5 reasons we may not be the right Virtual Assistants for you
Let’s start with the obvious here. It might appear counterintuitive to list the reasons we may not be a good fit for you and your business, but here at Joanne Manville Virtual Assistance, we value honesty and integrity, so why not lay our cards on the table?
Hiring a Virtual Assistant is one thing, but to really get the best from your working relationship, as well as gain positive results, both parties need to be upfront about their expectations and boundaries.
Hiring a VA is an investment, but only so if the working relationship is sound. The whole point of working with a VA is to allow you to free up time to focus on tasks of strategic importance to your business, giving you peace of mind that the necessary background tasks are being taken care of. But it’s all about being right for one another!
So with that in mind, here are 5 reasons we may not be right for you.
You are looking for ad-hoc support
We support our clients best when we can really get under the skin of their business, rather than just scratching the surface. In order to do this we need to dedicate time and headspace to you as a client, getting to know you and the inner workings of your operations. It’s important for your VA to understand your core values and objectives, as this will allow her/him to deliver a higher standard of work. .
This is why we only offer retainers, and our retainers begin at ten hours a month – an amount of time we feel is necessary to be effective and make a difference to your business.
VAs dedicate their time and energy to your business, but in order to make an impact, they need the time. We take on clients for a minimum of ten hours per month for a reason – any less and it’s really hard for us to make a difference – and making a difference is what we are all about. We want to get to know you and your business, come up with ideas, innovations and efficiencies for you, but it is almost impossible to do this if you’re not able to allocate a budget for the support. Read More…
So if you’re looking for ad hoc support, I’m afraid we’re not the right team for you.
You can’t dedicate time to work with your Virtual Assistant
All busy business owners will benefit from the support of a Virtual Assistant, but only if each party respects the other’s time.
Of course you are busy, we are too, and that in itself is a good enough reason to make sure you allocate time to your relationship with your VA and ensure the hours you’ve paid for are being filled.
If you are too busy to pass tasks over in a reasonable timeframe, we’re not here to keep chasing you up. It’s a drain on our time as well as yours, and I’m not going to lie, we find it soul destroying!
We work with proactive, growing, ambitious businesses who want us to help them achieve their goals.
Obviously, you need to delegate if you’re finding yourself unbearably busy but working with a VA will require you to prioritise time in your schedule to communicate with them. You’ll need to explain what you need and if you don’t have time to delegate or communicate, you simply won’t get the results you’re looking for. This could result in lost hours you’ve not used, delays in projects, tasks not completed exactly how you want them etc. Read More…
So if you’re too busy to dedicate time to your working relationship with a VA, we’re not the right team for you.
You want a Virtual Assistant who is a do-er but not a thinker
The JMVA team is proactive. Each team member has an impressive skill set and specific expertise and experience. This makes us unique in that we will always be looking to contribute more to your growing business.
The team are focussed, driven, and creative – and they all love problem solving. We will actively make suggestions for improvements in efficiency or quality and put forward ideas to help bolster your business. Yes we’re do-ers, we love getting things done, but we’re not ‘just’ do-ers.
So if you’re looking for a team to simply ‘do as they’re told’ without thinking about it, that’s just not us!
You can read more on things you may not know about working with a VA here
You are looking for a free trial
We occasionally (albeit rarely) get asked if we’ll do a ‘trial’ project for free to prove our expertise and this is a major red flag.
We have a wealth of testimonials from long-standing clients, a team portfolio where you can check out our skills and experience, a blog brimming with insight – that’s all proof we’re a great team who get great results.
We don’t do free trials. Would you ask a plumber to come over and give you a demonstration of their abilities before hiring them to fix your tap? No, you’d likely hire based on referrals and testimonials.
Our work speaks for itself and we can point you in the direction of examples if you’d like to see them, but our social proof should be more than enough for you to see whether you’d love to work with us.
So if you’re looking for a freebie before committing, we’re definitely not the right team for you.
We genuinely have your business’s best interests at heart, it’s in our best interests too. Don’t just take my word for it, have a look at what our wonderful clients have said about what we offer here
You have been told to hire a Virtual Assistant but you don’t really know why
Do you already know what you need from a Virtual Assistant and in which areas you need support?
Setting clear and reasonable expectations is part and parcel of any professional working relationship. We’re clear about what we can and will deliver, and you need to be clear about your expectations from the start.
Each member of the team has multiple clients and so to ensure she/he is giving them the best service, expectations and boundaries need to be established and adhered to.
Micro-managing, last minute ‘urgent’ requests, out of hours demands, and a general disregard for your VA’s valuable time and expertise do not fit with our values at Joanne Manville Virtual Assistance.
If you need a VA but are unsure if you’re ready, you can read more about things to consider before hiring a VA here.
We recommend you take our quiz to find out what type of support you need to help you to create the business you want and download our ’30 ways to use a VA’ guide here.
If you feel that we have the same values as you do, and you are ready to hire a Virtual Assistant, then we would love to hear from you. Do get in touch and let’s see how we can help.