Angels of the office

I found this interesting article in my daily Google Alerts as it mentions virtual assistants and echoes my previous blog post about the importance of Virtual Assistants during an economic downturn.

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We’ve all heard the doom and gloom stories in the media about the economic crisis facing the US and slowly filtering into other countries, including Australia. Well I for one am not overly worried as I think Virtual Assistance is pretty much a recession proof business. At a time when businesses may be shedding employees because they can no longer afford the spiralling costs and overheads. Virtual Assistance with no overheads and a "pay as you go" mindset offers a viable and attractive alternative to businesses who may be doing it tough. I personally have never been busier and I enjoy finding ways to save my clients money and/or time which goes beyond merely providing admin support and is more ‘big picture’ and strategic in nature. This type of support has never been more critical and I’d like to think a Virtual Assistant can help to ease the pain of these tough economic times. 

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Happy birthday to us! Net Secretary turned four years old in October and wow, that time has really flown. I am so proud and pleased to still be working in this industry (in fact thriving!) four years after starting my virtual secretarial business. I recall that I was quite apprehensive and not confident at all and I look back and see all the achievements I have made since then and the direction I’m heading in for the future. My skills have increased, our services have expanded and my confidence and knowledge with it. I know that I never dreamed I would be where I am today. I would advise new Virtual Assistants to stick at it, get that word of mouth out there and do as much subcontracting to other Virtual Assistants as you can because it’s a great way to learn and build your business while having steady income coming in. Being a Virtual Assistant really is the best ‘job’ in the world!

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Yesterday and today, I have been busy packing up my main street office in readiness to move it back into my home. I am moving to a new home in a few weeks time which has an ideal outside room which is going to be converted into office space for Net Secretary and I am very excited about that. Having premises has been good for me and Net Secretary and a welcome learning experience for me - but I don’t require it to do what I do best. Most of my clients are virtual anyway and I’ll be saving on overheads, as well as regaining some of the flexibility I have lost in having an off-site office. I think it will allow me to concentrate better on my new business model also, that of Online Business Manager, and in the end provide better service to my existing clients.   I have gone full circle - virtual business to bricks and mortar business back to virtual business - and I like that.

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When I moved into my new office premises in January of this year, I was no longer the traditional Virtual Assistant who worked from their home office. It was a quandary - did I still call myself a Virtual Assistant, a secretarial service, an admin support business or something else? I have decided to stick with the term Virtual Assistant as I feel it describes what I still do as the majority of my work. 

I am also local computer and office support for individuals and businesses in my area, but I also service them virtually, so I believe the term is still relevant. As I see it, I am merely adding another facet to my business by having a shopfront that people can come and physically meet me or hand over work. I still perform the work virtually (I don’t do onsite work) and in most cases can return the completed job via email. I think I have the best of both worlds.

Does anyone have any suggestions of titles to describe what I do? Perhaps Virtual and Personal Assistant (VAPA)?

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I was recently interviewed by a journalist from my local regional newspaper about being a Virtual Assistant and IVAD (International Virtual Assistants Day). This was in response to a press release I had faxed to the newspaper a couple of days earlier. I was really thrilled to be speaking to this journalist because I have never received media coverage of any kind for Net Secretary and it was a great way to educate her about what Virtual Assistants do and how I got to be one and why. The journalist was extremely interested in the ‘how’ and couldn’t quite believe I do work for clients, some of whom I have never met. I think the key to getting good media coverage is to have a newsworthy angle that the publication is interested in. In my case, I played up the ‘local’ virtual assistant angle working in an international or global industry while still achieving work/life balance.

I have yet to see the story published in the local newspaper (I thought it may have been in on Friday) but I shall keep an eye out for it and post a link here when it is published.

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For the third year in a row, I will be celebrating with over 50,000 other Virtual Assistants the 3rd Annual International Virtual Assistants Day (IVAD) on Friday, 16 May 2008. On this day, VA’s celebrate individual accomplishments and the important contributions we make to the growth and stability of small businesses everywhere. According to the Alliance for Virtual Businesses, some 90 per cent of VA’s are highly-skilled working mothers who choose to start their own businesses to achieve a better work/life balance. My situation is no different. I started this new career in October 2004 to spend more time with my son, achieve better work/life balance, feel like I am making a difference to clients lives and achieve personal satisfaction from seeing the direct results of my labour. I feel that I have achieved all of this and more. My client list has increased 400% since then, I now have a shopfront in the main street of my town, I have an assistant, and I have won a Highly Recommended in the Australian Achievers Awards. I love what I do and couldn’t imagine being or doing anything else.

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I haven’t written here for a while - Net Secretary has been bubbling along nicely and life has got in the way a bit, so I thought I should stop by and blog. I’ve been thinking lately about how trusting your instincts in business is so imperative, both in terms of business practices but also when it comes to new clients. I always ensure I have an Agreement in place with all my clients as a protection for both myself and for them. However, there are some prospective clients that I just won’t work with. Call it a gut feeling or intuition, I just know these clients are going to be bad payers, difficult and demanding to work with or that we are just not a “good fit”. Thankfully as an independent contractor, I can choose who I want to to work with and who I don’t and if a client relationship is not working out, I have the right to terminate that relationship as per the terms of our Agreement. This is why trusting my intuition is so important because that inner voice saves me from a lot of heartache and stress. This can be a little more tricky with long distance clients and as a Virtual Assistant, I need to ask lots of questions before I agree to work with a client. I think being a good fit with each other is extremely important for a satisfying, long term, successful working relationship.

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There has been recent attention in the media given to offshore outsourcing to VA’s in India and similar countries. Most recently was a story on the “Today” show on Channel 9 in Australia. The theme seems to be that it is a cheap option for business owners to save them money.

Most of these advocates pushing the “cheap” option don’t realise or just ignore the fact that we have a thriving Virtual Assistance industry in Australia, an industry filled with experienced, skilled, educated and professional VA’s. Going for the ‘cheap’ option in India may just prove to be a false economy - often English is not the first language and it can be tricky for someone to pick up the nuances of Australian English if they are not from here. I have heard first hand of businesses outsourcing their transcription to someone in India, only to have it returned in such bad shape, they then have to spend hours going over it themselves to make sense of it, or pay someone in Australia to tidy it up or re-transcribe it. Where is the cost saving in that? Or time saving for that matter?
I am sure that there are professionals in India just like there are in any other country (in fact I have dealt with a couple myself who were IT specialists and very, very good at what they do) but the advocates of this cheap option seem to be pushing the unskilled, non-professional workers as “VA”s which is misleading and gives our professional industry a tarnished image.

I firmly believe you get what you pay for - if you pay peanuts, you quite often get monkeys.

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I thought I would write about an event that occurred this week that got me thinking about the power of positive thinking, letting go and the power of alignment.

A client that owed me money paid me today. I had chased the client for a couple of weeks, sending several emails and today the payment was made without me having to resort to debt collection or court action. I made a deliberate decision when I began my business (and after a sour experience with a non paying client - more on this in a minute) to embrace the power of positive thinking and alignment. That is, my thoughts should be in alignment with my actions. This has always become most evident when being paid by clients. I have only ever NOT been paid once in the four years I have been operating my practice. It was only a relatively small amount (under $100) and because I was so new in the business, I failed to put in place an Agreement between the client and myself and ask for progress payments (it was a big ongoing job entering information onto a website shopping cart). I did pursue the client but he ended up disappearing and left a few other VA’s out of pocket also. About a year after that, I encountered another potential non-paying client. It was at this stage that I started getting really stressed out about the possibility of not being paid and nearly threw it all away at that point. I then decided to “let go”. I was tired of investing so much energy and stress into the situation and I thought “She is either going to pay me or she isn’t and the outcome is beyond my control. I’m going to give this one up to the Universe and just let go” - and she paid me the next day!

I now ensure I always have in place Agreements with all my clients, and make sure that my thoughts are aligned with my actions - I do everything I can on my side to ensure a positive outcome (i.e. delivering a quality service on time, and being paid for it!). If I do encounter a difficult payer, I have a 3 step procedure I follow before it gets to debt collection and as I mentioned, I have always been paid eventually. I also “let it go” - it keeps me from being so invested in the outcome and stressing out, when really that outcome will happen regardless of how upset I get about it.  It is very liberating and at the end of the day, I know I can sleep at night.

I would be interested in hearing other comments about how other business owners deal with situations such as this.

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