Monthly Archives: June 2007

Is Barter Ever a Good Idea?

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Dear Gritty VA:

I’ve just been approached by someone who is a great contact and may be able to refer me to her clients down the road, but she is wanting to start out bartering for services. Is this ever a good idea? I’m also not really sure that I need what she is offering, but she could end being a paying client at some point. KT

If you don’t need what she has to offer, there’s no reason to enter into an arrangement that will only expend your business time and resources without anything of value in return except for the "promise" of possible referrals. Not a good business move.

I would graciously decline the offer, and instead propose that you become referral partners. You both get something of equal value that way.

Is barter ever a good idea? Well, if you ask me personally, I would vehemement shout "No way!" I have been burned several times, and this is even when expectations and agreements have been clearly spelled out ahead of time.

Are there ever any good barter experiences? I’m sure there are. But most of time, in my experience and what I’ve observed in other situations, it’s the Virtual Assistant who usually ends up with the short end of the stick when it comes time for the other person to live up to their end of the bargain.

People just don’t tend to value things unless they pay for them, and have some skin in the game, so to speak. And let’s face it… when we’re approached by someone wanting to barter, it’s because they want something for nothing. You can’t let their poor business circumstances (including starting a business without proper capitalization) become your problem.

Now if you do find yourself with a barter opportunity that you think will be beneficial and of value to you, my advice would be to really lay the cards on the table with each other. Find out as much as you possibly can what the other person’s expectations are and what they intend to offer. Tell them exactly what you expect in return and when. Make sure there’s a high level of alignment (in terms of equal value, expectations, delivery times, etc.), negotiate the bugs, and then put it all in writing.

Otherwise, I would simply avoid situations that will only end up creating negative energy and wasting your time.

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Are You "Managed" By Your Clients?

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As a self-employed business owner and Virtual Assistant, what do you think about the idea of being "managed" by clients?

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Disappointment

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Dear Gritty VA:

I thought I had landed two retainer clients recently. Well, last week one fell through before it started, and I just received an email giving me 30 days notice from the other. I’m so disappointed! ~ CC

Yes, this can definitely be disappointing, but don’t give up. One of the things I had to realize when I lost one of my first clients is that nothing is static; eventually there would come a day when they would not need me for whatever reason. This is why it will be important to maintain a constant marketing effort and presence, even when your practice becomes full.

There is some good that can come out of this. Use it as an opportunity to poll these two clients for their feedback. Ask the first one why they didn’t go with the service, and then get some service feedback and possibly a testimonial from the second one.

And, of course, it’s another opportunity to demonstrate your utmost professionalism, thanking them, and asking them to refer you to others. You could take that even one step further and ask them for the names of at least three people they think might be interested in your services.

This is also as good a time as any to draft a feedback questionnaire that you can send to both current and prospective clients. I have one for prospective clients who didn’t hire me for whatever reason (I want to know why and what things are important to them), and then I have another for my retained clients that I send to them every six months or so (I want to know how I’m doing, and ask for their ideas and suggestions). I also have one that is just for project clients that I send at the completion of a project. The kind of information you get from clients is worth more than it’s weight in gold.

If you’d like a really thorough feedback questionnaire that’s already drafted, check out my organization’s Virtual Assistant Business Forms store.

Keep plugging along, CC. It will happen!

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June 21 – Free Teleseminar on Intellectual Property for Small Business Owners

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Hey, I hope you can join us for this month’s free guest expert teleseminar. Intellectual property is a topic of vital importance for all business owners, not just Virtual Assistants. Here’s the info…

You’d Protect a Human Child; Why Not a “Brain Child?” Intellectual Property for Solopreneurs

Presented by Nina Kaufman, Esq., of Wise Counsel Press

DATE: Thursday, June 21, 2007
TIME: 5pm PST / 6pm MST / 7pm CST / 8pm EST
LENGTH: 60 minutes (please call in 10 min. early)
COST: FREE!

This class is open to all Virtual Assistants, independent service providers and small business owners. Feel free to invite your colleagues and clients.

Do you know the difference between a trademark, a copyright, and a domain name–and the rights each one entitles you to?

Do you want to avoid messy (and expensive) disputes with other business owners?

Want to know how to protect your valuable intellectual capital so that you’re the one to profit from it?

Just as human children need our protection, our “brain children”–or intellectual property–also need our protection. Unfortunately, solo professionals often don’t realize (before it’s too late) that 1) they had protectable intellectual property, and 2) what they could have done to protect it. Given the fast pace at which information flies in the Digital Age, forethought and intellectual property planning is absolutely necessary.

Join me to learn how you can identify your “brain children” and protect yourself economically. A few of the scenarios that we’ll cover include:

  • What’s the difference between a copyright, a trademark, and a domain name?
  • Can I get a trademark once I have a domain name? And what if someone tries to get a trademark using my business name?
  • What if my articles appear on someone else’s website (or blog) without permission?
  • Who owns the program that I collaborated on with someone else?
  • Can I use ideas in my business that I generated for a client?

And much more!

Free gveaways will be provided to four lucky call participants, so be sure to register today to reserve your spot!

Register Nowhttp://www.virtualassistantnetworking.com/teleclass-registration.htm

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Charging for Supplies

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Dear Gritty VA:

I have a client who needs a presentation created and then put on CD. I’m not sure how to charge for the CD since I buy them in bulk. Plus, this situation makes me wonder what to do about the future when I need to charge for supplies. What do you suggest. ~ MD

Well, there are a number of ways you can go about it.

  • The client can supply the CDs and you won’t have to worry about.
  • You can use your own supply, divide the number of CDs into the price for the box and use that amount to charge per CD at cost.
  • You can provide supplies such as a CD at a fair mark-up value.
  • You can make sure you are charging a profitable rate or fee that allows you to throw in the occasional incidental supply and include the CD at no additional cost.

You are perfectly entitled to be reimbursed for expenses. Sometimes providing supplies at-cost is reasonable and makes sense. But don’t forget that when you provide supplies, it’s also common business practice to add your own markup.

For example, I might buy a box of hanging folders for $7.95 + tax, making the per folder cost $0.35, but I might charge clients $0.50 per individual folder, and then charge that standard cost on a case by case basis. I might not bother to charge for a single folder it if it’s a one-time situation, but if it’s a special project or an ongoing task that requires regular use of this supply, I will pass that cost onto the client.

At the same time, there’s something to be said for not sweating the small stuff so that you don’t come across as nickel and diming to the client. In the case of project work that I’ve made good money on, I’m sure not going to worry about the cost of little ol’ CD.

Determining what tack is appropriate for a given situation is a sensibility you will develop as your grow into your business ownership. Whatever you do, just don’t forget that you are in business, not charity, and you don’t have to be apologetic for any of the business decisions you make with regard to compensation and making a profit.

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Why Setting Boundaries and Policies Is About Excellent Customer Service

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Lots of folk like to think customer service is all about saying "yes" to anything and everything. That’s a recipe for not only unhappy business ownership, but poor customer satisfaction as well.

If you’ve followed my writings for any length of time, you know I talk a lot about the importance of making sure you take care of your needs first in business. That you’re working with people you like. That you’re doing work you love. That you’re charging a profitable rate, and getting paid on time and fairly for the value you provide.

Having those needs met is vitally important to service delivery. A miserable service provider will inevitably become surly and resentful, do sloppy work, drag their feet and miss deadlines. That’s definitely not good for business, and makes for very unhappy customers.

Setting clear boundaries and policies sets the foundation for providing excellent customer service and creating a happy client experience.

A client who doesn’t know what the boundaries are is bound to step over a line they don’t even know exists. Likewise, if the protocols and policies in your business haven’t been clearly outlined, you leave clients to make their own way. Invariably, this leads to them doing or expecting something that doesn’t jibe in some way with how you do things in your business. And us being human, we end up getting irritated with these clients.

But why? They aren’t mind readers. You have no business feeling frustrated with clients (which, by the way, they will sense no matter how well you think you are hiding it) if you haven’t clearly communicated your standards.

No one likes to step falteringly or feel their way forward in the dark. Your policies are the road map clients need to do business with you. Clearly articulated policies put clients at ease because they then know how things will proceed. They know what to expect and when. In turn, they will feel more confident in you and find working with you easier and more pleasant.

The purpose of your policies is to create the optimum conditions that allow you to deliver on your promises and create the very best client experience that you can. Don’t hem and haw and expect people to read your mind–tell clients what you need. Find out what they need and want. Then share with them the polices and standards you have set in your business that allow you to achieve those desired outcomes.

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Flexibility for Flexibility's Sake is No Flexibility At All

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Hey, that sounds like a song. But really, it’s an important idea to examine if you are a self-employed business owner.

Here’s a common scenario that happens with new Virtual Assistants as well as many other self-employed service providers:

You’re a self-employed service provider. You don’t want to run some big business or become a manager of people. Doing the hands-on work is exactly why you went into self-employment. It’s as much about meeting the needs of your soul, having an outlet to express your talents and skills, and fulfilling your purpose as it is having more control over the quality of your life and income. And that makes you perfectly happy.

But you’ve never run a business before in your life, and are blissfully unaware at this point what you are really in for.

You go about trying to get clients, any clients, any way you can. And because you’ve never run a business, you go about this as if trying to land a job instead of clients. You don’t know any differently (yet).

So you get a client. Yea! You’re so excited! At first it’s all hunky-dory.

But then this client starts "bossing" you around, and asking you to do things that weren’t part of the bargain. You do them anyway–you’re nothing if not flexible! But you start to feel the inklings of resentment. You don’t like the way you’re being addressed. You don’t feel like this client respects you as a fellow professional, and you attempt to get things back on track with the client. The client on the other hand doesn’t appreciate that you’re "getting uppity" with him; after all he’s paying you to do his bidding (at least that’s his understanding) and doesn’t want any flak.

This client also has no sense of boundaries. You’ve been so "flexible" with him that he now pretty much thinks it’s okay to call you at all hours of the day or night, intrude upon your personal life, and that no matter what hoops he asks you to jump through, you’ll simply say "how high." And he expects things to be done as soon as he’s barked out the order. After all, you’ve based your whole brand identity on "flexibility" and "instant assistance."

So now this client is putting demands on you that you never bargained for. In an effort to ever be the people-pleaser, you try to accomplish his every command and expectation. And that’s another thing–this client’s attitude has become one of self-entitlement. You rarely get a thank you or good word on a job well done. And now he is starting to ask you to do stuff that isn’t even administrative, much less part of the skill sets you informed him of.

You now dread dealing with this person and find yourself avoiding answering the phone. This client’s work is piling up. You keep procrastinating out of resentment and overwhelm. He’s piled so much on your plate that you are completely miserable and stressed out by it all.

You finally get a clue that this client thinks he’s your boss, not your client. A lightbulb goes off and you realize this is really your own fault because that’s that’s exactly how you marketed yourself and your services and how you’ve been delivering them. Like an employee. An employee who has no say in who she works for, what work she will provide and in what way and when that work will be accomplished and delivered. Like spoiling a child, you’ve created your own monster client by setting no limits or parameters for working together, and like a spoiled child, this person has become someone really unpleasant to be around.

You’re also not making any money because you’re spending a ton of unpaid time trying to please this one demanding, self-entitled client. You’re definitely not charging enough. You haven’t earned a penny’s profit, and this client is sucking the life right out of you.

Miracle of miracles, you did manage to land another couple clients throughout everything, but you’ve got absolutely no control over your schedule, the work nor the demands placed on your time because you’ve established no control and no boundaries. Your every waking hour is now spent trying to keep up with everything, putting out the biggest fires first, and succeeding well in neither. You also now find yourself spending your weekends and family time on work, and still missing deadlines.

Your newest clients are much more ideal for you–hey, at least you learned a thing or two about choosing who to work with! They’d be dreams if you didn’t have so much darn "flexibility" in your life, but they are now getting frustrated with you. You try to hide it, but deep down you know you aren’t doing good work for them because of the way things are in your business, and it wouldn’t surprise you if they bailed on you tomorrow.

Forget taking on any other clients. You’re unhappy. You’re existing clients are unhappy. You have zero room on your plate for anything else. Ironically, in trying to be totally flexible and make everybody else happy, you now have no flexibility (and no life) whatsoever. And none of the reasons and rewards of working for yourself exist anymore because in trying to chase this "flexibility" ideal, you haven’t taken care of your needs and those of your business first.

This is what happens when people don’t have a deeper understanding of what "flexibility" is really about. Flexibility comes with boundaries, standards, processes, and thinking things through. What kills flexibility is not having those things in your business. Sometimes, in order to do the best job possible for your clients, all your clients equally and fairly, you realize you have to say "no" sometimes to things that are ultimately going to zap your ability to be flexible.

You will have flexibility to give if you instill a foundation that actually creates it. But flexibility for flexibility’s sake is no flexibility at all. It’s a precurser to chaos, unmanageability and unprofitability in your business. Taking heed and learning what that really means in your business is going to help build a foundation upon which you can get the right kind of clients, do the work you enjoy and do well, and have space and flexibility to delivery the absolute best services to clients that you can.

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Is This an Attractive Marketing Message?

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"I don’t have any background, training or experience doing ____. I have no frame of reference about the required aptitudes, proficiencies or knowledge required to do ____ work at a professional level. I’ve never worked as a ___, but no one needs experience to be a ____ professional. I’m smart and a fast learner. It might take me five or ten times the amount of time to learn how to do something, but I’m cheap. And even though I call myself a ___, really, I’ll do anything even if I don’t have any experience or demonstrable skill. Of course, I also might not find the right answer or still not do something right even after spending all that time "learning" something. But don’t blame me; you get what you pay for. I’m really not interested in what you need as a business owner; I’m only doing this so I can stay home with my kids. Hey, do you wanna be a ____?"

What do you think?

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Question for You

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Do you think anyone can be a Virtual Assistant? Why or why not? What skills, knowledge or aptitudes are necessary as a professional Virtual Assistant?

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Client With a Strong Personality

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Dear Gritty VA:

I have a client who routinely doesn’t pay me on time. This is how he lives. He pays everyone and everything late. I know he is happy with my work, and he shifts more to me every month. However, I would almost rather he didn’t as I don’t want him to become my biggest client when I don’t know when he’ll pay me. But this isn’t even the biggest problem.

The other day he stated he wants to get no calls, and informed me that he was going to forward all his phone calls to me to handle. Needless to say, I was speechless. I explained that I wasn’t set up for complete customer service, that I like having my set hours and not working on weekends, that I didn’t want my other client work interrupted throughout the day, that it would be hard for me to concentrate, and that I wasn’t interested. Well, I haven’t heard from him since (and, of course, he owes me money). What to do? ~ MJ

The bottom line is you don’t owe any client any involved explanations, excuses or apologies about why you don’t want to do something. If you don’t want to do something, don’t do it.

When a client asks you to do something that you are not interested in doing, simply tell them it’s a service you don’t provide. Period.

Okay, I’m gonna be tough here, but I’m talking to everyone, not to just to you personally: Buck up.

Stop being a victim. You are a business owner–not an employee. You own your business, and it’s up to you to decide what services you want to offer, what your boundaries are, and to clearly communicate to clients your policies as well as your expectations for mutual courtesy and respect (and payment!).

I would consider it no loss to be done with this client. However, he still owes you money, and that I would not allow to slide. Send him a final invoice of everything due, and indicate that it is past due and expected to be paid immediately. You could also attach a cover letter reminding him that communication is a very important part of your business relationship with clients, and that consistent on-time payment is your expectation. Let him know that you are open to having a conversation with him (that is, if you really want to), but in the meantime, the past-due amount is expected in full upon receipt, and all work will be put on hold until payment is received.

If he does not pay, you will have to decide how you are willing to proceed. Personally, my next step would be having my attorney send him a letter.

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