Do any of you do Advocating? I’m very good at it - personal or medical, but I have never been paid to do it for others... that’s what lead me to finding out that I am a Virtual Assistant. I never knew that what I am until a few weeks ago funny - huh?

I have been a small business owner since 1997 – I build websites, and have about 13 years experience in office management and administrative work...

But it has been friends who noticed the Advocating work I’d been doing lately that made them ask me why I don’t try to make/create a business out of it? And have people pay me to help them.
I thought about that but wasn’t sure how I’d even go about figuring out a way to market that skill or get people to want to pay me for it.?? So I left the idea on a back burner for the time being.

Then a few months later (just before Christmas) I had injured my leg and couldn’t walk for almost two months. (The leg is finally starting to heal) but it made me realize that I didn’t need to walk to earn a living... (I had been grooming pets and training horses – with no leg to stand on there was no working for me)

So I started doing research – figured that I have tons of skills – am extremely creative and still need to pay my bills (the leg injury has put us behind)...
So out of necessity my new venture of Virtual Assisting is born!

While I can do all types of office work, I’d really like to focus on
1. Building & maintaining web sites,
2.More on marketing my Advocating skills.


My skills advocating come from rasing a daugter who suffers from Cystic Fibrosis - so I've lived 22 years in the trenches dealing with doctors, medical staff, hospitals and medical insurance. I have a lot of experiance under my belt.

Basically what I do as an advocate is: find answers and solutions to problems. I hold others accountable for doing their jobs.

I don’t know how else to explain what I do except by sharing some stories... Such as:

I’ve helped a young lady who needed heart surgery, but she was no longer covered by any medical insurance.
Lori was a college student at the time (just turned 21) and her dad’s early retirement caused her to be left without any medical insurance. So she had gone three years without being under any doctor’s care - knowing she needed heart surgery. She needed a pace maker installed.
I was able to have her seen by a top cardiologist who agreed to do the surgery. And I was able to get the whole thing paid for through a charity program from the hospital.

Lori is doing very well now. She graduated with a BA in sound engineering last June and is currently on tour with a prominent upcoming band.

Missing child –
Being that my friends daughter was 19 when she went missing the police department told him there was nothing they would do to help us look for her.
I have access to search and rescue dogs who were standing by the moment I called upon them – this girls trail was fresh; as she left home on her bike the night before to go sleep over at her girlfriends house. She never made it to her friend’s home.

She was seen last with two teen-aged (minors) boys who were also missing... She was mentaly slow, and at risk, but the police department stuck hard to the fact that she was over 18 so they were not going to help.

Info about search & rescue dogs:
S&R members work solely as a volunteer based organization -so each team member spends their own time and money training and certifying their dogs. They also pretty much foot all out of pocket expense for searching too, fuel costs, etc...

But the catch is for them to be able to go out and look for anyone, is that each team has to be signed off by the local police or sheriff’s department – they must have permission from one of the agencies FIRST in order to be covered by that department’s workers comp insurance.

The jurisdiction (city/County) of where a person has disappeared from are the ones who needed to sign off.

Anyhow, within 8 hours after being asked to help, the PD didn't want to cooperate, so ... I was able to get the city council, the Mayor, and FBI involved Who -checking up on the Chief of Police as to why he and his department was not doing anything to help find these kids, got them moving in a more positive direction. (As an Advocate - I held them accountable for their jobs) and within 72 hours of the disappearance, all three kids were found and safely returned home.

I have a ton more stories like these, but don’t want my post to be much longer then it is (:

So.... any ideas as to how to market my skills – who has the need & money to afford me? And I was thinking I should maybe offer a sliding scale type rate so I can be accessible to others that can’t afford to pay a base hourly rate... but how would I implement that?

Thanks for reading this.
Rebecca Brackney VPA
Virtual Personal Assistant

Rebecca,
This is a really unique niche and at first thought maybe Detective Agencies, Private Investigators and such could use a VA with your skills and connections. Then of course you have Lawyers, and Public Defenders who might need these services as well.

I would imagine that some of the children's hospital funding agencies [where they match children who need care with willing providers and help the families find a place to live during treatment - Ronald McDonald House??] could use your assistance as well.

Just a few thoughts - I hope it helps a bit!
Have you come up with any new directions to look into since you posted?

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Thanks Tess ~
Those are some great ideas. And no I haven't been doing much for advertising the Advocating part of my business lately.
I have mainly been focusing finding clients who can use my talents building web sites, business marketing and design –as well as tying up my loose ends for launching the business.

I’ve been busy trying to finish up the non-paying client jobs, and researching everything! I’ve been trying to focus on finding and the set up of the right programs for managing my business.

I only began setting up shop a little over two months ago, when I figured out that I was a VA -- and ever since I have been working day and night trying to get my site built, setting up invoicing, figuring out pricing (what I'm worth) ... just trying to get my VA biz off the ground – I’m burning the candle at both ends right now, but so appreciate any advice!
I’m glad I found this forum.
Thanks again, you have given me some really good ideas to think about.

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Rebecca Brackney
Virtual Personal Assistant