A hat is always a perfect accessory…
One of the questions I get asked a lot when I tell people what I do is “what do you actually do for your clients” and the simple answer is that it varies from client to client. The traditional idea of a virtual PA is very much based on the old school personal assistant model- organisation, diary management, travel, making life easier all round. When I set up Spinning Plates it was very much with that template in mind, it appealed to the people pleasing side of the nature!
The truth is that things evolve and grow and you adapt as they do to suit the needs of your clients and to suit the changing needs of your business. When I started, for example, I wanted nothing to do with my previous corporate career in marketing and branding (long story but essentially I think o had a bit of PTSD and I just wanted a change). However, as time went on and I healed, I found that I couldn’t help noticing ways in which clients could change or enhance things, ways to strengthen their branding or reach a wider audience. Apparently I’d ignored something I actually cared a great deal about and it was pretty seamless adding that extra string to my new business bow.
Other things weren’t quite like that, there were some things I do now that didn’t even occur to me- and support in a more emotional sense, is one of those. I love helping, I love finding solutions to problems and I love making peoples lives easier- it’s the number one reason why I do this. But what I didn’t appreciate is that in working with small business owners I was working with people that sometimes just needed someone to rant to, someone to offload to or bounce ideas off of. I think my initial view of being an independent ‘department’ in someone’s business was wrong- the original girl Friday model is much more fitting: you know so much about your clients business or life that being a sounding board is perfectly natural.
The fact is that when I’m asked that question I do give the standard response of “well it’s very different for every client” and I’ll occasionally give a few extreme examples to illustrate my point- that’s just the tip of the iceberg though. Being a great VA is about getting to know your client, both from a work tasks point of view but also in terms of communication style, stress and pain points, even sense of humour and tailoring yourself and your services to meet all of their needs. It’s holistic, it’s need driven and it takes a hell of a lot of hats to be good at it!
So whatever hat you need me to wear I have them all: marketing, branding, finance, admin, innovation, change, project management or just a good ol’ fashioned rant over coffee!