My new blog is up and you can subscribe over there: http://www.administrativeconsultantsassoc.com/blog/
I won’t be publishing here on Gritty VA any longer so you’ll want to update your RSS feed and Networked Blogs subscriptions accordingly.
See ya over on the new blog!
Man, how time flies. I’ve been so focused on getting the new Administrative Consultants Association site done that I had to completely abandon the ol’ blog here (which will undergo its own metamorphosis soon as well). I have a zillion draft posts, too, that I could have been posting, but I just couldn’t spare the attention span needed to clean them up and get them posted. But you know, I just don’t sweat that kind of stuff.
I’m so excited about finally moving forward on the new direction. It’s been a long time coming. I actually started the site design last year, but got mentally blocked and had to put it on ice until I got some clarity again. And one I did, it started moving like gangbusters!
I’ve still got a few loose ends to take care so the site isn’t officially done, but do take a look and let me know whatcha think: Administrative Consultants Association.
I also want to ask for your help. I’d like to spotlight a few stories from those of you who have embraced the new Administrative Consultant term and how it has helped you in your business.
For example, I recently received a note from a member who related how much easier it’s been for her in talking with potential clients and in networking situations since she began using the term Administrative Consultant. She said she doesn’t get any more of the eyes-glazing-over/deer-in-the-headlights thing that she would always get when she called herself a Virtual Assistant.
And I know of several people(myself included) who have experienced a dramatic shift in how clients and business people at networking events treat them… getting rid of the word “assistant” from the equation makes all the difference in the world.
So if you have converted over or are still trying out the term Administrative Consultant, please email me your positive anecdotes and experience in using the term. My goal is to share these on our home page or a dedicated pate on the new site and will include your name and backlink to your site.
Looking forward to hearing from you!
Being in business is one of the most thrilling, self-actualizing, independance-building rides you’ll ever experience. Being a business owner can also be one of the most stressful “jobs” you can have when success or failure is completely on your own shoulders.
Women, I think, have it especially tough. Being the natural-born givers and nurturers that they are, they will often bargain with their value in business—giving freebies, giving discounts… giving, giving, doing and doing until they have nothing left for themselves.
Healthy giving starts with taking care of ourselves first in business. It’s especially smart to never bargain with our value by giving away the very products and services that are the lifeblood of our business existence. So what can those who have the giving gene do that won’t be detrimental to their business health? Lots!
1. Keep your business out of it. Let’s face it, giving and doing for others just feels great! But that doesn’t mean your giving needs to be in the context of business. Respect the value of your products and services. Save your giving for non-business activities and ways that don’t have you working for free and bargaining away the value of your products and services. As Suze Orman says, “YOU are not on sale!”
2. Success affords you more to give. Remember, the more successful your business, the more you will be able to give via those other avenues without devaluing or sacrificing the things that earn your living.
3. Give a gift. Send someone an online gift certificate. Have a coffee or flowers delivered. For no special reason other than to make someone’s day and let them know that someone (you!) is thinking of them and appreciates them.
4. Do a favor. Know someone who is more harried than usual? If time is something you have to give, offer to run some errands for them. Or maybe you’re a closet chef. Why not send over a home-cooked meal for their family one night?
5. Say something nice to someone. Acknowledge a trait, talent or effort you appreciate about someone. Tell those who have helped you how much their knowledge and support mean to you. Who knows, they might just really need to hear it that day. Better yet, say it publicly if at all possible so more people can chime in. We can all use those atta-boys and atta-girls whenever and wherever we can get them!
6. Volunteer at a charitable organization or community service agency. Many run on a shoestring and will appreciate any effort you can give.
7. Give year-round. Don’t wait until the holidays to help those less fortunate. Your local agencies and churches will be full of good ideas for ways you can give or be involved in making a real, meaningful difference in someone’s life.
RESOURCE: Want to raise money for a certain cause? ChipIn.com is a no-cost service that let’s you create a custom online widget that shows the financial goal, amount raised so far, and more information about the cause. Donations are handled automatically via PayPal so it couldn’t be easier and simpler!
Dear Gritty VA:
How exactly do referrals work? Does the client recommend their colleague and I call them? Do they contact their colleague and send them my way or what? Thank you so much for your anticipated response. –TA
Well, basically, they work any way you’d like them to work.
Referrals come from lots of different places and come in many different forms.
Sometimes colleagues will refer clients to you. According to our annual surveys, the overwhelming majority of Virtual Assistants and Administrative Consultants follow the “what goes around, comes around” philosophy and don’t charge for referrals. Others do charge referral fees or will want a percentage of any earnings from a client for a certain time period. You’ll want to get clear with the referring colleague as to what their expectations or requirements are.
You can also formally ask clients for referrals. For example, you could make it a standard question as part of your feedback process to ask clients for the names of folks they think would benefit from your support.
Your networking becomes a sort of referral source as well in that it helps you develop your word-of-mouth recognition. As you contribute and people read your posts, you become someone they come to know, like and trust. This leads to folks referring and recommending you to others.
You might have some sort of formal referral program that rewards people for referring prospects to you. Although personally, I really don’t recommend this for a professional service practice. There’s really no need and keep in mind, you would just be adding yet another burden to your administration and management workload.
Those who genuinely know your work and feel it’s worth recommending to other will do so of their own accord. Your evangelists aren’t looking to be paid–they simply believe in what you do and they want to be a resource for their own audience. Those who do end up giving great referrals to you, you can thank by sending referrals their way as well and maybe once in awhile sending a little gift.
As you become established with a happy roster of clients, they tend naturally to refer you to others when they get a chance. This is another form of word-of-mouth advertising that leads to referrals. But I would definitely recommend being proactive as well in specifically asking clients periodically for the names of folks they think could use or would be interested in your services.
Another thing I would recommend you get conscious about is your calls-to-action. In your signature lines and in your “About the Author” text (such as when you publish articles you’ve written), include a line that says something about welcoming referrals. This puts the conscious thought in people’s head and tells them that you are actively seeking clients.
Be clear as well about who makes an ideal client for you so folks know who to refer to you. “Any warm body” is not an ideal client. Just because folks refer people to you doesn’t mean those prospects are going to be the right fit. So you have to tell people who is the right fit for you. “I’m looking for solo practice attorneys who would like to leverage some skilled administrative support in their business.”
Prices going up next year, plus select items on sale… get ‘em now before it’s over >>
Oooo, Christmas is almost here! Whatever holiday you might celebrate this time of year, I wish you much joy, playfulness and renewal. I want to thank you so much for all your fellowship, great questions and wonderful conversations this past year and look forward to many more with you.
I have a free gift for everyone who subscribes to our weekly ezine, “The Portable Business.” To get yours, just go to the Virtual Assistant Chamber of Commerce website and submit the subscription form in the upper right corner of any page.
Also, here’s a fun little holiday video I put together–enjoy! (And be sure to subscribe to our YouTube channel here).
I’ve recently heard from several Virtual Assistants who have been having trouble getting paid from the VAs who engaged them. I hear from folks like this all throughout the year, but more so recently–seems to be an epidemic going on. They’re frustrated, not sure what to do and wonder what I think about it. So here are my thoughts on the whole topic…
It’s bad enough when Virtual Assistants get stiffed by clients. It’s adding insult to injury that they have to worry about this from their own colleagues.
I think it’s reprehensible and unethical to withhold payment from subcontractors because you are waiting for payment from YOUR client.
YOU engaged your subcontractors, not your client, so PAY THEM fair and square.
And if you don’t have the money, then maybe you shouldn’t be engaging them in the first place.
But subcontractors, you aren’t off the hook either…
Have Virtual Assistants who want to engage you sign YOUR contract, and YOU decide what rate you will accept–not the other way around. Just because you might subcontract doesn’t mean you have no say-so about how and when and what you get paid–but these things need to be established upfront.
That said, you don’t have any business talking about money or accepting work directly from clients that belong to the Virtual Assistant you are engaged with. If you’re going to be ethical about this, then you need to inform any clients who approach you in this manner that they need to go through the proper channels and talk directly with the VA whose client they are–and that’s not you. Those clients are not your clients–they belong to the VA you are subbing for.
Yet another reason why that whole “team VA’ term is so ridiculously idiotic. Unless you are an actual employee, you are not part of anyone else’s “team.” So stupid.
Never include in your contracts, or sign any contract, with any clause that says you don’t get paid until the client pays the VA you are subbing for. If you do, then you’re stuck waiting or not getting paid if their client doesn’t pay on time or at all.
And if you do sign a contract like that, don’t complain when you don’t get paid–you’re the dummy who signed it. It’s not anyone else’s fault but yours.
From a business standpoint, this is yet another example of why YOU have to be smart in your OWN business.
I get that some folks think this is the experience they need to gain confidence to go out on their own, and sometimes you gotta do what you gotta do to help keep some money flowing in. But never lose sight of the fact that when you are working for others (i.e., subcontracting), you’re building their business, not your own. You’re paid less, you lose a great degree of control over your circumstances, and you waste time and energy that could be spent growing your own client base and long-term success.
My advice (if you’re still nervous about engaging directly with clients): Stop with the subcontracting and instead look for Virtual Assistants who want to engage you as their own support partner in the same way that any other client would retain your ongoing support. You would charge them your full monthly fee just like any other client and you’re going to learn a lot more about the business, managing it, and what it is to provide ongoing administrative support than you ever will doing piecemeal, nickel and dime subcontracting projects.
I treated myself to a little getaway in Seattle this past weekend. As I was strolling the streets of Pioneer Square, I found myself in the middle of a flash mob video being filmed. So fun!
Dear Gritty VA:
I am just starting out as a Virtual Assistant. What software do I need? –JD
I get some form of this question three or four times a month–at least. And sometimes it’s the simplest questions that are the hardest to answer.
Long, exhaustive lists really aren’t helpful. Because one person’s preferences in software are not necessarily going to be the same as the next person’s.
It also matters what kind of business you will be in. For example, someone in the administrative support business (which is what we talk about here) is definitely going to need all the usual office types of software. That should be common sense, right? But someone who does design work and creative services will have more of an emphasis on that kind of software and probably more of it. You see?
Also, you don’t have to have every kind of software in the world to start out. The kind of work you support your clients with is going to dictate what software tools you’ll need. But beyond the basic office software, you won’t necessarily know what you need until you start working with clients. That’s when you start picking up additional software and tools–as you go along and determine you need them. So relax–you can stop stressing about this. 
What I can give you isn’t a comprehensive list of what everyone in the industry “needs,” but rather a list of the software tools I use in my practice.
Basic Office Software
Remote Access
Telephony
Browsers
Media Players
Computer System Maintenance
Virtual Office Collaboration/File Sharing/Project Management
Electronic Signatures
Bookkeeping
Time Tracking
Payment Processing
PDF Tools
Audio Tools
Transcription
Web Work & Design
Design/Creative Work
Video Editing
Video Streaming
Audio Streaming
All-In-One List Management/Email Distribution/Autoresponder Service
Remember my beautiful new dedicated Virtual Assistant Business Forms store I announced over this past summer? The one on an actual e-commerce site with its own domain?
Yeah, that didn’t work out so well, LOL.
Originally, it seemed like such a good idea to move my products to their own dedicated store. I thought an e-commerce site would allow me to better organize things and provide a way for shoppers to search for and view products in many different, more convenient ways.
One of the biggest problems I encountered was with the e-commerce template we purchased. It was a fiasco from day one and honestly, I am nowhere nearer to knowing what would have been a better e-commerce template to use on a WordPress driven site.
But I had already committed to this, and I was bound and determined to make it work. I spent beaucoup bucks having my programmer get things working. He basically had to rewrite everything from scratch.
But it was worth it to me. I thought once we were done, we’d have a product site that would be much more user-friendly and easier for my site visitors to navigate. On top of that, there wouldn’t be any monthly fees paid to a shoppingcart service because it was all built in and customized.
Sounds great, right?
Well here’s what happened…
After much, much time and energy, we finally got things looking and working fabulously. I was absolutely loving it!
Moving everything over to the new site, I was prepared to lose some traffic at first. I was even prepared to lose a few customers as the new store required folks to create an account so they could download their products.
The reason I thought this would be beneficial was because instead of links that expired in a certain timeframe, they could always go to their account to download their products. With an account-based system, they would also always have access to the latest versions of any products they had purchased. I thought, who wouldn’t love that?!
Well, sales did slow to a trickle. But I expected that.
Then we discovered another significant issue in the affiliate programming–nothing that affected our affiliates, just stuff that forced more manual processes than should have been. My programmer went to valiant, heroic efforts in getting the bugs worked out, but ultimately he advised me to just scrap things. It would simply cost too much and we’d already sunk soooo much money into recoding everything at it was.
I would have been happy to spend the money if it meant making things work except for one ultimate deal breaker…
I TOTALLY underestimated how much people hate creating accounts in order to purchase things!
As I said, I knew going in that I’d probably lose a few customers due to the account thing.
I never anticipated, however, that sales would pretty much come to a screeching halt. That’s how dramatic the difference was. And so I had to finally admit defeat. The new store was a complete bust.
We’re back to using the original store and sales have come back through the roof!
I know I used the word “fail” in my post title, but I don’t really consider it a fail. I learned a lot (albeit expensively) about consumer buying habits, what works and what doesn’t, and missteps to avoid in future scenarios like this.
I love that I can make decisions without endlessly deliberating over them. I love that I can take leaps, fully commit myself to seeing things through, yet still have the sense to know when it’s time to fold. I know that I still have great instincts in business and nine times out of 10, I’m gonna rock it!
I never want to be afraid to try new things just because it might not work out. Fortunately, I still have that spirit.
And I wish the same for you which is the lesson and the reason I share this with you today.
Rock on, all you fearless entrepreneurs!
I never tire of this segment of Louis C. K. on Conan O’Brien’s show back in 2009 and his gut-bustingly hilarious reminder to be grateful and conscious about the absolutely amazing times we live in.
As Louis C.K. says, all of us should be constantly shouting, “Omigawd!!!! WOW!!!!” for all the extraordinary access to technology and the unlimited possibilities, choice and opportunities we have to captain our own lives.
May you have a warm, fuzzy and deliciously abundant and grateful Thanksgiving!
| M | T | W | T | F | S | S |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| « Sep | ||||||
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | ||
| 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 |
| 13 | 14 | 15 | 16 | 17 | 18 | 19 |
| 20 | 21 | 22 | 23 | 24 | 25 | 26 |
| 27 | 28 | 29 | 30 | 31 | ||
Posts to this blog are the intellectual property of Danielle Keister. However, you are authorized to make certain use of them pursuant to a Creative Commons License. Under the terms of that license, you can copy or republish any post, for any non-commercial purpose, so long as you attribute the post to this blog.
NOTE: The terms "Gritty VA," "Gritty Virtual Assistant," and "Saucy business savvy for clients and colleagues from a Virtual Assistant industry veteran" did not exist in the public domain when this blog was launched August 2005. The author claims exclusive right to use those terms as identifying marks for this weblog and other written, digitized or electronic use, pursuant to U.S. and International copyright and trademark laws.
This weblog is published by Danielle Keister, The Relief Virtual Assistance and Virtual Assistance Chamber of Commerce. If you would like permission to reprint any of my published columns, please contact me at word@grittyva.com. At all times you may provide the link to these copyrighted columns when referencing them in any form.
»
All posts »
All comments 
