Each time I read that a virtual assistant lists general administrative services in their service listings I, like many clients, wonder what exactly does this include or even mean. I am guilty of using the same terminology in my services listing. It’s an excellent catch-all phrase. It’s impossible to name everything that a prospective client will ask from their virtual assistant. General admin looks better on a services listing than using the word miscellaneous. The reality is that what defines the general part of the administrative services can be as widely varying as naming colors in the image you see on this page.

When someone thinks of orange they instantly picture a shade of orange in their mind’s eye. The exact shade can be Sunkist orange as in the fruit or Oriole’s baseball team orange or Crayola crayon orange or cantaloupe orange as in the fruit or whichever orange holds meaning to them. To each person the color is orange though each person has their own interpretation of orange. One person is no more correct than another.

The same variation often happens with how general admin services are grouped together and described. Much depends on the skills, knowledge, and value brought by the virtual assistant. To a virtual assistant used to digging deep in HTML coding on an average day to have someone ask about preparing and formatting a report may seem like general work. For a virtual assistant who turns words into a report which includes 9 unique styles within the format design, a custom designed cover image, contains multiple page numbering series (roman numerals, standard page numbers, plus figure and image numbering), a functioning table of contents and index, and both landscape and portrait page orientations, well, this person probably doesn’t consider these types of reports as general admin. This type of report preparation takes some wicked sharp knowledge of using Microsoft Word.

So, what’s the answer?

Ask questions to best understand each client’s needs. And for clients, ask questions to understand if what you see listed on a website’s services listing is what you expect and anticipate.

For virtual assistants, explain on your website and in your conversations what you do in ways that illustrate your version of general. Remember, there’s no way that is more correct. Variation is not a bad thing and may be exactly what sets you apart from other practices.

A while back I had a prospective client argue with me about listing email management on my service offerings when during our conversation the requested service they described and needed was actually lead generation (via email messages). The client wasn’t wrong in how they interpreted email management in their business but it was a clear indicator that we didn’t see eye-to-eye about what it means for email management provided by my business. The insistence by the client that I remove email management from my website because I didn’t offer it to their expectations was enough of a red flag to say we’d never be a good fit to ever work together.

In the end, general really is not all that general.