Specialist vs Generalist / Meeting Notes May 2019
Location: The Ruby at Wentworth Heights, Hamilton
Attendees: Janet, Crystal, Jenn, Salma, Tamara
Announcements
Jenn’s Retirement
After 24 years in business, Jenn has decided to retire! Be sure to send her your best wishes if you haven’t already.
Website Transition
Our membership system has now been migrated to this website. You will still be able to log into the Wild Apricot site to access older resources, but we won’t be using their system for member management, events, or emails. Please remember that you now have two separate logins: one for Wild Apricot, and one for this site, and that changes to your member profile must be made on this site.
The older resources will be transitioned to this site over time, and volunteers to help with this process will be most appreciated – even if it’s just an hour here and there.
A monthly email will be sent to members and subscribers listing upcoming events, additions to the website, and other news. The biggest change is that you will no longer receive reminders about events, so you’ll want to take advantage of the Add to Calendar button on each one so you don’t forget about them.
On your next renewal date, I’ll be sending you an email with a link where you’ll be able to renew your membership. Going forward membership fees will be automatically deducted from your PayPal account each year.
As these changes will save us $400 per year, membership fees have been decreased from $65 to $50. Members who have been paying $40 will be grandfathered at that rate. We may introduce a new type of rewards program in the future, where you can accumulate points for attendance, writing blog posts or testimonials, or supporting the group in other ways. If you have ideas for possible rewards, please leave a comment or send me an email.
Going forward, meeting notes will be posted on the blog but only visible to logged in members.
Upcoming Events
June 7 – Virtual “Work on Your Business” Day
June 18 – meeting in Burlington – Discussion Topic: Courses & Training
July 16 – meeting in Hamilton – Discussion Topic: Pricing Strategies
August 20 – meeting in Grimsby – LinkedIn Presentation by Salma
Non-GHVA Events
May 22 – Better Business Expo, Hamilton. I have 4 tickets so if you’re interested in going, let me know!
May 27 – Women Entrepreneurship event, Hamilton
June 1 – WordCamp Hamilton
Discussion: Specialist vs Generalist
We started off with the assumption that a specialist is someone who offers only one service or works for clients in a specific industry, and that a generalist offers a wider range of services or works with a variety of clients. As we talked, we realized that it’s not that cut and dried.
For example, Jenn said that she’s a specialist in the VA world because she only does bookkeeping, but in the bookkeeping world she’s a generalist. Crystal started out by saying she was a generalist because she does both bookkeeping and social media management, but there are many services she doesn’t provide, so she actually has two specialties. Salma said that as a VA she’s a generalist, but as a computer instructor she’s a specialist.
Which direction is best for you will depend on your personal preferences and level of experience.
We all agreed that it would be very difficult for someone just starting out to build a client base if they are too specialized. Starting out as a generalist lets you see what you most enjoy, what you’re really good at, and what services are in demand and which ones are profitable for you.
Plant lots of seeds and see what comes up!
Many VAs choose to remain generalists because it offers a lot of variety and provides plenty of opportunity to learn new things. Others find it frustrating to have to keep learning new software or systems.
When you have a specialty, your services are clearly defined, so it’s easy to decide whether an opportunity is up your alley or not. Not having to stay up-to-date on as many different programs means you have more time and mental bandwidth to become an expert. You can then take on more challenging projects and charge more accordingly.
Offering specific services makes it easier to set processes in place and to package your offerings, which are both difficult if you do different tasks for every client. On the other hand, it doesn’t give you much of a fallback when business is slow.
If you missed the meeting, feel free to add your two cents worth in the comments!