What’s the difference between a professional and a non-professional?

While there may be many contrasts, one that captures my attention these days is that a professional lives the work, and a non-professional works and lives as two separate things.

And since a professional lives the work, an ungodly number of hours are involved that are not paid for.

In the past three days, for instance, I’ve remained chained to my monitor for a total of 36 hours, and will bill for 6 of them. Staying current in my line of work, creating content that’s useful in marketing and useful to my customers, researching the best solutions for clients, dealing with technical hitches, continually learning new products and processes – all these are essential and unbillable tasks.

For that matter, the fewer hours required to maintain the foundation of your work this way, the more likely it is that you need to find a new passion. When your profession no longer obsesses you, have you become detached from it? Is there some new mission awaiting your talents and eager commitment?

A complacent professional is a contradiction in terms.

Professionals are like parents. They have to be so in love with their ‘babies’ that the loss of sleep and innumerable sacrifices are considered well worth it.

How can you tell if you’re working with a true professional? ...Click here to read the rest of this post at the Virtual Assistance and You Blog.

The Virtual Assistance and You Blog is authored by VAF member Mary of Virtual Writing and Communications Solutions.


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Mary, I particularly liked this blog post and think it's an excellent read for all business owners, VAs included. I like to think that I manifest professionalism in my practice by paying attention to ALL of the details of whatever it is I'm doing - no matter how small, among other things. But for me, the proof of professionalism really is in the details.

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