#and yeah there are clients who do need mental health resources. but if their homelessness is the root CAUSE of their mental health status-

[thelegendofmrrager]

Finally working as a social worker in the field and yeah we're cops too. We're churning ppl thru the system too. Most fucked up thing is my job is considered a "mental health" agency and we're supposed to prioritize linking ppl to mental health resources... whole time like 95% of our clients are homeless and utilize us primarily for a hotel stay. These ppl are worrying about where they're gonna get their next meal, what's going to happen to them after their hotel stay runs out. I have clients who are single mothers on the verge of homelessness and I'm supposed to ask "how do you feel about outpatient counseling? Psychiatry? Mental health skill building?" It's fucked.

[topicprinter]

The headline is more to grab your attention than to brag because the rest of this post is not going to be nearly as sexy. I wanted to write this post for people who are struggling to make their first $1,000 or $5,000 - I want to give you an inside look to how I did this, not overnight, but what the ugly, drawn-out process looked like for me.There's no get-rich-quick tips here. There's no "hacks." No "shortcuts." I'm a very unlucky person who feels very lucky to be able to make this amount from my laptop at home while dealing with my endless medical issues.Background information about the business:Name/URL: It's my username. I probably don't even show up on Google - also, I don't have social media outside of Reddit so there isn't much to look at. P.S. Not a self-promo, I'm booked out and not looking for more work.Type of business: "Virtual assistance" - basically, if someone needs an extra hand to do it in their business, I probably do it. My limitations are code/development and design. I am horrendous in those areas.Business model: People pay me a flat fee of $1000/month to be their virtual assistant for a flat fee of $600/month to write 4 pieces of content for them (email or blog only). Note: I don't do hourly fees because I work quickly. I am not going to work for $15 because I did it in 1 hour when someone would do the same work in 2 hours and make $30? When I break it down (I track my hours using Toggl) it's roughly $45-$100/hour per client, monthly.Open since: Officially? August 2019. When I started virtual assistance? 2010 - which leads me to the rest of this post.Tidbit about me for context:I'm in my super late 20's.Single mom, 2 young kids - one isn't in school yet.Clinically diagnosed schizo-bipolar, BPD, and PTSD - this is important because I believe this is why it took me so long to get here.College dropout with 1.4 GPA. (Criminal Justice)Only "legitimate" job was USMC, of which I only did 1 term as a glorified dispatcher.Based in the USA. I don't live in a huge city and rent for 3 bedrooms is $900 where I live, to give you context about my choices for pricing.Starting Expenses:MacBook Air: $800 (bought it on Black Friday in 2016, returned by original buyer)Mouse: $20iPhone 6s: $650 (bought it in 2016, completely paid off)Squarespace Domain: $20/yearSquarespace Business hosting + SSL certificate: $216Logo: $29 (hired a friend to do it)Canva for Business: $12.95/monthLLC set-up + misc. legal stuff: $150 (used ZenBusiness - no affiliation)Upwork: $5? Maybe? (You have to pay to bid on jobs)How I Hit $5,000/Month + All The Mistakes Made:I didn't really know what a virtual assistant was or how long I had been doing it. I was roughly 18-19 years old, homeless (couch surfing), and needed money fast.I looked at Craigslist's "odd jobs." Found a job from a now popular porn site that paid people $35/hour with a $250 bonus, to label like 800 porn videos in 1 week. I was making about $1,000/week doing this but being young and naive, spent it all at once thinking that this money would always be there.Then they outsourced to India and every American lost their job.Mistake #1: I put all my eggs in one basket.From here, I continued to make this mistake. I made a good amount off of Fiverr, only to get my account closed because a client complained about something I don't recall doing (I rather not call her a liar). If it's on r/WorkOnline and doesn't require a degree, I've probably been there, done that, and continued to put all my eggs in one basket until I burned myself out.Mistake #2: Lack of self-care/sleep because I wanted to "grind/hustle" = Burn out = Declining mental health = Poor sleep habits = Poor eating habits = Poor hygiene habits = Health problems = etc.This phase of my life was a blur, but a very important blur because here, I was trial and error-ing different things I could do. I was blogging. I was messing around on Twitter with tools like HootSuite and MeetEdgar. I made websites on Wordpress and Wix and Blogger. I took $5/hour r/slavelabour-style jobs because it's all I was qualified to do.If I didn't know how to do it, I didn't let the client know. I Googled and spent hours on the forgotten corners of internet forums and Reddit, hoping to find the answer to a hopeless problem.I didn't sleep much or slept too much. My mental health went ignored. I literally started hallucinating and having meltdowns, which eventually led to my divorce, which will be more relevant later on.Mistake #3: I widely underestimated what people were willing to throw money at.Eventually, I learned what a "virtual assistant" was and called myself that. I also learned that a lot of people will pay you to do simple things they can't be arsed to do themselves - like upload a blog post, write an email, or do customer support. Or label porn.Think of a virtual assistant as a virtual "nanny" or "nurse" who does everything for the business/entrepreneur so the business/entrepreneur can focus on making money.(You're probably wondering where I found my clients. Upwork. Craigslist. Seriously.)By this time, I was making about $1,000/month - which is barely enough to live on. I apply for food stamps to eat, at this point.I slogged like this for a few more years, until my ex-husband had a mid-life crisis. He kicked me and the kids out.Mistake #4: Being comfortable. Not having a savings/emergency fund.My credit score sucks due to poor money decisions (don't worry, I'm subscribed to r/personalfinance and r/leanfire now to learn money handling skills) so I couldn't take out a loan to move. My Discord friends and 3 IRL friends (I don't have family, it's just me) loaned me about $500 altogether. I told all of my clients what was happening - partially so they could find a replacement or expect me to go MIA.To my surprise, ALL OF THEM, immediately asked, "How can I help?" One of my clients gave me a $500 advance on our retainer and contracted me to set up a Squarespace website for another $500. Another client put together a PDF of resources for single mothers and government assistance.I spent every penny I made as a virtual assistant, on this move.There is something life shaking about being homeless and alone (which I was when I started this journey). There's something terrifying about the idea of being homeless and alone - especially when children are involved.This is the turning point that lit a fire under my ass.I set a goal to hit $5,000/month by December 2019 - 3 virtual assistance clients at $1,000/month a pop and 4 writing clients at $600/month. I also take side projects that are non-retainer.Problem? I was very fucking alone.Mistake #5: Underestimating the power of people. Being a dick. Thinking I knew better. Shitting on coaches and guru's that I've never met.Here was my strategy, since I don't have friends, ad spend money, or time:Think of all current clients and clients from the last 6 months who have money and never had issues paying me. Pitch them the $1000/month idea. (Only one, of 10, converted, BUT THAT'S 1/3 SECURED).Make Facebook accountJoin 20 Facebook groups per day. Filter them. Add the top 10 (engagement and where my potential clients are) pinned to shortcuts.Add 500 friends/day who are potential leads.Make a website with a landing page for my business.Make people laugh. (Yeah, seriously. Entrepreneurship is so stuffy and stuck up sometimes, I needed a way to catch people's attention).Help people and don't pitch. (Because it's 2019 and everyone is pitching and when you don't pitch, people wonder who the hell you are and look at your profile, where you can conveniently leave your URL)My flat fee is $1,000/month. I will not take a dollar less. It's $500 upfront to secure me and I do not work until the next 2 weeks ($500/biweekly) is paid in full. I cannot chase non-paying clients.I don't have a "page" by the way. This is all my personal account. I did this religiously for 2 weeks and posted a lot of business-related memes. I shared stories about labeling porn. People laughed and told me they really liked my "energy." They felt safe.I went into Facebook groups and answered peoples questions and calmed them down when they had business issues. "My email marketing tool is not sending out my broadcasts" "I am not reaching over 10% open rate in my emails." All those years of Googling and slogging away paid off.Where do coaches and gurus come in? They have an audience. I learned that they are not necessarily going to make you rich but they are a pay to play model. I joined some girl-power group led by a guru ($15/month) and bought myself into her audience. I told her straight up, "Look, I'm trying to book out and this is what I do. Here's my website." She blasted my info to her audience. I ate a slice of humble pie and stopped doing the shit-on-coaches crap.My funny memes? People shared them.Every time someone offered "free coaching calls" I took them up on it. I wrote glowing reviews, which they SHARED. For the last month, people in these circles constantly saw my name and face. If these coaches and gurus with thousands of followers were vouching for me, I am trustworthy, and if I am trustworthy, my website is worth looking at.The rest was a waiting game. If people emailed me, I emailed back within 6 hours. If they inquired about me on Facebook messenger, I messaged back the same day.People booked calls with me and talked to me. I had to talk to a lot of people before someone finally said yes, but who the fuck cares. THEY SAID YES.This weekend, I booked out. I had to decline two people this morning because I just don't have time for more clients. I put them on a waitlist. But now I've secured $5,000/month minimum on retainer clients and I'm building my waitlist.Also, paid all my friends back.But, this brings me to my latest mistake:Mistake #6: No source of passive income and capping income.I've capped myself at $5,000/month :( So... what the hell do I do now?I'm going to create a source of passive income which I won't talk about here so it doesn't become a pitch. I'll attempt to scale it to $5,000/month. After that, I'm going to convert my virtual assistance clients to digital marketing clients and work on commission so my income ceiling is higher. I've never made more than $5,000/month so I don't know what I don't know and I intend to continue making mistakes along the way.Also, this subreddit hates coaches, but the majority of my clients are coaches. Best part? They have money. I plan on hiring one who offered me a very valuable free coaching call a few weeks ago.TL;DR:I spent a lot of time learning random skill sets and then learned people will hire me for the skill set. Spent years doubting myself and undercharging. Ex kicked me and the kids out. I panicked. Set up a website. Mass networked on Facebook. Did a shit-ton of free calls to get free business tips from guru's. Bought into low-entry groups for more visibility. Made people laugh. Did even more shit-tons of "discovery calls" for potential clients. Answered a lot of emails and inquiries. Asked. For. Help.And there you have it. None of this was glamorous or sexy, and I took almost a decade to get to $5,000/month but every journey starts somewhere, right?Hope this was helpful to someone out there. Have a good one.