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Check out the latest Blog to be added to my Blog Roll,  24 Hour Secretary, Sharon is interviewing Australia's most famous Virtual Assistant Kathie Thomas, its a must listen to interview. Kathie gives lots of tips about the Industry and talks about being a Virtual Assistant.

History of the First 25 Years of the Virtual Assistant Industry

Posted on June 26, 2017 by Sharon Williams

The Virtual Assistant Industry has a rich but little-known history of pioneering individuals and organizations that saw opportunity in the work-at-home arena to develop and grow businesses that could support and sustain families. This infographic recognizes and shares the story of the industry’s first 25-years. It acknowledges the many women and men who walked the walk and talked the talk that propelled virtual assisting to become the small business resource it is today.
Congratulations to all of the pioneering VAs, and Thank You.

Our Story (from my perspective):

Let’s go back in time, way back, way, way back, to 1981. That’s right! That’s when the concept of secretaries working from home was the exception instead of the norm. As a matter of fact, working from home was frowned upon and individuals who worked from home were considered “second-class workers”; not really contributing to an industry or their household incomes…hobbyist…you name it. Call it what you want, but working from home in the 80s always carried a negative connotation.

However, knowing where you come from, acknowledging all the hard work of those that paved the way — using determination, sweat, time and energy to build the industry, starting new, innovative thinking groups, professionally and positively — spreading the message of how businesses benefits.

Knowing your history helps you understand your foundation, where you come from and most important WHY you can now build a long term, sustainable business – it’s because of those that came before you, 10, 15, 20, 25 years ago – people who walked the walk, talked the talk, and spent many hours answering questions and overcoming obstacles, that have paved the way for you be the Virtual Assistant you are today.

Please don’t forget where you came from. Your History is Your Future!

AMF Typing Services celebrates 16 years 1st April 2017

 

http://amftyping.co.za/

 

 

 

 

Cell: +27 082 871 3452 • Office: +27 011 768 5028 Skype: amftyping, • Fax: 086  514  8475
Emails: amftyping@mweb.co.za • alison@amftyping.co.za

Linked in: https://www.linkedin.com/in/amftyping

The Early Bird always catches the Worm

 

My philosophy has always been ‘get in first’, ‘be ahead of the crowd’, and to ‘stand out from my peers’ and I do just that in South Africa. I go by the phrase ‘An early Bird always catches the Worm’ and I do. I have always had clients contacting me all the time and always found it easy to talk the client into using my services at my price rather than go to the next VA down the line. If I want a job I will go all out to get that job, I will convince the client of how good and how I am able to assist. My office has a continuous flow of typing and my main service that I offer clients is Typing. If it can be typed I can do it. I am very old school and I find that saying this to clients helps draw them to using my services.

I started out wanting to run a typing company and never thought I would get to this point, but I’ve done it and proved that you can run a company just doing typing. I know where to look for my clients, if I want to take on more clients, I know how to get clients and am not afraid to sell my services and tell clients how good I am at what I do.

I answer emails fasts, as an email comes in and I see that it’s from a prospective client I then quickly respond, clients are impressed with a fast response, they want a VA who is pro-active and assertive.

I love the variety that I get with typing. You would think typing would be boring, typing the same thing over and over, yet I don’t I have such a variety in typing from PowerPoint presentations to graphs, tables, charts, and graphics. This is the job I always wanted to do.

 

Be like me and be the early bird that catches the worm. The faster you respond the better chance to get the prospective client.

  

 

Women's state pension petition wins parliamentary debate | Money | The Guardian

Women's state pension petition wins parliamentary debate | Money | The Guardian

Typing Services

 

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, equations, figures, 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, so that 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 you 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.
• 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, typing of tables, this can be boring for some, listen to music as you type, this will help the time go a bit quicker.
• When pricing typing the norm is to charge 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 ±750/1000 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.
• Do not take on typing work if you do not know how to do it, you can subcontract it out, if that is the case make sure your subcontract has the experience to do the job.

Start Your Online Business Here

Start Your Online Business Here

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,

 

 

 

 

 

Windows 10 Features: Windows 7, 8 are spying just like Windows 10 | BGR

Windows 10 Features: Windows 7, 8 are spying just like Windows 10 | BGR

Barbara Blackburn, the World's Fastest Typist http://rcranger.mysite.syr.edu/famhist/blackburn.htm

 

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.

 

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