Rant & Raves – The Gritty Virtual Assistant Blog

Category Archives: Rant & Raves

October 7, 2008 – 10:00 am

Do You Want a Critical Thinker or An Obsequious Lapdog?

Ugh.

I came across a blog post recently where the writer was not happy with his offshored Virtual Assistant. He complained that while on the surface, everything always seemed to be rosy and peachy keen, closer inspection of the Virtual Assistant’s work would reveal problems and errors.

He loved that the VA always replied with politeness and an overwhelming positive attitude. She would rephrase his requests in a way that made it seem like she understood what was wanted and never failed to send an enthusiastic confirmation email once a task was completed.

But once he’d have a look, he’d find that the work wasn’t completed at all to what he had asked for and he’d have to spend all kinds of time and energy

To be sure, the issues here are almost certainly multi-fold. He might himself have a problem communicating his needs effectively. And whenever you offshore, I don’t care how well the English seems to come off, there just are always going to be cultural gaps that prevent clear communication from happening.

But what stood out most in his description of this Virtual Assistant was that he had a dutiful, obedient lapdog–not a collaborative partner.

I have to say to business owners… of course you want someone who is positive and energetic. But don’t let servile, deferencial fawning fool you into thinking you have a partner and critical thinker. There’s a difference between an obsequious lapdog and someone who truly has the administrative chops, expertise and experience to work with you to get things done. Someone who is more concerned about stroking your ego is not going to provide you with the truly collaborative partnership that is going to be effective.

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By Danielle Keister | Also posted in Virtual Assistant/Virtual Assistance | Comments (0)

September 25, 2008 – 10:00 am

Will the REAL Business Owners Please Stand Up

Real business owners recognize that starting a business will be one of the toughest jobs they ever took on.

Real business owners know that success will not happen overnight.

Real business owners that anything worth doing is worth doing well.

Real business owners know that anything worth doing or having will require real work, commitment and perseverance on their part.

Real business owners know that their life and circumstances are their responsibility. They own their own choices and decisions and don’t blame others (playing victim) for their errors, faults or shortcomings.

Real business owners understand that they will need to spend money to make money.

Real business owners invest in themselves and their business in order to become successful.

Real business owners know that they are not owed a free lunch by everyone else in the world.

Real business owners don’t obligate people to do for them out of pity.

Real business owners are professional and don’t think they are entitled to everyone else’s time and attention.

Real business owners pay attention, extend mutual courtesy and respect, and bring something to the table.

Real business owners don’t think it’s everyone else’s job in life to volunteer their time and money to subsidize their business.

In understanding these things, real business owners exemplify professionalism, resourcefulness, self-determination and empowerment.

By becoming a conscious, living embodiment of these things, they show themselves to be generous and gracious. Those who don’t show themselves to be greedy, lazy, professional victims; users who are all take and no give.

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By Danielle Keister | Comments (0)

September 4, 2008 – 10:00 am

What a bunch of BS

What is up with self-appointed "industry leaders" teaching your marketplace to think you should charge less if you are a "new" Virtual Assistant?

For the most part, the folks who enter this industry (and what the rest of the industry expects) are highly skilled, vastly experienced and led accomplished professional lives in the workforce (our survey indicates an average of 15-20 years in upper-level administrative positions) before opening their businesses.

That qualification doesn’t disappear just because you open a business. In fact, it’s generally the reason you felt qualified to open your business in the first place. Just because you are new to the industry does not diminish the skill, talent and expertise you offer one bit. The value of the support you provide to clients and what it helps them accomplish in their businesses has nothing to do with the age of your business.

It’s a crock and you should be outraged by any "leader" who is telling the marketplace that "newbie" Virtual Assistants should charge less. Those people aren’t looking out for your interests or the profession’s.

And by the way, "newbie" is such a disrespectful term. If you’re a Virtual Assistant, you might be a new business owner, but you ain’t new to the work. At the Virtual Assistance Chamber of Commerce, if we have to make distinctions at all for the sake of a conversation, we prefer "freshman."

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June 18, 2008 – 10:00 am

Aw… Thanks!

Nothing does my heart better than to hear about how the products and information I’ve provided to the Virtual Assistant industry are helping folks. I get lovely messages all the time and I thought maybe I would start sharing those occasionally.

The other day, I got some nice feedback from two new Virtual Assistants who purchased the Virtual Assistant agreement templates.

Melody Hufford wrote…

“The Virtual Assistant Retainer Agreement saved me much time in creating my own. The client was pleased with the professionalism and clarity of the contract, and I appreciated the layout and presentation.”

Natasha Rubin wrote…

“It was all laid out for me and I did not have to create something from scratch. I also took the forms to my attorney for feedback and he thought they were the best he had ever seen!”

I am so pleased to hear that, ladies! I wish you all the success in the world!

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By Danielle Keister | Also posted in Cool Stuff, Virtual Assistant/Virtual Assistance | Tagged Virtual Assistance, Virtual Assistant, Virtual Assistants | Comments (0)

February 12, 2008 – 7:42 am

Latest Virtual Assistant Scam Alert

There is a new scammer out there targeting Virtual Assistants. This particular person (or persons) is currently going by the name of Larry Ellison. He’s asking Virtual Assistants to submit short articles to him, luring them with the hope that if they are good enough, they may be hired onto his planned "barn" of Virtual Assistants.

What this guy is trying to do is 1) get free work done for him, and 2) he’ll then most likely use these articles to post on what is probably hundreds of scam/spam dummy blogs he’s got set up. The email itself may be a ploy to get people to hit reply on it (you never want to reply to spam/scam/spoof emails).

Don’t be a bonehead: If you are smart business owner and competent Virtual Assistant, you NEVER need give away your value or work product for free in order to gain a client. If that kind of client knocks on your door, tell’em "no, thank you very much."

That should be your first clue to ignore this kind of request. The second clue is that this person doesn’t provide any business-like information that can be verified or checked into in any way.

So if you receive an email similar to the one below, hit delete and don’t look back:

Hi there,

I have a pretty big project that I am working on right now and need couple of Virtual Assistants who have nice creativity in writing quality articles on any topic they think they are master of. My work load will be increasing in the coming future (approx 16 hours everyday) & I am planning to have more than 10 VA’s.

Each article will be taking approx 15 minutes to jott down your thoughts and documenting it.

To choose the right Virtual Assistant for me, I have bought a plagiarism checking software so please invest 1 hour for this long term relationship and write 2 original articles of 400-500 words.

I need to make my decision later this week or early next week , so if you are interested in getting a long term contract , I look forward for your reply.

Regards,

Larry

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By Danielle Keister | Also posted in Business Savvy, Virtual Assistant/Virtual Assistance | Tagged Virtual Assistance, Virtual Assistant, Virtual Assistant Scams, Virtual Assistants | Comments (0)

July 19, 2007 – 9:48 am

RANT: Virtual Assistants are Not Temps or Telecommuters!

I’m usually the first to tell Virtual Assistants not to get too frustrated or upset at business owners who approach them as if they were a temp or telecommuter or employee they don’t pay taxes on. Because frankly, this industry has done a lousy job of educating it’s own marketplace, and therefore these folks just don’t know any better.

We’ve now got bunches of business owners who think Virtual Assistants are little more than lackeys who will jump at a moment’s notice at their every beck and call for $5-8 an hour. Forget about any respect or appreciation for the work. They think any ol’ high school student can do it.

They have no understanding or concept that they are dealing with administrative professionals, independant administrative consultants with years of expertise and training behind them, who have their own operating hours, their own standards, their own policies and procedures for working with clients.

But there are days when I, too, am completely drained and fed up at having to educate yet. another. business owner. that if they want an employee, that’s exactly what they need to go hire. What is so freaking hard to understand about that?

When you want an alternative to employees, then you had better expect that there are going to be differences about how things work, how it will be priced professionally, and that it’s not necessarily going to be any cheaper.

The value that an independent Virtual Assistant pro brings to the table is that they can often do things better, faster, more efficiently and improved and thorough–without the training, management, equipment, taxes, administration and any other costs normally required with employees–and can support a small business owner administratively in as little as 15 or 20 hours a month. Much to the business owner’s success and overall cost savings.

But as self-directed and self-managed business owners, we provide that skill and expertise according to the policies, procedures and standards we have set in our own business. Just like any other independent consultant you seek services from. We aren’t telecommuters or temp agencies of flunkies, and we don’t work around the clock (every business has open and close hours).

So I’m letting off a little steam here today so that the next business owner who ignorantly and insultingly demands, "Oh, and I’ll need someone who is available sometimes at midnight on a moment’s notice," doesn’t get the brunt of my indignation.

I guess I could always tell them, "Yeah, I can guarantee my availability 24 hours a day. My hourly fee for that is $200 an hour, with a minimum of 160 hours a month. And since I wouldn’t be able to take on any other clients due to the fact that you might need me at a moment’s notice, you will also need to deduct, pay and report for my SS, Medicare and unemployment taxes. Now, I am just a human being. I will occasionally get sick, and I’ll need a week off here and there to refresh, so we should probably throw in some of those benefits as well. And while we’re at it, I have my future to think about. If I’m necessarily working exclusively for you, my income potential is going to be limited so I’ll also need some kind of retirement plan…"

Oh, but wait… All that would make me an employee. And that’s what you didn’t want, right? ; )

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By Danielle Keister | Also posted in Virtual Assistant/Virtual Assistance | Tagged Virtual Assistance, Virtual Assistant, Virtual Assistants | Comments (0)

May 31, 2007 – 11:56 am

How to Alienate the Virtual Assistant Market 101

A whole lotta Virtual Assistants are up in arms right now.

See, there’s this publicity expert who has decided to jump on the latest get-rich-quick, Virtual Assistant exploitation trend with her $500 training course designed to train Virtual Assistants on how to become publicity "experts" just like her in only four days.

At first, I thought this would be a terrific resource for Virtual Assistants, and this person is someone I have promoted on my Virtual Assistant organization as having great information.

However, this expert has made the egregious error of insulting at such a base level the very people who would be her students–it’s almost comical what a horrible mistake in marketing she’s just committed.

How she’s gone about this is in her marketing, instead of talking directly to the professional business owners (us Virtual Assistants) who would be her students, she instead has taken the tactic of addressing our clients, telling them they need to "send us" to her class–as if we were their employees. It’s like two people talking together about someone else’s future with that person standing in the same room as if they were invisible and had no say in the matter. The condescension and gall of it just blows my mind!

Then she’s developed some template text that she has provided to her affiliates (along with the attendant bribe of a "fat" commission) so they can help sell her program. In particular, there’s this sentence here:

"If you already have an assistant who does little more than administrative chores, it’s time to turn your assistant into someone who can assume many of the duties of promoting your product, service, cause or issue."

"Little more than" administrative chores?! That remark is so patently offensive.

How dare you demean and trivialize the value and importance of what we do in our profession, not to mention the real skill and knowledge it requires! Those "mere" administrative chores are the backbone of every single business, and it takes every bit of talent and intelligence to do well as any other profession.

Personally, I’ve spent 25 years developing the superior skillsets and knowledge that in turn benefits my clients and makes their businesses run more smoothly and profitably than they could ever accomplish themselves. Every single one of them will tell you that, too.

With all due respect to our clients, it’s not their place to "send us" anywhere or "turn us into" whatever they please. I run my business, and the only person who makes decisions in MY business and decides what services I’ll provide is ME. Period. If we TOGETHER decide something is beneficial for me to support them with, is something I feel I’m able to provide competently and am willing to provide, THEN and ONLY THEN does that become work they may delegate to me.

I am NOT supporting her in this program. Had she been more respectful in her marketing and how she spoke both to and about us, I would have supported it wholeheartedly.

Not now, though.

On principle I would not give her a penny because of the damaging and insulting way she is training people to think of Virtual Assistants and the work we do, and talking about us in the third person as if we don’t have a say in what training we will invest in our own businesses.

She’s made it plain as day exactly how little respect she has for Virtual Assistants. Personally, I’m done with her. She ain’t gonna be mining my pockets or those of my clients while demeaning and disrespecting me and my profession at the same time.

A few of my members have reported writing to this expert in an effort of professional courtesy in starting a dialogue, and received very dismissive responses. My members came up with the idea of unsubscribing from her mailing lists. I’ve taken their cue and also done so, and I’ve deleted her crap off our resource pages. She ain’t the only game in town and I’m sure there are much more respectful experts out there (Bill Stoller of the Publicity Insider comes to mind) who we can follow without debasing ourselves through the association with them.

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By Danielle Keister | Also posted in Business Savvy, Virtual Assistant/Virtual Assistance | Tagged joan stewart, publicity expert, publicity hound, Virtual Assistance, Virtual Assistant, Virtual Assistants | Comments (8)

May 24, 2007 – 9:57 am

If I Hear Another Word about the Four-Hour Work Week and Outsourcing to India, I'm Going to Scream

For God’s sakes, can this society please pull its head out of its crack, stop being such greedy, tacky cheapskates and start looking at the bigger, longer-term picture beyond its own self-absorbed ass?

I’m happy for Timothy Ferriss that he’s quite the media darling of the moment with his gimmicky-entitled book, “The Four Hour Work Week.”

It’s hype. It’s spin. You will never, ever achieve a four-hour work week. Not unless you’re a wealthy CEO with unlimited financial resources at your disposal. Sorry to burst your gullible, gotta-jump-on-every-snake-oil-salesman’s-new-bandwagon bubble, but it just ain’t gonna happen.

Look, there IS some excellent advice in there, such as not multi-tasking and putting some structure, standards and better habits in place for things like checking emails and answering phone calls. But it’s this kind of advice that really pisses me off:

“Outsource tasks that bog you down to overseas companies for as little as $5 an hour (many of these businesses have employees with MBAs and Master’s degrees who are thrilled to do your bidding).”

For Christ’s sake, for those of you desperately trying to grow your own business and market online–look around you at your fellow business owners. Yeesh, look at your own circumstances. You are cheapskating each other right into the poor house.

And in the process, you’re contributing to the problems and decline of your own country’s economy.

Why on earth do you think you deserve to be paid the professional fees you charge, but expect third world rates for the professional services you need, and won’t give business back to the very community you take money from? What kind of business climate do you think you’re helping to create? How long can we sustain a dynamic like that? Your very own countrymen cannot make a living because cheap people like you won’t pay them fair and square market rates.

You know what the most just rewards would be for the cheapskates out there (which is already, verrrry slowly beginning to happen)? For the Indians and others to realize they are selling themselves short and to start charging their international clients the same market rates as everyone else. And gee, if you don’t give a crap, well, I think maybe you deserve $5 an hour clients as well. Personally, I refuse to give my business to anyone who engages in offshoring like that.

Hey, are you from India and reading this? Shoot, you thought you were getting rich on $5 an hour? Come on, these lazy exploiters are taking advantage of you. Use their greed against them. You can squeeze far more than $5 an hour out of them and REALLY get rich!

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By Danielle Keister | Also posted in Personal Musings | Comments (4)

April 3, 2007 – 8:39 am

iPowerWeb–Crappy Customer Service

I am completely fed up with crappy service. Let me tell you about my experience today, which so far has wasted an hour of my business time.

I have many domains registered with iPowerWeb. I called them today to pay early for some domain renewals.

So I get this fellow on the phone who proceeds to interrupt me every other word and try to finish my sentences. No, I tell him when he tries to think ahead of me, THESE are the domains I am paying for today…

He then proceeds to state, dripping with sarcasm, "Okay, if you don’t want to pay for your expired domains, that’s up to you…"

And I tell him I don’t have any expired domains, and I begin to explain that I have messages directly iPowerWeb that tell me exactly when each domain expires–all of which are in the future.

Again he interrupts, and when I try to get him to listen, he continues TO TALK VERY LOUDLY OVER ME SO I CAN’T TALK.

I finally shout HELLO? WHO IS IMPORTANT HERE? THE CUSTOMER OR…

And he hung up on me. This, after I spent God know how much time on hold just waiting to get through.

So then I call back, again over 10 minutes on hold, and when someone finally gets on I ask to speak to a supervisor. After having to dance around with yet another CSR, she finally agrees to allow me to speak to a supervisor. I then wait several more minutes, and what do I get? Voicemail! And no way to get back into the call qeue.

So now as I sit here waiting on my third call to iPowerWeb on this issue, I am appalled at the level of crappy service I am experiencing and have to vent here.

I’m thinking I transfer my domains to another registrar. I absolutely won’t pay money to any company for treatment like that. And I’d advise you to do the same.

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By Danielle Keister | Also posted in Business Savvy | Tagged ipowerweb, ipowerweb.com | Comments (5)

March 20, 2007 – 10:52 am

I Really Hate Sales Pages

You know what I’m talking about?

Those long, run-on pages of text filled with giant headlines and full of all kinds of hyperbole and implied promises of overnight wealth and success. All you have to do is buy their secret formula.

I see a page like that, and my immediate reaction "sleazy snakeoil salesman."

People know in their guts when something is icky. You might not be able to put your finger on it exactly or quite articulate why it’s icky, but you just know it.

The latest creative argument from the peddlers (i.e., Internet marketers) selling this baloney is that anyone who objects makes the mistake of thinking they are the target market. So anyone who expresses their gut-level disdain is automatically "not our target market." Oh, how convenient.

So who exactly is the target market then? I know who it is. It’s any dumb sucker willing to believe the hype. Internet marketers prey on people’s own greed, laziness and cheapness.

Does the sales page work? Sure. It works on all the aforementioned greedy, lazy, cheap dumb suckers who desperately want to believe that there is some secret magic formula to creating massive numbers of customers and getting rich quick.

Do I ever want to make money that way? By preying on the ugliest traits of human psychology?

Absolutely not. I’m not in business to make money off dumb suckers.

Successful, effective marketing doesn’t require you to be misleading, dishonest or unprincipaled.

Excellent copywriting and design can communicate and accomplish all your marketing objectives without any of the sleazy manipulations the sales page peddlers tout.

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