Forums: Discussions for entrepreneurs and small business.

I personally am not looking for new clients; my role as the founder of the Virtual Assistance Chamber of Commerce is to help increase awareness of Virtual Assistance in the mainstream business world. We`ve got lots of wonderful, highly-qualified Virtual Assistants who are ready to work with great clients, and I know many of them do belong to BNI.

Say, do you think you might put me in touch with your friends? I`d love to get their feedback and perspective about how hiring a Virtual Assistant has helped them in their business. We could even use them as a case study (if nothing else, it`s nice additional exposure for their business).

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Danielle Keister, The Relief Virtual Assistance
Administrative Support Services for Business Consultants and PR Professionals | Founder, Virtual Assistance Chamber of Commerce

You bet - is my email visible to you?   I`ll give you their names that way.  And I would be happy to be a referral source for your VA Ch. of C. here in Denver.  Great concept.

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Team Nimbus facilitates peer teams who advise each other from their collective business experience to raise profits in less time, so they can focus on the passion that brought them into business in the first place. We help move their business from survival, through profitable success, to significance.

(Oddly enough, my last name does happen to be List, which my grandparents Americanized from Liszt. I`ve written time and again to the OTHER Craig, but he claims he`s using a generic English language word. So, after much thought, I changed my name to Landes. Still, we do get confused!)

Danielle:

Thanks for asking these great questions! You have really cut to the chase on "why don`t people use VA`s" - and Blakeman and Craig - both great answers! I have several small clients who - I think - and I`ve never known how to put this before - but Blakeman`s points have illustrated it for me - my clients want ME to work ON their businesses while they work IN them. Thus they get to keep the employee mentality - as you point out. Some of them have laid the full responsibility for building their business on me - and abdicated their own responsibility in the matter. I`m not comfortable with this at all.

Any ideas?

 

Hi, Kate,

Sorry for getting back to you so late. I`m not getting the email notifications that I clicked on for some reason.

Anyhoo... let me see if I understand your question correctly. Are you saying that instead of doing admin work, your clients are expecting more consultant-like advice and responsibility from you?

If that`s the case, what that would signify to me is that there`s perhaps something not getting communicated clearly. As a business owner, you are perfectly entitled to have whatever standards you want in your business such as who you want to work with, who an ideal client is for you, and what services you will and won`t provide.

That being said, it is up to us as the VA business owners to clearly communicate to clients what those standards are, and that may even include something that let`s them know that you are never responsible for their business, that you are not a consultant, but a service provider. You are not responsible for making decisions and determinations, nor for outcomes, in a client`s business. You provide services that support them, but ownership (in every aspect of the word) remains with them. Of course, you always want to convey things as graciously as possible, but it very important to be very clear, direct and assertive.

And if you sense they are looking for more direction than you are prepared or equipped to provide, you might also refer them to a business coach or whatever other expert or consultant they might benefit from.

Hope that helps somewhat. And if I`ve not understood the issue, please feel free to restate. :)

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Danielle Keister, The Relief Virtual Assistance
Administrative Support Services for Business Consultants and PR Professionals | Founder, Virtual Assistance Chamber of Commerce

Y`know, I wonder how to distinguish between "consulting," and "value-added" input and insights?

I began with my current client, more as a basic contract worker, hired short-time to simply do some PowerPoint stuff. I took a gamble, having read what was actually in that file, and made some editorial changes. When I handed it back, I let them know, and that I could easily "revert" to their original.

I bit my fingernails, worrying that I`d overstepped my bounds, but the response was gratifyingly positive. Since then, I`ve parlayed the original work into regular work, but it now means walking an interesting borderline between freelance editor, consulting author, and administrative assistant.

It`s a tough call to make, and perhaps the growing community of VAs could become some sort of "standards setting" organization? Interesting possibility, at any rate. :-)

To all Small Business Owners,

Remember, if your work day is flexible and if you network well, then you can always find someone willing to do a little work for just a little money.  Consider me.  Although I have an accounting degree, I`m not an accountant.  I decided to keep my corporate job in program finance as my primary source of funding.  But still, like just about everyone, I could use a few hundred dollars more each month.  So ditch reconciling your bank account, and let me do it.  I`m sure there are lots of people who only want to work a few hours a week, but we never see advertisements for 3-7 hrs/wk jobs or for 3-7 hrs/month jobs.  I don`t want to be tied down to a part time job (since I`ve already got a time intensive full time job).

So don`t be afraid to talk to your customers and to everyone you meet.  Whatever type of help you need, you can probably find it if you just keep the conversation going. 

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Change creates Opportunity Opportunity creates Risk and Reward But, Who creates Change?

Great topic Danielle,

I am an avid supporter of VA`s for small business owners. I actually have a team of 8 people who are all virtual staff. I also mentor entrepreneurs and teach them how to start outsourcing their lower-payoff activities to be able to generate more profit and results.

In my experience there are 5 main reasons why they don`t hire or outsource.

• They have a fear of letting go because they have been burned or have control issues.
• They don`t know how to justify the cost
• They don`t know WHAT to delegate off their plate
• They don`t want to be a manager or have to handle "employee" type issues
• They don`t think they have the time to slow down and train someone else so it`s just easier to do it by themselves (at least in their own mind)

This is such a big issue that I developed a new program called Virtual Team Building Secrets to help entrepreneurs learn how to have the right mindset, systems and habits to successfully leverage the power of a virtual team (or any kind of team for that matter.)

I`d be very interested to learning more about your survey and findings to further our "joint cause" to educate entrepreneurs on the value of outsourcing to virtual team members. I know taking the leap has been invaluable to my success!

Feel free to contact me! I`d love to get to know more about your mission.

 

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Melanie Benson Strick
Million Dollar Lifestyle Business Coach
& Virtual Team Building Expert
http://www.successconnections.com

Discover "101 Ways to Triple Your Income by Outsourcing Your High Payoff Activities" at http://www.successconnections.com/101ways.

These are great, Melanie--thank you for sharing and keeping this conversation going.

This is what I have found also, and I hope your post will spark other business owners to relate what one thing really keeps them from hiring support. So keep`em coming--I really want to hear in your own words what obstacles you "think" are standing in your way.

What I see most often is that business owners don`t have the money (or think they don`t) or don`t invest in their businesses. I think the related part of that issue is that they don`t understand the value proposition, which is incumbant upon our profession to do a better job of articulating that. This is one of the reasons I formed my organization, the Virtual Assistance Chamber of Commerce (http://www.virtualassistantnetworking.com)

For the sake accuracy and understanding, I do want to clarify for business owners that there`s a difference between virtual staff (who are employees) and Virtual Assistants, who are in the profession of Virtual Assistance and run their own businesses. Hiring a Virtual Assistant, as opposed to simply hiring an assistant who works virtually, are going to be two completely different experiences. A business owner should never have to "train" or "supervise" a Virtual Assistant like they would with virtual workers/virtual staff.

By the way, Melanie, so cool to talk with you, too because you and I were both interviewed at the same time by Dawn Rivers Baker last year for her Microenterprise Journal. :)

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Danielle Keister, The Relief Virtual Assistance
Administrative Support Services for Business Consultants and PR Professionals | Founder, Virtual Assistance Chamber of Commerce

Great distinction on virtual staff vs. virtual assistants.

Actually everyone on my team is a contractor who has their own business but sometimes I`ve found that I need someone who is more dedicated to me so they limit their clients to only 2 or 3.

I`ve found one of the breakdowns between a VA and a business owner is when the business owner grows and needs more help, but the VA doesn`t have the bandwidth to grow because of their full client base.

Knowing what you need and what your growth dynamics are can help you identify the right VA for the job.

Danielle, thanks for bringing up this subject...its a great tool to use a VA and I hope more people can benefit from your services.

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Melanie Benson Strick
Million Dollar Lifestyle Business Coach
& Virtual Team Building Expert
http://www.successconnections.com

Discover "101 Ways to Triple Your Income by Outsourcing Your High Payoff Activities" at http://www.successconnections.com/101ways.