At the end of 2022, my previous role became uncertain, the recovery from the Covid times had been slow and being furloughed for 18 months, meant competitors ultimately took hold and with the cost of living price rises people were in a race to the bottom.
So, as a precaution, I set about setting up another stream of income, thinking I could do some admin after-hours on the side for people in the evenings and weekends. My first thoughts were branding and the company name. A lot of my friends are freelancers or business owners too, and many thought that in my previous role, I owned the companies as I treated them as if they were my own.
As I already had a fair-sized network built on LinkedIn and in person, I knew I didn't want to use my name or initials for my company name - so many other Virtual Assistants do this, and I felt I needed to be different. Having already been known for dancing around on TikTok and sharing on LinkedIn, it was a no-brainer to incorporate my dancing 💃 into my business name and create a marketing strategy and brand. Dancing Queen Admin Services was born in January 2023.
Then, the wonderful Zoe Britton from Arracan Group referred me to James Mossop, The Pink Octopus, for logo design, fonts, and colours to start my journey into running my own business. I initially had ideas for the logo, and with my two favourite colours, the branding was brought alive.
After this, I had to figure out the services and pricing I was going to offer, then network in person and online while becoming as visible as possible on LinkedIn. Of course, I chose the tasks I am most passionate about for business owners to help them save time and grow online. 💜
Suddenly my business became a full-time passion quicker than I envisaged and in early March 2023 I was made redundant. While the family panicked as Self-Employed life is alien to them all, I reassured them I've got this, all will be fine including keeping a roof over my head. Luckily I do have a second income Amazon Flex, which I also started in furlough, to stop me from completely going ga ga looking at four walls for the duration of the lockdowns.
One thing I would say is never start up a business without backup funds or a second income, as times can be tough! I started my business up for around £500 and £1000 if you count the purchase of a new laptop. 💻 You don't need a degree or expensive courses to know how to be a business owner, although experience in your field does help and having a support network around you proves its worth in gold.
If you are looking for Admin, LinkedIn, Social Media or Marketing help, please reach out to me.
Kind regards
Jo
Queen of Admin 👑
Dancing Queen Admin Services 💃