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Are You Being Treated Like a Dog?

By Danielle Keister |
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Are You Being Treated Like a Dog?

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.

Dear Danielle: Should I Use the Word “Virtual” in My Biz Name?

By Danielle Keister |
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In this episode of What Would Danielle Say, Lynn wants to know if she should use the word “virtual” in her business name.

Dear Danielle:

My business name is BD Virtual. I read your blog post about What’s In a Name and the part about not having “virtual assistant” or “assistant” in your name. Is it a good idea to have virtual in your name? If not, should I consider admin services consulting like you were talking about. Is BD Virtual okay of a name? —Lynn Smith

Hi Lynn :)

If you follow me for long, you will find that I frequently advise/remind people to delete the word “virtual” from their biz vocabulary (among others).

A business is a business. There’s nothing virtual about it.

Is a business more “pretend” or of less quality if it’s run out of a home office or on the road? Is it more of a business if it’s located in a rented office?

Does an attorney who works from home and conducts most of his meetings over the phone have any less of a legal practice?

Is a doctor or accountant or designer or (fill in the blank for whatever other independent service professional comes to mind) “virtual” just because he works from his own location and/or his clients go to him, he doesn’t go to them?

By that logic, then all businesses are “virtual” in that they perform their services from their own place of operation (regardless of where that may be), not the client’s.

But we don’t qualify those businesses like that so why should you qualify yours in that way?

This is why I advise people to stop using the word “virtual.” It’s a silly word and puts a negative, subpar, “less than a real business” spin on things.

One of the challenges of a professional services business like ours (where we do not have physical storefronts that clients can walk into like brick-and-mortar businesses do) is instilling credibility, trustworthiness and rapport.

Therefore, you want your business to present itself in every way you can as no different from any other professional a client would hire to provide some kind of expertise.

Any word that detracts or qualifies your business as something “other than” or “different from” a real business and professional service like any other makes it more difficult to establish that credibility and trustworthiness.

And this is what the word “virtual” does… it says that your business is not a “real” business, it’s something “other than.”

And why do that? Why qualify it in any way except that it is a real business like any other?

This is what I mean by a business is a business. Where the business is located and/or where you work from is of no relevance or importance to the matter.

Regarding your other question, whether you should call it Administrative Consultant, that depends on whether you actually are one or not.

An Administrative Consultant is not the same thing as a virtual assistant. The terms are not interchangeable.

Where “virtual assistant” has become the proverbial junk/miscellaneous drawer of terms of anyone doing anything and everything, which is not a definition or category of anything, it’s just a gopher basically (what Seth Godin would refer to as a meandering generality), an Administrative Consultant is someone who specifically specializes in the business of providing ongoing administrative support (what Seth Godin calls a meaningful specific). That is their business category and their specialty.

The other distinction is that when you are in business, for both legal and practical reasons, you are not anyone’s assistant. Administrative Consultants are independent professionals (in the same way that attorneys, accountants, designers, etc., are independent professionals) who provide clients with the expertise of strategic administrative support. They are not day-to-day substitute employees or “alternative staff.” They are not staff in any way.

So if your specialization and expertise is administrative support and you view yourself as an independent professional (not a staff member, assistant or outsourced worker), then Administrative Consultant would fit you.

Since it sounds like you are just starting your business and still in the naming phase, be sure to also check out the Naming Your Business category of my blog. I have several posts with information and ideas to help you in that process.

Thanks for the question and I hope this provides you with some understanding and clarity. All my best!

Dear Danielle: How Can I Refuse a Client without Getting Into Legal Trouble?

By Danielle Keister |
0 Comments

In this episode of What Would Danielle Say?, LH from the United States writes to ask:

Dear Danielle:

I am in the process of starting my Administrative Consulting business and am at the point where I need to develop policies and procedures. I was reading your post of Oct. 23, 2012 (You Do NOT Have to Take the Good with the Bad) about being able to choose which clients you want to work with and having the right to refuse any client you choose. How exactly do you go about refusing a prospective client diplomatically and without setting yourself up for legal troubles? Have you ever had an experience like this? —LH

I asked LH to elaborate a bit more on what legal troubles she was referring to:

I’m thinking, for instance, if I were to say to a prospect that I didn’t think we were a good match for a business relationship because of the type of business they are in. I have not run into this problem and I’m just thinking generally and hypothetically because I know how crazy people can get over the least little thing. I wouldn’t want to end up being sued for “discrimination” when it would be a simple matter of conscience. I hope that as I continue to narrow my target market (I’m still in the startup phase) that problem would be eliminated. But I like to consider all the random “what ifs” just to make sure my bases are covered. I guess you can say I have the “prepare for the worst but expect the best” attitude.  I would love to know your thoughts on the issue.

So here are my thoughts on this:

Basically, it’s a non-issue and you’re borrowing needless worry. Don’t do that. ;)

Let me put your mind at ease. You are not obligated, legally or otherwise, to take on any client who is not a fit for you. As you stated very well yourself, it’s a matter of conscience and ethics.

You can’t do your best work or have a mutually happy-making relationship with any client who foundationally is not a great match for you. It’s for their benefit as much as yours that you decline clients who are not ideal.

You already understand this. I think you maybe just needed some confirmation and validation. Amirite? :)

So how this would normally play out is that you present lots of in-depth, educational content on your website so that your ideal clients are drawn to you, recognize themselves in your descriptions and see that you are just the right person who knows how to help them with their administrative needs, goals and challenges.

In this way, your website content also becomes part of your front-line pre-qualification system because it organically helps weed out those prospects who are not a fit at the same time it is attracting your ideal prospects, getting them interested and moving them to the next step.

Next, you have a consultation and part of your consultation process might entail that potential clients complete a form or preliminary questionnaire so you can gather information before you meet and further determine (again, as part of the whole pre-qualifying process) if this is a prospect who fits your ideal client profile.

If they do, that’s when you proceed to meet in a consultation where you ask your questions and talk, see if there’s good chemistry and get the info you need to find out whether this is someone you can help and want to work with or not.

If after going through all those steps, it turns out you don’t want to take that person on as a client, that you’re not a fit for whatever reason, you simply inform them that after considering all the information, you aren’t going to be the best person to meet their needs.

I also like what you also said about it being a matter of conscience. It’s diplomatic and it’s the truth so include that. It let’s them know you’re looking out for their best interests and that it’s nothing personal.

Be sure to provide them with the links to the ACA Directory and the Client Guide so that they can continue in their search. And if you happen to know of a specific colleague who might be a better fit, refer them to that person as well.

Perhaps you’ve discovered they were confused entirely about what you are and do and need another kind of professional entirely so be sure to give them that advice to  aid them in their search. (And if that is the case, it means you need to go back to your website and improve the message because it is clearly not doing it’s job of thoroughly and properly educating visitors about what you do, who you do it for and how you help them.)

Now, ideally, your prequalifying processes weed those folks out and determine whether someone is a good client candidate long before you expend your valuable time in consultation. That is the purpose and goal of having a system of intentional prequalification. This will be particularly important later in your business when you are more established and have less time to spare in what I call “practice” consultations. You will want to reserve your time and energy only for the most ideal of prospects so always be honing and improving upon your prequalifying systems.

This is another one of the places that having a very specific target market is going to make a dramatic difference in your success. When you know specifically the profession and the profile of the kind of client you want to work with, you can create much more extensive, compelling copy to attract them to you and move them through the process of becoming a client. And when you know who you ideal AND non ideal client is, it will be easier for you to recognize the red flags that start waving when you are dealing with a non ideal potential client so that you can head things off before you waste any time in consultation.

I have a couple of products that will help you tremendously in these areas.

I’ve explained the basic outline of consulting for retained clients, but there’s obviously much more to the entire process and a certain methodology to things that makes them effective. You need to know how to talk with prospects, how to set up your prequalifying systems, how to lead the conversation and what questions to ask that will best facilitate moving your ideal prospects to becoming monthly-paying retainer clients.

Breaking the Ice: Your Complete Step-by-Step System to Confidently Lead the Consultation Conversation and Convert Prospects to Retained Clients

Breaking the Ice: Your Complete, Step-by-Step System to Confidently Lead the Consultation Conversation and Convert Prospects to Retained Clients (GDE-03)

You also mention needing to establish policies and processes and I have a product for setting up a lean, mean, streamlined biz mo-chine that both enables you to take better care of clients AND gives you more time, freedom and flexibility for your own life. This guide gives you policies and processes and shares some standards to adopt for streamlining and simplifying your administration and operations:

Power Productivity & Biz Management for Administrative Consultants: The 14 Simple Systems that Will Breathe Freedom, Flexibility and LIFE Back into Your Business and Relationship with Clients

Power Productivity & Biz Management for Administrative Consultants: The 14 Simple Systems that Will Breathe Freedom, Flexibility and LIFE Back into Your Business and Relationship with Clients (GDE-41)

Working Together Successfully

By Danielle Keister |
2 Comments

I have a brand new article that I’ve added to the ACA Client Guide.

For those who don’t already know, the ACA Client Guide is an online guide intended to help educate clients about Administrative Consultants, how they help them and how to work together successfully.

What I’m looking for are:

  1. Typos or other errors;
  2. Suggestions on order (i.e., Should any of the items be moved to another position in the list so it flows better?); and
  3. Did I miss anything? Is there any other topic that you’d like to see addressed that relates to setting proper expectations and understandings, thus helping ensure the relationship gets off to the most successful start?

Here’s the article:

Working Together Successfully

Everything you need to know to get your business relationship with an Administrative Consultant off to the best start!

Following are the key ingredients you must bring to the table to ensure you experience the most fruitful and rewarding benefits of working with an Administrative Consultant.

  1. Understand the nature of the relationship. The relationship you have with an Administrative Consultant (or ACE for short) is similar to that which you have with an attorney or accountant or other independent professional. She is not your employee or “hired help.” She is an administrative expert, collaborative partner and trusted advisor. Respect her opinions and concerns. Be open to her input and advice. Your best interests and success are her priority.
  2. Collaborative partnership. Relationships are a two-way street; your participation is required. In order for it to work—indeed, for the magic to happen—and for you to get the very best experience and outcomes from it, you, as the client, are an integral part of the equation. If you are absent from the relationship, it won’t work and you will end up dissatisfied.
  3. Tech-savvy. Just like your attorney or accountant, an Administrative Consultant works from her own offices. Heck, you may never even meet in person. Meetings and consultations are typically held by phone or video chat (e.g., Skype) and email is the primary form of regular communication. You don’t need to be a whiz (and you’ll learn of all kinds of amazing tech tools and services from your ACE should you work together), but you do need to be comfortable with computers, technology and communicating by email in order to work with an Administrative Consultant.
  4. Be present and timely. One of the most important relationships you have in your business is with your Administrative Consultant. The administrative engine she is determined to help you with is critical to your business’s success and smooth operations. In order for her to accomplish those objectives, it’s vital that you answer questions and provide requested information and materials in a timely manner so that it doesn’t hold up your business and objectives or hers.
  5. Communication is key. This is especially important in this kind of tech-driven, remote working relationship where we primarily communicate by email. Like you, an Administrative Consultant is not a mind reader. We can get really good at anticipating your needs, tastes and preferences the longer we work together; still, we can’t guess or make assumptions. It is better to err on the side of over-communication and be forthcoming with details and expectations. Your Administrative Consultant may have further clarifying questions to make sure everything is understood.
  6. Make meetings with your Administrative Consultant a priority. Do everything in your power to keep your appointments, show up prepared and cancel with appropriate (not last minute) notice when you can’t. Mutual respect of each others’ time is a necessity.
  7. No dumping. If you disappear for long periods of time and then suddenly show up with a flurry of work requests that you need done “yesterday”… well, that just isn’t going to work. An Administrative Consultant has other clients to serve whose needs are as important as yours. Every Administrative Consultant has her own policies and protocols. To work together successfully, you will need to plan ahead, give plenty of lead time (as specified by your Administrative Consultant) and follow her procedures for submitting work so that it can be managed effectively and accomplished in a timely manner to the highest standards.
  8. Practice the Golden Rule. Administrative Consultants expect to be treated with the same human dignity and respect with which you expect to be treated. We are deserving of civility and complete sentences. We expect to not be yelled at, grunted at or have orders barked at us. We appreciate “please” and “thank you” as much as you. Clients who are unable to extend common courtesy and mutual respect are not a good fit and will be let go with haste.
  9. Maintain professionalism. Difficulties, dissatisfaction, conflicts and misunderstanding can arise in any relationship. Your Administrative Consultant is always interested in your constructive feedback and being given the opportunity to improve or make things right. When communicating upset or complaints, just be sure to keep things professional, not personal. Continue to treat and speak to each other respectfully and humanely. This will go a long way in facilitating communication, being heard and finding resolution.
  10. Pay on time without any hassles. Respect cannot exist in the relationship where there is chronic late or nonpayment. You can expect one (or all) of these things to happen when that is the case: a) All work will cease until your account is paid in full; b) you will be required to pay in full up front for all work in the future; and c) you may be let go as a client.
  11. Own your business. An Administrative Consultant cannot care more about your business than you do. Nor is it her job to ensure you make money; that’s your job. She wants to help and support you in achieving your goals and dreams, and she can if given the opportunity. However, the success or failure of your business is always your responsibility.
  12. Vacations and closures. It’s important to understand that an Administrative Consultant is not a temp or employee and, thus, does not provide that level of administrative support on a daily basis. What we provide is strategic support in specifically defined support areas. And just as your attorney or accountant (or any business for that matter) is closed on occasion for holidays, vacations, emergencies or other reasons, so, too, will your Administrative Consultant’s business. Your ACE will give you plenty of notice so that you can plan accordingly. Just know that if you are so dependent upon support that you are unable to take care of things yourself during these intermissions and your entire business comes to a screeching halt without us, what you really need is an employee, not an Administrative Consultant.
  13. Proper expectations. Rome wasn’t built in a day. Neither will all your administrative needs, burdens and challenges be solved overnight. Recognize that this will be a process. And boy-oh-boy, will it be fun to see these things whipped into shape bit by bit as you continue to work together!
  14. Be generous and forthcoming with your praise, feedback and referrals. An Administrative Consultant is a business owner who takes pride and joy in her work and helping clients like you succeed. She’s also a person, like any other, who appreciates recognition, a good word and a pat on the back for a job well done (not to mention your referrals and recommendations). She may also ask for your formal feedback at specific intervals throughout the year. This is for your benefit as well as hers and gives you an opportunity to let her know how she’s doing, voice any concerns and offer suggestions on how she can better serve you.

Is Marketing One of Your Biggest Challenges?

By Danielle Keister |
0 Comments

If it is, you’re not alone. Marketing (and finding and getting clients) is one of, if not THE, biggest challenge people voice in our industry.

They give discounts and freebies, exhaust themselves trying to be everywhere, and waste countless hours and precious energy in consultations and responding to RFPs that go nowhere.

If you can identify with this problem, you should attend my upcoming class on November 29 when I will teach you:

  • How to market (and get clients) in a way that will preserve your precious and limited reserves of time and energy;
  • Improve your cashflow so you can stop worrying about not having enough money all the time;
  • How to create products that will sell themselves over and over and earn you passive income and add additional revenue streams;
  • Establish yourself as an expert and authority in the eyes of prospects;
  • Better nurture the all-important know, like and trust factor for increased client conversions;
  • Be viewed as a trusted advisor, not a cost to be managed;
  • Increase your ability to command higher fees;
  • Be able to work fewer hours with fewer clients;
  • Have a business that is not so hands-on with more free time to enjoy your life while making money in your sleep;
  • and essentially get PAID for demonstrating and marketing your business and expertise!

Are YOU ready to learn how to boost your business prospects and profits?

TIME IS RUNNING OUT!

Last day to register is November 20.
Get the details and claim your spot today >>

Administrative Support Is Not General

By Danielle Keister |
5 Comments

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.

Dear Danielle: Should My Client Say I Am Part of His Team?

By Danielle Keister |
11 Comments

Dear Danielle:

A client of mine has just asked me if I would agree to put my name and picture to be published in a paper magazine as a member of his team. He is a solopreneur and apparently he wants his company to be included in a directory of the industry to be published in the magazine. He doesn’t want to show he works alone (in fact, he doesn’t as I collaborate with him) so he wants my picture and contact info (which is the email address I use with his company’s domain) to be included. Do you see any issues if I accept his request? Thank you in advance, Danielle! —Mirna Majraj, MB Asistencia Virtual

Hi Mirna :)

I know you’re in a different country, and I’m not sure what the laws are there, but in the U.S., Canada, Australia, Ireland and the U.K., and many of the European countries, the laws concerning the distinctions between employees and independent contractors (i.e., business owners) are all very similar.

And that is, essentially, no one is part of your business team unless they are an employee. If this is true in your country as well (you’ll want to consult with a lawyer to be clear), you want to avoid any appearance that you are one because there are legal consequences involved.

Here’s how I help people to understand this:  Are they going to include their attorney, their accountant, their designer and every other professional they are a client of in the listing as well? No? Then you shouldn’t be included either.

Your relationship with him is no different than the one he has with any other independent professional who is not an employee, but is a separate business.

If it doesn’t make sense to include them, it doesn’t make sense to include you in that manner either. It’s not the truth and it’s misrepresenting the correct nature of the relationship.

Here’s a blog post that talks a bit more about this (see the comments in particular): What You Need to Know About Subcontractors.

Some might be wondering what the big deal is.

Well, here’s the thing. Forget about legalities; it’s important and worth our while to maintain these boundaries because too often it becomes a “slippery slope” when we don’t.

Every time you allow clients to take liberties when it comes to your standards and boundaries, you’re chipping away at the integrity and foundation of the relationship.

These seemingly inconsequential concessions ultimately lead to detrimental effects in the relationship. Pretty soon, you’ve got a client who seems to think you’re his employee.

If you’re going to be successful and sustainable, for legal and practical reasons, you need to preserve those boundaries and not allow them to become muddied, blurred or misconstrued.

Plus, (and I’m sure he’s innocently not realizing this), it’s just dishonest to allow him to portray you like that.

There’s nothing to be ashamed of in being a solopreneur. In fact, you could be doing him a huge service by helping him see how he can promote that as a competitive advantage, that the fact that he IS a solopreneur who works with key strategic partners and experts allows him to be more agile, flexible and responsive in meeting his clients’ needs. (Suggest he even use that as a script if you want.)

There are an infinite number of ways it can be worded so that he can still include you, but with a more truthful, accurate depiction about who you are in relation to his business (i.e., his Administrative Consultant and one of his key independent experts).

Plus, I’m a firm believer that ideal clients, if they truly value you, are willing to help you as well. And it certainly doesn’t help you to dishonestly pretend that you are part of his “team.” If he thinks about it, he will probably see that he’s asking you to compromise your ethics. And it’s not polite to put you in that position.

That being the case, suggest to him that if he would like to include you in the article or listing, the best way he can help you and your business (and what you must insist upon since you are not an employee) is by including your full name, the name of your business, the link to your business website and/or your contact info.

You’ll be helping him stay in integrity (and maintaining your own) while giving him the opportunity to support your business at the same time.

PS: At the start of your relationship with any client, be sure there is discussion about the nature of the relationship so there is no misunderstanding moving forward. Also, inform clients how they should refer to you and introduce you to others:  as their Administrative Consultant or even simply Administrator. It’s not up to them what to call you and by informing them, you ensure they don’t come up on their own with something that you don’t prefer. The last thing you need is a client introducing you to others as his secretary or assistant.

How to Respond When Clients Ask “How Much Do You Charge Per Hour?”

By Danielle Keister |
10 Comments

A week ago I promised my mailing list community that I would share with them a script for responding to prospects when the first thing out of their mouth is “What’s your hourly rate?”

I feel you! lol

It can be the most irritating question in the world when it’s pretty much the first words they utter right out of the gate.

But guess what? You have a lot to do with why they are asking that in the first place.

And no, it’s not because you don’t have pricing on your website. Pricing for professional services doesn’t belong on your website. But we’ll discuss that in a moment.

First, I want to preface things by saying that the response to that kind of question is different depending on the context.

For example, selling products is a completely different ballgame than selling professional services. There’s a completely different context and a different process and conversation involved for each of them respectively.

Now, on my blog, we’re always talking about retained ongoing monthly administrative support. This is what is known as a collaborative partnering relationship. It’s not the same thing as selling products or piecemeal project work (i.e., secretarial services). So understand that the scripts I’m going to share with you are for the context of retainer clients (i.e., clients who pay a monthly fee for ongoing, monthly administrative support).

Unless you are selling a cheap commodity, clients need have context in order for your fees to make sense. If there’s going to be any kind of mutually beneficial relationship, you can’t answer that question off the cuff. There’s a bit more to it than that.

There are simply things you need to find out first from the client before you can even begin to understand their needs, goals and challenges, and then devise your support plan recommendation for them.

When the first thing a prospect asks is “What’s your hourly rate?”, that’s a clear sign a) they have not bothered to read your website (and, thus, are not a good prospect), or b) your website has not properly educated them and failed to provide them with enough information (which is more commonly the case)

When you don’t provide your site visitors and prospects with thorough information, you don’t give them any other criteria with which to evaluate the value. They will always resort to the pricing question when that’s the case.

And that’s something you can correct by:

  1. Stop parroting the same tired, boring, homogeneous (and ineffective) party line that EVERYONE else in the industry is reciting chapter, line and verse. You’ve GOT to stop this people, seriously! This is your business, not a high school clique where you’re only allowed to belong if you conform with the crowd. Blending in is NOT what you need to do in business; you need to STAND APART from the crowd, come up with your own message and speak in your OWN voice).
  2. Adding more thorough content and information. Because you don’t want them asking “How much?” Instead, you want them saying, “I”m intrigued. I can see you understand the profession and business I’m in and the kind of challenges and issues I face in moving forward. I’d like to schedule a consultation to find out more about how you can help me achieve X, overcome X or solve X.”

Now, in the context of your business, you’re an Administrative Consultant who works with clients in an ongoing support relationship and so you’re goal is to find retainer clients.

What you need to do in that case is gear all of your information toward that goal, educating clients about what you’re in business to, how you help them, how it works, how you work together, etc.

Think of your website as a form of mini or pre-consultation itself. Have it answer all the questions a potential client could conceivably ask you or want to know.

The more information you provide, the better you prequalify your prospects (because the ones who are not a fit will weed themselves out) and the more likely your ideal prospects will take the next step (i.e., scheduling a consultation).

So you want to provide a nearly exhaustive amount of information on your website… everything except pricing.

There are many reasons why pricing on your website works against you as a professional service provider:

  1. You are not a cheap commodity that can only be quantified by price. When you portray yourself as nothing more than something on a shelf that they can get at one of a thousand other places, the only differentiating factor being your rates, you actually create price-shopping mentality.You want clients who are truly interested in the value of the work in helping them move forward, achieve their goals, overcome challenges and grow their business. By insisting on that standard and holding yourself and what you do in that esteem, you weed out the cheapskates and those only looking for quick fixes. If you make people who can’t pay, don’t want to pay, or who are impatient with your process your clients, you will be the engineer of your own business unsustainability, unhappiness and poverty.
  2. You cut your nose to spite your face. Some people argue that posting prices helps get rid of the price shoppers who waste their time. But when you do that, that’s the thing nearly every visitor to your site zeros in on to the exclusion of everything else that’s more important—including all the information that conveys your value. There are far better ways to prequalify clients, my friends.
  3. You throw the baby out with the bath water. Here again, when you try to get the price-shoppers to weed themselves out, you’re also scaring off all kinds of other perfectly suitable client candidates who may simply misunderstand what things would really cost and mistakenly think they can’t afford this kind of support relationship. They need context, but they’ll never get that far if you scare them off before that can happen.
  4. It’s not the time and place. Ongoing administrative support is a bigger relationship. It requires more of an investment and commitment from the client, and, therefore, requires a bigger conversation. Prospects need context in order to make sense of your fees and that only happens in consultation, not on your website.

So this is what you’re going to say when the first thing out of a prospects mouth is “What’s your hourly rate?”:

I can’t answer that question off the cuff because my goal is to ensure you get the best support you can afford. Your business needs, the challenges you face and your underlying goals and dreams are unique. We need to meet first in a consultation where I can gather more information and learn more about those things before I can create a support plan just for you and tell you what it would cost.

There is a way to provide a frame of reference for potential clients that doesn’t promote price shopping. And that’s by simply letting them know the minimum monthly investment they would need to make in order to work together. So what you would add onto the comment above would be this:

What I can tell you is that the minimum monthly investment any client would need to make in order to have my ongoing monthly support is $X per month.

And on your website, instead of listing fees, you would instead talk about your pricing methodology and its benefits, how and why you bill as you do, and include that statement about the minimum monthly investment they would need to make.

Remember, the goal is to get them in consultation and talk to you further, not your website, so that you can provide needed context for your fees. When prospects ask the rate question, the other thing they’re trying to determine is whether or not they can afford it. Letting them know the minimum monthly amount helps them do that in a way that gets them to look at fees from a more value-based perspective and encourages the opportunity for further discussion.

Now, my wish for you would be to get away from billing by the hour (selling hours) entirely because it cheats you and cheats the client by putting your interests at odds with each other. It’s a very archaic, UN-beneficial way of charging for your value, for you and the client and actually discourages prospects from seeing your value.

Your goals for getting paid for the value of your time and expertise should be in sync with the kind of goals and results the client is looking for from the work and how that work achieves their objectives and helps move them forward in their goals and the pursuits they’re aiming for. And you don’t want that question boiling down to how fast you can kill yourself doing the work so that the client doesn’t have to pay as much. That will be the death of you and your business.

When you employ my value-based pricing methodology, here’s what you get to add to all of the above:

I don’t charge by the hour and here’s why:  hourly billing cheats you because it puts our interests at odds with each other. Billing by the hour, I obviously make more money the longer things take, and you, naturally, prefer things to take the least amount of time possible so that you don’t have to pay so much. That’s a horrible dynamic for us to work together in! And so I don’t. The work that’s going to truly get you results, move you forward and keep your business humming along smoothly can’t be dependant upon a clock. And when you work with me, it doesn’t. I want to achieve real results and progress for you. That can’t happen by selling you hours. Your needs, goals and challenges aren’t cookie cutter and so I don’t offer cookie cutter solutions. Instead, what I do after we meet in our consultation is come up with a support plan recommendation. From there we can hone it until it’s just the right fit. And you will pay one simple monthly fee for that support. That’s it. No worry about hours running out. No overages. It’s easy to budget for and all our focus will be on the work and accomplishing your objectives, not on the clock.

There’s much more to learn and understand when it comes to pricing and how to talk about fees with clients. And I’ve packaged all that up for you in my Value-Based Pricing and Packaging Toolkit, which I encourage you to check out because it has the power to transform your business—and your life! (Be sure to read the testimonials and success stories!).

The Difference Between an Assistant and an Administrative Consultant

By Danielle Keister |
11 Comments

There’s a difference between an assistant and an Administrative Consultant.

An assistant is a gopher who is told to do anything and everything. Being an assistant is a role, not an expertise.

An Administrative Consultant is someone who specializes specifically in the art and expertise of administrative work.

You can tell people that you’re a business owner until you’re blue in the face and not their beck-and-call employee, but if you call yourself an assistant, people will always think of you as an assistant, consciously or subconsciously. So stop calling yourself one.

Don’t buy into the idea whatsoever that clients should be able to come to you for anything and everything. It’s utter BS in business and will bury you in muck work and rabbit holes. You’ll never be able to build a flexible, freedom-filled practice if you make yourself stuck being an assistant/gopher to clients. And I’m telling you this as someone who actually DOES this work and runs a business as an Administrative Consultant, not someone sitting in an ivory tower who hasn’t run a support business in over 15 years.

Teaching people how to be assistants except that they now work from their own office instead of sitting outside the boss’s office is not a new paradigm whatsoever.

Being an Administrative Consultant IS a new paradigm because it’s about specializing in the expertise of administrative support, not being anyone’s assistant, not being their gopher, and not being their personal valet or servant.

As an Administrative Consultant, clients come to you specifically for administrative support in the same way that they go to their lawyers for their legal expertise, their accountants for their financial expertise or their designers for their visual and technological marketing expertise.

When you run your business in this way and focus on your specific expertise, not on being anyone’s anything and everything assistant, you can command higher fees, have more freedom and flexibility and more time for your life instead of being chained to your computer.

You Are an Administrative Partner

By Danielle Keister |
0 Comments

When you are in business, you are not anyone’s assistant.

As an Administrative Consultant, you are an administrative expert clients partner with for support in that area in the same way that a client “partners” with an attorney for legal support or an accountant/CPA for financial advice and guidance, etc.

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