Virtual Assistant – THE Blog About Our Industry

About the Virtual Assistant industry for VAs and for clients

Monthly Archives: August 2010

You can’t build it 100% online

I know I’m going to get people arguing with me on this one but hear me out.

If you’re running a Virtual Assistant business then you are servicing clients who need your help.  Those clients come from all walks of life and not all of them live on the internet as many VAs do (me included).

So, to get in front of them we have to go out and meet them. That means doing face-to-face networking and meeting people in person.

Yes, we have the avenues of the internet, Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, industry based forums, hobby based forums and all sorts of other discussion groups.  Yes, we have online advertising, ezines, newsletters, articles, blogs and so on. And yes there are a multitude of millions of people online.  And along with that you also have a multitude of millions of other sites to compete with, other people networking also.

But… what about your neighbour and the person across the road? What about the business owner down the street or around the corner? What about the local business person who attends business networking events and never even heard of a Virtual Assistant let alone know what one is? What about that business operator who cannot type over 10 wpm or doesn’t understand how different software programs work, let alone know how to use the internet?  Aren’t they missing out on knowing about how you can help them?  And you have a much smaller number of people to compete with and sometimes not even one. The odds for getting new clients are increased considerably.

There are many places to meet people offline.  Business networking groups is just one option. There’s the post office, supermarket, library, church, sporting club, school – wherever you go and wherever people congregate.

Check locally where you live – chambers of commerce, BNI, rotary, school groups, clubs, anywhere where groups of people get together. And volunteering can help – it definitely works. I’ve volunteered (given back to community) in some way or another most of my business life – I’ve been in business over 16 years. It definitely pays to be out there amongst people who will notice you and tell others about you.

If you choose to market only online you stand to miss a good percentage of potential clients who look elsewhere for the type of services you have to offer.

Make sure you ALWAYS have business cards with you.

We are not ‘just secretaries’

Had an interesting conversation with a prospective client today.  They were despairing that they couldn’t find good telemarketers and had spent extensive time doing some research to find the right people.

I spent some time asking questions. Seems they only want to pay sub-contractor’s rates and not full rates.  I explained to them that an agency might pay the rate they wanted to pay to one of their workers but they would charge the client considerably more.   The client agreed on that point.

I told them we have experienced professional telemarketers on our team but they wouldn’t accept sub-contractors rates – they would want full professional rates. And then came the response ‘but they’re just secretaries, aren’t they?’

I told this person that although my business name is “A Clayton’s Secretary” the team has expanded far beyond mainly secretarial roles and we have professionals in all fields. That included telemarketers.

I can say, though, that this did get my back up.  ‘just secretaries’.  Even in my days as a corporate secretary I was seen as being more than ‘just office staff’ and my role held a lot of responsibility to it, and I was paid accordingly. It was a role that required me to make decisions in the absence of the boss and protect him/her from being bothered with things that may have been trivial. It’s not since my junior days that I’ve been considered or called ‘just’ by anyone.

The Virtual Assistant industry provides many different types of virtual support today – all of it professional:  transcription, telemarketing, bookkeeping, web design, research, word processing and so on.  I know that many think that this is a role that ‘just anyone’ can do, but if that was the case the industry wouldn’t exist because ‘just anyone’ would be doing all of what we do.

If you’re looking for a professional then feel free to contact my network or any VA network for that matter. But if you’re looking for ‘just anyone’ better go off to any of the freelance job sites so you can pay low fees to ‘just anyone’.

Are you doing the work?

I sometimes wonder just how much effort some put into building their VA businesses?  They join a network or forum, put up a website and then I see very little of them after that.  Sometime later I get told they’re closing their business or resigning from the network.

What has taken place in between?  Have they worked their networks, spent time marketing, have they gotten to know other VAs to increase the opportunities for sub-contracting or outsourcing?  Have they participated in forums and learnt what other successful VAs have done to get to where they are now?  Have they been visible amongst their peers or even to their potential client base?

We can provide the information and outline what we’ve done to build our businesses. On the VA forums so many VAs talk about what they’ve done and get excited when they’ve gained a new client.  But in the background there are several who are silent, they don’t join in, they don’t ask for advice and for all intents and purposes, are invisible to their peers.

That doesn’t mean they’re doing nothing in their business but when you don’t see them and then later on they say they’re closing down, you have to wonder what they might have done to get their businesses working.

In my eyes, number ONE has always been:  networking.  Networking amongst your peers and learning from them and then networking amongst potential clients.  This can be done online via forums, at LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter and other avenues and also offline at the many business networking opportunities that abound out there! Whether it’s informal through churches, schools (parents of other kids), sporting groups, etc or through formal networks run by councils, industry associations, BNI, Chambers of Commerce, etc, there is sure to be a network or two out there that you can attend and get to know other business owners at.

Before you consider whether it’s worth building your VA business have you really done all that’s involved to make it work?

New to the VA industry and looking for a job…

odesk, guru, elance, craigslist, you name it.  New VAs come to various VA forums and ask about these different sites and wonder if they really work. The latest one was this:

I’m new to the VA world and just came across this American company xxx that offers jobs to VAs and hiring opportunities for employers. Is it reputable and has anyone used them?

This was my answer to her which was well received:

odesk, guru, elance, freelance, craigslist. There are quite a few sites out there that give opportunity for many different people from all walks of life to secure jobs to work at home. However you are competing with professionals and non-professionals alike and the chances are the clients are looking for the lowest possible rate to get the work done.  In fact, from jobs I have seen posted, it seems the client thinks they can tell you how much you should be charging.

A Virtual Assistant (VA) is a business owner, and as such should be the one who says how much they will charge for the work they are doing. There is much you should be taking into account including your cost of living and each VA should be doing an analysis to work out what their base rate will be and then add on for things such as printing, use of the internet and phone and so on to cover their costs and stay in front. For those who join my team they are provided with a sample formula to help them work that out but there is a lady, Nina Feldman, who has a resource on her site.

You really are much better off registering with some of the VA networks out there. There are well over 30 of them now.  Some are listed at http://vanetworknews.com/va-organisations/.  Many have a Request for Proposal (RFP) or Job Request form on their sites where clients fill them out and the information is submitted to registered members to submit a proposal or outline their experience in order to secure the role.  I have that system on my own site at www.vadirectory.net.  At these sites clients understand better that a VA is a business operator and while some clients might give a ball park figure of what they’re prepared to pay, the majority who place these requests simply ask for quotes or say when the job needs to be done by.  They are a much better class of customer in my eyes as they already understand (mostly) what we can do for them.

I regularly get good feedback from clients happy with the process at my own site and I often pass these comments on to my VA team to let them know another happy customer has given me feedback. Occasionally we might get a disgruntled client and that feedback is also passed on – it helps us to grow and develop as business operators.

Oh, and one VERY important thing you need to know.  We are not employees – we are business operators.  Clients are not employers – they are clients. Very important mindset and one you need to adjust to quickly as the way you see a client will affect the way you work with them.

VAs, please get your facts right!

I get so frustrated when I see new Virtual Assistants write about our industry with incorrect information. I say they must be new because surely they would know better.  I, and many of the VA leaders work hard at educating the public and the media on our industry and when someone publishes something inaccurate it actually undoes our hard work.

Please get it right folks! VAs are NOT employees, we are business owners. If you’ve been engaged by an agency as a ‘virtual assistant’ and are working as an employee, then the reality is you’re either a ‘virtual worker’ or a sub-contractor to an agency. You are NOT a Virtual Assistant.  Virtual Assistants are business owners and we work for clients, not employers.

Unfortunately anyone can write an article and get it published on any of the tons of article sites out there but not all articles are factual or correct.  So if you’re researching things, please research carefully and check that the information you have is accurate. Otherwise you’ll have articles like this one published giving the general public the incorrect idea or information.

The reference to ‘new age’ was a bit disconcerting too but perhaps it means something different to the author.

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