Do we fit?

Business is personal, and good support partners are too.

Once upon a time, someone said, “Business isn’t personal.” And people thought, “Yeah, good idea. Let business be impersonal. We’ll get more done that way!” And then highly-paid professionals started using phrases like, “Your business is very important to us” and “You are a valued customer” to pretend to be personal while being utterly impersonal, and pretty soon people started feeling really un-valued and completely unimportant, whether they were customers or bosses or entrepreneurs.

If that system works for you and you’re happy with it? Then good on you and best wishes and happy businessing… and you can go on your merry way because you don’t need me.

But you and I might be a great working fit if you’re an entrepreneur-type person who wants to devote your time and creative energy to your gift–that special thing or set of things that you offer to the world, which are probably the exact things that lead you to become an entrepreneur in the first place. And in order to do that, it’d be helpful to have an extra brain and an extra set of hands to help manage the rest of the stuff, while also keeping (or bringing back!) the un-robotic, yay-you’re-dealing-with-a-real-person, warm but professional feel to your business.

You might also hope to find someone that can act as a trusted partner, rather than only as a sufficiently-skilled assistant, because you know that there are times when even the best-laid plans (or task lists!) go awry, and you want someone who can quickly adapt to a new or unexpected twist in plans, and who can come up with new next steps independently, while consistently seeking out ways to provide you with better-than-expected results and more-value-than-you-knew-you’d-be-getting service.

If that’s you, then we’ll probably work pretty well together!

The 5-Question Quiz to Determine Which Is Right For You: Corporatesque, Cookie Cutter, or Can-Do-Ology?

Still not sure if you and I would be a good fit? Just take the following quiz. It’s quick, it’s painless, and by the end, I think you’ll know.

Question 1: Your Perfect Support Partner (VA, assistant, secretary, whatever) sits down to answer an email from a customer who didn’t receive the product she ordered. Your Perfect Support Partner starts the email with:

• A. Thank you for contacting Example Inc. We appreciate this opportunity to serve you.
• B. I have received your email. You said you did not receive your product. I will review our system to see if you should have received your product. Thank you.
• C. Oh dear… I’m so sorry to hear that you’ve been waiting on the Widget you ordered and it’s still not there yet. Let’s see if we can get this resolved for you, shall we?

Question 2: The first time you meet your Perfect Support Partner, you want him or her to lead off with:

• A. A 30-second elevator speech with the latest buzzwords and a slick business card.
• B. A whole lot of letters representing all of the associations from which he or she got certificates, to prove that he or she is, indeed, a certified assistant.
• C. A genuine interest in what you do, curiosity as to what types of people you work with, maybe a couple of ideas of how he/she could help you, and an email address with a promised quick response if you decide to contact him/her.

Question 3: Your Perfect Support Partner can:

• A. Play the Office Politics game shrewdly, recite The Art of War, respond to all customer questions using one basic template or script, and manage pseudo-apologies pointing blame elsewhere when he/she makes a mistake.
• B. Follow a task list that you provide, modify and update as needed.
• C. Take care of routine tasks while keeping an eye out for possible system improvements and additional opportunities to showcase your strengths; provide ideas for next steps and plans for accomplishing them; and be accountable for his/her actions without needing constant “supervision.”

Question 4: Your Perfect Support Partner and you would communicate:

• A. Through formal memoranda, Powerpoint presentations and frequent, lengthy Business Meetings that include discussion of previously-exchanged formal memoranda and plans for future Powerpoint presentations.
• B. Via emails in which you give a list of tasks that can be performed in 15-minute increments, and your Helper-Type person responds when each task is done, or when 15 minutes have elapsed, whichever comes first.
• C. As often as needed, by phone or by email or by Twitter, depending on what’s most convenient for both of you and what makes the most sense for the situation. And probably with some humor and laughing and appreciation and maybe even a side anecdote or two, because you and your Perfect Helper-Type Person actually like one another rather than just tolerating one another for the sake of a task list.

Question 5: Three traits your Perfect Support Partner absolutely must possess are:

• A. Competitiveness, rigid adherence to corporate hierarchy and protocol, and a working knowledge of all Succeed In Business-type books published in the past 5 years.
• B. A working phone line, a computer, and a certificate that says “Yep, I’m an assistant, and am certified to assist with things that need assisting, assistively.”
• C. Personable and effective communication skills, quick and creative resolutions to everyday problems and out-of-left-field issues, and a willingness to say “Sure, I can do that… or I’ll figure out how!”

So am I your Perfect Support Partner?

Mostly As: Coporatesque

If you answered mostly As in the quiz, you’re seeking someone that thrives on a traditional corporate environment.

That means that I’m not your Perfect Helper-Type Person, because while I appreciate systems and processes to help things run smoothly and efficiently, I work best without the rigid constraints, standardized persona/image, and overt competitiveness and lack of person-to-person connection that traditional corporate environments entail.

Mostly Bs: Cookie Cutter

If you answered mostly Bs, you probably don’t need a Can-Do-Ologist, but could be well-served with a “cookie-cutter” virtual assistant with basic skills, a supervisor to check his/her work performance, a fleet of similar VAs who can do each others’ jobs interchangeably, and a correspondingly lower hourly rate.

While I’m happy to perform the basic “Task List” duties, you’ll definitely get more value for your money if you work with me on “Tasks Plus”–getting stuff done but also planning out what comes next, researching ideas, lending a hand with copywriting and editing and website administration, and coming up with ideas as a partner in your Thinking-Planning-Doing process, rather than just crossing things off a list.

Mostly Cs: Can-Do-Ology!

If you answered mostly Cs, you’re probably ready for some Can-Do-Ology!

You’re looking for someone who can brainstorm with you, but can then run with the steps you brainstormed, researching them, figuring out how to accomplish them, and actually getting them done. You want someone with an approachable and warm communication style, but that doesn’t sacrifice a sense of professionalism and competency when working with your customers. You want someone that you can trust and depend on, so that your time working together is spent accomplishing your goals rather than on looking over his/her shoulder at every step along the way.

Click here to learn more about what I do, or go ahead and hire your very own can-do-ologist!