We ain't seen nothin' yet!

A VA pal of mine drew my attention to a blog post that’s now about eighteen months old. But she was concerned about what it seemed to portend for the Virtual Assistance industry, and asked if I would write something about it for Moxie, in case others would find it interesting.

So, I read the post, which, in brief, said that VAs need to reinvent themselves because their client pool is drying up. Greg Balanko-Dickson (the poster) believed that to be so because:

1. Boomers are now retiring at record rates
2. Gen X and Gen Y don’t need VAs.

I don’t know if you’ve been thinking about reinventing yourself, but if you have, I’d suggest that you do it because you’ve found passion within yourself that takes you in a different direction. I wouldn’t worry about what this guy talks about, any more than I would worry about the folks “out there” who want to tell you that you have to do internet marketing and shopping cart work for clients in order to be successful in this business. Blege.

In reality, Boomers are getting older. Time marches on, and people age. And it is currently the largest demographic in the world, so more people than ever are older. Something important to note, though, is that while Boomers are retiring, they’re not retiring like their parents did—most of them can’t afford to. And those who are retiring from current careers, often aren’t ready to stop working…because of their own passions, and because healthcare is allowing them to live longer, far more productive lives. And some percentage of them are starting their own businesses later in life. Lastly, those of us at the end of the Boomer generation (myself included) are only in our mid-40s….we have oodles of time to go before we’re ready to change our working status—and who knows what that will look like by the time we’ve reached “retirement” age. As work and play collide more readily, maybe some of us will actually want to work our whole lives long!

As for the Gen X and Gen Y folks--yes; it’s true that they have far more advanced technical savvy, but it’s also true that they get that anything they don’t have to do frees them up to do other things (which is why they embrace tech so easily and quickly to begin with!). They, even more than the boomers before them, get us.

So here's my bottom line thought, and today's Bit O’Moxie: Keep on keeping on. As an industry, we ain’t seen nothin’ yet!

Comments

[Danielle Keister]

Yeah, the Internet/Technology sector is only a fraction of the industries/fields who can and do use our service. There are still and always will be hundreds of thousands of real world clients running real world businesses doing real world work that fit perfectly with the support we are in business to offer.

We've barely scratched the surface in tapping into any of our markets. And with more small businesses opening than ever before in record numbers, VAs are in more demand than ever.

[Laura Jo Richins]

Love it, love it, love it. I agree wholeheartedly with everything you said. We don’t need to become what we think others want us to be. That’s one of the beautiful things about being a VA and being your own boss. We can be authentic and do what we really enjoy and we’ll find an abundance of clients that will find us to be just what they are looking for. Thanks again for sharing your wisdom. It’s always appreciated.

[Petra Boucher]

Hi Stacy, This reminds me of the article that you wrote recently called "Hey outsiders--that's just crap." This is another example of an outsider trying to pass judgement on a field and environment that he really has no idea about.

If he had any concept about the VA client market he would know that not only are we ideal partners for Gen X and Gen Y, but the exact reasons they work with us is the exact reasons he thinks they won't work with us. Our clients may well be IT savvy (the majority of my clients are) but they don't have the time or inclination to do it all, and that is where I come in. And because I am reading his post 18 months later, I can say in retrospect that prospect clients have dramatically increased, over the past couple of years, not decreased!!!