Virtual Assistant Association for Administrative Support Consultants

The Virtual Assistant Chamber of Commerce is a Virtual Assistant organization dedicated to the unique business needs of the solopreneur administrative consultant. Our community is passionate about helping each other grow stronger, more financially successful practices that bring us greater personal happiness, freedom and client satisfaction.

Welcome! I'm Danielle Keister, founder of the Virtual Assistant Chamber of Commerce. I started this organization as a way to give back to my profession and help other administrative consultants find the kind of success I've achieved in my own Virtual Assistant practice over the past 14 years.

This is a wonderful profession to be in. I literally have to pinch myself just about every day when I marvel at the wonderful life I get to lead being self-employed, doing work I love and working with just the clients I enjoy and who value and appreciate what I have to offer. While I might pinch myself in gratitude, it was no accident that I get to live the life I lead. It is a direct result of intention and consciousness about what I want for my life, how I choose to live, what I am here to do and what actions and understandings in business lead me to those things.

At the same time, it's not exactly easy to make a real living in this business when you first start out. It took me many years to get where I am today. But it doesn't have to take you as long. This site and all its offerings are geared toward helping make the path much quicker and easier for you.

Who We Serve

The Virtual Assistant Chamber of Commerce is a Virtual Assistant organization especially for administrative consultants in solo practice who are serious about their profession and view what they do as a highly-skilled craft. We believe that by helping Virtual Assistants become better business people and run more sustainable practices, we not only elevate the profession overall, we also better serve clients. The stronger we all are in business, the better we then educate the marketplace. As a result, Virtual Assistants will have a wider range of more informed industries seeking our administrative support, which benefits everyone in finding clients and commanding professional fees.

While much of the information and resources offered here is helpful to all kinds of service providers and business models, our particular passion is helping administrative support specialists in solo practice—we call them Administrative Consultants—overcome their unique challenges in earning well, creating successful businesses and still having time for life. If you are an administrative expert, this site and organization is especially for you!

What is an Administrative Consultant?

An Administrative Consultant is a Virtual Assistant who specializes in the expertise of ongoing (monthly) administrative support to clients she (or he) works with in a one-on-one, collaborative relationship. Because of their expertise and focus on administrative functions, an Administrative Consultant can also provide clients with advice and guidance on setting up administrative systems, analyzing workflows and improving operations. Administrative support itself is a specialty and expertise all its own.

What is NOT an Administrative Consultant?

An Administrative Consultant is not an online business manager. Administrative Consultants are skilled administrative experts. They work hands-on in personal, one-on-one relationships with their clients. While they provide actual support and can also provide administrative advise and guidance to clients, they are do not manage any client's business. It is always the responsibility of clients to manage their own businesses, and they alone are responsibility for their business's success or failure.

An Administrative Consultant is also not a secretarial service. A secretarial service is a business that focuses on piecemeal tasks and project work, which is the antithesis of administrative support. Administrative Consultants, by contrast, are in the business of providing ongoing administrative support in personal, direct one-to-one relationships with their clients.

Administrative support is a niche, specialty, expertise and profession in and of itself. It therefore deserves to have its own organization to represent the interests of just those folks who specialize in skilled administrative support.

Why the Term "Administrative Consultant?"

Because it better describes us solopreneurs who are specifically and primarily in the specialized business of administrative support. Plus, as a business owner, you are not anyone's assistant, gopher or flunky. As an administrative support specialist, you are an expert in your own right, and you deserve a more respectable title that more clearly conveys your expertise and how you help clients.

The Virtual Assistant term only confuses people. It creates misconceptions that make establishing a business-to-business relationship much more difficult than need be and causes a whole host of misunderstandings and misalignment of expectations. The word "assistant" itself inherently puts you in a subservient role in the eyes of clients. The only context they know for "assistant" is that of employee—and we all know how problematic that misconception is! And because of its ambiguity, it has become the garbage dump term of anyone doing anything and everything and, thus, has come to communicate nothing clearly at all. As Seth Godin would say, it's a meandering generality instead of a meaningful specific.

As an "Administrative Consultant" clients immediately understand what your specialty is and see you as a peer and expert. An Administrative Consultant is taken more seriously and receives more professional respect.

What is Administrative Support?

The best way to describe administrative support is that it is the collection of ongoing tasks, functions and roles that keep a business organized, moving forward and humming along smoothly. Understand that administrative support is an ongoing relationship—a symbiotic partnering between client and Administrative Consultant—because the work itself is ongoing. It is not merely one-time or occasional piecemeal tasks and projects (that is a secretarial service), although Administrative Consultants do quite often provide other services and project work in addition to their administrative support.

Take a look at the video below to better understand what administrative support is all about:

What Is a Solopreneur?

Contrary to how most people understand it, a solopreneur is not someone who works alone and does everything themselves in their business. As a solopreneur, it simply means that you are the craftsman in your business and the one who works directly in one-on-one relationship with your clients. When clients hire you, it's for your brain, your critical thinking and your unique blend of skill, experience, expertise, talent and chemistry, and it's you they expect to be working with. But just as every business owner needs support, so do you. Solopreneneurs often have their own staff and/or independent consultants who support them and carry some of the behind-the-scenes load so that they have more time for working directly with clients and developing the business.

What We Stand For

As a Virtual Assistant organization, the VACOC stands for quality, substance and excellence. Hey, you can't grow if you aren't expected to think bigger and do better. We are about challenging Virtual Assistants and Administrative Consultants to stretch outside their comfort zones, think in new ways, and view who they are and what they do as administrative experts from a completely new and innovative perspective.

We are also about—simply put—community and providing a space where business-minded comrades can help each other grow in a spirit of camaraderie, not competition. And it really is about communication and conversation. This organization is not some thinly veiled disguise that hides the ulterior motives of a purely sales-driven organization. In our community, it becomes immediately clear to you that we are motivated by ideals of excellence and a passion for the profession and helping administrative experts grow in their business knowledge and professional self-esteem. This is a heart, passion and soul-driven association.

As a Virtual Assistant, what are some of the things you'd like to achieve?

• A full roster of monthly retainer clients?
• A financially profitable, self-sustaining practice?
• Ideal clients who are enjoyable to work with?
• A business that earns enough money that you could quit your day job?
• A Virtual Assistant business that earns more than you ever made as an employee, perhaps even a six figure income? (Dare you dream? Yes!)
• To make more money working less hours and with fewer clients?
• The time and freedom to enjoy life beyond your business?

These are ALL things you can achieve with the right information, enlightenment and business consciousness! But make no mistake—most of what you've learned and read elsewhere so far is keeping you from doing these things. Hey, what's the point of anything if the only way you can make a living at it is if it consumes your entire life and keeps you from enjoying family, friends and all those other pursuits that make you a more interesting person and a better service provider, right? Because success is only success when you are both earning well andprofiting in terms of time and freedom to also enjoy a full, well-rounded life beyond your business.

And that's what we're here to help you with! The Virtual Assistants who join our ranks are driven and committed to making their business a success. They are tired of working themselves to the bone and still not making any money. They understand that overcoming these challenges requires them to raise their business consciousness and rethink and redefine their role as adminstrative experts. They want to learn how it can be done better, easier and more efficiently with greater profitability and superior client service. They want to talk about real business and learn proven strategies for marketing, finding clients, navigating the consultation process and setting foundations in their business that will lead to true growth, freedom, financial success and personal satisfaction. If you are ready to be challenged to think in new ways and grow your business to an entirely different level, it is our sincere pleasure to support you.

To your success!