Aloha Adminjas!

While it might technically be heading into Winter, we're feeling the sunshine with this Adminja Spotlight! Today we talk with Vicki Fugitt, founder of Vicki’s Assistance. Vicki hails from the beautiful state of Hawaii and started her business in 2016. She brings 20+ years of office and graphic design experience to the table to strategically help her clients. 

Vicki has been one of our more active users in the Adminja community, regularly participating in our user's Slack group, providing feedback, submitting feature suggestions and patiently helping us find bugs when they crop up. We are especially excited to introduce her to you!

To get started, can you talk about how you got started in the Virtual Assistant industry. How did that happen?

My story begins long before I actually became a VA. As a young adult, I held several jobs in an office setting from secretarial to data entry work. These jobs helped me work my way through college for graphic design. After graduating, I started working in newspaper production, and then found my niche when I began setting up the first desktop publishing centers for a national printing company and managing computer centers at copy shops. 

From there I opened my first business, a graphic design company, which I operated for 5 years. After getting married and having a daughter, I made the decision to close my business to focus on my family full time. 

Fast forward 16 years- I was divorced with an almost-grown daughter and a world of changes in my career industry. It was definitely hard trying to break back into the business and knew I had to update my skills to be successful again. So I decided to start with social media and found a savvy social media master that was interested in trading one of her master courses with me, after which I became her assistant. It was then that I discovered the VA community, and had my “ah-ha” moment when I realized I could offer ALL my skills and experience under one umbrella! This was huge for me.

So I started Vicki’s Assistance VA Services, converted my teacher/mentor to my first client, and in less than a year my business has grown to a full schedule.

Wow! That's fantastic you were able to grow so quickly! What type of clients do you prefer to work with and do you offer any niche services?

​I like to work with clients who are entrepreneurs and creatives. My clients really appreciate my attention to details, the diversity of my experience and skills, and my eagerness to learn new ways to help them! My niche areas are graphic design, social media management and systems. 

That's incredible! Can you share your main source of daily motivation?

The VA community at large is definitely my key source of daily motivation! There's definitely a lot to learn and share to help support our industry. 

Given the types of clients you have, what are the types of work you enjoy the most? 

I really enjoy design work, creating logos and branding. I also love creating spreadsheets, editing and proofing copy, and creating business systems.

What would you say is the key to your current success?

I think being active in learning new things that I’m good at and enjoy doing as well. Also, realizing and believing in my own worth helps ensure I keep a positive attitude and attracts my ideal clients!

Do you have any tips, or strategies that you’d recommend to VAs who are just getting their feet wet?

The large number of VA services in this industry can be overwhelming, and this is one of the reasons finding a niche is important. Learn what makes YOU excited, and begin your focus in that area.

Don’t be inhibited with potential clients by a lack of knowledge in a given area, offer to learn it or sub-contract it. Be patient and persistent, as in any new business venture. And know your worth, it’s probably more than you think!

You've been such a huge supporter of Adminja which we really appreciate. We'd love to know, is there any one feature that you rely on every day?

To me, Adminja is just one big wonderful part of my daily workflow- from new client intake, task and project management through retainer time tracking. I don't think I could pick just one feature.

Do you have any closing wisdom, both for fellow VAs that might be reading this? 

I would say stay true to yourself, do what you love, charge what you’re worth, and keep supporting each other.