Passionate administration - an oxymoron?

If you mention business administration to many small business owners, they’ll give an involuntary shudder.

For so many people in small business, especially start up enterprise, VAs are game changers. Virtual assistance allows businesses bootstrapping or powering through a growth spurt to employ invaluable experience and knowledge to the team.

So, what separates the VAs you cannot do business without from the ones you just like?

Think about it.  If you’ve worked with VAs in your professional career, you’ve probably found some that got the job done, but left you feeling like they were a little half hearted
about your brand.  When you come across a VA who leaves you feeling like you’re on top of the world. You only know them through their work and their emails, possibly you’re friends on Facebook, but somehow when you deal with them you feel like you’ve found a crucial asset to your business. So what’s the difference?

This sounds like one of those abstract ideas that can’t be put into words. It seems like a matter of intuition or just a feeling that someone just “clicks” between you and your assistant. In a way, it is. There’s more to it than that, though – and yes, there IS a reason some VAs feel like personal and business saviours more than others.

So what does separate the good VAs from the great ones can be boiled down to one concept:  Passion. 

Passion starts with a genuine desire to care about a client and a drive to make a client feel special as an individual. It’s one thing to provide efficient, intuitive, professional and proficient business support.  It’s a whole other ball game to add the personal touches… these actions leave clients feeling like you truly appreciate them and you’re working for the overall good of their business.

Passion means providing an elite service.  I'm offering something that nobody else in the industry (or in the world!) can offer – me! It’s not always something that can be articulated as a point of difference; rather, the proof is in the pudding.

Anyone can say they go above and beyond for a client.  Saying and doing are two different things.

Passion means that I’m taking immense pride in the work I do for my clients and being invested in their business outcomes.

My clients are inspirational, trailblazing women entrepreneurs in the areas of health, wellness, and self development.  It’s easy to be passionate about the work I do for them because I believe, together, we’re making the world better. I know that without me, they wouldn’t find their job as easy.

I’m an essential wheel in the cogs of important work.  As a VA, I’m effectively an extension of my client. I need to know my clients' brand inside and out, feel out their strengths and weaknesses, and act as a balance. This will ensure I become indispensable and give clients those moments of pride that will propel them through the harder days.

And when you truly love what you do, when you feel their victories and failures, when you take pride in your work and you can feel the sheer emotion behind their ‘thank you’, you’re offering an exclusive service. That’s me.

Passion compels me to go above and beyond in whatever I do. Passion combined with follow through will launch your small business from decent to stratospheric! My clients never think to look anywhere else but directly at me. And I’ve earnt myself a reputation for being 100% in love with my work. Passion also drives me to be proactive rather than reactive. It allows me to work at 110% effciency while at the same time maintaining a sense of humour, letting my client feel less like they’re talking to a faceless freelancer on the internet and more like a cherished friend. It pushes me to innovate and stay ahead of the pack.

It allows me to develop and maintain a strong work ethic, ensures I keep learning and loving my job, which means clients sing my praises from the internet rooftops.

One of my clients recently posted a public comment about my work. She called me an “angel” and said she guesses I make “all my clients feel like they’re my most important
clients”. 

I do.  Because they are.  I believe in them.  I believe in me.
I believe in what we’re working together to achieve.
And I’m passionate about it.