Secretarial services have existed long before the Internet arrived. There are many people under the mistaken idea that just because they operate "virtually," they are a "virtual" assistant.

The Internet is merely a tool that gives businesses yet another avenue for doing business and connecting and working with clients. So, it doesn’t matter whether you have a brick and mortar office you rent, an office out of your home or a "virtual" office on the World Wide Web (e.g., your website)–they are all still businesses.

Being "virtual" is not the thing that defines the concept of Virtual Assistance. It’s merely a characteristic that denotes how we work with clients.

Likewise, there are many businesses who categorize themselves under Virtual Assistance when, in fact, they are actually secretarial services.

In asking the members of my Virtual Assistant association what they thought the differences were, we got lots of overly complicated, abstract answers.

There is only one simple thing that differentiates Virtual Assistance from secretarial services.

It’s not about the mindset of the Virtual Assistant or secretarial service business owner because you can find employee mindset in Virtual Assistants as well as secretarial service providers. You can also find proactiveness and caring about their work and wanting to go beyond a job well done in both. Both kinds of businesses focus on administrative services. Either can be highly skilled or poorly skilled.

It doesn’t have anything to do with the person or business providing the service. The difference all hinges upon whether the relationship is project by project or if it is an intentionally ongoing, monthly relationship.

If someone is focused on selling line-item administrative services ala carte, they are providing secretarial services. It’s like the relationship you have with, say, Kinkos. You go there for one-off types of services. You might be a repeat customer and come back periodically because they have done good work on past projects and you’ve become familiar with or come to like the people you work with there. But they aren’t any more involved in your business than your mailman. It’s not the same kind of relationship that is referred to in Virtual Assistance.

Virtual Assistance is about working in ongoing relationship with clients on a month-to-month basis, not occasional projects or tasks. On top of this, administrative work isn’t an event; it’s not something you do once and you never have to do again. Administration is ongoing throughout the life of every business.

So as a Virtual Assistant, the focus isn’t on selling one-off, individual services. If that is what you are doing, that is not Virtual Assistance. As a Virtual Assistant, what you are selling is the relationship itself; the opportunity for a business owner to have an administrative right-hand which could include any number of administrative roles or service areas depending on the client and their needs (which you would determine and negotiate through your consultation process).

The relationship is the key that defines Virtual Assistance and makes it what it is.

Without the continuity and consistency of the relationship, you don’t get to know the client, their business or their work to the degree that allows you to provide that right-hand value. Without the relationship, administrative work can only be done in fits and starts and bits and pieces. You can’t begin to develop an idea of the big picture of the business because you aren’t part of the business.

Without the big picture, there is no view for helping clients discover where improvements in systems and processes can be made. Without working together on an ongoing basis, the client never gets to actualize the kind of efficiencies and forward growth that occur only when there is a body of intimate knowledge and familiarity that is built and expanded upon on a continuous basis. It is an entirely unique dynamic that cannot be had without working together, continuously, in collaborative partnership.

If administrative work is performed on a start and stop, occasional basis (services ala carte), the impact it has on the business as a whole organism is very isolated. But if you are a Virtual Assistant, you are selling a package of ongoing support (a relationship) which uniquely offers clients the ability to achieve an entirely different, higher body of knowledge, forward growth and results that will not just get tasks done, but built upon the foundation of the business itself.

This is what defines the concept of Virtual Assistance and distinguishes it from secretarial services.

Well, guess what? There’s no such thing.

What there are, are virtual temp/virtual staffing services. These models work with clients just like a temp agency would–by supplying and rotating help according to client specifications. If someone gets sick, they have someone else to fill in. It’s a commoditized version of support without any true relationship and none of the value that goes with a true, committed right-hand relationship with a self-managed, self-directed Virtual Assistant business owner.

That’s absolutely NOT the same thing as Virtual Assistance. What I see is that those folks don’t understand themselves what Virtual Assistance is all about and how it is vastly different from secretarial services.

Secretarial services are project based models. They conduct business on a transactional basis, sort of like your local Kinko’s. You have a project, you submit it to them, they get it done, and that’s the extent of the relationship. It’s one-off or occasional. Sure, you might be a repeat customer. They might know your name and the name of your company. They might send referrals your way. But they have no further meaningful role in their customers’ businesses. That’s a transaction-based model.

Virtual Assistance, on the other hand, is a relationship-based model. Virtual Assistance is the profession of administrative experts. Virtual Assistance is about working in ongoing, relational collaboration across the board with clients–not on one specific service. It’s inherently a solo-based model because it is fundamentally about the unique and intimate working dynamic that happens only between two people–the Virtual Assistant professional and the client.

Being someone who realizes the importance of accuracy and using proper terminology, I think it’s important for us to recognize and understand these differences.

“I’m so tired of telling people I’m a Virtual Assistant and having their eyes glaze over.”

That’s because you are using industry jargon instead of telling people what you do and who you do it for.

If you are a Virtual Assistant, you should leading off with something like this:

“I’m an administrative expert who helps small business owners who are struggling to manage everything themselves, but who don’t have the time, space or budget for in-house support. I work in ongoing collaborative parternship with clients to help them grow their business, and be more productive and efficient. I’m one of the ‘Big Three’ experts that all business owners should be partnering with: their attorney, their accountant, and me, their Virtual Assistant.”

You tell them what you do, and then give them the term for it at the end.

This kind of explanation also helps distinguish Virtual Assistance from secretarial services, which provide project-oriented, task-based services.