The definitions of commodity, in and of themselves, are not all bad. But we are going to concentrate on the one that is relevant here. From Merriam-Webster Online:
commodity: a good or service whose wide availability typically leads to smaller profit margins and diminishes the importance of factors (as brand name) other than price
I’ve heard VAs express a fear that virtual assistance is becoming a commodity (definition above). The fear is that we’re so widely available that the prices and value for what we do is going down. Is that your belief? What experiences lead you to believe that?
One thing’s for certain: there is a wide availability of virtual assistants. I know this and you know this. But do your potential clients know this?
And what of the services we provide - is that a commodity or are we as virtual assistants a commodity (or neither)? I separate this for one reason: just because there are a lot of us, clients aren’t always getting what they really need or want.
I believe that the virtual assistance industry follows the same 20/80 rule that nearly all of life falls under: 20% of us are doing 80% of the work. The reason is that only 20% of VAs really know the work that needs to be done.
Case in point: recently, a client of mine and I decided together to split the work I was doing into two parts: pure admin and the rest, which involves a lot of internet marketing and website maintenance. When we look over time sheets for the past 4-5 months, the bulk of the work is in internet marketing and website maintenance.
Here’s the problem: it’s really difficult to find VAs who can do that! You could say, but Tia, there are internet marketers and website developers who could do that. To that I say, yeah right! Truth be told, I am not entirely silly: I know that there are internet marketing companies and website development companies.
But (1) they also follow the 20/80 rule, (2) they usually cost an arm and a leg and have a target market not of sole proprietors and entrepreneurs but of successful small or large businesses that can afford them and (3) they are not the “small task” type: e.g., can you shoot over something like, “hey, Tom, can you add this ONE product to the shopping cart…now?” They are tied up in projects that help them support the staff that they really need (or that yacht they just bought).
But I digress…back to the conversation of commodity.
My personal opinion is that my own service is not a commodity - at least not yet. It’s a highly valuable thing which is why I get calls and requests all the time. I don’t believe that your service is a commodity, either. Right now, believe it or not, we are still lucky enough to be blessed with the impact of the universal law of supply and demand. There is still more work to be done than there are VAs (at least, if you don’t count the VAs still hiding under a rock).
