Really, really smart thinking by Admiral James Stockdale (tip of the hat to Perry Marshall for noting it):
“You must never confuse faith that you will prevail in the end (which you can never afford to lose) with the discipline to confront the most brutal facts of your current reality, whatever they might be.”
Whew! What a hectic last two weeks it’s been. I am always energized when I get to talk with fellow Virtual Assistants and Administrative Consultants, but I tell ya, putting on live events is a LOT of time and work. My “Value-Based Pricing & Packaging” Biz Intensive went really well AND I was able to package it up as a self-study course even quicker than I imagined! (Of course, I’d been working on it since February but I hit a block and had to set it aside for awhile. Once I took it back up again, everything fell into place.)
For those who missed the live class, you can now purchase it as a self-study guide from the store (includes 23 page PDF guide of tools, info, exercises and samples and two MP4 presentation videos). Plus, I’m going to give you a HUGE discount for the next few hours only! There’s no special code or anything to enter. Just purchase the product and you’ll automatically get $50 off if you purchase by midnight, August 5 (that’s this Thursday).
I’m really excited about my upcoming Pricing & Packaging Biz Intensive next week. We’ve got a great group of people signed up so far. There are a few more spots available; be sure and sign up by July 19. What you learn in this clinic will blow your mind and revolutionize your business. Plus, as a registrant, you’ll get a ton of hardcopy tools and information to begin you on your journey toward improved billing, marketing and consulting with clients!
In the meantime, I want to invite you to ask me any questions you might have. For example, maybe you aren’t sure what I mean when I ask “Are you selling hours instead of expertise?” Or after watching my quick video below, you want to know more about why selling hours is debilitating your business, limiting your income and scaring away prospective clients. Ask me anything! I’ll post the good ones here for everyone and I will automatically keep your name and information confidential.
Only 5 hours left for my one-time 50% off sale! I won’t hold one of these ever again!
One of the things I’ve been busy with over the past couple months is getting my new online Virtual Assistant Business Forms store up and running. I wanted to put it on its own site to keep it separate from the new Administrative Consultants Association site we are setting up. Just makes things easier all the way around.
Well, this “little” project has taken a bit longer than anticipated. Basically, it’s done, but I have some more info to add on some of the pages as well as some cosmetic design tweaks. In the meantime, I need pre-launch buyers to make sure everything is all polished and runs smoothly. For that reason, I’m holding a 50% off sale for the next 48 hours only. My products are worth every penny they cost so it’s not often I have sales in the first place, and I will never have a sale at this steep a discount ever again. So, if you’ve been holding off buying any of my products, now is the time to get in there. They will never be this low-priced again and like I say, it ends in 48 hours.
Just type in this word into the discount code field when you checkout: 50offsale
Here’s the link: http://virtualassistantbusinessforms.com/
PS: Oh, and even if you don’t buy anything, I really would like to know you like the look of the new store compared with the old page. Is it more pleasing on the eye? Is it easier to navigate? Do you think it’s easier to find the products you’re looking for? Is there anything that is confusing or bugs you about it? I would really appreciate any and all feedback. Thanks in advance! 
Do you have one of those fancy designer laptops?
Do you like to put stickers or skins on your laptop cover?
Do you have a favorite laptop tote?
I’m looking for your pix of your laptop and accessories to share in my weekly ezine, The Portable Business™. Shoot me over a pic (word at grittyva dot com) and I’ll feature you with a link to your website in an upcoming issue!
The 2009 Virtual Assistant Industry Survey is finally done!
As usual, those administrative support providers who met the qualifying criteria and completed the survey get a free copy and will have already received a message in their IN box over the weekend.
For everyone else, you can purchase a copy at the online store (in fact, you can get all four years’ worth of surveys—2006, 2007, 2008 and 2009—for the price of one if you order before May 31!). And, of course, those administrative consultants who missed taking part in the survey will have an opportunity to participate the 2010 survey and thereby get a free copy of next year’s report. Happy reading!
Every week, readers have been sharing photos of their offices in the VACOC’s weekly ezine, The Portable Business™. I get emails all the time from folks telling me how much they enjoy this feature. I’d like to keep it going, but while everyone seems to like it, not as many actually contribute photos. So I’d like to know if you enjoy this feature and would like to see it continue or if I should just bag it. Thanks in advance!
(If you aren’t already, you can subscribe to The Portable Business™ here… )
Dear Gritty VA:
I only have 2 years experience as an Executive Assistant and 6 years as a Receptionist/Data Entry Clerk. Could I still be a Virtual Assistant? Any suggestions are helpful. –BT
Well, it’s not really for me to say. It’s what the marketplace has to say.
What I mean is, yes, the Virtual Assistant/Administrative Support Consultant profession definitely has ideas, opinions and expectations about what the qualifications should be of those who want to enter its ranks. The Virtual Assistant community generally wants to protect the reputation and credibility of the profession in the interests of clients and VAs alike. But ultimately, this is an unregulated industry so no one can tell you that you can’t open a Virtual Assistant business if that’s what you want to do.
That said, clients have very demanding expectations. So the better question might be, do you have enough experience that you will be professionally qualified enough to meet those demands? Business savvy also plays a critical role here because if you don’t know how to run and manage business well, that also will directly impact your service to clients and their satisfaction. If you don’t have a sufficient level of these things, are you prepared to deal with the extra difficulty and rejection you might face? Do you have the stamina, perseverance and tenacity to keep working on whatever you need to work on to get to a level that is marketable? The less skill and experience you have, the much more difficult a path you face. It will be much harder for you to command the kind of fees that will earn you a real living and it may take you much longer to get established. You can be the most likable person on the planet and have no problem developing rapport with prospective clients, but when it comes right down to it, the proof is in the pudding. Clients get frustrated (and do not work long) with VAs who don’t have a business level of skill and ability.
What I might personally recommend is that it might be a good idea to stay in the workforce a few more years. Grab every opportunity to grow in your administrative and support skills and at the same time become a student of business (and I don’t mean enrolling in an MBA program–simply start reading business books). Use this time now to start thinking about a target market and studying what kind of administrative needs and challenges that market has and how you can support those needs and solve those challenges. Lay the foundation of your business now so that when the time is right and you’ve got enough business knowledge and marketable expertise under your belt, you will be more prepared for success.
Then again, maybe you feel you’ve already got what it takes. If so, go for it. 
Ran into this issue and thought I would share what I learned in case it’s helpful to anyone else…
In offering my first training classes, I’ve been getting an education by fire of all the ins and outs of doing webinar recording. I used GoToTraining for my first class. It’s a nice interface, the customer support is awesome and they really do seem to listen and heed user feedback, but there are still enough drawbacks that my hunt continues for a more ideal platform for my purposes in the future. One thing that turned into quite the fiasco was dealing with the recording.
All the Citrix products come with the ability to do the onscreen capture and audio recording of your online meetings for you and they provide a built-in bridgeline as well. On the surface, this sounded mighty easy and convenient, so I naturally opted to do that. And it would have been, if I had no need to do anything to the recording. The problem was that in wanting to clean up the audio/video afterwards and also convert it to a more universal format, I discovered it wasn’t really compatible with Camtasia. This really turned into a nightmare and caused a lot a disruption in the high quality service delivery I naturally wanted those who attended to get from me.
Ah, well, live and learn. We ended up having to separate the audio from the recording, editing it separately in Audacity, and then re-recording the whole 2-hour presentation and synching up the edited audio back up with it.
Yeah, not fun. And maybe there’s another, better, way to do it, but I’m still new to using Camtasia and everything the support people told me to try was not working. Everyone pretty much threw up their hands and could only surmise that the recording I was provided with must have been corrupted in some way (which, I learned later is a known problem).
At any rate, this all led to me determining that while I might use a platform like GoToTraining or WebEx to conduct future webinars, I want to do the recording myself using Camtasia and our own bridgeline. What was stumping me, though, was how would Camtasia record the conference call?
The answer, apparently, is purchasing a devise called a “recording adapter” or “conference recording adapter.” I was told I could purchase one of these from Radio Shack for $19.99. On their website, it’s called a “mini recorder control.” However, in consulting with folks more knowledgeable than I about all the ins and outs of this subject, I was told that it’s not very high quality and also doesn’t work with cordless/wireless phones (which is what I have).
These folks suggested the better option is to go with one of the recording adapters offered by DynaMetric.com. They have two products for this, depending on what kind of phone you have.
a). If you have a corded phone, you want the TMP636 Webinar Recorder which sells for $85.95.
b). If you have a cordless/wireless phone, you want the TLP124HS Cordless Phone Adapter which sells for $84.95. The problem this one solves is the issue of your phone handset not having enough ports (particularly if you use a headset so you can speak hands-free). With this model, one end of the adapter cable plugs into your computer mic port, the other end plugs into your phone handset, and then your hands-free headset plug into a port built into the adapter device itself. Perfect!
These cost more than $20, but they are much better products for higher quality results and more sturdy, long-lasting life.
When you go to record your webinar using Camtasia, after hooking up the adapter, you would then select that option from your “Audio” mic list.
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NOTE: The terms "Gritty VA," "Gritty Virtual Assistant," and "Saucy business savvy for clients and colleagues from a Virtual Assistant industry veteran" did not exist in the public domain when this blog was launched August 2005. The author claims exclusive right to use those terms as identifying marks for this weblog and other written, digitized or electronic use, pursuant to U.S. and International copyright and trademark laws.
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