When I tell people I am a Virtual Assistant, they usually say one of two things… “what’s a Virtual Assistant?” is the most common one, but once I’ve explained that I support multiple businesses online, helping my clients with their email marketing, websites and social media, the next thing I usually hear is “you must be really organised.”
Gulp.
Really organised is not a way that I would describe myself at all. I mean I can be organised, at times, but I also really like going with the flow and seeing what will happen. I always think that people will imagine that I’m sort of Monica Gellar style organiser, with binders of plans and strategies, laminated holiday instructions and multiple filing systems.
That is not me. Not in the slightest. I’m the woman who buys Beyonce tickets for Glasgow and then travels from Birmingham to Glasgow leaving everyone’s tickets on the dining room table. I’m the woman who went on holiday using my sister’s passport because I didn’t realise that mine had expired until the day before I was supposed to leave. I make plans in the moment and forget all about them the next day. I can barely even plan what I am going to have for dinner each night!
So what the hell am I doing being a virtual assistant? It’s a question that I ask myself sometimes, when those imposter feelings come to visit and I’m having a pity party for one.
I’m a great listener. When my clients come to me with an issue they are having, or a problem that needs resolving I listen deeply to what they are telling me, paying attention to subtext, looking for clues for a deeper meaning.
Leila is fun to work with, enthusiastic, genuinely cares about my business and understands me so well. As a Solopreneur it is so great to have Leila to take off some of the load and also bounce new ideas off, I would definitely recommend working with her, she’s brilliant!
I ask questions to get to the root of what my client needs. For example, one of my clients came to me and she said, “I’m looking to grow my Instagram following, I want 1000 followers”. So I asked her, “Is more followers really the goal you are looking for or is it more clients?” Because these two aims could mean different strategies. You could quite easily increase your follower numbers but are those people going to purchase from your business?
I’m awesome at dealing with people. All of my favourite bosses have been demanding women who know what they want, so it’s no surprise that in my VA business, I specialise in supporting high-level women entrepreneurs.
I’m often the first hire for my clients, so they have been used to doing everything themselves and having 100% control at all times, so it can be really hard for them to let go and trust someone else to help them. I alleviate their fears by slowly integrating myself into their business, reassuring them with the quality of my work and building that all important trust so that they know they can rely on me.
I love to collaborate with incredible people and I bring more to the table than just admin support. I’m a creative person, so when I get stuck into to a business, I can’t help but have my own ideas that I share with my client.
If I can see a way to improve a process I’m gonna let them know, but also if I notice a client has a particularly strong freebie or video, I will share my ideas on how we could promote it, giving my clients the opportunity to take it further or to leave it as they like.
I’m a jack of all trades and I know a lot of masters! I love learning new skills and I have a wide range of services that I help my clients with. Sometimes though, they need help that is beyond my current knowledge, so I have a great network of experts to ask for help or to direct my clients too.
I can not recommend Leila highly enough!
Always positive and optimistic, she’s a real pleasure to work with and always delivers and executes the task at hand to the very best of her ability. Having Leila on board has enabled me to free up my time to focus on my creative priorities in my work, and I can relax in the knowledge that the other tasks are in safe hands.
She’s also great at managing all the various elements of the business (including myself!) so that it can continue to grow and evolve at a steady, consistent rate.
So with all my skills, I know, deep down, that I’m a great VA and I also know that my creative personality and laissez faire attitude to organisation means I have a lot in common with my clients. To make things easier for both of us, I use a project management system called Asana. My clients and I will set up templates for things that we’ll do regularly, assign tasks and deadlines to each other and it helps us stay in contact with each other, even if we are different countries.
And so this in turn helps to improve my clients productivity because they are no longer overwhelmed by having to do all the things themselves.
Comment below and share any misconceptions people may have about you because of the work you do and why they don’t really matter!
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