Happy Birthday/Anniversary to us!

The Oscar Speech

I love this business, this industry and all the opportunities and avenues that have been opened up to me since I began in 2006. I never imagined what a world lay beyond my beige employee walls and I’m so glad I went out into the sunshine to find the ‘something better’ that I knew must be out there somewhere.

I don’t regret my 20 years as an employee, after all I learned valuable skills and gained an enormous amount of experience which I now bring to my clients with confidence that I know what I’m doing and that I’m very good at what I choose to do. The key word there is ‘choose’. Being in business for oneself is liberating and envigorating. The power to make my own choices moves me to be better educated, better aware of my industry’s movements and better able to service my clients.

Thank you to my wonderful clients and to the fantastic VAs that I have or do currently do sub-contracting for. Without you all, I could not operate and I’m grateful that you continue to come back to use my service time and again.

What does the next year hold?

I’m hoping to launch a fabulous new service in the first half of 2011 which is very exciting for me as it’s something I’ve not done before and which, to my knowledge, not a lot of VAs in Australia currently do.

I’ve been busy training and learning over the past months – a bit here and there as time allows but I’m starting to champ at the bit to get it out as a service.

In the grand scheme of things four years might not seem like much but when you work so hard at it day in, day out, it’s a pleasure to be here and still looking to the future for bigger and better things.

Sue Gross
Butterflies Secretarial Solutions
http://www.butterfliessecretarial.com.au

How long do Virtual Assistants (VAs) store your electronic files?

It depends on the VA. Some have continued to stockpile files and are now reaching a point where they need to make a decision about what to do with so many electronic records whilst others make a point of culling after six months, 12 months or other such period of time. You should check any agreements you have signed and see if it appears there or just speak to your VA about it.

In my case, it is written into my Terms and Conditions and mentioned in my Confidentiality Policy that I don’t keep files for longer than six months after a client relationship expires. There are of course exceptions and these things can always be negotiated. For example, I have one particular client who I pretty much see once per year. I proofread and format a large training manual which is produced annually. Naturally I retain their files for longer than six months as it helps to have a previous version to refer to when that job comes around. Files are still routinely culled albeit at a later date than is usual in this office.

VAs cannot be expected to hold files for an infinite period of time. Generally we have home offices with limited space and don’t run large servers for unlimited storage of files. Can you imagine the storage one would need if in one year you might have seven regular clients and perhaps nine semi-regular clients? That’s an awful lot of files and space!

Apart from the records I am obliged to keep for tax purposes and signed copies of work agreements, terms & conditions or other arrangements related to tasks, it is simply not efficient to retain electronic or paper files after a relationship has terminated or a one-off job is complete.

So what is the solution?

There are a couple of simple options.

1. You can request all files be provided to you on CD or USB drive. There may be a fee for this service but it’s usually small.  Of course if you have had all documents emailed to you this won’t be a problem at all.
2. Your VA can set-up an account with an online storage facility such as Dropbox, Carbonite or the like and upload all your files there for you. For the client this will mean a monthly fee is payable to the storage facility relative to the amount of storage you require.

If you have any concerns about the storage of your files, talk to your VA and find a solution that works for you.

Sue Gross
Butterflies Secretarial Solutions
http://www.butterfliessecretarial.com.au

As a Virtual Assistant (VA) I have sub-contracted out jobs many times with varying levels of success and I’m also a sub-contractor myself. I like to think I’m a very good subbie, well the wonderful VAs I work with keep coming back so that says something about my skills doesn’t it?

But it’s not just about skills. The reason you are choosing to be a sub-contractor and the manner in which you conduct yourself is as important as the skills you bring to the job.

Why Sub-Contract?

Well personally, I do it because I love it. I love to help other VAs be successful. I love presenting them with top quality work that they can send to their clients with very little checking. I have some awesome colleagues and enjoy the relationships I have with them, but I’ll talk more about relationships a little later.

Some people choose to pick up sub-contracting when they first start as a way of earning some money, polishing up their already well-developed skills and establish some good relationships with other, more experienced VAs.  Great! That’s a really good use of subbing and in fact is originally why I started doing it. I found that I really enjoyed it and keep doing it even though I now have clients of my own.

However…

A lot of VAs new to the industry will mistakenly choose to use sub-contracting as a way to practice their skills and try out new services that they’d like to offer. NO!  Did you hear me? NO! That is definitely not why you should be chasing subbie work.

There are a couple of scenarios here – firstly the VA will take on a sub-contract job without letting the VA know he/she is inexperienced. They commit to doing the job and meeting the timelines then find they can’t do the work or can’t meet the timeline. Many seem to then panic and end up letting the VA down because they didn’t want to step up and admit that they shouldn’t have taken the job on and they’ve left it too late to get the job done by deadline. This puts the VA in a nasty situation with their client who is waiting for the work expecting it to be delivered by their always reliable VA.

The end result is a very unhappy client, a very unhappy VA and a sub-contractor who will never get work from that VA again or have any other work referred to them by that VA. Do you see my point here?

Maintaining Relationships

As a sub-contractor you are not (in most cases) working directly with a client, you are working with the VA who will allocate you tasks and check your work is up to their standard before sending the work back to the client. A lot of times you don’t know who the client is.

For some reason this seems to give some VAs the impression that it’s acceptable to be less than professional. NO!  Did you hear me? NO! It is not acceptable to treat the VA with anything less than professionalism and respect. In effect they are your client because you are completing work for them and they are paying you on invoice.

Think about how you would treat a client and treat the VA the same way. Honestly, if I was a client and was treated by a VA how I’ve been treated by some sub-contractors they would certainly never receive another ounce of work from me.

The same goes for doing the wrong thing in maintaining a VA/VA relationship. If you don’t treat a VA with professional courtesy they will not use you as a subbie any more, they will not refer you to another VA, and they certainly won’t slide any clients your way. I’ve gained several sub-contract jobs and referrals to clients from lovely VAs I’ve done subbie work for.

I recently mentioned to some VA network members that I did volunteer transcription for an organisation and had some files that they could ‘practice’ with and I would check the file before it went back to the client and give them some feedback. I got a good response to the offer but a very very disappointing result varying from a file not getting to the allocation stage; a file not being started with the job turned down several days later; and the job being returned without instructions or template being followed and I re-did it myself.

Later I came to realise that these VAs were treating this as an exercise that they could choose to do or not and could put less effort into because it was ‘just’ for practice and ‘not a paid job’.  They didn’t stop to consider the wider implications of what they had taken on. I have never worked with any of these people before and they had an opportunity to showcase their services and skills to me. I could have raved about them in a blog post, on Facebook, on networks, recommended them to others, referred on clients that I couldn’t take on, given them paid sub-contract work… get the picture? They all missed a big opportunity to impress someone more experienced and with more contacts in the industry than they currently have. If you commit to do something, whether it be paid or voluntary then you really need to do it to the best of your ability and with a professional attitude. The fact remains that even though I do that job voluntarily, I still consider that organisation to be my client and I do the work just as well as I would do anything I get paid top dollar for. It’s the right thing to do.

In Summary

Being a new VA and seeing all the wonderful things that other VAs are doing is very exciting, inspiring and motivating, there is so much out there beyond the corporate walls you’ve had around you. However, you need to remember that you are now the face of a business and need to sell an exceptional service so that your reputation can build and referrals can be made with confidence. That means playing at the top of your game each and every time you interact with others on a professional level.

Remember:

1. Sub-contract because you want to do the job not to try something new (unless it is specifically stated they are happy to have someone inexperienced have a go).
2. Maintain a professional relationship and treat the VA with the same respect you would give a client.
3. If you are doing something in a volunteer capacity do it to the best of your ability and with a professional attitude. You never know what might come of it.

Sue Gross
Butterflies Secretarial Solutions