Friday, December 18, 2015
Friday, September 11, 2015
Contact Information
If I go to a website and then go to the contact page and that page has a form with no other contact details, I quickly leave that site and do not bother looking further. Putting a form on your contact page to me, puts people off contacting you further. Now if I see full contact details I will take the time to contact you further. It’s a pet hate of mine to find a contact form because half the time you will fill in the form, submit it and then that is it, the receivers of the form often do not bother to contact you further, so to me, putting forms on your website is a waste of time, to me that makes your site unfriendly. But that is just my opinion.
Your contact details should be available on all pages. You
can be sitting on a page and then think of a question you want to ask, if the
contact information is there you can quickly phone or send an email but if you
have to go to the contact page and fill in a form, well why bother.
In your contact information you need your full contact
details. It is not necessary to put your address but put in your location as
people like to know where you are situated before contacting you. Some clients
could be local and where you are situated may matter to them. Give clients the
option to contact you on your cell/mobile phone, your landline, skype, email
and Whatsapp. These days I get lots of whatsapp contact from clients as it is
easier and quick.
The quicker you reply to a potential client and if you can
assist that client the better chance you have of impressing the client and
getting the job – ‘The early bird catches the worm’. If a client contacts you
and you are busy, get back to them at your first available opportunity.
Make use of the mail format signature in email, on every
email you send, have your full contact information. Your aim with your
advertising and marketing is to give the client contact details, many clients don’t
have much time so will want to contact you quickly, don’t make your contact
details difficult to find. Client’s want to contact you using the tool they use
most often so make sure you give them all your social media details. Be
accessible.
A word of warning, clients will contact you after hours if
you do not want this or like it, state it in your advertising and marketing,
state your hours of business and stress no contact after hours.
amftyping@mweb.co.za - alison@amftyping.co.za - +27 0828713452 - +27 011 7685028 - Skype: amftyping,
Wednesday, September 2, 2015
Friday, August 7, 2015
What is the secret as to how Barbara Blackburn
could type so fast? The key, so to speak, is in the keyboard design. Blackburn
would type on nothing but the Dvorak keyboard, which has vowels on one side and
consonants on the other, with the most frequently used letters on the centre
row. "It makes much more sense than the standard, so-called QWERTY
keyboard (named after the first five letters on the top row)," Blackburn
said. In fact, it was the QWERTY keyboard that was her undoing in high school
typing class back in Pleasant Hill, Missouri.
"Typing
was the bane of my existence." She
remembered how her I-minus (I for Inferior) typing grade kept her from
graduating at the top of her class. As it was, she graduated third in a class
of 46 students. In 1938, as a freshman in Business College, Blackburn first
laid hands on a Dvorak keyboard. She took to it like a fish to water. In only a
few years her speed was up to 138 words per minute.
Blackburn had been such a whiz in
her other high school classes, it was no surprise that she would attempt to
better her record as a typist, given a chance. The Dvorak keyboard was what
gave her the chance. When a representative of the Royal Typewriter Co. came to
her business college looking for someone to train as a demonstrator of the
Dvorak keyboard, she decided to give it a try.
In no time at all she was as good a typist as she was a bookkeeper and stenographer. She had won state-wide contests in the latter two fields as a high school student, but the woman who taught all three courses at Pleasant Hill "was ashamed to admit I was in her typing class," Blackburn remembered.
Carrying her own Dvorak typewriter with her wherever she worked after graduation from Business College, Blackburn's extraordinary talents paved her way. From 1939 to 1945 she worked as a legal secretary, and when she decided she needed a change of pace and left the law firm, "I left with the reputation as the best legal secretary in Kansas City," she proudly recalled.
In no time at all she was as good a typist as she was a bookkeeper and stenographer. She had won state-wide contests in the latter two fields as a high school student, but the woman who taught all three courses at Pleasant Hill "was ashamed to admit I was in her typing class," Blackburn remembered.
Carrying her own Dvorak typewriter with her wherever she worked after graduation from Business College, Blackburn's extraordinary talents paved her way. From 1939 to 1945 she worked as a legal secretary, and when she decided she needed a change of pace and left the law firm, "I left with the reputation as the best legal secretary in Kansas City," she proudly recalled.
Suddenly
there was a mad scramble of executives trying to nab her for their personal
secretary.
Blackburn next worked at an electronics company,
first as office manager and then as a sales engineer. She did speed typing
demonstrations at the Canadian National Exposition and the Canadian Educational
Conference. It was then that she was clocked for the Guinness Book of World
Records, in which she was listed for a decade as the world's fastest typist
(the category has since been removed). Blackburn went to work at State Farm
Insurance in Salem, where she was employed in the word processing department
until she retired in 2002.
Also, she starred in a television
commercial for Apple Computers, which offered a switchable Dvorak-Qwerty
keyboard with its Apple IIc model. When she was in New York to tape the
commercial, she appeared on the David Letterman Show. But Letterman made a
comedy routine out of what she thought was to be a serious demonstration of her
typing speed, and Blackburn felt hurt by the experience. In her own words:
"The show aired on Thursday
night, after I had returned back to Salem. They had taken my PR photo and blown
it up to gigantic size) with the typewriter sitting on a stand (covered with a
Plexiglas cover) in front of me and a little to the side with three men seated at a table with a big
copy of my Thursday night paper sitting on an easel at the side. My photo took
up the entire area behind the men. Letterman was standing beside the typewriter
- his opening remark was "No doubt Ms. Blackburn is a very nice lady, but
she has to be the biggest fraud and con artist in the world." That he is
still running it about every year completely astounds me! I have a complete
tape of all of my TV appearances during my publicity reign, but I REFUSE TO
WATCH THE LETTERMAN FIASCO."
In the intervening years,
Letterman's comedy style has become better-understood and we've grown more
accustomed to it. Nevertheless, anyone who has seen her whizzing fingers in
action, as well as the flawless results on paper (her error frequency is
two-tenths of one percent), can have no doubt that Barbara Blackburn will
forever hold her place as the world's fastest typist. Mrs. Blackburn passed
away in April, 2008.
--
End --
|
THE GUINNESS BOOK OF
WORLD RECORDS
Typing, Fastest. Mrs.
Barbara Blackburn of Salem, Oregon maintained a speed of 150 wpm for 50 min
(37,500 key strokes) and attained a speed of 170 wpm using the Dvorak
Simplified Keyboard (DSK) system. Her top speed was recorded at 212 wpm.
Source: Norris McWhirter, ed. (1985), THE GUINNESS BOOK OF WORLD RECORDS,
23rd US edition, New York: Sterling Publishing Co., Inc.
|
Permission granted
to post Article about Barbara Blackburn by Sonya Pulvers (Barbara Blackburn's daughter)
|
From: Sam Sent: 07
January 2014 22:32
To: Alison Fourie Subject: Re: Feature article on website
Allison,
Thank
you so much for asking permission. Absolutely that would be fine, my mother
was an incredible woman and an icon when it comes to the world of typing.
Have a
great day.
Sincerely,
Sonya
Pulvers (Barbara Blackburn's daughter)
-----Original
Message-----
From: Alison Fourie Sent: Jan 7, 2014 5:22 AM Subject: Feature article on website
Hi I
would like to ask your permission to place your article about Barbara
Blackburn http://rcranger.mysite.syr.edu/famhist/blackburn.htm on my website http://www.amftyping.co.za. I run a typing company and I
found your article very interesting, and would love to display it on my
website.
Looking
forward to hearing from you.
Regards Alison AMF Typing Services©® Est 2001
|
Friday, July 24, 2015
Typing Information
What
is involved with offering Typing as a service?
Can anyone type, yes but can
everyone offer typing as a service? Typing can be more than just copy typing. Typing
can involve creating spreadsheets, graphs, charts etc or even creating
graphics. So you need to ask your prospective client what is involved with the
typing before quoting.
·
Is the typing
just plain copy typing, what you see is what you type, is there any tables,
graphs, charts as they must then be created, you might have to create a graph
or chart in excel and copy it across to word, that is time taking and is not
straight copy typing, as you must create the graph etc. Sometimes you might
have to scan an image from an book, so that means you need to scan it on a
scanner and then resize to insert it into your document, this is not straight
copy typing. You might need to find an image on the Internet, so that will
involve research, finding the image. You might have to create a graphic, the
client might have drawn an image, maybe a flow diagram, you will need to
recreate this in the document this can also involve using graphic software then
copy and insert within your document, and also this is very time consuming.
· A client might send
you to copy a PDF document for typing. Not all PDF conversion software works
nicely when you convert a PDF document into word. You might find you still have
to reformat the document this is time taking and often much quicker to just
type the document from scratch. Note here the client will know the document is
not typed from scratch, they will know you have used conversion software to
convert the document and often this is not the quickest route to take.
· You might need to
firstly print out what the client has sent you so that you can type from it, it
takes time to print out a document, and it costs to print from a printer.
· At the end of your document you need to proofread and
perform a spell check, this should be part of your quote or terms and
condition; this task must always be done. Make sure you list this so that
clients can see that you perform this task.
· Sometimes clients
might want their document saved to a memory stick (flash drive) you need to
charge for this as it is time taking and maybe you need to a buy the memory
stick.
·
If you offer
typing as a service make sure you state that you can create graphs, tables,
charts, brochures, graphics, spreadsheets, PowerPoint presentations. Do not
assume all typing is simple copy typing, often it is more involved.
· You may need to
insert equations, this takes extra time to do this, so make sure you feature
this time into the length of time it will takes you to complete the typing.
Maths Equation typing is not easy and is time consuming, it is not straight
copy typing as you need to go into the maths equation to get symbol etc you
need.
·
You can no longer
send large files through email and often you have to make use of Google docs,
Dropbox, Send this File etc so make sure that your Internet bundle (capped or
uncapped) can cope with offering typing. Files will need to be downloaded and
uploaded. A file with graphics, graphs etc will take time to load and is very
time consuming loading to Send this File or Dropbox etc, especially if it has
more than 20 pages. A large manual with graphics, graphs and flows, a large
spreadsheet, a PowerPoint presentation can take a few hours to upload, you have
to remember this when it comes to your deadline and getting the work back to
the client in time.
·
If you contract
typing out to a subcontractor make sure you check the work thoroughly and ask
the subcontractor to make sure they proof their own work then you double proof
the work when you get it back. Often a subcontractor will just do the work and
send it back to you and tell you it is proofed, don’t make the mistake of
sending it to the client without you doing a proofread and spell check. You are
the one the work is sent to from your client and not the subcontractor so it is
up to you to make sure you send back a quality document.
· When offering
typing services sometimes you will get in tasks that you don’t like doing,
maybe lots of figure typing, this can be boring for some, listen to music as
you type, this will help the time go a bit quicker.
· When pricing, look
at the task at hand and charge accordingly for how long the task will take and
what is involved in doing the task. Most typing is charged on a per page basis
but it can also be done on an hourly rate, whichever works out best for you, is
what you offer.
· Authors and students may ask you for a charge per word,
roughly you normally get ±750 words to an A4 page at Ariel at a size 12 font.
· If you have a
table within the document, check out the other tables within the document,
maybe you can just copy and paste your first one and just change the data, this
can save you time.
· Know how many
pages you can do in an hour, day, or week so that you can let the client know
if you can reach their deadline, remember if you have graphics, graphs, charts
etc within a document it might take you longer to create these so therefore
affecting the time it takes to complete your document.
· Ask for client
preferences: fonts, size of text, colour in graphs, flow diagrams, spacing,
justification, ask if the client can provide you with the company
logo’s/graphics, templates if required. etc.
The Concept of being a Virtual Assistant/Person running your own Business
A virtual assistant runs their own business from a virtual
location/area. When you run your own business you will do the same tasks as
management would do in a larger company, the difference is you might be doing
these tasks yourself unless you get assistance from other like-minded people.
The concept of running a VA businesses is that you are running a business, you
are doing the marketing, bookkeeping, networking, the work, debt collection,
invoicing etc, you do it all yourself.
You are your own boss.
As you are running a company you are on the same level as
other company bosses, CEO’s, managers, directors etc. You are no longer in the
situation where you are a PA or Office Manager getting instructions from a
Boss, you are not working for someone else that can give you instructions, you
have to get the work, you have to draw the clients to you through having
presence on social media, online/offline advertising, website, blog,
networking, advertising in your area etc.
You organise your company, one of the tasks you organise is,
your pricing structure, you as the company owner need to have prices/rates for the
services you are offering or the products that you are selling. Part of running
your company is setting up your pricing structures. You do not contact a
potential client and wait for them to give you a price for the services you are
offering, you have a pricing structure ready and you tell the client your
price.
To run your company/business you need to have a company
structure and follow set procedures to be organised. Specific things need to be
done at specific times, like your office administration, invoicing your
clients, keeping your work schedules up to date etc. You need to have a
structure of how you are going to deal with clients; how you are going to be
doing the work, a structure of dealing with subcontractors should you need to
use them. You need to know how long it will take you to say transcribe a 1 hour
file, how long would it take you to type up a 100 page document, how long will
it take you to organise an event etc. These are things you need to know as
working for many clients you need to be organised and be able to schedule the
work and be able to meet deadlines that are set by your clients.
As a VA you need to be able to do multi-tasking, you could
be working for a few clients at the same time, this is where you will use your
time management and prioritising skills.
Being a VA is about running a business, being your own boss,
scheduling your work times and procedures yourself. You are an Entrepreneur in
a worldwide industry that is growing daily.
Friday, July 10, 2015
The life of a Virtual Assistant: Part 1 – coping with urgent work
The
life of a Virtual Assistant: Part 1 – coping with urgent work
More often than not we do urgent work for clients. To meet
the work deadlines we have to work long hours, public holidays and weekends. As
VAs we have to be here for our clients and we often need to work our schedules
around our clients, if we don’t the client can simply move onto another VA, who
will work the hours they want.
As I work from home, I don’t mind working extra hours/time.
I am safe in my own environment and don’t have to travel to and from work, my
office is a minute away. I can schedule my family around the hours I work. When
I put in extra hours I can also take that time off when I am low with work, or
take an hour off here and there to suite myself.
Some deadlines can be negotiable, often a client does not
know how long a particular task will take to do, it helps the client by you knowing how long tasks take,
therefore, you can negotiate your time sometimes.
If you cannot do an urgent task, talk to your client,
explain that you must finish what you are doing first and then you will attend
to their work next, explain you want be long and give the client a rough
estimate of when you can start their work and when you can have it ready by.
If you are organised you should be able to handle urgent work
with your normal scheduled work and be able to cope. If you know what work you
have for the day and know your deadlines, dealing with urgent work should be
easier.
You can also ask for assistant from other VAs that you know
who are not as busy. Subcontracting the
work out can be another way of coping with urgent work.
Wednesday, June 24, 2015
Tuesday, June 23, 2015
Saturday, June 20, 2015
Start from Scratch VA Training Program
Start From Scratch Training.
In this Start Your VA Business From
Scratch training program, I’m sharing my step-by-step system – the same system
‘n use for my personal coaching clients - and lay out exactly what to do to and
how to do it, to start a VA business from scratch and turn it into a lucrative
venture.
PLUS: I’m giving everyone who
invests in the training the complete VA documentation pack to help them save
time with developing all their day-to-day-documentation.
PLUS: I’m opening up time to answer
all their questions via live Q & A calls. For further information contact:
Francis at
francis@createclientchemistry.com
Thursday, June 4, 2015
Monday, May 4, 2015
Thursday, April 2, 2015
Working as a Virtual Assistant
Wouldn’t it be nice not have to work. But as some of us have to work
what better job than being a Virtual Assistant, we get to work from home. We
get to work the hours we want to, we can wear what we like for work if we are
not seeing clients, we can even do our work in PJs. We can schedule our day to
suite us and our own way of working. We can listen to music while we work.
The reason lots of
people want to become a Virtual Assistant (VA) is because they think it will
give you more time to spend at home with your new-born, small children and
families. In reality if you have a full business of clients then your spare
time is spent doing the admin work that is required to keep your business
going. You don’t just to the actual work but you do the business administration
as well. You have to continually market your company, your books need to be
kept up to date, you need to advertise to show other businesses that you are
out there and also need to get potential clients attention.
You have to work
and meet deadlines. Most of the work we get in is deadline related and that can
mean long hours, working weekends and public holidays. A deadline must be met,
simple as that. Our work does not stop like corporate hours and this is not the
sort of business you can run on corporate hours, it simply want work. You have
to be here as your clients demands to a certain extent.
We work hard as VAs as we have to meet deadlines but at least with
working long hours we are working from our own virtual offices and do not have
to travel backward and forward to and from work at all hours.
I love the fact that I don’t have to travel far to work every day, it
takes me a minute to get to my desk and the best part is I don’t have to clear
my desk every night because the cleaning ladies will be coming into the office
at night. I can simply leave my desk exactly as I left it and pick up again in
the morning.
I am glad in the winter when it’s cold that I don’t have to travel on a
very cold bus for an hour or more to get to work and even in the summer when it
is too hot on the bus as its hot outside, and there was nothing worse than
coming home and getting off the bus in a thunder storm and have to run home to
get out of the rain. Now I can sit and work even though there is heck of a
thunder storm outside. I can sit in my office working and look out of the
window at the storm and know I am warm and dry inside.
If you work in a corporate office you have to invest in working clothes.
As we work from home offices we can choose our dress clothes and only really
have to wear and dress nicely if we are seeing clients. We can dress casual and
be comfortable working in any weather when working from home.
I don’t think there is any job which matches working for yourself,
working from home; it must be one of the best jobs to have.
Friday, February 27, 2015
What is a Virtual Assistant?
Being a Virtual Assistant is about running
your own business. Owning your own
business, you are not working for
someone else. You are not an
employee, therefore, you do not use a CV, instead you use a company profile, your website, Linked in, Facebook etc.
You
are a business owner, your own boss. You do not work for clients, you work with
clients, you do not work for other VAs, you subcontract to other VAs or you
can work as an associate in a multi VA practice.
I find a lot of people who want to become Virtual Assistants actually have no idea what a Virtual Assistant is and what we do. We are service companies; we offer our skills and experiences to clients. We work as any business does but we have to do our own bookkeeping, administration, marketing, advertising, networking, fixing our own office equipment etc. We run our business like every other small business, doing the same tasks.
If you would like more information about Virtual Assistants in South Africa please contact me at amftyping@mweb.co.za or alison@amftypinh.co.za
Definition
of a Virtual Assistant, from: AMF Typing Services
A Virtual Assistant is a person who works for many
clients, providing office administration tasks, communicates with clients via
telephone, email, Skype; we may never meet our clients face to face.
A person who works independently from his/her own
virtual office.
An office administration person, with at least 10
years of office experience as a PA/Secretary or Office Manager.
A person who can work alone.
A person with exceptional time management and
prioritisation skills.
Someone who can run an office and liaise with clients
on an ongoing basis.
Someone with a bit of management experience can learn
quickly and who is at ease with software.
We have to be pro-active and assertive, and friendly.
Virtual Assistants are Business Owners, who run their
own companies, do their own marketing, networking, bookkeeping etc.
Becoming a Virtual Assistant is a career choice
within a worldwide industry.
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