Meet Anne Hill of Hilltop Virtual Solutions

Today we’d like to introduce you to Anne Hill.

Anne, can you briefly walk us through your story – how you started and how you got to where you are today.
My background was as a rehab manager/physical therapist in a skilled nursing facility. I had done that for about eleven years. After having children, I found myself getting burnt out with what I was doing, but also felt stuck in the career that I was in. I didn’t really know of other opportunities outside of the therapy world and health care industry. I started doing searches after work for other options for jobs- looking at remote/work from home options. I wasn’t exactly sure what I was looking for but wanted to see if there was anything out there that I might enjoy and be able to carry over the skills that I had learned throughout my career as a therapist, as well as in management. I came across a program called The Free Mama Movement, where I was introduced to the idea and concept of being a virtual assistant. The business coach that created the program, Lauren Golden, talked about how she wanted women to know that they don’t have to choose between work and family. It doesn’t have to always be a one or the other option, but that women can do both an be successful at both.

After discussion with my husband, I decided to sign up for her course and work through her program. It truly was eye-opening as to the options available to help and assist business owners! The program walked me through not only what a virtual assistant does and can do, but also what it means to be a business owner. Her course emphasized what is needed when first starting a business vs what is not as much of a priority. After completing the course though, I didn’t just automatically have clients. I had to figure out how to talk to people as a business owner, how to network, and truly how to sell my services that I had to offer. I was working on all of this while still working a full-time job. I was not in a position to quit my full-time corporate job until we had enough of an income to still cover our primary expenses. There were many late nights, early mornings, and weekends that were spent networking. Once I started working with clients, that client work was happening during those same hours: late nights, early mornings, and weekends.

As my client caseload grew, I got to a point where I was not able to continue growing my business and working in the corporate job full time. In January of 2020, I left my corporate job and have been focusing solely on building my business since then. I have had the opportunity since starting this business to do a lot of tasks in a variety of areas and industries. Through that, I have learned what I like, what I don’t like, and what I’m good at. I have learned about systems and applications that I never knew existed, and have loved learning and expanding my skillset! As I have evolved and transitioned, I have moved from more of the virtual assistant role into an Online Business Manager. I have also been able to take the valuable skills that my corporate management roles provided me with creating systems/processes, implementing workflows, analyzing KPIs and help small business owners implement similar processes to grow and scale their business while still having freedom and control over their own time.

Great, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
I definitely wouldn’t classify it as a smooth ride! There have been struggles along the way! Initially, the biggest struggle was getting over the mindset and fear of not knowing what I was doing. I had a lot to offer a client but didn’t feel confident in my skills as a VA yet. I would get stuck feeling like I needed to learn more, or needed to know about every single available platform that exists prior to talking with clients. Having the right mindset, or at least figuring out what you need to do to work on getting the right mindset, will make or break your success. The quote from Henry Ford that my business coach constantly tells us is “whether you think you can, or you think you can’t- you’re right!”

Another struggle was learning what I like vs what I don’t like. There are so many aspects behind the scenes in business that owners can outsource! I quickly learned with my first client that social media management was not an area that I wanted to focus in! Through the many experiences that I had over the two years though, it became clear to me that I enjoy management and love having that understanding and awareness of the big picture. I enjoy partnering with business owners and helping them move toward a specific goal. When I see a large “to do” list, I want to jump in and get to work! When I am hearing about how the business works, I’m thinking through the process and how to standardize it for other staff members to be able to repeat it.

I think one of the biggest struggles was when the pandemic hit earlier this year and I went from just starting to get in a flow of being home and doing all that I needed to with my own business, to having the kids home constantly and not knowing when or how it would end. I have had to adapt and be flexible with my schedule more over the past 5 months than probably any other time in my life. In some ways, it has been a great reminder that stressing out over things that I have absolutely no control over won’t help me, my family, or my business move in the right direction. But focusing my time and energy in what I do have control over is what I need to do to keep moving forward.

Hilltop Virtual Solutions – what should we know? What do you guys do best? What sets you apart from the competition?
Hilltop Virtual Solutions partners with overwhelmed small business owners to help them get more freedom and control of their time again by managing all the moving pieces in the back end of the business. We help the business owner be the visionary in their business again. We are able to bridge the gap between the vision of the business owner and the execution needed to get there. We have a uniqe process that we take each client through to analyze systems and help implement any processes that need to be adapted and/or created.

What moment in your career do you look back most fondly on?
I don’t know if I would say there is one specific moment that I am most proud of so far. I think that becoming a business owner has provided me an opportunity to grow as a person in ways that I never would have imagined. It has shown me the importance of the right mindset and provided me with an awareness that I didn’t have before. I know that I can figure anything out and that I am uniquely qualified to help my clients. Where the growth and mindset is probably most evident is when I quit my corporate job. I knew that the time would come where I would not be where I wanted to be overall with revenue, but my time would be capped. When I hit that point, I had to trust myself and take that leap of faith that I can and will figure it out! I am so thankful that I did take that leap of faith!

Contact Info:

• Address: Parker, CO
• Website: www.hilltopvirtualsolutions.com
• Email: anne@hilltopvirtualsolutions.com
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/anne.anthonyhill/
• Other: calendly.com/hilltopchat

Image Credit:
Preston’s Moments Photography, by Cheryl Preston

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