The Gritty Virtual Assistant

Where can I get a job?

Dear Gritty VA:

Hello. I am looking to do virtual work. Can you please share with me on how to get started in finding virtual positions please? --MA

No.

Hey, sorry to be flip, but that's the simple, undetailed answer to your simple, undetailed question.

I'm a Virtual Assistant, not a staffing agent. Have you read this column at all? What makes you think it has anything to do with staffing agencies or finding people jobs?

Virtual Assistance is a profession and a business. It's not a telecommuting position.

Many folks have been suckered into thinking they can "make millions from home working in your pajamas." Ain't gonna happen. At least not with as little critical thinking and effort as you've demonstrated in your question.

If you're interested in becoming a Virtual Assistant, I recommend you do a bit more homework first and learn about what that is and what it isn't, and then determine if you have a) the background and skills to offer those kind of professional services at a competent level, and b) the kind of ingenuity, determination, self-motivation and savvy to run your own business.

Look, I know it might sound like I'm being hard on you. And I am. But trust me, this is the greatest kindness I can extend to you.

It's one thing to reach out to others for help, but you need to be mindful of respecting peoples' time and attention. Part of being respectful of people's time is doing at least some small bit of your own research to make sure your question is not misplaced, and to ask in a way that demonstrates you've done at least some homework, for gosh sakes. If you aren't inclined to exert more initiative in your thinking and research first, there aren't going to be a whole lot of folks inclined to point you in the right direction.

If You Are a Virtual Assistant, You Are Not a Staff Member

Let's get something straight here:

Virtual Assistants are not staff members.

We have an entire industry that in very large part (at least when it comes to newcomers) is under the erroneous impression that Virtual Assistants can be illegally employed as workers by clients or businesses without paying employment taxes on them.

WRONG!

Anyone who is trying to work as an employee to a client or business from home is a telecommuter--a work-at-home employee. And employees and employers are subject to governing agency laws, taxes and reporting.

Virtual Assistants are not employees; they run their own businesses.

Know what that means?

It means they manage their own time and work according to their own business/work/project schedules. They inform clients about their services, rates, policies, processes and standards--not the other way around. They are in business to work with many clients, not just one. And legally speaking, that means they are not managed, controlled, supervised, scheduled by nor required to "report" to clients in any way as an employee.

Got any questions about that? Let's discuss.

Grateful Mondays: My Tootsies

I was watching a little TV this weekend, and one of those commericials for gel inserts came on. (You know the ones: "Are you gelling?" "I'm gellin' like a felon...") 

In this new one, a guy returns to his car to find it being towed. At first he's upset, but then some heavenly gel soles come floating out of the sky and insert themselves into his shoes, and all of sudden he can't wait to have his car towed so he can skip all the way home.

Not a brilliant piece of work and those "gellin' like a felon" ads are so stupid. But for some reason, this one got me to reflecting about my feeties and how much I take them for granted.

I do pamper my little piggies with pedicures once a month, and I've worn a cute little toe ring for years. When my guy and I play footsies, we call it "holding feet." And I luuuuv to walk and view the world from that perspective.

So they do cross my mind every now and then, but I never really thought about them and what they mean to my life. I thought about how amazing these things at the end of our sticks are, and how thankful and lucky I am to have them.

So today I thought I would be grateful for my feet, LOL. Thank you, feetsies! I think I'll go on an extra long hike today. :)

Free Teleseminar Tomorrow: 10 Ways to Communicate Confidence & Boost Credibility

The Virtual Assistance Chamber of Commerce has another wonderful program for you this month.

This event is free and open to all small business owners and solo professionals. There's still room and still time to register...

10 Ways to Communicate Confidence and Boost Your Credibility

Presented by Lew Bayer of The Civility Group

DATE: Thursday, February 21

TIME:  5pm PST / 6pm MST / 7pm CST / 8pm EST

DURATION:  60 minutes

COST:  FREE

IMAGINE... interacting with clients and feeling confident enough to ask for the sale every time you recognize a business opportunity.

IMAGINE... walking into a business reception or your weekly office meeting and not feeling self-conscious about approaching new people.

IMAGINE... what it would be like to have the capability to stay calm and act appropriately when the unexpected arises.

If there were 10 simple behaviors that could make you more self-assured, and help you know for certain that you could tackle any challenge that came your way, wouldn't you want to knwo what they were?

In this entertaining and informative session, Canada's "Civility in the Workplace" expert, Lew Bayer, will provide insight and practical tools that, with practice, will ensure increased self-assurance, confidence and productivity.

Regardless of what your profession is, confidence is key to effective communications, building relationships and sending a positive, lasting impression. By making a few simple adjustments and adopting a few good habits, anyone can feel more confident--and confidence boosts credibility in business.

Some of the things you will learn include:

• The four "E"s of civility;
• How civility impacts your credibility and professional relationships;
• How to shift your perspective and remember the business priority;
• How to handle yourself appropriately in mixing and networkig scenarios;
• How to get someone's attention and then keep it;
• How to speak the language of confidence--learn what words to avoid if you want to close the deal;
• How to eliminate self-defeating behaviors that undermine confidence;
• How to handle uncomfortable situations with grace and charm...

And much more! Go register now before time runs out...

Grateful Mondays: Freedom

Today I'm thankful for the freedom I've created in my life. This is something for which I'm constantly, CONSTANTLY, grateful to myself.

My husband passed away unexpectedly at far too young an age. From that point forward, I became acutely concious of how short life is, and I didn't want to waste another second doing anything I didn't truly enjoy, and being robbed of precious minutes I could be spending living life rather than toiling away for others.

I set out to find a way to earn a living for myself doing work I enjoyed and found more meaningful and purposeful. That search led me to start my own business as a Virtual Assistant, and I've never looked back.

It didn't happen overnight and it wasn't easy, but I've structured and evolved my business into something that gives me great satisfaction and freedom. I can pretty much take off whenever I want to, and I NEVER miss doing anything I want anymore because I'm tied to a job.

That's not to say there aren't times where it's nose to the grindstone. But I love my work so it never feels like work. Most of the time, I'm chomping at the bit to dive into things first thing in the morning. And I've structured my business in a way that I'm not tied to my desk day in, day out, 24 hours a day.

This kind of business (at least the way I've set mine up) requires so little overhead and administration. And I can take it with me if need be. I've been on many a road trip around the state and elsewhere, and simply plug into my office via the ol' laptop. I am very deliberate about the clients I take on and the work that I do for them as well because I don't want to do anything that inhibits my ability to live life and work exactly the way I want.

Lately, we've been touring around the Peninsula area and checking out houses and communities. My boyfriend and I are both ready for a change. And we're going to be getting back to traveling this year. I spent the last two years uber-focused on building the Virtual Assistance Chamber of Commerce and I'm now ready to pull myself away and take a break. We'll be going back up to Alaska this summer, and are planning trips to Whistler BC. I'm also waiting for my connections to get back to me (I have a friend whose brother is a film director)--we'll be attending the Sundance Film Festival next January.

So lots on the plate coming up, and none of it would be possible if I was still stuck working as an employee on the boss' schedule.

Humble Yourself; Your Business Will Grow Because of It

We are bombarded these days with the mantra "Become an expert." We hear this left and right from business experts, but I think lots of people don't really understand what is really meant by this.

It doesn't mean pretending to know things you don't.

It doesn't mean rolling out of bed and deciding to call yourself something that actually takes years of study, training and experience to be professionally competent at.

It doesn't mean pretending to be successful when you're just getting by and learning the ropes like anyone else.

What it does mean is putting yourself and your business out there and promoting the things you do know and are in the business of continuously learning and growing in.

And that requires that you constantly exercise and expand your capacity for curiosity, intellectual understanding and critical thinking.

But if you never ask questions; if you constantly try to pretend that you know more than you do; if you are only parroting and not truly understanding someone else's words you are merely regurgitating, you are going to seriously hinder your ability to actually reach that state in your business.

There's no shame in being a student of business. Embrace it. Because doing so is going to help you and your business succeed.

Billing Hurts

Dear Gritty VA:

My billing is overwhelming me! Any suggestions? --PV

Well, a little more detail would have been helpful. ;)  You may as well ask me how to solve world hunger for as general as your question is, but a few thoughts do come to mind.

First thought is:  Hire someone to take care of that for you. Virtual Assistants are business owners, too, and every business owner should be handing off non-core, non revenue-generating duties to an employee or service provider. So get help, sooner rather than later.

Of course, that's the overly simplistic and obvious answer. And even if you get help, you still need to be involved in the analysis of the process and problems, and setting things up, at least initially, with the person who takes that work on for you.

In the meantime, I have a few questions of my own.

First, I'd want to know what your business model is. Because if you are running a Virtual Assistant practice, I can't imagine any easier kind of service to bill for; that is, a once a month retainer fee for X number of hours or services.

However, if you are running a secretarial type service where you work primarily by task-based project, rather than retained, basis and bill by line-item services, you are necessarily going to have more complex billing issues and a greater administrative burden.

The other drawback to billing by line-item hours is that the faster you work, the less money you make, while none of the value and benefits the client receives from that work is reduced. That's not fair nor profitable for you, is it? You didn't go into business to give things away for free, right?

The other thing I'd want to know is if you are working on retainer, what on earth are you billing for that is making things so complicated? Do you have overly complex fee structures and/or charge different rates for different admin work? Are you overly concerning yourself with reporting hours to clients? Are you charging different clients different rates? Are you making too many policy exceptions and creating counterproductive, unprofitable distraction for yourself in the process?

As an independent professional, and not an employee, it's not necessary to itemize every single minute of effort and time you've expended on behalf of a client. If you are doing that, you are making things a whole heck of a lot harder on yourself than need be. Personally, I don't report any hours to clients anymore (other than when I'm working for an attorney client on their billable client work, and that is just so they can bill their own clients for that work).

If you are a Virtual Assistant, it helps to remember that clients aren't paying for line-item tasks and projects; the value they are paying for is the overall service of having a smart, competent, right-hand administrative professional to work alongside them in their business. When that's the case, there's no need to bill or report all the minutiae. It can be as easy as setting some basic parameters, creating a package based on that, and putting a single pricetag on the value of that support.

One of my main rules of profitability is keep things Simple, Simple, Simple. Streamline. Get all your clients on the same page and bring everyone up to your current rates. Set your policies and don't be in the habit of making exceptions to them as that only increases your administration and reduces your profitability.

Beyond that, I really need more specific details to elaborate further.

Hope that helps a bit.

Latest Virtual Assistant Scam Alert

There is a new scammer out there targeting Virtual Assistants. This particular person (or persons) is currently going by the name of Larry Ellison. He's asking Virtual Assistants to submit short articles to him, luring them with the hope that if they are good enough, they may be hired onto his planned "barn" of Virtual Assistants.

What this guy is trying to do is 1) get free work done for him, and 2) he'll then most likely use these articles to post on what is probably hundreds of scam/spam dummy blogs he's got set up. The email itself may be a ploy to get people to hit reply on it (you never want to reply to spam/scam/spoof emails).

Don't be a bonehead:  If you are smart business owner and competent Virtual Assistant, you NEVER need give away your value or work product for free in order to gain a client. If that kind of client knocks on your door, tell'em "no, thank you very much."

That should be your first clue to ignore this kind of request. The second clue is that this person doesn't provide any business-like information that can be verified or checked into in any way.

So if you receive an email similar to the one below, hit delete and don't look back:

Hi there,

I have a pretty big project that I am working on right now and need couple of Virtual Assistants who have nice creativity in writing quality articles on any topic they think they are master of. My work load will be increasing in the coming future (approx 16 hours everyday) & I am planning to have more than 10 VA's.

Each article will be taking approx 15 minutes to jott down your thoughts and documenting it.

To choose the right Virtual Assistant for me, I have bought a plagiarism checking software so please invest 1 hour for this long term relationship and write 2 original articles of 400-500 words.

I need to make my decision later this week or early next week , so if you are interested in getting a long term contract , I look forward for your reply.

Regards,

Larry

Grateful Mondays: Chanel No. 41

Hey, even the silly little things are to be grateful for.

Today I am grateful for my signature lipstick, Chanel's Rouge Allure Lipstick No. 41 (Charisma). I just about had a heart attack at Chrismastime when I was running low and literally everywhere was out! I did finally find a department store with it in stock and so I did indeed stock up.

That's always something that happens to me, by the way. I fall in love with a color and then it gets discontinued. But I learned. My last fav was Philosophy's Word of Mouth sheer lipcolor in Aviation. When I found out they discontinued that, I called the company and bought all the remaining stocks that could be found.

Sometime, even I think I'm crazy, LOL.

Don't Dither Around

Dear Gritty VA:

I have a prospective client I've been talking with for about two months now. He was supposed to have signed a contract and paid his first month's fee on the first of the year. We're now into February and he still hasn't done it! He keeps going back and forth, asking me to do this and that first. I'm not sure how to handle the situation at this point. What should I do? --BE

Two words: move on.

As a small business, you can't afford to have your time and energy wasted by ditherers. Save those precious resources for those clients who are ready to work with you.

This fellow isn't committing because by indulging in his whims, you are giving him permission to be indecisive and thereby waste your time. At this point, you need to get clear about how things work in your practice. Let him know you have all the information you need, you feel you can help him, but in order to move forward, here is what needs to happen (and then outline those things).

Be gracious. Thank him for his interest and tell him once he makes a decision, you'd be happy to talk with him again (if that is the case). Invite him to sign up for your newsletter or whatever other free offer you provide. Tell him you'd be happy to stay in touch with him through your mailing list if he'd like.

But do let him know that you can't guarantee there will be an open spot in your practice for him at a later date--because you can't. Your job is to fill your roster with right-fitting clients who are eager for your support and ready to work with you.

The ball is in his court now. Time for you to stop jumping through hoops.

Your best clients are right around the corner. But you make it twice as hard for them to reach when you allow the path to be blocked by not-quite-right-nor-ready clients. Likewise, if you don't expect a commitment, you won't get one.

So don't do that. Learn to recognize the point at which your time is being wasted. Save your energy and focus for your ideal clients.