Regular readers know I belong to LinkedIn, which is a very large international professional business network. I have met so many people there and have been able to secure new clients for my team as well. It’s been a great group.
A new connection asked me some questions and I thought they were so good, I would add them here. I told him I was curious to know why he asked but I answered all the same. He’s a professor of Finance and Economics so it’s most likely professional curiosity and/or interest.
Q: In growing your VA business, what are some of the challenges you face now or have faced in the past? What do you feel is hindering your growth today? What are your biggest threats?
A: Biggest challenges? People writing about our industry but not really knowing or understanding it. They promote that business operators can get VA help at $5 an hour and that is not true. They can get people from countries with very low incomes for that rate but those people generally do not have the skills or experience to become a Personal Assistant to a business operator in western countries. And that’s what a Virtual Assistant is for the most part – a PA only virtual.
Hindering my growth? A similar mindset to above but from those who are looking to enter this industry without paying a cent. I have to explain to them that they’re looking to set up a business and it is going to cost them time and money. Time to learn the ropes and get set up, time to get experience and wisdom, and money to pay for the things they need to operate, which includes marketing and advertising and belonging to industry groups – all of which are tax deductible.
Biggest threats? New VAs who think they know it all after 6 months in business and then they set out to start new groups or new coaching programs, effectively watering down the professionalism of our industry. I’m not against VAs wanting to get ahead but believe they should get some experience and knowledge behind them first before taking that next step. Generally those running networks and/or coaching programs successfully have been in the industry for several years and have the credibility and experience required.
I realise that all three of my answers above are probably going to put some noses out of joint but I do believe that I have the knowledge required to say the above, having been in the industry since its inception. I’ve seen a lot of people come and go, and networks come and go, and it’s not all plain sailing. There’s a lot of hard work involved and a lot of hours too – to maintain networks or courses and service clients as well. Not to mention help those just starting out and answer the same questions over and over without getting sick of it. I love helping new VAs get started and I love sharing my knowledge. You have to be committed and driven.
Stefan Töpfer says
Hi Kathie,
I’m not sure that it is not counter productive to be so negative about other VAs, not belonging to a organisation like yours and setting up on their own? Equally the $5 per hour debate, does not help me much.
If someone has been working in the admin section in industry why should they not set up for themselves, working from home on a very low budget? That is how most businesses start, and I think anyone should be able to start in business without having to spend any money, why should they. Today more than ever, where most people have computers, internet and telephone, it is easy to set up and get started, and why not? They are making their assets work, good for them, IMO.
I think it would be much more important for the “professional” VA industry to differentiate themselves better, by educating the client base with facts about the superior service offering. In my personal opinion I find it difficult to find these facts on VA associations websites – just saying you are different or better is not good enough, you need to say how you are different and better.
Is $5 a scandal? You bet it is, but to some people it is still a lot of money! I outsource some of my software development work to India, we have our own setup in India, and I love working there. They turn out 170,000 software engineers per year! I agree however if people say, you get what you pay for. These cheap labour countries are a reality, they are not going away, or have less impact on all our industries unless we educate with facts.
My god this is probably the longest comment I have ever written, and I would love to hear your thoughts on this?
Stefan
Kathie Thomas says
Hi Stefan, lovely to see you here! Thanks for asking and giving me opportunity to respond.
People are confusing virtual support with virtual assistants – two very different things. A VA is like a PA, only virtual. For the most part true Virtual Assistants were formerly Personal Assistants or Executive Assistants in the corporate world, and they provide the same kind of support to their clients.
It is, therefore, very important that they can provide the quality of support that clients expect. We get many lawyers, medicos, business consultants, business coaches, public speakers and so on who need a Virtual PA who can truly be their right-hand person, providing the kind of support they were used to getting in the corporate world.
So it’s not just a case of being able to have a good command of written English (in most cases) but to also understand the client’s industry, or have the ability to pick that up quickly, to act on behalf of the client when liaising with their clients and generally manage and maintain the business of a client. This means little supervision once the VA has a good understanding of what’s required.
VAs have expanded their services beyond what the corporate PA provide and many will do bookkeeping, web based services (like web design), transcriptions and so on.
Depending on the services required some clients will need someone who is more local to them, or at least in their own country, and other’s won’t.
Whilst I recognise that there are some services that could be outsourced to countries that have a far lower economic system, the reality is that in many cases their work has to be supervised to a far higher degree and it then means that the client has to get a middle person to handle that – and their structure becomes more complicated.
I appreciate that you can outsource software development to India and I have no dispute about that, but that is vastly different to VA services.
I wasn’t trying to be counterproductive with respect to other VAs and know many who have achieved a great deal in a short time – they have a lot of corporate experience behind them and have been checking out our industry for sometime. But there are others who come in for a very short time (and in some cases they don’t even have much corporate experience) and then decide they are going set up a coaching service or run a network of their own and they have very little experience and knowledge of the industry itself.
This is what I see as damaging to our industry – they need to get the home runs behind themselves first and there are many ’senior’ VAs out there who would be more than willing to assist, guide and mentor if they were asked.