So What Is This Thing Called Virtual Assistance?

You may or may not fully understand what Virtual Assistance is all about so every five weeks we like to spotlight an article that has to do with better understanding what Virtual Assistance is and how to best work with a Virtual Assistant.

Unlike a secretarial service, which is focused on piecemeal, transactional project work (sort of like dropping off a copy job at your local printer’s), a Virtual Assistant specializes in ongoing, continuous, administrative support working in collaborative relationship with clients.

See, working only once or sporadically with vendors you are only impersonally or occasionally engaged with only accomplishes an immediate need. And sometimes that’s all you need. Isn’t it great that there are all these different kinds of businesses in our great, big, wonderful world?

But sometimes a business owner wants more continuity. He or she realizes that one little ol’ project being completed isn’t going to contribute in any substantive, permanent way toward building a more efficient, smoother-running business. That business owner wants someone who can handle ongoing administrative functions as more of a right-hand, a partner who can then better understand the work and how it all ties together within the business. In this way, that “partner” is therefore able play a bigger, more effective, contributing part in helping the client achieve his or her objectives.

This is exactly what a Virtual Assistant is in the business of offering: right-hand administrative support delivered in an ongoing, collaborative relationship. A partnership, if you will. This is where all the magic, efficiency and forward-growth happens. And the longer you work together, the more efficient and sympatico the work and your relationship becomes. You are building upon a foundation of knowledge and understanding, not starting and stopping from scratch, project by project, with strangers outside your business. They simply can not have the same big-picture vision of what the works means to your goals and what you are striving to achieve.

So you see, it’s not outsourcing. It’s not project work. It’s a close, personal relationship and the chemistry that occurs only when two people work closely together.

RESOURCE: Learn more about Virtual Assistance and how to get the most out of your relationship with a Virtual Assistant with our Client’s Guide to Virtual Assistants. And don’t forget that the VACOC is the only organization that screens members to meet standards of excellence, ethics and competence. They ain’t got it, they are not granted membership. Our Virtual Assistants are waiting to meet you.

About the Author: Danielle Keister is a business advisor, innovator and thought leader in the Virtual Assistance profession. A veteran Virtual Assistant of 12+ years, her logical, no-nonsense approach to business development has gained her recognition as one of the leaders in the field. Her business acumen is a hot commodity among the Virtual Assistants who regularly consult her. She loves what she does and is passionate about sharing her knowledge and know-how with the world. She’s all about inspiring others to reach for their highest excellence. When not taking care of clients in her own Virtual Assistant practice, The Relief Virtual Assistance, she is busy leading the Virtual Assistance Chamber of Commerce.

(c) Copyright 2008. You are free to republish this article only if used in its entirety with links, resource and “About the Author” info intact.

Here is the line that chaps my hide:

“… your Virtual Assistant decides to fly off for a spur of the moment week away, leaving you with hours of admin nightmare to deal with.”

If this client’s workload is that large and that immediate, they don’t need a Virtual Assistant, they need an employee (although I also feel for that empoyee who can’t take a week off without hearing about it like this).

And the Virtual Assistant she’s got, she’s not a business owner, not really. For all intents and purposes, she’s working as if she’s still an employee.

Business owners with workloads that large don’t make for great clients for exactly the reason indicated in that sentence. When you take on a client like that, expect to be enslaved to them by the sheer volume of the workload.

That’s not enrepreneurial freedom, and working with clients who have that kind of workload will keep you from growing your Virtual Assistance practice as a real business (and wear you out in the process).

No client should ever be so dependent upon a Virtual Assistant–who is an administrative consultant and a business independent of theirs, not an employee–to the point that their business comes to a screeching halt without them. If that’s the case, then what they need is an employee, not a Virtual Assistant. And Virtual Assistants need to stop working with clients in that capacity as if they were employees.