What strikes me is that there doesn’t seem to be anyone anymore out there (except me) who is trying to help them actually be financially successful as an administrative support business.

It seems that everyone is jumping ship to become something else other than an administrative support biz, or teaching folks everything else EXCEPT how to be financially successful in an administrative support biz.

THAT’S what I find sad… everyone is always trying to dig into their pockets to teach them everything else BUT how to be financially successful as an admin expert.

And then you have all these self-proclaimed industry “experts” who aren’t even VAs telling those in our industry how to be successful. They don’t know the first thing.

Hey, if someone doesn’t want to be in the admin support biz, that’s their prerogative. Everyone should be and do and have the kind of business they love.

But don’t try to pass yourself off as an expert in the admin support biz if that’s not what you actually are.

One of the very first things you have to do to become financially successful is get clear about exactly WHAT you are. Most don’t really know. They just have some vague notion that they “assist” “virtually.” That isn’t a definition of anything.

If you really want to start earning well in the administrative support business, you have to stop being a gopher and an “assistant” and get really clear about what admin support is.

And the reason that’s important is because administrative support comes with a host of unique challenges. We have to battle against unique client mindsets and misconceptions, particularly when it comes to thinking of us as replacement employees. It’s too easy to actually become a substitute employee in this business, which will actually keep you in the working poor. Which is why I’m always, always trying to educate on this topic.

I find it interesting that some of these VA training programs have so many graduates who aren’t actually doing anymore the thing the training program was supposed to help them become successful at–because they couldn’t be financially successful doing it. They had to become another kind of business entirely to become financially successful. And that’s because no one taught them how to be financially successful in THIS business.

I’m not saying folks shouldn’t do something else or move onto another business entirely if that’s what their heart wants to do. What I’m sad about is that those who actually love being in the admin support business and really would rather just do that, but are compelled to look elsewhere because they just didn’t get the right guidance to be financially successful in THIS business.

One of the things we have to battle in our industry to our financial detriment is this idea that VAs do anything and everything. That’s not a definition of anything… that’s merely being a gopher. And people don’t view gophers as experts, they view them as lackeys. You simply will not be able to command professional fees if you allow people to view you as merely as gopher/lackey.

The other subsequent thing that happens when you allow people to perceive you as merely a gopher/lackey and because you have no clear-cut expertise (as in Administrative Support as an expertise) is that they have you chasing your tail around all over the place. They think you should be doing this and that and everything else ON TOP of administrative assistance. That’s because you yourself haven’t defined for them exactly what you are in business to do. And because they don’t view you as any kind of professional expert in anything (“I’m a this, that and the other” isn’t an expertise of any kind), they don’t want to pay you for it, at least not well. You become merely a servant, an order-taker, in their eyes.

This is where you frequently hear me saying “why are you asking a plumber to fix your car?” Because we get these clients who are expecting you to not only provide admin support, but to also be a bookkeeper, a website designer, a graphic designer, a this and a that and so on and so forth. And so, so many VAs are giving this stuff away for free when they should be saying, “I’m in the administrative support business. If you want a web designer, you need to hire a web designer.”

That’s why it’s so important to get clear exactly what you are and what you do in your business. And if you are ALSO something else in your business, to clearly differentiate and denote those dividing lines in your business so you can still be considered an expert in those additional areas (and not merely a gopher/flunky/lacky) and charge separately for them. Because web design and admin support are not the same thing. Because bookkeeping and admin support are not the same thing. Because graphic design and admin support are not the same thing. Because completing a project and providing ongoing administrative support are not the same thing.

Don’t understand? Ask me your questions! I really want to help you get clear on what this means.

All “like-minded people” do is breed sheep. They don’t upset the status quo. They don’t give you meaningful feedback; they give you “nice” feedback.

You don’t grow from surrounding yourself with “like-minded” people. You grow from surrounding yourself with BUSINESS-minded people who will challenge your beliefs, challenge you to think bigger, raise your business consciousness and tell you what you need to hear, not what you want to hear.

Never got a response.

Lord, I hate it when people do that. Don’t fricking waste my time asking me a question if you’re going to ignore me when I reply.

So whatever. Didn’t give it another thought until my phone started ringing off the hook a few weeks later. And I’m talking literally every single day, at least two calls or more from the same phone number, never once leaving a message.

Can we say I-R-R-I-T-A-T-I-N-G?!

Well, I don’t answer the phone. I simply don’t. I don’t need to. I’m not looking for more clients at the moment and if I were, I only talk to the ones who come through my website and go through my consultation form. And I’m sure as heck not answering anyone who refuses to leave a message. It’s phone harassment, plain and simple. If you don’t want to leave a message clearly stating your intentions–who you are and what you want–then I’m not interested. Simple as that. I might be running a business, but I’m a human being first and I refuse to deal with anyone who thinks they can treat people like a number and expects me to prostrate myself for their purposes. Have more respect for those you are calling and, gasp, you might get some back.

Well, after literally over a MONTH of this, whoever is calling from this number FINALLY leaves a message. At the same time, I get an email from this person. She states she is the Virtual Assistant to So-So Internet Marketer and launches into a short spiel about some program this Internet marketer is gearing toward Virtual Assistants, yada yada. Blech. I HATE those things because they are just exploiting Virtual Assistants. I absolutely detest those people. NO ONE has any business teaching VAs anything about Virtual Assistance except other VAs (and then, only the successful ones who have actual experience and substance to offer).

At this point, I’m thinking, how many hundreds of unanswered calls does this person need to get the message that “I’m not talking to you unless you tell me who you are and what you want.” And this is besides the fact that I’m really annoyed at this point and definitely not interested in speaking with anyone who engages in phone tactics like this.

So I reply to the email in the most direct way I can: “Not interested.”

And do you know they still continued to call me several times after that?!

I’m sure this is a perfectly lovely person with the best of intentions, but it’s painfully clear that as far as Virtual Assistance goes, she doesn’t have any business teaching this subject to anyone (or more importantly, taking their money) when she doesn’t know what it takes to work with clients and run a profitable, successful business herself. If she were to just focus on her own business (now there’s a crazy idea) and put half the time and effort into it as trying to sell knowledge and expertise she doesn’t have to unsuspecting hopefuls, she might eventually achieve some actual success.

Buyer beware.

One of the reasons our relationship has deteriorated so much is poor/lack of communication. Tech companies (which is what this one is) are often the ones that fail miserably in this department. As in this case, they tend to think everyone’s world revolves around their product. As if the first thing everyone does in the morning is open up their program to check for messages and notifications from them.

I hate to break it to them, but almost no one does this. Ever.

Most people’s business lives still revolve around and rely on email communication. So when a new version upgrade is out or there are bug patches to be fixed, for example, we’re expecting to be notified by email… to get some kind of message alerting us and prompting us to go to their website or open up their product to place the order or download the upgrade or what-have-you. Without that prompt, you never, ever know. And what ends up happening is you completely miss any inkling of new developments and only find out by accident, sometimes months later, of something you would have like to have known or really needed to know at the time.

Yet that’s what this company and thousands of others do–they never send any kind of email and instead expect customers to go open the product and find out that way. And so those customers don’t ever find out. I’ll learn about some important security release in some completely random accidental way months after the fact and call up only to be told, “Well, we posted a notice inside the admin panel.” I am almost never in the admin panel and the place and the way they post this information, you’d never see it unless you were specifically looking for it.

It’s completely maddening.. and an absolute trust and relationship killer.

So next time you worry about whether your emailing is too much, don’t. Chances are it is completely helpful. Even expected. Better to over-deliver than under-communicate.

What in the hell is a “virtual professional?” What makes someone a “virtual professional? How does that term distinguish one profession from another? What separates particular fields and areas of expertise? How do those two words tell the audience what a virtual professional does, specifically? Oh, that’s right–it doesn’t!

Because a virtual professional could be anyone doing anything virtually who considers themselves professional. So a doctor who sells medical information on a website might call himself a “virtual professional.” Or a building contractor who markets for clients on the Internet might consider himself a “virtual professional.”  Attorneys, handymen, interior designers, architects, you name it. If they sell services or market online, they could all technically consider themselves “virtual professionals.”

Gee, that makes a ton of sense (not)–a word to encompass every living breathing professional on the planet who happens to do business online so that it literally means absolutely nothing.

Lot of good that does me if I’m a client. If I’m looking for a bookkeeper, I’m not going to sit there and go “I know! I’ll look under “virtual professional.” If I’m looking for a web designer or administrative support or whatever other specific expertise or discipline I might be seeking, why on earth would I ever search under “virtual professional?”

I wouldn’t. They wouldn’t. Because it doesn’t mean anything. It wouldn’t even occur to anyone to do that. And even if it did, the results would be all over the place. They’d have to sort through pages and pages of all the inane, irrelevant listings in order to find the one or two (maybe!) that actually did the thing they were looking for. No one is going to do that.

You see, someone asked a question and as usual, out of thousands of members, only a handful offered up any answers and advice. This handful is comprised of the few folks who regularly participate by answering and contributing questions, adding to conversations and just all around going out of their way to give thorough, detailed information that the rest of the list (who sit like bumps on a log and never bother to open their mouths) gets to learn from and take advantage of. The super-participators make up the 20% who are actively engaged in 80% of the conversations and interactions.

Yet every so often, as was the case last week, there will be someone who pipes up to complain that basically the participators are participating too much. And then a few others will chime in with their agreement.

They’ll say things like they are scared to post or reply for fear of ridicule. They’ll point out that the regular participants aren’t the only ones with good advice and expertise to share.  They’ll complain that conversations get “hogged” by the regular contributors. They say they feel like anything they might contribute would be quickly overshadowed.

Seriously?

How does an online conversation get hogged by anyone? If you aren’t speaking up, whose fault is that? Unless someone has physically hog-tied you and duct-taped your mouth shut, no one is “making” you be silent; that’s your choice. If you aren’t asking questions or adding your own two cents, don’t complain that others are dominating the conversation. You have the same option as everyone else to type words on your keyboard and hit the “post” button. And definitely don’t complain if the list is quiet and no conversations are even getting started–what have YOU done to start any yourself?

Give the floor to those same people who complain they “can’t get a word in edgewise” and ask for their feedback and input, and guess what you’ll still get nine times out of 10? Crickets. Because the problem isn’t really other people “hogging” the conversation. That’s just an excuse.

It’s not everyone else’s job to entertain and inform you. How about giving back a little yourself? It’s also not anyone else’s job to hide or dim their own light so that you don’t feel insecure.

There are no “turns” in business. If you want others to see and know how wonderful you are, show yourself. Take a risk. Put yourself out there the same way the active participators do. Ask for what you need. Dive in. Speak up. Exercise your curiosity and share what you know. Don’t hold back. But do own your own fears, jealousies and insecurities. No one else is responsible for them but you. You get to choose to get in the game or sit on the sidelines. But make no mistake–that’s your choice. Just stop whining about it if you choose the latter.

What this really translates to is, “Do you want to be truthful or rich?”

Because the implicit message is that you can’t be honest, really and truly authentic and tell the truth if you want to also be rich.

Frankly, I much prefer to be a truth teller rather than someone who tells people just what they want to hear or manipulates them into paying attention. I have absolutely zero interest in selling my soul for the sake of earning money.

But what I also find interesting is that it implies that being truthful and getting rich are mutually exclusive. Really?

I don’t believe this for a minute. What do you think?

Look beneath the surface. Are these people even in the business they are trying to teach you about? Do they actually DO the thing they profess to have the knowledge about? How can they be Virtual Assistant experts when they are not even VAs themselves?

Don’t buy into slick marketing and promises too good to be true. NO ONE can guarantee you clients. When they start doing that, those are INTERNET MARKETERS and you had better run the other direction with your money because that’s all they are trying to get–is your money, any which way they can. They will tell you whatever you want to hear because they prey on your desperation to believe it will be true. They know that telling people they are guaranteed clients is what will make those folks salivate–and hand over their money–because that’s what they want and need most.

It is reprehensible and anyone trying to sell you that kind of BS is a dishonest, unethical slimeball.