According to the author of Virtual Freedom, Chris Ducker, there are four basic rules to the virtual staff game:
- Your virtual employees are people—not programs. While you may interact via email most of the time, these employees should receive the same amount of consideration and respect as any in-house employee.
- You get out what you put in. The quality of your instructions is directly proportional to the quality of work submitted.
- One size does not fit all. Virtual assistants will only want to please you, but everybody has strengths and weaknesses. Making sure your VA is matched to the right tasks is beneficial for your both.
- There is no such thing as a “Super-VA”. You will never find a virtual assistant that can do everything you need assistance with. Chris believes that this “Super-VA” is one of the greatest myths of virtual staffing. Just as you need a specific sort of expert to fix your car, a mechanic cannot install plumbing into your home. The same goes for virtual assistants—no one person can do it all.
General Virtual Assistants
If you forgo Chris Ducker’s advice and are still looking for one VA to do it all, the General Virtual Assistant (GVA) is perhaps the closest relative of the Super-VA. “Your GVA is your sidekick,” says Chris. “Batman had Robin. Sherlock Holmes had Watson. Hardy had Laurel.” You have your GVA. Much like a Personal Assistant (PA), GVAs are paramount in freeing up your time. They can perform lower-level online work, research, maintain social media accounts and post updates, manage your calendar, deal with blog publishing schedules, and manage sales reports—anything short of picking up your dry cleaning! More importantly, they can also function as a project manager of sorts—communicating with all other virtual team members. A great GVA is truly invaluable and holds a crucial role in your virtual staff.
Chris Ducker presented the Virtual Freedom webinar. It will prepare you to work with virtual staff, buy more time and be more productive in order to build your dream business. This webinar is now available in the on-demand learning library. Read more about Chris Ducker. Purchase a copy of Virtual Freedom, here.
This article was authored by Elizabeth Rowe. Elizabeth graduated with a Bachelor of Arts (English Literature) at the ANU and a Masters of Media Practice at the University of Sydney. She is currently completing an internship with the Australian Businesswomen’s Network.
