September – 2009 – The Gritty Virtual Assistant Blog

Monthly Archives: September 2009

September 8, 2009 – 6:00 am

Take the 2009 Virtual Assistant Industry Survey

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Hey, Virtual Assistants! It’s that time of year again!

Each year, the VACOC conducts an industry-wide survey with the purpose of taking a representative, group snap-shot of those who are in the business of providing ongoing administrative support. Virtual Assistants who participate get the survey results report absolutely free!

The theme for this year’s survey is social networking. Our goal is to have 1,000 participants by September 30. If we haven’t met our target by that date, we plan on leaving the survey open a bit longer. We’ll need all the help you can give in getting the word out and encouraging all the VAs you know to participate. This survey is for you guys after all! And the sooner we meet our goal, the sooner YOU get your report.

Once the official survey period has closed and the report has been compiled, we’ll email you a link to download your complimentary copy of the survey results. Judging from past years, we expect the report to be around 75 to 100 pages. It will definitely be chock-full of helpful, fascinating, eye-opening data. If you’ve participated before, I’m sure you’ll find it really interesting to compare with previous years’ results.

Here’s the skinny: This is an online survey (you take it right on your computer screen). There are 100 questions with two additional, optional questions at the end. But not to worry… everything is multiple-choice and it’s a total breeze running through it. In fact, in testing the survey, we show that for the average person participating, it will only take about 14 minutes, 52 seconds to complete. How’s that for being exact? LOL

Now here’s the caveat: Due to the in-depth nature of our survey, we use a special survey provider (not one of those free sites). The thing is, you must complete the survey in one sitting. You can’t start it and then come back later as it will think that you’ve already completed it. This is to help prevent duplicate submissions. No survey is 100% fool-proof, but we do our best to provide you with the most accurate results we can. Using this special provider is key in accomplishing that. So before you take survey, just make sure you can sit down and complete it all in one shot.

SUPER-DUPER IMPORTANT STUFF: You MUST follow the link provided at the end of the survey and sign up to the list in order to get your FREE copy of the results report. The survey itself is completely confidential because we want you to be totally candid in your responses. Since we don’t collect any identifying information in the survey, this is the only way we have to get the report to just those who participate and manage the huge task of disseminating the reports once they’ve been compiled. We really, really want you to get your copy so don’t forget that last step.

Be sure and blog, Twitter, Facebook and whatever else to encourage all your Virtual Assistant buddies to participate as well: http://www.virtualassistantnetworking.com/survey.htm

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By Danielle Keister | Posted in Don't-Miss-It Events, Great News, Virtual Assistant/Virtual Assistance | Tagged Virtual Assistance, Virtual Assistant Industry Survey, Virtual Assistants | Comments (0)

September 7, 2009 – 10:00 am

Adding to that Thought

On my Virtual Assistant forum last week, I shared a fun story from the blog of one of my favorite guys, Mark Merenda, about the cost that do-it-yourselfers and micromanagers incur in their businesses. A sign his auto mechanic keeps in his shop illustrates the light-hearted point perfectly:

Labor: $95 per hour
If you watch: $125
If you offer advice: $150
If you worked on it already: $175

How many clients have we all known who need a little sign like this from us? LOL

I took that a step further and added my own twist:

If you want me to show you how to do it yourself: $5000 tuition and $500/hr after that.

This is sort of related to my post last Friday where I was talking about the real reasons your fee is your fee and why what it costs you to be in business shouldn’t be part of your conversation with clients.

You can’t put a price tag on all your years of unique talent, experience, training, continuing education, etc., that went into (and continues to go into) you being great and smart and expert at what you do. And, for me at least, I’m not in the business of training. If that’s what I wanted to be doing, that’s what I’d be offering in the first place.

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By Danielle Keister | Posted in Business Savvy, Personal Musings, Virtual Assistant/Virtual Assistance | Tagged Do-It-Yourselfers | Comments (0)

September 3, 2009 – 10:00 am

That's Not Your Client's Burden

You’ve seen them, those charts and cost comparisons on many, many (did I say “many”) Virtual Assistant sites trying to bribe clients into working with them because they are cheaper than employees. Back in my early days, I even had a similar cost comparison. Egads! LOL

But it’s not necessarily true that Virtual Assistants are cheaper than employees. Accomplished, successful Virtual Assistants who know their worth and value to clients and who are running profitable businesses for themselves very often do cost more than employees or at least the same and in some instances, less perhaps. But not because of comparing apples to oranges.

And think this through… if this is how you are enticing people to work with you, what kind of platform are you creating right from the get-go? How difficult might you be making it for yourself when you realize you need or want to raise your fees? How many clients might you lose because the relationship was based on you being cheap? Are those the clients you really want and deserve?

I’ve said it a million times on here and it bears repeating… take cost (including all those employee comparisons) completely out of the conversation, at least on your website and marketing. Unless the solution you provide is being “cheap” and “affordable.” Then by all means, keep it on there.

The reason that Virtual Assistants very often do cost more than employees is related to how the results of their work creates value for clients. When clients are able to move forward and in turn grow their business, make more money, have more time for life–that’s value. That’s results.

Don’t make the argument to clients that your fees are $X because of all it costs you to run your business. That’s not their burden to bear. It’s not their role or their obligation to worry about what it costs us to be in business.

Focus clients on your value to them–the problems you help solve, the obstacles and challenges you help them overcome, what your work helps them achieve in their business and what that might equate to in turn (e.g., more money, free time, ease…). Isn’t that the solution you’re really in business to provide?

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By Danielle Keister | Posted in Business Savvy, Marketing, Virtual Assistant/Virtual Assistance | Comments (5)

September 1, 2009 – 10:00 am

Cracking the Whip

When you go to the store, do you blow in like a hurricane and start barking out orders to every person who crosses your path? Why not? You’re the customer aren’t you? They are in business to serve your needs, aren’t they? You are the very reason for their existence. What does it matter that there are other customers there before you? Shouldn’t they be doing everything you want, exactly how you want it, when you want it? The customer is ALWAYS right! Right?

What would happen if your business worked that way? What kind of resources would you need in order to deliver service like that? I imagine you’d need an awful lot of staff, for one thing, in order to cater to those kind of expectations. Which, of course, would cost a pretty penny. And then you’d need people to manage that staff, which increases your overhead and administration even more.

You’d also have to stay open 24 hours a day. If a client has a whim at 2 in the morning, you’ve got to be prepared at a second’s notice to take care of them!

Next, you’ve got to have another group of people to oversee things so nothing falls through the cracks. You’ll probably also need someone in HR to deal with the staff turn-over and burn-out issues (it’s not an easy job catering to client needs and whims round the clock day after day). You’ll also want someone who can be documenting all the attendant workflows and training materials because they’ll be changing hour by hour as you bend over backward to meet each and every customer’s unique demands and terms.

To coordinate and brainstorm and stay in sync with all these people and departments, you’ll have to have meetings, lots and lots of meetings. And emails. And memos.

And then you’ll want a dedicated customer service team to smooth over ruffled feathers and unhappy customers when you fall down and can’t deliver. Because that’s exactly what will eventually happen when the customer is always right and you can’t say no to anyone or anything.

If you’re a solopreneur, you can’t run your business like that. You simply don’t have the means and resources. What I want you to know is that you are not a conveyor belt or drive-thru window and you don’t have to take everything that is dished out in order to be of service and value. You’re not a servant, you are a partner.

Virtual Assistants are natural born helpers. But sometimes they think that helping means not having any requirements or expectations of their own for clients. I really, really want you to hear me on this: If your practice isn’t capable of delivering on the expectations you allow clients to form consistently and reliably 99.9% of the time, you’ve got to establish different expectations.

One of the ways you do that is by creating systems and setting policies in your business. For example, you can’t work 24 hours a day and I’m sure you don’t want clients calling any ol’ time they please at all hours of the night. So what you do is formalize some office hours that you advertise to clients and develop a communications policy.

That doesn’t mean you can’t work when you want, regardless of the day or hour. It just helps you keep your sanity and manage your business effectively so you are able to provide fabulous, wonderful, capable support to your clients.

Here’s the truth of the matter: You can’t be on your best game and truly help and support clients if you are constantly pulled in conflicting directions trying to please everybody at the same time and your life is a free-for-all with everyone else making up their own rules, doing things their own way, in YOUR business. The best way to help your clients is to help yourself first by creating the optimal conditions that allow you to deliver that wonderful support you want to give.

Policies and procedures and systems are what allow you to HELP clients, all of them, equally and consistently and reliably. Most people are reasonable. They can certainly relate to why you must have some structure and protocols in your business. They understand that even more when you show them how that foundation ultimately helps you help them better.

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