When financial advisor Frank Surette, ChFC, received effusive phone calls from two of his top clients thanking him for the anniversary cards they had received, all Surette could do was smile. He hadn't sent the cards. In fact, unbeknownst to him, they were sent by his assistant, Carlotta Moon. While an on-the-ball assistant may not be especially noteworthy, what is interesting about Moon, however, is that she is based in Melbourne, Fla., while Surette's firm, The Harlow Group, is in Reston, Va. And it appears to make no difference to the effectiveness of the relationship that Moon's business, Carlotta V. Moon Administrative Services, is Florida-based. In this particular instance, "she made me look great," Surette says, and he didn't even have to lift a finger.
Moon is actually a new breed of assistant--a virtual assistant or VA--who provides administrative support for clients throughout the country.
Twenty years ago, independent workers provided "business support services," explains Stacy Brice, president of AssistU, a professional organization for VAs. At the time, that generally meant handling small projects for local businesses, such as document typing or preparation. But with the growth of online services and the Internet in the 1990s, savvy administrative support workers could branch out beyond their own zip code. By the mid-1990s, says Brice, "VAs started to blossom," and by the end of the decade, AssistU had rolled out its own certification program to standardize the quality of services VAs were then providing.
Although the present number of VAs in existence worldwide is unclear, Brice estimates there are fewer than 5,000--most of them women, by the way. However, as more people learn about the profession, the number of people going through AssistU's training program is growing at an annual rate of 30 percent, Brice says. Demand for VA services is rising just as quickly, as independent professionals, small business owners, real estate agents, coaches, authors and speakers turn increasingly to VAs for help in completing administrative tasks.
They find that the major benefits of hiring a VA--as opposed to a full- or part-time employee--include:
o Paying only for the time spent on your projects;
o Access to an experienced administrative professional;
o Training is unnecessary;
o Not limited to a local talent pool;
o The flexibility to terminate the relationship quickly and easily if it doesn't work out;
o No need to provide workspace or equipment.
Typical of the tasks VAs take on for their clients are checking email and voicemail, obtaining and completing documents, interfacing with clients to schedule appointments, preparing marketing materials, updating Web sites, sending out newsletters, and ordering client gifts. But the range and scope of projects vary widely, depending on the individual client and his or her needs on any given day or month. "VAs are there to handle all the stuff their client shouldn't be handling, so the client can focus on the core business and making more money," says Brice.
The only downside of working with a VA appears to be a higher hourly rate than a temp or part-time employee would receive. Newly-minted VAs who complete the AssistU training program charge $35 to $40 per hour, says Brice, while more experienced VAs, or those with specialized skills, can earn $75 an hour and up. However, it is possible to find a VA who charges as little as $20 per hour on other job search sites (See the box below.)
Delegate Busy Work
When Mark Cooke, CLTC, of Heritage Financial LLC started his own financial advisory firm in 2001, he recognized that "I needed to spend my time meeting people and not doing paperwork." Yet early on, setting up files, getting systems in place, and filling out the myriad legal and management forms the industry requires were taking up too much of his time. He was frustrated, he says, because "I wanted to do things that were going to make me money."
As Cooke looked to colleagues and mentors for guidance--people who had been in the business for five or six years--he saw them hiring on-site assistants to deal with the paper glut. But since he had a cubicle and not an office, an assistant did not seem to be his best solution. As an alternative, Cooke's business coach recommended he hire a VA. Although he had never heard of such a role, he trusted his coach and proceeded to place a job listing at AssistU. His request for candidates netted 12 resum?s, which he whittled down to eight or nine, then to two after some phone interviews, and finally, to one who had experience in the financial industry.
What influenced Cooke to hire a VA instead of an employee was the pain he saw his colleagues experience when an assistant-employee decided to go elsewhere. "When people lost an assistant, it was a major undertaking," he says, entailing a significant amount of time that needed to be invested in training the new employee. "I realized that if I found someone who ran their own business, the likelihood of [being disrupted by an assistant quitting] was much lower." Also, "as a business owner themselves, their goal is to retain you as a client," he says, "which brings a new level of professionalism to the whole relationship."
Six years later, Cooke still works with the same VA who has helped him implement new client-retention strategies such as "How ya' doin'?" calls, which have kept his client retention rate at 99.5 percent, as well as creating processes for managing his ever-growing workload. His VA works about 15 hours per month on Cooke's behalf, freeing him up to focus on the work only he can do.
In addition to handling administrative tasks on Frank Surette's behalf, which helps keep his firm growing, Surette's VA also gives him extra bandwidth, which allows him to pursue new projects. "She gives me the peace of mind that when I have a new idea or project, I don't have to worry about finding time to do it." He knows he can hand off parts--or the entire task--for completion.
Take a recent special event, for example. Surette has been chairman of the Northern Virginia Association of Insurance and Financial Advisors golf event for the last seven or eight years. But this year found him in the position of having to organize it completely by himself after a staff member left. While many other committee members might have balked, Surette says, "I knew exactly who to give it to to get it done." And she did.
But Surette recognizes that early on, hiring your first employee "can be daunting." You wonder, "How can I afford them, where am I going to get the money, will it work out?" Which is why he is now a big fan of VAs. "What a great way to start: Put a [VA] on for $500 a month and see if it works," he recommends. If it doesn't, you can either hire a different VA or take another approach, such as hiring a part-time in-house assistant.
Testing the waters is the reason Dennis Brown of Equitas America LLC hired Diana Baker, owner of Key Triad, who is temporarily based in Germany. Back in 2001, when the two started working together, Brown was concerned about turnover, Baker says, so he posted a VA request at AssistU. Baker responded.
Initially, Brown was looking for someone to create spreadsheets, a task he had been handling himself because no one else in his office knew how to do it. Baker took on the spreadsheet work, as well as the preparation of client reports, downloading data, and researching marketing ideas--spending about 10 hours a month at first. But that quickly increased.
"The more he gave me, the more I'd take," Baker explains. She now spends 20 hours a month on Brown's work. Carlotta Moon, too, has found that "the number of hours [spent on a client's tasks] increases exponentially as time goes on."
While the expense of a VA may rise with their workload, what many advisors have found is that a VA can frequently complete work more quickly than they ever could. As a result, the benefit is two-fold: The work gets done faster, but without any direct involvement on their part.
Cooke explains the benefit succinctly. "Having a VA has enabled me to focus on the 20 percent of my activities that bring in 80 percent of the rewards," he says.
[SIDEBAR]
To find candidates for virtual assistant positions, post job opportunities at one or more of the following Web sites:
o AssistU.com - a training and job referral organization for VAs
o IVAA.org - the International Virtual Assistants Association (IVAA), which has a job bank where opportunities can be posted
o Elance.com - a site where "administrative support" professionals bid on posted positions
o Guru.com - a post for administrative needs that solicits quotes from interested support professionals
o Craigslist.com - a catch-all site where products and services are sold, and job opportunities are offered and found
Marcia Layton Turner is a freelance journalist and the author of The Unofficial Guide to Starting a Small Business.
