VA FAQ — WHAT YOU WANT TO KNOW

Well, that answer really depends on who you ask, but for us, we offer a vast range of virtual services assisting with administration, design, social media, marketing, operations, websites, and much more. By relinquishing your manual labour of recurring tasks, administrative or creative work, we free up your time to focus on the growth & things that you actually enjoy in your business!

Ultimately, you need to make the right choice for your own business, but hiring a contractor over an employee can be advantageous primarily because of the flexibility, ease, cost transparency and experience.

We can be hired on a short or long-term basis, whatever suits you. For monthly retainer work, you can choose to terminate my services with 30 days’ notice, with no explanation if you wish.

You only pay me for the hours we work, and overhead costs are covered, including all taxes and super contributions, and you don’t pay us sick or holiday pay.

I “officially” work between 9:00 am and 5:30 pm AEST Mon-Fri; however, your specific account manager’s hours may alter from this. However, the majority of our work is completed within these times. We work in client “work blocks”, so there are no distractions within your hours, so if we are fortunate enough to work together, you will be advised in advance of the time/s I or your account manager will be dedicated to you.

To accommodate our clients’ preferred communication styles, we typically use phone, slack, email and text for day-to-day communication; however, we are happy to use any platform you prefer. For video calls and meetings, I primarily use Zoom or Microsoft Teams, but I also have the capacity to use an alternative if the client has a strong preference.

I do not communicate with clients about the work I do for them via social media, DMs or otherwise. These days, there are an almost infinite number of communication channels, and if they are not limited, it takes up more time to constantly switch between channels (not good for anyone’s productivity) and increases the chances of something being missed.

My clients also can access a dedicated client portal that houses all of their important documents (e.g. contracts and invoices) in one easy-to-access place.

Please be aware I do not offer an “on-demand” service, which means you cannot have instant access to me at all times (exceptions can be made over short periods, such as if we are in the middle of a launch). While I will always try and “jump” whenever my clients need something last minute, I look to work with clients where “rush” jobs will be by exception only and not the status-quo. This helps me plan my work efficiently and allows me to serve my clients in the best way possible.

During weekdays, I aim to respond to all forms of communication on the same day or within 24 hours. I prioritise my workload, so the time frame will most likely be shortened for truly urgent requests.

For productivity purposes, we do not check my emails and other channels of communication throughout our clients ‘work block’ or project periods. Instead, we allocate three daily slots to check and respond to messages, usually at the beginning, middle and end of the working day.

Ongoing clients are welcome to contact us at any time within their work block for an immediate response.

A successful working relationship requires effective communication on both sides to establish trust, particularly if you are working virtually. This is one of my first discussion points when taking on new clients to ensure our expectations are aligned.

I have worked with a lot of systems, but certainly not all of them! However, I am very tech-savvy and pick new systems and tools up really quickly, especially because I have experience with at least one system in every major category (e.g. project management tools, CRM, CMS, accountancy, email marketing platforms, social media schedulers, graphic creation tools, I could go on!) I also LOVE the opportunity to learn new things and expand my skill set, as standing still is never an option for me.

We can use our initial onboarding meeting to cover any processes you currently use in your platform. These onboarding calls are always recorded to refer back to if required.

Well, the good news is that we’re pretty well versed in most platforms & systems and the benefit of working with us is that we actually know what the heck is going on! So, for most things, we can just pick up where you left off. The downside, like it is with bringing any new team into your business, is if you have specific processes for your project/s or tasks, we’ll need to go over these. We like to do this within our initial onboarding work block if that’s the priority so there is no time wasted. We use a process capturing system so once we go over the task once, we have the procedure with screenshots to refer to, so you won’t have to show us again! Double bonus.

Don’t worry; this is actually really common, particularly if you have been running things by yourself. We will sort through the overwhelm together by going through your business goals and journey to establish that my services fit you and how I can best support you where you need to go.

I KNOW THAT I NEED HELP, BUT I’M REALLY STRUGGLING WITH THE IDEA OF LETTING SOMEONE ELSE INTO MY BUSINESS!

Again, this is a very normal way to feel if you’re used to doing everything yourself! I really work on building trust with my clients; the whole point of me being there is to make their lives easier and allow their businesses to continue down the road to success.

This starts with great communication and total transparency to build a relationship together, and I will do everything I can to put you at ease when taking this massive step in your business. I would encourage you to book a free consultation call, ask me lots of questions, go away and have a think about it, and then go with your gut feeling.

On a day-to-day basis, we generally communicate with clients via phone, email, text, Slack, or Zoom. We are, however, open to conducting meetings in person should our geographical locations permit it.

Please be aware that depending on the frequency of meetings required and your location, travel expenses may become billable or used against your retainer hours.

Despite the virtual nature of our work, we do love to meet our clients in person though, so if you are ever near us, let us know and let’s grab a coffee!

We always strive to provide you with a minimum of 7 days’ notice when taking 7 consecutive days off for holidays and 14 days’ notice for more than 7 consecutive days off. We understand the importance of your business continuity, so we meticulously plan our time to complete any required work before we leave. Additionally, we generally maintain the ability for different staff members to perform urgent tasks during this period, or if necessary, will collaborate with you to find an alternative solution during our absence.

Additionally, we typically organise and plan our workload to accommodate short-term sickness with minimal to no impact on your operations (i.e., not working too close to deadlines).

To prepare for any potential (hopefully never!) longer-term sickness, we maintain documented business processes and continually expand our freelancer network to present viable alternatives. This ensures minimal impact on your business as possible.

Please note that as contractors, you do not pay us for sick or holiday leave. It is our responsibility to cover these costs ourselves.

We are strong advocates of business continuity or disaster recovery plans. Here are the measures we have put in place for our clients, just in case:

• • We use LastPass for secure password generation, management & storage (this also allows you to safely and securely share your passwords with us).
  • The data on our computers, laptops and phones is regularly synced to a password-protected account on the cloud.
  • We have secondary WiFi access with a different network provider should our main WiFi fail.
  • We are constantly working to develop our network of trusted Online Business Managers, Virtual Assistants, and other contractors that we can recommend in the very unlikely event we are unable to complete any services.