Administrative Support – The Gritty Virtual Assistant Blog

Tag Archives: Administrative Support

Dear Gritty VA: How Should My Client Market?

December 8, 2010 – 10:00 am

Dear Gritty VA: I have a client who only sells wholesale products with an occasional retail customer. I have convinced him to think about sending a mass email marketing campaign/newsletter for his wholesale customers since his previous website designer never even introduced this idea to him. His response was that he only sells to wholesale [...]

Why Are You Asking a Plumber to Fix Your Car?

December 3, 2010 – 10:00 am

If you’re a plumber, you wouldn’t expect people to ask you to fix their car, right? You’re someone who deals with plumbing, pipes and fixing toilets, not someone who works on cars. So if people are asking you to fix their car, perhaps you aren’t making it clear exactly what business you are in and [...]

By Danielle Keister | Posted in Business Savvy, Marketing, Virtual Assistant/Virtual Assistance | Also tagged Administrative Consultants, Distinguishing Business Categories, Virtual Assistance, Virtual Assistant, Virtual Assistants | Comments (2)

Take These Words Out of Your Vocabulary

October 28, 2010 – 10:16 am

We are having a great conversation about yet another dumb article about Virtual Assistants over on our Facebook group page. One thing I am always trying to get through to Virtual Assistants and Administrative Consultants is to take certain words out of their vocabulary when it comes to their marketing and conversations with clients. First, [...]

By Danielle Keister | Posted in Business Savvy, Marketing | Also tagged Administrative Consultant, Virtual Assistance, Virtual Assistant, Virtual Assistants | Comments (1)

Might be a Great Target Market for an Enterprising Virtual Assistant

August 26, 2010 – 10:00 am

I love listening to NPR in the evenings. This week, they’ve been doing a three-part series about doctors in primary care. In this series, they reported on the catastrophic shortage of primary care doctors who provide basic health care (they make around $150,000 a year compared to the multiple six-figure incomes of specialists), and took [...]

By Danielle Keister | Posted in Business Savvy, Marketing, Virtual Assistant/Virtual Assistance | Also tagged Doctors in Solo Practice, Primary Care Doctors, Virtual Assistance, Virtual Assistant, Virtual Assistants | Comments (4)

Another Idiotic Post About Virtual Assistants

August 11, 2010 – 10:00 am

Saw another idiotic post about Virtual Assistants come through on my Google Alerts. Articles like these are responsible for miseducating the marketplace into thinking Virtual Assistants are some kind of substitute employee–which they are not. It’s also why we have so many new VAs coming into this profession thinking they are substitute employees filling a [...]

By Danielle Keister | Posted in Business Savvy, Virtual Assistant/Virtual Assistance | Also tagged illegal misclassification of employees; tax cheats, Virtual Assistance, Virtual Assistant, Virtual Assistants, Virtual Assistants are not employees | Comments (9)

Why Would I Work with a Virtual Assistant?

July 12, 2010 – 10:00 am

You might be asking yourself, “Why would I pay someone else to do administrative work I can do myself? It seems like it would be easier and cheaper to do it myself.” The operative word here is “seems.” Because in all honesty, trying to do everything yourself actually exacts a heavy price in your business, [...]

By Danielle Keister | Posted in Virtual Assistant/Virtual Assistance | Also tagged Administrative Consultant, Virtual Assistance, Virtual Assistant, Virtual Assistants | Comments (1)

The Difference Between Project Work and Providing Support

July 6, 2010 – 10:00 am

Here’s one way to understand the difference between project work and providing support: A one-time project is like a one-night stand. You are strangers and don’t know each other at all. You do it once and never see that person again. Occasional project work with a repeat customer is like a booty call or friends-with-benefits. [...]

By Danielle Keister | Posted in Business Savvy, Virtual Assistant/Virtual Assistance | Also tagged project work, providing support, relationship | Comments (1)

Administrative Support IS a Speciality All Its Own

April 12, 2010 – 10:00 am

Guess what, people? Administrative support IS a specialty in and of itself. You CAN specialize in just administrative support and do as well as any other kind of specialized service professional. The problem, the reason why clients don’t get it much of the time and why Virtual Assistants as an industry are not earning well, [...]

By Danielle Keister | Posted in Business Savvy, Marketing, Virtual Assistant/Virtual Assistance | Also tagged Defining Categories of Business, Virtual Assistance, Virtual Assistant, Virtual Assistants | Comments (1)

Do You Understand the Difference?

February 2, 2010 – 10:00 am

Sometimes I’ll read things from other Virtual Assistants and I have to wonder whether they understand the difference between a project and providing support. In case you’re confused, I thought I’d talk about it here… A project is something that is basically one-off, one-time work. It has a start and a finish. Web design is [...]

By Danielle Keister | Posted in Business Savvy, Virtual Assistant/Virtual Assistance | Also tagged Virtual Assistants | Comments (1)

You are Not a Generalist

November 20, 2009 – 10:00 am

I frequently hear Virtual Assistants refer to themselves as “generalists” and I always wonder why they denigrate themselves like that. It’s like saying “I’m just a mom” or “I’m just the help.” It’s certainly not attractive marketing-wise. It portrays what you do as unimportant and of less value or consequence. It implies that there is [...]