Taking advantage of opportunities to promote your business

I recently answered a thread in a parenting forum of which I am a member. Another poster was looking for SAHMs to interview for a local magazine specifically targeting work/career options that offer flexibility in terms of timing, reduced daycare costs and supplementary income. As a Virtual Assistant, I have come to enjoy all those benefits and many more, so I offered up my business as a possible candidate.

Initially, the author was targeting other forms of career options, but decided in the end to include my profession as a viable option for other SAHMs. I am happy to say the article has been published and you can read more about my VA business and other stay-at-home career options in the November-December issue of Calgary’s Child magazine.

The article in question is on pages 16 and 17 and mention of VAs is at the very end of the article, which you can read here (note: PDF download). Enjoy!

One entrepreneur’s journey to find a Virtual Assistant

I recently came across this blog entry outlining David Risley’s experience in finding a suitable Virtual Assistant and while it isn’t a new entry, it has some very pertinent information. It lends some useful insight and helpful information in guiding anyone who may think of hiring a Virtual Assistant.

Thank you, David!

Finding a Virtual Assistant

June 6, 2007

I have been spending time here and there over the last week attending to a very important action for my business: hiring a virtual assistant. Now, let me say ahead of time that I have not yet signed a contract with the person I am going to try out, however I should be doing that before the end of the week. I would, though, like to blurb about my experience thus far on finding a VA.

First off, a virtual assistant (VA) is essentially an assistant that does not work in my office. In other words, they are not an employee, but an independent contractor. They provide their own material and they work remotely, doing whatever you ask them to do. With the technology we have today, there really is no reason that you HAVE to have people in your office. In my case, I operate out of a home office. Even if the VA needs to work with your own software, you can give them remote desktop access and they can use a computer in your office while sitting anywhere in the world. Hence the name virtual assistant.

My first attempt to find a VA was to go to Elance.com and post. Elance is a great resource for finding labor. It works similarly to Ebay. Service providers have profiles and get feedback. You can judge any service provider by their feedback and by their portfolio. I recently found a writer on Elance, and although she is not yet done with my project, I am happy with her so far. I decided to post for a VA position. They do have a category for Administrative Support, Personal Assistants, and all kinds of other categories. I got a total of 13 bids on Elance. The bids were hit and miss, and you have to do a good job on Elance of evaluating your bids. First of all, realize that you are going to get mostly overseas bids. A vast majority of bids I received were from India. Their hourly rates were very low to our standards – averaging $5/hour. I obviously like the price, but is that the only important criteria? Absolutely not. What I observed in the bids was:

• Many of them were not writing in correct English.
• Some bids were not really VAs, but programmers. That’s fine. I need a programmer, but I’m asking for a VA here.

The other thing to do is to clarify the hourly rate with them. Most of the bids would come in as whole amounts, like $50. But, $50 for what? An hour? 10 hours? So, use the private message board to clarify with them if they don’t specifically tell you in their initial bid. You also want to be careful with what they are bidding on. I had a couple companies bid where they say we would work out a price later, but they would bid something now to get my attention. In other words, I would choose their bid only to be given another rate once they find out more about what I want. No thanks.

All in all, Elance is a great place to find labor, but it can be a lot more work. I’ve worked with a few overseas people before. The lowball price is attractive. But, you get what you pay for. The language barrier can be a problem, especially when you’re trying to get them to deliver something specific. Another thing to keep in mind is that many of the really GOOD providers are probably not going to be out there bidding on projects on Elance. Why? Because the good ones are usually pretty busy already. To find the good ones, you usually need to go to where the good ones hang out and ask them to work for you. I recently watched a video of John Reese talking about finding a Flash guy to do his Flash intro for Income.com. Did he put a project out on Elance? No, he went to FlashKit and found somebody in the forums. That’s where Flash people hang out.

My next source for finding a VA is VANetworking. This is a site by VANA (Virtual Assistant Networking Association). I went and submitted a request for proposal (RFP) where they will then, in turn, post on their forum of VAs. I got just as many bids (if not more) from VANetworking as I did from Elance. The big thing to keep in mind is that most of the bids you will get from here are American. That means they cost more. Most of the bids I had were coming in anywhere from $20/hour to $40/hour. But, the quality of the bids was significantly higher than Elance. These women (and most of them were indeed women) really knew their stuff and offered good detail to me in their proposals. I even had a great VA bid who had an office in Tampa – only about a half hour from me.

Ultimately, I have found a lady up in Minnesota who I cam going to be working with. We have agreed on terms (at least preliminarily) and she will be getting me a contract tomorrow. She is a VA, but with a real penchant for internet work. That’s obviously great for me being in the business I am. I’m looking forward to getting out from underneath of some things as well as getting things moving on otherwise stagnant projects. For me, I think finding a good, quality VA is going to be an important step for me.

Our online persona

The VA forum I participate in regularly has had a spate of threads regarding VAs and other professional’s online appearance, most notably that involving grammar, spelling and punctuation. Most agree that if your website, blog, professional correspondence and forum postings are poorly written, it reflects badly upon you and your abilities.

Too many newbie VAs come bouncing onto the forums full of questions that are riddled with poorly-written text and spelling errors. While I agree that it simply isn’t possible to write perfect text all the time, I believe a genuine effort needs to be made in every instance. If your writing includes a link or a signature to your business, it must reflect the image of that business that you are striving to achieve. If you want to look ill-educated and lazy and you don’t care, then, by all means, don’t bother. But, if you want your clients and potential clients to respect your abilities and view you as an expert in your field, then care must be taken.

I can’t emphasize it enough, proofread, proofread and proofread again. There are some tricks that can make it easier. If you use Firefox, it has a built-in proofreader and can catch some of the more obvious typos when making forum responses. Copy and paste your text into a Word document and spell check it. Read it backwards. And if it’s a really important document, ask someone else to proof it. If you can’t be bothered to take the time to put your best written-self forward, then why should your clients think you would do any different for their businesses?

Unrealistic Expectations

I recently came across this extremely detailed and concise posting for a Virtual Assistant:

I am looking for an internet-savvy, English speaking, personal virtual assistant to work 20 to 40 hours per week on an hourly basis. I need a virtual assistant on a on going basis to conduct online research on a variety of different topics and industries, as well do a variety of tasks from writing reports, handling correspondence, transcribing letters to making phone calls.

Research tasks include researching/finding individual people and/or companies via blogs, websites and forums and preparing reports/briefs; researching current topics in the news including people, companies and technologies and writing reports about them.

Ongoing duties may also include:

- schedule meetings with others
- answering, filtering or writing emails
- making phone calls as part of research tasks
- returning or assigning the return of phone calls to others
- research products and write reports based on your research
- other tasks that I find too time consuming

You must be a self-starter, RELIABLE, computer savvy and FLUENT in English. You need to be available via SKYPE, email and occasionally phone to discuss projects. You may also be required to make some phone calls using Skype, so good spoken English is necessary.

I live on the Eastern coast of the United States in New Hampshire, so you need to be predictably available for two hours daily between 10am and 7pm Eastern US time.

Please state your HOURLY RATE as well as WEEKLY RATE in your bid. I may end up hiring you on a weekly basis depending upon your availability, professionalism and rates.

Looks pretty good, right? I admit I was impressed as the poster seems to have a good grasp of the skills his potential VA must have.

This job is suitable for individuals looking for stable work, perhaps a college student or someone who wants to free-lance part-time from home, preferably living in a country where the cost of living is very low, e.g. India, Eastern Europe. My business is still growing so I can’t spend a lot of money.

Oh, oh. I think I know where this is going. And since when is 40 hours a week part-time?

Now, for the best part:

This is a simple job for the right person. I’ll pay anywhere from $3 to $6 US per hour. If your hourly rate is way above that, you’re overqualified for this position – please don’t bid.

$3 to $6 dollars per hour?????? Hmmm….I think not. I don’t even think the Virtual Assistants from India charge rates this low, do they? Of course, one of the requirements is listed as “good spoken English is necessary”, so that’s an added consideration.

But, that’s not all! The poster then goes on to explain further:

The right person:

- Is computer savvy and very adept at using the Internet
- Has daily access to a high-speed internet connection
- Is available for contact via Skype, email, phone, etc.
- Is very competent at doing research, especially on the internet
- Knows, or at least be familiar with, Microsoft Office (Excel, Word,
PowerPoint, Access), Internet Explorer, Mozilla Firefox, Adobe
Acrobat, Google
- The ability to use ftp and do website tasks is a big bonus
- Speaks FLUENT English – this is very important; excellent command of
the written English language is essential (spelling and grammar);
bids written in less than perfect English will be ignored.
- Is very detailed oriented, organized, and takes pride in doing
quality work
- Is willing to learn the ins and outs of my business so that they can
work independently on projects
- Is able to learn quickly, and be familiar with computers and various
computer programs. I am less concerned about current knowledge, but
am looking for desire and willingness to learn.
- Is willing to sign a NDA (not necessary initially, while we’re
trying to decide it it’s a good fit, but probably will become
necessary if we decide to make it a long-term relationship)
- Must be creative and resourceful, and be able to think
independently.
- Is reliable, trustworthy, and respectful of deadlines

Wow. I want to meet this VA that is all of that and willing to work for $3/hour. I WANT TO HIRE THEM!!!

Lastly, the post states:

All worked performed will be considered a “Work for Hire” and I retain all rights. You must be able to transfer all rights to me upon completion of each project, therefore you may not use copyrighted works as part of your work product.

We will work out a fair way to remit your payments in installments. You will be paid every 2 weeks via Paypal (preferred), or other suitable method.

If you are interested in working with me, please bid your most competitive HOURLY and WEEKLY rates, and provide me with a copy of your resume/references, sample work, sample writing and anything else you think will convince me that you’re the best person for this job. In your bid, please tell me why I should choose you.

You will gain a lot of knowledge, experience, and marketable skills as a result of this job. I am a successful serial entrepreneur and expect this new business to go a long way.

Note: please do not submit generic bids, I want to know that you have actually read my request and have given some thought to your response. Canned responses will be ignored. Remember, bid PER HOUR and PER WEEK and fluent English speakers only please.

This poster boasts being “among the US’ top 200 Computer and Internet Consultants with over 30 years of design, implementation and security experience. His radio show beats all other shows in the Boston radio market every Saturday from Noon to 3pm Eastern time.”

It is nice to know that members of the general population have such a clear understanding of the exceptional capabilities and many advantages of Virtual Assistants. It’s too bad that they also don’t have the same respect to actually pay them adequately for those same skills.

Why Hire a Virtual Assistant

There are almost as many differing definitions of the term, Virtual Assistant as there are actual Virtual Assistants in existence. Whilst it is a relatively new industry, some historical pioneers do exist within the industry and additionally, some debate as to who actually founded the industry. This article shall explore these issues and illustrate the numerous advantages of hiring one!

A Virtual Assistant is an administrative support expert whose services are a cost-effective option to conventional overflow work arrangements. They achieve this by using the power of the internet to do the work virtually. They can specialize in an endless array of industries, from real estate to assisting coaches, making them especially useful for small business owners who have a specific client base.

There seems to be a fair amount of disagreement as to who exactly founded the VA industry. In her article titled, “The Birth and Development of Virtual Assistants”, Molly Alexander Darden states:

“Although IVAA is now the premier networking and support organization for virtual assistants worldwide, it was born in one person’s home office. From her rural home in Connecticut, Christine Durst founded the Virtual Assistance industry in 1995.”

The Virtual Assistance Chamber of Commerce goes on to list a timeline stating the following:

“1992: Stacy Brice begins working virtually as a full-time home-based contractor with an international client base providing administrative support, travel planning and personal assistance.

1996: Brice begins working with life coach Thomas Leonard. During a telephone conversation with Brice, Leonard coins the term “Virtual Assistant,” which further sparks an idea already germinating in Brice’s mind, and she begins working out her vision of a profession of administrative experts–Virtual Assistance–and creating a model distinct from secretarial services.

1999: Christine Durst and Michael Haaren establish Staffcentrix in Spring. Although claims have been made that Durst founded Virtual Assistance, that is actually inaccurate.”

What these and other articles do tend to agree upon is, while an exact person or time when the Virtual Assistant industry was born might not be accurately pinpointed, historically, there were no doubt numerous other individuals working as Virtual Assistants, just not being labeled as such.

Virtual Assistants are a boon to businesses for the following reasons:

They only bill for the time they incur. For example, you are not needlessly paying for time used making personal phone calls, late arrivals to work, time spent cruising the internet, commuting time to the office or overtime.

Virtual Assistants have their own network of resources they can draw on. Need a website designer? A conference organizer? An insurance specialist? Your virtual assistant can help with that and tapping into their resources increases your own.

A virtual assistant will save you money. As an independent contractor, they require no liability insurance, worker’s compensation insurance, payroll costs, benefits, overtime or taxes. As they work completely offsite, there are no costs for office space or office equipment. As specialists in their field, they incur no recruiting or training costs, allowing businesses more time to focus on their business.

The Virtual Assistant industry may be an emerging one, but a savvy business owner can immediately recognize the benefits of hiring a Virtual Assistant. And, like the endless list of Virtual Assistant definitions, businesses can no doubt find a VA who fits perfectly to their particular business and help it to grow. So, what are you waiting for? It’s time for you to go out and find your own VA!

 

All content © 2007 Kate V. Kerans. All rights reserved.