Why Boundaries Are Vital For Your Virtual Assistant Business – Part 2

April 27, 2012 By Leave a Comment
Please check out part 1 for suggestions of boundaries for your VA business.
 
Some other questions to ask yourself:
 
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!
 
What boundaries will you set?
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Expanding Your Virtual Assistant Business with Associates – Part 2

April 25, 2012 By Leave a Comment
 
Your can work with Associates in one of two ways, or indeed, a combination of both.
 
Firstly you can retain all the client contact so that he/she never knows that the work they are sending you has been completed by a third party.
 
The plus side here is that you will never have to worry about unscruplious associates who may attempt to take the client from you, or underhand clients who think they may save a pound or two if they cut you out of the equasion and work directly with your associate.
 
The downside is there will be inevitable delays as you send work back and forth, and you will have to be not only very aware of every peace of work as you will have to discuss it with the client where necessary, you will have to double check everything that goes out. All this additional admin can become very time consuming.
 
The second way to work with an associate is to effectively pass the client over to them and allow direct communication.
 
This frees up much more of your time as all discussions about the tasks performed are direct between the client and the associate. However, do make sure that you have very solid contracts in place with both your associate and your client to prevent them working directly together.
 
Also bear in mind that associates will not be with you forever so make sure you keep yourself up to speed with the clients account information, that you have access to all their files and the work completed by the associate, and that you maintain a relationship wit them have contacting them regularly to check in and see how things are going.
 
 
It’s imperative to have an Associate Agreement in pace so that everyone understand the boundaries of the relationship. For more information and a selection of templates you can download and adapt for your own business go to: http://vasuccessgroup.co.uk/virtual-assistant-document-templates/
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Free VA Tips: Successful Working with Associate Experts

April 23, 2012 By Leave a Comment
What other services would be useful to them
When you have established what your clients have in common you can start to think about what other services they may also need in addition to your virtual assistant ones. Draw up a list of specialist services you would like to offer through associate experts.
 
Select who you want to work with
Now begin researching who you would like to work with in order to provide these services. These need to be trusted experts in each field and make sure you look for client testimonials, portfolios, etc.
 
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What You Need to Think About When Taking On Board Associates

April 20, 2012 By Leave a Comment
You’ve made the decision to take on board fellow virtual assistants to work with you as associates for your clients. Well done on taking your business forward but this is where you need to take some time to make sure you bring on board the right people.
 
A good system for bringing on board associates should include:
 
Information pack – information about your business to send to those who express an interest in joining you  
 
Application form – what do you need to know about them? Information on their skills and experience  
 
Interview form – it’s imperative to interview your associates as these are the people that will be in direct contact with your clients and representing your business  
 
Associate VA contract – a formal agreement of the working relationship. This is a must if you are not to fall foul of IR35 rules and to protect you and your business  
 
Policy manual – detailing how you operate and how associates will work in your team 
 
Reference Request – request references for successful associate candidates
 
What will your system include?
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Tips for Successfully Working with Associates

April 18, 2012 By Leave a Comment
  1. Send information.
    When you have handpicked those you want to approach either give them a call or drop them and email to ascertain their interest. If they are interested go ahead and send them an information pack and application form. Examples of both documents are available in our Associate Pack available here: http://www.vasuccessgroup.co.uk/documents.htm

  2. Review application.
    On receipt of the returned application make sure you have a good look through it. Are the skills the potential associate can offer a good fit for the kind of clients you take on? Do they have any specialist skills that you don’t have that you could offer by working with them? Do they have sufficient experience?
 
For the remaining 8 tips in this series, download our free “10 Steps for Successful…” guide at: http://vasuccessgroup.co.uk/virtual-assistant-freebies/
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Tips On How To Stay Focussed on Your Business Goals

April 16, 2012 By Leave a Comment
 
4. Don't permit your friends and extended family to put on you. Many people are under the misapprehension that if someone works from home then they are not actually working. They may believe that you are fair game for a social call during the day or that you may be able to run errands that would otherwise mean them taking time off work.
 
It’s really important to set the ground rules early and then stand firm. You must make certain your friends and family understand that when you are working, then you ARE working and that when your time is interrupted, you will not be earning. You are the only one who can stand up for you. Your friends and family will seldom be able to appreciate your dedication to your business, unless you make the effort to make sure that they have the same respect for your business that you do.
 
5. You should allot a certain portion of your day to email and to regular mail. For example, allot one hour in the morning and one hour in the afternoon to handling all your written communications. Unless you dedicate specific time slots to the handling of email and post, you will soon find yourself on the downward slope of decreased productivity as you constantly check and respond to email to put off whatever you should be doing.
 
In a nutshell:
In the end, the success of your VA business is entirely and completely reliant upon you and the decisions that you make. Success is within your reach, if only you can stay focused on your goals. You must decide to reach for your goals, and then, you must have the discipline necessary to reach them.
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Why Boundaries Are Vital For Your Virtual Assistant Business – Part 1

April 13, 2012 By Leave a Comment
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.
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Building Your Virtual Assistant Business with Associates – Part 1

April 11, 2012 By Leave a Comment
When you have filled your virtual assistant business with clients, you will soon run out of time that you can sell to new prospects. After all, you only have so many hours in the day that you can work. So how can you expand and take on more business without the overheads of getting an office and taking on staff?
 
It’s time to introduce you to the Virtual Assistant Associate.
 
Working with associates is a very popular business model in several industries as it works in much the same way as working with a virtual assistant. When there is work you don’t have the time to complete, your clients outsource it to you. When you have an excess of client work you don’t have time to complete, you outsource it to an associate.
 
Associates work at a reduced hourly rate to that you have charged your client, as they have been handed the work ‘on a plate’ without having to do all the marketing and relationship building associated with bringing that client on board.
 
You also continue to manage the client relationship and invoicing and the client remains a customer of your business, rather than becoming a direct customer of your associate.
 
It’s imperative to have an Associate Agreement in pace so that everyone understand the boundaries of the relationship. For more information and a selection of templates you can download and adapt for your own business go to: http://vasuccessgroup.co.uk/virtual-assistant-document-templates/
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Free VA Tips: Successful Working with Associates

April 9, 2012 By Leave a Comment
Do your research
When taking on an associate VA it is very important to trust the person you are going to be working with. Although there will be contracts in place to protect you both legally, you still need to work with someone you can trust to provide a professional service to your clients, so make sure you do your research.
 
Select who you want to work with
After having a good look through all available information about potential associates, including their websites, client testimonials, industry reputation etc. decide who you’d like to work with. If possible check to see if they already work with associates as this will give you an indication as to whether they might be open to this sort of arrangement.
 
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How to Earn More Money with Associates

April 6, 2012 By Leave a Comment
One of the main problems that all Virtual Assistants eventually face is hitting the limit on the number of hours that can be billed to clients … we only have 24 hours in every day and we do have to get some sleep! We also have to do the administration for our own business as well as continual marketing activities to ensure a steady stream of clients.
 
So how can you earn more money? One way is to bring on board associates to undertake some of the client work so that you can take on more work. There are 2 ways that this could work:
 
1.       You act as Project Manager meaning all client requests come to you to delegate and then work carried out is returned to you to check before sending back to the client. This is a very hands on role and will take up a lot of time and won’t be billable.
 
2.       Give your client direct access to the associate to communicate requests and receive completed work. This means that you can still undertake billable work without having to get too involved.
 
Once you make the decision to start working with associates, think about the people you can bring on board to compliment your skills and even offer new services. For example, think about social media management, book keeping, SEO, website design, IT helpdesk, telephone answering, copywriting, audio typing, shopping cart management and graphic design. 
 
The services you offer don't have to be traditional Virtual Assistant services, think about what would be useful to your customers and act like a one stop shop for them so that you are earning money from it.
 
Want help with documents needed to start working with associates? Check out our Associate Templates Pack available to download immediately here: http://vasuccessgroup.co.uk/products/virtual-assistant-document-templates/
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