What Your VA Wishes You Knew (From the Other Side of the Desk)
What Your VA Wishes You Knew (From the Other Side of the Desk)
You’re a great client. But there are things we think and don’t always say.
What You'll Learn
- A View From the Other Side
- "Your Brief Was Not Clear"
- "I See the Problems You Don't"
- "Last-Minute Requests Are Harder Than You Think"
A View From the Other Side
Most content about VAs is written for business owners. “How to hire a VA.” “How to delegate.” “How to get the most from your VA.”
This post is different. It’s what your VA is thinking: the things they might not say because they’re professional, diplomatic, or worried about rocking the boat.
If you’re a business owner who works with (or is about to work with) a VA, this will make you a better client. And better clients get better results.
1. “Your Brief Was Not Clear”
When you say “Can you handle this?” and attach a screenshot with no context, your VA figures it out. But it takes three times longer than if you’d said:
“This is an invoice from Supplier X. Can you log it in the expenses sheet, file the PDF in the Q2 folder, and schedule payment for the 15th?”
We won’t always ask for clarification, because we don’t want to seem slow, and because sometimes we can figure it out from context. But every unclear brief costs extra time, and occasionally produces an output that’s not quite what you wanted.
What helps: Thirty extra seconds on your brief saves us fifteen minutes of guessing. Include: what this is, what you want done with it, and where the finished product should go.
2. “I See the Problems You Don’t”
After a few months working with you, we notice things:
- That your filing system has gaps
- That two of your clients are consistently late payers
- That your social media posts on Tuesday get twice the engagement of Thursday’s
- That your quote template is missing a section your competitors include
- That you’re paying for a software subscription you haven’t used in three months
We don’t always mention these, because we’re not sure if you want operational feedback or if you just want us to do the tasks.
What helps: Explicitly tell us: “If you notice something that could be improved, please flag it.” Then actually listen when we do.
3. “Last-Minute Requests Are Harder Than You Think”
“Can you send this by end of day?” at 3:30pm when you know we’re working a 4-hour day feels urgent to you, but to us, it means rearranging everything we’d planned.
We’ll almost always make it work. But consistent last-minute requests create stress, reduce quality, and prevent us from working proactively. We can’t anticipate your needs if we’re constantly firefighting yours.
What helps: Whenever possible, give us a day’s notice. Even overnight : “Can you prioritise this first thing tomorrow?” is infinitely better than “I need this in an hour.”
4. “Scope Creep Is Real”
You started with 10 hours a month. Now you’re regularly sending 15 hours of work. We haven’t said anything because we want to keep you happy, and because individual tasks feel small.
But we’re either working unpaid hours, cutting corners to fit everything in, or neglecting other clients.
What helps: Check in periodically: “Are we still within hours? Do we need to increase?” This shows you respect our time and prevents resentment from building.
5. “Feedback Silence Is Nerve-Wracking”
When we send a piece of work and hear nothing back, we don’t know if:
- It was perfect (great, do more like that)
- It was fine (good enough, carry on)
- It was wrong (uh oh, what did we miss?)
- You haven’t looked at it yet
Silence is the worst feedback because it provides zero information. We end up second-guessing our work, which makes us less confident and less efficient.
What helps: Even a one-word response. “Perfect” or “Good, but…” gives us the signal we need. You don’t need to write an essay : just close the loop.
6. “We Have Other Clients”
Most VAs work with multiple clients. Your business is important to us, but it’s not our only commitment.
When you treat us like an employee who should be available 8 hours a day, or message us expecting instant replies during someone else’s booked hours, it creates a tension we can’t solve.
What helps: Agree on availability upfront. “I’ll respond to messages within 4 hours during my working days” is a reasonable expectation. “Why didn’t you reply to my WhatsApp from 20 minutes ago?” usually isn’t.
7. “We Invest Time You Don’t See”
Before we send that perfectly formatted document, we:
- Read your previous versions to match the style
- Checked the template for updates
- Cross-referenced the data against your spreadsheet
- Proofread three times
- Made sure the file was named correctly and filed in the right folder
This invisible effort is what separates professional VA output from “just typing it up.” If you look at a task that took 30 minutes and think “that should have taken 10,” you’re probably not seeing the quality assurance layer.
What helps: Trust the time logged. If the output is consistently excellent, the time is being well spent.
8. “Paying Late Is Worse Than You Think”
We’re a small business too. When your payment is late, it’s not an administrative inconvenience; it’s our mortgage payment, our grocery bill, our professional insurance renewal.
You probably don’t mean to pay late. It’s just that our invoice got buried in the same inbox that we’re supposed to be managing for you.
What helps: Set up a standing order or a payment reminder. Pay within terms, every time. If cash flow is tight, communicate : “Payment will be 3 days late this month” is infinitely better than silence.
9. “We’re Not Mind-Readers (But We’re Trying)”
The longer we work with you, the better we anticipate your needs. But this takes time. In the early months, we need you to be explicit about preferences, priorities, and expectations.
When you say “I thought that was obvious” after we’ve done something differently from how you expected, it wasn’t obvious. Not to us. Not yet.
What helps: In the first three months, over-communicate. Tell us your preferences even when they seem self-evident. We’ll absorb them and eventually stop needing reminders.
10. “We Want to Do More”
Most VAs are underutilised. You hired us for email and invoicing, and that’s what we do, and we do it well. But we’re capable of much more.
We can see processes that need improving. We have skills you haven’t tapped. We have experience from other businesses that could benefit yours. But we won’t push ourselves into areas you haven’t invited us into.
What helps: Every few months, ask: “What else do you think you could help with?” Then let us answer honestly. Some of our best contributions come from areas clients didn’t initially think to delegate.
The Bottom Line
Your VA wants to do brilliant work for you. They want to be indispensable, to anticipate your needs, and to make your business run more smoothly.
Help them help you:
- Brief clearly
- Respond to their work (even briefly)
- Respect boundaries (hours, scope, availability)
- Pay on time
- Ask for their input
- Give feedback (both positive and constructive)
Do these things, and you’ll get more than admin support. You’ll get a partner who’s genuinely invested in your success.
Looking for a VA Who’ll Tell You This Upfront?
At Empower VA Services, we believe in honest, transparent partnerships. We’ll tell you what we see, flag what could be better, and work with you to build something that lasts.
Let’s start the right way, with clear expectations on both sides.
Nicola Berry is the founder of Empower VA Services, based in Falkirk, Scotland. Honest support from the other side of the desk.