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Wow! The Virtual Assistant Industry Survey is going like gangbusters so far. I came back from a little mini get-away and found the responses have been pouring in over the weekend.
Every once in awhile I’ll take a peek at the results thus far. It’s so interesting and fascinating to see the diversity in our businesses. I also love reading the comments to the open-ended questions. One that came in over the weekend is just so on-the-money and very representative, I think, of what we Virtual Assistants deal with in a large part of our marketplace’s current mentality:
“That experienced, US-based VAs are charging way too much, but at the same time we should be able to do everything under the sun. That we should just do what we’re told to do and not think for ourselves, and in the next breath that we’re not proactive enough.”
I think crappy articles about Virtual Assistants like this are a huge part of the problem. For God’s sake, it’s over 10 years now and they are still using terms like “wages” and phrases like “connecting with employers.” When are these reporters going to get it right?! It’s also up to Virtual Assistants to stop using wrong terminology like this, the kind of terminology that creates an “employer” expectation in clients (and when they think like that, of course, they are going to think we charge “too much”), and start correcting journalists when they get it wrong and demand retractions and corrections.
So what are the other solutions? Is there anything we can do? Once a cheapskate, always a cheapskate? Are there things we ways we can explain and illustrate our true value that can help getting those market segments thinking in different ways about what we do for them?
Does profiling our ideal clients and being more circumspect about our target markets help us more easily look for and find our right clients, instead of “cheapo” clients? Are there industries in particular (especially on the Internet) that seem to predominately have that cheapskate, “I-want-everything-but-I-don’t-want-pay-for-it” mentality? Are there some industries that Virtual Assistants have just spoiled? What about standing firm for our standards and rates and not giving in?
