This has been a crazy, explosive business month for me. I’ve closed more deals than ever in a single month.
It finally hit a breaking point. I needed some admin help in order to keep up my writing quality.
And I realized how much I had a hard time letting go of. Because I do. So. Much.
From admin and intake to design and strategy to email to accounting to literally every single piece of my business, which of course is mostly getting neglected because my job is to build other people’s businesses.
So I put up an ad on Craigslist. It was basic, casual, and made it clear that a culture fit was more important than a perfect skills fit. For the most part, I was astounded at the high quality of the submissions I received.
Seriously, mid-career professionals with business administration degrees applied. By the end, I had gotten 22 applicants. And two of them looked really promising – one because she was an ENFP who didn’t follow instructions (girl after my own heart right there) and another guy who was familiar with all of the software I use.
As I write this, I’m supposed to be meeting with that guy. Instead, I’m sitting here at my favorite cafe alone. Why?
Well, when I emailed him to ask if he was going to be late, he said, “Did you not receive my email earlier this morning? I was called into a work meeting today that won’t be out until 5PM. I didn’t have our chain of emails but responded to the same craigslist email (as your email is hidden). ”
…
Let’s talk for a minute about what would have been the right thing to do here.
For clarification, I used my full name in our emails. In my email signature, it says “Google Me” because no one who doesn’t know me ever believes my name is for real. And hey! I own that shit. Google loves me. My website is front and center.
And on my home page, there is an email button attached to my personal email.
If you Google me, my phone number pops up.
And on my website is a contact page. With several different ways to contact me.
…
Seriously, bruh?
If you can’t solve this basic problem, how can I expect you to handle my complicated client and business admin issues?
Anyone even remotely competent enough to be a VA would have run a Google search of some sort and figured out a way to ensure contact had been made so we could reschedule.
And not doing that? Frankly, it makes you look like an entitled college kid with too much on his plate.
Besides, I am a lady boss with two kids, several businesses, and boatload of clients, and ain’t nobody got time for no call/no show/no class.
(And in case you’re curious, the other gal is working out so far. Go fig. Instincts always win.)