Starting an Online Business from Scratch | Angela Hall

So Angela, what are two truths and one lie?

See, I worked in maximum security male prisons for 10 years. I love ziplining. I have walked on fire and broken

Welcome to A Whole Lotta Shift Podcast, the podcast for multi passionate women with an entrepreneurial spirit, where we provide inspiration, motivation and education to help you shift away from all the shoulds and supposed to's to what's truly possible for you in your business and your life. All on your own terms. You ready, girl? Let's make shift happen.

Hey, welcome back to A Whole Lotta Shift. Thank you all for coming. I am here today with Angela Hall, the that helpful chick. I am so excited that she's here. We are in a membership coaching group together. And I have to tell you, if you have any tech difficulties, this is your girl. I'm so excited to have her on the show today and have her share her journey into developing a business of her own and anything else. Welcome Angela to the show.

Thanks, Jen. I'm happy to be here excited.

Yes. All right. Well, Angela, as I said, she is that helpful chick. She is a virtual assistant and technology services company. And her and her team of techies. And let me tell you, they are techies. They love serving established entrepreneurs as well as any small businesses with things like website, design, CRM, automating processes, and so much more. I have to tell you, anytime any of us in the membership group have any questions. It could be anything from setting up calendar, for your business to something more advanced, Angela knows, she just knows it all. So into luck, I'll actually give you an opportunity introduce yourself to the audience.

Alright, so I am a professional Problem Solver miracle worker and in pretty much every software and sold out there and been in business for 10 years, though, with all the clients that I've worked with, I've just dive in. And so there's pretty much not I'm not gonna say all of them because they're new software developing every day. Meantime, I hear of a new one, I tend to get my own account and start playing with it. So I always want to know the chance to offer to my clients. So I do like to try new technologies and see if they're a good fit for anybody. Oh, yeah. I love Yeah.

Oh, well, I'm I have to tell you, I'm glad that you're one of the people that love to do that because we need people like you to help others of us who are like, yeah, maybe somebody else could figure this out for me. So okay, before this show you and I talked and we are going to play a little truth and dare with truth into your eyeline. No, we're not. We're kind of play two truths and a lie with the audience. I hope if you're in the audience that you'll play along, but I am going to try to guess by the end of the today's episode what Angela's two truths and one line work. So I hope that you'll play along. So Angela, what are two truths and one lie?

See, I worked in maximum security male prisons for 10 years. I love ziplining I have walked on fire and broken Oh my gosh.

Oh, wow. Okay. Okay. All right. Those are good. All right. So I'm gonna we'll see when we get going. This conversation if I can figure those out. Me and ziplining working in a maximum prison on meal. Oh, god. Okay. Okay. I'm curious is what how did how did you kind of become that helpful chick and start your own business? What was the moment where you were like, Okay, I need to make a change in my life. I'm doing something for myself.

Oh, well, let's see. I'm about to give you the short version, because we'd be here all day. I was a single mom for years raised my daughter by myself. And then as I got older, um, no, my late 20s early 30s. Anyway, doesn't matter. I can't remember that. Ages, age, texture memory, but I found out I had to gender Notice, so it was getting harder and harder for me to work regular jobs because I can't sit very long or stand very long. And so I didn't work for a while and my daughter was supporting me. And I didn't like it at all. So I started searching online for just ways I could make enough to, you know, have my own spending money to pay my own expensive. I found a program that taught how to build websites. It taught affiliate marketing and SEO search engine optimization. So that's where I got started. And the more I learned, the more I wanted to learn. I got my first client and she taught me Infusionsoft funnels, and it just kind of spring rocketed from there. Getting more clients and learning more technology. And probably the first well, yeah, that was my, that was my, in essence, the moment like me, my daughter supporting me, I was like, now that I do something. Yeah. After I had a few clients, I was like, Okay, let's make this real.

Yeah, that's Wow, that's an amazing story. Because that's a, you know, it's a difficult position to be in, you know, I have had friends who have had various medical diagnosis, who you know, and when it impacts your ability to work, the thoughts and beliefs that go behind that, if that's very difficult. And honestly, the way I think the way our society is set up isn't really conducive to Yeah, to anybody with any kind of, you know, long term illness, autoimmune disease, any of those things, right? Like, it's just not, you know, I always loved the jobs that are like, Well, you can't be absent in your first like, six months. I'm like, Okay, let me just not get sick for six months. You know, it's absurd. So I love that you found something, and then kind of found something that you enjoyed, and kind of took that took that. Tell me a little bit of the story like, so how did you get that first client? How would it What was that like to feel that, hey, somebody's going to pay me for doing this?

Well, one of the another woman in the training program I was and she had a friend in the UK, they're both okay. And she was looking for some help her help death. And so that's where I started, I started work, help them answering questions, their help desk. And then she just asked me if I wanted to learn this other softwares. And I said, Sure. And so like I said, she taught me Infusionsoft and quick polls, which is what she was using time. And then I guess the next step I get, like local businesses. I did some web site work for a local charity, where I lived at the time and then going into Facebook groups and answering questions. Just being available on sharing people, you know, helping people. That's the best way to get people to see that, that you know what you're talking about? Yeah, it just kind of came on from there that piece people see you answering questions. And so they'll message you and say, Hey, can we have a conversation? And now fast forward? 10 years later, I would say about 90% of my clients come from referrals. So I really don't have to do that anymore. Thank God. Yeah.

No, that's, you know, I use it. I think that's one of the struggles where some people and I, I've seen, especially anybody who's wanting to be like any kind of like virtual assistant or, or anything in that realm of services, you know, getting their portfolio started, you know, getting themselves out there to get those first clients. It can be I don't want to say it can be difficult because I don't know that it's difficult, but I think the mindset behind it is the most difficult part.

I think, I think when we start out, or at least I know for me, it was you know, I knew I had didn't have a lot of experience so I was like, oh, is somebody who does hire me? Am I gonna make a screw up? Am I gonna not know how to do what they need to do? But I made it all. You just have to do it anyway do it afraid. Otherwise, you're not going to get anywhere because I'll be honest, the first probably three years of my business, I made hardly any money. I was charging way too little. And I was afraid myself out there a lot. And it probably wasn't. I would say until year four or five that I was heating up to the foreign $5,000 A month rain. And then I met my business coach I got on with the business coach at that point and And my income just kept increasing ever since. So it's just an even now you just, you just learned.

Yeah, that now that mindset shift. Yeah, one of the

Yeah, it's very important. Like one of the things that it's taken me a long time to learn is that I, I am allowed to be abundant, I'm allowed to make lots of money. Money loves me, and I love money. And it's okay. And I, I feel like us as women especially need to be more comfortable about talking about money with each other. I feel like, you know, like, when I grew up, it was, we didn't talk about money, that's just not something that you did you don't brag about it, you didn't. And I don't even consider bragging. Because I'll talk to people now about, and it's my business, like, my business makes the income. Right. So I get paid course, but it's business that my gauge is by what business income getting to that 10k months, and that no six figure years and, and it feels great. And then I don't know, your math, you get to that point, and it's really not.

Oh, man, I you know, there is so much truth to that you always live, it's interesting, the way income increases, somehow you always tend to live right at whatever that is, right? You're always living just at those means are just above it. It's interesting. And of course, as I'm saying that I'm saying that completely aside from things like inflation, or any of those that you know, just aside from that,

yeah, when you're building your business, especially heartfulness system, know that you're gonna, you're gonna have a cap if you just work with yourself. So that's a decision when you're starting now. Because there's only so many hours in the day, unless you have a really specialty like web design, for example, where you can charge larger prices for one, you know, just one product. But then you have to constantly be looking for new clients, because you don't have that recurring monthly income. So you want to think about how you would grow your team and steps that you need to take. And the best piece of advice I could give anybody out when trying to grow your business is decide, you know, how much do I want to bring? How many hours a month? Do I want them? To take off my plate? What are these? What are these tasks? How long do they take? And then what are you going to pay? And then budget that, save that money up, so that you're working a month ahead of time. So you'll hire somebody, and you'll have that money to pay them for that first month. And then the next during the month, you'll save up the money for the following month. You know, that way? You're not right, rambling?

Yeah, no, that's a great, that's so important as well is understanding that at some point in your business, you're going to need to scale. And so you're going to need to whether that means you're outsourcing something or you're you become an agency, you want to have an idea, there's only so much of you to go around, and you will you will reach your maximum point, I guess as far as you can go. Tell me a little bit about that. So how do you cuz that's a really good point of I think it gets tricky for some folks to decide, how do I know I'm ready to scale?

Well, yeah, I mean, some people might be okay with making you probably get up to, you know, good $5,000 A month by yourself, easily, depending on what your services are. So if that if you're comfortable with that, and the numbers make sense for you, you know, find zero that's all about what's your life goals, your what you want in your life. Me personally, I, I love to travel. So I want to be able to travel and travel overseas, not just here in the US. And so I need to make more than $5,000 a month. I just started bringing on team I brought on another gal from the training group that I was had learned in and she started working with me. And things to think about as well. If you hire people in the US if you I won't go deep into it because I'm not a professional and tax advice or any, you know, corporation or anything like that. But basically if you're hire people in the US, yeah, provide them with WT who if they, especially in states like California, they you can't consider a subcontractor or an outsourcer if they do the same The work you do, um, might have to bring them on as an employee. So that's something to think about. The way I've chosen to go is everybody on my team is outside the US. So I don't have to worry about W twos or, or any of that stuff, I can check it off in my taxes as subcontractors and be done with it, I don't have to worry about the laws and the rules and that are ever changing constantly. Here in the US. Yeah. And so far, I mean, kiss a few frogs. But for the most part, I pretty fortunate that I know, Cathy has been with me since almost the beginning. So we've known each other for 10 years and become good friends. And I visited her in Scotland and stayed at her home. And so it's great. So now I have to sue in Scotland, one in England, and two in Venezuela, that moment, three, sorry, three and benefits. So it's all and I get that some people feel like we should be hiring in the US, but you cannot, it's harder, not gonna say cannot, it's harder, it's harder to get because in order for you to make money, when they're doing the work, you do be charging more hourly than what you're paying them hourly. And most people in the US, you're going to be paying anywhere from 15 to $25 an hour. So that's just a decision that you have to make for yourself. And there's people that are in the Philippines too, I have nothing against Philippine I have just just the way it happened. For me, that's just the way it worked out. i It was people I knew there were the first people that I hired. And they just happened to live in Scotland. So that's, that's the way it works. And then the Venezuelan, I look at it this way, the people that I've hired in Venezuela, they're educated, they have degrees, the economy is just so poor, there's no work. So I'm people who are in a bad situation a way to make money. So that's the way I look at it. And I couldn't be happier with with my team. They're phenomenal. So

yeah, oh, that's amazing. That's amazing. And I love what you said about you know, you're you are still able to provide an opportunity for someone else to work. You know, those, those situations vary. And you're you're right, there's a lot of there's a lot of regulations in the US as to how we, how we do that. And, and I think that's so that's an important point. You know, when people think about hiring, for services, and and they hear the price, the thing that you need to take into account, what you're paying for those services isn't that you're paying that one person to do work, you're paying for all the other things, the taxes, the benefits, if they need to hire an employee, there's so much more on the fact that in the US, if you did have those w two employees, you probably need a CPA, you know, all those other people for you. So when a service provider, provide you with those fees, understand that the fees that they are quoting to you has to allow for all these other things. I

would advise getting a CPA anyway. You will Yeah. So I have or at least start with a bookkeeper, bookkeeper to help you know what you can deduct. There's so many deductions that I didn't know about, oh, my gosh, let's and it's gonna save you in the long run. And then and check out with your tax professional, when and if it's a good idea for you to start working as an S corp. So I'm an LLC, but I'm going to be filing as an S corp, because it's gonna save me a whole lot of money on taxes. And, and it's all legal. It's not any. Like, we're not trying to game the system or anything. These are all legal things that you can do as a business owner, like hiring. Like, I have my two nieces that do work for me, and I can put them down as, again, at what's your tax professional. I can have they I can pay them a certain amount per year. And it's deducted, you know, I won't even go into what it does for you, but you and you can hire like your kids, your grandkids between the ages of like, seven and 21 my thing, like you can pay them to clean or whatever. So there's all kinds of things that you can do as a business. So even getting a consultation with a CPA, if you're not ready to hire is probably a good idea and learn less stuff early on and Definitely, no, it doesn't it, it didn't make sense to me when I first started, I didn't open my business checking account and so years since my business, but go ahead and do it it doesn't have to be a business checking account, it can just be a second account where you can track money going from one account to the to the other. And that's going to help you, your bookkeeper in the future is going to thank you, your whoever does your taxes, they're all going to thank you. And you're going to be thankful for doing that as well. So yeah.

Yeah, no, you bring up some really good points, not just, you know, the first being, can you do certain things? Versus should you in your business? So for example, can you do your own taxes? You could? Or should you is that, you know, it kind of gets into that question of Is that a good use of your time as a business owner, as well as something like that, that's constantly changing. And, you know, there's constantly update, just hire professional,

just like somebody's coming to hire me. And back to what you said earlier when you're hiring somebody out. And I've had a few clients like this, and, and it's almost like, because they're hiring what they call a virtual assistant, it's almost like, they don't feel like you're a real business. And they don't tend to treat you that way. Always good to have your guidelines. So and it'll take a while. I know, at first I was like, I would like I would take whoever would hire me just like it makes some money. But then as you get into your business more, I'm more discerning, like, in the back of my mind, when I'm having that initial call, I'm thinking, would I invite this person to a barbecue at my house? Because if we're going to be working with each other for a while, I want to like you, you know, yeah, it's not about just the money, we're going to be working together. And if you're gonna frustrate the hell out of me on a daily basis. No, I don't want to work with you. And people need to understand when that when you're hiring, you're not. You're not paying me hourly. That out of your head, you're not paying me hour, you're paying me for my not. So because if you could do what I could do, you would be doing it. Or you might be in a point in your business where you do know how to do it, you just don't want to do it. And that's fine, too. And it took me a long time. Like I said, when I started out, I wasn't charging. But now I'm confident in my knowledge and my abilities, and I rate is my rate. And if you can't afford it, I'm sorry, get work together. I'm not, I don't do discounts. I don't discount. I know some virtual assistants who will be by more hours, they'll discount the rate. I don't do that either. Because my work is not discounted. So I don't do discounts. And it's to me, it's just fair, like, if you're a coach site, for example, if you're a business coach, you're not going to discount somebody, if they pay for a whole year with you, it's still going to be the why you might be like, some people give too much. But that's, you know, it's you're not changing your hourly rate. You're just Yeah, right. They're paying you for your experience. Right.

Yeah, that's, that's, that's so true. You know, paying not just for the work, but for the expertise. That it, there's just so much more to it. And good for you for you know, holding those those boundaries. I think you said some things that are really important. If you are a service provider of any sort, whether you're a coach a VA, what have you, really recognizing who your ideal clients is, and the kind of clients you're going to want to be excited to wake up every day and serve, it's really gonna make a difference. And then, of course, you know, knowing your your boundaries and being able to just stick to them. That's you've brought up like some phenomenal points as a business owner, you know, because it's always interesting. You know, we, of course, we live in a world where negotiate everything is a negotiation. And so the questions are going to come up and you need to know what the, again, the mindset behind knowing your worth and your value. And being able to hold your boundaries is a really big part.

Part of having your own business. Businesses business.

Oh, man, these are so these you're providing so many good tidbits like just so many nugget, so I'm curious for somebody just starting out so Okay, and I, I'm gonna ask this because I get asked this question for somebody who is just starting out, maybe they're wanting to launch their own VA business and start, you know, obviously, getting clients just for themselves, they're not an agency yet, or what have you, what would be the biggest piece of advice you could provide?

I would say, if it's what you truly want to never give up. What I've always told my daughter raising her is you only need three things in order to get what it is you want in life. And one first thing is to decide what it is you want, like, know what you want, then figure out what you have to do to get it. And then just do it, no matter what, those three steps. Now starting out when a virtual assistant business, like I said earlier, start joining groups like me as a techie VA, so I would join groups like funnels and Infusionsoft. All the technology based Facebook groups, or people are asking questions about how to do things inside the technology. So I would go in there and I would answer this question, find where your clients are, find those Facebook groups that are whatever groups that you can just answer questions so people can see you know what you're talking about, and they will reach out. I never would respond to those posts where people would say, I'm looking for this, this and this, because hundreds of people respond to those. And so I just, and that's just my personal thing you welcome. So that is option you might get lucky. It just never sat well with me. I'm, I don't want to be a face in a sea of faces. So I would rather answer individual questions. And so there's more of a spotlight in that way, as well. And join virtual assistant groups, there's tons of them out there to network, get to know other virtual assistant, where you can ask questions as well. There's plenty of them great helpful. I can't think of a group right now. But the woman who runs it is Susan Marshawn. And she has a fantastic Facebook group for virtual assistant beginners. She has free training, and you can ask questions in there. And so that would be my best advice for someone just starting out. Where to get clients and where to get answers.

I love that. Yeah. And just keep going. You know, it's, I mean, I think everybody's gonna have those thoughts whether whether you're running a business of your own, whether you're working in a job, no matter what those thoughts can come up of, what if I don't know the answer? What if I can't help this person? Right? The The important thing is knowing that you can find the answer. There's support out there. And no matter who it is, none of us know all the answers.

All I'll have people, potential clients come to me and we'll get on a call. And they say, Okay, have you ever worked in this software? If I haven't, I tell them I have thought, but I will tell them, I said no. But I have worked in hundreds of other software's. And if you would like, if you don't mind giving me your login, I'll go take a look. If I don't feel like I can help you, I will tell you right away, and I won't charge you for the time. But if I can help you, then I'll let you know that as well. And then I give him a quote for what it was for me to help. So that's how I deal with it. Because the I don't know everything. But my parents are similar. So at this point, I am not intimidated by any software there. I've only come across one that I absolutely will not work in and that's MailChimp. I hate it. I apps. And I feel like at 50 years old, I'm I'm at the point where I can say, I'm not going to work anything. And the thing that frustrates the hell out of me and that's what matchup that. Oh, no.

I won't do it. There. And honestly, there's so many other platforms like it that are out there. It's not necessarily you know, it's pretty competitive. It's not like that one has something so unique that you don't have a competitor available.

There's so many better options.

Yeah. Oh, man. So I I love that, that you're able to offer that. That service of complete transparency, you know, with clients of hey, no, I maybe don't know this, but here's what I can still do for you. I think. I think just being open and honest and transparent about what you can or can't do is is really the key for anything. Okay, so I do want to dig into my favorite part of the show, which is trying to guess the two truths that a lie. Okay, so remind us again, Angela, what were your two truths and one lie

I worked in a maximum security male prison for over 10 years. I love ziplining. And I've walked on fire and broken glass. Okay?

This is tricky because I feel like two of these are like adventurous, like, that type of person. Okay, I'm going to say, I went, Okay, I'm gonna guess them all. And then you can tell me what I got. Right? I'm going to say that you have walked on fire glass or whatever. And I'm going to say you did work in a prison? And you do not like ziplining? That's correct. What is it really? Oh, my gosh, okay, you How do I not know this about when did you? So you worked in a prison Ha,

for 10 years. I just kind of fell into that too. I actually started at a county jail. And that was my first experience with it. And then as positions in prisons opened up, I, you know, applied and got there. And then eventually I ended up in a federal prison. And they were all maximum security outfit.

Wow. Wow. Oh, man. I bet you got some stories.

You and I will not be sharing those here.

Right. No, I completely get it. I I worked in in law enforcement for many years as well. Now, obviously, I was in the administrative side. But, you know, one of the when I first started, I was very young. I was 19. And so one of the first things that I learned how to do was to transcribe all the all the reports, the detective reports, things like that. And so I already heard a lot there. I eventually made my way to the professional standards unit. And so I always say, tell people, yes, I have stories, but I will have to take them to my grave. So just know that I know things. Yeah.

Kind of hurt them. I thought, yeah.

It really does. Mentally it is. Yeah. Oh, man. I bet we could swap some stories. That is amazing. So tell me so then you walked on fire?

I did. I well, I actually did more than that. I attended a I guess you could call it a retreat. It was it was called masteries. what it's called. And we did various things. team building exercises and, and stuff to build your own. Working on her in herself. And so what we did various things. It did ziplining we did walked on fire. We walked on broken glass. We've bent rebar between two people on our on our chest. And then oh, my gosh, Broken Arrow on our neck. Just all kinds of bending spoons and forks. And so yeah, it was at that time in a sweat lodge. It was an amazing experience.

Wow, Neil, had you already gotten into being having your own business by the time you did this?

Yeah, this was actually just not last year. But the year before? I think. I mean, one in December. So only about a year ago. Matter of fact. Oh my gosh, my arrow behind me. You can almost see that broke. Oh,

my how awesome. Is that?

My rebar. Oh, yeah, it was. It's empowering. Like, really? Yeah. I'm just so grateful.

Wow, oh, my gosh. And you know, so much of that is exactly why when I was when I was coming up with names of podcasts, and I had like a couple of names and in Angelenos because I would share some of them in the in the group. But one of the things that I came when I thought about the shift that we may as we do things like going into business for yourself, and having to really work on your self belief, and all this other self development that goes along with it, that it's so important, and it can completely change your business. So wow, what an opportunity. What an opportunity.

Yeah, that's amazing what you said about working on yourself. So I've been working on myself for over four years. And I attribute that to my success now because certain I feel like you some some mother, me. You get to a certain point in your business. It's almost like you hit plateau, like when you're trying to lose weight, you know, you lose a lot of weight. And then you're like, oh, and then you have to do something a little different. And I think our mindset is what? Because we get these thoughts in our head, and we, and all through our life, when I was raising my daughter, yeah, if anybody's a parent out there, you have those moments, like, Okay, I'm screwing this kid up for life. But you just have preach, you have to just learn to not dwell in those moments, which is a big lesson that I've learned over this past year in 2022, is learning how to recognize I think that's the first step recognize those thoughts. First, because sometimes we get in those thoughts, and we don't even realize that and then when we sit there for an hour and self pity, and like, oh, I can't do this. And so you're not stuck, you're stuck. So yeah, recognizing that and being able to do a little earn on it, and so you can move forward, because if we're just thinking about all the negative all the time, that's, you know, what you focus on expands, so you're thinking always on the negative only see the negative side of thing? That's all you're ever gonna see. It's time to that. doing that. Yeah, stop it, have it. Look at the looking at what's good. Instead of always looking at what's

looking at what's good. I like that. I like that. Well, Angela, you've provided so much insight. It's been such a pleasure. I want to know if anybody out in the audience wanted to connect with you. Maybe they could use your services, or they would just love to connect, how can how could they do that?

They can either go to my website, there's links all over the place. My direct link to my calendar is book A called Pro. You can go there as well, I just call on the calendar.

Awesome. Awesome. That helpful. chick.com. I love it. I love it. And for those of the audience, I know I've already said it a couple times. I'm telling you, Angeles, super helpful. All things tech. So I definitely recommend if you're looking for any tech services, VA tech services, give her a shout. All right, well, it has been an absolute pleasure, I'm going to be sure to share the link to your website and your calendar, and all of that in the show notes. So be sure to look there. If you played along with two truths and a lie with you would comment below with what you thought of it, what your guesses were, I would love to hear. So it's been such an honor Angela, and I really thank you.

Thank you again, it's mine. Maybe I'll come back again, some?