I am considering starting a Virtual Assistant business.  I have been self-employed for 10 years and know about the hard work and research which goes into embarking upon entrepreneurship.  I would like to know how the economy has impacted this business.  On one hand, I can see businesses downsizing employees and benefiting from hiring administration support without the extra costs of taxes and providing benefits, which is more cost effective to their bottom line.  On the other hand, I can also see how some businesses would think hiring a Virtual Assistant can be another added expense to their bottom line. Any feedback from you would be greatly appreciated –DA

Thanks for the question and I’ll do my best to help shed some light so you can look at this another way.  You see, I always struggle with questions like this (which is why it has taken me this long to answer) because… well, how do I say this… it’s not the right question to ask. Not that you are wrong for asking. I’m here to help.

So let me try to explain…

The first thing I want to help you get a clearer understanding about is the fact that Virtual Assistants are not replacement staff or contract workers (a contract worker is a legal term for someone who is an employee of a staffing company). In fact, if you read any of the back posts on this blog, you’ll see that I don’t like the term Virtual Assistant at all as it miseducates clients and industry newcomers alike and sets wrong expectations and perceptions right from the get-go (I prefer the term Administrative Consultant). On top of that, when you are running a business, you are not anyone’s assistant anymore than, say, an attorney is an assistant to their clients or a coach is an assistant to their clients and so on.

As someone in this profession, you are providing a skilled professional service, no different than an attorney, an accountant, a bookkeeper, a coach, a designer or what have you. All of these professions, ours included, requires a high degree of specific skill, experience and expertise. We aren’t replacement workers. As administrative experts, we are providing an expertise–the expertise of administrative support–to businesses that require our particular skills and knowledge.

Once you understand things from that perspective, the question isn’t about how the economy is affecting companies that are downsizing. Those aren’t your clients. Because anyone who is simply looking to replace employees at a cheaper cost is not looking to value the skills or the relationship and is only interested in saving money. If you make those folks your clients, you can bank on always being on a hamster wheel trying to fend off competitors willing to work even cheaper than you.

Which leads me to my next point. You will need to educate yourself about who you are seeking to work with and what their motivation is in hiring you. When you seek the right clients, the economy has no bearing on anything at all. You want to focus on a market that truly has a need for the expertise you offer, not the ones whose initial motivation is looking for cheap right from the get-go. So let me walk you through this thought process…

Who is going to truly need and value having an administrative partner? Is it going to be the big company who can afford their own employees or who is only looking to reduce their bottom line? Or is it the solo and boutique companies who run smaller scale operations, often from home offices of their own, that don’t warrant employees  or don’t have anywhere to put them even if they wanted them, but who still need the support and understand how it will help them run a more profitable business and make faster progress? Who do you think has the greater need for what we do and will therefore place a higher value on it because it has more meaning to their business success?

This is why the economy has no bearing once you understand who your market is. Those who need and value what you are in business will pay because people who want or need something, find a way to pay for it. Which again, makes the whole question about the economy irrelevant because you are going to seek only markets who need and value the expertise and are able and willing to afford it.

So your task as a new business owner in this profession is to find a target market who a) has the highest need for what you are in business to do, b) can be found easily enough in order to market to them and fill your practice, and c) earns enough money to pay for professional level fees.

Always remember, you can’t afford to work with anyone who can’t afford you (not my quote, but one I love a lot although I’m not sure of its origins).

Hope that helps!

When you hire an attorney, accountant, designer or any kind of professional, does that person come to your office to do their work? Do they work according to hours you set? Do they sign in and out with you whenever they begin or end working on your stuff?

Sounds silly, right? Of course they don’t do those things. That’s the nature of working with independent businesses and professionals. They do their work from their own places of business and according to their own work schedules, processes and policies. You may or may not have ever even meet in person.

And things get done, right? When you retain someone to draft a contract or design a logo or take care of your accounts, they do what they do without needing to be physically present, right? So how does that happen?

Well, you communicate by phone and email, maybe even video chat. Files are sent by email or fax. Electronic signatures are obtained with tools like Echosign. Working documents are shared and transferred via tools like Dropbox. Shared collaborative workspaces are set up with services such as Airset to keep files and information organized in one place. Remote access or online accounts is sometimes used to get things done on your behalf.

This is the day and age of technology, baby! There is a mind-boggling array of tools and services that make working together “virtually” a breeze. Anyone who uses a computer and has ever done business with any other business or professional has already been working “virtually.”

Clients work with an Administrative Consultant exactly the same way. But people get hung up on the word “virtual.” Which is why I’ve always been an advocate for not using it whatsoever in your marketing.

Reason being, a business is a business. It matters not how or where or when you work. If you’re a traveling salesperson, your vehicle is the platform by which you connect and work with clients. If you are a flower shop, it’s your brick and mortar store. Operating a professional service business is no different–it’s just that the computer happens to be your “office” and your tool for working with clients and delivering your services.

The fact that you are an online business is of no importance. The tools are incidental details–don’t focus on that or you will continue to confuse clients and make it seem much more complicated and mysterious than need be.

And for goodness sakes, stop using the analogy of the administrative assistant or secretary. All that does is confuse clients and keep them (mistakenly) thinking that you are some kind of remote, telecommuting employee.

What that means is that by displaying the badge on your site, you will earn 25% commissions on all purchases if someone clicks on your badge and ends up making a purchase from us at some point, whether it’s the same day or six months down the road.

What’s cool about this is that you don’t have to directly promote the products sold on our site in order to earn commissions. Just by referring people to our site via your survey badge, you can earn commissions on any purchases those folks make now or later.

I know some people don’t like to blatantly “hard sell” product referrals and would rather refer to the organization rather than the products directly so this is a nice option. Not only will you be helping to increase survey participation, you’ll also benefit from the earning potential. You can even swap out your membership seal link with your affiliate link in this way as well.

It’s super simple to get started. Here’s the link with the 3 simple steps:

http://www.virtualassistantnetworking.com/surveyflair.htm

Thanks for all your enthusiastic participation! Keep up those reminders about the survey. We’re at 504 participants as of today–the half way mark to our goal of 1,000.

Okay, here is a question. I keep getting the message that “I am just not big enough to outsource yet,” even though they have tasks which they are too busy to schedule to do like blog writing, articles and social media networking. How does one convince an entrepreneur that they are indeed “big enough” to contract with an Administrative Consultant? –ST

The quick answer–you don’t.

You don’t want to focus on the people who think they have to do all their own admin work. If they don’t have the need or the want for what you do, you’re barking up the wrong tree.

The bottom line is those folks are never our clients. It’s a complete effort in futility and a waste of precious time and energy trying to convince them otherwise.

And the ones like that who do become clients often end up being the tiresome, irritating, energy-draining micro-managers and pains-in-the-ass that we all dread working with. Don’t do that.

Focus only on the folks who have a need/want for your support. They are the ones who are open to hearing how you can help them and have a need for what you do and will therefore place greater value on it and be willing to pay . You’ll have greater success in getting clients (and the kind of clients you want) if you do.

It also sounds like one of the reasons you’re talking to the wrong people is because you perhaps don’t have a target market. If you’re trying to talk to anyone and everyone, you’re going to waste a TON of time and energy spinning your wheels not getting anywhere.

If you don’t have a target market and don’t know enough about them to know who has the need, you’re gonna have to get clear on that. There are three first rules for deciding on a target market.

1. It must have a need for what you’re in business to offer. You’ve no doubt heard the phrase, “trying to sell ice cubes to an Eskimo,” right? Same principle. You can’t sell something to someone who doesn’t want it or need it. When they have a need, they will place great value in how you can help them and therefore be willing to pay for it.
2. It must be able to afford you. For example, I see lots of Administrative Consultants (Virtual Assistants) wanting to target “mom and pops” and “startups.” But those markets are often the least able to afford any kind of professional services. When this is pointed out to them, they’ll wail, “but they really NEED me!” Look, you gotta stop trying to save the world and “fix” people. You can’t afford to work with anyone who can’t afford you and you’ll go broke and hungry trying. Find the folks who can pay and let the others come to you when they get farther along. You can’t sacrifice your own financial needs and well-being to help them or you won’t be able to help anyone. Take that to the bank.
3. There must be enough of them that you can easily find and market to enough of them to fill your practice. I won’t say there aren’t exceptions to this rule, but generally, if the market is so obscure and esoteric that there aren’t enough to fill your practice or it’s incredibly difficult to find and interact with them, you’re really going to make your life unnecessarily hard. Find another, easier to find market.

Oh, and if you want to know why you need a target market and how it will dramatically increase the success of your business, here’s an article I originally wrote back in 2008:  Where Is Your Arrow Pointing?

Once you know who you’re talking to specifically, it becomes infinitely easier to find out when and what makes them seek out and be willing to pay for what you’re in business to do. Which is what you then tie directly into your marketing. And that begins and ends with your compelling message. It’s the very foundation of all the rest of your marketing efforts. Marketing isn’t simply going through the motions of marketing activities. Without the foundation of a resonate, compelling, attractive message that appeals to your target market, none of the actual marketing activities is going to really help you.

Learning how to market in a way that allows you to attract the right people, speak to what their emotional interests are and command professional fees is an art and science. It involves understanding your market and marketing psychology. It’s not even difficult. It’s actually pretty simple. The only thing that’s required is a) the focus and direction that a target market gives you, and b) a shift in your thinking and understanding about marketing.

You would really, really find great benefit from my guide, Articulating Your Value: How to Craft Your Own Unique and Compelling Marketing Message to Attract Your Ideal, Paying Clients. Without the foundation of a proper message, none of the actual marketing activities is going to really help you. That’s what this guide is all about–helping you craft your message which is the foundation of any marketing activities you engage in. It’s about marketing and developing not only your own unique, compelling marketing message, but one that helps you command professional level fees.

She asked for feedback on what she might be missing. My response was this:

“It also depends on the request. Many Virtual Assistants/Administrative Consultants are turned off by requests that indicate the business owner does not understand the nature of the relationship (one of business owner to business owner), speaks in employment terms, or otherwise appears to be seeking either an employee or a flunky, rather than a skilled professional in the expertise of administrative support.”

Which is exactly what goes on so much of the time. So many potential clients these days have been misinformed about the nature of our work and the relationship (which, by the way, is our own fault, not theirs). Without knowing it, they speak to us in ways that raise our red flags that this is a client who “doesn’t get it” and “could be difficult to work with” and “sounds like he thinks I’m going to be at his beck-and-call like an employee.” And there you have that first disconnect.

It doesn’t help that the term “Virtual Assistant” has branded itself as the cheap labor pool of flunkies. So when you have a segment of the marketplace with that perception, that definitely colors how they look upon the work, what they’re looking for (cheap, which you can’t be if you’re in business) and how they approach VAs.

Anyway, after a few responses, the woman went on to lament that she was seeking skilled Virtual Assistants with “qualified references” and those who were interested in real partnering relationships. It also turned out that she charges a fee to join her network. She was really frustrated; she thought she had such a kick-butt idea but it was falling on deaf ears.

I could tell her that using phrasing such as “qualified references” is often an indication that someone doesn’t understand the nature of the relationship. Employees provides references. Business owners offer testimonials and case studies and such.  That would be my first red flag that this could be person expecting some kind of employment dog and pony show which is not how you approach a business-to-business relationship.

But here again, the term “Virtual Assistant” confuses clients and contradicts things and causes exactly this kind of misunderstanding and miscommunication. If you are a business owner, you aren’t anyone’s assistant. You are an administrative support expert. We keep saying we are business owners and experts in our own right, but then we go and negate all that by calling ourselves assistants.

It’s no wonder so many poor clients just don’t understand. Gotta stop that, folks. Moving onto a term like Administrative Consultant helps alleviate these kind of issues and better advances the perceptions and understandings we want and need for clients to have so that there is more alignment in understandings and expectations and we can have better, more productive initial conversations.

Getting back to this woman’s dilemma, I could tell her the other part of the problem which is that the kind of VAs (Administrative Consultants) she’s seeking don’t need those kind of referrals and therefore aren’t interested in paying for them. Those who are more established and successful have learned how to create their own pipelines. They don’t need to pay someone else to find clients for them.

And even if they did join, there’s nothing guaranteeing that the prospects they are sent are the kind of qualified prospects they want. Just because you have a boatload of potential clients seeking VAs doesn’t mean they are going to be the kind of clients VAs want to work with or that any of them match an individual VA’s particular target market and ideal client profile.

There are just too many other, more effective and direct ways for Virtual Assistants (heck, any business owners) to find exactly the kind of clients they want for free. And those who know how to create their own pipelines don’t want or need to pay for referral networks to do it.

UPDATE: 479 participants so far! Spread the word so we can reach goal by April 1!

So if an attorney emails him about a matter, is he going to say, “Tell your client to call me himself!”

Of course not. That’s patently ridiculous. He may be the absolute genius when it comes to consulting, and I definitely respect his knowledge in that, but on this point he is dead wrong.

There’s absolutely no difference between clients having their Administrative Consultant (Virtual Assistant) take care of certain matters on their behalf and having their attorney or accountant or any other kind of professional handle matters related to what they were hired to do.

It has nothing whatsoever to do with one person’s time being more important than another person’s.

It has everything to do with that client who works with an Administrative Consultant (Virtual Assistant) being a smart business person who knows that his time and energy levels are finite commodities. That business person realizes he shouldn’t be spending his own personal time on certain details, but instead should prioritize and reserve those limited resources for taking excellent care of clients and focusing on marketing and revenue generation. He knows he is able to give more support and higher quality service to his clients when he doesn’t squander those things trying to do everything himself.

But Weiss’s position is that if you’re going to say you are a solo, you should be COMPLETELY solo. And that’s just as ridiculous.

Solo doesn’t mean you literally do everything yourself. It just means that you are the primary brain power and craftsman in your business. Using his logic, solos would never hire ANY professionals whatsoever to help them in their business. They wouldn’t hire an attorney, an accountant, a bookkeeper or literally anyone. Again, patently ridiculous. No man is an island and that man’s business and clients will suffer if he tries to be. Guaranteed.

Choosing to be supported (and in some cases coached and advised) administratively by an Administrative Consultant (Virtual Assistant) is no different than hiring any other kind of independent professional to help in their business. We are hired for our expertise of administrative support and guidance in those matters.

However, this once again underscores the fact that the term “Virtual Assistant” is completely misunderstood and does us a great disservice by causing people to automatically perceive that we are “mere” assistants or lackeys.

If that person’s accountant had contacted him for the information, I really doubt he would have had the same attitude. He automatically has less professional respect because he views us as some kind of underlings–much like a maid or butler–and all because of the term “Virtual Assistant.” But as business owners and professionals who are hired for our particular expertise and support, we are no more assistants to our clients than an accountant or attorney or bookkeeper is an assistant to their clients.

Of course, to be fair, there are some real turkeys in our industry who seemingly have no brain cells with which to think independently or critically and take initiative. Those folks do give us a bad name. And it’s the reason why I see the smarter, more experienced people in our industry–the ones who have professional self-esteem and view themselves as true business owners and masters of the expertise of administrative support–embracing the term Administrative Consultant as a better representative and more respectful name for who we are and what we do.

It’s definitely a legitimate issue since many people bring the topic up every so often. I’m not judging or discounting it, but I have to admit I’ve never understood it.

When I was in the workforce, I loved to gab with others as much as the next person, but when I was intent on working, I really didn’t like being bothered and much preferred to be alone.

I remember one position I had before I advanced up to administrative assistant where we sat in quads with four people inside a cubicle. And there was one girl who chattered away incessantly every single day, all day long, from the the time we arrived until it was time to go home. It about drove me insane!

Come to think of it, I’m sort of like that in my personal life. Our home is my cocoon. I can’t stand people dropping by unannounced and don’t like lots of company. Just me and my honey-bunny. But get me out on the town or have me throw a party, and I’m a totally gregarious social butterfly.

So one of the things I love about working for myself and working in my own home office is that I don’t have to deal with the Chatty Kathies anymore. I can totally go into my own little world and work without distraction for hours on end to my heart’s content.

Of course, my daughter is grown and on her own now so I don’t have to deal with young ones about, but I can totally empathize with how challenging that must be for those with kids still at home to also try to run a business at the same time.

Yet I never suffer from feelings of isolation. Generally speaking, I work until I don’t feel like working and then I stop. I just let my body and my mind and my mood be my guide. I have a full life outside of business so there’s always something else to do if that’s what I feel like. And if I need to take a little break during the day now and then (which I do frequently) and want to connect with colleagues, that’s what Virtual Assistant forums and other online business groups are great for. And on those occasions when I’d like a bit of human contact and live socializing, I just scoop up my laptop and head to one of my favorite local coffee shops.

Of course, I do realize that I consciously and intentionally engineered my life this way. And for that I am deeply grateful every single day.

I’m assuming other Virtual Assistants/Administrative Consultants have family, friends and other interests outside of their businesses. So for those who still suffer from feeling isolated, I’m curious about why or when those feelings comes up for you? Is it the need for the physical presence of other people? Does networking and conversing in our industry forums alleviate isolation for you at all? If you have kids at home while you work, does that help alleviate feelings of isolation or do you really just need more adult interaction? Or are you just working so much and have so much to do, you just don’t have time to partake in anything that would alleviate those feelings? Is that lack of self-care in that particular area affecting your work/life and if so, in what ways?

Please do share in this discussion as I think it will be really helpful to those who are suffering with this issue in our industry.

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I have started to support a realtor and while we are working through some of the tasks that I can support her with I was wondering if you could provide me with any other services or ideas on how I can support her further? –KA

Thanks for the question.

Good for you for getting proactive! Since I don’t work with real estate agents or that target market in any capacity (and thus have no clue as to how their businesses are run or what administrative work is involved), I don’t have much to offer in the way of specific service ideas. What I would have you do is two-fold:  1) talk to colleagues who work with the real estate market, and 2) talk to actual real estate agents to learn more about their businesses, how they are run, what work is involved and what their common goals and challenges are. Doing that kind of market research is really the only way you will truly know what those particular clients want and need.

While I don’t have much specific insight when it comes to the real estate market in particular, what I can offer you is this… Besides getting conscious and intentional about really getting to know your chosen target market, these are things you will also have to figure out together with your client. Except for the general, practical stuff that clients in a particular industry or profession commonly share, each client relationship and each client’s needs is different.

The support you provide to each has to evolve organically, at its own pace. You can’t rush it, and you’ll end up causing yourself and the client problems if you do. (And by the same token, don’t let clients rush you or your processes either). You want to allow things to grow at a measured, controlled and steady pace. You don’t want to take on too much all at once. Start with a few areas of support and as you get those whipped into shape, and as you continue to keep the conversation going with your client, you’ll find more things you can take on and help them with.

This is also exactly what my Activity & Time Analysis Tool™ helps you do as well.

Have the client keep track of their time and activities for at least a week, if not two. You can have them do this either before you begin working together or right at the beginning of your working relationship. The tool comes with a sheet for this purpose which you can either have clients fill in directly or enter the information yourself when they send it over to you. Then, once you plug the data into the automated tool, it spits out five different charts that give you a complete overview of their business and shows you exactly what they are doing in their business, what they are wasting time, where their obstacles are, where they’re doing well, where they definitely could use help and what tasks, functions and roles you could take over for them.

It’s a much more precise and “scientific” (if you will) way to get ramped up with clients more quickly. It will allow you to make more purposeful recommendations and it better facilitates the whole delegation process. I really encourage you to read the product description because I think it would help you tremendously.

That’s the best advice I can give you there. Hope it helps.

This topic came up through some correspondence I was having with someone who had submitted her listing to the new and improved VACOC Virtual Assistant Directory.

This person was concerned that being listed in one location would limit folks to clients from that one geographic area. She felt that “the whole reason for being a Virtual Assistant is to allow you to work from home for anyone, anywhere in the world,” and that “listing by location restricts the Virtual Assistant’s ability to expand her boundaries of business to other places.”

But here’s what you have to understand…

Location doesn’t have anything to do with how folks get clients or where they are from. It has more to do with instilling trust and credibility in prospective clients. Knowing where someone actually is makes them feel safer and more comfortable.

And in some cases, geographic location actually is important, either to the Administrative Consultant or to the client.

For example, I work with attorneys, but I work strictly with attorneys in my own state because I know the ropes better here. With the exception of the IP attorney I work with (which is federal), I have no interest in trying to learn all the ins and outs of court structures, rules, filing methods and all those other idiosyncrasies in other states.

For the same reason, I have no interest in international clients either. It’s often too much work trying to navigate between the language and cultural differences.

My business and work are MUCH simpler and easier that way–which leaves me more time for life outside my business!

Sometimes, whether we like it or not, clients just like to have someone in their own state. It’s just a human emotional thing. That doesn’t mean we stop working virtually. Just because someone is local to you, whether that’s the same city, state or whatever, doesn’t mean you work with them any differently than you would with any other client anywhere else in the world.

Also, because administrative support is a relationship between people, as well as a niche and specialty all its own, it is a category unto itself. Using geographic locations helps break things up visually for clients and makes it easier for them to peruse listings.

It certainly isn’t going to preclude anyone from finding clients in other areas or from clients in other geographic locations from being drawn to you and the solution you offer–at least if you know how to market yourself and create your own pipelines.

Because you aren’t marketing a location. You are marketing a solution to your market’s administrative problems. Your location is simply about being upfront, honest and transparent about your business–and thereby helping instill trust and comfort in clients–which is even more important for online, “virtual” businesses.