Loading ...There’s always hot debate and theater when the topic of what a Virtual Assistant is and isn’t comes up.
It’s absolutely astounding the lengths to which people will argue to maintain their ignorance and lack of understanding.
It’s equally astonishing that people who don’t do administrative work at all are so unnaturally invested in clinging to a term that doesn’t stand for what they do.
Web design is web design. Bookkeeping is bookkeeping. Business consulting is business consulting.
Administration is administration. And that’s what Virtual Assistance is.
You’re right, it’s not rocket science. But the definition must be looked at beyond the surface of the two words. In fact, the words don’t matter much at all. It’s simply a phrase that has become popular that dintinguishes the special brand of providing administrative service and working in deeply collaborative relationship with clients.
That’s what Virtual Assistance is. The definition has little to do with the words, and everything to do with the model and the relationship.
And it doesn’t mean that you can’t offer other kinds of services as well. It means knowing that those other services (such as web design, bookkeeping, graphic design, etc.) are different and separate from administrative work.
It’s not about being right. The reason it is important to get clear about the definition is because we won’t be able to propel this industry forward otherwise, for the same reasons that an individual who isn’t clear about what they do won’t be able to propel their own business forward–it continues to confuse the marketplace.
That’s the whole point. So while marketing experts like Denise Michaels, author of Testosterone Free Marketing, are helping Virtual Assistants brand and market their businesses, I’m concerned with branding and marketing an entire profession so we can once and for all put this industry on the map, and qualified, professional Virtual Assistants can command the professional fees they deserve and have more educated clients seek their professional expertise.
We have only scratched the surface of the industries we could be helping, but we’re going to continue to be our own worst enemies unless we start getting real and getting clear.
