Why I Don’t Have a Virtual Assistant
This blog is about making life easier and I don’t have a virtual assistant?
That’s right.
I don’t believe one person can be great at everything so I’m often perplexed when someone wants to be my VA and they are sure they can provide:
- Writing Services
- PR
- Graphic Design
- Link Building
- SEO
- Web Design
You are telling me that you are an expert writer/web designer/graphic artist/ search engine guru?
Unless you are outsourcing some of these tasks, I’m just not buying it.
When people think they are an expert at everything I think it dilutes the quality of the particular industry. For example, everyone is a writer these days and now people don’t want to pay for quality writing. It’s very possible to make a good living as writer, I know because I’ve done it, but your pride sure takes a hit when you find out that a lot of people don’t see writing as a skill.
I think this also goes on in the web design industry. I’m pretty sure graphic artists are next if it hasn’t already happened to some degree. Next comes PR firms, and SEO’s and then everything is just diluted.
Am I against virtual assistants? Of course not. My point is that I am for specialization.
It may take a bit more time then just picking one person and slapping a list of unrelated tasks on their plate, but I prefer to hire different people for different tasks. If I need something written I have writers. If I need link building done I have a person I can go to. I used to have a great graphic artist but she started flaking out on me so I am on the prowl for a new one. And the list goes on and on.
Virtual assistants have their place and I might very well hire one in the future. However if I do go that route, I’ll find someone who is great at one or two tasks instead of mediocre at six or seven. Because after all, striving for greatness makes my life so much easier.
I agree - if I were to hire a VA I’d want her (or him, though all the ones I’ve met are females, for some reason) to be focused on a specific area of expertise. For instance, someone who can do all the phone networking that the youngins don’t let me do - to be the contact person for press releases, marketing, that sort of thing - who I could give answers to and have appointments set up if there’s something that really needs me on the line.
For some reason I usually picture VAs as an offsite receptionist, so to speak - somebody who can handle the day-to-day stuff for me rather than “everything and then some”. I guess I’m just not willing to relinquish that much control, either. *chuckle*
December 1st, 2007 at 1:38 amI used to think of them the same way but now I am seeing all these people who want to be the guru of everything. I guess they are afraid that they’ll miss out on some aspect of business if they don’t cover everything that a person could possibly want to outsource.
December 1st, 2007 at 4:43 pm