Loading ...I was reading a newsletter from someone I think is a lovely, delightful person personally, but like most of the internet marketers, works with Virtual Assistants as if they were employees. And sorry to say, it’s Virtual Assistants who have trained them like this.
Here is the line that chaps my hide:
“… your Virtual Assistant decides to fly off for a spur of the moment week away, leaving you with hours of admin nightmare to deal with.”
If this client’s workload is that large and that immediate, they don’t need a Virtual Assistant, they need an employee (although I also feel for that empoyee who can’t take a week off without hearing about it like this).
And the Virtual Assistant she’s got, she’s not a business owner, not really. For all intents and purposes, she’s working as if she’s still an employee.
Business owners with workloads that large don’t make for great clients for exactly the reason indicated in that sentence. When you take on a client like that, expect to be enslaved to them by the sheer volume of the workload.
That’s not enrepreneurial freedom, and working with clients who have that kind of workload will keep you from growing your Virtual Assistance practice as a real business (and wear you out in the process).
No client should ever be so dependent upon a Virtual Assistant–who is an administrative consultant and a business independent of theirs, not an employee–to the point that their business comes to a screeching halt without them. If that’s the case, then what they need is an employee, not a Virtual Assistant. And Virtual Assistants need to stop working with clients in that capacity as if they were employees.
Let me...
5 Comments
Good post. Like your point about VA vs employee. This goes for independent consultant and contractors as well.
Amen! This was a very well written post. That’s why I never let clients treat me like an employee.
Good point, but as a VA, I don’t entirely agree with it all. The VA industry is so big, I think it is a mistake to limit what kinds of clients VAs as a whole *should* take on. Some VAs specialize in working with “hard to work with” and over-demanding clients with an unreasonable workload. And, if your clients depend on you on a daily basis, then as a business owner choosing to provide that kind of support, it would be their responsibility to have a back up plan, or give the client notice of a pending vacation. Personally, I don’t want to be totally tied down to clients at every second of the day, and want the freedom to decide at the last minute that I want to take a day (or five) off. But, I have an awesome team behind me, so work doesn’t stop. In the end, it’s my responsibility as owner of the business, to decide what kind of support I want to provide. Then, it’s also my responsibility to provide the service I promise my clients. So…I think VAs as a whole need to really learn to be clear about what their clients can expect from their individual VA practice. Just my two (maybe three) cents.
That makes a lot of sense… let me specialize in working with a market that is going to be the hardest, most demanding, crazy-making to work with. Let me create the worst possible business conditions for myself before any client does. Very smart. (Obviously, I’m being facetious.)
By all means, run whatever business you like and make everything as difficult and complex as you wish. But you are running a team/va staffing agency and this article is for and about Virtual Assistants. Not the same thing.
Virtual Assistants work in one-on-one, relationship with clients and have to run their businesses differently, just as any solo consultant does. It’s a completely different model. On top of that, they don’t understand that they don’t have to be in business to be slaves. They can work and run their businesses and support clients very well without having to be available to clients like an employee, on-demand and available every minute of the day–again, just like any other independant, solo consultant.
Those who get it, those who are tired of working like slaves and want to make some shifts in their thinking instead of continuing to be mislead by people who aren’t even VAs, you come talk to me when you’re ready to earn better, work better and live better.
I get the point of your post and I understand why you brought it up. For me this would rank right up there with VA-wanted ads at $3-4 an hour. From a devil’s advocate stand point I’d like to point out we don’t know the other side of the story. That VA may be trying as hard as she can to break the relationship – or the way she is being treated – and has finally given up…just hoping taking five days off unexpectedly will be the last straw for a client she isn’t sure how to get rid of. I’m thinking worse case scenario with that example; however, you have to admit it is against human nature or at a minimum very difficult to admit or say, “I’m wrong.”