I just got off of a Skype call with one of my longtime transcription clients who is now looking for a virtual assistant, and it made me think of something that I feel is very important. Do you take ownership of your clients’ businesses as well as your own? I don’t mean you want to become the CEO and take over their company. I mean that you are proud of their business, their product, their services, and you want their business to be presented in a good light.

Take Pride in Your Client's Business

This means that any product or service you provide to your clients must be of the highest quality–something you would be proud to present as your own. A transcript should be accurate and contain proper grammar, spelling, punctuation, good formatting, et cetera. If you’re a virtual assistant, say, dealing with your client’s clients through a help desk, you want to make those clients happy, and you want to present your original client’s services in a positive light at all times. That’s taking ownership.

You should want the same things for your clients’ businesses as you want for your own: Success. Growth. Happy Customers. Established. Trustworthy. You should be proud of the business they’ve built, and you should be proud to help them succeed. The services you provide could be helping them to get ahead, while at the same time helping you to get ahead because you are providing a great service! This means referrals from your happy clients.

Think about it this way: It’s not just your name on the line; it’s that of your clients as well. They have people relying on them, just as they rely on you. Take responsibility, making sure your services or product are second to none. There’s enough bad service out there; let’s not add to the junk pile.

What do you own? You own your business, your services, and your product, but you also own your clients’ reputations, their success, and the happiness of their clients as well.