Dispelling Some of the “Myths” About Virtual Assistance
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Virtual Assistance is a growing profession, with well over 3,000 VAs currently in business.  Despite the growing profession, there continues to be some confusion as to what a Virtual Assistant is, how best to use a Virtual Assistant, and what types of businesses can benefit from Virtual Assistance.  It is my hope through this blog to share with you the many advantages available, and to put to rest some underlying myths to our profession.

• First of all, a Virtual Assistant is an administrative professional who is a highly-skilled micro-business owner, providing administrative services to various businesses outside of the client’s office setting.  We are administrative professionals specializing in various aspects of administrative skills, and are creative, accountable, competitive, and efficient in our respective areas of expertise.

• Secondly, there seems to be a myth that only “online businesses” utilize Virtual Assistants (VAs)--quite the contrary!  One of my clients was an “online only” business professional, a Business Coach from Utah.  I’d like to share with you some other examples of the various types of business owners that have needed to utilize my services as a Virtual Assistant.

Helmut Teichert, Founder of Turning Point Productions and the Henry Brandt Foundation in Montana met me at an Internet marketing workshop in Florida in January, 2007.  After he found out what I did, he approached me with the question, “Would you be interested in transcribing Dr. Henry Brandt’s Biblical messages?”  To which, I said, “Yes.”

Over the years, my assignments from the Henry Brandt Foundation, and Turning Point Productions have required various administrative services.  For example:  Listening to recorded board meetings, summarizing the valuable information, then typing the minutes in a professional format for distribution to the Board Members.  One other assignment consisted of a package filled with historical information about Dr. Henry Brandt, an interview with Dr. Henry Brandt, and a request that I write Dr. Brandt’s biography for use on the Internet.

Additionally, the owner of one of Lexington’s Wild Birds Unlimited, a nation-wide franchise, asked for my assistance in organizing his files.  I took all of his files to my office; I organized them, labeled them, created hanging file folders for each folder and/or category, and filed his loose paperwork.  When the project was finished, I took his project into his store (since it was only 30-minutes away from my office).  Dan placed his new filing system in the filing cabinet, and his paperwork headaches were over!   I stopped in to check on him a month or two later and asked how his filing system was working out for him?  All he could do was praise the work I had done.  Through my Virtual Assistance, I helped the store owner save time, money, and increase his productivity.  The work I did merely set a system in place that would eliminate wasted time with his paperwork, which set him up for success!

More recently, I was asked to make phone calls on behalf of Exclusively Frankfort, a publication of Frankfort Printing.  I merely called potential advertisers, spoke with the decision-maker and told them about the magazine, and then scheduled a time for the Publisher of the magazine to meet with them.  I was the front-end sales person, so to speak.  My customer-service skills allowed the Publisher to get in to sell to the potential customers, resulting in a 95% success rate for intended sales.   I also maintained his calendar on Outlook to keep him on track with his daily sales appointments.  I simply emailed a copy of his calendar to him, maintained contact with him on the phone, and he sold to 95% of his contacts, which made the magazine a success!  As an added incentive, I received a bonus of $25.00 for each sale that came from my contact with the potential client.  I had a nice bonus check from his sales!

I shared all of that to say this.

As your Virtual Assistant, I can assist nearly any type of business from anywhere in the world!  Once we understand how to work together (virtually), then the rest is EASY, but most importantly, cost-effective.  It’s simply a change in mind-set.  You can’t walk out to my desk and say, “Cindy, I’d like to dictate some key points, and highlights for a meeting I have in a couple of weeks.  When you get some ideas together for a presentation, could you bring them into my office, and we’ll brain-storm together?”   INSTEAD, with careful planning, and an open line of communication, the conversation (via email or cell phone) may go like this:  “Cindy, I recorded some ideas that I’m emailing to you.  Can you please write something up and put it into a PowerPoint presentation for my meeting?”

Here’s what would happen.

I would

• receive the information, and read over it.  If necessary, do additional research on the Internet to give me a better understanding of the subject

• create the document you wanted

• submit the created document for your approval via email

You would

• approve it, or make suggestions for changes (via email).

• make the professionally polished presentation, which should in turn, increase your value.

Now what? 

I’d need to know more details, such as if you want to use handouts.  If so, how many copies do you want? Then I would ship your copies either by FedEx, United States Postal Services, or UPS.

It’s really that simple.

It’s a matter of changing your mind-set.  Once that’s accomplished, ANYTHING, I mean VIRTUALLY ANYTHING IS POSSIBLE!

Do you have a project that you’ve looked at time and time again and thought……”I wish SOMEBODY could help me with that!” Call or email me.

More than likely, I’ll be able to help, and your money will be well-spent because you’ll walk away with a COMPLETED PROJECT.  Better yet, PEACE OF MIND!