“This pledge demonstrates the commitment I make as a professional Virtual Assistant to my clients and myself.”

We need your help. On the last Future of Virtual Assistance class there was a lot of discussion around the ethics and standards of how Virtual Assistants work with their clients. This intrigued us and so after the call we thought we’d lead the charge - with your help of course - to create a universal “Virtual Assistant’s Pledge”.

We’ve started the process at the Virtually Successful Blog and need your ideas and comments.

Our goal is simple - to create a standard ‘pledge’ that we can share with our clients to create a strong working foundation and peace of mind for both our clients and ourselves.

Go ahead and take a look below at the ‘work in progress draft and comment to let us know:

• What is important to you in making this kind of pledge?
• What would you want to add to the list?
• Anything you would want to ’say differently’?

All comments, edits, tweaks, ideas, yays or nays are welcome…

We look forward to engaging you in the co-creation of this pledge - we simply couldn’t do it without you! Please comment by Friday, August 21st, at which point we’ll scoop-up everything you’ve shared and create a master pledge.

Oh, and we are in the process of having our designer create a really cool new ‘I’ve take the Virtual Assistant’s Pledge’ graphic for you to post on your website and other marketing materials - we think you’ll love it, stayed tuned for details in our next issue.

We’re looking forward to having as many VAs contribute as possible - take a few minutes to comment below and be sure to invite your VA colleagues!

The Virtual Assistant Pledge

This pledge demonstrates the commitment I make as a professional Virtual Assistant. My commitment to my clients:

• I commit to accurately represent my virtual assistant skillset, including my experience level and training.
• I will maintain, store and where necessary properly dispose of any business records created during our working relationship to ensure confidentiality, security and privacy.
• I will implement a Communication Plan with all of my clients to ensure regular communication that will support the relationship.
• I will complete projects and tasks accordingly to the set deadline. If I am unable to meet the deadline, I will let my client know as soon as possible and propose alternate solutions.
• I do not discuss or share information about my clients with any other clients.
• When working with clients in the same industry, I will disclose any potential conflicts of interest and keep all information confidential.
• I commit to discussing and setting guidelines and boundaries that work best for both me and my clients to ensure we understand each others expectations.
• I will not take on tasks or projects that require skills I do not have.
• I will acknowledge my mistakes, look for solutions to fix them immediately and verbally discuss this with my client.
• If an email or situation upsets me, I will wait until my emotions have subsided before I respond. I will then request verbal communication to discuss the situation. (not sure about this one?)
• I will be professional and respectful in all my communications with my clients – including email correspondence, instant messages, phone discussions, text messages, voicemail messages etc. – and expect the same in return from my clients.
• Where possible I will do my best to complete requests with tight or immediate deadlines outside of our agreed upon turnaround times, and will let you know if I’m unable to accommodate any of these requests.
• I will consult with my VA network and other resources as appropriate to research new tools, skills and get answers where needed.
• I will provide appropriate notice and plan for backup if I will be unavailable to my clients due to vacation or illness.
• I understand that I am to bill only for time actually spent working, and will not charge for any training or preparation time outside of the agreed upon task.

We look forward to your comments below.

Just because we are virtual professionals doesn’t mean we still can’t have some fun right?

This started one day in a discussion between all three of us - Andrea, Tina and Cindy. We were joking about bumper sticker slogans and came up with "Virtual Assistants Do It On Their Laptops."

What seemed ridiculously funny at the time and some what of a "blushing" statement, has now turned in to a fun (and cheeky) way to share the Virtual Assistant profession with others!

And of course we couldn’t resist sharing this with you - our fellow VAs - and have launched a brand new store where you can purchase items with this logo. Take a look .. there are hats, journals, mugs mousepads, buttons, Sigg bottles and of course… bumper stickers!

>> Start Shopping Here

Got comments or requests for more items to help popularize the VA world? Done tastefully, attention-getting publicity and promotion can be a way to really broaden the reach of your business too. Write your comments below.

As our clients get more sophisticated, their business needs grow with them.  The more we understand the full scope and detail of real-life client needs, the more prepared we will be as an industry, to meet and exceed expectations.  Virtually Successful has set a goal of compiling the exact client situations that virtual assistants can serve. 
Here are 3 examples of what we’re collecting:

• An author who’s launching a year-long training program that’s being marketed to 3 major newsletter lists that have some overlap. He doesn’t want to alienate people unnecessarily on the lists, and especially doesn’t want to send marketing messages to people who’ve already bought the $1000 program but can’t figure out how to do that.
• An event organizer who regrets inviting a certain speaker to be on the conference agenda, and who is not responding to urgent requests for speaker notes, audio-visual needs, and is making noises about cancelling.
• An information marketer who held a class on a conference call and had terrible sound quality. The audio recording she has already sold to clients is very poor.

This Advanced, Real-Life Client Needs ebook will be the most complete list of EXACTLY who and what a virtual assistant supports. 
If you would like to contribute to this collection, we’re offering some rewards:

• Send in 10 examples of real-life client needs and you receive the entire collection free!
• 25 gets a fun set of Virtual Assistant bumper stickers (plus ebook),
• 50 gets a terrific VA mug (plus ebook)
• The person who sends in the most will get $100 cash (plus ebook) For real!

Email your collection to project@virtuallysuccessful.com by Friday, May 15th. Remember, these are real-life client needs, from simple to advanced, and can be scenarios you know the answer to, or not.
Side note: Aren’t you curious about which of these advanced, real-life scenarios you’re already equipped to handle with finesse? Which ones you’ll be totally stumped by? Stay tuned - we’ll be releasing the ebook right here, very soon.