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About the Virtual Assistant industry for VAs and for clients

Category Archives: Mistakes VAs make

Moonlighting as a Virtual Assistant

I became aware of discussion about an article regarding Moonlighting as a VA.  I haven’t seen the original article but did see the comments and hope that the writers will see my post as I’m unable to leave a comment on the site where I saw them.

I’ve been running a Virtual Assistant practice for over 18 years now.  It wasn’t called that when I started, we were known as home-based secretaries in those days. The challenges in those days may have been more difficult as we didn’t have the Internet to let people know about our services and we had to depend very much on word-of-mouth marketing and paid advertising.  While the ‘competition’ may be greater today I do believe that people starting up new businesses really do have it much easier in many, many ways.  Why? Because so many have trodden the path before them and have laid the tracks and written about what is required to run a VA business.  Me, included, I have many posts at this blog alone (almost 800) as well as published articles elsewhere.

When people start a business, whether it’s ‘on the side’ or straight out, there is homework to be done and preparations to put into place. It is important you know what kind of services you are going to offer so you can confidently talk about them to anyone you meet but you also need to have some idea of what you’ll charge, and even the type of client you would like to service. Knowing the type of client will often give you a clue where to go find them.

The first writer indicated she spent more money than was coming in to set up her business, but the reality is that it takes a good 2-3 years of being in business before you actually begin to make a profit.  You are going to have to spend money setting up your business with business cards, a website, flyers if you wish to use them, and if you choose a business name you might also want a logo.  Neither are necessary but many prefer to do this to develop their identity or ‘brand’ as a business operator.  Not to mention registering a business, securing a tax accountant and if you live in an area that requires it, a business licence.  Plus insurances and so it goes on. This is not something to enter into blindly or lightly.

She also mentioned she marketed heavily but doesn’t actually say what methods she used. It’s possible she was doing things that really weren’t going to help her in business but I really can’t tell.

The second writer reads like she has got access to good information and is learning from those who can help educate her to run a business.

The last writer mentioned a newspaper article that talked about outsourcing to VAs in developing countries at a very cheap rate. This can indeed be discouraging news to read if you aren’t confident in your own abilities, including setting up a business.

I do believe it’s important to believe in yourself and have confidence in your own abilities. There will always be clients who shop on price only but then there will be others who prefer to work with those they’ve met personally, or those they feel the connect with, or those who are in the location of where they wish to do business. Or perhaps they’ve been referred to the VA. It is worrying when someone reads an article and then doesn’t go do some research for themselves to check the facts.  Google searches for ‘Virtual Assistant’ bring up over 13million results. And on that first page of Google is one of the industry’s most prominent NFP organisations, IVAA.org. Other organisations show up as well as links to very well read articles about the industry.

It seems to me that if you want to become a Virtual Assistant, getting advice from those who are already successfully doing it is the way to go.  Learn from them via VA chat forums, mix and mingle with those who have been operating as a VA for several years, get some VA training if you feel you need it, even get an accreditation.  Finding clients is always a challenge but once you’re learned where and how to find them, it gets much easier and after that it’s up to you, to keep them.

You can also get training from many sources to provide a number of services. In celebration of VAClassroom turning 4 years old they are throwing an Anniversary Special – save 25% on their course selection.

Watch your language!

As Virtual Assistants we are constantly using the written word to communicate with clients, potential clients, our peers and others online.  We help our clients reach out to their clients as well and use many different mediums to achieve this. Ways to do this include blog posts and e-newsletters.

The thing we have to remember is that our audience is global – not just local.  And I find so many lists I am on forget this.  Just simple things such as saying ‘welcome to Spring’ when, in fact, half your audience is probably in the other hemisphere and experiencing the opposite season. I like to qualify my messages by saying, ‘here in Australia….’ and then go on to talk about the seasons, weather or whatever it was I was going to say.

Whilst that is purely a matter of just thinking about your audience but not necessarily a problem if you forget, there is something else you really should be very careful about – and that is using local slang in broadcasts that go out to a global audience.  What might appear to be a harmless or common word where you live, could well be a word that is rude or has a bad meaning in another part of the world.  It is often best to use the correct word for describing something rather than its slang counterpart – especially if you’re not sure that word is used outside of your own shores.  Could save some embarrassment, or even upsetting some people.  So, read through what you want to send out and think carefully about the words you use, particularly descriptive words and a good rule of thumb would be, change the word, if you’re not sure :-)

I know on the VA forum I run we’ve had fun with word games in the past teaching VAs in different countries the different meaning for the same word, i.e. a ‘thong’ here in Australia is something you wear on your feet in the summer. Not so elsewhere – just as an example.

Don’t stop!!!

It’s a busy time of year isn’t it?  Here in Australia many businesses are winding down for the year with Christmas/New Year and Summer holidays just around the corner.  And let’s face it, if you’ve had a busy year with barely a break, the need for rest and relaxation is most important. I am taking time off too, with my husband, so we can enjoy our home, our surroundings, sleep in, go for drives and do some things around the house that we haven’t yet had time to do.

So, what is my title about?  I came across a great article via a Twitter daily news called “No Room at the Inn”. The title caught my attention and it would for anyone familiar with the Christmas story.  So what was important about this message and how does it relate to business?

This is Paul’s story about how he was so busy he was knocking back work. And how a kind client jolted him into the realisation of what he was actually doing.

I have often told my VA team (and other VAs via this blog) how important it is to never stop marketing.  Never.  Because the work dries up a few months later and then you have to start all over again. Better to keep doing, than to stop and have to wind back up again. I know, been there, done that. Read Paul’s story here to find out what I’m talking about.

The Challenges of being a VA

We had our weekly IVAA Oz Coffee Chat last night.  A new event now happening Monday evenings, Melbourne time @5.30pm.  All VAs are welcome – you don’t have to be an IVAA member to participate.

The discussion last night was really good. One of the VAs spoke of a major client who had gone bust and not only had she lost their business, but so had the 30 other VAs who were providing support to this client too.  A red flag shot up in my mind’s eye and I started to ask questions.

The VA speaking is an experienced VA and she still has other clients to support, although it does hurt to lose a client who was providing regular work, and therefore regular income.  However, she did mention her concern for many of the other VAs, who were new and didn’t have other clients.

This is something I’ve often written about here and speak about to other VAs entering the industry.  It is so important to make sure you don’t relax after getting your first client and work towards getting more.  There are a few reasons for this:

  1. If you lose the client, you lose your income
  2. The tax dept may well view your circumstance as being an employee and not a contractor or business owner.  This will have repercussions for both you and the client.  You will need to check with your accountant to find out what the rulings are in your region, state or country.  But it’s probably safe to say that if 80% or more of your income comes from the one source you may be scrutinised.
  3. If you have only the one client you will lose out on the opportunities of developing new skills and keeping up with what’s happening out there – complacency can set in.

I am sure some readers of this blog can add more reasons.  I know it’s hard getting your first client and easy to think that it will be just as hard to get the second and third, but that’s not the case. The reality is as your confidence grows in yourself and your business, that does show when speaking to others over the phone, through your written emails and in meetings face-to-face.  It’s a bit like the employee thing where it’s easier to get a new job if you’re still employed, rather than having been unemployed for a period of time.  Except, in this case, you’re not an employee – you’re self-employed.

Mixing and mingling with other experienced VAs through the VA forums will help you grow in your knowledge of the industry and how to run your business.

One other thing – if your first or only client demands a lot of time from you, i.e. more than 15 hours a week, you may also be in danger of the above problems – especially if it makes you feel you don’t have time for any other clients.  There is time to be spent marketing, doing your own admin and keeping your books. But you need to make sure you have time for other clients too. So, if the one client is taking up all of your time, then it’s worth considering subbing some parts of the job to another VA or two, so you can take on other clients too. This will help to spread the workload, and spread your income across several clients.  So if you lose a client for whatever reason, it’s less likely to hurt you, your business and your bank balance.

When you start a business

There seems to be a wave of new Virtual Assistants entering the industry that have an inaccurate understanding of what a VA is and what they’re supposed to be doing as a VA.  Which is a shame as this just adds more confusion to clients as well.

Let’s get it straight. A Virtual Assistant IS a business owner/operator. They are NOT employees. As such they are responsible for their own taxes, insurances, software, hardware and other expenditure relating to running a business. Oh, and that means being responsible for their own marketing and PR.  What a surprise!

Running a business does mean that it’s going to cost money to set up a business.  Yes, almost everyone has a computer and internet connection at least in those countries where it’s become a normal way of life.  But that doesn’t mean that’s all you need to run a business from home.  Apart from having a good skillset (or should I say excellent skillset) in the services you plan to provide, you also need to be prepared to pay out for things to get that business running.

Things such as:  web presence in one form or another, business cards, phoneline or mobile phone for your business, space in your home that can be turned into an office – you might actually get clients visiting sometime, a post office box if you don’t want to tell the world your home address, membership of industry based groups that are designed to help you develop yourself and your business, updated software and the occasional training courses to use that software, and perhaps even some advertising in local phone books, newspapers or other avenues.

It amazes me that people decide they’re in business and then actually start asking questions about taxation, or commenting they can’t pay for something but expect it to be given to them free, and so on.  Wake up!  You’re in business. It’s going to cost you not only time and resources to run it, but money also.

So, if you’re not yet ready to operate as a Virtual Assistant fulltime (and that means, actually making an income and that means you must have clients already) then either don’t quit your job, or find a part-time job or register with temping agencies until such time you’re bringing in sufficient income to quit and work from home fulltime.

If you don’t have clients yet – you’re not in business.  It will happen and you need to put in the effort to network LOCALLY as well as online.  There are clients living around you too, in case you may have forgotten that. They aren’t all online.  So many ‘VAs’ claim to only want clients online so they don’t have to go out but the reality is that there are people local to you who need your services – why cut off your nose to spite your face?  Make the effort and go out and meet people locally. You can’t stay indoors 24/7 you know – you need to go out, get fresh air, meet people, and learn from locals who know more about your local business laws than those on the internet on the other side of the world from you.

So, if you’re planning to run a business, then make the effort to really make it work. A half hearted effort will only land you with less than satisfactory results and you will become one of the many statistics who say that ‘working from home doesn’t work’.  I’m telling you it does, as can many others who have put in the time and effort (that means months and years) to make it work.