What is a VA anyway?

The AssistU alumni association discussion tonight is about defining the term virtual assistant. Due to technical difficulties, I was not able to participate in the call — but I wanted to share my thoughts and see what you — my readers — have to say.

Before I get too far into this — I want to say that I would not be where I am as a VA without the training I received from AssistU.  AssistU doesn’t teach technical skills.  AssistU stduents learn very important mindset skills — how to truly become a partner in your client’s business.  The VA part of AssistU VA means virtual assistant — but it can also mean value-add — AssistU VAs are more than just another set of hands for a client, they become partners with clients, giving their insight, creativity and applying their administrative experience every day.  This is why AssistU VAs (and other VAs who have these critical thinking skills) are worth their weight in gold and are always *very* busy…

I think that it is wonderful that a market exists for AssistU VAs and that clients (especially my fabulous clients) realize the value of true partnership…

That being said,  I think that it is unfair to say that only people who follow this business model can be called “virtual assistants”.  Both of these words are big, all-encompassing, words, and pretty generic.  Technically, anyone who helps anyone else online is a virtual assistant.  The marketplace has made this even more true…

And… I think that the Internet is big enough to accomodate clients who don’t want a “partner” and who really do just want someone to set up their e-commerce for them or set appointments or virtual assistants who may not have ever been an executive assistant and who are happy to do projects for clients at a lower rate  in order to learn (these VAs usually end up giving up because it is hard to make a living as an independent business person charging less than $20 an hour or they end up learning, growing and raising their rates…)

The Internet is also big enough to accomodate people who want to hire off-shore assistants (hint: I have never seen this work over the long-term… language and culture barriers usually get in the way and people who want to specialize in online marketing support (although many of these professionals are now calling themselves “online business managers” rather than virtual assistants.

There are also clients who want to hire a team of assistants because their needs are bigger than just one VA can handle (or refer) and they want a back-up.  That’s fine too.

So… where does that leave those of us who fall within the traditional definition of virtual assistant?  I think we either need to re-brand what we offer — virtual partner?  or really push and promote the entry level certification offered by AssistU so that potential clients can differentiate between Professional Virtual Assistants and the others…

What do you think?