Who would work with a VA?
VAs work with smart, successful people of
all kinds; authors, sales people,
consultants, coaches, executives,
professionals, entrepreneurs--anyone who
wants to be professionally successful and
live a more balanced life with more free
time to do the things he/she wants to do!
What's the point? I manage
everything on my own!
As you grow a business, sooner or later,
you'll find that you can do anything, but
you simply can't do everything! And when
you give away the stuff that doesn't need
your personal attention, you gain space
and time in your life for an abundance of
other things. Those things might include:
· Growing your business
· More time with family, friends
· Responding to other opportunities
· Balancing home and work responsibilities
If I wanted an assistant, why would
I hire one who's potentially
hundreds of miles away?
Well, part of the benefit of having a VA is
that you haven't hired anyone. When you
work with a VA, you get a partner, not an
employee. You get someone who chooses
to work with you as much as you choose to
work with him or her. The VA's decision to
work with you will be based on being
attracted to your work and on being
interested in being your partner for
success, rather than because he or she is
looking for "some job." People work with
VAs because they:
· Don't have the space for someone in the
office
· Don't want someone in the office
· Don't have the equipment needed for
someone else to use
· Don't want to buy the equipment
· Don't want the associated work and cost
of having an employee
· Payroll
· Benefits
· Paying for someone else to administer
payroll benefits
· Don't want to have to conform to federal
standards like OSHA
· If what you want and need is the most
basic office support, then you might want
to work with a secretarial service.
If, on the other hand, you want the benefit
of working with someone who really wants
to know you, your business, your
customers, and who really wants to be
deeply involved in your success, you'll want
to work with a VA.
Isn't it more expensive than hiring
an employee?
No. The cost savings is two-fold: financial
and emotional.
When you hire an employee, on top of a
salary or hourly wage, you have a ton of
things you need to administer (payroll,
benefits, etc.), many things to buy or lease
(equipment, furniture, etc.), and you have
to share space as well. It's expensive and
can be grueling.
Depending on the VA, you might pay–as–
you–go (giving him or her only the amount
of work you actually have during any week
or month), or you might have him or her
on retainer (buying a certain amount of the
VAs time each month for a pre–set and
usually lower, hourly rate). Your VA's time
is 100% productive time as well -- you
don't pay for a second of downtime or
break-time.
No muss, no fuss. Just great support from
someone dedicated to your success.
So, how much can I really expect to
pay?
Again, VAs are in private practice, and they
price their services according to their skills,
their desire to do certain kinds of work,
their experience, and their reputation. You
really need to speak with a VA, share your
ideas and the vision for your success, and
ask what it might cost to have him or her
be a part of that.
Generally speaking, however, you can
expect to pay $30 — $70 plus, per hour. It
depends on your needs, and the VA you
work with.
Now wait — you said that working
with a VA isn't more expensive than
hiring an employee, but I wouldn't
pay an employee $30 per hour!
Not in straight time, perhaps. You're more
likely to pay someone with this level of
skills between $17 and $20 per hour if they
were sitting in your office. However, when
you add in the cost of administering
payroll, your share of payroll taxes, having
to pay certain kinds of insurance like
worker's compensation and extra liability
for having someone in your home or place
of business, and the cost of making sure
that your location conforms to federal
guidelines such as OSHA, you absolutely
*do* pay that much per hour. And the
more skilled and talented a worker, the
more her time is worth, and the higher her
fee.
The beauty is this. While you still have the
expense, you have absolutely *none* of
the hassle. One check per month. Simple.
Easy. You can get on with the business of
living your life on your terms. Working in
partnership with a great VA makes that all
possible.
Does Virtual Assistance work better
for any particular type of person or
professional?
The benefits are enormous to almost
anyone who's busy and needs support.
What we've found is that the only people
who really aren't in a good position to work
with a VA are:
· People who aren't online and who can't
understand why this would work
· People who live in the urgent
If everything you do is last minute, if your
style is to procrastinate and then rush to
deadline, if you're not organized and
centered, if you're in a high-pressure field
where things run you instead of the other
way around, if you want someone at your
beck and call, you probably need an in-
person employee, not a VA;
· People who don't understand the power
created in a relationship with a fantastic
assistant
· People who aren't open to learning new
ways of working and communicating
· People who aren't billing their own time at
considerably more than $30/hour
If you aren't, paying a VA could create a
hardship for you. But if you are billing at a
much higher rate, or if you work on
commission and your time is valued in
large chunks of cash earned that way, then
every hour you spend doing work that
takes you off course, is work for which you
are paying yourself, in essence, at YOUR
HOURLY FEE. It doesn't take a lot to see
the smarts behind paying someone to
handle administrative work so that you can
be out earning more and more!
· People who can't shift to seeing a VA as
an equal
If you're stuck in the traditional
boss/assistant paradigm, or if you need to
be the boss, you need an employee, not a
VA.