virtual assistant

Why Would Someone Use a Virtual Assistant Anyway?

March 4, 2010 By becki 1 Comment

Time is precious to ALL business owners…so anything that frees up time and helps business is invaluable! A Virtual Assistant (VA) does both – and more! Business owners – like you – hire VAs to free up time, help business and SAVE money! Yes…I said SAVE $$$. That may seem like an oxymoron, but just stay with me here. VAs are self-employed. They pay their own taxes, their own insurance, they pay for their own equipment and furniture, for their own training, etc. Plus! YOU CAN MORE THAN LIKELY WRITE OFF VA’S FEES AS AN EXPENSE – and you don’t have to pay taxes for a VA (as you would for an employee) or provide benefits and insurance…THAT’S HUGE! Any savvy business person sees the value in this right away!

So, why should you hire a VA?

1. To save money

2. To fill a position or to help with a temporary project

You (i.e. business owner, entrepreneur, etc.) pay only for the VA services used – only when needed – no down time. One week you might have 20 hours of work for the VA, the next, only 5. Why would you pay a full-time, onsite employee (who probably can’t get done in a day, what a VA gets done in 2 hours!) benefits, vacation, taxes, lunch breaks, chatting at the copy machine, etc…when you can partner with a VA to do it for you in half the time – for half the expense???!!!

Jennifer Cummings, Entrepreneur and Owner of Keytura, Inc., who has been using virtual assistants and virtual outsourcing for years says, “My virtual assistants and consultants have helped me execute so many of the ideas I just had sitting on my desk. Using their services, I take action…which means I make more money! They are invaluable to my business!”

At this point you might be asking, “Well, how do I know this VA is doing what I’m asking her to do? How can I trust her?”

Well, that’s not hard. #1 – If your VA is not doing what she says she’s doing, it’s eventually going to become VERY obvious. Things won’t be getting done and it will show. #2 – Your VA will keep track of – and provide you with a detailed record of – tasks completed & time they took. #3 – and this is HUGE…

Your VA is a business owner just like you!

Your business success is KEY to your VA’s business success!

If your VA screws up your business, she is – in essence – screwing up her own. What person in his or her right mind would do that???!!! You both (you and your VA) need to think of each other as business PARTNERS because that’s exactly what you are. You are partnering your businesses for success!

About the Author
Jennifer Claggett is a virtual assistant and a stay-at-home mom. Visit her website at http://www.VirtualAssistantMom.com to learn more invaluable, easy-to-use virtual assistant tools and information.

Filed Under: Virtual Assistant Tips Tagged With: virtual assistance, virtual assistant

Don’t Go Crazy – Hire A Virtual Assistant

March 3, 2010 By becki 1 Comment

Susan Holmes is an author and professional speaker. She travels frequently and hates coming home to piles of bills, unheard telephone messages and thousands of e-mail. Susan works harder and harder spending most evenings and weekends doing administrative chores and spends the workday servicing clients. No matter how hard she works Susan cannot get ahead. She begins to suffer from the symptoms of stress. She can’t sleep, doesn’t bother to eat regularly, suffers from anxiety to the point of feeling paralyzed when confronting the mess on her desk.

Susan wishes Superman really exists so that he can swoop into her home office and rescue her from the foot high stacks of paper on her desk that are threatening to topple over. Susan tries to keep up as best as she can but soon she is so overwhelmed that she turns away paid speaking engagements in order to do administrative work.

Can you identify with Susan? Do you dread opening your office door because it isn’t a pretty sight? Hopefully you have a friend like Michelle. After months of trying Michelle finally talks Susan into having lunch. Michelle is taken aback at how tired Susan is and how unhappy she seems. After Susan confides in Michelle she gets silent and stares at the table. Michelle jumps in an offers Susan a solution that will both relieve her of her stress and allow her to pick up more speaking engagements.

What is this magical solution? It is a Virtual Assistant (VA). Michelle has been using a VA for several years because she once was in Susan’s position. Michelle explains to Susan that her VA handles all of her administrative and marketing tasks in addition to answering the phones from a remote location. The benefits of working with a VA becomes clear for Susan as Michelle tells her that she only pays for the time her VA works for her and that benefits and taxes are not an issue. Susan begins to think about all of her tasks she can outsource to a VA that would allow her to take on more speaking engagements. Susan also realizes that a VA can market her book and her articles and search for more lucrative speaking engagements. Michelle then explains that a Virtual Assistant handle a multitude of tasks including:

Answer phones
Business correspondence
Article Submission
Paperwork
Design marketing materials
Typing
Document formatting and clean up
Proofreading and editing
Marketing
Direct mail
Voice and e-mail monitoring
Research
Select and ship gifts
Travel arrangements

Lunch is soon finished and Michelle is suprised to see that Susan looks more alert and happy. Michelle offers to search for and screen VA’s while Susan organizes the work that needs to be turned over when someone is hired. Finally, Susan tackles those stacks of paper on her desk and the dust bunnies with gusto. Within just a few hours she is ready to delegate work and a few days later, thanks to Michelle, she begins working with Alice. Susan and Alice create a set of tasks that Alice will handle daily and then Susan packages up all the paperwork from her desk and sends it to Alice. In addition to the daily work Alice does she also motivates and supports Susan in her business goals.

Several months down the line Susan shares the secret of her success with her other friends and one by one they seek out and hire a Virtual Assistant. Lives are improved and businesses grow at a fast pace.

If you can identify with Susan then you need a VA. Don’t let money issues hold you back. A VA can be suprisingly affordable when you calculate how much more billable work you can accomplish instead of handling daily tedious tasks. Go through that messy pile of papers on your desk and organize them with an eye towards delegating everything that you can. Seek out and hire a VA that will help you avoid going crazy and you will be glad you did!

About the Author
Bonnie Jo Davis is a Virtual Assistant who helps small businesses succeed by taking over those daily tasks that can drive even the most level headed entrepreneur crazy. For more information about Bonnie visit Davis Virtual Assistance.

Filed Under: Virtual Assistant Tips Tagged With: virtual assistance, virtual assistant

Don’t Forget the Top Hat

March 1, 2010 By becki Leave a Comment

Or the icing on the cake!

It’s all about the show!

If you’re going to put out an ezine, a newsletter, an eBook, a manual or some other document with your name on it, it’s important to put your best foot forward.

You can’t just throw on your “duds” and go out “looking like that!”

So, to keep you from looking a bit like you don’t know what you’re doing in your written presentations, consider these hints for proofreading.

Don’t rush

If you’re rushed to get your ezine, your newsletter or other project done at the last minute or otherwise, you might be inclined to skip the proofreading altogether.

Spell-check is your friend!

Although, there may be a time or two when you wish you didn’t use Spell-check–because occasionally it just does not get it right.

The Gremlins

Common trouble makers are the words that sound alike, spell differently and sometimes give a whole new meaning to what you’re talking about. Words like “your” and “you’re;” “its” and “it’s;” “to,” “too” and “two.”

And this is not all!

First impressions, and all that!

Here are several more tips to consider when you’re putting the finishing touches on your written work:

Make sure you capitalize only proper nouns

Unless you’re me!

I really like to capitalize words, other than proper nouns, and sometimes do it more than necessary (or I suppose more than correctly)…as exaggeration for effect! To make a specific point stand out! So I confess to taking some “writer’s license” now and then.
It’s sort of like that “because I said so” thing!

Have someone read what you’ve written before you print, “hit send” or seal the envelope!

It’s a lot easier for a second party to see misspelled words, transposed letters, incorrect word usage and the like when that person is not as close as you to your end result. If you have no one available to do this, leave your work for a few hours, and then come back to read what you’ve written.

Print it out, then proof!

“Misteaks” are lots easier to see when you can hold them up to the light. Although I suppose you could enlarge the Verdana font size in a Word document to size 28 or so. Nevertheless, it’s usually still easier to proofread from a print document.

Tou dnats sekatsim pleh ot sdrawkcab daer dna, dne eht ta trats

Well, somehow I don’t think that’s quite what the guideline means, although it really is easier to see errors when you “read it backwards”. I mean, hello, the whole line ^^^ above is an error!

And finally,

When in doubt, look it up!

Now I don’t know about you, but sometimes I have a concern about that. Because even if you have the bestest dictionary and style guide in the world if you don’t know how to spell a word or barely know how to start it, neither will do you much good.

So there you have them for now. We’ll have more again one of these weeks!

In the meantime, good luck in “righting” your “writing”

About the Author
Get a complimentary copy of “Tips and Tricks to Grammar and Proofreading” and a subscription to “On the Bright Side,” our weekly ezIne, when you click to http://www.Konceptuality.com. At Konceptuality, we specialize in proofreading, editing, and ebook production support services, as well as general administrative support to Coaches, Speakers and Consultants. Email Karen McGreevey, Virtual Assistant and Expert Author, at kmcgreevey (@) konceptuality.com, for details.

Filed Under: Virtual Assistant Tips Tagged With: virtual assistant, writing

Interview with OIVAC Founder Sharon Williams

March 18, 2009 By becki 1 Comment

Check out Sharon Williams interview about the Online International Virtual Assistants Convention with SBTV.

Interview from Becki Noles on Vimeo.

Filed Under: OIVAC, VA Media Attention, Virtual Assistant Tips Tagged With: media, virtual assistant, virtual assistants, web 2.0

Networking for the Isolated

March 17, 2009 By becki Leave a Comment

One of the most common complaints for most Virtual Assistants is that it’s hard to network, and get to know others in the same field. Maybe you stopped working in an office because there were too many stresses there, but now you find that working all day on your own can get kinda … lonely. Unless you have children or a pet, this is a condition we all share at some time or another.

Spending too much time on Friendster or MySpace can be kind of like taking crack — not very productive. You can get lost in chatting with others about weekend plans, but what good is it doing you? We prefer a social networking experience that serves two purposes. Blogging has been around since the early days of the Internet (you know, when Al Gore invented it), but has only recently become very popular. It seems that almost everybody has something to say, and as long as you have a platform, you can, too. Blogs serve the dual purposes of marketing your business, if you want to get the word out, and inviting others to comment on what you’ve said. In this way, you invent a “conversation” nearly every day you post. Soon, your sad and lonely blues will melt away as you meet new friends you never even knew you had.

Another great way to avoid the lonelies is to invest in a web cam. I know, it sounds kind of perverted, but these days, web cams are used to keep distant families together, by sharing images of children as they grow up across the country from their grandparents. Web cams can even be used to stay in touch with other VAs, or “talk” to your clients in other parts of the U.S. The personal connection can’t be beat when you’re trying to network. Logitech makes our favorite web cam.

We find that VoIP is another great way to have the feeling of staying in touch, without disrupting your work flow. VoIP, or Voice over Internet Protocol, is a hardware/software combination that allows you to talk over the Internet. This saves on long-distance charges, because the call is conducted over your Internet connection. With this adapter from Hello Direct, you can use your own phone to start talking, without a lot of fuss. In just a few minutes, you could be chatting to those people you “chat” with all day long.

And the last, best way we know of to feel connected while working at home is to join a club or network. The Spiritual Cinema Club is one we adore. For $21 a month, we get four new films every month on DVD (the tapes don’t have to be returned). They might be shorts, features or documentaries, but they all share a certain spiritual quality. The films are not overbearing, or hell-bent on converting you to anything, just open-minded meditations on what it means to be conscious and human on this planet. And the best part of all is that the first month of membership is free if you click on the link below!

Now that you’re feeling a bit less isolated, get back to work!

About the Author
Patty McFeeney is part of the team at http://www.AssistantGirls.com She’s spent the past twelve years honing her graphic design skills at magazines such as Discover, SPIN, Blender, and Virtually Alternative, among others.