Here is a typical day I would experience as the owner and founder of Interim Business Solutions which offers virtual assistance and social media support services. My business is operated from my home office in the outer east of Melbourne. However, I service business owners from all over the world.

5.45 am
The alarm starts at an ungodly hour but not for me! However, it has been the order of the day for many years now and being the morning person I am. I jump out of bed, eager to start the new day. The day starts with a strong cup of tea; checking of emails, Twitter and Facebook; RSS business and travel feeds are read and comments left on my blogs are responded to and any banking attended to.

6.30 am
The school lunches are made, breakfast is downed and … the cat fed! (Crazy Max-cat ensures he’s not forgotten). The kids are woken, dressed and fed. The washing machine gets stuffed with a load and we all prepare to leave for the school run by 8.15.

8.15 am
My two children attend two different schools. The elder is at Secondary school, the younger still at Primary school. It’s a 40mins round trip. I usually return home via the bakery and resist the temptation to stop at the local cafe for a coffee, only to return home to hang out washing. Coffee does sound a better option!

9.00 am
The morning has already been planned and client’s jobs scheduled using Wunderlist which also syncs to my iPhone. The support provided to clients can include; general administration support, transcription, social media setup and maintenance, and pretty much anything a PA/Office Manager would do, the only difference is that I do it from my own virtual office. So really, the only thing I can’t do is someone’s physical filing.

12.30 pm
Eat lunch, if I remember to! Yes, I can be a bit naughty when it comes to looking after my health these days. I rarely fit exercise in, other than some gardening or a quick power-waddle around the block if time permits. I’m sure this will generate some ‘tisk, tisk’ comments!

12.45 pm
I’m not one to check my emails at set intervals throughout the day as is often suggested. The role as a Virtual Assistant is fairly reactive and I believe as a VA I need to be available to respond to client’s emails in a timely manner and so Outlook is open all day. Most of my inquiries and referrals come in via Twitter, so Hootsuite also remains open all day. During the afternoon I allow some time on social media for business networking and marketing purposes; client work is scheduled and any Engagement Letters to new clients are also attended to during this period.

3.00 pm
This is the start of the ‘muddly’ after school time! When snippets of work and other aspects of running the business are squeezed in between afternoon tea with the children to hear about their school day, review notices, attend the vegetable garden, supervise homework and dinner preparation.

6.30 pm
I try to watch the news and have some down time before continuing with the evening work session! As a business owner, it’s not always client’s work that keeps you at it ‘til the late hours but it’s the constant thinking and implementing ideas for the business and in my case, also developing my travel blog.

10.30 pm
I start to wind down and time for some shut-eye!

As a small business owner for nearly six years, I have learnt so much and met many wonderful people from all over. I do love what I do and it’s a great feeling to know that other businesses count on Interim Business Solutions as a resource to assist them with the growth of their business. As a virtual assistant of nearly six years, I’ve seen the virtual business industry really expand over the past few years and we’re so fortunate to see it fill with many supportive business owners.

Being a small business owner is a lot of hard work and one of my favourite sayings sums this up…

“The best part of being self employed is that you get to choose which 16 hours you work each day… “