Virtual Assistance

Been a very busy few days for me. I’m looking at a few Virtual Assistants to do some subcontracting on projects that I’d like to charge less for, so I need to find someone to do it for less. What I’m noticing though, is that it is somewhat difficult to find someone that I don’t have to really double check all of their work. Don’t get me wrong, as much as I’d like 100% accuracy, this is probably not going to happen. But I’m noticing what should take someone 5-10 hours depending on their rate of speed, is taking 17-30 hours. In the long run this doesn’t really help me out, I could do it in the 5 hours, charge my normal rates, and still be ahead of the game.

If you’re a VA and perusing this blog from a link from VANA or some such, take heart. Are you being fair to your client? Are you giving your best effort, or “eh, it’s enough” effort?

If you’ve perhaps looked at Virtual Assistants and weren’t wowed – keep in mind, in some ways it’s just like hiring an assistant, there are some you gel with better. If you’re not happy and the issue has been addressed, keep looking. We can do so much to get your organization back and your administration flowing better off site.

Ask for referrals from happy companies, but ask about a situation where a client wasn’t happy with the work – listen to the answer. (And “oh all my customers are always happy with me” may or may not be true, but ask for at least a frustrating experience to see what the issue was at what you may have to look at going forward.” )

Why

As I’ve mentioned before I have a young child. I can’t quite tell if I hear “NO!” or “Why?” more in any given day. The easy answer is “Yes, and do it now”; or “Because I said so”, but I know that for my child to understand I need to address the question, and then point her in the direction of productivity; which puts me back into a productive mode. But I don’t want just busy work, I want to be productive – whether itis marketing my own business, or doing work for one of my clients.

I came across this article that talks about the Power of Why, and consequently why – whys are important to us. (Say that four times fast) Some interesting things are covered in marketing and why we do what we do, actually the whole site is fairly interesting – take a minute or two to check it out.

http://www.psychotactics.com/artpowerofwhy.htm

Now onto a humor break if you are a mom, or if you’ve had a mom you may very well enjoy this:

http://youtube.com/watch?v=VlY8STkhopc

Recruiting Thoughts

One of the hats I wear is recruiting. Mostly, I recruit for a Furniture Licensor–they have opportunities nationwide for people who want to buy their own dealership.

One of the things I’m surprised by is how passionate people are – they either absolutely want to own their own business, either right now, or a perhaps little down the road; or they absolutely don’t want to own their own business.

A comment I hear over and over again is “well, I’d rather it be someone else’s money to see if it works, and then if it is I may be interested in buying, but I’m not going to put my savings into it until I know for sure. ” I think this may be a useful question asked even of people that are applying for work in a regular company. Are they a go-getter who trusts their judgment; or is it someone who just wants to get by.

Now, I understand that not everyone wants to own their own business, and there’s a lot of good reasons to not want to, and many good reasons to work for someone else. But as employers do you create an environment where the employee can own something? Or do you want people to just do the work and not be passionate about it?

I always look for that person that is passionate about something. Younger employees may need to be taught how to harness that passion while at work, but it’s terribly sad to see the experienced employee who has no passion left in their eyes.

If you’re a small business starting out…do you remember why and what your dreams were with starting your own business?

Don’t forget we can’t all do it on our own, there are many qualified VA’s that can help. If you need help with recruiting or other Human Resources headaches functions, let us know and we can provide you simple, easy and effective answers for your growing business and your employee capital.

And by the way, if you’re reading this and want some information on the furniture dealership opportunities, send an email to info@totalresourceconnection.com