Today we’d like to introduce you to Kayla Crawford.
Hi Kayla, we’d love for you to start by introducing yourself.
I started as an Executive Assistant. I have been an Executive Assistant in many industries, starting in Early Childhood Education and ending in the Health Insurance industry. I always loved supporting and bringing value to my work. My last position as an EA was the one I was most proud of when I was still practicing employment. I started as a Claims Processor while I was earning my Business Degree, and moved to the first Quality Assurance team member. In this position, I was able to create the processes for this role and, therefore, the team. Then, I was promoted to the Quality Assurance Manager in a different department. In this role, I had the opportunity to work closely with the VP of this department, and because I was the manager of the team that helped to regulate all of the other teams, I knew a great deal about the business itself. This is what made me a great contender for the Executive Assistant role. Funny Story, because the VP and I grew closer, and she knew that I loved my position in the QA team, she didn’t think that I would be interested in the role. She happened to call me one day and was asking my opinion on some others when I asked her, ” Have you given any thought to yourself?” She replied with a swift,”No, but that is only because I thought you were married to QA. I was then hired 2 weeks after that conversation into the Executive Assistant role. During my time in this role, I discovered quickly that it was very fast-paced and that my VP had a semi-healthy work-life balance. Poor thing was working, even when she was out of the office. By the end, she felt comfortable with leaving early on some days to attend her daughter’s cheer practices. This is what warmed my heart the most. I wasn’t just helping her, but I was also silently helping my family. It made me feel humble and give kindness in my own way. CVA was born because I had the liberty of meeting my VP’s mentor, who then suggested that I start a business for virtual assisting. Without these 2 wonderful women in my life, CVA would not be here. Now, I have loyal clients that use my services and are scaling their businesses and becoming more successful because of it.
Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way. Looking back would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
It hasn’t always been easy. In the beginning, I only had 2 clients and only made $4000.00 in profit in my first year. (Which is actually great for the first year of a business launching. Most are still in debt at this point in the business. However, I have 2 children, and I was doing it alone and relying on my husband to support us. There is no way that I could have done this without my husband, and we rode these hardship rides together. All in all, my biggest pain point was finding clients. I still struggle with this to this day. Right now, CVA hasn’t lost any clients, but we haven’t signed on any new clients in the past 3 months. This means that we are at a standstill, and we need to rethink our strategy for marketing ourselves. We went ahead and registered as an LLC, started the bank account, and I am now a co-owner with my husband. We are looking to scale our business and promote within as more success happens for us this next year with our new strategy in place. We are going to attend business networking events and virtual business networking meetings.
Great, so let’s talk business. Can you tell our readers more about what you do and what you think sets you apart from others?
CVA is a virtual assisting agency that helps to support businesses, big and small, without having to add to their payroll. Virtual Assistants tend to have a taboo that follows them because it can be difficult to share your business secrets with others. All in all, I have to stress that virtual assistants are on your side. When you scale your business, there are more opportunities for us as virtual assistants. We might only be helping with your social media now, but when those phones start ringing, we can be your customer service team, we can be your data entry and project management overseers, and we can even be the person who does your payroll every 2 weeks. We are not here to put a bug in your business or share secrets. We want your success because when you have success, we have success.
What sets CVA apart from other agencies is 2 major things:
-Prices
-Employment
Our prices are not as high as those of other agencies because we care about scaling your business. We don’t want to see our clients hit a “stand still” if we don’t have to. We want you to constantly be growing without hurting your pockets. Also, most other agencies employ their VA’s un 1099’s. We want to show our clients that we care about our employees and that we keep them happy. This may be more expensive for us, but it is also worth it. Virtual Assistants have a reputation for just coming and going because they are not employed. CVA wants to offer benefits and incentives to our employees, to ensure that our clients are receiving quality over quantity.
Is there anyone you’d like to thank or give credit to?
My biggest supporter and co-owner of my business is my husband, Courtland Chase Crawford. He is a wonderful father and comes home from a hard day at work and immediately starts dinner for the family if I am in a late meeting. He also helps to manage employees, makes big-ticket decisions, and does his part in supporting our family and CVA financially until it is up and running fully on its own.
My other supporters are my employees and mentors. I mentioned my mentors in a previous question already, and they both were my very first paying clients. I want to also highlight my own Executive Assistant, Emily Jackson. She has become part of the engine that helps CVA to run each day. She interacts with clients and employees, and ensures that I attend my meetings on time while also making sure that I have had enough water each day. She is a big part of CVA, and we appreciate all that she does.
My third supporters are my current clients. My clients understand that we are not computers and that we are people. As a virtual assistant, we can make mistakes. It is important that we uphold strong communication between the virtual assistant and the client. My virtual assistants create relationships with their clients and truly embody the word “Partnership.” My clients do not view their VA as an employee but more like a partner and an asset to their business. We have some of the best clients and are looking to add more industries and like-minded entrepreneurs to our wheelhouse.
So far, we are in the following industries: Financial/Retirement, Private Sector, supporting veterans, Holistic wellness, and pharmaceutical business operations support, professional coaching, realty, and more.
Pricing:
- $30/hour for 15 hours or more/month
- $38/hour for 6-14 hours/month
- $45/hour for 3-5 hours/month
- Custom Hourly Packaging per meeting results
- Project Pricing for 1 and done jobs
Contact Info:
- Website: https://crawva.com/home
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/kjack9279?igsh=ZHBlcTJ3dHdwamNq
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=61551212878789
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/crawford-virtual-assisting/?viewAsMember=true
- Other: https://www.tiktok.com/@crawfordvirtualassisting?_r=1&_t=ZP-92dIqhnmC35
Image Credits
I took these photos with a make-shift studio with my assistant, Emily Jackson.
