Do You Have a
"Yuck Bucket" in Your Virtual Assistant Practice? Do you know what
a "yuck bucket" is?
It is common
for virtual assistants to take care of their client's "yuck
bucket," but how do VAs deal with their own "yuck bucket?" If you
haven't heard of the term, you are probably asking, "what is a
'yuck bucket?'"
You market your
practice all of the time by telling potential clients, "I handle
the projects that you don't like to do, that you don't have the
time to do, or that keeps you from doing what you love to do."
Well, some of this "stuff" is probably fun for you, but sometimes,
as we all know, it is not so fun, even for us. You know what I'm
talking about, those redundant chores, the boring stuff, the
projects that you need to do over and over every week or every
month.
Well, it's
great that you handle these tasks, but how many of those things
become part of your "yuck bucket?" Come on, I know you don't love
doing all of the stuff that is handed off to you.
So, the
question is, how can we deal with the projects that we don't
really love doing either? Here are some ideas:
Analyze
Automate
Talk About It
Eliminate
1. Start by
figuring out whether what it is you are doing is really necessary.
Example: I was
preparing a weekly spreadsheet of passwords from orders. It was a
redundant, boring project - it took time and I charged for it, but
it still wasn't much fun. The first thing I did was have a little
program written that automatically extracted the information from
the emails and drop it into the spreadsheet. This saved hours for
my client and, indeed, removed that boring project from my "yuck
bucket."
2. Talk to
your client to see if what you are doing is really necessary.
Example: It
turned out that the need for the above project became totally
unnecessary. It took addressing the issue with the client before
it became obvious to the client that it was no longer necessary.
So the whole
thing was first reduced to less time and then eliminated
altogether.
3. If you know
the project is necessary, but has problems within the project that
takes a lot of time, discuss it with your client - do a little
brainstorming - make your client's hours more valuable and reduce
your "not so fun" projects.
Example: You
are managing a program that requires several pieces of information
from one person to become a whole feature; maybe a form filled
out, a photo and a document. These are coming to you in separate
emails, perhaps days, even weeks apart. In addition, you have to
remind these people of the missing data. Once you receive another
piece of the information, you need to match it up with previous
emails and make sure you have all three parts, and if not, you
need to send another reminder. See how this grows into frustration
and inefficiency? It is also logistically difficult to manage. And
worst of all, this type of frustration causes reluctance to want
ever work on the project.
I'm speaking
from experience here. I talked with my client and she suggested
that we set some rules. We added one simple line to the submission
form that said, "If all three pieces of this submission are not
received within 24 hours, we will not list your submission." So,
now I don't have to email reminders and keep old emails in the
file - I'm happy, my client is happy and her hours are used for
better things.
4. Is
formatting text for newsletters one of your favorite jobs? It
certainly isn't mine! It's time consuming, and edits seem to
always mess up the 65 characters per line needed for some
broadcasting and text newsletters making necessary to reformat.
Solution: I've
found a utility to do the job easily. You can find it at
www.wordwrapmagic.com. It now literally takes only seconds to
format, copy and paste the text into the broadcast. This works
especially well when using 1shoppingcart's broadcast system. Big
bonus: the program changes the slanted quotes into straight
quotes. By the way, if you're not sure what that's about, you
should learn - it can mess up your text broadcast into an
unreadable and embarrassing distribution.
Don't let those
not so fun jobs get you down. After all, we are resourceful,
creative and think out of the box. This is a great way to put
those qualities to work for you! Manage your own "yuck bucket!"
Warm wishes,
Your VA Pal,
Kathy
If you have
ways that you've handled your less than fun projects to make your
VA practice a little more enjoyable, I'd love to hear about your
solution to a problem. Send an email to me!
Kathy Sparks
began building her successful Online Business Management practice
after being certified with AssistU in 1998. She has partnered with
clients nationally and internationally in a multitude of
professions Join her online community by subscribing to "Connected
Virtually, an E-memo." an online
newsletter for VAs and their clients and co-author of "How
to Find and Hire a Virtual Assistant." Looking to improve your
online presence, visit www.yourvirtualresource.com
