority of our lives working. I remind myself why I started my business, the hurdles I’ve overcome, and the things I’ve achieved. I look at the business I’ve built from the ground up, I read the reviews I’ve received from happy clients, and I look at the work I’m doing and the impact I’m making directly to other people. I look at the team I now have and feel grateful that I’m able to give other people the opportunity to also work remotely and do something they love.

This helps me push past the feelings of doubt and unhappiness as a business owner. Yes, there are hard days, weeks, or even months, but I’m in charge of my life, my earnings, who I work with, and where I work! I no longer have to ask for permission for anything, or get frustrated about change I wish I could see in a business. I AM the business, and I can pursue any ideas or thoughts I have. I can experiment, I can alter, and my life goes with it! Freedom – that’s something you can never get 100% of when you work a regular job, and that’s my biggest motivator to keep going.

Holly, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?

My name’s Holly, and I’m the CEO and Founder of The Genie VA.

I worked in the hospitality industry from the young age of 13. Customer service was my passion – I loved to see people having a nice time and appreciate the work that I was putting in. I was a waitress for several years and completed a diploma in hospitality management at University.

I knew I wanted to work in weddings one day. I wanted to be a wedding planner and help execute the biggest day of people’s lives. However, being from a small, rural town, the opportunities in the wedding industry were scarce, and I was beginning to lose hope.

At the age of 21, I managed to get a job as a wedding and events assistant at a wedding venue, and very quickly advanced in this position, becoming the assistant wedding and events manager. I thoroughly enjoyed this job – it was extremely rewarding and I worked with an amazing team of people. I also learned so much about the wedding industry and the other vendors that helped make this day a success.

I was particularly interested in photographers – they worked closely with us throughout the day and I was in awe of their talent but also wondered how on earth they managed to stay on top of all of their work after a 12+ hour day on location.

As much as I enjoyed this job, I knew that at some point it would be time to move on, but I didn’t know what to. I also felt ready to move out of my hometown as I’d always dreamt of living in a city and being able to travel whenever I wanted. For anyone who’s worked in the hospitality industry, you’ll know that flexibility is only acceptable when it comes to when you’re available to work… and not so much for when you can travel/take time off. I was sick of the restrictions I’d had in each job, and I also had so many ideas and a lot of ambition – I didn’t know what to do next.

When COVID-19 hit in 2020, something inside of me snapped. This was my opportunity to change my life. I was working 50+ hour weeks and now had all of this free time – I HAD to make the most of it. I started researching for ways to become self-employed, to work from anywhere, and came across many different things. As most of us know now, there are a lot of ways to work for yourself and make money online, but nothing was sticking/feeling right.

Eventually, I came across the term virtual assistant and dived right in. I was already used to being some kind of assistant, and had worked in hotel receptions too, so had extensive organization and administrative skills. After some online courses and business coaching, I officially launched my business in November 2020 and had my first client within a month.

I quit my full-time job and registered as self-employed. After this, it was time to learn how to run a business, and who I really wanted to serve – where my specialty was! After about 4 months, I started working with a wedding photographer and realized that this was it, this was a way for my experience in my old job and my passion to intertwine.

Now, nearly three years in, I run a small team of virtual assistants who serve wedding photographers all over the US. We specialize in 1:1 Support – this is where photographers can work directly with me as their assistant – pretty much having a right-hand woman in their business, with flexible services to suit where they’re at right now. My team also specializes in lead generation through Instagram. We have an online course and two packages to choose from if wedding photographers are looking to generate more leads through the platform.

We meet clients at the stage they’re at in their business with the focus of helping them regain their work-life balance as well as bring back enjoyment for their trade. We see so many wedding photographers burn out because they’re doing everything – photographing weddings, culling, editing, responding to emails, DM’s, posting on social media, keeping their website up to date, sending out client questionnaires, crafting timelines, sending invoices, collecting reviews, marketing, etc. The list goes on, and the problem we solve is to reduce this list and give them some of their time back, as well as help them to grow their business.

What really sets us apart from others is our customer service. Clients come first, and we are here to listen and treat our clients as independents – not all businesses are the same, and not all business owners are the same. Something that works for one of our clients will not work for another, and we don’t believe that one size fits all. We believe in accountability, mutual respect, and making sure our clients are taken care of every step of the way.

The Genie VA also makes a donation to charity every time a new client signs on. We use globalgiving.org to choose a charity that we feel resonates most with the client we just signed on, and donate in their honor, using their business name.

We’d love to hear about how you keep in touch with clients.

I make sure that my communication is seamless. I always think that no matter what, it’s better to know than to be left wondering. For example, if you have a deadline you were supposed to meet for a client, and you know that you’re not going to meet it, the absolute first thing I would do is reach out the the client and explain the situation. I would give them an alternative timeframe and I would offer solutions, but I would never ignore their emails or just let the due date pass and hope they don’t notice.

This also applies to milestones or wins within their business. For example, for some clients, we do a monthly report looking back on things over the previous month and we love to include fun emojis for milestones they’ve hit or a spike in social media traffic or inquiries for example. This shows that we’re invested in their business and pay attention to every little detail.

For clients on higher retainers or working with the CEO personally, they have a private Slack channel provided to them where they can reach out at any time Mon-Fri and they can expect a response within 24/hours. Otherwise, we communicate via email where all emails are filtered and starred so that they sit at the top of our inbox and are the first priority when we open it.

Brand loyalty mainly comes from the relationships we create with our clients. These touchpoints, client gifts, and communication keep our clients coming back/staying for long periods of time.

How do you keep your team’s morale high?

Managing a team is something that I only had a brief experience with from previous ‘regular’ jobs. It was always in person, and it was usually just me delegating tasks to them – I had nothing to do with their hours, their pay, training them, etc.

I really struggled with this aspect to start with – I had no idea how to manage a team as part of an online business. I felt like an imposter and I think this came across in how I was managing – I would delegate tasks and then hope for the best, and leave people to get on with it, having minimal communication. Over the last two years, I’ve completely changed the way I approach this.

I strongly recommend having clear SOPs in place before hiring a team member. I also strongly recommend making an itemized list of what EXACTLY they are going to be doing when they join your business. You have to treat hiring a team and managing a team like you would in a ‘regular’ job – this person will be brand new to your business – they will need to be shown what to do, will most likely feel nervous, and will take some time to train.

Communication is also SO important! You want this person to feel welcome, excited, and confident that they’ve joined an awesome company and are going to be making a difference. Try to imagine how you would like to feel, and then see if you can make it even better for this new team member joining your company.

Once they’ve settled in, make sure to continue this communication – check in with them regularly and also be aware of what’s happening in their life. For example, if they’ve just got engaged, maybe send them a congratulatory gift or ask them about wedding planning or how the proposal happened. If they’ve just had a baby, be sure to check in with how much time they’d like to have off, how they’re feeling, etc. It’s important to treat a team member how you’d like to be treated.

I also think it’s important to provide feedback on work and show that you’re paying attention to what they’re doing for the business. This can help a team member develop, and understand more about the business, as well as how they’re doing. I love to chat with my team about their goals and future ambitions and make sure that they’re enjoying the role they have, as well as answering any questions or concerns they have. We do regular coworking calls where we can keep each other accountable and also provide company for each other as working alone can sometimes be isolating!

Contact Info:

• Website: https://thegenieva.com/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thegenieva/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/thegenieva
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/thegenieva-virtual-assistant/