Web URL: www.virtualassistantforums.com
Years in Business: 5
Type of Business: We serve the virtual assistant industry (and it’s clients)
Works: 100% virtually
Facebook Page: www.facebook.com/VirtualAssistantForums
Twitter ID: @ vaforums

Ruth: Welcome to The Naked VA blog, Tess. It’s great to have you here. Please introduce everyone to Virtual Assistant Forums (VAF).

Tess: I founded and curate Virtual Assistant Forums – an online networking community for established and aspiring virtual assistants. The main hub of the site is, of course, the forums where members get to know each other, share information and resources. Members can also access all the resources (and support) they need to research, start, and maintain a successful virtual assistance practice. We also have a small number of affordable products for sale on the site.

Ruth: I’ve visited the Virtual Assistant Forum and really enjoy the community of VAs found here. What led you to consider a virtual profession – plus beginning a forum? How did you get started?

Tess: I’d been living and traveling in India for a number of years when I realized I was running out of money. Being a resourceful travel addict I found a few local jobs (radio voiceover, participating in fashion shows, and teaching English as a second language) but none of them paid the rate I knew I could get by working with someone stateside. I turned to Craigslist and found a successful consultant in the NYC publishing community who had just read Thomas Friedman’s book The World is Flat and had been come to the conclusion that she needed a VA to help grow her business. My work with her led immediately to contracts with numerous of her friends and colleagues – mainly authors and other New York-based small business owners – and continued to grow from there.

Although I had been working with my clients as a virtual assistant for months, it wasn’t until 2007 that I discovered there was an entire industry growing up around the virtual assistant profession. As my virtual assistant business became more successful, it also became more challenging in some ways and I found myself looking for a place where I could network with like-minded people and learn more about being a successful VA. I went in search of a friendly, encouraging community with real, viable information and landed often on sites that promised work at home riches, expected high membership fees for access, or were not entirely welcoming. As a result, I created, curated, and continue to develop Virtual Assistant Forums. As my own virtual assistance business grew and flourished so has this amazing community of fellow VAs.
The site, although small at the beginning, served its purpose immediately and quickly grew into what it is today: a welcoming, diverse, and dynamic community of success-seekers, thinkers, and small business owners from all over the world.

Ruth: I love that you sought to fill a void with creating the forum. This is an incredible resource for VAs of all levels in their business growth. Along the way have you had a mentor or sponsor to support, guide, encourage and open doors for you?

Tess: I’d have to credit that first client as the literal cornerstone of my success today. Without her willingness to trust in me, and grow with me I might never have discovered the world of virtual assistance. That client also spent a generous amount of time evangelizing my skills and services to her colleagues and friends – I’d say she opened plenty of doors for me along the way.

My husband (who is also now my business partner) has also been a very positive influence on my business growth and the development of my VA industry projects. He is the one who encouraged me to start a forum when I couldn’t find one that radiated the warmth I was looking for. He is the one who has hacked and coded (and recoded) the Virtual Assistant Forums site into the dynamic, feature-rich site it is today.

Of course, the Virtual Assistant Forums community itself has been an incredible source of support, guidance, and encouragement - which means, if for no other reason, it’s a smashing success, because that’s exactly why I built it.

Ruth: If you could share a nugget of insight or bit of advice for someone considering a virtual career such as yours what would that be?

Tess: I always say the same thing when approached by someone who wants to know how to ‘work from home’ – “Get real about what it means to be a service provider, and run a business.” It’s blunt, but it’s important to help aspiring virtual assistants separate the idealized, imagined version of what a VA does from the real-life hard work that must go into starting and running a business (any business) in order for it to be successful.

There are many excellent resources and vast amounts of information available at sites like Virtual Assistant Forums but unless an individual is willing to do the actual work of putting the pieces of their own business together, they’re just not going to get very far. The very foundation of virtual assistance is to offer business support to other entrepreneurs. You’ve got to be able to get your own business up and running before you can expect clients to trust you with theirs.

Ruth: So true. Without a strong business of your own, it’s difficult to fully understand how to provide support in a business- to-business (B2B) atmosphere or earn another business owner’s trust. My experience has been that being a business owner doesn’t typically equate to a four-hour work week. It’s important to have realistic answers when determining if this career choice is for you and your lifestyle. Now tell me, what bits of advice would you give someone seeking a virtual professional such as yourself?

Tess: One of the best ways to find a virtual assistant is on referral – if you know colleagues or friends who are successfully and happily working with a professional VA already, ask for an introduction. If you’re starting from scratch, there’s a blog I write (Virtual Assistant Information Blog) that goes into detail about each step of finding, contracting, and working with a professional VA. Starting with a well-written RFP and closing the process by asking very clear questions of the prospective VAs, a business owner can narrow down the potential candidates to one or a few strong contenders.

My other favorite advice to give is simply: “You get what you pay for.” Red Adair said it best I think, “If you think it’s expensive to hire a professional to do the job, wait until you hire an amateur.” Clients who approach working with a VA solely from a price-mind are mistaking the role of a virtual assistant in their business as someone to pass off menial tasks to. Professional VAs are literally primed to become an active ‘partner’ in your business and as such, hiring a virtual assistant should be treated as an investment in the business, not an expense.

Ruth: Oooo, you’ve shared lots of goodies, Tess. I hope the readers take a moment to check out the links for added depth. It’s been wonderful chatting with you, Tess. Thanks for sharing and for taking the initiative to creative a VA community.

Tess has recently released the updated and enhanced 2nd Edition of her successful book, Become a Virtual Assistant – The Virtual Assistant Forums Guide to Success. I’ve had the privilege of giving it a book review which you can read in full here.

---------------
About The Naked VA Blog

The Naked VA blogsite [www.thenakedva.com] is authored by Ruth Martin of Maplewood Virtual Assistance. The blog and site are focused toward virtual professionals of varying niche specialties.