What IS/NOT a Virtual Assistant?

A Virtual Assistant is ……

• An independent business owner who will provide business (and possibly personal) support while working with clients in a long-term collaborative partnership.
• A highly qualified individual with a specific skill set, who offers services that will help entrepreneurs and organizations to grow and thrive.
• Able to focus on and manage the day-to-day operations of a client’s business allowing them to focus on revenue-generating activities and doing what they love.
• Not going to work from their client’s offices, but will work from her own office with her own equipment. She is not interested in having her clients pay for her taxes, benefits or training. She is only interested in providing her clients with top notch services and seeing them succeed.
• Dedicated to assisting her clients in developing processes and systems to improve the efficiency of her clients businesses, however large or small they may be.

A Virtual Assistant is NOT ……

• An employee, Secretary or Receptionist. A Virtual Assistant does NOT work FOR her clients. She may provide some of the support services these individuals would normally handle, however clients should not expect and will not receive the same quality of service that an employee would offer. The support they receive will be at least 10 times better!
• Available to her clients at their beck-and-call. A VA and a client will agree to work within a specified schedule, most like on a schedule the VA chooses, and the client should not expect her to be readily available outside of these hours.
• Liable for any decisions clients make in their business. A Virtual Assistant will offer recommendations on how to handle particular situations, but it is up to the owner of the business to take responsibility for all decisions they make.
• Compensated in the same manner as an employee. A Virtual Assistant will advise her clients of her hourly (or monthly) fee for the various services she provides and this rate is NOT negotiable. Don’t ever let your clients, under any circumstances, try to convince you to alter your rate.
• Someone entrepreneurs can afford NOT to work with! Consider a potential client’s rate hourly rate for working with their clients one-on-one. Perhaps one hour of their time is worth $200. (Yes, LOTS of people charge that much, or more for their services!) Instead of using that hour to follow-up with clients, manage a project or update their website, the client could be earning $200. Not having a Virtual Assistant is actually costing them money!