A Work From Home Solution: Become A Virtual Assistant

Let’s face it, life with autoimmune disease is expensive.

The physical and emotional stress that comes with living with a chronic illness can be overwhelming in itself.

Add to that the added financial stress of co-pays, medications, hospitalizations, specialists, functional medicine or holistic treatments which are often not covered by insurance, and it’s the perfect recipe for chronic, stress induced flares.

Those with autoimmune diseases often feel limited in their career options because chronic flare ups can make working outside of the home difficult to do, and sometimes even impossible.

If our health allows us to work outside of the home, we often have to push ourselves to work in a job that could very well be damaging our physical or mental health even more, just so that we can pay the bills.

We often get stuck in a cycle of work, feeling miserable, having little to no energy to do any of the things we enjoy or that help us to feel better, and then we spend our weekends recovering in bed just to get up and repeat it all over again on Monday.

At some point, we may find that our google search history looks something like this:

• “How to make money from home”
• “How to work online”
• “How to quit my 9-5 job”
• “Flexible work from home jobs”
• “Jobs for people with chronic illness”
• “Easy side hustles”

Care for your chronic autoimmune illness includes not just managing the physical symptoms of the disease, but also your emotional health and personal happiness – all of which take a hit when our autoimmune disease affects us financially.

This was me a few years ago. I was in one of the worst Ulcerative Colitis flares I had experienced since I was diagnosed 14 years ago.

Bathroom trips every 10 minutes. Embarrassing symptoms and accidents. Prednisone induced insomnia and an emotional wreck. Brain fog. Secretly dealing with major anxiety, depression, and approaching a full blown burnout of my physical and emotional health.

It was rough.

All of this while having to drag myself to a job that I had no energy for but couldn’t afford to quit.

I had been trying to find a profitable and flexible work from home solution for a while. It wasn’t until by chance I found the world of Virtual Assistance.

As it turns out, the very nature of being an Autoimmune Sister makes us a perfect fit for this type of career.

What is a Virtual Assistant and Who Hires Them?

A virtual assistant is an independent contractor who provides various services to entrepreneurs or businesses from a remote location (aka, from home!).

Online businesses and entrepreneurs like the idea of virtual assistants, especially if they want to save money on taxes and they don’t want to spend money on office space. Even many small and medium-sized brick-and-mortar businesses opt for virtual support for jobs like social media management, customer support, email management, client scheduling, bookkeeping, tech support, and blog writing.

Health/Life/Business Coaches, Course Creators, Travel Agents, Book Publishers, Real Estate Agents, Boutique, Salon and Spa Owners, Bloggers, and more, love having at least one virtual assistant on their team.

3 Reasons Autoimmune Sisters Make Amazing Virtual Assistants

1. We have an inner strength and determination that is truly unparalleled. You have grown accustomed to challenges and have learned the art of resilience – a quality that any business owner would love to have in a Virtual Assistant.
2. We have an amazing ability to adapt to change. When you deal with the constant fluctuation of emotions, symptoms, pain, etc, you have to learn to adapt to whatever your body is feeling that day and find solutions that work. We’re problem solvers, and that is exactly what business owners are looking for.
3. Being resourceful and knowing how to prioritize your time, energy, and resources to accomplish goals and meet deadlines is essential. We are uniquely qualified because of the life experiences and skills developed in managing life with autoimmune.

Since COVID, the world has gone virtual – businesses are having to learn how to pivot online and they need a virtual team to make that happen and they are willing to pay good money to work with people who they know, like, and trust.

Virtual Assistants in the US make an average of $32 an hour, and can easily scale their income by offering specialized, high value services.

When I first launched my Virtual Assistant business, I started at $45 an hour with no real experience or formal education in the field.

I was able to monetize the skills I already had as an Autoimmune Warrior in order to support myself by working from home as a Virtual Assistant!

According to the Census Bureau, more than 4.4 million new businesses were created in the U.S. during 2020. Half a million new businesses were started in January 2021. The Virtual Assistant business is an 85 BILLION dollar industry and growing.

I had no idea how much the Virtual Assistant business would change my life as an Autoimmune Warrior. It gave me a sense of freedom that I hadn’t experienced since before my autoimmune diagnosis. Being able to work from home improved my physical, mental, and financial health so much that I decided to teach other autoimmune warriors how to do the same.

So, How Do I Become A Virtual Assistant?

I had the freedom to create a hustle free life that I love, pay off my medical debt and put money towards savings, enjoy scheduled days OFF and stop missing important events with my family and friends because I now had the energy to do what I wanted to do, not just what I HAD to get done.

Have you given up on experiencing this type of freedom? Freedom from stress induced flares, anxiety, and the exhaustion of trying to make a living while also managing your chronic health condition?

I’m here to tell you that despite how you may be feeling right now, it’s possible for you!

While I still work with my own private Virtual Assistant clients, I set out to create a blueprint for other autoimmune warriors to follow so that they can experience freedom too. My ultimate mission is to help support my autoimmune sisters to take back their financial independence by building their own profitable and successful Virtual Assistant businesses from home with skills they already have!

If you are curious about how you can work with me to create your own virtual home-based business, then feel free to shoot me a DM over on Instagram or join the waitlist for my free upcoming live masterclass, Chronically ILL and Financially Thriving As A Virtual Assistant.

Virtually,
April Michelle