Category Archives: Marketing

Commanding Professional Fees

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Finally getting around to reading Freakonomics by Steven D. Levitt and Stephen J. Dubner. Fascinating read.

Interesting anecdote:

“The economist Richard Thaler, in his 1985 Beer on the Beach study, showed that a thirsty sunbather would pay $2.65 for a beer delivered from a resort hotel, but only $1.50 for the same beer if it came from a shabby grocery store.”

How does this relate to your professional services business? They might be talking about beer, but it harkens to a fundamental truth in business:  “image is everything.”

What that means is that clients and customers are influenced by your professional image. They’re led to believe or make assumptions about how good (or bad) the service/skill/product is based on nothing more than the professional image that is presented. They directly correlate the quality of your skills, services and products with how things “look.” Very often, it’s the only thing they have on which to base their decisions, and it’s not entirely conscious.

This is especially true with professional services. Clients can’t pick up and hold in their hand a “service” like they could with an actual product. A service is intangible. It’s invisible. Because of this, it could be argued that your professional image is even more important in a service-based business.

The look and feel of your website, your writing and communications, the experience of dealing with you–literally everything that prospective clients have any contact with–make up your professional image. It’s going to be one of the most important ingredients in shaping clients’ perception of you and the value, quality and skill you help them believe and see demonstrated.

What that means is that if you are trying to command the higher professional level fees you want and need, you have to “look the part.” If you say you are worth $X a month, but your website and other marketing collateral appears like the “shabby grocery store,” you’re going to have a hard time convincing anyone you’re worth it. Because you haven’t showed up dressing the part of the successful, competent, qualified expert. The incongruency between your words and the “environment” of all those things that make up your professional image will block them.

Often, prospective clients don’t have any other way of judging how you might be better than the next person who says the same thing. But when they see an image that backs up what you say you are about, you are giving them visual proof to believe you. The “environment” of that top-notch professional image sends a message of congruency and instills confidence.

Your copy, too, is part of your professional image. If you write about yourself and your services in lowly terms, as if you are merely a peon or gopher and that the work is only “grunt” work, people will accordingly only view–and pay–you as such. If you don’t respect the work and understand its value and importance, clients won’t respect or value it either.

Your words also shape how clients treat you. So if you are wanting to command professional fees and be treated as an equal partner, a skilled professional with an expertise to share, you’ve got to also re-image your words. You aren’t some lowly peon. You are not a “generalist.” You are an expert and specialist in the art of administrative support and you have an expertise to share that truly does change the lives of your clients.

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Dear Gritty VA: Should I Pay for Advertising?

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Sometimes great questions come to my attention via Google Alerts, which was the case recently. A new Virtual Assistant asked:

“I am just starting out and doing lots of research. I was wondering if anyone has tried using classified and Yellow Pages for advertising. Also, if anyone could let me know other forms of low budget advertising, I would greatly appreciate it.”

Here’s what you have to understand about such advertising:  the amount of money you’d have to spend in order to make those forms of marketing pay off for you in terms of real clients (we call that “ROI–return on investment”), you would have to spend the kind of money–repeatedly and for a great length of time–that most new business owners simply don’t have. And even then, the ROI/conversion rate on that kind of advertising is generally as low as 1%.

That’s not a very good return for the money and effort expended. AND it won’t necessarily bring in specific clients you want to work with.

The good news is that there are alternatives to marketing professional services that actually work FAR better than classifieds and cost very, very little beyond your time and education. It’s called relationship marketing and it’s really very simple:

1. Get really clear about what you are in business to do.

2. Determine a target market. This would be a niche within a profession/industry/field that would have the most need and want for what you are in business to do.

3. Profile your ideal client.

4. Once you know very clearly what you do and who your intended audience is, you can gear your message specifically for that market on your website so that it attracts and draw to you exactly the clients you seek to work with.

5. Knowing who your intended audience is also helps you figure out where to reach out and connect with those likely prospects, both online and off. Once you find those avenues, you begin interacting. Speaking up and participating is what helps people get to know, like and trust you. You’ll begin to build relationships this way, people will send referrals your way and all the while you are creating rapport and establishing trust and credibility, which leads to more prospects contacting you.

Of course, this is where work and effort is involved. And while the steps are simple, getting them done does take some help. I’ve created a step-by-step guide to help folks accomplish this much faster and easier called Articulating Your Value: How to Craft Your Own Unique & Compelling Marketing Message. It’s helped a lot of people make huge hurdles in their business so check it out. :)

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Are Virtual Assistants Employees or Independent Contractors?

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That’s the topic of a recent article on the USA Tax Aid blog here: Are Virtual Assistants Employees or Independent Contractors?

It reinforces something I’ve been telling folks all along about those team/multi VA businesses: ICs are not legally part of team/business and they shouldn’t be listed as such on your website.

What they don’t seem to be able to grasp is that there are legal implications in portraying someone as part of your team. Someone is not part of your team unless they are an actual employee and if you insist on calling them that, you are going to put yourself smack dab on the radar of the IRS.

Which is why the “team/multi VA” is so idiotic. If all they are doing is farming out their work and clients to other companies, there is already a (proper) term for that–it’s called subcontracting. And those people–in order to be considered independent contractors running their own businesses–are not part of their team.

Regardless of your position on subbing out your client work/relationships, the fact is that sub is not legally part of your team. You don’t get to tell them when/where/how and you certainly don’t get to dictate hours and pay. And if you do, then you are going to quickly find yourself owing money and facing a great deal of hassle that could bankrupt your business.

Subcontractors do not need to be and shouldn’t be on your website. It’s not about depriving them of “credit.” If they take on a subcontracting job, they don’t get credit. They are doing the work on behalf of your company. It’s your company whose name goes on the work. That’s just how subcontracting works.

You don’t have to like it. But if you want to argue about it, take it up with your tax authority. I think you’ll be set straight real quick. ;)

This is also another reason why VAs/Admin Consultants (or any business owner) should NOT submit resumes and references–because you then give the wrong appearance that you are an employee applying for a job/position. That’s NOT how business owners market.

Not talking about this and getting the story straight is as stupid, irresponsible and unethical as telling people they don’t have to pay their taxes.

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Dear Gritty VA: How Is the Economy Affecting this Business?

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Dear Gritty VA:

I am considering starting a Virtual Assistant business.  I have been self-employed for 10 years and know about the hard work and research which goes into embarking upon entrepreneurship.  I would like to know how the economy has impacted this business.  On one hand, I can see businesses downsizing employees and benefiting from hiring administration support without the extra costs of taxes and providing benefits, which is more cost effective to their bottom line.  On the other hand, I can also see how some businesses would think hiring a Virtual Assistant can be another added expense to their bottom line. Any feedback from you would be greatly appreciated –DA

Thanks for the question and I’ll do my best to help shed some light so you can look at this another way.  You see, I always struggle with questions like this (which is why it has taken me this long to answer) because… well, how do I say this… it’s not the right question to ask. Not that you are wrong for asking. I’m here to help. :)

So let me try to explain…

The first thing I want to help you get a clearer understanding about is the fact that Virtual Assistants are not replacement staff or contract workers (a contract worker is a legal term for someone who is an employee of a staffing company). In fact, if you read any of the back posts on this blog, you’ll see that I don’t like the term Virtual Assistant at all as it miseducates clients and industry newcomers alike and sets wrong expectations and perceptions right from the get-go (I prefer the term Administrative Consultant). On top of that, when you are running a business, you are not anyone’s assistant anymore than, say, an attorney is an assistant to their clients or a coach is an assistant to their clients and so on.

As someone in this profession, you are providing a skilled professional service, no different than an attorney, an accountant, a bookkeeper, a coach, a designer or what have you. All of these professions, ours included, requires a high degree of specific skill, experience and expertise. We aren’t replacement workers. As administrative experts, we are providing an expertise–the expertise of administrative support–to businesses that require our particular skills and knowledge.

Once you understand things from that perspective, the question isn’t about how the economy is affecting companies that are downsizing. Those aren’t your clients. Because anyone who is simply looking to replace employees at a cheaper cost is not looking to value the skills or the relationship and is only interested in saving money. If you make those folks your clients, you can bank on always being on a hamster wheel trying to fend off competitors willing to work even cheaper than you.

Which leads me to my next point. You will need to educate yourself about who you are seeking to work with and what their motivation is in hiring you. When you seek the right clients, the economy has no bearing on anything at all. You want to focus on a market that truly has a need for the expertise you offer, not the ones whose initial motivation is looking for cheap right from the get-go. So let me walk you through this thought process…

Who is going to truly need and value having an administrative partner? Is it going to be the big company who can afford their own employees or who is only looking to reduce their bottom line? Or is it the solo and boutique companies who run smaller scale operations, often from home offices of their own, that don’t warrant employees  or don’t have anywhere to put them even if they wanted them, but who still need the support and understand how it will help them run a more profitable business and make faster progress? Who do you think has the greater need for what we do and will therefore place a higher value on it because it has more meaning to their business success?

This is why the economy has no bearing once you understand who your market is. Those who need and value what you are in business will pay because people who want or need something, find a way to pay for it. Which again, makes the whole question about the economy irrelevant because you are going to seek only markets who need and value the expertise and are able and willing to afford it.

So your task as a new business owner in this profession is to find a target market who a) has the highest need for what you are in business to do, b) can be found easily enough in order to market to them and fill your practice, and c) earns enough money to pay for professional level fees.

Always remember, you can’t afford to work with anyone who can’t afford you (not my quote, but one I love a lot although I’m not sure of its origins).

Hope that helps!

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How Do We Work Together Virtually?

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This is a common question from clients who are new to working with Administrative Consultants (Virtual Assistants). The word “virtual” throws them for a loop and makes it sound as if it’s some mysterious new mode of operation. In reality, they’ve been working virtually all along with businesses of all kinds and just never realized it. Here’s what I mean…

When you hire an attorney, accountant, designer or any kind of professional, does that person come to your office to do their work? Do they work according to hours you set? Do they sign in and out with you whenever they begin or end working on your stuff?

Sounds silly, right? Of course they don’t do those things. That’s the nature of working with independent businesses and professionals. They do their work from their own places of business and according to their own work schedules, processes and policies. You may or may not have ever even meet in person.

And things get done, right? When you retain someone to draft a contract or design a logo or take care of your accounts, they do what they do without needing to be physically present, right? So how does that happen?

Well, you communicate by phone and email, maybe even video chat. Files are sent by email or fax. Electronic signatures are obtained with tools like Echosign. Working documents are shared and transferred via tools like Dropbox. Shared collaborative workspaces are set up with services such as Airset to keep files and information organized in one place. Remote access or online accounts is sometimes used to get things done on your behalf.

This is the day and age of technology, baby! There is a mind-boggling array of tools and services that make working together “virtually” a breeze. Anyone who uses a computer and has ever done business with any other business or professional has already been working “virtually.”

Clients work with an Administrative Consultant exactly the same way. But people get hung up on the word “virtual.” Which is why I’ve always been an advocate for not using it whatsoever in your marketing.

Reason being, a business is a business. It matters not how or where or when you work. If you’re a traveling salesperson, your vehicle is the platform by which you connect and work with clients. If you are a flower shop, it’s your brick and mortar store. Operating a professional service business is no different–it’s just that the computer happens to be your “office” and your tool for working with clients and delivering your services.

The fact that you are an online business is of no importance. The tools are incidental details–don’t focus on that or you will continue to confuse clients and make it seem much more complicated and mysterious than need be.

And for goodness sakes, stop using the analogy of the administrative assistant or secretary. All that does is confuse clients and keep them (mistakenly) thinking that you are some kind of remote, telecommuting employee.

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Is It Any Wonder Clients Balk at Your Fees?

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I hear from Administrative Consultants (Virtual Assistants) all the time complaining about seeming to only hear from clients who balk at their fees and only want to pay $10-15 an hour. Well, if this is you, I’m here to tell you that almost every bit of this difficulty stems from what YOU are talking about with them on your website and in your marketing message.

There will always be cheapskates in the world who want to devalue other people and get work for free. But that leaves the rest of the prospective client market and they are absolutely influenced by how you “sell” yourself. YOU control what they are focused on. And let me tell ya, what many of you are focusing them on right now is creating the very mindsets you are frustrated with and seek to discourage.

Go to just about any Virtual Assistant website and all you see people talking about in their content is how affordable they are, how they are cheaper than an employee, how much clients can save, discounts here and free hours there…

You think you’re enticing them, but this is all they are seeing and hearing:

Is it any wonder they are so focused on money when all you are doing is talking about money, and specifically about how little you cost and how much they will save?

If you want to attract well-paying clients–clients who expect to pay professional level fees and value the work–you have got to stop talking about money in your marketing message. Period.  You are training them to devalue you. You are telling them that the only thing that is important to them and you is how much you cost.

Let me say that another way… if you all you are talking about is money, all you will attract is money-conscious clients. Do you get that? If your marketing conversation is all about how how cheap, affordable and “competitively-priced” you are, how much they will save and giving discounts left and right, you are going to keep getting clients who are only looking for cheap. They won’t see or hear anything else.

Surely, you actually have something of value to offer… don’t you? So talk about THAT! How does your work improve their business? How does it help them move forward? What problems does it solve? How might their outlook and clarity and stress and mood be improved with your help?

Think of all the ways your work and skill and knowledge contributes to making your clients’ businesses better and focus on those things. The clients you attract with that message will be like night and day. Promise.

And if you want to learn how to stop selling hours and price and package your support based on value and expertise instead, don’t miss my teleclass coming up April 27 and 28. Early bird special pricing ends March 27. Get the details and register here…

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Dear Gritty VA: How Do I Convince Clients They’re Big Enough?

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Dear Gritty VA:

Okay, here is a question. I keep getting the message that “I am just not big enough to outsource yet,” even though they have tasks which they are too busy to schedule to do like blog writing, articles and social media networking. How does one convince an entrepreneur that they are indeed “big enough” to contract with an Administrative Consultant? –ST

The quick answer–you don’t. ;)

You don’t want to focus on the people who think they have to do all their own admin work. If they don’t have the need or the want for what you do, you’re barking up the wrong tree.

The bottom line is those folks are never our clients. It’s a complete effort in futility and a waste of precious time and energy trying to convince them otherwise.

And the ones like that who do become clients often end up being the tiresome, irritating, energy-draining micro-managers and pains-in-the-ass that we all dread working with. Don’t do that. ;)

Focus only on the folks who have a need/want for your support. They are the ones who are open to hearing how you can help them and have a need for what you do and will therefore place greater value on it and be willing to pay . You’ll have greater success in getting clients (and the kind of clients you want) if you do.

It also sounds like one of the reasons you’re talking to the wrong people is because you perhaps don’t have a target market. If you’re trying to talk to anyone and everyone, you’re going to waste a TON of time and energy spinning your wheels not getting anywhere.

If you don’t have a target market and don’t know enough about them to know who has the need, you’re gonna have to get clear on that. There are three first rules for deciding on a target market.

  1. It must have a need for what you’re in business to offer. You’ve no doubt heard the phrase, “trying to sell ice cubes to an Eskimo,” right? Same principle. You can’t sell something to someone who doesn’t want it or need it. When they have a need, they will place great value in how you can help them and therefore be willing to pay for it.
  2. It must be able to afford you. For example, I see lots of Administrative Consultants (Virtual Assistants) wanting to target “mom and pops” and “startups.” But those markets are often the least able to afford any kind of professional services. When this is pointed out to them, they’ll wail, “but they really NEED me!” Look, you gotta stop trying to save the world and “fix” people. You can’t afford to work with anyone who can’t afford you and you’ll go broke and hungry trying. Find the folks who can pay and let the others come to you when they get farther along. You can’t sacrifice your own financial needs and well-being to help them or you won’t be able to help anyone. Take that to the bank. ;)
  3. There must be enough of them that you can easily find and market to enough of them to fill your practice. I won’t say there aren’t exceptions to this rule, but generally, if the market is so obscure and esoteric that there aren’t enough to fill your practice or it’s incredibly difficult to find and interact with them, you’re really going to make your life unnecessarily hard. Find another, easier to find market.

Oh, and if you want to know why you need a target market and how it will dramatically increase the success of your business, here’s an article I originally wrote back in 2008:  Where Is Your Arrow Pointing?

Once you know who you’re talking to specifically, it becomes infinitely easier to find out when and what makes them seek out and be willing to pay for what you’re in business to do. Which is what you then tie directly into your marketing. And that begins and ends with your compelling message. It’s the very foundation of all the rest of your marketing efforts. Marketing isn’t simply going through the motions of marketing activities. Without the foundation of a resonate, compelling, attractive message that appeals to your target market, none of the actual marketing activities is going to really help you.

Learning how to market in a way that allows you to attract the right people, speak to what their emotional interests are and command professional fees is an art and science. It involves understanding your market and marketing psychology. It’s not even difficult. It’s actually pretty simple. The only thing that’s required is a) the focus and direction that a target market gives you, and b) a shift in your thinking and understanding about marketing.

You would really, really find great benefit from my guide, Articulating Your Value: How to Craft Your Own Unique and Compelling Marketing Message to Attract Your Ideal, Paying Clients. Without the foundation of a proper message, none of the actual marketing activities is going to really help you. That’s what this guide is all about–helping you craft your message which is the foundation of any marketing activities you engage in. It’s about marketing and developing not only your own unique, compelling marketing message, but one that helps you command professional level fees.

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How Do I Know If the Virtual Assistant Is Working?

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If you ever have a prospective client ask, “How do I know my Virtual Assistant is working if I cannot see what he/she is doing?” you need to rewrite your marketing message.

That kind of question is a sure sign that you have written about yourself and what you do as if you were a substitute employee or virtual worker instead of an administrative expert and professional service provider.

You will never have a client ask that question if your marketing copy is written properly.

And if you don’t know how to do that, you need my guide: Articulating Your Value: How to Craft Your Own Unique, Compelling Marketing Message (GDE-38).

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Why a Lot of Virtual Assistants Aren’t Joining Your Referral Network

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A woman (not a VA, but someone in the real estate business if I understood correctly) posted to one of the Virtual Assistant forums recently expressing her frustration in finding Virtual Assistants (Administrative Consultants) to join her referral network. She said she receives at least one request a day from clients seeking VAs, but she was having a heck of time finding VAs to join her network and wondered if any of them wanted clients anymore.

She asked for feedback on what she might be missing. My response was this:

“It also depends on the request. Many Virtual Assistants/Administrative Consultants are turned off by requests that indicate the business owner does not understand the nature of the relationship (one of business owner to business owner), speaks in employment terms, or otherwise appears to be seeking either an employee or a flunky, rather than a skilled professional in the expertise of administrative support.”

Which is exactly what goes on so much of the time. So many potential clients these days have been misinformed about the nature of our work and the relationship (which, by the way, is our own fault, not theirs). Without knowing it, they speak to us in ways that raise our red flags that this is a client who “doesn’t get it” and “could be difficult to work with” and “sounds like he thinks I’m going to be at his beck-and-call like an employee.” And there you have that first disconnect.

It doesn’t help that the term “Virtual Assistant” has branded itself as the cheap labor pool of flunkies. So when you have a segment of the marketplace with that perception, that definitely colors how they look upon the work, what they’re looking for (cheap, which you can’t be if you’re in business) and how they approach VAs.

Anyway, after a few responses, the woman went on to lament that she was seeking skilled Virtual Assistants with “qualified references” and those who were interested in real partnering relationships. It also turned out that she charges a fee to join her network. She was really frustrated; she thought she had such a kick-butt idea but it was falling on deaf ears.

I could tell her that using phrasing such as “qualified references” is often an indication that someone doesn’t understand the nature of the relationship. Employees provides references. Business owners offer testimonials and case studies and such.  That would be my first red flag that this could be person expecting some kind of employment dog and pony show which is not how you approach a business-to-business relationship.

But here again, the term “Virtual Assistant” confuses clients and contradicts things and causes exactly this kind of misunderstanding and miscommunication. If you are a business owner, you aren’t anyone’s assistant. You are an administrative support expert. We keep saying we are business owners and experts in our own right, but then we go and negate all that by calling ourselves assistants.

It’s no wonder so many poor clients just don’t understand. Gotta stop that, folks. Moving onto a term like Administrative Consultant helps alleviate these kind of issues and better advances the perceptions and understandings we want and need for clients to have so that there is more alignment in understandings and expectations and we can have better, more productive initial conversations.

Getting back to this woman’s dilemma, I could tell her the other part of the problem which is that the kind of VAs (Administrative Consultants) she’s seeking don’t need those kind of referrals and therefore aren’t interested in paying for them. Those who are more established and successful have learned how to create their own pipelines. They don’t need to pay someone else to find clients for them.

And even if they did join, there’s nothing guaranteeing that the prospects they are sent are the kind of qualified prospects they want. Just because you have a boatload of potential clients seeking VAs doesn’t mean they are going to be the kind of clients VAs want to work with or that any of them match an individual VA’s particular target market and ideal client profile.

There are just too many other, more effective and direct ways for Virtual Assistants (heck, any business owners) to find exactly the kind of clients they want for free. And those who know how to create their own pipelines don’t want or need to pay for referral networks to do it.

Time to Take the 2011 Virtual Assistant Industry Survey!

UPDATE: 479 participants so far! Spread the word so we can reach goal by April 1!

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Watch Out Who You Take Advice From

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People who try to pose as industry experts who don’t do their own work and merely offshore it to cheap third-world workers are no industry experts.

Anyone trying to position themselves as some kind of trainer or mentor in our industry and then teaching you how NOT to earn well in your own economy is no industry expert.

Use your brain and discernment. Stop falling for smoke and mirrors and flash in the pan gimmicks.

If you live in the developed world and economy, you can’t live, much less create a self-sustaining business, off the kind of fees that third-world countries charge. And anyone who calls normal, professional-level fees “excessive” has never worked with upper-level clients (the kind you want) and isn’t someone who should be advising you if you want and need to earn well in your own economy.

But people like that also do not know what administrative support is. They aren’t doing the work we do so they don’t get it. All they are doing is merely piecemeal, transactional secretarial work. When you say “virtual assistance” to them, all they think it is is typing and answering the phone.

Anyone who provides support–and not merely piecemeal project work–knows that our work is vastly more involved and complicated and requires more skill, experience and sensibility than simply being a secretary. Do you really want to take advice from people who don’t even understand what it is this business is all about and who understand even less what administrative support is, often because they themselves lack that kind of background and experience?

Use your heads, people.

They can’t help you learn how to market and be able to charge well because they themselves don’t know how to do it and think all they are capable of charging is “fair” (code for cheap, third-world) rates.

Learning how to market in a way that allows you to charge professional level fees (not third-world rates) in your own economy is absolutely doable. It is an art and science, though, and involves understanding the market and marketing psychology. You won’t learn that kind of thing from people who don’t know how to charge well themselves.

Time to Take the 2011 Virtual Assistant Industry Survey!

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