Remember that rush when you first decided to become a VA, or when you started your first day as a full time business owner, the stress of a 9-5 behind you forever. More freedom knocking on your door than Amazon knocks on ours whenever it’s my other half’s pay day. 

The flexibility, the endless possibilities? 

But then before you know it, you’ve literally no idea when you last switched off. Granted you can no longer recite the number of hours until the next bank holiday, but you’re constantly thinking about marketing, audience building, wtf is this new software, do I need to learn it?, should I have a re-brand, am I following the 20% rule, I don’t want to say no to this new client, even though it’ll mean me working more hours than I did when I was employed.

I still remember my first 10k month. Obviously I remember the shock of ‘wtf, I have just earned in a month what I’d have earned in 5-6 months as an employee’ but I also remember the exhaustion. If I wasn’t working on the big projects I’d brought in, I was thinking or worrying about getting them finished.

It wasn’t worth it. And that’s when I decided that burn out wasn’t going to happen.

And the best bit, it doesn’t mean a loss of income, which I will cover briefly at the end of this podcast, or you can find out more in my second bestselling book, The 20% Rule – available on Amazon.

Nothing I say in this podcast is medical advice. I always say, if something feels not normal then seeing a doctor is always the best option.

The Telltale Signs: Are You Headed for Burnout?

– Beyond the classic fatigue: subtle shifts in motivation, client communication, and overall enthusiasm.

– snappy with people at home, or delivery drivers, more aggressive and impatient on the road, finding people next to you on the sofa are really over masticating those fucking crisps, why even eat crisps next to people, noticing that some people double swallow liquids, wondering why the bloke round the corner has to have his parking sensors so fkg loud, then this could all be a sign that you’re a little bit tired – what’s causing that exhaustion? Now, I know it’s definitely everyone else, but we might just need to double-check it’s not actually you doing too much..

– The “always on” trap: blurring lines between work and personal life, and why that’s a red flag.

– Physical ailments: headaches, digestive issues, and sleep disturbances. I mean any multitude of things can cause those and like I said above, if something feels not normal for you, then seeing a doctor is always the safest option.

Boundaries – not just for clients, but for yourself too.

– Do your boundaries need revisiting? Sometimes our boundaries are borne from experience. Like I won’t have the whole packet of biscuits anymore because that was clearly what was making me round.

– The power of “no”: declining requests that overextend your capacity is absolutely fine. I’ll tell you at the end how to deal with this in another way too.

– Setting clear expectations from the start: outlining response times, availability, and scope creep prevention.

– Also, if you’re delivering a larger project, say a website, for a client make sure every stage as clear deadline. For example; I’ll create a website for you in a month. You need to get the content for the website to me by X date, I’ll upload it by X date, you’ll need to get branding colours and fonts to me within 48 hours, you’ll have two rounds of amends when website if finished, which must be back to me by X date. If any of those dates slip, the completion date will move too – and potentially by quite a lot.

– Regular check-ins: proactively discussing workload, deadlines and potential bottlenecks with clients. But make sure you charge for these.

Long-Term Strategies

– Diversifying your client portfolio: reducing reliance on a single client to mitigate stress. If you’re a new VA, don’t panic if you’re not there yet. It’s something you’ll be working towards. But if you’ve been in business a while, no one client should be taking up more than 20% of your time or income.

– Investing in skill development: like AI! Yes, it’s not taking your job, it’s enhancing it, making it easier, making tasks quicker. So you need to think about bringing packages into your business, because they’re not priced on how much time you spend doing something, they’re priced on the enormous value you bring. If you’ve not yet learnt how to manipulate and train AI, then take a look at my course here.

– Automate and delegate: ask ChatGPT whether they think anything in your business could be automated. Input all the tasks you do and see what it comes up with. Or, is it time to look for your own VA to help you out? 

– The VA community: finding peer support and mentorship to share experiences and prevent isolation.

Remember why you did this?

Why? What was your why?

Can you achieve that why at the rate you’re working?

For example, if your why was to have more holidays, can you realistically do that if you’re juggling the clients on your own? Would it be of benefit to have an associate help with client work? Because if your goal was more freedom, but you’ve accidentally built yourself a job you can’t take a day off from, something needs to change.

Forced breaks

– Do you know what pisses me off? Sometimes I’ll get my laptop out and shut my phone in another room. I can control, much more easily, what I do on my laptop, the phone – not so much. So off I go to another room, open the laptop, open the software I need to focus on without distraction and the bloody thing needs me to get my phone because it’s just texted me an effing code, or it’s sent me an email so I need to open my emails and before I know it, I’m replying to Susan who swears blind she bought the Starter Guide and I’ve removed her access from it, and she’s going to sue me, only to find she hadn’t actually bought it yet, but she was going to.

– The digital detox dilemma: intentional breaks from screens and client notifications is something we should all really put into our day. Turn the phone off so that you can pick it up and instantly access the apps that are taking over your life.

– I asked ChatGPT if I missed anything here and it suggested: ‘desk-friendly exercises and breathing techniques to reset during the day.’. Fuck off.

– Actual lunch breaks – put the telly on, watch the news, bargain hunt and / or homes under the hammer. I usually stop work half way through homes under the hammer and sit down with my sandwich. It’s always at that exact moment they’re showing the world’s most awful bathroom.

Remember, you didn’t start a business to become the most exhausted version of yourself. You started it for more freedom, more flexibility, more control and a better life. Don’t accidentally build something that takes those things away from you.

As before, if something feels outside of your normal, never hesitate to ask your GP to look into things.