| Last updated at 9:06 PM on 17/02/08 |
Virtually there 
Prince Edward Island virtual assistants provide administrative services and more for clients around the world
MARY MACKAY
The Guardian
Coffee breaks are the norm for many in the working world.
But for virtual assistant (VA) Jaime Lee Mann, who works from her Kingston home, a cup of java in a café setting during the day with company older than Sesame Street- age is a true treat.
“It’s just so nice to get out and have coffee with an adult,” this mother-of-two sighs with a smile as she settles into a seat at Beanz in downtown Charlottetown.
Mann is one of the growing number of virtual assistants who provide business support services such as bookkeeping, telephone answering, marketing, website maintenance and design, scheduling, e-mail management and other general administrative duties to small business operators who don’t need a full-time staff person.
“It’s a huge industry that nobody’s heard about. It’s like a secret industry,” says Mann, who started her Mann Made Time VA business about two years ago.
Before that, she had worked in an administrative capacity, mainly in the real estate industry. But when her first daughter, Casey, now two-and-a-half, was born (daughter Shelby is six months), Mann knew she didn’t want to return to the regular work world.
Being an entrepreneurial spirit, she mulled over a myriad of business options that would allow her to stay at home. By chance, she discovered the VA industry.
In just four months, her work roster was filled with realtor clients and other businesses such as a software developer and business consultant.
Mann recently moved into a multi-VA company so now she has a team of about 15 associates in Canada and the United States to whom she forwards work she cannot take on herself.
She has clients as far away as Newfoundland and New Orleans. Most are retainer clients who book blocks of time over a specific span of time instead of her working on a project-by-project basis.
Newfoundland realtor Larry Hann books Mann for about 10 hours a month for his fast-paced, high-volume business.
“I’ve had typical assistants before . . . and by the time you train them and bring them up to speed, they go on to another job because you can’t afford to pay the big dollars,” Hann says.
With a VA, there are no costs such as equipment or Worker’s Compensation, and because Mann is experienced in real estate administration, she’s basically Hann’s transaction co-ordinator and deal closer.
“She just manages the flow of the deal from start to finish, in fact she’s even down to arranging the final inspection on closing day. So it takes me out of the administration loop and basically frees me up to go on and do more business,” says Hann, who notes that the long-distance aspect doesn’t factor in at all.
Being a work-at-home mom presents its own challenges, many of which Mann has highlighted in a series of e-books on how to start a VA business.
“One whole chapter was dealing with distractions at home,” she says.
“You have to be really, really scheduled and use nap time to its full advantage. The biggest thing is if you can focus on the really important stuff while the kids are in bed, and since the kids are number one — they are the reason I started this — I’ll often get up early before they’re even out of bed in the morning.”
Of course, working at home means there’s no getting away from it.
“That’s the thing, this darned computer, it’s always there. Work doesn’t go away,” Mann says with a laugh.
Work is always close at hand for fellow VA Darrell Williams with his in-home Right-Hand-Man services company in Charlottetown.
Small businesses are his forte.
“They don’t have to hire someone full-time, which a lot of people can’t afford, especially starting out a business. A lot of small businesses don’t need that full-time help, they just need help once in a while or on a project basis type of thing,” he says.
His website draws the bulk of his clients, most of whom are in the United States. The businesses are as varied as their locations. One company takes slides and 8-mm film and puts them on DVD.
“I find that the small businesses I work for, it’s lots of different things like research and proofreading documents. I do a lot of research online. The Internet is what makes it possible for us to all have a job,” says Williams, whose wife, Sherry, works part-time outside the home.
His second-floor workspace also doubles as a classroom for his two daughters, Kennedy and Mikaylah.
Williams homeschools the children in the morning and blocks off time in the afternoon and evening for VA work. And every minute of every working hour is punched into a virtual time clock on his computer and accounted for.
“It’s a balancing act, but I think it’s no more than any other parent has because they still have to balance getting the kids to school and home, to daycare and that stuff. We just do it differently,” he says.
Barry Calder of BCL Cabinetry hired Williams to design and create a website for his Riverdale-based business.
“He’s better at wording things than I am so I got him to word everything for me and do my website,” says Calder, who hopes that Williams will take on some of BCL’s paper work as well.
“I just don’t have time for the paper work, with me building things. Right now I put the kids to bed and I’ve got to do the paperwork because you’ve got to keep on it.”
For Williams, there is his own VA paperwork to consider, such as marketing, billing and record keeping.
“A lot of the more successful VAs will get another virtual assistant to do that work for them. I’m not there yet,” he laughs.
Mann says although the true numbers are difficult to pinpoint, it is estimated that there are between 8,000 and 12,000 VAs worldwide. For her it was the right career choice.
“My husband (Jason Mann) works and originally I thought if I could just make enough money to pay groceries. And now I’m making so much more money than I was and I’m so much happier,” says Mann, who is a recent recipient of the international Janet Jordan Achievement Award, an honor that recognizes a virtual assistant who has achieved great success within the first two years of business.
“I’m in control of my own employment now. I’m not filling positions and wondering when the contract is up if it’s going to be extended. I’m in control.”
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