Watch another inspiring #JasSuccess interview with a VA Bootcamp graduate, Bernice Tagle.

Bernice is a wife, mom, entrepreneur, employee and a freelancer. Before she discovered freelancing, she was a full-time employee doing administrative work and sales. After giving birth to her first child, she became a stay-at-home mom.

Watch this interview as Bernice talks about;

✅ Why she decided to return to the corporate world,
✅ How she balances wanting to stay at home with a full-time job
✅ How she was pulled towards freelance writing as her niche

And much more inspiring revelations.

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Notable Quotes:

• Nag-enroll ako sa course. Sabi ko kaya ko namang pag-aralan ito ng mag-isa eh. Ba’t pa ko nag-enroll dito? But then I realized, you can study it on your own pero matatagalan ka and there are little details na you would really miss eh, so why not learn from somebody who is willing to share what he knows and yung mga details— you know the little things and the support group is there. So I’m really glad you know the support group is existent and Jason then was very patient answering my questions so I started as a VA.
• I tried to find a client everyday but medyo siguro it’s just a matter of timing. I don’t want the viewers to think that wala talagang mahanap. No, sabi ko it has to be an everyday thing. It’s a little effort but if you do it in a consistent basis it will pay off so yun ginawa ko yung hustle challenge.
•  Don’t pressure yourself kase una sa lahat iba-iba yung skills, iba-iba. It has a lot do of course with skills and how much time you are willing to dedicate to learning VA and second, it’s also client. Client din kumbaga parang maybe it’s luck, maybe nagkataon lang din but sometimes it’s a matter of client eh.
• The only thing that you can do is be prepared. There’s always opportunity but sometimes you’re not ready to grab it. So sa akin, build on your skill so when the right opportunity comes, when that right client comes then grab it, ikaw ang pipiliin.
• Comparison is the thief of joy.
• Please don’t get discouraged. I know it can sometimes get overwhelming lalo na pag hindi ka natatanggap and you know deep inside that you’re good. So ano lang just keep your engine well-oiled.
•  Don’t give up. This is constant learning. You won’t get to a point na “okay na ako. I could just continue and not learn anything”, NO! Even the professionals or yung mas matagal sa amin dito, even the ones who have started way before. Sino ba yun? Si John Pagulayan sabi niya di ba talagang “it’s a perpetual learning. You are a perpetual student”.
• Learn from your mistakes. Be humble enough to learn from our mistakes kase it’s a way for us to improve. Minsan ang daming nadidiscourage because napagalitan or nawalan ng client or what. Always think what can I learn from this. There must be good that should come out of this and that’s your learning experience.

Bernice Tagle’s Journey to Freelancing

• She is a VA boot-camp graduate.
• She finished a business course.
• She married at the age of 38 and late to have a child.
• Between graduation and getting married, she only knew the corporate life.
• She started as an Administrative Assistant.
• She opened a baking business as a sideline selling mostly every Saturday at a Weekend Market.
• She also worked as a Sales and Marketing Manager for a spa where she even learned to do facial and massage.
• She joined running their family business, which is into giveaways.
• She then gave birth and took maternity leave.
• When she returned to work after her maternity leave, she found out that the dynamics in her office have changed and that she doesn’t have any work to do and so she went back to being a stay-at-home mom.
• It took her a while to adjust and got depressed as she missed the stress, the challenge, and the income from corporate work.
• She then started thinking of what she can do just being at home, and by what she calls serendipity — she saw Jason’s link about working from home.
• She thought of Jason’s link as a scam and did her research first, then decided to enroll and was glad that she did, she is now into Freelancing as a Virtual Assistant.
• A few years back, she was already a VA for an Australian client but decided to stop because she felt more drawn with corporate work.
• She knew nothing before about being a VA just the idea that her work will be whatever she can do in the computer.
• After she enrolled in the Work-from-home course, she had clients from Australia, UK and from all other timezone she can think of.
• She experienced health issues working on a different timezone.
• Because of her health issues, she came up focusing on writing as her niche and work for writing clients, which gives her more freedom.
• As a writer, she wasn’t comfortable with not having a consistent payout and so when the opportunity presented itself she got back to a corporate job full-time and still doing freelancing.

Q & A HIGHLIGHTS

Can I do Freelancing while having a full-time job?

 The short answer is “YES”. I still do a desk job eh so kayang pagsabayin but this are what you have to look for:

• What kind of clients and what kind of jobs can you take?

- Definitely, not VA unless hindi ka talaga natutulog o may lahi kang bampira. Pwede naman parang, “I don’t sleep”. Okay. Fine. You can do that pero ako I need to sleep. So the kind of jobs that I would take are yung per project not per hour so since mabilis naman ako magsulat especially if you’re in the mood kase writing mood-mood din yan eh. I could finish a job in maybe an hour or two-three hours and then I’d submit. So yun, that’s the reason why napapagsabay ko.

• You might be asking “eh flexitime ka naman din eh”.

- So depende. Oo, flexitime in a way but then some of my clients kasi are Call Centers. I’d sell to call centers. So ang lunch break nila is usually 8-9PM ng gabi or I’d have to meet their bosses late into the evening or early in the morning so flexi siya but then you have to be flexible enough to meet these clients. Ako din ang mag-a-adjust so in a way diba, flexitime may advantages may disadvantages. So that’s the answer to our title, yes kaya mong pagsabayin as long as it depends what type of job you will get and second, of course you have to be strict with your routine and your schedule. You have to have an hawk’s eye on the things that you do.

I don’t have any idea about working from home, how do I start?

Una sa lahat Donna, dito sa community natin you’ll find similarly situated moms who are able to successfully transition to a full-time freelancing job. But first of all, they would tell you, “huwag ka munang mag-resign and totally shift to freelancing”. There’s always the security of a paycheck.

Try mo muna and how do you do that? How do you get into it? Jason has free Webinars so I invite you to watch them first and see if it’s for you because freelancing is not for everyone. See muna ano ba ginagawa ng freelancer? What kinds of job do they take? Can I do it? Do I have the skill-set? You mentioned that you’re a Call Center Agent I’m really confident that you have it. I don’t know do you do outbound skills or inbound outbound calls. I’m sure you have impeccable English. That alone will open doors for you.

The first step is please take the courses, the free courses and after that if you feel more comfortable and you have saved enough then you take the paid courses. I really highly recommend it.

I enrolled in the courses and done with a few modules but I don’t know what will be my niche? I’m still on the stage of studying. I’m confused and don’t have the guts to do VA.

I understand how you feel kasi ganyan din ako na “Oh my goodness” ang dami. But, you know what? the courses here sa Work-from-home is to give you a bird’s eye-view of everything. Kumbaga parang general course siya, because let’s say ang magiging expertise mo talaga is let’s say Data Entry.

But as a VA, it would also be nice to know about Social Media Management... you never know eh. So now if you’re overwhelmed, I suggest just pick one. Choose one, let’s say Social media management. It’s okay. Yung confidence mo “parang natatakot ako” it’s alright lahat tayo, kahit ako kinakabahan din ako. Get one okay or diba meron din from time to time may nag-o-offer ng training. Take advantage of the training. It’s not paid but you will get ano so take that kung magkamistake ka man it will be a learning experience for you.

Do you need to revise your resume according to the job you applied?

 Ako kasi nung una kaya nahirapan akong kumuha ng client, ang nangyari sa akin is kalat yung resume ko. I get what you mean. Feeling ko kunwari kaya kong magluto, kaya kong maglaba, kaya kong magyaya, kaya kong mag ganito pero all-around ako. Gusto kong mamlantsa something like that di ba? Parang yung you want to niche but you also want to tell your client that I can also do these other things so what I do is i-a-akyat ko lang dun sa top yung gusto kong mapansin.

Magaling akong writer. Second, I can do bookkeeping. Ibababa ko siya dun sa resume ko so para makita nung client na okay, I’m hiring Bernice for writing but she can do bookkeeping too so maybe I can also hire her for that. It’s something like that.

I don’t want you to totally take it out of your profile or resume but put it in the lower portion para yung gusto mong mapansin nandun sa top and also they wouldn’t think that you’re a jack of all trades, master of none.

Where to get constant inspiration and motivation to continue freelancing despite lot of setbacks?

 The first time I applied for a writing job talagang kinabahan din po ako but no guts, no glory. Just get that first client to increase your confidence, to get that confidence, to get you into the groove and once you have that first job tuloy tuloy na yan.

Can I make Bookkeeping and Ecommerce as my niche?

Yeah. Why not? Magandang combination di ba? Gora!

I just enrolled but still not finished the courses because I’m having difficulty managing my time. Any advise?

Just keep going. Di ba merong adage na “if you can’t run, walk. If you can’t walk, crawl. If you can’t crawl, at least wiggle”. Yung unti-unti na yun will go a long way kasi mahirap talaga sa totoo lang which is the misconception of freelancing and VA na it’s an easy job. You’re just at home. We can do anything we want but it’s not, it’s a real job. It’s not easy. Lahat tayo may challenges but just keep at it. Just keep at it.

About writing samples, how many words minimum should I make?

 Depende. Kasi depende sa client sometimes they will give you an assignment, an audition, kumbaga write about this 200 words, can you give it to me by tomorrow, so depende what the client wants.

I got a risky kind of Data Entry job, should I accept it?

Where did you get that client? Careful lang po ha. If Upwork, sige lang go. Tsaka magandang gawin is to check client history and feedback. Aside from that, bago ka magstart nung job dapat may contract and then bago mo i-accept yung contract, clear ka sa lahat kung paano mo gagawin yung task mo.