Virtual Assistants should be MAD!
The problem with a trend becoming popular is that everyone starts doing it.
For example, I liked Shakira before she ever did an English song. Years before. With Hips Don’t Lie how can anyone not like her? I am just a part of the masses now.
Virtual Assistants have been around for a long time. However, with the The 4-Hour Workweek, hiring virtual assistants became in vogue. The company specifically mentioned in that best selling book became so busy that they could not handle the rush to hire their services and lost a lot of opportunities.
Now I see a trend for Virtual Assistants, and if you are one of the pre-4 hours work week virtual assistants, you should be mad as hell. (Although maybe not, since you cannot do anything about it.)
Everyone is a virtual assistant.
Here are just a few of the careers of people that I know that are calling themselves virtual assistants but still doing the other work as well.
- Business Consultants
- Life Coaches
- Business Coaches
- Freelance Writers
- Internet Marketers
- Graphic Designers
- Web Designers
- Accountants/Book keepers
I am sure the list is much bigger, but you get the idea. If you are a Virtual Assistant and that is all you do, you are now competing with everyone. You might ask yourself WHY?
The answer is simple. Virtual Assistants are people that work remotely and help businesses or people achieve particular goals by completing specific tasks. Many activities can be done virtually, including most of the jobs I mentioned above.
The reason that people are calling themselves virtual assistants is because it is a gateway into a client. In Internet marketing, we know that a client that is willing to pay $10 today has a good chance of paying $100 tomorrow. So a business consultant or coach may begin by assisting a client with a few tasks, all the while offering valuable advice. Later, that client may chose to upgrade and become a coaching client.
For this same reason, general Virtual Assistants should specialize and up-sell their specialized skills. For example, a virtual assistant might do general tasks at $25 an hour, but charge $50 an hour for copyrighting or website design.
Oddly enough, a VA that has specialized skills will find it easier to sell their services as well. Sure, not everyone will need the specialized skill, but when someone does, it is much easier to get that work. Think about it from the client perspective.
Client: Do you do Internet Marketing?
VA: Sure, we do everything.
- Yeah, I am going to hire this VA. NOT!
Client: Do you do Internet Marketing?
VA: Absolutely. That is my specialty. I help people with adword management and conversion analysis. I am also quit good at SEO (Search engine optimization). I do not design HTML, but I have a partner that does that.
- Wow, that VA has got her act together. And yes, I will pay her much more per hour than the generalist.
So let me propose something. The term Virtual Assistant is dead. It is as general as saying you are a Worker. Imagine someone asking what you do and you replying, “I am a worker. I work. I do whatever I am told.”
The good news is you just have to become good at something by focusing on it for a while. Here we do Internet Marketing and call the virtual assistants Virtual Buzz Assistants. You could also do accounting, technology, design, sales support – there are a ton of things. But don’t try to do them all.
Other Important VA Articles:
Personally, I think the word “buzz” is dead. It’s overused, and implies a false hype that may or may not truly exist.
Unless you’re a sensationalist, it’s probably not the best word… oh wait, your whole site is built upon it.
Oops.
No, I don’t think the term “virtual assistant” is dead, nor do I think anyone who is one should be “mad”.
If that were the case, then anyone who made any other kind of lightbulb after Thomas Edison did is cause to get mad.
Anyone who designed a telephone after Alexander Graham Bell did should make people mad.
Do you see my point, here?
The evolution of a term, and its mass appeal and appreciation isn’t something to “get mad” at. Neither is the fact that other people became a fan of Shakira after you did… all it means is that you were a fan in the early days – doesn’t make you special to anyone except maybe Shakira herself, just because you know darn well that you told your friends about her, and helped to create the buzz. Oh wait, that’s just like Tim Ferriss did, isn’t it?
Sorry, but dogs get mad. Not people. I think if this is all that’s keeping you up at night, you’re in a far better place than most of the world.
One more thing – if you’re going to berate a book for “ruining” a term, you might choose to not try to profit from it by linking to it with your affiliate link. Just a thought.
Your point of saying that the term of Virtual Assistant is dead just so you can promote your own term is hardly a way to go about making a point.
Perhaps having a VA is “en vogue” for some people, but that hasn’t been my experience. Further, I don’t know that I’ve run across hardly anyone who was passing themselves off as VA when in reality there were really a business coach or something else. I’m not sure how what you say they are doing is any different than what you’ve done in that you are promoting that people become Virtual Buzz Assistants as a means to get clients because they can’t properly define themselves as a VA.
I do agree with your point of having some skills and specialty to market yourself with, but you don’t have to call yourself something else all together to do it.
Wow, that hit more of a nerve than I expected.
Just some general comments:
#1 I really like Tim’s book. I am not berating it. I did try to hire Get Friday twice after reading the book and they were too busy to take on new clients.
#2 Yes, buzz is over used. However, has been a core part of our identity for years, so I am sticking with it.
#3 I did not help make Shakira popular. I kept it 100% to myself as my friends do not speak Spanish.
#4 The ENTIRE point of this post is that you are better off developing specialized skills.
#5 I do know many people that are coaches and consultants selling their virtual assistant services to start the relationships. You do not have to believe me, but you should take it seriously as it is a trend that may continue to grow.
PS: I will not profit from that affiliate link. (I might make 50 cents, – that is not a profit.) But if I take the time to look up the link on amazon, I might as well add my ID to it. People are smart enough to search on the book name if they want to make sure I do not make 3%.
Regarding other professionals trying to ride the Virtual Assistance wave to get an “in” with a client, in the hopes that the client will later pony up for the “real” service offering (coaching, consulting, etc.) just indicates that those people can’t make it in their chosen professions.That they have to pass themselves off as virtual assistants to make headway is quite sad, actually.
Notice that Virtual Assistants don’t have to do that.
Thanks for actually pointing out that Virtual Assistance is alive and well!
Thanks Stacy.
I do not see it as hiding their real services, so much as addressing an important issue with many of these people. Namely, it is more valuable to be able to advise AND do the work, instead of just let people worry about execution on their own.
Virtual Assistants could generate significant leads if they partner with successful coaches and consultants. And likewise, virtual assistants could sell more services if they have good partnerships with specialists. (Assuming they do not have the specialty themselves.)
You really do have a very upside down view of this profession.
More valuable to….whom?
Certainly not to the coach, consultant or the like. In fact, it’s patently stupid for that person to both advise and execute from a variety of perspectives, not the least of which is the financial.
For instance, I’m a coach. I’ve been practicing for 12 years. My hourly coaching fee is $350. Based on what you said, if I can both coach *and* do the work (which I absolutely can–I’m one of only six Certified Master Virtual Assistants in the world), I should.
But why should I do the execution, for which I would probably bill $100-ish/hour (a conservative estimate since I was billing that when I closed my practice in 2000), when I can make far more coaching, and with significantly less effort?
Oh–so that it’s easy for my clients? Ummmm no.
It runs 100% contrary to the reason people outsource to begin with–that being so that they can focus on what they love and do best (and usually, what makes them gobs more money).
Based on what you wrote, people who know what needs to be done and *can* do it, *should* do it all–and that would include a fairly large chunk of the very client population Virtual Assistants serve (small business owners are an enterprising and talented lot, yanno).
You’re not really trying to tell the clients that they should do it all themselves when they know what needs to be done, are you, Ron?
You say that VAs could sell more services if they have partnerships with specialists. What you fail to fundamentally realize is that Virtual Assistants *are* specialists. They specialize in administrative work. And they *do* refer to other specialists when what a client needs is outside what they can provide. For them to say they can provide what they can’t is unethical.
That’s a model of work (the referring to specialists) you might consider sharing with the coaches, consultants, and speakers in your referral service who are trying to sell themselves as Virtual Assistants. Better that they coach and consult, and refer their clients to talented Virtual Assistants for the doing or getting handled whatever else needs to get done, than try to do it all themselves.
Thanks for replying Stacy.
When I say a coach will take VA work, I am saying they will make sure the work gets done well with their team. They are not doing the work themselves in many cases. And I am not referring to true executive assistant type work. I am referring to virtually managing marketing efforts or business processes.
You are absolutely right about outsourcing. People are outsourcing tasks and if they are successful, they are expanding their efforts. It is safer than hiring an employee that might not work out.
As for Virtual Assistants being specialists – maybe.
I think that a Virtual Executive Assistant is a Specialist.
A Virtual Marketing Assistant is a specialist. (Although they cannot be good at everything in this field)
A Virtual Book Keeper is a specialist.
Those VA sites that list SEO, Book Keeping, Website and Graphic Design, Writing, Etc., Etc. either need a team of specialists or they are selling things they are not very good at.
If a VA site says they only do administrative support, then I agree with you 100%.
The entire point of the post I wrote was that the term may be vague and because of it’s growing popularity, it is getting used in a lot of “creative” ways to sell other services.