It’s Not Your VA’s Fault

Just last week I had two, almost identical, conversations with two clients.  But the worrying thing is this isn’t the first time I’ve had these conversations; in fact it’s cropped up quite a bit over the past couple of years. And it goes something like this:

I’m frustrated with my VA (Virtual Assistant). She’s missing things.

Or

I’m on my third VA this year.  I can’t find someone who knows what to do.

Or

My VA takes two / three / four days to get back to me when I need her to respond to me sooner.

Whenever I hear a client say this it raises a red flag for me because, very often, it’s not the VA who’s at fault … it’s the client.  So I dig a little deeper and start to ask a few questions, such as “give me an example of what’s going wrong”; or “what kind of things does she miss”? And usually what I find is that:

• The VA is doing a great job; she’s doing exactly what the client asks her to do (no problem there!).
• It’s the client who doesn’t know what to do. They don’t understand the strategy behind their business so they can’t give specific instructions to their VA on what to do; instead they believe that the VA should know what to do without the client having to tell them.
• The client doesn’t have a plan or doesn’t share the plan with the VA. So their VA is constantly operating in reactive mode and the client is operating in “constant crisis” mode (which is why they get frustrated when their VA doesn’t reply to them immediately).

A Virtual Assistant’s role is to provide administrative support to the business owner; they’re not a strategist/consultant and their role is very much in a support capacity, not strategic capacity. Therefore it’s not their job to tell the client what to do, how to run their business, or when to send out promotions etc.  It’s the client’s job to understand business strategies, create a strategic business plan, and share it with their VA so their VA can support the client and the business as fully as possible.

And this is where the problem lies!  There is a mismatch between what the client’s expectations are and what the VA’s role is.

As a client/business owner, it’s your responsibility to:

1. Understand the strategy behind everything you do in your business, i.e. hosting a telesummit, launching a new product, running an online coaching program – how does all this fit into your “Big Picture Vision”?
2. Create a strategic business plan that supports the “Big Picture Vision”.
3. Share your strategic business plan with your VA and other team members.