Virtual Assistant – THE Blog About Our Industry

About the Virtual Assistant industry for VAs and for clients

Category Archives: Bad business

Be careful when giving advice

I’ve seen it on blogs, in newsletters and on forums.  Well meaning people giving advice that is ok for some people but not for all.

Be careful that when giving advice to others that you’re not steering them in the wrong direction.  Particularly if that advice relates to your region and not others.

The web IS world wide – it’s not just in your state or your country, it goes beyond your shores. So, if you’re giving out advice relating to how something should or shouldn’t be done, clarify that this may relate to your area only and that readers may need to check what the rules are for where they are.   Many times I’ve had to step in and remind readers that the advice given by someone else doesn’t relate to people in my country of Australia and that if they’re not in the country of the writer, they may need to check what applies to them where they are.

Check your facts.

Creating a Virtual Assistant business

If you’re a regular reader of my blog you would have seen last week the post about a VA who had infringed upon two of my trademarks (my business name and my catch phrase) on her website.  Her response had been she didn’t know and had engaged someone else to do her site for her.

Unfortunately ignorance is not bliss in this situation, as in many situations.  The reality is she owns her website and is responsible for what is put on the site and even the business name she elects to use.  In her ‘innocence’ she had breached the Trade Practices Act here in Australia.

If you are a new Virtual Assistant just setting up your VA practice there are many things to do to get started, and sometimes handing something over such as the creation of your website and even a decision on a business name (which is what happened in this case) can feel like a relief – until it all goes awry.

As the owner of your business you are responsible for every aspect of the business and all decisions should be made by you.  It might seem time consuming and overwhelming at times and there’s nothing to say you have to have a website and a business name straight away – those things can come over time, but when they do, you must have complete control over the process.  There are simple ways of ensuring an online profile until such time you decide upon a business name and have a website created.  Here are some:

Create a profile at LinkedIn.com and use that as your professional bio.  It is created under your name, not a business name and you can personalise the profile address just as I have:  http://au.linkedin.com/in/kathiethomas

Create a profile at Facebook and use that for your business connections.  You can personalise the address after you have a number of connections or simply purchase a domain and point it to your profile page as I have with www.kathiemthomas which leads to my Facebook page.

Register with VA networks that provide a profile page for you. Again, this can be under your name, it does not have to be under a business name.  Depending on the network you may have some control over how the page looks or you simply might just have your services listed.  See http://vadirectory.net/vadirectory/victoria/selby/ for an example.

In all cases you can use these page addresses as your webpage until such time you’re ready to get a website set up.  If you’re planning to provide website maintenance as a service then it’s important you do your own site so you understand what’s involved. Be prepared for a big learning curve. But if you don’t plan to do that, you can engage someone else to do it for you. And it might be a good idea to engage an experienced VA to do the site for you as they have good knowledge of the industry, especially if you have no real idea yourself.  An experienced VA can help guide you as to what is appropriate to put on your site and will definitely steer you away from copying content or other items from existing sites.  This is something that should be obvious but if you haven’t had much input to the site and you’ve just handed it to someone else to do, the chances are you could run into trouble.

If in doubt, ask questions at the VA forums and make sure you do your research.

The importance of reading and comprehension

I’m amazed at how many people apply to join my Virtual Assistant network and then can’t follow simple written guidelines to ensure they get the most out of their membership.

As with joining any forum or network, there are some guidelines and rules – it’s important to read them and then work your membership accordingly. It’s easy to get into hot water otherwise, or go away disillusioned. I know I’ve had my knuckles rapped on a couple of occasions at online forums if I’ve posted a link or done something I shouldn’t have done – because I wasn’ t aware of the rules therein.

Recently I had a (new) member decide to leave our network because she got nothing out of it. She’d only been a member for 3 months and her monthly payments had been dishonoured from the start. That should have been a red flag to me immediately.

I don’t believe she read any of the information I sent to her to help her settle into the membership and get to know other members. She did nothing to join in discussions and in fact, never even joined the discussion group. How are other members going to know she exists let alone get to know her to pass on referrals for work.

She never set up her page profile so clients could find her.

There were other things she didn’t do. Basically she followed none of the instructions sent to her on the very day she joined. So why did she join? I have no idea.

I expect some people join things and expect things to happen magically for them.

  • - The weight is going to fall off if they join Weight Watchers but don’t follow the guidelines.
  • - They’re going to get really fit by joining a fitness club or gym, but not participate.
  • - They’re going to magically make a lot of money by joining some wealth creation program but do nothing that’s required to build the wealth.
  • - And they’re going to get lots of work by joining a VA Network without making the effort for members or clients to get to know they exist.

If you join a VA network or forum (or any other business network or forum) it is most important you follow the guidelines, read and learn about the group and then participate and allow other members to get to know you. How are you going to learn what they already know if you don’t read what they have to say, ask questions or participate in discussions?

When you set up business you cannot just decide to be in business and then do nothing to build it. It just won’t happen.

I should add – not all applicants are like this and most are very proactive in their business building.  But it seems that over the past year or two there have been a few who have been like the outline above and it has to make one wonder how they get on in life.

Ethics or New Trend?

Taking a leaf out of Sharon Williams’ book, or should I say her latest blog post on a similar topic, I have to add my own concerns to this new ‘trend’ happening.

Over the years it’s not been uncommon to have Uni students ask to engage a member of our VA team to do things for them.  They’re often not upfront in the original request but once they’ve engaged a VA they’ll tell them what they really want. And often it means logging in under their own name and password to a Uni website to download lectures, listen to them and then write up on them.  huh!  Sometimes it would be new VAs who would score these jobs and it only happened a small number of times but once I got wind of what was happening I made it clear no member of the team should be doing this as it was unethical.  To add to that, I had someone from one of the Unis contact me because they too had heard that’s what was happening.  There are rules on Uni websites about the legality of students handing out their logins to other people.

Recently I was floored by a request by a mature age student and someone who should have known better.  Mature age = in this case someone who is married with kids of their own.  They were under the pump with their workload for their business and their studies and wanted to know if one of my team could [quote "I need to complete Part 2 of the assignment. My average attempt at Part 1 is attached. It’s at Masters level however undergrad standard would probably do the job. Naturally I’ve become time poor." unquote].

The subject matter?  Their own business!

I wrestled with this one but not for very long.  Instinctively I knew this was wrong but the person involved I knew personally and I knew they were desperate for help.  I wanted to help them but the reality was that what they were asking for was not ethical.

My response to them was: “Logging in aside, my team feel uncomfortable doing something for you that you need to be doing for yourself. They’re more than happy to type up your notes or reformat your assignment but not actually do your assignment for you. Sorry.”

They had to go off and do the assignment themselves after recognising that what they asked was indeed the wrong thing.

Ethics and lack of ethics can be easily intertwined or easily disguised when coupled with emotion, desperation, a need of urgency.  It’s easy for people to justify that what they’re asking is reasonable but the core needs to be looked at and assessed.

When it comes down to it, if you’re passing off work that someone else has done for you as your own then the ethics of what is taking place needs to be very carefully considered and assessed.  VAs, no matter where they live, or how much they’re being paid, should not add to the deception of a client passing on work as their own and especially when it relates to passing something in order to get ahead with their own worklife or whatever.

There are cases when it is ok: sub-contracting a job for a client, ghost-writing, etc but not when it comes down to someone needing to pass a test or course in order to get ahead with their own role in life or work.  In the end they will get found out when it becomes obvious they don’t have the skill or the knowledge it was assumed they had.

Need a VA who can really do what they say?

I sometimes hear from disgruntled clients who secure a Virtual Assistant through various means only to find they can’t do what they say they can.   This is not only frustrating for the client but is bad for our industry too.

As much as possible I try to encourage all I speak to, to look for Virtual Assistants through the VA Networks that have been established to help build up the industry, educate its members, and provide quality services to clients.

Generally the VA members have had to meet certain criteria to become members of that network which is a plus for clients. It means they’ve already been through some sort of screening process.  Unfortunately at many of the ‘freelance’ type of sites those offering services haven’t been screened and many just starting out can register there, as well as very experienced business operators.  In some cases through the VA Networks the client can come back to the network owner/leader/moderator and advise if they’re having problems with a VA and get it sorted out, and get a new VA if required. Most of the time I find it’s a case of miscommunication, and thankfully this doesn’t happen very often.

Members of the networks also have access to back up support in times of busy-ness, large projects, or if they need to be away from their VA practice for awhile because of illness or because they’re going on leave.

If you are looking for a Virtual Assistant who can really do what they say, then start looking at the VA Networks for the kind of support you really deserve.  There’s no charge for searches and being connected to VAs – you only pay the VA you choose for the work that is done.