Your business is growing monthly and so are the tasks you need to do to keep up. Right about now you’re thinking “it’s time to get a virtual assistant to help me with this workload!”
But, are you really ready for a virtual assistant?
As a virtual assistant for a year and a half now I see a common theme with clients who eventually stop working with me. It’s not because I don’t do a great job (and not to be self-serving but I do a great job!) and about 99% of the time it’s not do to any personality conflicts (but those do eventually happen).
In most cases the client has failed to plan goals for what they expect from a virtual assistant.
Yes, setting goals is work, but what business task isn’t? Setting solid goals is so important to a profitable relationship with a virtual assistant that it should be something you do well before you even interview your first VA.
It’s not enough just to set goals and be done with it, either. I know, more work, but you really need to be tracking, testing and calculating a return on investment. You want hiring a virtual assistant to help you make more money, not cost you money in the long term.
Let’s put it into an example: Let’s say you’re paying a virtual assistant to submit your articles to various article directories. You need to know why you’re doing this. What’s your goal? What return will you get? How will you track that return? Don’t just submit articles because it’s the thing to do, make sure the time, effort and investment brings you a return that makes it worth continuing to do.
When you hire a virtual assistant you have to be responsible for making sure it’s profitable. The VA you hire doesn’t know your business well enough at the start to set your goals for you. A good VA will always be open to helping you get set up to properly test and track the tasks they are working on because they know it not only helps the client but also gives them a happy client who continues to need their services.
David saved the day when I had gotten myself in over my head with a client project I agreed to take on. I’ve actually gone to him more than once a little panicked about a project I thought I could handle and he’s been a huge help. David’s advice saved me from taking on another project I couldn’t manage. David’s technology skills and his services are an asset to any online business.
Last month I became a Teaching Sells Charter Member. I was intrigued with the concept because, at the time, I was becoming disillusioned with learning Internet Marketing. I didn’t want to learn psychological tricks or make money in a fly-by-night manner. I also saw that most high-priced Internet Marketing courses contain the same ideas, recycled with different promotional hype.
I work at a College and I’ve taught online and most of my ideas involve teaching people how to do the things I’ve mastered, so I In December, I signed up for as a Teaching Sells charter member. It seemed like a natural fit for me.
To tell the truth, I was a bit disappointed at first. There wasn’t a lot of content on the site and most of the content was stuff I already know: How to create membership sites using Aweber, how to create a course using Moodle, etc. Well, I guess I didn’t fully understand the “Charter Member” concept when I signed up, because I had walked in on the ground floor during the building stage and I didn’t have the imagination at the time to see what Tony and Brian are building. What Teaching Sells is building is huge. During the last month, I have been getting daily notifications of new content that have been added to the site, and this stuff is not hype.
Teaching Sells is about best practices for building small and large membership sites. Tony and Brian are taking their time and doing it right and I am learning so much. True to the name, Tony and Brian are teaching how to make money online, step-by-step, including which software to use, site themes, case studies, and even PLR content that I can use. But, do you want to know the best thing about joining as a charter member? I get to watch the pros actually DO IT without a net. I get to watch note their mistakes, and how they recover. The experience has been invaluable.
I’ll share some of what I learn here in the days to come, but I wanted to let you know that they are almost ready for launch and their prices are going up very soon (48 new members or end of the month–whichever comes first). I truly believe that Teaching Sells is something you will want to subscribe to for the long-term. I’m cancelling all my subscriptions and concentrating my full-focus on Teaching Sells Sign-up if you want to lock in your membership rate at an insanely affordable price.
Lin Stone noticed my site name (and tag line), “Virtually yours,” and wrote a treatise on signing off entitled, “Intermittently Yours.”
These days signatures have deteriorated so badly even our crudest sales letters simply get signed with: “Sincerely yours.” “Sincerely yours” is so trite and worn out that it needs to be abolished.
For what it’s worth, when I’m not signing emails “Virtually yours,” I prefer either “Best regards,” or “Kind regards,.”
I recently stumbled upon a great article titled Hourly vs. Fixed Pricing over at Freelance Switch. There is a pretty decent discussion of the topic in the article’s comments area. The comment that most closely matched my views was one by Mave Gibson (I charge hourly and bill bi-weekly). When I asked Mave for permission to reprint her comments about charging hourly rates here, she also sent me some comments about flat rate pricing that she had made on a private forum.
So I give you the best write ups I’ve seen for how to charge clients, whether by the hour or using flat rates, straight from Mave. Enjoy!
Charging hourly
I generally charge hourly and bill bi-weekly.
1] at the beginning of a project, I give the client an estimate of the hours (and therefore cost) to complete the project. they are made aware that I am charging hourly, so that anything above the estimated # of hours will be billed hourly.
2] during the course of the work, I regularly update them on where we are at in terms of hours, and what is left. I warn them if any delays or changes in scope are likely to affect the # of hours it takes. if they accept this change in cost, we move forward with the changes.
3] invoices are payable within 7 days of receipt. for new clients or slow payers, a deposit (based on a percentage of total # of estimated hours) is required before work can start.
In the rare cases when I do work fixed-rate (and that generally only happens for a] retainers and really large, long-term projects or b] clients who are working with a fixed budget), I always ask for some $ up front. even in the case of fixed-rate pricing, I am still billing based on hours spent. I’m just calculating beforehand how many hours it will take.
I have tried so many different billing methods over the years, and this one is by far the best balance between giving clients something to budget a project with, and giving me assurance that I will be paid for what I do. I am not a bank, willing/able to extend credit to clients for work being done, and that’s what it basically amounts to if I work now and get paid later.
This method also puts the responsibility for scope change squarely where it belongs: with the client. they are made aware, throughout the course of the project, exactly how each change in the plan will affect the price. over time, if the client is a regular, it means that a client learns to rein him/herself in, and it also means they develop a real sense of the value of my time and effort. clients become more efficient, waste less of my time, and have a greater respect for what exactly goes into what I do.
As for "the honesty model", I think that is a given when working for an hourly rate. we charge for what we did. rarely - rarely will that be less than what was estimated for (clients love to expand projects as they go along), but when it does happen, of course the client is charged for actual hours spent. and in reference to the hints about "time management" and "being forced to work efficiently", are we seriously sitting here implying that those who charge hourly are going to waste project time? I take exception to the idea that freelancers need to be "made honest" in terms of hours they charge for or how hard/fast they work. something about that really turns me off. we are professionals, not schoolchildren.
If anything, I think the opposite is far more common: giving clients a lot more than they paid for. I think most freelancers are too client-driven, and don’t think enough about protecting their own interests. we habitually under-bid and under-charge. we regularly put in more hours than we bill for, just so we can add that "extra touch" that will wow the client and make the project more portfolio-worthy. we are ridiculously accommodating, and bend over backwards to give the client whatever he/she wants, regardless of how tricky it is to plan, execute and bill for. if anything, we need to learn how to protect our interests and draw fair boundaries around how we work so that our bank accounts and schedules aren’t adversely impacted by the way we work.
As a designer, the hourly rate system isn’t suitable for all the work I do. When you are doing design work (and really - most types of contract work), you should generally also be charging for value and usage rights. The value gained and the rights purchased are of equal importance to hours worked when determining a fair price. People who are used to wage work (i.e. $x/hour) - most of the population - tend to think in terms of their hourly work when determining the value of contract work, and that is a huge mistake. There are publishing rights, usage rights, modification/alteration rights, sale of source files, etc. to take into consideration, and if you aren’t charging for those things, it’s your loss. A writer, illustrator or photographer is well familiar with these issues. Graphic designers need to get with the program too. These are legal issues as well as $ issues.
Because these costs are important, yet can’t easily be factored into an hourly rate, for most projects I bill flat rate with a tight cap on versions and revisions (usually 1 - 3), beyond which the client is billed at my hourly rate. I get half up front, and depending on the size/length of the project I will get further installments at various milestones, the final amount at the end of the project. With smaller projects it’s 50% up front, 50% at the end. The first installment is paid BEFORE any work is begun, and the final payment must be received before delivery of final work and transfer of legal usage rights. Invoices are generally net 7 or 14 at the most, and there’s a fee for late payment that accumulates over time if a payment is overdue.
The bottom line is, if you want to make a living as a contractor, you need to really cover your own ass and make sure that you have the proper systems in place for billing, contracts, usage rights, etc. to run your work as a profitable and reputable enterprise. There hasn’t been a client born who will (or should) look out for this stuff for you. Inform yourself about your rights and responsibilities, and bill/act accordingly.
I hope this info is helpful to others. I really recommend Graphic Artists Guild Handbook: Pricing & Ethical Guidelines http://www.gag.org/pegs/index.php for those in design-related fields. Also, most professional associations AIGA, GAG, etc will have helpful information on contracts, best practices and legal issues.
My experience with David has been great! He is fair, very knowledgeable, gives great advice and the quality of his work is excellent.
Because of David, our google page rank went from zero to 4/10 in no time at all.
I would highly recommend his services to anyone interested in promoting their online services and sales.
– Dr. Carol Osborne, DVM, Inventor of PAAWS pet supplements, as seen on TV
I met Dr. Carol on the CityDesk support forum where she was desperately seeking technical help. We’ve worked together for some time now. I built CarolOnPets.com using CityDesk and I am currently maintaining her WordPress blog and SendStudio mailing list. We are working together to explore every possibility for expanding and promoting her business on the internet.
I am very proud of the website that David designed for my new company. He is a very knowledgeable and efficient professional. He listened to me and knew exactly what I wanted. David used his innovative ideas along with the latest information on search engine optimization to design a website that has successfully marketed my business. I highly recommend David and the services he offers.
–Diane Beloat, High Plains Realty
I built three Real Estate websites for Diane. Each website had a different emphasis: One was a personal blog, one a buisiness website, and one a community website. All three websites were contained in the same CityDesk Content Management System desktop database. The websites shared the same information, but presented it in different ways, so that Diane could post an article once and have it appear in different places on three different websites. This was before duplicate content penalties and I would not take the same approach today. Today I recommend building WordPress Real Estate websites, like my experimental ClovisHomeTours.com.
Below are my top five themes of talent, ranked in the order revealed by my responses to the Clifton StrengthsFinder.
As you may know, the Clifton StrengthsFinder measures the 34 themes of talent determined by The Gallup Organization as those that most consistently predict outstanding performance. The greater the presence of a theme of talent within a person, the more likely that person is to spontaneously exhibit those talents in day-to-day behaviors.
Focusing on natural talents helps people build them into strengths and enjoy personal, academic, and career success through consistent, near-perfect performance.
I recently took a Kolbe A strengths assessment test. The Kolbe test is different. It does not test your personality or intelligence. It measures your conative skills or the way that you approach tasks. Only 5% of the population is likely to use the same approach as you.
Here’s my Kolbe A Index Strengths MO: 7-4-5-4
Fact Finder. Specify. Gathers and shares information: 7
Follow Thru. Maintain. Arranges and designs: 4
Quick Start. Modify. Deals with risk and uncertainty: 5
Implementator. Restore. Handles space and tangibles: 4
There is no good score. It is not better to be higher or lower on any level. The index measures where you stand on the scale of approaches. I think that it would be a good idea to seek out people with different strengths when building a team; however, you wouldn’t want the approaches to vary too widely. For example: It probably wouldn’t work out well to team me with someone with a Fact Finder of 1.
My results show that I am excellent at making comparisons, documenting information, and defining priorities. I can be counted on to research historical details and become an expert in areas of special interest. The middle scores show that I am good at working with people with different approaches from all across the spectrum.
That’s daemon; not demon. Daemon’s are fictional companions from the fictional world of The Golden Compass. Actually, that’s a bit simplistic. In that world, a person’s soul lives on the outside of their body in animal form. Here’s my daemon:
Hermonystra: David Burch’s Daemon
Your profile reveals that you are:
Modest, solitary, assertive, outgoing and spontaneous.
You are therefore matched with the Lion Daemon.
What’s yours? Find out by taking the personality test at http://www.goldencompassmovie.com/.
Certifications
The shopping cart software that runs Cartville (1Shoppingcart, Marketer’s Choice, Practice Pay Solutions, ...)
My experience with David has been great! He is fair, very knowledgeable, gives great advice and the quality of his work is excellent. 
I am very proud of the website that David designed for my new company. He is a very knowledgeable and efficient professional. He listened to me and knew exactly what I wanted. David used his innovative ideas along with the latest information on search engine optimization to design a website that has successfully marketed my business. I highly recommend David and the services he offers. 
