Virtual Assistant – THE Blog About Our Industry

About the Virtual Assistant industry for VAs and for clients

Monthly Archives: April 2008

OIVAC Countdown is on!

Those who have been in the Virtual Assistant industry for sometime will be aware of our annual Online International Virtual Assistants Convention run in May each year.

This event runs for 3 days and is entirely online and virtual. We have over 30 speakers from around 7 countries speaking on all sorts of topics and whilst the convention is aimed at Virtual Assistants, anyone who is running a business, particularly online, would be welcome to attend any or all of the sessions which have been kept low cost.

One of the highlights is International Virtual Assistants Day and we have an awards ceremony and a keynote speaker. This year the speaker is one of my own clients and I’m thrilled Paddy Spruce has agreed to join us for this special event.

We have a tireless committee of around 10 core people who work around the year planning this convention. As soon as one is completed we turn our thoughts to the following year. And each year we seek volunteers to help with the behind the scene stuff so we can make sure things run as smoothly as possible.

If you haven’t already planned to attend, put these dates in your diary now!  15-17 May US, or 16-18 May for the southern hemisphere.  Make sure you drop by my booth and say hi at the exhibition too!

If my Virtual Assistant happens to quit…

I’ve noticed a very disturbing trend on the web lately via various blog posts about the Virtual Assistant industry. It seems there are many business owners out there in fear of losing their VAs because they might up and quit or something else might happen. It seems that many look at having a VA for the short-term only. Why is this?

Virtual Assistants are not employees but many are talking about their VAs as though that’s what they are and yet, on the other hand they talk about short-term use.

It is REALLY important that people understand VAs are NOT employees. They are self-employed and are business owners. For the most part, the majority come from the corporate world with previous admin or secretarial experience, although many others have joined the industry now bringing their experience from a number of other industry backgrounds such as bookkeeping, desktop publishing, even accounting.

Working relationships for VAs should be considered a long-term thing, just as you would plan to have a Personal Assistant, however. VAs are not employees, but they are there for the long haul.

I have clients who have been with me well over 5 years and my longest-term for over 11 years. We’ve spent time getting to know each other’s businesses – they having learnt my capabilities, and me having learnt what their needs are. We discuss what needs to be done and explore how I can help them even further. I’ve become the backbone of their businesses (just as any admin support would be) and am very aware of how much I am needed. I need them just as much – after all without my clients, I wouldn’t have a business!

Looking for a VA is not about submitting a project for bids each time you have something you want done. It’s about getting support that can work alongside you and help support you in your business.

When seeking a VA make sure you look in the right places – amongst the industry based networks where the VAs get the support and training that’s needed for the industry. And you can be sure that there will also be back up support available through that network should your VA need some time off, or becomes unavailable for some reason. Things do change, VAs do move on, just as PAs do, but that doesn’t mean they should be considered as a once-off for an odd job here and there.  VAs are there for the long haul.

Message for my subscribers

Every blogger loves to have readers and subscribers and I really do appreciate you all. But please, if you subscribe, do not do it with an address that has to have an autoresponder attached to it. By that I mean, consider having a separate address for subscriptions to blogs, newsletters, listservs and forums, and so on and keep your main address for your business.

I get heaps of autoresponders every single day to say that Jane, or John, have received my latest post, or that they’ve received the latest comment that someone has left. It increases the amount of unneccessary email received on a daily basis.

Likewise for the discussion forums I own and moderate and periodically read receipts too, from a listserv member who has switched it on for some important email, not realising it’s responding to all emails.

If you are planning to go away on leave for awhile and your email is not going to be monitored, consider updating your subscriptions to things by switching off notifications and/or going nomail – whatever option is available to you.

Thank you.

Is your website written for an international audience?

A recent discussion at a LinkedIn forum I belong to highlighted the use of country codes when listing phone numbers in emails and on business websites. It was an interesting discussion and what was brought to light was the fact that many people in the US (at least on this forum of 8,000+ people) just hadn’t realised that people outside of their country would need a code to dial their number.

I found that an insight in itself. I am always having to call the US to participate in telesminars, or call someone back, or participate in a radio interview or something and I know their country code but for those new to having to do this, they wouldn’t know what that code is.

My website has always included my country code for phone and fax, as does my business card. After all I meet people from all around the world at different times and I know I have visitors from many countries to my website too. Why wouldn’t I want to make it easy for them to call me if they wanted to?

A few weeks ago I received a phone call in the early hours from an overseas caller. They left a message on my voice mail but unfortunately their accent made it difficult to understand the number they were giving or the country they were calling from, and they did not leave their country code either, so I was unable to call them back. The caller probably thinks I was rude and disinterested. They haven’t followed up. An email from them would have been good.

That morning I decided to make a couple of changes at my end. My voice mail message now includes my timezone of GMT+10 so that callers from outside of my country might realise why I’m not in my office at that time.

I’ve added a date and timestamp to my website so that visitors can see what time it is right now where I am.

I’ve added Melbourne and Victoria in full for those who need to have a good idea of where I am. Listing my own suburb, and an abbreviated form of my state won’t help those who aren’t in the know.

So, here is my check list for Virtual Assistant businesses who wish to attract international clients. If you are operating internationally it’s reasonable to expect you might receive a phone call from overseas now and then.

  1. On phone and fax numbers include your country code.
  2. Include your state in full with postcode/zipcode.
  3. If running an event that requires attendees to dial in or login at a particular time, don’t just put a timezone abbreviation such as EST but include your nearest major city and state. If possible add a link to a meeting planner to assist visitors in working out the time differences.
  4. Consider adding a timestamp as I have done.

Put yourself in your visitor’s shoes and think about just how much ‘local’ knowledge they might have if they live outside your country. And then adjust your website or web page to accommodate them. Don’t leave them guessing and moving onto the next VA’s website.

A Client Surprise

Some people have ‘wordless Wednesdays’ on their blogs and just post a photo. Well, I have a photo to post and it’s Tuesday and I won’t be wordless about it either. I want you to drink in this beautiful sight.

The doorbell rang and I thought it was a client who was overdue and I called out ‘I’ll be there in a minute.’ When I got there, no-one was at the door but looking down there was a beautiful arrangement of flowers. My immediate thought was my husband – I’d been getting over some dental surgery and had been experiencing a fair bit of pain over the past 2 weeks. Then I looked back down after I grabbed the flowers and found a box of chocolates too – soft ones so I can have them now!

When I opened the card, instead of being from my husband like I thought, it was from a long-term client of mine expressing how much she appreciated all I do for her. I had to ring her and thank her straight away – she hadn’t known how much I’d been ‘suffering’ so it made her surprise even more special. It’s moments like these that make you really appreciate your clients too!