What is the future of working in online business?

How does the word LIMITLESS relate to online business and online work?

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I want to share my thinking in naming my business Limitless Business Online because, one, I think it's valuable for you to know the history of who you're listening to:

• where did they come from?

• Why should I listen to this person? (at least that's what I always want to know when I'm coming across new online mentors)

• and because I also think that this will be an encouraging episode if you're an online business owner or considering coming into the online business world as a virtual assistant.

Why do we go to work? I wrote down a few ideas and thoughts: 

1. We go to work because God told us to in the Bible.

Genesis 2:15 says the Lord God took the man and put him in the Garden of Eden to work it and take care of it.

God tells us to work. We are created to be workers and to to do good work for the glory of God and the good of others.

2. Because we need money

That is how the world works. You work, you earn money, and you buy things you need. It's just a continuing cycle called economics.

3. We enjoy working.

I love to work. it's hard to stop working sometimes because I do love the work that I do. We enjoy working, especially if it's something that you love to do.

4. We want to meet new people and have relationships with other people.

We are created beings with a need for relationships. So I think we work to meet people.

5. We want to work so that we can learn and grow, learn new things, learn new skills. and we want to work to pursue something that we enjoy.

Hopefully your work is something that allows you to pursue something you enjoy, supporting someone or the work, the business's mission or vision. In some way you find joy in the work that you're doing.

So those are some thoughts I had about why we work. But let me ask this...

Are there any guarantees in a job?

Not really.

Even in fields like nursing or medicine where there's always going to be people who need medical care and medical help, there can always be cutbacks. To me those are probably the most stable jobs and industry but there can always be cutbacks. And there's no guarantee in a job.

As you know, in 2020, Covid came along and started shutting businesses down. That was a real eye opener for pretty much all of us, that there are no guarantees that business will continue.

When businesses started getting shut down about 3 or 4 weeks into it, my husband actually got laid off from his job. He had been there 19 years and got laid off from this company, with really just 3 or 4 weeks into Covid. I think the company got scared and just started making cutbacks before things got really worse. It was a total shock to us!

When we look back now, we see it was a blessing in disguise, but at that moment, we both truly realized that there's never a guarantee in a job when you work for someone else.

I named named my business Limitless Business Online for a few reasons...

The word limitless describes online business.

Some of the first questions I get asked by people considering virtual assistant work is "are there really VA jobs out there?" Can you really work as a virtual assistant and make decent money? Is there a guarantee to find work?

What I really think they're asking when they say "are there really VA jobs out there?" is "can you guarantee I'll find online work and is online work with location, freedom, time flexibility and income potential really possible?" I think there's some fear when they're asking these questions.

Yes, I believe when you work online, you will always be able to find work and customers if you have an online business! 

Yes, there are VA jobs and there are customers for online business owners.

Certainly it's becoming a little bit more competitive because more and more people are discovering online work. But aren't all job markets competitive? For those people who are looking for jobs it is competitive! My son has been looking for a job and it's competitive everywhere.

You can set yourself apart and make sure you stand out with experience and training. If you're a virtual assistant, having some training and experience can really make all the difference. As an online business owner, there's a lot of other ways to set yourself apart. But let me give you some statistics to encourage you. because yes, it's a competitive market (all markets are competitive), but here are some stats about online business:

By 2026, in just 2 years, 4.78 billion in revenue is expected to be generated by online courses - JUST in the online business space with online courses - $4.78 billion!

If you have an online business that is awesome news! If you generate just one little tiny sliver of 4.78 billion is probably enough to help you earn a good living.

If you support online business owners, this is good news too! Those online businesses are going to keep growing. They're going to need online support. It's good news for all of us.

There's statistical research organization called Ibisworld and they produced a stat in August 2023 that shows the total percentage of online business since 2002. It showed year over year steady growth, a steady climb, every year. That may not be a huge revelation. We all have smartphones, we all shop online. We probably do more Christmas shopping online than we ever did in the past. What I found interesting though was that the pace of growth seems to be increasing!

They say at Ibisworld that the percentage of business conducted online is forecasted to grow 4% from 2019 through 2024. They looked at a five year span, and it's expected to grow 4% over all those five years, reaching 28.8% of all business activity in 2024.  They're saying in 2024 almost 30% of all business activity is expected to be online. That's pretty exciting!

Another organization called Statista.com support that statistic. They say that by 2030, just a few years down the road, online revenue could be as high as 6.2 trillion after a growth of 30% over 2022!

Whether or not these statistics and expected numbers are accurate, billions for online courses, trillions in online revenue, the point is that online business is growing and it's still expected to soar, even though there was a little bit of a slow down after 2020! It is on the rise again and I'm excited about that!

There are limitless possibilities for virtual assistants to find their online work especially if you choose to dive deep into an area of expertise.

That's one way to really set yourself apart in finding virtual assistant work is to kind of niche or narrow in on an area of expertise and support online business owners. You can choose to dive deep into a certain skill or competency to increase your value and likelihood of landing the online business jobs that are out there. That provides a little more job security.

With that expected steady growth of online business, online business owners should be excited too about the little bit of job security.

To answer the question about about jobs for VAs. Yes, there really are VA jobs out there with online business people who need exceptional virtual assistants! Some of the places where I have found online business jobs over the years are VA agencies, Indeed, LinkedIn, and specific Facebook groups for online workers.

Another reason why online business is limitless is that there are no physical boundaries like there are for a brick and mortar business. In a brick and mortar business, you're bound by walls and the local community mostly. Sure, you can sell stuff online, but you have to physically be in that space some or all of the time. You probably advertise locally because you need people to come into your actual store. You're a little more limited as to who you can reach or when and where you can work.

I'm not saying there's anything wrong with brick and mortar stores. It's just a little bit more limited in the business potential.

If you have a service based business, like running a yoga studio, offering exercise classes, or even counseling services, you're really bound to the walls and the location of your service. If you work in an office, maybe you are a support person in an office setting, you're usually bound to the work in that space unless your employer allows hybrid or work from home options. And those jobs are even higher in demand because more people want to work online! Everybody discovered how awesome the flexibility of online work is during 2020!

When you work for yourself with an online business or as a virtual assistant for an online business, you aren't bound to a location. You aren't bound to even their time schedule. You have time flexibility to work when you want, and you can work around the life you have or want to create instead of trying to fit your life in around work.

🔹Online business is limitless in location.

🔹It's limitless in the people you can reach and serve.

🔹And online business is limitless in income potential.

➡️Online business is just going to keep growing, growing and growing!

If you want to get in the game, maybe you want to start as a virtual assistant. If you're already building and growing an online business, keep going! This is just encouragement for you to keep going. The sky's the limit. Or should I say really limitless?

I hope this episode encourages you in the pursuit or consideration of online business, and I hope it helps you get to know me a little bit more and why I call my business limitless.

I'm here to help people who want to work in a unique way, working online, so that the pursuit of their current life's passions like parenting, caring for elderly parents, traveling, mission work, or even finishing college. I help people who want to work online pursue their current life's passions, and those pursuits are limitless, too. There's no limit to pursuing your passion when you can work online.

If you are curious about virtual assistant work and how to get started, your first step would be to take The VA potential quiz to see if it's a right fit for you. That quiz helps you to understand a little bit more of what VA's do, what you have to know, and see if you have the skills to pursue it. Take The VA potential Quiz to find out more.

Lastly, if you are a business owner and you are in need of systems, operations, or strategy support for marketing or growth, you can schedule a free 15 minute discovery call to share what you're in need of, what you're looking for, and see if we are a good fit.