Standards are extremely important for you to establish early on in your business as it forms the framework from which you will work to.

Think about the following:

How often will you reply to emails?
I say I will reply to all correspondence within 2 working days as this works for me.

When will you check your emails?
I check my emails throughout the day but I know some people who only check their emails once in the morning and again in the afternoon.

How will you operate if you still work part or full time?
If you have another job, you become restricted on the times you are available to do work for you clients. Establish a schedule so that your clients know what to expect.

How will you answer all calls?
I have all my calls diverted to a telephone answering service so they are answered by another ‘real’ person when I am not available.  All messages get sent to me by email (or text message for an additional charge) so I can return the calls when I am next available. 

Some people divert calls to their mobile and you need to decide what is best for you and your needs.

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You will hear a lot of people talking about establishing your boundaries within your business and you may think that this will not apply to you. However, this is something that all VAs need to sort out from the outset.

To identify your boundaries think about what you are prepared to do and what you aren’t prepared to do as a starting point and expand on the answers.

To give you some ideas, ask yourself these questions:

Will you accept client visits?
If you want to let clients visit, you will need to get public liability insurance. If you work from home, you need to consider if you want people knowing where you live.

Will you offer 24 / 7 service?
If you do, you will need to have systems in place to be able to accept and complete work 24 hours a day. Some people make this their Unique Selling Point (USP) which sets them apart from other VAs.

Will you speak with family and friends if they call in the day?
Family and friends can be the worst offender for distraction to those who work at home. They may feel that now you work at home, they can call you anytime for a chat or pop in for a coffee.

Explain what your hours of business are and don’t speak with them if you are busy with client work.

Will you only be working certain hours?
Decide what your business hours are and make sure that you inform all prospective clients what they are. Some clients may try to push this boundary by calling 5 minutes before you finish wanting work completed for the next day. Be firm and say that you will start the work the following business day – but only if you have the capacity to.

What will your work turnaround time be?
You need to decide in advance what turnaround time you work towards for routine tasks so that you can inform all prospective clients. For example, I say that I will respond to all email correspondence within 24 hours and all routine work will be completed within 48 hours.

Will you be working 52 weeks per year?
Think about what holiday you want to take now so that you can start educating your clients or getting associates on board to cover for you.

Do you want a term time only business?
If you have children, you may choose to only work during term time and spend the holidays with your children. Again, now is the time to be able to start educating clients or getting associates on board to work during holidays.

By establishing your boundaries now, it can become part of your client intake process to inform and train your family and clients about how you operate.

You must remember that you are the boss of your very own company and you can say no!

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A multi VA business model is very similar to sub contracting but has some small differences. The main difference with a multi VA business is that you shout about your Associate VAs and showcase them as team members.

You will have a profile of them on your website and explain to prospective clients that you have a team and will assign them with a VA most suited to their needs.

The other main difference is that the client and Associate VA have a relationship and you won’t need to check work before the client sees it like you do with sub contractors. As part of the client consultation stage, you would introduce the Associate VA and prospective client to make sure that they ‘gel’.

You will need to create an information pack and treat it like you would if you were taking on a member of staff as you need to make sure that you team up with the type of people who will meet your high standards at all times.