The DL on VAs

Yeah, me too. Any VAs out there who know the legal industry? Are there any who do dictation? Also, if I use an out of state VA, how does that work when doing legal work for the state of Washington.

My VA has really helped me to grow my business, just having one more set of hands and eyes to help with everything makes a huge difference! And when a problem gets messy or time-consuming it feels so great to be able to hand it off to someone else.

I think there are some misconceptions out there about VAs, my VA is actually in my city though we rarely meet face-to-face. They don't have to be in India! Also websites that offer "VA Services" are usually more expensive than normal assistants. You can find many people who will work for a fair administrative rate, you don't have to pay $40/hour.

Laura, thank you for touching on the fact that a good VA does not have to be in India. So much of our work is outsourced oversees.

I am a virtual assistant and am looking to grow my client base. I look forward to the opportunity to speak with anyone that should have any questions about this industry.

Thank you Jennifer for getting this discussion going.

It's true. A good, qualified, knowledgeable virtual assistant can help you out immensely. How much they charge usually depends on how much experience they have and what exactly they have experience in. Keep in mind that VAs are paying their own overhead, taxes and health insurance just like other solo entrepreneurs. Many VAs have a lower rate for just administrative tasks and a higher rate for graphic design or website work.

The VA-Client relationship works best when there is clear communication and a true ability to be able to delegate.

Working with a VA is an investment in your business. If you hire a VA for 10 hours a month (2 1/2 hrs a week) to do some of your miscellaneous administrative or other business tasks can actually give you much more time and freedom to work on other income generating activities. I just read a great blog post over at http://ittybiz.com where she suggested hiring a VA for 4-5 hours a month just to "rock the (crap) out" of your Twitter or Facebook accounts as an affordable small biz marketing tactic.

My tips for choosing is a good VA is to take a look at what tasks you think you'd like to delegate or what tasks do you think might be better handled by an admin profressional. Check out some of the forums frequented by VAs as many of them also allow you to post an RFP. Be clear in what qualifications and tasks you want done. Interview them. Talk with them one the phone. Ask how long they've been in business. Are they full time or part time with their VA business? What are their qualifications and professional experience? What are their business processes? Ask them who their ideal client is.

Hi there,

Hope you don't mind me chiming in! I'm a virtual marketing assistant, and although I may be a bit biased, I agree that a virtual assistant can do wonders for your business. :)

I always recommend that people make a list of the things they do everyday. Then I tell them to divide that list into the things they personally need to do, and the things somebody else can do. Depending on the difficulty of those tasks, they can then decide what level of VA they need.

I have a background in marketing, so although I do date entry and other admin tasks, I also help with marketing tasks.

I think the most important thing is to find a VA you trust, and one you can communicate with clearly. Kimberly, I agree that communication is so important. It's also important that you find a VA who can say, "I'm confused, let me make sure I understand what you need."

Most VA's will offer a free consultation, and I'd recommend taking advantage of that to see if you're compatible.

And once you're comfortable, start with a small project so you can see if you like their work.

I have found people are hesistant about using a VA because they think it's easier to just do it themselves, but it's not! Although it may take you a few minutes to explain, it will save you hours in the long run. There can be a small learning curve, but with good communication, using a VA should be a great experience that saves you time (and aggravation)!

Darol- There are definitely VA's who special in legal services.. they are sometimes called Virtual Legal Assistants.

Ok, let's bump this up a little and hear from others as mostly VAs have posted on this topic so far. I'd really like to hear more from others who have worked with a VA or have considered working with a VA.

If you've just been considering it, what are some of the reason why you have not moved forward with it? What would your ideal VA look like or be able to do?

Kimberly- a main reason I that most of my work is harder to do through a VA is that it is time critical, niche critical, and technically critical.

It also changes itself every 30 days. Unlike most other professions the social media and online promotion industry is revolutionizing itself on a weekly basis.

That creates a lot of inconsistency and learning curve, which requires 5-10 hours a week in education to perform. That pretty much means that a VA becomes a full-time addition to the team when you have to have them constantly educating themselves on little changes that "don't seem so big"

Thanks for your comments, Barry.

It sounds like in your case, I can see where a VA might not be such a helpful addition. You've provided an insightful perspective.

So much of getting what you need from Virtual Assistance depends on what you need done and the experience and service level of the Virtual Assistant. And as much as the needs of clients can vary, so can the skills, services and qualifications of the VA. I think this is what contributes to some of the confusion about what "Virtual Assistance" really is and can be.

We've worked with a few different VA companies in India and Israel and have been very disappointed with all of them. The communication and understanding just isn't there and in the end it's not much cheaper than finding someone in the states, especially considering it might take them twice as long or multiple iterations with you to get it right. There were many occasions where we gave simple directions to the overseas VAs and they came back with results that just baffled us - "how did they interpret our request to mean this??" In the end we found a couple of part-time folks on craigslist that have worked out wonderfully for us.