Monthly Archives: August 2009

Poll: Help Me Out?

I’m taking a poll and would really appreciate your input.

If you were joining a membership site or forum, which would you prefer:

A) No monetary fee with the only “cost” required being your active participation and those accounts that don’t comply with the membership participation requirement being deactivated after a specified amount of time.

B) Membership fee with no strings (e.g., no participation expectations or requirements).

If you have comments, I’d love to hear them. Otherwise, please do submit your input to the poll form below. Thanks!


Virtual Assistant Business Contracts Templates Forms Guides

Turning Money Away (I know! Crazy, right?)

Something must be in the water.

A couple weekends ago, an internet marketer paid for advertising (without getting approval first) in The Portable Business, our ezine for clients. He didn’t submit the form until later. When I went to the link to see what he was wanting to advertise, it was one of those contemptible sales pages for–guess what? ARTICLE SPINNING!

(As many of you know, there has been some rampant plagiarism on the Internet increasing and many, many conversations about this on various listservs.)

I promptly refunded his money. I could barely keep myself from adding a note: “We don’t support this kind of garbage!”

I think we’re going to see more of this, folks. And I guess they now even have software programs that will do this “article spinning” automatically. What a sad freaking state of affairs.

Plagiarism is plagiarism is plagiarism. You can do whatever you want with your own stuff. Repurpose to your heart’s content. You should, by all means. But you don’t get to do that with other people’s stuff. No way, no how, and anyone who promotes and condones the idea that you can and should is completely unethical.

Then one recent morning, there’s an email from a business owner wanting to purchase a couple of contracts because they are hiring a Virtual Assistant, but they wanted a preview first.

(First of all, if you need a preview on $7, you shouldn’t be in business.)

I don’t normally respond to these requests, but I had to let this person know that our forms are for Virtual Assistants and that it is not the client’s place to be providing contracts–it’s the Virtual Assistant’s as the service provider.

There are some places that would be more than happy to take this kind of money and not give a darn. I’m not one of them. Obviously, I can’t tell who is buying stuff (whether they are misguided clients or actual Virtual Assistants), but if the opportunity arises to properly educate these business owners, even when it means I don’t make a sale, that’s exactly my first and utmost priority. I’m in this to actually help Virtual Assistants in business and help our industry gain some improved professionalism and respect.

Virtual Assistant Business Contracts Templates Forms Guides

Free Call Today: The Truth About Anchor Clients

Hey, there’s still time to sign up: http://www.virtualassistantnetworking.com/teleseminar.htm

Today, I’ll be talking with Sherri Garrity about landing that “one big client” and why it’s not necessarily manna from heaven. Here’s the scoop:

Anchor Clients: Smooth Sailing or Trouble at Sea?

sherrigarrityMany business owners operate with a feast-or-famine business model, meaning they take on whatever work they can get out of fear they’ll have none. They’ll take on projects (or clients) that aren’t the best fit for them, or anything that pays the bills.

If they can find a big client who can provide a good chunk of their revenue, they think their worries are over. Many business owners look to these “anchor” clients as their ticket because they’ll get a predicable, ongoing income from them.

In exchange for that big retainer or contract, your client may have greater expectations of you than you can reasonably meet. The lines can quickly blur between independent business owner and employee. Not only that, if you’re spending most of your time working with this client, you may not be marketing as much as you should be, and you are leaving yourself vulnerable if that work suddenly ends.

Chief Corporate Fugitive Sherri Garrity reveals the benefits and pitfalls of landing the big client – the dream of many small business owners looking for security and consistent cash flow. No more marketing, no more chasing new business, and no more revolving door. But at what cost?

During this interview-style teleseminar, Sherri will explain more about why this isn’t a good idea and what to do to make sure you don’t weigh yourself and your business down. We’ll cover:

  • The truth about anchor clients
  • What an anchor client is really worth
  • How to strike the right balance
  • Warning signs that your clients are taking you for granted

To business owners tempted to land the big one, Sherri says “Remember that an anchor is intended to weigh an object down, and the object here is you!” While having steady clients is a goal, having the right clients is a must, she says. Knowing how to load your boat full of clients, without tipping it, is the secret. This is an important teleseminar not to be missed!

Virtual Assistant Business Contracts Templates Forms Guides

Who Are You Attracting?

Way back in the beginning days of my practice, I fell into the niche of providing administrative support to the local small retail biz scene, which was fine for then, but after a few years I realized I didn’t enjoy the niche. Too many of the biz owners were too new, too green, too flaky. Always had cashflow problems in a feast or famine (mostly famine) marketplace…

Anyhoo, at the time, I had a separate bookkeeping division of my practice that came into being because besides administrative support, all the biz owners needed and wanted this work. One of these bookkeeping clients (who was FAR from ideal, but I was still green myself at that point myself and didn’t know how to turn away those folks) was always “threatening” to hire me for my administrative support as well.

One day she finally decided she had to do it, needed to do it and couldn’t avoid it any longer and asked me how we could get started. So I sent her the preliminary questionnaire I had at the time and we set a date for an informal consultation (since she was already a bookkeeping client). The date rolled around and she still hadn’t returned the questionnaire.

I was shaking in my boots, but I was getting so tired of clients like this (no, she wasn’t the first). I figured, hey, I’m not going to enjoy life anyway dealing with this kind of crap all the time so I really have nothing to lose by standing firm on this issue. I told her that before we could meet, I needed her to complete the questionnaire and get it back to me at least 48 hours in advance of our meeting so I had time to review the information. Then we set a rescheduled date/time.

She gets the questionnaire back to me before the meeting just barely (and not within the 48 hour advance time I requested), but this time it’s incomplete!

However, I didn’t want to rock the boat. I felt like I’d be “harping” on something she seemed to think was unimportant if I insisted on rescheduling the meeting yet again “just” because she didn’t complete the form fully. I stuffed my needs and instead decided to make do, be flexible, and elicit the info during the meeting.

So we met on the phone and as the conversation started going, it quickly became clear that most of what she was wanting wasn’t administrative support at all, it was design work. I pointed this out to her, indicating that if that was what she needed most, we could certainly switch gears and talk about that. Her indignant response was, “Well, I don’t know if I’m okay with that!”

You see, at the time, I was barely charging for my service. I was definitely doing some things right, like having different divisions in my practice and separating specific categories of business from each other, but I look back now and can hardly believe I had so undervalued all that I offered. It just makes me cringe. And in turn, the mentality of a large majority of the clients I was attracting at that time were of the “get something for practically nothing” variety and all the unhappy-making characteristics those clients bring to the table.

And this client definitely fell into that category. She thought she was going to get all of this work, all these different categories of service, lumped into my administrative support and get away with paying barely anything for it. She knew what a bargain she’d be getting if that was the case. She knew what it would have cost her for those design services at a dedicated design house. And she wanted to take advantage.

That exchange was one of the primary turning points early on in my business. It was one of the driving forces in how I changed and adapted my practice to serve MY needs first, become a client snob and not give a moment’s notice to anyone who doesn’t get it or who doesn’t honor and respect me and my needs as a business in the same way they value theirs. As my own mentor so succinctly puts it, “Partners do not take advantage of each other!”

BUT, and this is very important, I recognized that the fault here didn’t necessarily belong to these unideal clients. It was me. I was attracting exactly the kind of clients my message spoke to.

Let me say that again: I was attracting exactly the kind of clients my message spoke to.

The problem wasn’t the clients; it was me. I needed to improve my message. I need to get clear about the kind of clients I wanted to attract (and the ones I didn’t). I needed to get clear about what I was in business to do and what I wasn’t. I needed to write for the kind of audience I wanted to attract. I needed to value what I offered more appropriately so I would draw the kind of clients to me who valued it as well. I needed to continue to learn how to market better and understand the correlations between the message I give out and who and how it attracts. I needed to improve my explanations about things so that prospects better understood what I was offering and how so they could then decide whether or not the solution I was in business to offer was what they needed or not–and I wouldn’t have to waste time and aggravation trying to make a fit out of the ones it wasn’t.

So if you’re getting contacted by prospects who only seem to want project work, not administrative support, if they all seem to be looking for the cheapest provider, discounts and freebies, if the clients you take on never seem to be ideal, don’t immediately blame the clients. It’s not them most of the time. It’s your message and the standards, ideals and solutions it portrays. Fix that and you’ll start attracting a different kind of client.

Virtual Assistant Business Contracts Templates Forms Guides

I Don't Have Any Alternatives

I came across a post on one of the listservs I belong to that I thought was interesting from a business perspective.

The writer, an independent paralegal, was trying to deal with a two-sided document given to her by a client. Her dilemma was that while she has a scanner, it doesn’t scan two sides at once. So before she could begin on the project she was hired to do in the tight deadline she was given, she was having to spend hours on end scanning a page, flipping it over, scanning the other side, and so on and so forth for each page.

She lamented that she her only other option was to take it to a copy center and have them scan it into one PDF document at a cost to her of 5 cents a page which “cuts into my profit margin,” as she put it.

Beyond the immediate issue, these situations are always excellent opportunities to recognize where business improvements can/should be made:

1. Don’t take on projects with such tight deadlines that they don’t allow room to troubleshoot issues that arise.

2. If you do take on projects with tight deadlines, charge a premium for the immediate time, attention and potential issues they come with.

3. Part of setting yourself up for business success is establishing policies and protocols that support you in delivering great service in a timely manner. In this particular case, that might mean requiring clients to submit documents and other working materials necessary to the project in a certain condition or format in the first place.

4. On the other hand, if this is a common occurrence in your line of work, it’s time to invest in the proper, state-of-the-art equipment that will allow you to take these kind of situations in stride, work more expediently and effectively, and provide an even greater level of service. This isn’t the kind of thing that should have you stumbling.

5. Make sure you are charging sufficiently and professionally.

6. Expenses such as necessary copying and/or collating are not your business burdens to bear. Charge an upfront deposit for those expenses or set the project fee sufficiently enough to cover them. If you can feel the cost in your “profit margin,” you don’t have a profit margin and you’re not charging enough.

Virtual Assistant Business Contracts Templates Forms Guides

Dear Gritty VA: Is This Legal?

Dear Gritty VA:

I am in the works of getting my Virtual Assistant business together. Many of the resources I am going to offer to my target market include papers from other sites that I either pay yearly subscriptions for or can have free subscriptions (thinks like plans, articles, worksheets, etc.). Is that legal: getting paid for something I put together for another person with materials from another site? And if so, how do I validate that? –TJ

Thanks for your question. If I understand correctly, what you want to do is republish content (intellectual property) that you’ve obtained or subscribed to, but which you don’t own and didn’t write or create. Is that correct?

If that’s the case, what you’ll need to do is ask each individual source what you are allowed to do with their content under the license and terms of use you were granted. In the case of subscription-based sources, don’t be surprised if they do not allow you to do that. The idea is that each end-user is supposed to pay for their own subscription. If you disseminate (often you’ll see the word “transfer” used) information/intellectual property that they expect to be paid for, you are depriving them of rightful income. They could seek legal action against you if they find you transferring data in any way that is not permissible under their licensing/subscription agreement.

Now, there are some resources that deal in PLR (privately labeled rights) that will allow you to use their content in the manner you are intending. But again, each is going to have their own protocols, policies, fees, licensing and terms of use so be sure you contact each individually to make sure you don’t open yourself up to any liability.

PS: Just a little disclaimer here, I’m not an attorney obviously. None of this should be construed as legal advice, only as my personal knowledge, experience and understanding of these issues as a longtime businessperson. Always, always consult an attorney for the final word and advice when it comes to legal matters.
:)

Virtual Assistant Business Contracts Templates Forms Guides

Copyright Infringement: Lorean Tuff

Did my regular monthly plagiarism sweep earlier this week and discovered that a Lorean Tuff has taken whole sections of content from my personal business Home page and placed it on her site here: http://www.myownvirtualassistant.com/Home_Page.html

Here’s a PDF of the screenshot taken (note the yellow highlighted parts indicating the infringing use of my copy).

Here’s a PDF of my personal business Home page with the sections she took highlighted in yellow:

Also noticed she had appropriated EA to VA’s graphic and alerted Syndi Craig Hart to that fact as well, which she was none too pleased about.

I placed a call to Ms. Tuff, informing her of the infringement and letting her know that I expected it to be removed immediately. That was two or three days ago and she still has not removed it even though she assured me it would be taken down that day.

I will be having a DMCA filed to take her site down, but in the meantime, you might want to run through her site and see if she’s taken anything from you.

Virtual Assistant Business Contracts Templates Forms Guides

Join the VACOC Virtual Assistants Ethics Pledge

Did you know that the VACOC offers Virtual Assistants the most highly used and respected ethics pledge in the industry? Lots of VAs use our Virtual Assistant Ethics Pledge on their websites to demonstrate to clients their commitment to integrity and excellence in business. And you can, too!

It doesn’t cost a dime–just your promise to honor and abide by these ideals. Simply place the badge on your website and you’re good to go! The coding includes a link that opens the full Ethics Pledge in a new window so you don’t have to type everything out yourself. How convenient is that?

Here’s what the badge looks like:

VACOC Virtual Assistant Ethics Pledge

Click here to get your Virtual Assistant Ethics Pledge badge!

Virtual Assistant Business Contracts Templates Forms Guides

Dear Gritty VA: Free Service or Client Builder?

Dear Gritty VA:

I am very interested in becoming a Virtual Assistant and want to focus on schools in my city. There are many private schools here that operate the choice (or private) school program and need lots of information from the state and Dept. of Public Instruction. Would you advise offering these potential clients newsletters prior to offering services to them? I want to offer them information on what they need from the state, mini reviews of educational programs, etc., until I am able to properly offer them Virtual Assistant services. I read your post on not giving anything away for free, but would this count as a free service or as a client builder? School starts in about four weeks and I’d like to get started on this yesterday. Thanks for the help! –KM

Oh, client builder absolutely! Don’t confuse marketing and networking and creating your client pipelines with free service. When I talk about not giving away free service, I’m talking specifically and precisely about actual services… what you are in business to offer… the thing that earns your income. You never want to make bargains with your value.

Be a resource. Be a fountain of information. Freely and generously share with your target market your insights, opinions, helpful advice and resources on things that are of value and interest to them. If you ever worry about where to draw the line in making sure you aren’t giving away the farm, a good general rule of thumb is this:  Share with folks the “what” not the “how.”

I really like seeing how you have applied some thinking about your target market. I always tell Virtual Assistants to be sure to do some critical analysis in making sure a market is viable and is going to even have a need for the type of solution we provide. It looks like you’ve done some deliberation on that by distinguishing private schools from public schools.

It also sounds like you have some inside knowledge and experience about what information will be useful to this market. And you can never do too much homework. Go out there and talk to some of the people who would be your clients. Ask them what information would be valuable to them, what would make them sign up for your newsletter.

While you’re at it, find out what would make them consider working with an outside administrative expert. I can imagine that one selling point might be that they can streamline and pare down their administrative operations, have you get that work done more effectively, thus allowing them to put more in-house staff focus on community outreach and relationship-building with parents. Learn as much as you can about what kind of administrative work they do so you can hone your message and offerings to them in a way that will clearly and meaningfully resonate with them.

As far as when to do your newsletter, you might want to weigh that with how soon you think you might be ready to open your doors. On the one hand, now is as good a time as any. It takes a while to build up a subscriber base so you probably have plenty of time to before anyone contacts you about actual services. But do have a plan for how you’d handle it if someone did want to talk with you about your services before you were ready to take them on.

One thing you could do is set a “my doors are open for business” date and then promote that in your newsletter. Encourage folks to get on your waiting list and maybe even conduct some consultations in advance for anyone who contacts you before the date. Meanwhile, your newsletter will be working to build the anticipation while at the same time helping establish the know, like and trust factor and start those relationships growing.

Keep in touch and let me know how it goes. I love seeing smart people entering the profession! :)

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You Know What? Bite Me

Just kidding! (How’s that for passive aggressive?)

So I get an email from a Virtual Assistant who informs me that she has been in the administrative field for 10 years (and your point is? I’ve got 15 more years than that on you, sweetie) and that our last ezine issue was “fraught with spelling and grammatical errors.”

Mind you, this helpful person didn’t bother to point out a single misspelling or grammatical error so it could be reviewed or corrected on our online version. This tends to make me think the person wants to gloat rather than be helpful.

Sorry, sister, but I never do anything “fraught” with spelling and grammatical errors. Typos maybe. Which is what happens when I have to throw an article together 10 minutes before publication because people are too intimidated by writing and putting themselves out there. So there’s just no time to send anything to my proofreader when that’s the case.

I actually think I should be praised to kingdom come on my ability to pull articles out of my ass at the very last second and singlehandedly keep our ezine going until we can draw more of our newer members out of their shells and have them start leveraging our article marketing opportunities.

But spelling and grammatical errors, no. I very often write colloquially on purpose, in the vein of “write how you speak.” Or I will bend rules to fit online readability. The difference between me and someone who is illiterate is that I know the rules and choose to bend them of my free and fully knowledgeable will. The uneducated ignoramus doesn’t know any better. So the grammar Nazis can have a picnic if that’s how they choose to spend their time. It really doesn’t concern me.

And spelling… I can outspell most people on my worst day… with a hangover… on two Excedrin PM.

Typos happen to everyone. It’s really nothing to get all pedantic about. You do your best and make corrections when you find them or they are brought to your attention.

Avoiding typos is important from the perspective that your words are your dress in print. It’s like seeing the most well-dressed man or woman with a stain on their shirt (or for the grammar Nazis, his or her shirt). It’s noticeable. But it’s hardly the end of the world–if every other evidence and demonstration indicates that this is a person of knowledge, competence, intellect and creativity, no typos once in awhile are going to detract from that.

Now what does matter is when a person uses words incorrectly and consistently misspells words (not typos, but actually misspelling). That is indicative of a lack of literacy and poor command. So if I ever use a word incorrectly, that’s when you can send me your self-congratulatory, unconstructive messages. Mmmkay? Otherwise, how about being helpful instead and kindly letting me or my staff know when you spot typos so we can get them fixed up? ;)

Virtual Assistant Business Contracts Templates Forms Guides