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Virtual Assistants:
First, thank you for all the kind words and support you’ve given me in the last few weeks after the launch of my ebook. I love to hear from you!

Second, I hear you.

I know you’re out there, and I know many of you think no one’s listening.

I admit I didn’t know you at all, until a few months ago, until I took the time to talk to you. I was just like a lot of the other clients you’ve known who were in such a hurry to build their own businesses that they didn’t give a thought to yours.

We’re really not that different, you and me. Those of us who support others can sometimes have our best messages fall on deaf ears.

I know what it’s like to be un-listened to by clients. No matter how many times you list the many many ways VAs can help, you don’t really know if they hear you. They’re so intent on their own interesting circumstances that they often don’t seem to see you marching along beside them – sometimes they don’t recognize your worth. If only they’d open their eyes and really see.

One thing I found out from talking to you, and to the clients you work with: your clients need you more now than ever. And more new and different entrepreneurs who need virtual partners are coming out of the woodwork every day. This is the time to really make your voices heard. You have to wake the sleeping giant up so he can hear you. And as a sleeping giant myself, I can give you a perspective of what might get our attention.

I will spread the word about you through my writing, speaking, and ebook, but I need your help: help me make some noise.

Here’s what you can do, right now:

1.    Communicate your worth to your clients. Sing it from the rooftops!

Write a blog post or ezine article and link it to this one. Send out an email blast and copy me. Mail letters and put me on your list. List your credentials as well as the many ways you support your clients in their businesses, and make sure they know exactly how you help them. Use case histories to remind them of past successes and suggest future ideas. Be authentic and specific.

2.    Wake your clients up to the collaborative possibilities.

Make a list of all your current clients, and the ways you could be collaborating with them, but haven’t been asked. Estimate the value of this to your client. Suggest projects your client may not have thought of – but you have, because you know their businesses. Then send an email to each of them with your individual suggestions for them and the value they could be profiting from. Or bring your ideas up the next time you talk. Do this in the right way and you never know what could happen.

3.    Let your clients know your plan for your business, your understanding of entrepreneurship, and of partnerships.

Write out your plan for your business, your growth strategies, your hopes and dreams. Detail your worth as a partner and your understanding of business, and of being an entrepreneur. Make sure your clients know this smart and savvy part of you.

4.    Show them how you can REALLY help their businesses.

What do you REALLY know about your clients’ businesses that could help them reach their goals? Do you even know your clients’ goals? What part could you play in supporting them to reach those goals? Let them know.

5.    Choose your ideal client. Let them know you’re looking for them.

Do you know who your ideal client really is? Can you describe her? Is this profile what your client roster looks like now? If not, how can you get it to be?

6.    Get testimonials.

Ask satisfied clients to write outcome-based testimonials for you and put them on your website and in your ezine. Or just send one out via email to your list occasionally. If you have trouble getting them from busy clients, do it for them — write what you think they’d say and ask them to edit it.

7.    Organize your systems and communicate their possibilities.

What systems do you use that really rock? Did you put a bit of this together with a bit of that and make magic? Do your clients know about the way you work or is this a best-kept secret? Unique systems that work can help you stand out from the pack – find out what yours are, document and talk about them.

8.    Get out from behind your computer occasionally – go places and talk yourself up.

Are you actually getting out and meeting people? Do people really know what you do and how cool you are?

9.    Gather in groups to brainstorm, mastermind, and support each other.

Are you trying to do this alone? As someone who knows the value of partnerships and support, you know the value of a like-minded group to grow with. Group coaching and mastermind groups provide inspiration, accountability, and encouragement. Get involved.

10.    Learn. Be coachable.

Never stop learning. Don’t confine your education to software programs and techniques — learn about yourself, your mindset, and your values in business. Find someone you like, trust, and click with, and be coachable, no matter how long you’ve been in business.

It’s up to each of us to sing our own songs. No one knows how good you are as well as you do. It’s a disservice not to tell, not to let your clients and future clients know exactly how you could serve them better, really, in ways that they can hear.

Become more visible to them, let them really see you, and your clients just may become better listeners. And better clients as well.

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I’m so excited! My ebook program about how to find, hire, and partner with the perfect VA for you is finally finished, and I’m ready to go — and I can’t wait to tell you all about it!

I spent 6 weeks this spring specifically interviewing virtual assistants (VAs), people who work with VAs (that means people like you!), VA service providers, and leaders in the VA industry to find out what they say are the best ways to find, hire, and work with virtual assistants. I asked them about the successes they’ve had, and the failures, too. I found out what can go wrong and what can go right, so you don’t have to go through all that.

I added that to my 25 years of experience in working with teams in small and entrepreneurial businesses, and I ended up with a lot of information for you — and some of it is pretty surprising!

I’ve got to tell you, there’s a lot of confusion out there.

• Not everyone thinks of virtual assistants in the same way, even among the VAs themselves. And the definition of “virtual assistant” is not well understood. When expectations are not aligned, problems happen. If you don’t know what you’re getting into, these problems will happen to you.
• While you may not have a clue where to look, VAs are everywhere. There are many ways to find a VA, some better than others, and a right way to find one that’s perfect for you. Look in the wrong place, or in the wrong way, at your own peril.
• How you handle the initial interview you have with your VA can make all the difference in the success of your relationship.
• You CAN avoid the major frustrations clients have with working with VAs, and vice versa — if you know what to look for.

I’d love for you to be able to take advantage of what I’ve learned from my over 30 hours of interviews — so I’m doing a special free teleclass.

This class has already taken place, but you can still get the recording.

Here’s just a sampling of what I’ll be talking about:

1. The best ways and places to FIND virtual assistants.

Knowing that you need help is only the beginning. You also need to know where to look for VAs and how to look. I’ll give you all the best ways to connect and the places professional VAs hang out, so you won’t have to waste any time (some people spend months looking in the wrong places!) poking around where good VAs aren’t.

2. Exactly what you should LOOK FOR in a virtual assistant — and how to choose between the ones you find.

It’s not a good idea to just go with the first VA you find — but it may have been so difficult for you to find her, that you want to hire anyone with a pulse! So what should you look for? I’ll give you the exact steps you need to take to assure your relationship will succeed. Remember, you’re not just looking for any old VA, you’re looking for the best VA for you, and for your business.

3. How to GET CLEAR on your needs — what specific work can a VA take off of your plate?

It’s really helpful if you have your intentions thought out before you start talking to the VAs you’d like to hire. Are you clear about what you need and how a VA can help you? Many entrepreneurs are not, so don’t panic. I’ll be sharing some specific techniques to get clear on your needs, help to narrow your search, and avoid wasted time.

This call is for you if. . .

1. You’ve got lots of great ideas for growing your business but you can’t get to them because you’re working too many hours doing the “busy work” in your business.

2. You’ve created a successful business where you’ve “got to” do everything.

3. You know you need some help but you don’t know how to go about getting it.

4. You tried a virtual assistant but it “didn’t work” for you.

5. You’re afraid to hire a VA because it sounds expensive and you don’t know what you’d give her to do anyway.

This class has already taken place, but you can still get the recording.

Go ahead, do it — it’s really interesting stuff!

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Imagine having someone to take care of all the details of your business for you. You know, the things you never get to — or the things you’re bogged down in that keep you from doing the stuff you should be doing to grow your business. Imagine that this person is better at the administrative details than you are, and can do them faster and has resources and ways of doing things you haven’t even thought of. She can do your spreadsheets and keep your calendar and plan your speaking engagements and track your sales and order the cake for your mother-in-law’s anniversary and proofread your brochure copy and maybe even make changes to your website — or find someone else who can.

Now imagine that this person can brainstorm with you, can understand your vision and help you get there. And then imagine that you don’t have this person in your office with you, throwing a kink into how you work — imagine she works in her own office, with her own equipment and her own health care plan, and you can negotiate to work with her for as much or as little as you need her (which means you don’t pay for her coffee breaks or when you can’t keep her busy).

Voila! Meet the virtual assistant.

Basically, a VA is an independent business owner who provides administrative (and sometimes personal, creative, and/or technical) support services virtually via phone and internet, while working in long-term relationships with a handful of clients. It’s like an executive assistant or office manager who doesn’t work in your office, primarily, sort of — at least some of them are. For as young as this industry is (VAs first came to be in the mid to late 1990’s), there sure are a lot of types, branches, and offshoots already.

That’s my definition, anyway. And oh, boy. Are there a lot of opinions out there about exactly what a virtual assistant (VA) is and how they can help your business.

So let’s just talk about that for a second.

Most official definitions focus on administrative support
There are lots of official definitions listed at VA services, networking, and directory sites, such as the following, where you can also find help locating VAs:

AssistU

VACOC (Virtual Assistant Chamber of Commerce)

VANA (Virtual Assistant Networking Association)

IAVOA (International Association of Virtual Office Assistants)

IVAA (International Virtual Assistants Association)

A Clayton’s Secretary

If you checked out any of the above, you can see that even among the VA industry, the definition of a VA is not really consistent, but most of these organizations see VAs as being primarily administrative focused. What I found out from poking around and talking to people is that the administrative definitions are the original intent for virtual assistants and the standard by which the purists in the industry still judge themselves today.

These definitions define the VA profession as a specific industry. Some of them define the profession by describing what a VA is not, which includes saying a VA is not just anyone who works remotely.

Some VAs have additional specialized skills such as copywriting, web programming, or graphic design, but that’s sort of beside the fact, a happy surprise you can have the option of purchasing additionally. But don’t expect a VA to automatically have the creative and technical skills as well as the administrative know-how — many do not. That additional expertise is a bonus.

However. . .

There are also some unofficial definitions
And those include anyone who offers support services virtually. Over the years, as more and more work is being done virtually, there’s been an increasing tendency for professionals who offer a range of support services to lump them all under the heading of virtual assistance. Technically, the label is correct — they are offering “assistance, virtually.”  The focus of these services could include web programming, bookkeeping, graphic design, tech services like specialized software assistance and programming, etc.

So a bookkeeper who works virtually might call herself a virtual assistant, and a graphic designer who works virtually might call himself a virtual assistant — without offering many (or any) other administrative services.

And definitions that are somewhere in between
Some VAs don’t worry too much about the terminology or the original intent of the profession, and are offering a mixed bag of services that they add to pretty much as needed. They may feel that the industry is changing as technology is changing and they want to change with it, offering whatever support they feel is within their range of competency. So they’ll offer a great variety of admin services and also be able to make programming changes to your website, do your bookkeeping, and proofread your newsletter, all without breaking a sweat.

Here’s where the problem comes in
It’s important for you to know what kind of VA you’re getting, and how your VA defines herself. This can make the difference between a great client/VA relationship and one that goes south pretty quickly — it’s all about expectations.

If you think a VA is a VA is a VA and that they’re all alike — magical creatures who can do everything you need with grace, ease, and a tremendous amount of speed and accuracy whenever you need it, you’re surely going to be disappointed. Ain’t so. Or you may think they’re task-oriented peeps you just bark orders at a few times a year without so much as a how-de-do. Huh uh. No. That’s not it either.

They’re all different. What you think of as a VA might not be your VA’s definition of a VA. VAs are people first, just like you and me. There are things some VAs do well and things some VAs don’t do well. Some work like this and some work like that. You need to ask what they do and how they work, and know the differences between the people you’re interviewing.

And then there’s the part about a VA not being your employee
You also need to understand what it means to have an “assistant” who is not your employee. This is a tough one, too. Virtual assistants are independent business owners like you are, they are not “hired” by you as an employee, and in that sense your relationship with them is very different.

In the research I did for my ebook I did a bunch of interviews, and I think Naomi Dunford of IttyBiz said it best.

Naomi: “Do you know what I think it is?  I think it’s the name of the position. When we think of an assistant, we have an automatic mental association with a dedicated assistant. I think it takes a lot to get that out of our heads. It doesn’t make it right or wrong. It isn’t saying that I think an assistant should be dedicated; it’s a morally neutral statement.

“It’s interesting because I think we do have that belief that an assistant is something that you have, not something that you share.”

Think about that for a moment. It’s really easy to feel possessive about your VA. You may want to dictate her time, have her be available to you at a moment’s notice, feel paternalistic towards her, and have her be able to read your mind and anticipate your every move. You may not want her to be working with other business owners. You may not want to share her. She’s your assistant, dang it.

Nothing wrong with some of those things I guess, but if that’s what you’re looking for, then you really need an employee, not a VA. (And we should talk. I don’t want you to get off on the wrong foot with an employee, either. Email me marcia@hoeck.net.)

A VA is a partner
A virtual assistant, truly, is a partner — a business owner who can supply services you need, just like other partners you work with: your accountant, attorney, financial planner, or business coach or consultant. And she works with other business owners when she isn’t working with you.

This is totally to your advantage: you only pay for what you need, for what you negotiate. With an employee, you’re making a commitment to pay their entire salary and other costs associated with hiring, including benefits. Technically you pay for these costs with a VA as well, as these costs of doing business will be absorbed into her costs to you, but the point is you can negotiate to purchase part of a VAs attention, which isn’t the case with an employee. There are advantages and disadvantages to both — you just have to know the differences.

What else?
Many entrepreneurs never meet their VAs and communicate with them only through email, IM, telephone, Skype, fax, etc.

Partnering with a VA can reduce stress, protect cash flow, eliminate administrative hassles, be the perfect way to have someone to “watch your back,” and free up your time so you can get back to building your business.

Your VA relationships can be some of the most rewarding business relationships you’ll ever have.

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Keep your eyes peeled for the launch of my ebook, “How to Find, Hire, and Work with a Virtual Assistant: the 5 Easy Steps to Building an Effective, Profitable Relationship.” Coming soon! (I’ve finished the first draft and a *super dooper important person* [yay!] is now writing the foreword.)

Update: The ebook is now available (and the super dooper imporant person who wrote the foreword is Stacy Brice, founder and CVO of AssistU). Take a look here.

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I’m writing an ebook about finding, hiring, and working with virtual assistants. It’s fascinating stuff. I’m about 60% finished with the writing at this point, and I’m having a bit of writers’ procrastination. So I thought a post about the book might help. I thought I could tell you why I’m writing the thing, and that might help me move forward.

So here goes.

I’m a business coach. I know how to create a business that will almost run without you. And after actually running a business for 25 years, I know about building strong teams. So when I was meeting with my own mastermind group and talking about my strengths, the subject of hiring and working with virtual assistants (VAs) came up. We talked about what a big decision hiring a VA is for so many entrepreneurs, and how important VAs can be to your team.

And yet many people put off the decision to hire a VA until they’re so overwhelmed and overloaded they can hardly see straight. Others have tried working with a VA and “it didn’t go well” so they gave it up and decided it just doesn’t work for their business, or they have a VA but the relationship isn’t what they thought it would be. And still others don’t know why they need a VA in the first place, how it all works, or what they would do with a VA if they had one. VAs can be such a gosh-darned question mark for entrepreneurs.

Then Lorrie Morgan-Ferrero said, “Marcia, you need to do something on how to hire a VA. Lots of people need that!”

“Oh, yeah? Think so?” I answered back. (We have lots of these deep, heavy discussions in our mastermind group.)

And so, amid many a “For sure!” and “Why doncha?” the idea for my ebook and bonus audios was born.

But there’s more. I love digging into the way people work together, really sticking my nose in, and especially how those relationships can be made better. Work’s hard enough — I think everyone should really enjoy what they’re doing, and they can’t if they’re all in a snit about someone they’re working with. So I started talking to people about the idea of some kind of report or instructional or product about VA/client relationships. I put it out on Twitter and Facebook and other groups I’m involved with, and asked people to talk to me about being a VA or working with a VA. And my mastermind group was right: there seems to be lots of frustration and confusion over the virtual assistant “issue,” and there seems to be a need to straighten it out. And I’m just the person to get the discussion going, because I don’t have a dog in the fight, if you know what I mean. (Not that I like the idea of dog fights. My girls don’t do that — well, Liesl the wiener dog does like to pick on her floofy sister Grace sometimes, I guess. But I digress — this post isn’t about dogs, is it?)

So there you go. I saw a need and I am filling it.

And in the process, I’m meeting some very wonderful and interesting people: VAs, people who are working with VAs, and leaders in the VA industry. And I’m learning a lot. I spoke with the delightful pioneer of the virtual assistant industry, Stacy Brice of AssistU, who gave me so much information and insight I could write a course just on our conversation (I love her analogy of the Vegas quickie wedding); Kathie Thomas of A Clayton’s Secretary, the VA queen of Down Under and 18 other countries who entranced me with her enchanting Australian accent and smart stories (like how she met her husband)(did I tell you I won my husband’s heart by juggling? Of course, that’s off topic again); Tawnya Sutherland of VA Networking, who gave me so many useful references for making sure you’re working with a credible, professional VA — boy, was she helpful; and Danielle Keister of Virtual Assistance Chamber of Commerce, who was so thoughtful in walking me through the business of virtual assistance and the focus on results.

I can’t list all the VAs and clients I spoke with who gave me real life examples of their successes and “un-successes,” but they’ll be listed and thanked in the ebook, for sure. Well, I could list them, but this post is already longer than I intended it to be. I might actually be able to get back to writing the ebook now. (I do thank them all bunches and will be doing something special for them — maybe a video of me juggling? I’ll have to practice, the last time I told someone I could juggle and they called me on it, I got signed up for a talent show on a cruise ship — true story — and it wasn’t pretty.) All the things they told me will be very helpful to you — and their stories will be in the bonus audios.

Now, I know you’re all very interested to know who is in this extremely important mastermind group that encouraged me to write this ebook, and I’m going to tell you — in the ebook. If that isn’t a reason to wait with baited breath until the book is available, I don’t know what is. Clue: Lorrie Morgan-Ferrero is a member of the group. If you were reading carefully you already caught that.

So that’s the scoop. I’m writing a very interesting, very informative, very cool, and very fun-to-read (because I know you won’t read it unless it’s fun to read, okay? Most entrepreneurs think they already know everything, right? Well, I’m here to tell you you don’t know everything about this subject) ebook because it needs to be written. And if the book doesn’t blow you away, wait until you hear the audio interviews with all these fantastic people.

I suppose I should tell you more about what’s actually in the ebook and recordings. I will. Later. I have to go write now.

Update: The ebook, “How to Find, Hire, and Work with a Virtual Assistant: the 5 Easy Steps to Building an Effective, Profitable Relationship,” is now available (and the super dooper imporant person who wrote the foreword is Stacy Brice, founder and CVO of AssistU). Take a look here.