What ‘Experienced’ Really Means
OfficePRO magazine, June/July 2004

Even well-heeled administrative pros are ‘newbies’ when launching their business

By Stacy Brice

Question: You’ve written that the industry “low” fee VAs charge their clients is about $30/hour. What’s the “high,” and how long might it take for me to be earning that much in my practice?

Answer: We haven’t seen the high yet. I suspect that talented and experienced VAs, with great all-around skills, working as generalists, will end up averaging about $65 an hour. Talented, experienced VAs who have developed niches are the ones who are going to blow any averages through the roof, but how far through the roof remains to be seen. Certainly $100+/hour isn’t an unreasonable projection; there are VAs already commanding that, and expect many more will, as well.

I want to be clear about what “experienced” is in this context. It means experience working in your own business as a VA, engaged in working with clients, virtually. It’s not that experience as an admin doesn’t count—it does, but only so much. Think of all those great administrative skills you have as your foundation. Working virtually is radically different from working in an office. Being a business owner is vastly different from being an employee. If you’ve always worked in an office, and you’ve been an employee, your vast administrative experience in that world isn’t enough to qualify you as “experienced” in this one. In fact, to be fair to yourself and your clients, you really need to see yourself as a newbie—someone just starting out on a new path, in a new role, and feeling your way as you go.

As a part of that, start with your fees at an appropriate (based on your experience) point, and as you gain more experience, learn new skills, build your resources, and create greater value for your clients, push your fees upward, making them higher for new people who come into your practice. In this way, your fees are always where they should be, and the only thing that keeps them from being higher is the pace at which you learn and grow. The faster that happens, the faster you can appropriately raise your fees.

As for how long that will take, it’s impossible to say, although it absolutely won’t happen overnight. Traditional wisdom says it takes three to five years for a business to be where the owner wants it to be, and you have to be prepared that it could take that long. What I can tell you, for certain, is that what happens (or doesn’t) is 100 percent up to you.

Filling in the Knowledge Blanks

Question: I always feel so inadequate when interviewing a prospective client who has needs I can’t fulfill. I can do a lot, but there are programs I don’t know, and I’m not expert in the needs of every business. How can I handle my shortcomings better so I can present myself more effectively?

Answer: If you learned 500 new things every day, you’d still never know it all or how to do it all. Even if you did, it stands to reason that there would be some percentage of things you simply wouldn’t enjoy or want to do. So the issue isn’t that the client has needs that extend beyond your skill set. The issue is how to deal with it, and the single best way is to become incredibly resourceful.

You’ve no doubt heard the quip, “He who dies with the most toys wins!” I like to reshape it into “The VA with the greatest resources wins!” What you want are resources so profoundly fabulous that there’s literally nothing your client could ask you for that you couldn’t make happen.

You want clients to think of you as the one-stop shop for any and all needs they have. So start by looking for the gaps in the services you provide. Then identify and connect with people whose work is in those areas. Fill all your gaps, and you’ll have no problem making things happen for your clients. Find a new gap and then find someone to fill it—it’s a constant growth process.

Once you have that nailed, you can feel more confident in interviewing, knowing that there’s literally nothing a client can need that you can’t handle.

My VA, Marie, has a motto I think is wonderful: She says, “It never occurs to me that there are things I can’t do.” Build your resources, embrace Marie’s idea, and you won’t have any trouble talking with prospective clients.

What’s a VA Anyway?

Question: I’m not a new administrative assistant, but I am a new OfficePRO reader. Not having heard the term before, I don’t really understand what a “VA” is or does. Can you give me a quick overview?

Answer: Virtual assistance is a fairly new part of the administrative profession. The professionals are called virtual assistants, or VAs. VAs are micro business owners who provide administrative and possibly personal support while working in long-term collaborative relationships with only a handful of clients. Using phone, fax, and e-mail, as well as other emerging technologies, VAs support their clients’ needs across the board, without having to ever step foot inside the clients’ offices.

It’s a fabulous way of working and opens new doors for administrative professionals. Want to know more? Send me a note, and I’ll send you my article, “The Top 10 Things to Know about Being a Professional Virtual Assistant.”

Stacy Brice is a naturally recognized expert on “virtual assistance” and president of AssistU, an organization that trains and coaches virtual assistants. Reach her at stacy@assistu.com.