This is part of a series called "One Entrepreneur's Journey," where I'm talking with solo entrepreneurs about their successes (and failures) along the path of entrepreneurship.

In this interview, I spoke with Pam Ivey, a key leader in the virtual assistant industry.  Her primary directive is to increase awareness of the industry among business leaders and influencers in North America and around the world. 

She has trained and mentored hundreds of VAs and is the owner of the Canadian Virtual Assistant Network (CVAN), co-founder of the REVA (Real Estate Virtual Assistant) Institute and CASPAA (Coaches, Authors, Speakers Professional Assistants Association), and founder of the VA Resource Exchange. 

She's also the principal of My Creative Assistant (MCA), a multi-VA firm that partners with Internet marketers, coaches, authors, speakers, and real estate professionals, and she's co-author of The Business of Being Virtual: Industry Leaders Reveal Their Virtual Assistant Business Secrets.

What made you want to become an entrepreneur?

I'm pretty sure I was born with the entrepreneur gene.  My father was a carpenter and acoustic specialist, and ever since I can remember, he's had his own business.  I remember one day going to work with him when I was six or seven, and he took me to a driving range, and I thought, "Man, this is what I want to do when I grow up!"  It was a lot of fun.

I've always been surrounded by entrepreneurs.  My sister is an interior designer and has her own business.  A lot of my friends have their own businesses, so it's kind of a natural for me.

I don't do well with a boss, because I hate to be micro-managed.  I'm a real free-thinker and very self-motivated, so I don't need that boss in front of me.  I started off mainstream.  I worked in offices and moved very quickly up to senior management as marketing director and office manager and those types of positions, and I was just getting tired of all my ideas being squashed, because they were a little more risky or not very traditional.

I found this program called SE in Canada, and it's the self-employed assistance program, and they let me go back to school, and they paid me.  I became certified in small business management, and I opened my own faux finishing and painting business, but unfortunately, the paints we had to use back then were all alkyd- or oil-based paint, and I was allergic to them, so after a couple of years, I had to sell the business.

I went back to work for "Corporate America" and hated it, met my future husband, and his family had a business.  I slid into that business as an operations manager, pretty much as my own boss.  That marriage broke down, and I went on my own.  I was a web designer and graphic designer, and I stumbled across this term "virtual assistance," and I thought, "I can do that!  That's me!  That's exactly what I'm doing."  That was in February 2001, and I've been doing that ever since.

What do you think has been the one thing that you've gotten right as a solo entrepreneur?

Well, I think it's a struggle as well as a success, but I have what I call "Shiny Object Syndrome" or "SOS."  They call me a serial entrepreneur, but it's true.  That has been a hindrance, but I'm learning how to deal with it to make it an asset.  I always had this problem with never being able to focus on one thing.  I'd get really bored very quickly, but now with a multi-VA team, it's allowed me the time to pursue all these ideas that I get.

What's your strategy for overcoming "SOS," as you call it?

I'm finally getting it out of my head and onto paper.  I always used to have things swimming around in my head.  I'm putting down all the major projects I want to work on, and then I prioritize them.  I'm trying to focus on three main projects at a time, and it's incredible how much that has helped me to focus.  I have a huge whiteboard, and I have the three main things I'm working on and all the stuff I have to do underneath them, and I try to do at least one thing per major project per day.  It's amazing how that simple exercise has helped me.

What's one thing you wish you would have known before starting your business?

This is so easy, finding my niche market, narrowing down to very specific people.  When I first started my business, I used to say that I would sell my service to anyone with a heartbeat and a wallet, and I'll tell you, that wasn't very successful.  Once I discovered a niche, actually the real estate niche as a virtual assistant, my business absolutely skyrocketed, because I honed my message, I learned the lingo and how to speak to those people, and I got in front of them.  It helped me tremendously to really identify my ideal clients.

We always evolve.  You don't have to stick with one thing.  I do a lot of mentoring with new VAs, and I really urge them to find out what their passions are - what their hobbies are, their interests, what really gives them steam - and focus on that market.  As the saying goes, work on something that you love, and you'll never work a day in your life.

What do you think are your greatest strengths and weaknesses at this point?

Well, we talked about my ADD, and that's definitely one of my weaknesses, but I'm learning how to turn that into more of a strength.  The strategy, the way I think, is a real strength for me, because I can come up with those ideas, but I can also come up with a good project and implementation matrix to make it happen.  Thinking through all the steps, kind of looking at it from 3,000 miles up and seeing the big picture to see all the little pieces that have to go into it, I think, is one of my biggest strengths.

You obviously believe in the power of outsourcing and concentrating on your core tasks.

Absolutely.  It took me a while to get there, but it's one of the best things that I did for my business.  My VAs have afforded me that time to really concentrate on what I love to do, and things like bookkeeping and things that I hate, somebody else does that for me.

How important are systems to your business?

I never really thought about systems, honestly, before.  I had to do them when I was in Corporate America, and I hated them, but owning a multi-VA business in particular, it's critical for me to have systems so that if a new team member jumps on my team, I can hand them process documentation, and they get it right away.  I don't have to spend hours training.  Also, I create a lot of different products, and if I didn't have a system, I'd be creating the wheel every time.  Systems are so important to save us time and sanity.  I just go, "Okay, I have this created.  Now, I have to this to promote it, and this is next."  I check them all of the list, and I don't have to think about it.  I just do.

Each time I do something new, the Systems Chick has taught me, I actually do screenshots and everything else so that I have a complete process document so that my 19-year-old son, who has no interest in any of it, could pick it up and do.

What's your best advice for new solo entrepreneurs?

As I mentioned before, definitely do something that you love, have systems and processes, and keep your books up-to-date.  I can't stress that enough.  I went a whole year without doing any bookkeeping one year, and it was a nightmare to get caught up.  Even if you're not doing them yourself, get somebody else to do them.