You want to be as predictable as the sun rising in the east and setting in the west. Let your clients get surprises another way. From you, more than anything, they want, need, and crave consistency.
Instead of delighting, celebrate. When you celebrate with your client, it is a bonding experience. It shows how far they’ve come, and how far you’ve come together. It reminds the client of their wins and how you saw them through a challenge. You’d be surprised that some of your clients’ most important goals and successes go unnoticed by their loved ones, family, and friends. Often it’s because these things aren’t shared with those people in great detail. They don’t understand all the hard work that went into launching a product, creating a new course, deciding how to go through a rebrand. Your client shares them with you, so share the celebration too.
You should always be thinking about the small steps you can take to provide a better experience for your clients. This includes gifting which we’ll discuss in the next chapter.
Why “Done” is the Most Powerful Word in Your Vocabulary
No other word feels quite as good to say as “done.” In Janet Choi’s article “The Art of the Done List: Harnessing the Power of Progress,” she explains why and how we should track the things we have done throughout the day. It serves as both a progress report and a motivational tool.
In a world of never-ending to-do lists, it’s key to know what you’ve done and, more importantly, that what you have done matters. It’s a great way to finish the day. You also should be using “done” as often as possible with your clients. As a virtual assistant, your job is not only to do the work but also to let the client know when it’s completed. Don’t diminish the win with long status checks and completion reports. No matter how you communicate with your client, no word in your vocabulary will have the same effect as “done.”
Imagine yourself as your client. You’ve got meetings, you have ideas swirling around in your head, you have personal commitments, you have a ton of things you want and need to do. You have so much going on that it doesn’t occur to you to stop and take a breath. At 100 miles an hour, you’re in the zone. What could possibly stop you in your tracks, positively? To receive a message which simply says, “Done.”
Merriam-Webster defines “done” as “arrived at or brought to an end.” Reading or hearing that word stops people in their tracks. Why? Because being done means something is final. How many things in life and business are final?
The dictionary also defines “done” as physically exhausted. This is the reason hearing “done” lifts the weight. Business owners carry a weight with them even when something is delegated because as the leader, they are ultimately responsible for what does and doesn’t get done. As soon as you let your client know that something is done, she can drop that weight. I have yet to meet someone who doesn’t want to drop weight physically or metaphorically.
So where are we going wrong as virtual assistants? Our problems are oversharing, not being concise, sending too much information, and not allowing the business owner to celebrate what has been accomplished. What does this look like? It’s the email that says what you completed and then lists what you are working on next. It’s the text that says the work is finished and then asks several follow-up questions. It’s the phone call where you tell your client what you did today and then quickly move on to next week’s schedule.
While trying to use the time with your client wisely, you have just done the opposite. You haven’t lifted the weight or the burden. On the contrary, you’ve added a fresh load without letting them take anything off.
What is the solution? Simply say, type, text, email “Done” and walk away. You’ll be tempted to possibly add “congratulations” or “talk soon” or some other form of conversation. Don’t! Let the power of done sink in and marinate. Plan to get your questions, next steps, or follow-up later. In the moment, all your client needs is the space to drop the weight and feel good that something is done. They no longer have to think about it, hold it in the back of their minds, or ask you for an update. Using “done” wisely will make you more valuable than you can imagine.
Summary
Managing Yourself
Managing yourself is a crucial component of being a business owner. The most important rule of managing yourself is setting boundaries with yourself and the client.
Loving what you do doesn’t make you immune from burnout, and you can even become addicted to your work. Watch for signs before it happens and make sure you are taking time off regularly to disconnect.
Even with regular disconnect days, you can still get into a “funk.” Know how to reset yourself and what centers you again. Being in a funk usually means you have gotten away from yourself.
Managing the Client
Educating your clients is an essential component of your business. Make sure you know how to do so effectively.
There is a difference between people-pleasing and people-serving. We are in the people-serving business. You’ll never be able to manage the client if you’re only focused on pleasing them.
You can’t manage something without knowing what end result is desired. Know how the end result should be achieved and deliver the experience the client desires.
Never underestimate the power of “done.” Lift the client’s burden and give them the room to breathe with a single word.
You can’t manage clients if you can’t manage yourself. The better you know yourself, the better you’ll be able to serve your clients. These are crucial elements of your business and too often they get pushed under the rug because we get so focused on the day’s work. Don’t allow yourself to fall into that trap. Your business does not consist only of work and neither does your client’s.
Once you are managing yourself and the client successfully, you now can begin to grow your business. Growing can be painful if you don’t do it in the right order and in the right way. In fact, it’s during growth where most VAs find they need to quit and start over again because they never learned to manage their business. Since you are going to grow the right way, we can concentrate on your growth drivers and how and when to spend money.
CHAPTER 7
Step 7: Growing Your Business
Don’t wish for overnight success. Your business cannot support it anyway.
“Beautiful things are hard of attainment.”—Plato
Are You Priming Your Business for Success?
Running a business takes a lot of work. You work at it in order to achieve the level of success you desire, to meet the goals you’ve laid out, and to reach your dreams. However, the final piece is making sure you’re in a place to receive. Have you thought about how you’ve primed your business for success?
When I think of primer, I think of painting. Applying a primer is one of the most important steps you can take before actually putting new color on the wall. Often it’s the difference between having a flawless paint job and something that simply looks okay. It can be time consuming to prime the walls for paint, but the results cannot be ignored. Priming prepares the surface to receive the paint, the true color.
While in Barcelona, I was shopping for new lipstick. The makeup artist and I spoke at length about what kind I wear. I rattled off a list of all the reasons I can’t wear the lipstick colors I did when I was younger. She patiently listened as I ran through the very long list. When I was finished, she didn’t show me the latest or greatest products. Nor did she dismiss what I had told her. Instead, she asked a simple question, “You aren’t using a primer, are you?” My puzzled response was, “No.” To which she smiled and told me how a primer would fix all the issues I was having.
We walked over to the chair. She primed my lips and then put on this amazing red color that I never thought I would be able to wear again. She was right—the color was the same on me as it was in the tube. Flawless. And it remained the same throughout the entire day.
I remember walking out of the store, feeling amazing,
even young again. I wondered how I could have gone so many years without knowing about primer for my lips. What else should I be priming? Why didn’t I think of this before?
Well, the second question is much easier to answer. It’s because I didn’t think I needed it. Over the years, things have changed and I simply chalked it up to age. Instead of looking for a solution to my lipstick problems, I went the route of adapting and changing. That’s what we’re supposed to do, right? There was a problem with that answer though. The makeup artist was at least 15 years younger than I am, and she was using the same primer.
Again, a primer is used to prepare something to receive. Not simply receive but receive true, flawless results. I began thinking of my business. It makes sense to prime it. Priming isn’t the same as laying the foundation. That’s already been done. I’m priming my business to receive what I will get from achieving success. Priming will complement my core business principles (foundation) to receive the true results I desire.
I challenge you to think about the difference between getting and receiving. Getting things usually comes with a set of challenges and obstacles. It’s called work for a reason. Receiving is not like work at all. When we receive, it is as if we are being gifted.
In this section, we’re going to discuss the ways you can easily prime your business for not simply growth but being primed for success. Many of us are relentless and tenacious. We hit the goals we set for ourselves. However, we’re not always as good at preparing to receive what we achieve from success. Since we know nothing is going to come between us and our business goals, preparing to receive seems like an unnecessary step. Failure is not an option.
Receiving the gifts of your business is important because if you keep giving and never receive, you’ll get what you want and be miserable. I see it all the time. The VA with a thriving business, and they are walking away from it because they built, grew, and generated income for a company they built. They got everything they wanted and received nothing. No joy. No excitement. No plans to even have time for themselves. This isn’t the business I want for you, and I know you don’t want this either.
Start with being brutally honest with yourself. When you began your business, you might have struggled with the workload and the workflow. Unless you have mastered this now, you are not ready to grow. Instead you will implode and your clients will be the casualties along the way. This is bad for the client, your reputation, your business, your wallet, and the VA profession.
Growing your business should be about you. Your needs. Your family’s needs. However, when someone is paying you to meet those needs, it’s no longer just about you. It’s also about your client, their family, their reputation, their business, and their wallet too. I can’t stress enough that every decision you make should be a win-win for you and your clients. If your business growth only helps you, your client is losing.
The first step to growing is actually scaling back, planning for the unexpected growing pains. We all have them, and while you can’t know what they will be, you can buffer some time for it. You do this by planning your workload and scheduling for your worst day, not your best.
I suffer from migraines. I take medicine, but it doesn’t always work. If I had deadlines to meet every single day, I would be in big trouble. If I didn’t schedule time for breaks, I wouldn’t be able to work at a slower pace. If I worked on an hourly fee basis, I couldn’t afford to take a day off and make it up later. Certainly traveling the world would be out of the question.
If you have every minute of your workday planned out without breaks and buffered time, you will run into problems. If you are scheduling yourself to work 40 hours a week now, how can you grow? Is your goal to work 60 or 80 hours? If so, you’re well on your way. I recommend setting a 30-hour-a-week schedule for your client load. If you’re not a general or executive VA and you’re more project-based, I recommend scheduling Fridays off, either for pleasure or as a growth day.
I must be fully transparent and let you know I work a lot. I love my work. (Remember I’m trying not to be addicted to it.) However, my work is growing my business. The time I spend on client work is far less than I spend on growing my business, launching products, being coached, and writing. If I worked more than 30 hours a week on clients, I wouldn’t have time for myself. Often client work is only 20 hours a week.
Also, no one is better at scheduling time off than me. When I look at my calendar and see what I’m doing and what’s in the pipeline, I’m honest with myself about how much I’ll be working. I take into consideration the stress factors as well. Not all work is equal. In doing so, I know how to plan my time off accordingly.
At the beginning of 2017, I was going strong. I worked a lot to launch my virtual summit and then to be ready to launch my online pilot course. Still, in March, only a few weeks out from the summit, I took three days off and completely disconnected. When it seemed like I didn’t have the time to rest is when I needed it the most. I was glad I did.
In late May, after the summit ended, business was booming and I had factored in all the follow-ups and work to be done. Then I went on a planned vacation for a full 11 days. This gave me enough time to field all the emails and calls from the summit, manage my clients, get the online class started, and then let everyone know I would be on vacation. It was seamless.
In July, I completed the online class and vacationed with my family in Berlin. In August, my work was completed. I had VAs working for me to begin new projects, and I started working with a marketing and branding strategist. I worked less than 20 hours a week during August on both my business and client work.
In September, I took a week off to travel to Israel and then a few days at the end of the month I took time off to visit Dubai. In November, I took several days off to visit Hong Kong. During these times away from work, I was earning exactly what I do while I’m working a non-vacation schedule. These last three trips were in the middle of writing and editing this book. I couldn’t pass up the opportunities to travel.
Each time I take on a new client or project, I have to consider my time and my value. I also immediately determine when my next time off will be. For 2017, launching two products for the first time and writing my second book—all in one year—I knew there was going to be a lot of long, stressful days. Instead of doing this from my home in the middle of the country, I chose to do it while traveling to 16 countries. I run the same business regardless of where I am. However, traveling reminds me to do things my way, allows me to stay far away from burnout, and is exciting to talk about with clients.
All Answers Come from Questions
Business relationships are not that different from personal relationships. You and your closest friends probably speak a language all your own. You might be able to finish one another’s sentences and have inside jokes no one else understands. To get to this place in a business relationship can seem challenging, especially when you grow or are leveling up. This is new territory.
As Jeffrey Shaw (who I previously mentioned in chapter 5) said, he had to trust his instincts because “you don’t know what you don’t know.” He didn’t know the simple act of not using tape when wrapping gifts for his ideal clients was going to be the catalyst that changed everything in his business, but he trusted his instincts. The only thing he knew was Bergdorf Goodman didn’t use it and his family used a lot of it.
He knew he was entering into a luxury market and he didn’t know anything about being rich. In desperation, he was forced to seek out answers to questions he didn’t have. Even if you are not desperate, taking on new clients, or have a full client load, it’s your duty to grow mentally and to expand on your current way of thinking. If you don’t, you run the risk of becoming complacent. Additionally, your work can become outdated and clients will not be served. While you search for answers without knowing the questions, there are questions you should be asking yourself each month to prompt curiosity.
Ask yourself these seven questions eve
ry month:
What did I commit to?
If you’re not committing to anything, then why are you in business? You need to make commitments to yourself and your business. This could be to expand your referral network, make two more client calls a day, secure one more client a month, etc. Successful VAs don’t wait for business to come— they create, develop, and expand. Don’t want to expand? Take a class, learn a skill. Think about the idea of being able to raise your rates and do less while providing more.
What did I actually do?
We can’t let ourselves become our best clients. If you don’t have enough time in the day, why? Are you overcommitted? Not motivated enough? Burned out? Examine the work you’re doing, the clients you have, and your prices to see where you can improve. Don’t forget your answer might be hiring a VA. If you don’t believe in the investment of a virtual assistant, then why should someone hire you?
What worked?
VAs need to constantly test what is working and what isn’t. Did you find calling clients gave you a better response rate than emailing? Were your infographics more engaging than your written content? Are you testing content on your website, blog, and social media channels to find out where your clients are coming from? Don’t guess. Test and analyze.
What didn’t work?
If something didn’t work, do another test or try A/B testing to determine if it’s not the right content or platform. Only when you have found what works can you stop testing. Lack of engagement or failure doesn’t prove your theory. Only success can do that. Remember to fail fast and forget about your undead ideas.
Become A Successful Virtual Assistant Page 14