Great point… and that’s a mindshift I’ve been making the past month or so. Before I looked at VA’s as a way to get tasks done… but now I’m coming to the realization that a good VA is just like you said… a “right hand man (or woman)”.

Thanks Donna!

– Trevor

Glad you’ve found the joy of working with a competent Virtual Assistant (VA)!

Regarding your comments to Stacy: Stacy is the owner of the best VA training program on the planet; Stacy owns AssistU. Stacy also blogs at Virtual Moxie, of which I’m an avid reader (I love her moxie).

Trevor, if you have a competent VA, you don’t need to have more than one. A relationship oriented VA is your right hand woman, and if you need something done that your VA doesn’t do or you’re giving her more work than she can handle, your VA goes to her rolodex and finds someone to handle the work she doesn’t do or someone to handle the overflow of what you give her to do. Because your VA is your trusted partner, she takes on the role of project manager and keeps an eye on those folks who are handling your overflow and the work she herself doesn’t do. In this way, you’re not managing more than one person.

The VA industry doesn’t recommend finding a VA at the freelance websites. The VAs on those sites work for virtual peanuts, and frequently the quality of their work reflects that. In addition, these VAs are task oriented, which means that you wouldn’t use one of them as your right hand woman. They just want to do tasks as quickly as possible and move on to the next task. Task oriented VAs make their money by quantity of tasks completed so the faster they can do the work, the more money they make. Unlike a relationship VA, task VA don’t take an interest in your business and don’t suggest ways to make your business operate more efficiently or talk to you about new marketing ideas, etc.

If you ever lose your VA, I strongly recommend you go to the AssistU web site to find a new VA. AssistU maintains an RFP (request for proposal) system that helps webpreneurs find qualified VAs.

=>Donna Caissie, Owner & Virtual Assistant
ExtraOrdinary Assistance
dcaissie@extra-assist.com

There are other sources out there to find a GREAT VA. While places like e-lance, guru, etc. are great places to get competitive bids, it’s difficult to forge an ongoing relationship with a VA using those sites. Submitting requests to sites to Virtual Assistant association sites should be considered. Submitting requests to associations such as the International Virtual Assistant Association http://www.ivaa.org or the Virtual Assistant Networking Association http://www.vanetworking.com will give you access to Virtual Assistants who are business owners like you and have made a commitment to their businesses – not just someone who’s looking to make a quick buck on the side.

Thanks for chiming in!

You know what… I totally agree. If someone simply uses a virtual assistant for “tasks”… then basically the entrepreneur is still not free from the “minutia” of their business… rather than doing the tasks they are just “managing” the tasks and the VA (which isn’t a good thing).

Having the VA become a part of the business is very important rather than just an “outsourcer”… I totally agree w/ you.

Really, there is space for both types of virtual assistant relationships. One virtual assistant can’t do ALL of the work that I don’t like to do… so ideally you would have one main virtual assistant who is your right hand… and several others who specialize in specific tasks who are more task/project oriented. Then the main VA and the entrepreneur can be freed up to really pump out some rockin’ business.

Hey thanks again!

What kind of VA work do you do?

Chat soon,

- Trevor

People should only do what they do best, *and* love to do. Everything else should be delegated. And to get the most from that, it really makes the most sense to not try to outsource tasks, but look for a Virtual Assistant who can become your right hand person. There’s so much more power in the relationship with an assistant like that than there will ever be with a task-based inexpensive outsourcer