FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS
by people thinking about working with a "VIRTUAL ASSISTANT"

Q. Who would work with a VA?
A. VAs work with smart, successful people of all kinds; authors, sales people, consultants, coaches, executives, professionals, entrepreneurs--any one who wants to be professionally successful and live a more balanced life with more free time to do the things he/she wants to do!

Q. What's the point? I manage everything on my own!
A. As you grow a business, sooner or later, you'll find that you can do anything, but you simply can't do everything! And when you give away the stuff that doesn't need your personal attention, you gain space and time in your life for an abundance of other things. Those things might include:

~ Growing your business
~ More time with family , friends
~ Responding to other opportunities
~ Balancing home and work responsibilities

Q. If I wanted an assistant, why would I hire one who's potentially hundreds of miles away?
A. Well, part of the benefit of having a VA is that you haven't hired anyone. When you work with a VA, you get a partner, not an employee. You get someone who chooses to work with you as much as you choose to work with him or her. The VA's decision to work with you will be based on being attracted to your work and on being interested in being your partner for success, rather than because he or she is looking for "some job." People work with VAs because they :

~ Don't have the space for someone in the office

~ Don't want someone in the office

~ Don't have the equipment needed for someone else to use

~ Don't want to buy the equipment

~ Don't want the associated work and cost of having an employee:

• Payroll

• Benefits

• Paying for someone else to administer payroll, benefits

• Don't want to have to conform to federal standards like OSHA

If what you want and need is the most basic office support, then you might want to work with a
secretarial service. If, on the other hand, you want the benefit of working with someone who really wants to know you, your business, your customers, and who really wants to be deeply involved in your success, you'll want to work with a VA.
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Q. Why wouldn't I want to give my secretarial work to a local company, and have a VA just
working on bigger things?
A. You might. However, what people have found is that it doesn't really pay to do that.
Secretarial services are a bit less expensive per hour. That's true. The problem is that the people
who work there don't know you, or your business, or your customers. You have to do a lot of work, up front, before giving them the work, so that they know what you want — and even then, sometimes you need to speak with them several times before your documents, faxes, messages, etc., represent you in your voice. A VA can speak for you. A VA can write in your voice. A VA, because he or she has learned you, can listen to you speak just a few words about what you want done, and make it happen — sometimes, even better than you could have done it yourself.

In addition, the more the VA know s about your needs, the less time it will take him or her to do your work. So, even for the basic secretarial work, where do you really get your best value?

The key is to remember — a VA becomes your partner for success. A secretarial service helps you for the short term.

Q. How long would I work with a VA?
A. Just as there are assistants who have worked for the same person in the corporate world for
many years, it's possible that could happen with your VA. Part of the power in this dynamic relationship comes in the synergy which happens between the people working together. There's a flow, a spark, an ease of working with a VA which turns days to weeks, weeks to months, months to years, all before you know it.

Q. Isn't it more expensive than hiring an employee?
A. No. The cost savings is two -fold: financial and emotional. When you hire an employee, on top of a salary or hourly wage, you have a ton of things you need to administer (payroll, benefits, etc.), many things to buy or lease (equipment, furniture, etc.), and you have to share space as well. It's expensive and can be grueling.

Annual Cost of Hiring a Full-Time, On-Site Assistant vs. a Virtual Assistant

	Full-Time, On-Site Assistant (Employee)	Virtual Assistant
Base Cost	$15.00 /hour x 2,080 hours = $31,200	$45.00 /hour x 240 hours* = $10,800
-plus-
Benefits	15% of Base Salary = $4,680	-0-
-plus-
**Payment for time not worked (Vacation, Holidays, Sick Time, Lunches)	13% of Base Salary = $4,056	-0-
-plus-
Payroll Taxes	12% of Base Salary = $3,744	-0-
-plus-
Administrative Costs (Recruiting, Hiring, Training, etc.)	7% of Base Salary = $2,184	-0-
TOTAL	$45,864 - PLUS the cost of equipment, maintenance & supplies (computer, phone, furniture, software, etc.!)"	$10, 800* - I pay for my own equipment, maintenance & supplies"
Having a true Partner in your Success and Time to spend how you most want to… What is that worth to you?
*The average retainer client uses anywhere from 15 - 20 hours per month. Even if you doubled this and used 40 hours per month, your cost would only be $21,600, still less than HALF!
**U.S. Chamber of Commerce

Depending on the VA, you might pay–as–you–go (giving him or her only the amount of work you actually have during any week or month), or you might have him or her on retainer (buying a certain amount of the VAs time each month for a pre–set and usually lower, hourly rate). Your VA's time is 100% productive time as well -- you don't pay for a second of downtime or break-time.

No muss, no fuss. Just great support from someone dedicated to your success.
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Q. Ok – I can see how this might be a good thing. But since I've always worked on my own,
can you suggest a way for me to think about what I could give to a VA to do and what I should keep to do myself?
A. Here's what you can do :
For the next week, keep a pad of paper and a pen on your desk, or with you if you're far more
mobile (notes in your PDA would work just as well, too!). Every single time you do something, think to yourself, "Did I really have to be the one to do this?" Be rigorous as you consider the answer --remember, your goal is to find as much "stuff" to get off your plate as you can!

Everything that you didn't personally need to deal with gets added to your list. At the end of the week, you'll have a terrific idea of just how much you do that keeps you from what you should be doing, and just exactly the kinds of things you can turn over to your VA.

When you talk with VAs, share that list with them -- it will help them understand better how to support you.

Q. Does Virtual Assistance work better for any particular type of person or professional?
A. The benefits are enormous to almost anyone who's busy and needs support. What we've found is that the only people who really aren't in a good position to work with a VA are:

~ People who aren't online and who can't understand why this would work;
~ People who live in the urgent:

If every thing you do is last minute, if your style is to procrastinate and then rush to deadline, if you're not organized and centered, if you're in a high-pressure field where things run you instead of the other way around, if you want someone at your beck and call, you probably need an in-person employee, not a VA:

~ People who don't understand the power created in a relationship with a
   fantastic assistant;
~ People who aren't open to learning new ways of working and
   communicating;
~ People who aren't billing their own time at considerably more than
    $30/hour.

If you aren't, paying a VA could create a hardship for you. But if you are billing at a much higher rate, or if you work on commission and your time is valued in large chunks of cash earned that way, then every hour you spend doing work that takes you off course, is work for which you are paying yourself, in essence, at YOUR HOURLY FEE. It doesn't take a lot to see the smarts behind paying someone to handle administrative work so that you can be out earning more and more!

~ People who can't shift to seeing a VA as an equal.

If you're stuck in the traditional boss/assistant paradigm, or if you need to be the boss, you need an employee, not a VA.

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