This isn’t the Sims.
You are real.
Your business is real.
The work you do, which is also real, creates real benefits and results for clients in their businesses and their lives.
There’s nothing virtual about any of that, and those are the only things that matter.
A business is a business.
So stop using such a ridiculous, superfluous, attenuating word as “virtual” in your biz name and marketing.
I was reading a blog post from a fellow talking about how he communicates with his assistant. It amounted to what I call being grunted at. One or two word commands and directives.
I would never allow a client to talk to me like that. And you couldn’t pay me to work with anyone like that. Not for any amount of money. Because it’s demeaning and dehumanizing.
Countless people in our industry have written to me over the years about feeling demoralized working with clients who treat them like nameless, faceless robots.
Here’s how this happens:
They come into this industry and start their businesses with this crazy idea that they’re supposed to be good little assistants, seen but not heard, doing everything they are told, practically the family dog who’s supposed to fetch and shake and rollover on command.
They work with clients like they’re on an assembly-line, like they’re still that employee waiting to be told what to do, letting clients tell them how their business is going to be run and how things are going to be.
But you are NOT an assistant.
You’re running a business to deliver a specific professional expertise, no different than a doctor, lawyer, accountant, etc.
You are someone with special skills, talents and experience in the art and craft of administrative support. An expert. A specialist.
If you want a happy business and life, put your name and face on your business. Be the expert.
YOU tell clients how you operate and how you will work together. YOU tell them what the policies, procedures and protocols for working with you are. YOU tell them what your standards and values are, where the boundaries are and what the rules and guidelines are.
And in having standards, that includes expecting and informing clients that you expect to be treated with the dignity of a human being and spoken to in complete sentences.
You’re not a robot or a vending machine they are barking orders at or punching orders into.
Don’t allow them to view you as their personal assistant/servant/gopher or substitute employee.
I always use the example of attorney and accountant because that’s exactly how I want clients to equate the nature of our relationship, that it will be like the one they have with their attorney or accountant. How they work together and speak with them is the same way they will be working with and speaking to me.
Dump any client who can’t get with the program. If they want an employee, that’s who they need to hire.
And then, when you are left with the ideal clients who treat you with the proper manner and respect accorded to professionals who are helping them, treat each and every one of them like the VIPs they are.
That doesn’t mean being obsequious and subservient. It means making each one feel special, important and valued. And you’ll be able to do that at a high level for those clients because you aren’t allowing yourself to be demeaned and having your morale and energy zapped by crappy ones.
Oh, and stop calling yourself a virtual assistant. You call yourself an assistant and then are shocked/irritated/perplexed when they treat you like one.
Assistant is a term of employment. Stop using that word. It’s ridiculous in this day and age of business to be using that word.
This is why we are the ADMINISTRATIVE CONSULTANTS Association.
Today is the last day to save on my Consultations that Convert class on April 18. Register by midnight tonight and pay only $67. After that, registration goes up to full price
How many of you struggle with conducting consultations, knowing how to get people into consultation, how to proceed with the conversation, what questions to ask, how to convert prospects into paying clients and how to follow-up effectively? If you have it all figured out, this post isn’t for you and you can stop reading.
But if this is an area you need help with, I have to ask you:
WHAT ARE YOU WAITING FOR?
Aren’t you sick and tired of always being broke? When are you going to invest in yourself and your success by getting the training you need to finally start making some durn money?!
I came across an adage recently that seems very appropriate:
So if not now, when?
Of course, you can always just keep on doing what you’re doing and spend the rest of your life hoping you can glean what you need to learn in dribs and drabs. (How’s that working out for you?) But that’s no way to take charge of your life and start building the business of your dreams. It’ll take you FOR-EVAH that way.
Take the bull by the horns NOW and get the education you need to start landing those clients once and for all. I’m giving you the opportunity to get this business skills training at a bargain. Get your registration in by midnight tonight; you’ll save some money and you’re going to come away with the skills to convert your prospects into paying clients!
Contracts are not merely for legally enforcing “rules and regulations” on clients.
Their first function is to memorialize (in writing) your promises and understandings to each other.
Memories fail. Things are conveniently “forgotten.” Your contract serves as a written memory of what you both agreed on to each other.
The other role your contract plays is in outlining your standards and helping set proper understandings and expectations for the relationship.
With your contract, you are saying, Here is how I expect to be treated with courtesy and respect. And for my part, here is how I will treat you with courtesy and respect as a client…
So it’s just dumb for anyone to tell you to take anything out of your contract that you may or may not enforce legally.
You might as well not even bother with a contract at all then because if that’s the logic, more than half the standard terms and conditions that need to legally be in a contract to be enforceable would get taken out.
And why stop there. There’s no point then in putting anything in writing if you think the only reason for it is whether you’re really going to sue someone or not if they don’t comply.
Shoot, just let clients do whatever they want and dictate everything to you. Because again, by that logic, anything else would be being a “hardass.”
There’s nothing hardass about informing clients that when you are working on retainer, you expect them to give you 30 days notice if they intend to terminate the relationship. (I actually recommend 20 days, which is what I do in my practice.)
The reasoning is that you have reserved space for that client and dedicated priority to them. If they decide to terminate at a moment’s notice, that leaves you in a lurch without being given a courteous, reasonable amount of time with which to try to refill that slot.
It’s like the policy of requiring 24 or 48 hours notice if someone needs to cancel an appointment. By stating it in your policies, you are telling people how you expect to be treated and respected, that your time is valuable.
And that clause (at least in the ACA contracts) works both ways. You are saying to them, I’m not going to leave you in a lurch either. If I determine that our relationship needs to end, I’m going to give you X number of days notice as well.
It has nothing to do with being a hardass or whether or not you would even take them to court if they didn’t honor the agreements they made to you.
It’s about good business, having and honoring your standards, and informing clients upfront what is expected.
Dear Danielle:
What do you do when your Administrative Consultant is sick? Do you go for a one-person operation or use a company that can offer a replacement if yours has the flu?
I dunno. What do you do when your attorney or accountant gets the flu? Or your spouse for that matter?
Here’s what you need to understand:
Administrative Consultants are not substitute employees/temps. This is a relationship with an independent professional, not a vending machine. You can’t just drop a coin and out pops a replacement lackey.
People get sick. You’ll live.
In the meantime, your business is your responsibility.
(Tip of the hat to the Bitter Barista for the genius vending machine analogy.)
Can I vent a little? Do you mind?
More importantly, there are a few business lessons in this post for you as well (you know I’m always using these experiences as teaching moments, lol).
Whenever you promote something that (gasp) people have to actually pay for, you inevitably get a few unsubscribers from your mailing list.
No problem. This is a good thing. Never, ever worry about that.
Because you want those who begrudge you charging for your time, knowledge and expertise off your list. They just suck up space and create negative energy.
Who knows why they’re even on a business list in the first place because, um, business is about earning money after all. Or did they miss that memo?
I guess they should stop expecting clients to pay them as well, right? I mean, by their logic, we should all be doing everything for everyone for free all the time.
Oh wait, earning money and expecting to be paid only applies to them; everyone else is supposed to be giving to them for free. 
Anyway, I digress, lol.
Here’s what I really want to talk about…
So, I get this unsubscribe message from someone who writes about the ACA Industry Survey:
I shared confidential information for the questionnaire and was never offered a copy of the results. Sorry to go.
Here’s what I want you to know (because what a lot of these people like to do is turn around and badmouth you to others, mischaracterize things and spread incorrect information—or flat out lie):
Remember, (here comes more biz savvy) business requires policies and procedures, standards and boundaries.
As Administrative Consultants, reading, paying attention and being able to follow directions and follow through in a timely manner is our stock in trade.
It doesn’t say anything good about your competence or abilities if you can’t do those things.
We all make mistakes; we’re all human. That’s okay. But own your own mistakes and failures and learn from them. Don’t blame others for them.
There’s no such thing as “general” administrative support.
Well, there is, but if you are only providing something “generally,” you deserve to be low-paid.
Administration is the backbone of every business in the world. Without proper, attentive administration, a business flounders and fails.
Administration, therefore, can only be provided—properly—when it is uniquely geared for that client’s unique business set-up, needs, challenges and goals.
And when that is the case, it is anything but “general.”
So stop using such a derogatory, devaluing word in reference to your administrative expertise and support. What you do makes all the difference in whether a client’s business succeeds or fails. There’s nothing general about that.
When you use the word “general,” you create a subtext that sabotages and contradicts your efforts in attracting well-paying clients who value your expertise.
What you are telling the world and your prospects, in between the lines, is that the support is “less than” and less important than other things they could be spending their money on.
So you are telling them to devalue it at the same time that you are trying to earn their business and be paid properly just by using the word “general” in reference to your administration and support.
Shift your thinking about what you do and it’s value in the world. What you do is vital, it’s important and it’s specific.
Don’t call administrative support “general.”
You are putting it in a very demeaning, unimportant light when you say that.
Administrative support is a very specific skill, expertise and sensibility, and is absolutely one of THE most important aspects involved in a well-run business.
Administration is the very backbone of every business. The administrative engine can either make or break a business.
Therefore, you must stop talking about administrative support in such derogatory ways.
If you don’t value and honor what you do, and view it and portray it in all it’s vital, integral relevance and importance to the success or failure of a business, prospective clients won’t either.
What you need to understand yourself is that administrative support is a specialization and category of business and service in and of itself.
There’s nothing general (or unimportant) about it.
So stop saying that! Get rid of the word “general” from your business and marketing vocabulary altogether.
What are you doing today to market and network and get those clients?
And what are you focusing on instead that is keeping you from those activities?
Ask yourself, why am I dinking around that stuff?
Am I lost? What am I lost or confused about?
Am I fearful? What am I feaful of?
Who can help me? Who can I reach out to for support, mentoring and/or coaching? Are there resources I can refer to that will bring me some light and clarity? (Perhaps I can help you.)
Get to the bottom of those questions so you can get back on track.
And go get those clients! You can focus on those others things you’re using to procrastinate with later.
Marketing Tip: Don’t call yourself a WAHM anything.
(For those who don’t know, WAHM stands for work-at-home-mom.)
No one cares that you “work from home” or that you are “mom.”
It’s completely irrelevant and (worse) detracts from the kind of professional image that allows you to command respect, credibility and professional level fees.
Business is business. Your parental status and where you happen to work is of no import to anyone else whatsoever.
Not that there is anything wrong with either of those things.
The problem is one of connotation.
What people picture when they hear the term WAHM is someone distractedly sitting around in her pajamas with a squalling kid on each hip rather than a competent, highly skilled professional and expert who is working in a committed business.
You wouldn’t go to a job interview in your sweats, would you? The image that would project would not be at all suitable and would not show that you took the matter very seriously.
Well, the words and terms you use to to market your business are the same thing.
They are your dress in print and need to reflect and elicit the kind of image in clients that they can trust and feel confident in.
Instead, focus the attention on the needs, goals and challenges of your clients and their businesses.
