What a great approach to the ever popular question- what do you do exactly? Thank you for sharing this very clever way of expressing just what it is you do and how you can help a business owner.

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Darlene Victoria Gonzalez
The Voice & Vision Behind Your Business

This is excellent. Thank you so much, Janine

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-Jean
Simplify it, delegate it.

Oh wow - great perspective, thanks!

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Professional VA By Design
Your Work, Your Business, Your Life

Thanks for sharing, I recently realized that the "I'm a virtual assistant" doesn't always sound as exciting as it is. This is a great way to go about that and I love the idea that was shared about incorporating this into your website.

Great post, and I think it really is a great way to avoid the glazed look from some people. You've hit on a point that I think really affects our industry and our mindsets as business owners.

I've started looking at it in two ways:

1. Those who lose interest or stop listening after asking me about my business don't need me badly enough. In my area, online business and eCommerce is not popular, nor are websites for brick and mortar stores. It's a rural area that is happily lagging behind the times, so right now, my time is not best used trying to educate locals on the merits of virtual assistants. Instead, I market towards those that already understand the value of my services.

2. Instead of trying to describe what I am, I have much better luck telling people what I do - and in particular what I could do for them. Even if they don't totally understand, they walk away knowing I work with small business owners as an administrative expert. Which, I think, is better than walking away with an unfamiliar title.

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Crystal Coleman, The Northern Edge

Janine, I enjoyed your blog very much & have made note of your suggestion as I work on my own elevator speech.

I love, love, love your banner! It is . . . magical! It makes me think of possibility & opportunity. BTW, did you change your tagline? I thought it had the word 'wand' in it. Or maybe I'm thinking of someone else?

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Lezly Harrison
Laserdog Productions - Code that Doesn't Bite

Hi Everyone!

Thanks for the notes regarding this blog piece.

Lezly, yes, I did change my header both on my site and on my blog. However, the actual work was done by our own VAF member Jules of Sunrise Virtual Solutions. We are working on the header for my newsletter to brand with my site and blog so I'll roll that out for a big YEA shortly. Jules came up with the idea to add the 'pixie dust' and the wand in keeping with the magical/wizardy theme. I highly recommend her services...she's a real ideas person!

I was a bit reluctant to actually embrace the whole 'wizard' idea but I am much more comfortable with it now. Thanks to Jules!

I know it is not always good manners to answer a question with a question but it really has been the only way to really explain to people what it is we all really do.

Janine

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Jules did a really nice job for you. The pixie dust was a nice touch & the whole banner looks great!

A wizard was the mascot for my high school. We were the Windsor Wizards. Wow, that brings back some old memories!

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Lezly Harrison
Laserdog Productions - Code that Doesn't Bite

That was a great explanation. I haven't started my business yet, but when I explain to people what it is that I'm going to be doing, I start stepping all over myself. This is a great way to approach it. Thanks.

Donna

Great post and definitely something I'll try to keep in mind. I live in a very small rural area as well and most of them know that I do "side work". When they ask what exactly I do, I've started telling them that I keep the books for so-and-so and that I'm helping another person write a book. They seem to be able to understand that, but if I go past that and say "I'm a Virtual Assistant" or I do various freelance work, they start to get that "glassy eyed" look again...lol

And, if you think about it, answering "I'm a Virtual Assistant" to the question, "What do you do?" isn't exactly answering it correctly anyhow because you're giving them a title rather than an activity.

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Stephanie
New VA in the research phase :daisy: