Get Real

As any good business owner will tell you, you have to keep up with your competition.  See what they’re doing.  What are they offering?  What are they doing better? Or worse? You need to know what’s going on so you can keep up, move ahead, move up and shine beyond them.

Maybe you’ve stumbled across this blog because you’re considering the idea of hiring a virtual assistant, a gal Friday, to help you out with your business needs.  I’m here to tell you today to get real.  Hire a real person (like me, but it’s okay if it’s not me).

In your search for a virtual assistant, you’ve probably come across services that will find you a VA, or those that say they have lots of VAs on staff, and you just need to sign up with their service.  The problem with these services is that you really have no idea who you’ll be working with.  You aren’t dealing directly with the VA.  You’re talking to an intermediary who is going to assign someone they’ve subcontracted work to – whoever happens to be available at the time.

This isn’t any good for you or your business.  You need to be able to work with this person daily, and you need to be able to make sure they’re right for your business.  You will be assigned a random virtual assistant and you won’t know where that person is – perhaps in your country, perhaps halfway around the world.

Another reason I find these services off-putting is that their cache of VAs are not getting paid well.  The service charges you one fee, then takes their cut, and then pays the VA, sometimes very little, a lot less than minimum wage, especially if they’re working with people from other countries.

I want you to have the best relationship you can have with your virtual assistant, or gal Friday, or virtual secretary (whatever you’d like to call us).  Take the time to find that real relationship that you and your business need, and you can ensure that you’ll have a great future with your VA.