Every Virtual Assistant makes mistakes when it comes to building a successful business - it’s how we learn (sometimes it’s an unfortunate way to learn!).

And believe it or not - most of these mistakes are totally preventable. What does this mean? It means that we are the ones getting the way of our own success!

Over the last few years I’ve been very fortunate to work with 2 great partners. Together we offer 15+ years combined in the Virtual Assistant industry and through our own trial and error - and from conversations we’ve had with hundreds of Virtual Assistants - we’ve seen the most common mistakes Virtual Assistants are making when it comes to building their business.

That’s why we decided to create a special video and free pdf report - to help Virtual Assistants avoid these common mistakes!

Visit www.7BiggestVAMistakes.com to view the video and sign up to receive the free report “The 7 Biggest Mistakes Virtual Assistats are Making and (more importantly) How You Can Avoid Them.”

We’d love to hear from you …. what mistakes have you made that have affected the growth of your business? Post your story below.

Enjoy!

~Cindy

I couldn’t help but laugh the other day when I was telling a friend about the new book I wrote for Virtual Assistants - “Virtually Successful: 8 Simple Ways for Virtual Assistants to Find (and Keep) Clients”. He asked me “Why would you give away all the ’secrets’? Are you not afraid of competition?”

I laughed. I laughed because I know the opportunities for Virtual Assistants outweigh the competition between VAs.

In the last 3 years I’ve had the opportunity to speak with over 450 business owners who were looking for a Virtual Assistant. Many of these business owners expressed extreme frustration in finding a VA with the skills they needed. In fact, my partner Tina Forsyth held a teleseminar with details on what potential clients shared with us about the Virtual Assistant industry. Visit www.HotSkillsVATraining.com to download the audio recording.

As Virtual Assistants it’s our responsibility to TELL our potential clients more than what they’re just asking for. In many cases, the business community views the VA professional as admin assistants or ‘glorified’ secretaries. This is not the case .. but in order to change this assumption, we need to stand up together and appropriately demonstrate our expertise and potential.

Virtual Assistants who stand up tall and clearly communicate that they understand the client’s business and what they want to accomplish will stand apart from other VAs. In addition, Virtual Assistants that go one step further by TELLING the client exactly how they can contribute to building their business, based on their goals, will stand apart even more.

So are Virtual Assistants really in competition with one another? I truly don’t believe so. Do you?

An interesting topic came up recently when I was speaking with a business owner - she had just recently started her very first relationship with a Virtual Assistant. Sadly, it was somewhat of a negative experience … this business owner now had a sour taste in her mouth about working with a VA.

It seems the main issue behind this business owner’s frustration was the lack of responsibility the VA took on items that she completed incorrectly. The VA simply dismissed these items, gave excuses or avoided responding to them all together.

The end result was that the business owner could no longer trust the VA and the relationship fell apart. The business owner felt that the VA had not honoured their relationship. Had the VA simply stood up and said, “I’m sorry, I messed up”, the business owner would have considered the issues as mistakes and learning lessons that each person could learn and become better from.

This made me think back to the *few* times that I’ve messed up. One time in particular that I remember hitting my head against the wall was when I sent out an ezine on behalf of my client but included the incorrect link throughout the copy. I was so upset at myself but I knew I had to come clean so I phoned my client immediately and told him what happened. His calm response shocked me … he said, “Well, these things happen. Don’t worry about it. If you can send an email out right away to make everyone has the right link, that would be great.”

When I called to confess I was expecting the worst. I mentioned my surprise and my client laughed - of course he wasn’t happy with the mistake but the fact that I came forward and took full responsibility for the error is what made the difference.

We’re all human and we’re all going to make mistakes or have things happen beyond our control that may result in an uncomfortable situation, however it IS our responsibility, not just as Virtual Assistants, but as people, professionals and partners to our clients to come clean and take ownership for things that we have done incorrectly.

Next time you make a mistake, be sure to take ownership and claim responsibility - it may not be comfortable but it will likely turn in to a positive lesson learned rather than a negative ending to a client relationship.