How to Come Back If Your Virtual Assistant Business Is Failing

Are you struggling in your virtual assistant business? Is your business about to shut down? Learn how to come back from business failure. Keep reading...

Are you sitting down? Get comfortable cause we are going to have a serious conversation about your VA business. I have a story to tell you and it is going to be good.

Let's begin.

One of my favorite companies is: Apple.

Apple is one of the most respected and valuable companies of our time, but it wasn't always like that. The compnay has a market value of nearly $2 trillion and a stock that is soaring above its competitors. Apple is actually the perfect example to look at when considering why businesses fail and how to make a come back if your business is failing.

Before I tell you Apple's story, let me share my own.

Why I fell in love with Apple

I first learned about Apple in the seventh or eight grade (1994), which is also around the time I started to learn how to type. I didn't know what typing was but I was going to learn. I walked into the computer class and was surrounded by these brand new Macintosh computers like the one pictured below on Steve Jobs lap (in this post). Typing class suddenly sound fun. All my classmates were excited to learn with me.

Needless to say, most of us quit after a month. I tried to learn but after a week, I realized it was too hard and required a ton of memory and concentration that I didn't have. Our teacher removed all the failing students out of the class and I found myself in the music room learning to sing and dance. I wasn't any better at singing but at least it didn't require me to think much.

From eigth grade on, computers became my least favorite thing. I struggled in high school not knowing how to type fast. I would write out my papers and have other students type them up for me.

In 2000, I graduated highschool with a 3.8 GPA despite not knowing how to type to save my life. The following year, I started attending college in the Fall (yes, I took a year off to work full-time in a men's clothing store at the mall. I had an obsession with the mall at the time and I really wanted to work there. I would have taken any job really. haha! That's another story for another time). I did my best with typing and avoided computers as much as I could. In college, we used mostly books so I was able to avoid typing for some time, but not for long.

Fresh into my twenties, I started working in a medical facility but thankfully typing was not a requirement, however entering the correct data in the system was key and required alot of typing. I found myself having to re-type information just to make sure I had entered it properly. My relationship with typing got worst when I had to dictate recordings and document information. The more I typed the more I grew to hate it.

In 2005, after graduating college, I landed an interview for my dream job in Downtown Miami. I was so excited about working in a high rise building, having a corner cubicle and having lunch with other assistants and executives. I knew I had to learn how to type fast and past a typing test. By a miracle, I failed the typing test, but they hired me anyway (lol haha!). Thank goodness my dream job didn't require much typing.

Working in a high rise building off the Miami River, scheduling lunch dates with other assistants, and eating a five start restaurants with executives -- definitely happened! I loved sitting in my own corner cubicle with ton of desk space and two side-by-side Microsoft PC's and ergonomical chair. At twenty-three, I was single, traveling and living the dream making $24K a year.

With Microsoft being on every company's desktop in the office, I gave in and purchased my first home PC. The products were highly discounted by my job so I purchased the entire Microsoft product suite (Word, Excel, Access, Outlook, etc). During this time, Apple had disappeared and Microsoft was the big company all businesses were buying into. The quality of Microsoft was disappointing, but it did the job.

By 2009, I was married and started looking into work from home jobs for me and my husband. We worked at our nine to five's until the following year when we found out we were pregnant with our first child. We decided we needed a fresh start so that same year we relocated to Orlando Florida.

One day at work, I walked into the employees lounge and found a catalog on the table with items from a company named Thirty One Gifts. As I flipped through the catalog, I loved what I saw so I started my third business working as a direct seller for TOG (my first business was started at age nineteen selling Mark Kay and the second was Avon. That was the year I also took a break to work at the mall).

At nineteen, I knew I wanted to be an entreprenuer. It wasn't until I started my TOG business and it was booming that I knew I could be a successful business owner. I was selling over $1k a month and I needed a new PC so immediately I started to wonder, where did Apple go and was it ever going to return to selling computers?

Photo Credit: Stack Social / The History of the Mac

What happened to Apple?

Here is the story...

In 1985, Apple’s founder Steve Jobs was fired from the company. Before re-hiring Jobs in 1997, the failing business operated at a loss and inched toward bankruptcy. In fact, Michael Dell was advising decision-makers to shut Apple down and give its shareholders their money back. But Apple persisted, and Steve Jobs asked himself one of the most critical questions in his lifetime: “What business are we really in?”

At first, the answer seemed obvious – Apple was in the computer business. But how were they supposed to win back customers when 97% of all computers across the United States were run by Microsoft?

That’s when they realized that no matter how good their product was, Microsoft was embedded and entrenched in the masses. After all, it was one of the main reasons Apple found itself in bankruptcy.

So Jobs asked, “What business do we need to be in?” And Apple decided that it needed to be in the business of connecting people to their passions – to their photographs, their music, to each other. When Job did this, he avoided one of the top reasons why businesses fail: lack of flexibility.

Answering this question created one of the most life-altering shifts for Apple. The company transitioned into building basic, cool technology that connects people to what they love.

How did Apple make a come back?

Upon rehiring Jobs, the company arranged a partnership with Microsoft which signaled the company’s turnaround.

When Apple launched the iMac just one year later, the firm returned to profitability and made its mark. Then, came the iPod and iTunes, and now the iPhone. Their net sales soared. Sadly, I have never owned an iPod, but in one night I purchased over $100 in music on iTunes (so I supported its growth). I just couldn't stop clicking all the songs I liked.

Other ways I supported my favorite company? In 2014, I started a new business online: my Virtual Assistant business! After a client gifted me an iPad mini, I became hooked on ALL Apple products. I invested my business earnings and purchased my first iPhone (which brought in $750 of business the first week of purchase) and then a Mac laptop (which brought in $1500 into my business the first week after purchase). Every time I purchased an Apple product I made back whatever I invested (using a strategic marketing plan, of course).

In 2021 during the pandemic, my husband gifted me an iPad (7th generation) which I currently use for travel and as a kiosk at events, and an Apple Watch that I absolutely love that helps me stay on track with my fitness goals and health. My Apple watch is a constant reminder to pour into my own cup. That means, take care of myself first especially as a business owner, before I can take care of anyone else.

To say the least, I am in love with all of my Apple products. The quality is unmatched! I will forever be apart of the Apple family.

Since returing back to business, Apple has never stopped innovating, and their marketing campaigns have propelled the company to an entirely new realm. Had Jobs viewed his firing as the death toll of his career (and company), the firm would have never experienced its revival.

Is Apple really in the computer business?

Apple is back in the business of selling computers, but only 10.4% of their business is computers, which means almost 90% is not – the vast majority is made up of iPhone, iPad and Apple Watch sales. Taking a step back to honestly answer the question “Why do businesses fail?” was vital for Apple to change course and become profitable again.

If success is about innovation and marketing, then you have to ask yourself the RIGHT questions:

1. who really are your ideal (paying) clients?

2. what they need?

3. what business you are in?

4. what business you really need to be in?

Answering these questions can change your entire business, because the answers will ultimately allow you to change your offer. As the saying goes "change your offer, change your business – and change your business, change your life".

Ask yourself right now: Is the business you're building really serving you or your clients? It should be doing both.

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