1)  An individual virtual assistant operating her own business.

A virtual assistant who operates her own practice would be a great choice if you are seeking long-term support and would like to hire someone who will learn your business well enough to anticipate your needs, and eventually provide good advice in the areas she is supporting.  An individual VA is interested in the success of her business thus that energy and enthusiasm is spent ensuring that your needs are taken care of and that the support relationship will be mutually beneficial.  With this long-term goal in mind, selecting the right VA is an important process.

2)  Contracting with a mutli-VA firm.

Multi-VA firms are certainly growing and provide a service that may fit your needs also.  A multi-VA firm usually consists of a business owner who has assembled a team of virtual assistants with varying skills.  These VA’s work as sub-contractors to the business owner.  Many multi-VA firms assign to you a Project Manager who will help organize your task needs and who then manage and coordinate the sub-contractors to complete the work.

Which should you choose?  Well let’s take a closer look at how each solution may be the best choice for you.

Individual Virtual Assistants

The individual VA is a good choice when you have well-defined needs for a VA.  Individual VA’s are able to articulate to you what areas of service they provide help with.  When both parties have clear definition – a great partnership can be made.  I know a VA who is simply an expert in providing real estate support.  Realtor’s know that when they ‘off-load” tasks to her not only will the work get done, it is done right and with an expertise she has clearly demonstrated over the years.    However, if one of her clients now wishes to contract out accounting services my friend would clearly be able to let the client know that accounting is not her expertise.  My friend – fortunately – with years of experience in the VA community is well connected and would provide the client with a great referral.

So what are the pros and cons?  With an individual VA you will get certain expertise in areas you wish to contract out for.  You will be building a relationship with the VA that hopefully is long-term and mutually beneficial.  You may have to contract with more than one VA if you are needing a wide variety of services.  Because your relationship is directly with the individual VA your cost for her services may be lower because there is not project managment or the overhead cost of operating a larger VA firm

The Multi-VA firm

The multi-VA firm is a great resource for some business owners.  If you are a business owner that might need a bit more assistance in organizing your VA needs or perhaps you have a wide-variety of needs a multi-VA firm may provide a good solution.  A good multi-VA firm has working in it a collection of contractors with a wide variety of skills.  So no matter what you may need assistance with your Project Manager will have the responsibility for finding the right contractor to get the work done.  You will not be burdened with determining if the VA has the right skills, that will be the project managers job.

The pros and cons??  If you decide to use a multi-VA firm you may have a bit more security with not “loosing” your VA at a bad time.  The multi-VA firm has resources to draw upon to replace a VA working on your tasks.  This replacement should be transparent to you.  A good- multi-VA firm will have a number of VA’s capable of producing a newsletter, updating a website, setting up a shopping cart, etc.  You hopefully will benefit from a “pool” of capable talent.  The downside….. your fees are being divided between the firm, the project manager, and the virtual assistant providing the work, (who is usually working as a sub-contractor).  You may be paying a higher rate than you would be to an individual or you may require more hours to cover the overhead costs for the firm to organize your work.  With highly skilled tasks you may not be receiving your best purchasing power for your virtual assistant.   Highly skilled VA’s  rates normally fall in a range of $45-80 per hour.  Sub-contracting rates fall in the range of $15-30 per hour.

So which is best for you?  Virtual Assistants are some of the best professionals I have ever met.  The decision to hire a VA is your best decision yet!  When you start the process of hiring a VA, ask lots of questions, ask colleages for referrals, visit leading VA organizations such as www.ivaa.org.  Have your needs well defined.  Have a budget.  This is an important relationship you are seeking.  Do your homework.

Have a question about this post or hiring a VA in general?  I will be happy to assist you. Contact me at:  kendall@alldigitalsupport.com

What kinds of concepts make up my client profile?  I’ve started with these:

• What industry do they work in
• What product do they sell or offer
• Geographic location
• Who are their customers
• Company mission/philosophy
• Company reputation
• Experience with virtual assistants, contractors, outsourcing

These next few are a little harder to determine, they take time, but often lead to the success or demise of a working relationship:

• Honesty/integrity
• Ability to see and treat me as a professional
• Business like in agreements, payments, details of contractual agreement
• Communication skills

Ok, so why spend the time in this area?  Isn’t any client a good client to have?

As a practicing virtual assistant, this is my business. This is what I wake up and do for many hours each day.  As a professional, I want to do my best to spend those hours in positive activities. 

Recently a fellow virtual assistant friend of mine took on a new client.  This client was so scattered, un-organized, and undefined in direction that the “new” relationship only lasted 4 weeks before my very organized VA friend suggested she was not the “right” VA for this client.

The better we have our “ideal client” defined the shorter period of time it will take to determine if a new relationship is a “good fit”.  One of my “ideal client” traits is that I hope to develop long term working relationships.  Why? several reasons:

• I really get to know my client and the clients business and enjoy feeling a part of it.
• It helps with a steady client base and cash flow in my practice
• Marketing for new clients is not my favorite activity and causes me some stress

Because I understand this client trait, I usually don’t look for “project work”.  One-time activities that do not lead to that long term relationship.  I’ll do project work in areas that I am very skilled and comfortable in.  But taking on a project in an area with a steep learning curve is not a good use of my time.  I may not use that skill again soon.

This process is not perfect.  I’m not even all the way through it.  But I have found that because I am taking my time to do it, I am much more focused and directed in my conversations with potential and even current clients.  For business owners considering using virtual assistants, ask a potential Va - ”who is your ideal client”.  This type of up-front question may save everyone a lot of wasted time.

 Good day!

Kendall Gjevre