August – 2007 – The Gritty Virtual Assistant Blog

Monthly Archives: August 2007

August 31, 2007 – 9:03 am

Grateful Day

I’m having a grateful day today. Why?

Well, my cute little daughter just stopped by with a beautiful bunch of flowers for me. No reason, just ’cause she loves me.

Awwwwwwww. I love my kid!

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By Danielle Keister | Posted in Personal Musings | Comments (2)

August 28, 2007 – 11:25 am

The Importance (and Discipline) of Diligent Communication

Excellent communication–not merely good or okay–is so important in your business relationships. I would venture to say it’s even more important for a Virtual Assistant because we may never meet our clients, colleagues or associates face-to-face.

One aspect of beyond-excellent communication is consistently following through in your responses to emails and voicemails. I’m not talking about the occasional message or response that falls through the cracks; that happens to the best of us.

What I’m talking about is establishing consciously devised standards and policies for handling correspondence in your practice. This includes being in the habit of making sure those who correspond with you know that their message was received. There is nothing more frustrating than sending someone a message and then hearing nothing but crickets in response.

If you’ve ever been on the receiving end, you know what I’m talking about. You’re left wondering whether the recipient is taking whatever action might have been required, or if they even got the message at all. This kind of poor communication creates extra work for those folks trying to correspond and work with you. It doesn’t put you in a good light and definitely doesn’t engender any confidence in your follow-through abilities.

Don’t do that to your clients and associates–or yourself, for that matter.

Establish a timeliness standard in your business and then be disciplined about sticking with it. If you have a 24-48 hour turnaround, make sure you demonstrate a pattern of consistently responding to all messages within that timeframe. Also devise processes and procedures that allow you to keep track of messages and follow-up appropriately and efficiently.

Even if you don’t have to do anything, you should still acknowledge receipt of the message. This can be accomplished with a simple "got it." Those two little words can mean all the difference for the person at the other end. And proper email acknowledgement is going to work wonders on keeping clients happy and apprised of your work progress with them.

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By Danielle Keister | Posted in Business Savvy, Virtual Assistant/Virtual Assistance | Tagged Business Communication, Virtual Assistance, Virtual Assistant, Virtual Assistants | Comments (0)

August 22, 2007 – 8:40 am

Accountant or Virtual Assistant?

Dear Gritty VA:

I appreciated reading your Virtual Assistant association website. I was wondering if you plan on creating a site that is for accounting professional Virtual Assistants in addition to the administrative support assistants? I am new to Virtual Assistant services, but I assure you have completed effective training and researched this opportunity for over a year. I have almost 20 years of experience in accounting and will have my CPA in as soon as 2 years. I began working as a Virtual Assistant just 3 months ago as a full time assistant. Do you feel that you will have an effective network for accounting professionals or is there some work in progress on this? — CH

Well, here’s the rub–we don’t hold that there is such a thing. Follow the logic here…

Virtual Assistance is the profession of administrative professionals, those who provide professional administrative support (in ongoing, collaborative relationship).

Someone who specializes in accounting is an accountant, not a Virtual Assistant. Virtual Assistance is the profession of administrative professionals, just as accounting is the profession of accountants.

Now there are Virtual Assistants who specialize in supporting accountants and financial professionals, but their work is still administrative in nature. Virtual Assistance is a profession in and of itself; it’s not a catch-all phrase for anyone who happens to work or run a business virtually.

Do you see the distinction?

So given that understanding, there isn’t a need to create something like that–the accounting profession already exists, and has its own associations, certifications, business groups and so forth.

Some further marketing advice… if you want folks to find you when they need an accountant, it would be in your better interest to call yourself what you truly are–an accountant–because from a marketing standpoint, that’s what they are going to be looking under in the phone book and in the search engines.

Said another way, if someone is looking for a "bookkeeper," they aren’t going to look up "web designer," are they? That makes no sense, does it?

Of course not.

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By Danielle Keister | Posted in Business Savvy, Dear Gritty VA, Virtual Assistant/Virtual Assistance | Tagged Virtual Assistance, Virtual Assistant, virtual assistant association, Virtual Assistants | Comments (1)

August 18, 2007 – 9:05 am

New Activity & Time Analysis Tool: Introductory Price Expires Monday

Just wanted to let you know that the introductory price for my GDE-37 Activity & Time Analysis Tool will expire on Monday, August 20. If you want to get yours at a greatly reduced price, purchase now while it’s still at $27. After Monday, it’s going up to $60.

This is one of my most proprietary tools. I actually went back and forth quite a bit as to whether it was something I wanted to share. But after continually reading post after post from my Virtual Assistant members of their struggles with “leading” their own process and getting clients to delegate, I realized that it could really be of great service to my colleagues and the industry overall if I were to make it available.

This tool really puts you in the driver’s seat of your own business. Once you have a client complete their activity tracking, this tool then gives you the information YOU need to “see” what’s going on in their business, develop your recommendations, and manage the delegation process–which is something clients desperately seek guidance on from their Virtual Assistants.

And this isn’t just some simple Excel worksheet. Several months of in-depth research and study and critical thought went into developing the formularies that result in the automatic analyses and charts.

Here’s what a couple of Virtual Assistants have shared with me so far:

“ALL of my clients were highly impressed with the Activity & Time Analysis Tool that just came out and absolutely loved it!! They felt it was a great way to figure out what they did throughout the day! I think every Virtual Assistant should invest in this form!” – Alicia Rittenhouse, MMR Business Solutions (http://www.mmrsolutions.com)

“This tool is, in my opinion, absolutely essential to a Virtual Assistant’s business. It is extremely well thought out and concise. The conversion chart at the end is also very invaluable.” – Cindy Clark, CCDesignz Business Services LLC (http://www.ccdesignz.biz)

You can get more info and purchase yours in the Virtual Assistant Business Forms Store at http://www.virtualassistantnetworking.com/virtual-assistant-business-forms.htm

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By Danielle Keister | Posted in Business Savvy, Cool Stuff, Fab Ideas, Great News, Virtual Assistant/Virtual Assistance | Tagged Virtual Assistance, Virtual Assistant, Virtual Assistant Business Forms, Virtual Assistants | Comments (0)

August 17, 2007 – 11:21 am

This Is Hilarious! (How NOT to Do Customer Service)

I shared this with my forum members, but it was too funny not to let more people know so I thought I’d post it to my blog as well.

Okay, so I call up Home Depot to ask some questions on some paint stuff. After going through their very NON user-friendly voice system, I finally find what I think is the right department. I press the number I’m instructed to push, and the phone rings and rings and rings.

Finally, someone answers and just says "hello." That’s it.

So I’m like "Uh, hello? Is this Home Depot?"

And the guy says, "Yeah, this is Home Depot."

Um, okay… so are you, like, going to help me or what? (I’m thinking to myself.)

So I’m sitting there confused, wondering what Twilight Zone I just entered, and then the guy starts talking to me. Turns out he’s a flippin’ customer, LOL! And he proceeds to tell me that I actually reached the wallpaper department (or something like that), and that he’s been sitting there forever waiting to be helped and there’s no one around.

Well, I’m cracking up at this point. "So you just decided to answer their phone?" And he says, "Sure, why not. I don’t have anything better to do and I was getting bored."

So we end up chatting for about 5 or so minutes. He tells me he’s actually a contractor, and asked what I was looking for. So I figure, what the heck, I’ll just tell him. So I do, and he tells me we’d be better off going to a direct paint dealer, that’s where all the contractors go, we’d get better quality materials and great service to boot, it’s cheaper even, yada yada.

And all the while he’s giving me all this great information, he’s totally badmouthing Home Depot: how crappy they are, how crappy their service is, how incompetent they are, how they’ll just tell you whatever you want to hear over the phone just to get you in the store, that is if you can even GET someone to help you in the first place… and so on like that.

I mean, it was totally hysterical (and I actually did get some good info from him, LOL). Home Depot is known for its super crappy service, but this takes it to all new kinds of heights (or lows, as the case may be) when the customers are answering the phones and sending business elsewhere!

Too funny!

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By Danielle Keister | Posted in Personal Musings | Comments (1)

August 15, 2007 – 7:39 am

Client Is a No-Show; What Do I Do?

Dear Gritty VA:

I’m sitting here waiting for a local client to show up in my office to pick up their "rush" job that they wanted me to drop everything for yesterday. I worked on this project for them until well past midnight. They said they would be here to collect my work at a certain time; I’ve been waiting now for over three hours with no sign of them, much less a phone call. I’m fuming! And this isn’t the first time this has happened. How should I handle this? –NT

What I don’t understand is why Virtual Assistants seem to think "local" must equate with "non-virtual."

Why treat local clients differently than you would clients in any other part of the world? It shouldn’t matter where the clients operate, or how you initially met them. ALL of your business should be done virtually if you want to manage it efficiently and have more time available for billable work.

I wouldn’t allow client’s to come to my home or office to drop off or pick up documents; I certainly wouldn’t allow them to continue to disrespect and abuse my time. Remember, we train people how to treat us.

Here’s what I would do: I would be very direct, and let this client know that you have an expectation that your time is to be respected. I would further resolve to discontinue this ill-conceived idea of having a public office open to local clients.

Draft a letter to your local clients and let them know that you’re implementing new efficiencies in your business that ultimately allow you to serve them better. Indicate that you are discontinuing the policy of office pickups and drop-offs, and that anything that can’t be sent back and forth electronically in some way, may be couriered (or mailed, or whatever) to and from your office.

Trust me, you and your business will benefit greatly by nipping this practice in the bud.

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By Danielle Keister | Posted in Business Savvy, Dear Gritty VA, Virtual Assistant/Virtual Assistance | Tagged Virtual Assistance, Virtual Assistant, Virtual Assistants | Comments (1)

August 10, 2007 – 10:16 am

Participate in the 2007 Virtual Assistant Industry Survey

It’s survey time again! Stand up and be counted!

Last August, the Virtual Assistance Chamber of Commerce conducted its first annual survey of the Virtual Assistant profession. Over 3,000 Virtual Assistants worldwide, primarily from the United States, Canada, United Kingdom and Australia were personally invited to participate, and the response was tremendous!

Our survey yielded over 71 pages of data–it’s the best representative cross-section taken and most in-depth, comprehensive information available in the industry today. AND… everyone who participates gets a FREE copy of the survey results. You don’t even need to be a member!

Participation is completely anonymous to ensure the highest level of participation and the most candid, forthright responses. The survey is open to anyone who:

self-identifies as a Virtual Assistant;
has an open practice (not closed or in planning stages);
has at least 5 years secretary/administrative assistant experience of some form;
works for themselves and is not a member of a virtual staffing agency; and
offers primarily services that are administrative in nature.

There are 97 multiple-choice questions in the survey, and three optional free-form questions. The survey is very fast-paced, should only take you 20-30 minutes tops to complete. Survey sections include:

Individual Demographics
General Business Demographics
Experience & Credentials
Clients/Target Markets
Hours
Pricing
Employees & Subcontractors
Services
Marketing
Training & Continuing Education
Success, Profitability & Entrepreneurship
Industry Organizations
Industry Training Programs
Professional Standards & Ethics

Be part of history! And don’t forget to tell your colleagues!

The VACOC is contacted constantly by the media for information on Virtual Assistance. The information collected by our survey has been absolutely instrumental in creating more awareness about the Virtual Assistant profession, getting more accurate articles written about the Virtual Assistant industry, and creating a more informed, better educated marketplace–all of which helps YOU get more clients.

By participating in this survey you become part of that history and play an instrumental role in helping us make Virtual Assistance a household term. Please pass the word on to your colleagues by posting in your blogs, newsletters, forums and listservs and direct them to our survey page here at http://www.virtualassistantnetworking.com/survey.htm.

The more Virtual Assistants who participate, the better results and exposure for the Virtual Assistant industry overall!

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By Danielle Keister | Posted in Virtual Assistant/Virtual Assistance | Tagged Virtual Assistance, Virtual Assistant, Virtual Assistant Industry Survey, Virtual Assistants | Comments (0)

August 9, 2007 – 10:00 am

Fabulous New Virtual Assistant Tool

One of the most difficult parts to getting started with new clients is the time it takes to get a “feel” for the client’s business and all that they have on their plate. Most often, we simply ask clients to keep a pad and pencil with themselves for a week or two and write down their activities.

Well, that exercise just didn’t cut it for me. I wanted something with more intention behind it. So I created a proprietary system for myself that took a more methodical approach that would not only yield critical info I needed to ramp up with clients, but also give clients an actual end product they could hold in their hand. This resulted in my Activity & Time Analysis Tool.

As I continue to watch so many Virtual Assistants struggle to manage their client workloads and get past employee mindset, I decided I could do a lot of good by sharing this tool with my colleagues.

This tool is evolutions beyond the notepad exercise, and takes your consulting with clients to an entirely different level–one that puts you in control of the delegation process and your role as the administrative expert in your own business!

Not only does this tool help you more quickly and effectively ramp up with new clients, it gives clients a clearer, more “scientific” visual of their business and activities. It helps you analyze their time and energy busters, see where their core strengths and weaknesses are, identify where key systems and processes can be developed, and allows you to make more informed recommendations about where your services can be most strategically utilized as you begin working together.

The Activity & Time Analysis tool will add value to your processes and systems, and clients will be “wowed” by the invaluable, eye-opening business data and charts you will be able to present to them. Knowing what a client’s true needs are also allows you to better negotiate the terms and control the pace of the work you take on for clients

This tool will be available at an introductory price for a very limited time. You can get more info and purchase yours in the Virtual Assistant Business Forms Store here: http://www.virtualassistantnetworking.com/virtual-assistant-business-forms.htm

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By Danielle Keister | Posted in Business Savvy, Cool Stuff, Fab Ideas, Great News, Virtual Assistant/Virtual Assistance | Tagged Activity Analysis Tool, Time Analysis Tool, Virtual Assistance, Virtual Assistant, Virtual Assistant Business Forms, Virtual Assistants | Comments (0)

August 8, 2007 – 11:10 am

How Do I Get References

Dear Gritty VA:

I know word-of-mouth is the best marketing, but how do I go about getting references? –GF

What you first want to do is begin to speak the language of business ownership. So instead of "references," use the term "testimonials." Remember, you’re a business owner now, not an employee, and the terminology you use when referring to yourself and your business is going to have a direct affect on the perceptions you create in clients.

But, to answer your question, there are lots of way you can collect testimonials. In my practice, I take a methodical approach to regularly and systematically collect feedback and testimonials from clients. I use a few different standard feedback forms depending on the client type (Virtual Assistant, print media or web design). If it’s project work, I solicit the client for feedback once the project is fully completed. I survey my Virtual Assistance retainer clients roughly every six months.

By the way, you can get these forms from my Virtual Assistant Business Forms Store.

Besides quantifiable "yes/no/scale of 1-10" questions, I also provide spots for clients to write any suggestions and comments for use as an official testimonial. On top of that, I ask for the names of three people or businesses they know who might be interested in my services.

Now, if you’re a new Virtual Assistant and haven’t worked with too many clients yet, former employers are good sources for "testimonials." You can also volunteer or do work for other Virtual Assistants to gain initial testimonials. Anyone who has knowledge of your skill and experience "working" with you, can be a potential testimonial source.

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By Danielle Keister | Posted in Business Savvy, Dear Gritty VA, Virtual Assistant/Virtual Assistance | Tagged Virtual Assistance, Virtual Assistant, Virtual Assistants | Comments (0)

August 2, 2007 – 10:00 am

Confidentiality Agreements Are Not the VA's Responsibility

Every so often I will get an email from a newer Virtual Assistants asking if we can add to my Virtual Assistant Business Forms store a confidentiality agreement intended to protect a client’s business interests.

I don’t have any plans to add this form to our store. The reason? Because it’s not any Virtual Assistant’s responsibility to provide legal services and agreements on the client’s behalf. You are only resonsible for taking care of your own business, just as clients are responsible for taking care of theirs.

If a client has business interests they want to protect through some form of non-disclosure or confidentiality agreement, it is their position, and their responsibility only, to seek out their own legal counsel and have any necessary documents drafted up to be presented to you or any other service provider.

I see a few reasons for this misguided thinking. For one, I see many new Virtual Assistants being given wrong advice by those who don’t have much legal understanding themselves. Really, you will do yourself a great service if stick to seeking your legal counsel from attorneys–not other Virtual Assistants.

For another, I think many are simply confused. What they’re really trying to do is provide clients with what i call "comfort" terms to help instill trust and rapport. All you need in order to do that is a simple, authentically stated policy on your website (and maybe also a printable version) about your interests in maintaining client confidentiality and how you go about doing that in your practice.

Beyond that, you really don’t need to be taking on other business owners’ responsibilities nor signing more legally binding documents than you have to. If a client needs something more, let them present you with their agreement; not the other way around. It’s simply not your role to do so.

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