Us in the virtual assistant industry pride ourselves as highly versatile professionals, and it\’s one of the reasons why other professionals hire us. Many thus perceive us as folks who are able to do practically anything that does not require physical presence. Surely, not many prescribe to this stereotype, but neither is the number of its believers small enough for it not to spread quickly.
It is thus not strange for prospecting clients to look for virtual assistants with the expectation that they can do just about any sort of work. VAs certainly are versatile, but not versatile to the point of omnipotence. As such, there are times you can safely say no to a client\’s request, and you ought to do so politely and in a way not detrimental to your business. Such occasions include:
- They asked you to do unreasonable tasks. There are things that can be done within a certain time frame, while there are some that are just impossible to accomplish in the required period. In the latter case, you have all the right to refuse the job unless maybe you are a masochist.
- The requirements make it impossible for you to deliver quality. Some clients will ask you to get something done in an inadequate amount of time, and you are well aware of what that means: shoddy output. You certainly wouldn\’t want bad quality to be associated with your brand, so this is another time that you should say no to your client. That is, unless you are willing to take on any sort of work and don\’t mind coming up with plain ugly results.
- Your skills do not match the proposed task. Before accepting a task from your client, it is always wise to set aside a short period of time to ponder on it and see whether or not it is something that you can do given your current skill set. If, for example, you are tasked to create an iOS app when you have no skills beyond programming Android applications, you have all reasons in this world not to take up the job.
- They are asking you to do something that goes beyond your business policy. Your reputation is important. That said, if your client is asking you to do something that skirts or outright violates your business policy, you really should refuse the job and explain carefully why you cannot do it.
- The pay is too cheap for the job. There are times when you may come across clients asking you to do something for a really cheap rate. Whether or not you decide to take the job, though, be sure to weigh the amount of work that needs to be done and the client\’s proposed pay. The pay has to be proportional to the amount of hours and effort you will have to spend to get the job done, so if the pay is too small and the client won\’t budge, it\’s not worth it.
- The client is rude. Rude people are toxic and not worth the effort, regardless if they offer you a good sum of money for a simple job. It\’s simply not worth it.
- They are threatening you in one way or another. While rude people are bad, clients who resort to threats to get their way are just plain evil and likely criminal. The best course of action to take when encountering such prospecting clients is to simply cut communications outright before things escalate further. If the threats sound credible, you know it\’s time to ring the cops.
