Dear Gritty VA:

Love your blog. Just one question: In terms of finding other administrative consultants to refer clients to that I cannot or will not serve, how do I know who is good or not? Is there a way around shooting in the dark? –TJ

Great question! Here are a few thoughts and ideas for ya:

1. Don’t feel like you have to refer to actual colleagues if you don’t know anyone yet. If you are new to the industry, it will simply take time to get to know others well enough to decide who you’d be comfortable referring prospective clients to. As you recognize, your reputation is sort of tied to the referrals you make, too, so you want to make sure you only refer to those who are competent and professional. You never want to make a recommendation willy nilly.

2. Getting involved in industry organizations, forums and listservs is really the only way to get to know colleagues. As you interact with others, you’ll begin to notice those folks who really stand out in terms of demonstrating their competence, professionalism and knowledge.

3. Taking that a step further, make a point of establishing relationships with those folks and become referral partners for each other.

4. Another way to help those clients out that you can’t or don’t want to work with, when you don’t have a specific person to refer them to, is to simply provide them with a link to an industry directory or two. That’s a perfectly helpful gesture as well.

Dear Gritty VA:

I finally have a new client (who has signed the Virtual Assistance Retainer Agreement I ordered from you and customized for my business–thank you!). However, the client emailed me wanting me to sign a confidentiality/non-disclosure agreement which the owner forgot to give me at our meeting. Would that be necessary to do? –ST

Having a client ask you to sign a confidentiality agreement is a normal, reasonable request. And here’s why:

When working with clients, especially in our line of work, we are often privy and have access to their intellectual property and other proprietary knowledge, processes and information. Naturally, they wouldn’t want you to be taking their intellectual capital and proprietary information and using it for your own benefit, making derivative use of it in your own business, or in any way sharing or disclosing it to others. So the idea behind a confidentiality/non-disclosure agreement is that you’re basically making a legal promise that you won’t do that and if you breach that promise, they can seek injunctive relief and damages against you.

The reverse can also be true. You might have intellectual property and proprietary processes and information that clients become privy to that you wouldn’t want them sharing with others or repurposing for their own benefit. If you have any intellectual capital or proprietary information you want to protect, you might have clients sign your own confidentiality/non-disclosure agreement before working together.

But, as with any kind of legally binding contract, you want to be sure you know what you are signing and not signing away any reasonable right or recourse or be held to any unreasonable standard or liability. One thing in particular you want to look out for is any language that talks about you not working for anyone else doing the work you do. This is usually associated with terms like “non-competition.” (You’ll see this kind of language especially if they are using a generic agreement like you get at OfficeDepot or something—very, very bad idea as those things are fraught with terrible legal languaging and loopholes that expose both sides to liability.) If that kind of language is in there, you want to ask them to take it out before you sign anything. You’re a business and no one has the right to expect you to not work with other clients doing the very thing you are in business to do.

Another thing I want to mention that I see all the time in the VA world is this silliness about automatically providing clients with a confidentiality agreement. This is not your responsibility. That would be like a tenant providing the lease agreement to the landlord. Or a policyholder providing the insurance policy to the insurance company. The party with the confidential information at stake is the one who writes the instrument protecting and explaining the relationship, not the other way around.  So, if a client has IP they want to protect, it’s up to them to hire their own attorney and provide you with their own agreement. It’s not your job to do that for them and you could be creating more liability for yourself than is necessary.

And as the saying goes, I am not an attorney. This is not to be construed with legal advice, just my knowledge based on 14 years in business. I hope it helps, but when it comes to legal matters, you should always, always seek the advice and guidance of an attorney.

Ever hear a client utter these words? It’s probably the most grating sentence in the Virtual Assistant world today.

But what if you knew exactly how to respond… what if you offered your services in a way that didn’t focus whatsoever on hourly rates? Wouldn’t that be a total game changer? It’s not so annoying when you actually begin to love responding to that kind of question (or when you don’t even get it in the first place).

…If you frequently encounter price resistance with clients and want to know what to do about it;

…If you have trouble getting clients to commit;

…If you struggle with articulating your value to clients, talking about your fees and feeling confident in them;

…If you find the whole topic of pricing difficult, I can help you!

Today is the last day to register for my Value-Based Pricing & Packaging Biz Intensive. I have just a few spots left. What I will teach you in this clinic will help you:

• Attract more clients, more easily;
• Make more money;
• Create an easier business to run;
• And toss out those time sheets forever!

…all without discounting, negotiating or justifying your fees whatsoever!

Learn more and register by midnight tonight >>

I’d love to “see” you there!

]]> http://www.grittyva.com/2010/07/19/why-should-i-pay-that-when-i-can-get-a-temp-or-offshore-va-for-5-bucks-an-hour/feed/ 3 http://www.grittyva.com/2010/07/15/how-to-stop-selling-hours-and-start-selling-support/ http://www.grittyva.com/2010/07/15/how-to-stop-selling-hours-and-start-selling-support/#comments Thu, 15 Jul 2010 17:49:18 +0000 Danielle Keister http://www.grittyva.com/?p=4304

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.

Dear Gritty VA:

I submit final draft of my business plan to my mentor soon (I can’t thank you enough for the Virtual Assistant Business Plan template you have included in your packages). My question is for the financial aspect of the business plan… calculating the income taxes. There are so many websites out there and not one that offers suggestions of what a Virtual Assistant/ home-based business could file. I mean, you have state, federal, etc. Is it just the same when you are taking an owner’s withdrawal vs. salary? I really want to check all of my resources before I pay an accountant for the same thing I can find myself. –MK

I love to see how you are doing your actual homework! I can’t stress enough to new business owners the importance of not being penny wise and pound foolish. What I mean by that is I think every business owner should do this homework to make sure they have a good grasp of these things. That way, when they do talk with an accountant and/or business attorney, the information makes more sense; they understand it at a more cellular level. But even after doing your own homework, it is more than wise to still consult with an accountant and/or business attorney.

The reason you can’t find all this info spelled out for you is because… it all depends. Your business formation will be relevant. If you are in the U.S., besides federal obligations, different states and localities will have their own varying requirements. Every person’s situation and circumstances are different. Therefore, there’s just no way around simply going to all the pertinent agencies in your own location, talking to them and getting the low-down on exactly what your particular tax, licensing and reporting obligations are. And don’t expect one agency to know the particulars of another. It’s not their place and relying on wrong info they might give can cost you. You need to talk with each one.

As far as figures go, you can figure on 15.3% right off the bat to Uncle Sam. Technically, it’s 12.4% for Social Security up to $106,800 and 2.9% for Medicare. After $106,800, you only have to pay for the Medicare portion of the self-employment taxes. However, things can get more confusing depending on individual circumstances, like for example, if you have a job in addition to running a business. Personally, I don’t worry about cut-offs and just keep setting the same amounts aside. Anything extra can go into the fund for future payments or turned over to savings. (And realistically, it’s not likely that you would even hit the $100,000 mark, if at all, until several years in business. Not that’s it’s not possible; it’s just that most VAs don’t know how to work with clients or run their businesses in a way that allows them to reach that potential.)

But 15.3% isn’t all that you want to set aside for taxes from your business income…

As far as your state goes, you want to find out if there is an income tax or not (some states have one while others don’t). How much is it? When do you need to pay it? Does your state require a business license? How much is that? How often must it be renewed? What are your reporting obligations?

Your city, even your county, may also have their own business licensing and tax requirements as well. You’ll need to find all of this out.

As you can see, there’s no one-size fits all answer. It all depends. And this is exactly why it is always in your best interests to work with an accountant and/or business attorney. Even if you think you understand things or have covered all your bases. Because unless you are an accountant or attorney, you simply don’t always know what you don’t know. And they can literally save your butt from making potentially costly errors, giving you the right advise based on your own particular set of circumstances and business formation and saving you all kinds of time, energy and money trying to figure all that stuff out on your own.

PS: No, an owner’s draw is not the same thing as a salary. Just one of the myriad bits of knowledge you must know about in order to do your own bookkeeping.

Dear Gritty VA:

On the business plan template, I am having a hard time coming up with the replacement word for “we” and “our” since it is only “I” who will be doing all the work for now. My mentor stated it is not acceptable to put “I” in its place, that I need to put my business name; however, that is so redundant! Any ideas? –MK

I have to disagree with your mentor on this one. The fact is most of us in boutique firms and solo practices are not completing business plans for the purpose of getting loans or attracting investors. We’re just not that big.

First and foremost, the point of going through the business planning process is to gain clarity and consciousness about our objectives for our businesses and how to best achieve them. The value of a business plan is not the formatting, it’s the process, or the journey of the process, if you will. It’s what we learn and gain insight from by going through the process that is the important thing. The process forces you to get conscious about things and specifically address them that you might not have otherwise. Therefore, it matters not a whit whether you use “we” or “us” or “I.” In fact, if you are an “I’ and specifically not a “we” and your business plan is for your purposes, not for loans or investors, I would say use “I” to speak to yourself and make it more personal.

Of course, if your business plan is doubling as something you would be formally presenting, then by all means use whatever form is accepted and expected. And don’t forget, there’s no law preventing you from directly asking about what they’d like to see, how they’d like it presented and what will help you get what you’re looking for.

I am new to the Virtual Assistant world. I have been laid off so many times in the past 11 years that I have just lost faith in employers. I was given this idea back in 2003 to start a Virtual Assistant business, but was too scared. I was laid off again in September 2009 and my idea came back, but this time stronger, so I decided to pursue it and start my business. I am currently on unemployment and would like some advice on how to run a business while on assistance. My state’s Department of Licensing is no help to me and I am hearing that I have to be very careful having a business while getting benefits. As you all probably know, while on unemployment insurance, you must do job searches and this takes all day. Looking for a job IS a job in itself and is very time consuming. I am single and I have no other income so I need my benefits. –GA

This is a great question and I’ll bet there are lots of folks in the same boat so hopefully my answer will help guide them as well.

Unless they are from your state or local Employment Insurance office, it would be irresponsible for anyone to give you any advice regarding your unemployment benefits. Your state’s Department of Licensing is naturally not going to be any help because it’s not their place. You have to direct those questions to your local/state unemployment agency. Only they can tell you what the rules and guidelines are when it comes to collecting unemployment insurance benefits. Find out whether you are allowed to work on starting a business while collecting benefits. You should also ask how it works if you do happen to get a client and they pay monies to you. Are you expected to report that income? Will it affect your benefit amounts?

Many years ago, I had a friend who started a hair salon after getting laid off. She was able to collect unemployment benefits while still running the business and receiving payments from customers. This was because she was not personally collecting a paycheck and put everything back into the business. This was allowable under our state’s employment insurance rules at that time.

Who knows. Your state agency might have similar allowances. But again, I want to emphasize that you MUST talk with your own UI agency to get the facts pertinent to your state and your particular situation since different states may have different rules.

Starting a business in any circumstance is going to have daunting aspects. At the same time, someone who starts her business under more optimal conditions (like having savings and capital set aside or some other source of income to live on and run the business until money starts coming in) is naturally going to have an easier time of things than someone who just lost her job and has no other money to live on. It can be done, but it’s going to be a more difficult road.

If you get clearance from your UI agency, this will be a great time to really work on setting up your Virtual Assistant business foundations (policies, contracts, going through the business planning process, writing your marketing message, getting your website up, etc.). You’ll of course always be honing, tweaking and improving upon things as you go along, but getting the basics in place now will instill greater chances of success for your business once you are ready to start accepting clients. Once you know from your UI agency how to report client monies should you receive any and how that affects your benefits, that will help you decide how to proceed from there.

Either way, you’ll still need to comply with whatever job seeking requirements they have for you, but as they say, “One day at a time.” Plus, with today’s technology, people can also hunt for work electronically instead of wasting gas and literally spending hours beating the pavement. Find out what qualifies as job-seeking. How many contacts are you required to have each week? Do phone calls to employers and emailing resumes count? And who knows, depending on what you find out from your UI agency, they may allow your business start-up work to meet some of your job-seeking obligations. They may even have some further resources and programs to help you in that effort.

One last thought… I do want to tell folks to keep in mind that while employer paid, unemployment insurance is a benefit you earned by working. It’s not welfare so never feel ashamed about that. I mention this only because I know there are lots of folks who think unemployment is a handout. Those who didn’t work for a living are not eligible for UI, which means those who get it, get it because they were contributing members of society in the workforce. Plus, the goal of UI agencies is to get people back to work. I’m sure there are some backwards agencies out there with their heads up their bureaucratic butts, but I know there are just as many that offer a great deal of assistance and programs to help you in your business starting efforts, not hold you back. I know it might be a lot of work, but keep fighting to get the info and help you need. Good luck!

Dear Gritty VA:

What are your thoughts on posting prices for services on your website? –LB

I see this question all the time and I’ve written several post on the topic. I’ll refer you to two of them below:

• Price is NOT the Bottom Line
• Screening the Tire Kickers

Also, Andy Beale, a well-known marketing consultant, also wrote on this topic. He’s, of course, in the marketing business (and, really, what better expertise to defer to on this subject), but the advice pertains to any kind of professional services and consulting business, including Virtual Assistance/Administrative Consulting:

• Why Marketing Agencies Shouldn’t Publish Their Fees

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.

Dear Gritty VA:

I can’t tell you the number of times that I have looked at another Virtual Assistant’s website, taken a deep breath, sighed, and just continued reading.  But 5, 10, even 15 minutes later I will still be struggling with whether or not I should have emailed the VA and told them about the error.  You see, I am an administrative professional who has been in the business for 20 years and am now starting my VA business.  One of my special talents is proofreading.  So I think…this person is NOT going to appreciate me, the newbie in town, emailing them to point out the spelling error, grammatical error or formatting problem on their VA website.  Yet…it bothers me.  This is our profession and our website represents who we are and the work that we do.  I learned the hard way to review, review, and once again review.  I worked in the actuarial field for the last 5 years and let me tell you…those folks are very difficult to communicate with and they demand perfection the first time that you return a document to them.  I refused to make mistakes and be caught. So I walk away wondering if I should contact the VA and take a chance that they think that I am being rude by pointing out the errors or do I disregard it?  I know that my work is NOT always perfect but if these websites had been reviewed these errors would have been caught because they are obvious errors.  I prefer to do what I think is the right thing, take screen shots and send the VA the info.  I have found three websites with errors in the last two weeks and the Virtual Assistants all appear to be well spoken and high level (some of these websites were created by Virtual Assistants who are members listed in the VACOC Directory – I found some of these errors while doing research for my own company).  Personally, I think that these Virtual Assistants should hire me to proofread their websites (totally tongue in cheek there but I just had to say it). So…what do you think?  Do I contact them, or not?  By the way…I proofread this email several times before sending it (and pasted it in Word and performed a spellcheck on it).  Yes, I am a perfectionist but my name is on this email after all. –KG

The first question that pops into my head is why are you spending so much time on other Virtual Assistant sites? The people and sites and businesses you should be studying and getting to know are those of your core target market.

What will be helpful in this situation is getting really honest and clear about the underlying intention. The danger here, as you suspect, is that your approach may engender resentment, rather than appreciation. And the reason it could is because there’s a different feeling and tone between a) randomly reading someone’s site, finding a typo and shooting off a quick, friendly email to let them know, and b) going out of your way to find every error, spending an inexplicable amount of time and energy taking screenshots, and doing what really amounts to free work for people who aren’t even your clients. All that effort and energy would be more productively focused on developing your own business and clients.

As you mention, no one is perfect. One of my mentors is a multi-millionaire consultant renowned the world over who takes great pride in his vocabulary and command of the language. He can be quite pedantic when it comes to grammar and even he has typos and misspellings on his websites and blog posts now and then. It doesn’t bother me. It’s certainly always the goal to “dress the part” as much as possible, but a few occasional typos here and there do not diminish his standing and wisdom nor detract from the message. Those are cosmetic things that are quickly and easily corrected.

Personally, I always appreciate someone who takes a moment of their valuable time to let me know of little innocuous errors (which can happen even when you have your own proofreaders) as long as it is done in the spirit of helpfulness. Yes, it is true that there are always a few people calling themselves Virtual Assistants who have very poor grammar and communication skills. But it’s probably safe to say that the last thing you’d want is to be viewed as a busy-body. There can be a very fine line between being helpful and being presumptuous. It’s one thing to discuss standards and expectations in an industry, entirely another to barge into someone’s house, so to speak, via an email pointing out their personal gaffs and shortcomings (which is what that might feel like to the recipient). Ultimately, their business is their responsibility.

If you have impeccable grammar and proofreading skills, emphasize those attributes to your own prospective clients. If you come across a typo on someone’s site, let them know about it as a friendly favor if you are so inclined. Beyond that? Let it go. It’s not your kettle of fish to fry. Save your energy and focus for your own business.