Contact Information

If I go to a website and then go to the contact page and that page has a form with no other contact details, I quickly leave that site and do not bother looking further. Putting a form on your contact page to me, puts people off contacting you further. Now if I see full contact details I will take the time to contact you further. It’s a pet hate of mine to find a contact form because half the time you will fill in the form, submit it and then that is it, the receivers of the form often do not bother to contact you further, so to me, putting forms on your website is a waste of time, to me that makes your site unfriendly. But that is just my opinion.

Your contact details should be available on all pages. You can be sitting on a page and then think of a question you want to ask, if the contact information is there you can quickly phone or send an email but if you have to go to the contact page and fill in a form, well why bother.

In your contact information you need your full contact details. It is not necessary to put your address but put in your location as people like to know where you are situated before contacting you. Some clients could be local and where you are situated may matter to them. Give clients the option to contact you on your cell/mobile phone, your landline, skype, email and Whatsapp. These days I get lots of whatsapp contact from clients as it is easier and quick.

The quicker you reply to a potential client and if you can assist that client the better chance you have of impressing the client and getting the job – ‘The early bird catches the worm’. If a client contacts you and you are busy, get back to them at your first available opportunity.

Make use of the mail format signature in email, on every email you send, have your full contact information. Your aim with your advertising and marketing is to give the client contact details, many clients don’t have much time so will want to contact you quickly, don’t make your contact details difficult to find. Client’s want to contact you using the tool they use most often so make sure you give them all your social media details. Be accessible.

A word of warning, clients will contact you after hours if you do not want this or like it, state it in your advertising and marketing, state your hours of business and stress no contact after hours.

amftyping@mweb.co.za - alison@amftyping.co.za - +27 0828713452 - +27 011 7685028 - Skype: amftyping,

 

 

 

 

 

The life of a Virtual Assistant: Part 1 – coping with urgent work

The life of a Virtual Assistant: Part 1 – coping with urgent work

 

More often than not we do urgent work for clients. To meet the work deadlines we have to work long hours, public holidays and weekends. As VAs we have to be here for our clients and we often need to work our schedules around our clients, if we don’t the client can simply move onto another VA, who will work the hours they want.

As I work from home, I don’t mind working extra hours/time. I am safe in my own environment and don’t have to travel to and from work, my office is a minute away. I can schedule my family around the hours I work. When I put in extra hours I can also take that time off when I am low with work, or take an hour off here and there to suite myself.

Some deadlines can be negotiable, often a client does not know how long a particular task will take to do, it helps the client by you knowing how long tasks take, therefore, you can negotiate your time sometimes.

If you cannot do an urgent task, talk to your client, explain that you must finish what you are doing first and then you will attend to their work next, explain you want be long and give the client a rough estimate of when you can start their work and when you can have it ready by.

If you are organised you should be able to handle urgent work with your normal scheduled work and be able to cope. If you know what work you have for the day and know your deadlines, dealing with urgent work should be easier.

You can also ask for assistant from other VAs that you know who are not as busy.  Subcontracting the work out can be another way of coping with urgent work.

 

The differences in Typing and Word Processing etc

Typing

You have to look at what the typing is, is it just copy typing of text say a 1^st to 3^rd year student assignment, a book with text etc. Contracts, agreements, etc they are plain copy typing with tabulation for the bullet points. A document with many bullet points or staggered bullet points is just plain copy typing.

When you type for students doing MBA, Masters or Ph.D etc then there is much more involvement with the typing, references need to be a set in a specific way, the manuscript, dissertation etc, university guidelines must be adhered to like the Harvard Business Method or APA 6^th Edition style. Some of these students are given bursaries which covers their typing, proofreading and editing costs.

But not all typing is plain copy typing; often you get documents with tables, charts, graphs, graphics. You have to look at what is the best way to do these, how long does it take to do a page, what is involved.

Word Processing

Word Processing covers many tasks - from graphics to graphs, tables, flow diagrams, most things that you must create that are not plain copy typing, this is word processing and it can be very work intensive and time consuming.

Can you create the chart in Excel and then copy it across into Word, can you do the graphic in word or must you go and create it in Photoshop etc and then copy it into word etc. Sometimes with manuals you may need to use the services of a Graphic Designer and these often quote per graphic involved, depending on what must be done to that graphic. So beware and don’t under quote if graphic design is involved, as you will need to cost in their charge too. You will need to ensure you explain this to the client. Sometimes you might have to scan a graphic and copy it into the document. Just check what is involved before doing the work.

A complicated table, chart or graph might take some time to create. When you start looking at the item you must create, then you need to look at the length of time it takes, is it viable to charge say R20.00 per page, if the job is going to take you long, no, it’s not viable.

Flow diagrams can take an inexperienced person a few hours to create, but someone experienced in doing flow diagrams then it can be done very quickly, even big complicated flow diagrams, so again you need to look at how long it takes you to do the job, what is involved.

Maths typing, typing of equations, signs and symbols is time taking but you need to look at the manual as a whole and work out how long you think it will take you, what is involved, you might do the work using maths software or you may use MS Word Equations etc.

With most typing work look at what is involved, there is a difference in time with experienced typists and new typists.

These days with the economy being what it is you need to look at the client, what, do you feel in your gut that a client can afford to pay. Don’t push the boundaries too low to get the work where it is not cost effective to do the job, also don’t push the boundaries and charge the client too high a price, you simply want get the job.

Bulk Typing

Manuals are bulk work so you could very easily go down to R15 to R20 per page or a price per manual, taken on how long it will take you to do. When you do manuals, check out what is involved; often you can give a lower price because it’s bulk work for you.

Formatting Documents

The best way to go for formatting is using your hourly rate. You never know how long it is going to take to format a document till you start working on it. A document that has been set up by someone other than yourself can often give all sorts of problems; let the client know this as its often not straight formatting. Often when you start everything will jump out of alignment, tabs etc so it can take twice as long to format than it would to retype.

Columns, tables, graphics tend to come out of alignment. Table of Content can become completely messed up and that can take a while to unravel and put right so make sure you give yourself plenty of time to work on formatting documents. Keep track of your time and charge hourly. If you charge per page you will find some pages can take much longer to format than others and you really have to look at the time that is spent formatting to price this properly. You can charge per page but might be better to go via your hourly rate.

Quotations

With all work, never quote blindly, how can you quote when you have no idea what the job/task is, you have no idea how long it will take you or what is involved. Ask the client to send you a sample. How can an architect quote on a job he has not seen! You need to look at the task at hand then decide what is involved, how long it will take you and get a full description of client requirements before quoting. No matter how urgent a job is, surely the payment is the most important thing in the end, the job is important to the client but they should understand that you do not quote blindly, ask for an example first, check it out, see if you can do the job in the time frame given, you can also negotiate as you know, how you work and how long jobs take. My advice would be do not take on an urgent task without seeing what is involved first as its quite easy to undercharge. Make sure you clarify the clients’ requirements and write them down/record them or get the client to email you further, as clients often forget or change their mind and lay the blame on you. Email them a copy of their requirements and get them to reply before you go ahead that everything is ok.

PDF

Do not PDF a document unless your client’s specifically asks you too. Do not think that by saving to PDF that you are forcing the client to return to you, that is not the case, they can simply get it done elsewhere, simply convert it online and edit it themselves. Most clients want the work typed up and then they want to be able to edit it themselves.

All comments are welcome.

NEW: Weekly Post - Questions and Answers

Question subject: Reaching Deadlines

Question: How do I reach deadlines?

 

Answer: You can reach deadlines by knowing how long tasks take and what is involved with doing them. Do practice runs before you open your business, experiment with how long it takes you to do the tasks you are going to offer. Know how long it takes you to transcribe a 1 hour file, how long it takes to type up 20 pages of basic copy typing, know how long it takes you to set up Facebook for a new client. Run examples and note down how long tasks take. 

When you feel a deadline is not reachable, negotiate, you will be doing the work, so only you will know how long it takes to complete. It is up to you as a business owner to tell your client ‘this deadline is unreal’ and to explain what is involved within the job. Many clients have no idea how long a particular job will take. They will give you very unreasonable deadlines. Only you know what you are capable of and what your limits are. This is often a problem with Transcription, the clients do not know how long it actually takes to transcribe and often the deadlines are tight but it is up to you, as you are doing the job to negotiate this with the client, not the client to set this deadline for you. Simply explain what is involved.

I would love to have your comments if you feel you would like to comment, please do, as I would like to put your answers with your contact details onto my blog, it gives you a bit of exposure. amftyping@mweb.co.za or alison@amftyping.co.za

**********************************************************

 

Question subject: Motivation

 

 
 

Question: What keeps you motivated while running your own business?

 

Answer: What keeps me motivated is knowing that my marketing is working and has kept on working since I started my business. Every time I have an enquiry about my business I can see that my business details are out there and being seen. It is motivating for me to get up every day and come to work as I love my job and I never know what each day will bring, every day in my job is different.

 

I would love to have your comments if you feel you would like to comment, please do, as I would like to put your answers with your contact details onto my blog, it gives you a bit of exposure. amftyping@mweb.co.za or Alison@amftyping.co.za

 

 

VA Tips & Tricks Blogging Challenge 2014 - C is for Clients who we all need

We would be nowhere as VAs without our clients. Clients are all different and we can work for a wide range of clients across the world. We are not limited to working with clients local as we don’t need to see our clients to work for them.

What is important is that we get on with our clients, we build up trust and as we do that, the clients begin to see how responsible we are and therefore they can give us more and more work as they see what we can do and achieve.

As a new client contacts you, arrange a meeting in a public place or over skype via a video call etc. Ask questions and show an interest in the clients company, their website etc, learn as much as you can about the client as that will help your working relationship.

We often as VAs draw specific clients to us, I tend to draw Trainers and these are the clients that I need as they provide me with lots of typing. I love to type and because of the clients that I draw in I always have a constant supply of typing.

Always try to turn your client into regular clients, brag about what you can do, tell the clients how you can assist them, be pro-active and assertive. Win over the clients trust and if that client is happy with you they will come back time and again or become regular clients and they will pass on your details to other people they know and meet, who they think would be able to use your services. Word of Mouth is a great way to spread the news of your business to new potential clients.

How easy is it being a Virtual Assistant?

Being a Virtual Assistant (VA) is not all about the client sending you typing, you do the work and send it back, there is much more involved.
As a VA we do many things, there is month end administration with invoices every month so no matter how busy you are, you stop and do your invoices, it is important to be paid for the work we do. You set aside a day and get your invoices out. Bookkeeping and updating your schedules. This is just one part of our administration another part is, we need to push clients and contractors for payments and invoices, we have to battle with clients who do not want to pay, who query what we do.
One of our aims is to keep our clients happy all the time, we need to keep that client as they provide us with ongoing work so we nurture that client; our clients are our bread and butter. We need to liaise with our clients often.
Managing many clients work is not an easy task. Keep their work in separate folders also in my documents have client folders and in email. With regular clients it is best to invoice monthly. All my clients are regular so I prepare all their invoices at the end of the month and get them all out at the same time so that I can monitor payments coming in. This is where my work log comes in handy as I document all work incoming, and I check back against this when doing my invoicing for each client.
Administration as we call it is a major part of being a VA. We need to market continually, our company needs to be out in the public eye and be seen. Our websites/blogs need to be updated. We continually look for new avenue’s to market our work to. Networking is just as important, there is always the need to tell everyone and anyone what we do, who we are, get the word out there. Any person you talk to could be a potential clients or referral, that’s why it is important to talk about your business no matter where you are, when you can and who you are with. We continually need to look for avenue’s to advertise our companies.
Often we need to do debt collecting with clients who do not pay, this is not a nice part of the job but we must do it, we need to be paid for what we do.
Managing of contractors, when a VA is overloaded we then get the opportunity to help out newbie Vas by contracting to them or helping out established VAs with a bit of extra work. Contracting work out is not as easy as you think. We are on our contractors backs to get them to keep in touch, they need to meet our deadlines, what if the contractor decides she is not doing the work or cant for some reason then we need to find a replacement in the middle of the work that is time taking. Paying of contractors on completion of work.
Another favourite is quoting for work, often ad-hoc jobs come in and we need to arrange a quote, quoting is not quick we need to ask questions to be able to place a price on the work, very time consuming especially with larger jobs.
Filing must be done as with any job, the office administration as seen above is often the hardest part of our job to do, but that comes with running any company/business. There are still many other facets about being a virtual assistant, the best way to learn about doing this type of job is to talk to established VAs as they know what they are doing and they can give you valuable information.

So you see it is not all about sitting and typing, it is about running a full time business/company, and these are only a handful of the tasks we do.

Written by Alison Fourie VAcertified
AMF Typing Service cc

Clients contacting you for a Quotation

When a client contacts you and asks for a quotation please do not simply email back with a price/rate. Firstly contact the client, find out the requirements, ask for details and as much information as possible

Prepare for yourself as part of your business plan a company schedule/procedure for answering clients who require quotes. Have a form ready with everything you need to ask a client and then all you need to do is fill in this form and base your quotation on this form, keep them handy in a file on your pc or printed out on your desk, ready to use if a call or request comes in.

Always prepare a company quotation on company documentation and attach this to an email, this is much more professional then just sending an email with a rate. Your quotation must have your contact details and include your terms and conditions and any information that you have agreed to do for the client. Submit your quote as a pdf attachment to an email, and refer the client to this in your email.

Remember the faster you send that quote in the quicker you could be to getting the client to contact you further and you can beat the competition. With quotations it’s all about beating your competition. Make sure your wording is right, make sure you are inviting the client to contact you further.

For a client looking for a virtual assistant or transcriptionist to partner with, they are usually not looking at price, they are looking at your skills and experience in the business. Some times when putting in a quote it can be months later when you hear from the client again, some clients take that little bit longer to decide if they really do need a virtual assistant especially so when it’s for regular work.

For once-off/adhoc jobs it’s often the case the client will take the cheapest or near to cheapest quote, that is the way the industry is at the moment. It is up to you to decide is it worth quoting a low rate for the job. But, think before you quote what is involved with that job, how long will it take and decide your quote on that, that is the best way to quote. Going in on a low rate sometimes you will find that once you get the job it’s not worth doing as it is costing you more to do it than what you are getting for it, there is no profits to be made with doing jobs that way.

Payments and Clients

As part of your business plan you need to write up a procedure for dealing with your clients and payments.
How do you want to receive your payments?
When are you going to invoice your clients?
With once off jobs/tasks I would suggest you start of by asking for a 50% deposit before starting work, then on completion of the task and the client has came back to say they are happy with the work then you send an invoice. Do not start the work no matter how urgent before receiving your 50% deposit. Your payment is also important as is the clients work.
My clients have 10 days to pay me from date of the invoice. If that client has not paid me I then follow up and keep following up until payment is received. With once off clients you invoice on completion of the job, not at month end. You point out your payment terms to the client and ask nicely when you can expect to receive payment, especially so when you work with subcontractors as those contractors need to know when they will be paid.
If I take on a client and they become  regular clients I then move the payments to monthly payments. I try to get my invoices out around 28/29 of the month, I try, its not always possible as often I can be too busy. Invoicing is important and I try to maintain that (try).
My monthly clients either pay on receipt of the invoice or within a few days. If the clients dont pay I send a friendly skype or email reminder. Our clients can also be just as hectic as we are.
Note: we will get the clients that do not pay, that is an accepted part of the job and part of every business.
Have payment terms on your invoice and as part of your terms and conditions in your clients contracts.
There is no need to be afraid of invoicing your clients, its is part of dealing with clients and part of doing the work for clients, you are a business owner and you must think as one.
Keep track of all your invoices, payments in and out, its important to know how much you earn and what profits you are not making or are making. You need to know where your company is financially at all times. Your basic bookkeeping must be part of your monthly procedures for your business.

Reaching deadlines knowing how long a task takes

You must know if you can reach deadlines or not. You need to know how long each task you do will take, for example: how long will a 1 hour file of transcription take to transcribe, how long will it take you to type up 100/200/500 pages. When a client contacts you, you have to be able to let them know if you can or cannot reach the deadline they set.

You must give yourself time to proof your work, time to check the layout and formatting, make sure the grammar is good, the punctuation done, sentence construction etc. Also you need to make sure you give yourself time to take breaks/lunch and for interruptions. You need to know with interruptions, can you still reach the deadline.

When you feel a deadline is not reachable, negotiate, you will be doing the work, you know how long it will take, give yourself plenty of time to do the work and be negotiable on a deadline that you can reach. It is up to you as a business owner to tell you client ‘this deadline is unreal’ explain what is involved within the job, a lot of clients have no idea how long a particular job will take. They will give you very unreasonable deadlines. Only you know what you are capable of and you know your limits. This is often a problem in Transcription, the clients do not know how long it actually takes to transcribe and often the deadlines are tight but its up to you, as you are doing the job to negotiate this with the client, not the client to set this deadline for you, simply explain what is involved,

Do not take on jobs you have no idea how to do, a client will quickly find out you cannot do this job and they will not have confidence and trust in you again. Only take on the work that you have experience in doing, especially so when you are just starting out. If you take on a job that is new to you, let the client know it’s new to you, but that you are very willing to learn and try. New jobs will take you longer to do, remember this with deadlines.

How to Series

Quoting on clients work.
You need to know roughly how many pages can you type of plain copy typing in 1 hour, you need to know roughly how much transcription you can roughly do in 1 hour.
Clients will say to you, I have a 250 page document for typing, how long will it take you and what will you charge, to quote on this you need to give an estimate, so knowing roughly what you can produce in 1 hour of work will assist you in gaging what you can do.
I know I can type anything from 15 pages to 30 pages per day, but it depends on what the content is, whether there is graphics, flow diagrams, graphs, drawings in that content, these will take longer to produce. I know I can do these quickly but not everyone can, each typist is different but you need to know what you can and cannot do. If it will take you a few hours to do a flow diagram that must factor in your quote and whether you can meet the deadline set.
With transcription there are factors involved that will determine how long you take with transcribing, there could be multiple speakers, background noise, language difficulties if its court transcription, a focus group meeting can take twice as long to transcribe as often a lot of people will talk at once. You should roughly be able to say a 1 hour transcription will take plus/minus 4 to 6 hours to transcribe.
Data entry, you need to see what they require, see how many entries you can do in an hour, know what you can do at all times.
Look at the job you have, work out can you do it in the deadline stipulated. Can you produce a quality job, also remember you will have to spell check/grammar, proof your work and check your layout, all these things are part of the job you need to do. If you need assistance with a quote give me a shout. My advice would be for you to ask for a sample of the work that is required before you quote, this will assist you in quoting and always ask as many questions as you can think of about the task.

Is the Recession hurting Virtual Assistants

How are you feeling as a virtual assistant during this recession, that is hitting us wordwide?
Is it hitting your business?
What affects has it had on your business?

This is my take on the recession and purely my opinion.

Companies are downsizing especially so with office administration staff, this is not just happening within South Africa but worldwide. This to me opens the way for virtual assistants and transcriptionists to find work. Companies will need their office administration done no matter what. Tasks like company invoicing, accounts, typing, company correspondence, arranging meetings etc. We as virtual assistants can handle these tasks and help keep the company administration under control.

To get these types of jobs it would be wise for virtual assistants to send out company brochures and introduction letters to prospective clients, start with the types of small businesses that could downsize easily then move on to larger corporates, what harm does it do to let companies know you are out there willing to assist in this time of recession.

Clients are contacting me around three to five times a week for quotations so that proves there are potential clients out there looking for support from virtual assistants. They are hearing about us through the continual advertising/marketing we do. But the problem is they are only hearing from a small percentage of us, a small percentage of us appear in advertising everywhere, where everyone else advertises, does there marketing, I don’t know as you are not being seen. To me if I was you I would see that as a problem. A virtual assistant’s aim should be to get her details out there so that corporates, businessmen, entrepreneurs can see her, but this does not seem to be the case. So I would say the veterans of the industry like myself are the ones who are benefiting the most during the recession. The one thing that I can do as I do have a full business of clients is contract work out to newbie’s and assist them this way, but that should not be the way newbie’s find work, they themselves should not rely on veteran VAs to give them work but should go out and look for potential clients. You will not receive full pay for a job that you would if you had the client yourself and as a contractor you will not make much money working for other VAs, so to me that is to your disadvantage. Go and find clients and make the money you could earn. Take advantage of the recession with companies downsizing that are now outsourcing and present them with your details. Get out there and be seen.

How easy is it being a VA

Being a Virtual Assistant (VA) is not all about the client sending you typing, you do the work and send it back, there is much more involved.

As a VA we do many things, there is month end administration with invoices every month so no matter how busy you are, you stop and do your invoices, it is important to be paid for the work we do. You set aside a day and get your invoices out. Bookkeeping and updating your schedules. This is just one part of our administration another part is, we need to push clients and contractors for payments and invoices, we have to battle with clients who do not want to pay, who query what we do.

One of our aims is to keep our clients happy all the time, we need to keep that client as they provide us with ongoing work so we nurture that client; our clients are our bread and butter. We need to liaise with our clients often.

Managing many clients work is not an easy task. Keep their work in separate folders also in my documents have client folders and in email. With regular clients it is best to invoice monthly. All my clients are regular so I prepare all their invoices at the end of the month and get them all out at the same time so that I can monitor payments coming in. This is where my work log comes in handy as I document all work incoming, and I check back against this when doing my invoicing for each client.

Administration as we call it is a major part of being a VA. We need to market continually, our company needs to be out in the public eye and be seen. Our websites/blogs need to be updated. We continually look for new avenue’s to market our work to. Networking is just as important, there is always the need to tell everyone and anyone what we do, who we are, get the word out there. Any person you talk to could be a potential clients or referral, that’s why it is important to talk about your business no matter where you are, when you can and who you are with. We continually need to look for avenue’s to advertise our companies.

Often we need to do debt collecting with clients who do not pay, this is not a nice part of the job but we must do it, we need to be paid for what we do.

Managing of contractors, when a VA is overloaded we then get the opportunity to help out newbie Vas by contracting to them or helping out established VAs with a bit of extra work. Contracting work out is not as easy as you think. We are on our contractors backs to get them to keep in touch, they need to meet our deadlines, what if the contractor decides she is not doing the work or cant for some reason then we need to find a replacement in the middle of the work that is time taking. Paying of contractors on completion of work.

Another favourite is quoting for work, often ad-hoc jobs come in and we need to arrange a quote, quoting is not quick we need to ask questions to be able to place a price on the work, very time consuming especially with larger jobs.

Filing must be done as with any job, the office administration as seen above is often the hardest part of our job to do, but that comes with running any company/business. There are still many other facets about being a virtual assistant, the best way to learn about doing this type of job is to talk to established VAs as they know what they are doing and they can give you valuable information.

So you see it is not all about sitting and typing, it is about running a full time business/company, and these are only a handful of the tasks we do.

It's tough being a VA

I dont think people realise how tough it is being a virtual assistant, after all you are running a full time business. My admin sort of does not get done, I don't have the time. So admin falls behind, not good. My bookkeeping is way behind. I know what is going on, but need to get it down on paper and keep it updated. As long as I work from my work schedule and take the time to put every task that comes in onto my schedule and stay organised,  its ok. But when unexpected jobs come in, quotations which can be very time consuming, telephone queries, email queries that all affects the day to day running.
A full time VA with many clients can be quite hectic especially so when clients give you day to day work, it really can test your coping, prioritisation, and time management skills. This is when its time to think do I expand. What is the next step a 'multi VA business'. Do I want to go this way? Can this work for me, that I don't know and I am very unsure of. Its a large step to take. I am reading up all the knowledge available to me and contacting other multi va businesses to see how they work, I have a good idea what I want to do but is this the way to go. Hmmm.

Potential Clients

Often clients will take time to make up their minds about whether to use a VA or not. Some clients can take a few months after the first initial contact, be prepared for this. Don't rush the client because you want work, let the client make up their own minds when they are ready to approach you.
The same applies for quotations, a client can ask for quotations but then take ages to get back to you ,on accepting their quotes. They need to know if the budget can pay your costs, they have to get approval from upper management on whether they can use a VA for the task they require. Quotation replies can also take time, be aware of this.
By all means keep in touch with the potential client but dont push them for work.
Let the client know how you can assist them, what value you think you can bring to their businesses.
Selling the concept of what a VA is about is very worthwhile.
Ask the client what their business is about, what their aims are, for their companies, as this will also help you to work out how you can assist them.

Client discontent with VAs?

I recently read an overseas article about the possibility of our industry being on shaky ground. It made interesting reading, reporting amongst other things, that business owners at a conference had commented that they were not entirely happy with the service they received from their VAs. The lady who wrote the article was shocked to hear this, but also not surprised. This set me thinking because, after all, there are three sides to this that need to be considered - the client, the VA and the middle ground. As in everything in life there is good and bad on all sides, and it may be that some of the complaints were really genuine, whilst others stemmed from something that concerned an unvoiced expectation that was therefore not heard and acted upon.

Our business is really no different from any other service business, and frankly every business in the world is in service of a sort in that they all supply others with a widget and/or a service. And like every other business we do not always get it right for one reason or another. Sometimes these problems are our fault and sometimes they are the client’s fault, and sometimes they are down to external interference that we are not in control of.

Right up front I am going to say that it is a good idea to clarify what a client’s requirements and expectations are in writing. Create a standard guideline of hours etc., and hand to each new client along with a contract. This is useful for both you and your client, because if anything comes up at a later date it can be checked. It also lays out certain boundaries; your personal life being one of them.

The problem is that often clients tend to look at VAs as being available almost 24/7 – because they work from a home office. This is an expectation that you need to address right up front with any client, since this changes the whole perspective with regards to expectations being met. If you have no problem with being available 24/7 this is fine, but in reality we all have lives of our own and a client should not rule this side of your life, you should since it is your business. If you start out being available 24/7 with a client that client will expect this service all the time instead of this being a service that you might offer on a one off occasion that is mutually agreed upon. Be aware that once a client knows you will work outside normal hours they might be tempted to do this more and more.

Some of the complaints listed are that VAs do not:

• provide timely responses to their clients
• assist with the occasional request that requires quick turn around
• complete tasks before the agreed to deadline
• communicate appropriately or ask questions to clarify details
• pay attention to details - making sloppy errors regularly
• manage the priorities of all their clients well (leaving clients to feel their stuff is unimportant and at the bottom of the list)

I am sure every VA can equate with these. We are all human – not superhuman, and some of these things would for various reasons probably also happen in an office environment. If you have clients who have steadily encroached upon your own time outside of reasonable office hours the chances are that you will encounter most of these problems, thus affecting all your clients. One unreasonable or demanding client can ruin it for all your other clients as it means that you have to juggle your plates-on-sticks faster and faster to manage not just your working life but also your private life. If you have a client like this you really do need to make a decision about whether to suggest they find someone else, whether they should be considering hiring someone to work for them only, or whether to speak to them about the way their business demands have steadily but surely encroached upon your life and that of your other clients, and that you need to come to a different arrangement. Whatever you choose you need to ensure that this client understands the whys and wherefores of your decision so that you still maintain a good relationship and that they do not move on to someone else with the view that you were unreasonable.

This situation often arises from bullet point two, where you do assist with an occasional urgent turn around time, and the client takes advantage of this and starts expecting it more and more, purely because it was not set out at the start what both parties’ expectations were. Just because your client works odd hours, is an insomniac, and so on does not mean that you should be expected to as well. In turn your client has expectations that this be the norm and if you are not compliant or make mention of it you are then the one being unreasonable, since a) this has been the norm up to that point b) it was not laid out in an initial agreement as to what hours/days you were available and c) the client then becoming disgruntled and telling others that he/she is not happy with VAs. It is not reasonable to expect a contractor/VA to work all the hours under the sun. Worse still these types of clients will now have the expectation that any VA will work 24/7 and furthermore should be. You have created an expectation of the VA industry.

I think point one speaks for itself, but again you need to discuss with your client what their expectation of a timely response is. Some people check their emails all the time, others at set intervals or times, so you need to decide how this will work with your workloads, and be realistic when telling a client. If you are right on a deadline with a job and a client emails you, but you only check your emails every half hour or hour for example then you need to put this in your contract or business guideline – and stick to it. Many of us work alone and use a call answer service to pick up our incoming calls if we are working on something where we do not wish to be interrupted. This is normal practice but if you do this make sure that your clients understand, and get back to them as soon as possible.

I think that it would be peculiar if any client did not realise that he/she is sharing you with other clients, and take this into consideration in your business relationship with themselves; having said that each client obviously feels that their priorities should come first. Juggling several clients can be tricky, but if you build your client base carefully and ensure that each client knows the basics such as your hours, normal turn around times [always overestimate, never underestimate; if something can go wrong it will] and so on right at the start, then, barring a major catastrophe such as your equipment being stolen or your office burnt down or whatever, you should be able to ensure that all your clients are satisfied.

I will come back to the matter of normal working hours here, since this plays a big part in how you manage your clients. If you are continually being pushed by one or more of your clients to work outside of normal hours, over weekends, at night, on public holidays, you will inevitably find yourself battling to meet each of your clients’ deadlines and expectations. The reason? Because you have no ‘spare’ time in which to work, because you are already over extended with regards to the hours you work. This is very important because you are not only messing up your own work and private life but that of your clients too. By working all the hours under the sun you are not doing anyone any favours.

This brings me to another point that I do tend to belabour – fees. If you undercharge for your work/services you will find yourself working ridiculous hours to make ends meet. Take a step back and ask yourself, what is the point? You are living to work. You have no work/life balance. Ultimately you will be the loser, both financially and with your overall health. If you have a nervous breakdown, or lose your home, what matter is that to your clients? Your clients will move on to someone else, doubtless complaining that they did not get good service or you let them down.

Completing tasks before the agreed deadline; this comes down to agreeing deadlines. Always ensure that you get as long a deadline as possible. We do not live in a perfect world, and being a VA you should be very aware that the internet does not always play ball. Obviously some clients have extremely urgent deadliness but try and encourage your clients to let you have work early in order for you to be able to work on theirs timeously, or to resolve any problems with that work. Often clients will sit on work, maybe leaving it until the next day to give it to you or whatever. If you know one of your clients often does this then try to ask for the work; in other words chase your client. Short/shortened deadlines often mean problems in many other ways such as download times, the client giving you the wrong work and so on, and this in turn puts you behind with a deadline and also creates problems with your contractors, if you use others to assist you with larger jobs, AND your other clients. Clients do not take cognisance of this as a rule. It is a good idea to put some information regarding this in your work guideline for clients and any contract you draw up.

Having several clients can mean that you have to take cognisance of different parameters or ways of working that each of your clients like. This and working too many hours can lead to problems with making errors. There are several ways of doing your best to solve this problem. Aside from sticking to reasonable hours of work, on your computer have a file for each client and create an information document within this file that has pertinent information such as uses USA letter style, or likes follow-up hyphenated, prefers [inaudible] to [unclear] and so on. Some people keep a hard copy file too, and keep this next to them when they are doing work for that client. If the information document is clipped to the front cover or is the face page in the file it is there to hand to glance at. This is particularly important if you do not do regular or daily work for one of your clients. Always take out/open this information document and check it over before starting on that client’s work. As with most people we sometimes get a ‘blind’ mental block of odd words and can type them wrongly time after time without realising, for example.

Another reason for making sure you have agreed deadlines that are as long as possible is so that you can proofread your work. Clients do not realise this is important and that it is time consuming. Make sure always to point this out to clients in a client guideline. If they demand short turn around times you cannot guarantee the quality of your work.

If you work normal, regular hours with limited overtime, [as you would if you were working for a company], you will be more in control of your own life and your client’s work quality. You will have the time to make sure all your clients feel that they are important to you, that you care about their work. Having too many clients is detrimental all round. Again, this comes back to your fees. Make sure you are charging proper rates. I a client says it is too expensive point out that the bigger companies charge this and more and furthermore he/she is getting a more personal service. If you find that your workload is creeping up and taking over your life then maybe it is time to shorten your client list or take on someone to assist you.

Make sure you are doing the best for your client AND for YOURSELF, as well as the VA industry. At the end of the day they amount to the same thing.



© Copyright 2010 Corinna Turner. All rights reserved.
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