Archive for the ‘Rants’ Category

← Older posts
Blog Home

Whose Fault Is It?

By Danielle Keister |
6 Comments

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):

  1. Our survey is confidential. We don’t know who you are when you complete the survey. You aren’t sharing anything “confidential” or personally identifying with anyone.
  2. If you have a problem with sharing your “confidential information,” why did you take the survey in the first place? You chose to take the survey, no one had a gun to your head. This is called personal responsibility.
  3. “Sorry to go.” That’s such passive aggressive bullshit. Because obviously, if you were genuinely and authentically sorry to go, you would have instead sent an email and made some polite inquiry. Business lesson: Don’t be disingenous. It’s not gracious. Get a backbone and tell the truth.
  4. I have no clue who the person writing is. She’s not someone who ever interacts or corresponds with me. I sort of get the impression she thinks I should know who she is, but here’s the thing. If you never open your mouth and speak to people on a regular basis (like on their blogs, forums, listservs, social networking, etc.), no one is going to remember you or know who you are. People can’t get to know, like, trust and remember you, much less build any kind of relationship with you, if you sit there like a bump on a log. (That’s another biz lesson, by the way.)
  5. I am always interested in making sure we do a good job and do what we say we will. So I went to investigate to see if I could piece together what may have happened. I put her name and email address into Aweber and she’s not on our current survey mailing list. Our survey page very clearly states (with several reminders throughout the process) that participants must sign up to the survey mailing list in order to get their free results report. If they fail to follow that step, they won’t get a copy. Simple as that. So, if it’s the current survey this person took, since she’s not on the mailing list, I can only assume that she didn’t complete the survey or the sign-up. Only you are responsible for your ability (or lack thereof) to follow directions or follow through.
  6. It occurred to me that maybe she was talking about a previous year and we archive those lists offline. So I went to the archives and was able to find her name and email—FROM OUR 2009 SURVEY LIST. So she’s waiting over 3 years to bring this to my attention now and wants to act like she was somehow wronged? Really?
  7. We keep meticulous records on this stuff, and our records show she was in fact sent an email from the mailing list back in 2010 with the download link to her free copy. If she didn’t download it, whose fault is that? Here’s how we do this: participants on the mailing list are sent an email with the link to download their free copy once the survey period is over and the report has been compiled. They are informed that they have X number of WEEKS (not days) to download their copy. They are told, in no uncertain terms, that the link will expire after that date and there will be no requests indulged after that point. We even send one or two courtesy reminders. The survey is a huge undertaking that takes a ton of time and energy. We have to automate and systemize in order to manage everything effectively and efficiently (another biz lesson). Plus, you have to keep in mind, this is a free service. It’s a big pain in the ass to be dealing with requests dribbling in the rest of the year from folks who didn’t follow directions in the first place. I and the people who help me in this endeavor have our own businesses to run and other things to do. We simply have to put these boundaries in place. So we spell out how things work, tell folks how to download their free report, give them a deadline with plenty of time to do so, and the rest is on them. If someone doesn’t  download their copy or report problems in a timely manner, that’s on them.

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.

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.

You Are an Administrative Artist

By Danielle Keister |
3 Comments

I recently saw some Internet marketer use the phrasing “must have the heart of a servant” in reference to virtual assistants.

Give me a freaking break. Can you believe the condescension? Ewww.

That kind of thinking is just more evidence about how many in the marketplace view us:  as underlings… servants. And that’s because a lot of these people really think of us as assistants rather than as business peers and independent, professional service providers.

When I hire a professional, whether it’s an attorney or a coach or a bookkeeper or whatever, I don’t sit there and go, “… and they should have the heart of a servant…” When you hire a professional of any kind, do you say, “Oh, and they must have the heart of a servant.” Yah, right, LOL. No one does. And you’d be politely shown the door by any of these people if you did.

ANY professional should be service-oriented if they are going to succeed in business. That’s not the same thing as someone saying that you as a virtual assistant in particular need to have a servant’s heart. That’s just patently offensive. Do you get the difference?

But this is exactly how so many view the term “virtual assistant.” They think that we’re some kind of servants and lackeys.

Yet another reason why the term “virtual assistant” doesn’t serve us (at least, those of us who are in the administrative support business). It generates disrespectful attitudes like that.

If you want to talk about hearts, I say have the heart of a craftsman, an artisan. Our work is no less an art form and craft than any other kind of skilled trade.

People who have pride in their business and their skills and love exercising and honing them are the ones who care more deeply about their client relationships and doing great work. You certainly aren’t–and don’t have to be–anyone’s freaking servant to do that. You are an ADMINISTRATIVE EXPERT!

Watch Out Who You Take Advice From

By Danielle Keister |
3 Comments

People who try to pose as industry experts who don’t do their own work and merely offshore it to cheap third-world workers are no industry experts.

Anyone trying to position themselves as some kind of trainer or mentor in our industry and then teaching you how NOT to earn well in your own economy is no industry expert.

Use your brain and discernment. Stop falling for smoke and mirrors and flash-in-the-pan gimmicks.

If you live in the developed world and economy, you can’t live, much less create a self-sustaining business, off the kind of fees that third-world countries charge.

And anyone who calls normal, professional-level fees “excessive” has never worked with upper-level clients (the kind you want) and isn’t someone who should be advising you if you nd need to earn well in your own economy.

But people like that also do not know what administrative support is. They aren’t doing the work we do so they don’t get it. All they are doing is merely piecemeal, transactional secretarial work. When you say administrative support to them, all they think it is is typing and answering the phone.

Anyone who provides support—and not merely piecemeal project work—knows that our work is vastly more involved than that and requires more skill, experience and sensibilities than simply being a secretary.

Do you really want to take advice from people who don’t even understand what it is this business is all about and who understand even less what administrative support is, often because they themselves lack that kind of background and experience?

Use your heads, people.

They can’t help you learn how to market and be able to charge well because they themselves don’t know how to do it and think all they are capable of charging is “fair” (code for cheap, third-world) rates.

Learning how to market in a way that allows you to charge professional level fees (not third-world rates) in your own economy is absolutely doable. It is an art and science, though, and involves understanding the market and marketing psychology. You won’t learn that kind of thing from people who don’t know how to charge well themselves.

Another Word to Delete from Your Biz Vocabulary

By Danielle Keister |
5 Comments

I’m not a fan of the word “fair” (a cousin of “reasonable”) when used in relation to our fees because it’s usually code for “cheap” and “work for free” and “I’ll give you my skill and expertise for practically nothing.”

What is fair about that? Fair means fair to both parties, not giving something away of value to the other party while sacrificing your own needs and worth.

But the way it’s typically used, especially in Virtual Assistant circles, it’s about giving away far too much to clients for nothing. I have never in my life come across an industry so completely entrenched in devaluing itself and earning poorly. It’s so completely insane.

So let’s look at what’s really fair…

If your expertise costs a client several hundred dollars a month (for example, I get paid $1200-1600 a month for what roughly amounts to a 20-hour retainer) and as a result of working with you, that client:

  • gains X number of hours back in his pocket to focus elsewhere and enjoy more life and freedom;
  • has his business run more smoothly, thus reducing administration and increasing profitability;
  • gets more done and makes faster progress;
  • makes more money above and beyond what he pays you each month due to your support…

Wouldn’t you say that’s “fair?”

And I’m on the higher end of the scale. If a client paying you even between $9600-16,800 a year ends up increasing their annual income by $10,000, $15,000, $20,000 or $50,000 and beyond as a result of your skill and expertise helping them accomplish more, achieve goals, and move forward, I’d say that was a bargain.

It’s certainly a far more equitable (fair) exchange and it’s what is meant when we use the term “value.” Value does NOT mean coupons, discounts, two-for-one sales or otherwise devaluing your service and giving work away for free.

This is all the more reason we need to stop calling ourselves “assistants.” (I prefer Administrative Consultant, myself). We are experts in our own right–that of administrative skill and expertise. The word “assistant” inherently puts you in a subordinate role and lower perceived value ranking. People don’t consider “assistants” as experts.

A simple change in terminology can have a dramatic effect on your professional self-esteem and how prospective clients view you:  as an administrative expert whose skill and insights can help their business move forward, not a flunky who’s just there to order around.

And remember, just because someone is new in business doesn’t mean their skill and expertise is any less valuable. And that’s what clients should be paying for… not your time.

Here’s Some Abject Stupidity

By Danielle Keister |
6 Comments

Alan Weiss, the self-styled king of consulting, tells business owners they should “do it themselves and save time.”

So if an attorney emails him about a matter, is he going to say, “Tell your client to call me himself!”

Of course not. That’s patently ridiculous. He may be the absolute genius when it comes to consulting, and I definitely respect his knowledge in that, but on this point he is dead wrong.

There’s absolutely no difference between clients having their Administrative Consultant take care of certain matters on their behalf and having their attorney or accountant or any other kind of professional handle matters related to what they were hired to do.

It has nothing whatsoever to do with one person’s time being more important than another person’s.

It has everything to do with that client who works with an Administrative Consultant being a smart business person who knows that his time and energy levels are finite commodities. That business person realizes he shouldn’t be spending his own personal time on certain details, but instead should prioritize and reserve those limited resources for taking excellent care of clients and focusing on marketing and revenue generation. He knows he is able to give more support and higher quality service to his clients when he doesn’t squander those things trying to do everything himself.

But Weiss’s position is that if you’re going to say you are a solo, you should be COMPLETELY solo. And that’s just as ridiculous.

Solo doesn’t mean you literally do everything yourself. It just means that you are the primary brain power and craftsman in your business.

Using his logic, solos would never hire ANY professionals whatsoever to help them in their business. They wouldn’t hire an attorney, an accountant, a bookkeeper or literally anyone.

Again, patently ridiculous. No man is an island and that man’s business and clients will suffer if he tries to be. Guaranteed.

Choosing to be supported (and in some cases coached and advised) administratively by an Administrative Consultant is no different than hiring any other kind of independent professional to help in their business. We are hired for our expertise of administrative support and guidance in those matters.

However, this once again underscores the fact that the term “virtual assistant” is completely misunderstood and does us a great disservice by causing people to automatically perceive that we are “mere” assistants or lackeys.

If that person’s accountant had contacted him for the information, I really doubt he would have had the same attitude. He automatically has less professional respect because he views us as some kind of underlings—much like a maid or butler—and all because of the term “virtual assistant.”

But as business owners and professionals who are hired for our particular expertise and support, we are no more assistants to our clients any more than an accountant or attorney or bookkeeper is an assistant to their clients.

Of course, to be fair, there are some real turkeys in our industry who seemingly have no brain cells with which to think independently or critically and take initiative.

Those folks do give us a bad name. And it’s the reason why I see the smarter, more experienced people in our industry—the ones who have professional self-esteem and view themselves as true business owners and masters of the expertise of administrative support—embracing the term Administrative Consultant as a better representative and more respectful name for who we are and what we do.

You Are Not a Newbie

By Danielle Keister |
3 Comments

I don’t like the word “newbie.” I think it’s disrespectful, and I consciously avoid using it whenever possible.

The only people who should be in this industry are those who have a professional level of skill and experience already. That’s what qualifies them to open an administrative support practice in the first place. And those people aren’t newbies. They are simply new in business. Big difference.

And another thing… the idea that you need to charge less just because you are new in business is complete and utter rubbish! Shame on those so-called “industry experts” and training organizations who have been telling you that!

They get upset about folks who aren’t charging enough for their business to be financially successful and in the very next breath tell them if they’re new, they don’t deserve to be charging as well as any other business. What hypocrisy and nonsense! You shouldn’t be taking business advice from people like that.

You might have a learning curve when it comes to successfully running and managing a business (who doesn’t), but that doesn’t make your administrative skills and years of experience any less valuable.

Of course, you might not have the confidence or knowledge to charge well or even appropriately, but lacking confidence does not mean you lack value. Again, big difference.

“Virtual Professional” Is About the Stupidist Term I’ve Ever Heard

By Danielle Keister |
3 Comments

“Virtual professional” is about the stupidest term I’ve ever heard.

What in the hell is a “virtual professional?” What makes someone a “virtual professional? How does that term distinguish one profession from another? What separates particular fields and areas of expertise? How do those two words tell the audience what a virtual professional does, specifically? Oh, that’s right–it doesn’t!

A virtual professional could be anyone doing anything virtually who considers themselves professional. So a doctor who sells medical information on a website is a “virtual professional” and a building contractor who markets for clients on the Internet is a “virtual professional.”  Attorneys, handymen, interior designers, architects, you name it. By that logic, if they sell services or market online, they’re all “virtual professionals.”

Gee, that makes a ton of sense (not)—a word to encompass every living breathing professional on the planet who happens to do business online so that it literally means absolutely nothing.

Lot of good that does me if I’m a client. If I’m looking for a bookkeeper, I’m not going to sit there and go “I know! I’ll look under “virtual professional.” If I’m looking for a web designer or administrative support or whatever other specific expertise or discipline I might be seeking, why on earth would I ever search under “virtual professional?”

I wouldn’t. They wouldn’t. Because it doesn’t mean anything. It wouldn’t even occur to anyone to do that. And even if it did, the results would be all over the place. They’d have to sort through pages and pages of all the inane, irrelevant listings in order to find the one or two (maybe!) that actually did the thing they were looking for. No one is going to do that.

If You’re Sitting on the Sidelines, Whose Fault is That?

By Danielle Keister |
3 Comments

There was a bit of kvetching going on last week on one of the listservs I belong to.

I don’t really consider myself a member of that particular list as I’m only an observer there on behalf of one of my clients, but the group dynamic is common to many of the networks I belong to and a constant source of business musing for me.

You see, someone asked a question and as usual, out of thousands of members, only a handful offered up any answers and advice.

This handful is comprised of the few folks who regularly participate by answering and contributing questions, adding to conversations and just all around going out of their way to give thorough, detailed information that the rest of the list (who sit like bumps on a log and never bother to open their mouths) gets to learn from and take advantage of.

The super-participators make up the 20% who are actively engaged in 80% of the conversations and interactions.

Yet every so often, as was the case last week, there will be someone who pipes up to complain that basically the participators are participating too much. And then a few others will chime in with their agreement.

They’ll say things like they are scared to post or reply for fear of ridicule.

They’ll point out that the regular participants aren’t the only ones with good advice and expertise to share.

They’ll complain that conversations get “hogged” by the regular contributors.

They say they feel like anything they might contribute would be quickly overshadowed.

Seriously?

How does an online conversation get hogged by anyone?

If you aren’t speaking up, whose fault is that?

Unless someone has physically hog-tied you and duct-taped your mouth shut, no one is “making” you be silent; that’s your choice.

If you aren’t asking questions or adding your own two cents, don’t complain that others are dominating the conversation. You have exactly the same option and opportunity as everyone else to type words on your keyboard and hit the “post” button. It’s just that some are go-getters and others are not. Which group do you fall into?

And definitely don’t complain if the list is quiet and no conversations are even getting started (another frequent lament which is ironically almost always posted by those NEVER particpate or start conversations anyway; they just sit around waiting for everyone else to do it for them). So, what have YOU done to start any yourself?

Give the floor to those same people who complain they “can’t get a word in edgewise” and ask for their feedback and input, and guess what you’ll still get nine times out of 10?

Crickets.

Because the problem isn’t really other people “hogging” the conversation. That’s just an excuse.

It’s not everyone else’s job to entertain and inform you. How about giving back a little yourself?

It’s also not anyone else’s job to hide or dim their own light so that you don’t feel insecure.

There are no “turns” in business.

If you want others to see and know how wonderful you are, you’re just going to have to step up to the plate.

Take a risk. Put yourself out there the same way the active participators do.

Ask for what you need. Dive in. Speak up. Exercise your curiosity and share what you know.

Don’t hold back. But do own your own fears, jealousies and insecurities. No one else is responsible for them but you.

You get to choose to get in the game or sit on the sidelines.

But make no mistake–that’s your choice. Just stop whining about it if you choose the latter.

Don’t Fall for Dangling Carrot Syndrome

By Danielle Keister |
8 Comments

Incentive-based compensation…

Good work will lead to more immediately.

Work on commission and your income is only limited by your effort.

I pay on percentage… if I make money, you make money.

Let me pay you tomorrow for a hamburger today.

Work your ass off and maybe you’ll get repaid in proper proportion for all of the effort and value you give away, is how that should read.

This is all just more of the same… what I call Dangling Carrot Syndrome. They’re cockamamie schemes concocted by exploiters to do one thing: get out of paying you fairly and squarely.

Honestly, sweethearts, don’t fall for this crap. These are just more ways unethical people try to take advantage of you and be unfairly enriched by your good, hard work.

It’s a con. They sense your neediness for money, your desire to please. So they try to manipulate and smooth talk you into giving away your value with the promise of great rewards—in the future.

They prey on your kind, giving, nurturing nature. In the end, the only one who benefits is them.

It so disheartening to see those in our industry being taken advantage of like this. It’s not going to lead you into a financially successful, profitable business. All these types of arrangements do is suck you dry of your precious time and energy, cause you to give away the very value you are in business to offer, for only the promise of just rewards. And in the meantime, you are distracted from finding the real clients who truly value and appreciate you and your talents and skills.

That’s not what you want for your life, is it? Your dreams are just as important as theirs, aren’t they? But how will you achieve your life dreams if you allow others to take you for a ride and you engage in “opportunities” that don’t support the creation of a solvent, sustainable business? What about your children and your family? Is that fair to them? For your time, energy, hopefulness and good gifts to be squandered on hair-brained schemes and people who are only out to exploit you?

Stop letting clients lead you around by the nose. YOU lead your business. YOU decide what you are and what you aren’t. YOU decide what your role is and what it’s not. You are not an employee. You don’t need any “incentive” to be paid. You have a right to be paid today–at the rate and method you determine your business needs–for the good, honest work and expertise you deliver today. Not later. Not if… NOW. Insist on being respected and valued. Promises and dangling carrots are NOT forms of payment.

← Older posts
Blog Home