Virtual Assistant In The Corporate World
As with any work from home business, flexibility is important. Susan Valeri, who lives in the Central time zone, has a client on the West Coast. This can be both a benefit and a challenge.
“[It] works out great for me because by the time she wakes up, I’ve got her work done!” On the other side of the coin, “She’s getting revved up when I’m getting ready to have dinner. So I can hear my email going off while I’m cooking.”
In addition to administrative skills, soft skills are also integral. A successful VA is someone who can be proactive about how they can help a client to achieve their goals, and they need to be able to convey this to a potential client.
And as with any business, integrity is vital. One of Valeri’s responsibilities is to answer emails regarding her client’s business. “I’d better be honest, open and knowledgeable about her business,” she insists. “Get a good grasp of my clients business, how they want things run, what their product is, so that I can intelligently answer inquiries.”
Aside from the obvious impact that integrity has on the success of any business owner, it also affects the type of client that a VA attracts.
“If I act with integrity, then I’m going to get more business and I’m going to attract the kind of people that I want to do business with,” Valeri says.
Brice agrees. According to her, one of the smartest things a potential VA can do is to invest in their own life because, “you’ll become more attractive and be able to attract a more high quality client.” If your goal is to work with people of a high caliber and high ethics, you’d better demonstrate those principals yourself.
While most VA’s are generalists, many specialize in a particular field. For example, when Brice was a VA she was deeply niched and only worked with best-selling authors. One advantage of becoming niched is the ability to charge a higher hourly rate. According to Brice the low end of the pay scale is about $30 per hour. In fact, she feels that a VA cannot make a profit billing at less than that. She projects that by 2003 the average experienced VA will be billing at around $60 per hour, and “much higher for someone who’s deeply niched and incredibly good at what she does.” Brice herself commanded over $100 per hour for her services when she was a VA.
While this is a fairly new industry, there are several organizations that offer support and resources to VA’s. Many VA’s agree that becoming a member of one of these organizations can be a tremendous help to someone starting out.
Valeri says that looking back, she would have joined a professional organization earlier to start networking with other people doing this type of work from home.
And Brice offers this advice:
“Look at all your options. Look at what it would be to get trained, and really investigate that. Look at what it would be to go it on your own and investigate that, as well. And find the organization, whether it’s AssistU, or another VA organization. Find the organization that you believe is going to support you in the way that you need to be supported. And be honest with yourself about it. That’s where I see a lot of arrogance. ‘I’ve been an administrative assistant for 12 years, I don’t need any help.’ Trust me, you need help. This is a brand new world. Working virtually is not the same as being an assistant in the corporate world. It just is not.”
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