Question and Answer

Q. Could you list of all of your shared sites like your twitter feed, Facebook page or linkedin profile?


A. I dont post info about my articles on twitter, linkedin or facebook or post the links there for articles I write. regards Ali amftyping@mweb.co.za or alison@amftyping.co.za Here is a link to go and view my website http://www.amftyping.co.za Im not that keen on social media and also just don't have the time to keep up with it.

OIVAC 2013 Early Bird Special

The OIVAC - Online International Virtual Assistants Convention http://oivac.com/register/ is being held from 16 to 18 May 2013 online. We are currently running an Early Bird Special till April 15th.

Building Business Success in the Virtual World
Thursday, May 16—Saturday, May 18, 2013

A Breakthrough Paradigm Shift in Learning and Self-development

You’ll receive over 40 hours of high-quality content and networking at OIVAC. To attend an onsite conference of this caliber, you would easily spend $1,500 when you take into account event registration, travel, lodging, food and entertainment and potential business loss from being away from the office. We guarantee you’ll be engaged in the learning experience —interacting in each session far more than any other “distance learning” or online networking events you’ve ever participated in before.

Combine all the learning, training, workshops, networking, opportunity to interact with Virtual Assistants from around the globe and the option to view and listen to sessions from the comfort of your office and home computer, the value continues even after the convention closes.
A Low-Stress, High-Value Convention that Efficiently Gives You a Top-notch Learning Experience with Spirited Networking, Up-to-the Minute Training and Motivational Interaction – We Guarantee It!

 http://oivac.com/register/    http://oivac.com/register/    http://oivac.com/register/

   

The Transcriptionists and Virtual Assistants Forum of South Africa

T A VA S A

http://finance.groups.yahoo.com/group/tavasa/ Yahoo group email based discussion forum

From Wikipedia:
An Internet forum, or message board, is a bulletin board system in the form of a discussion site. People participating in an Internet forum will usually build bonds with each other and interest groups will easily form around a topic's discussion, subjects dealt with in or around sections in the forum.

Belonging to a forum is like being part of a family, you get to know everyone on the forum and it is a great place to discuss work problems, issues, advice, software problems, advertise events, courses etc. It is a great place to spread industry news.
Our forum was founded by Gaynor Paynter (Transcriptionist) and Alison Fourie (Virtual Assistant). This forum is very chatty with Vas and Transcriptionists asking many questions.

An example being;
Question: What in your opinion is the best digital recorder to advise a client to buy?
Answer: I think the most used one is Olympus, anybody have a closer idea than that? Thanks.

Other forums members will answer with their options and often a discussion will ensure. It is also a great place to vent your frustrations on when you have a bad day, there is always someone on the forum who will reply and give you encouragement that things will get better.
Forums are an excellent way of communicating with groups of people, especially so in the working environment.

The benefits of forums:
1. Working from a virtual location, you can keep in touch with what is happening with the industry you work in.
2. No need to get lonely as often there is always someone around on the forum who will reply.
3. It is an excellent way of passing information around a group of people.
4. You can use the forum for pc problems, questions you need to know about the industry you work in.
5. A means of communicating.
6. A forum is an excellent support tool.
7. A good networking tool for small businesses.

Since the creation of Tavasa, we have helped many people working from home with questions and answers that they do not know. The more established people on the forum have been able to answer questions which helps the newbie members and assists them in setting up their own businesses.
Tavasa has been successful in that it also provides job leads and contractor positions, anyone who is part of the group can apply for a contracting position if they have the skill needed. It is a great way of getting help with projects that you need and it’s a good starting point for newbies contracting out, as they grow their own businesses.

Written by Alison Fourie, AMF Typing Services cc, © Copyright 2001 AMF Typing Services cc®, Ck2001/083866/23. All rights reserved.

How to cope with work and your family

Being a VA the one thing you need behind you is your family’s support. Your family needs to be understanding when it comes to you working longer hours, working weekends and public holidays. Children need to know there are boundaries within your office.
Work to a schedule/routine this makes it easier.
If you do housework then get a maid, get some assistance, you can employ a maid for your company like I have done with my maid, (for tax purpose my maid works for AMF Typing Services http://www.amftyping.co.za), or you can contact an agency that supplies maids, but the main thing is to get assistance with the housework, now you are working full time you will not have time to do this.
When you close your office door it means you do not want to be disturbed let the family know this and ask them to abide by it unless there is an emergency that they need you to deal with. The kids can answer the phone and say you are busy and take a message. Make your kids self sufficient, teach them how to get/make their own lunch, cold drinks etc. Get them into a homework routine; be there to assist when they need you.
Make sure your husband/partner is on board with you working as a VA. It is very difficult working as a VA if your husband/partner is not happy with you doing this. If your husband can’t cook teach him to cook, if you can look after the kids so can he, he is capable of doing what you do for the kids, if he works and you work then work together to make things work, share tasks. A supportive husband will be willing to share as they will understand how important your business is it you.
Do your washing when you get up, put your washing on the line early morning, and take it off at the end of the day when you finish work, or run outside like me when a storm draws in. If you have a maid then she can do this for you and also do the ironing, or your husband can assist with the ironing if you are busy, ironing is not just a task for women, show your husband how to do it, share this task it makes it easier if you don’t have a maid.
Share cooking with your husband and your kids if they are old enough, plan a menu in advance, I cook in my slow cooker a few times a week, this way I only have to prepare rice, potatoes etc to go with later in the day. Know what you are going to eat that day, you can prepare everything early on a morning so that all you need to do is cook it later in the day. Your husband and kids can turn on a stove for you so that things can cook while you are busy. Your maid can start dinner for you and you only have to end it after work. Family can assist when you are busy, they should not have to rely on you to do everything. Sharing is caring.
Let friends and family know they can’t just pop in for coffee, ask them to ring you first to see if you are available, you can’t stop for coffee and a chat if you have an important deadline. Work as though you are working in the corporate world, have set work hours, set breaks, lunch etc. When you work for many clients you need to jiggle your time so that work is done for each clients when required, know how to prioritise and schedule your work, see what is urgent, its deadline, maybe smaller tasks can be fitted in between larger tasks.

Be disciplined, if you work to a routine things will work.

Answers to Comments

Here are a few answers to your comments: A huge thank you for your comments but please leave your email address and I will contact you further.

Q: With having so much written content do you ever run into any problems of
plagorism or copyright violation?
A: I write all my own material and do not copy from others, all my info is original from my own experiences over the years of being a VA. If I use information from other people/sites etc I make sure I get permission to do so first.

Q: Is your theme custom made or did you download it from somewhere?
A: My template is from Blogger.com, I went through the template designs they have available and picked one I liked, I change it periodically.

Q: What is your experience?
A: I have been working in the corporate world for about 20 years and as a Virtual Assistant since 2001 and have gained lots of experience along the way, most of my experience has been written down in an ebook guide: How to start up your own VA Business, which I have available for new VAs starting out in the business, its is full of everything you need to know to start up your own business. Send me an email if you would like a copy and please enclose your email address.

Q: Do you except guess articles?
A: Yes send me your articles amftyping@mweb.co.za including your email address. I am happy to except articles as long as they are relevent to my topic.

Comments

Hi to everyone who has sent me comments a huge thank you, please leave your email address if you would like me to contact you. My email is alison@amftyping.co.za or amftyping@mweb.co.za if you would like to contact me further. I write my own material and use my own experiences as examples and I like to share what I have learnt since I became a VA as I know how hard it is to start up a VA business.
You can use my blog posts as long as you display my signature below:

Alison Fourie • Virtual Assistant • VAcertified

AMF Typing Services® • South Africa • Est 2001 (12 Years 1/4/2013)
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
http://www.amftyping.co.za • http://alison-fourie.blogspot.com
The first VA within SA to become VA certified • The first VA in SA to be Awarded a VAaccolade October 2008 • The first VA in SA as a Nominee for the 2010 • Thomas Leonard International VA of Distinction Award (OIVAC) • First SA VA Winner of the 2010 Afrivan VAimpact Achievement Award

Tavasa • The Transcriptionists and Virtual Assistants of South Africa, http://www.tavasa.co.za
Join our yahoo group, online email forum ‘Tavasa’ free membership. To join go to: http://finance.groups.yahoo.com/group/tavasa/, Tavasa Blog • http://tavasa.blogspot.com/

OIVAC Online Convention 16-18 May 2013

Giant Typewriters

 

Internet Research offered as a Service

An interesting service to offer to clients is Internet Research.

You will search for information on the Internet for clients. The types of clients who would use this information can be people who offer course/training material and require course information. Authors who need research for books they write. Students need research on subjects that they do their Masters, MBA, and PhD degrees for. There are many other people who also require research.

A client will give you a subject that they need the research on and they will ask you to find specific data on that subject. My starting point when I do research is to start by doing a Google search on the topic/subject. Keep track of what you are doing; record the time you start to do your research and the time you finish. I normally take a few hours or more. Open a document and record everywhere you look, take a copy of the website URL address and place it in your document and if you find the information you need, you copy it into your document. If you find pdf information then you can usually send the pdf to your email address and then copy it into your document or forward it to your clients for their information. With doing Internet Research you have to sort of think like your client, get as much information as possible from them about what it is they really want, ask questions, show that you are interested in finding the information they require. I very rarely will spend under an hour doing research so therefore I charge my hourly rate when doing this; it can be charged in 15 to 20 minutes increments. Programs to record your information can be MS Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and OneNote. It is very time consuming doing research, I normally will do a few hours, and then if I come up with nothing which does happen I take a break and then start again later. It is pointless going on if you are not finding the information you need, take a break and start again.

Student Research

When doing research for Students for degrees etc:

• Go into Google, press more, then press even more, then go into Scholar. This is where you will search for articles on the subjects that your student is writing their thesis/assignment/dissertation etc.

• Copy information you find into your word document also coping your website URL address.

• With student research and finding articles you must make sure you copy the article references as this will be used within their thesis/assignments etc. Some articles can be copied, some are available in pdf format, and you can send these to yourself and your student in email format. There is often always a link with pdf articles to send via email.

• Here is an example of the referencing that you must make sure you copy with any articles you take with your research.

Examples:

This reference will be placed within their document text. Treux, D. (1996)

This reference will be placed in the reference listing: Treux, D. (1996). Qualitative research method panel: The merits of three qualitative research methods, discourse analysis. Georgia: Georgia State University.

This reference will be placed within their document text. Van der Reit, M. & Boetiger, M (2009)

This reference will be placed in the reference listing: Van der Reit, M. & Boettiger, M. (2009). Shifting research dynamics: Addressing power and maximising participation through participatory research techniques in participatory research. South African Journal of Psychology, 39(1):1-18.

Hope this is helpful.

Written 4th November © Copyright 2012 AMF Typing Services/Tavasa. All rights reserved.

Q and A

Are you happy in your business to do subcontracting for a low rate?
Are you looking for clients and only getting the types of clients that want the lowest rates?
What type of clients are you drawing from your website, marketing and advertising?
Are you attracting the right type of clients?
Are your rates to low?
Are you getting any clients contacting you?
Do clients contact you from seeing your website?
After you submit your quote does the client contact you further? How many jobs do you pick up from quotes?

Subcontracting to other VAs your rates will always be low, you will get a percentage of the full price which is usually around 30%, is it worth your while to do this type of work and earn a low percentage of the full rate when you can do advertising, networking, marketing and get your own clients and charge them the full rate, can you make profits in your business doing this.
When you quote what is your gut feel when putting in that quote, do you think you will get that job, do you put in a competitive quote or do you quote the lowest rate for the job in hopes that the client will look for the lowerst rate and go for it. Is this the right way to do things?
Is your marketing content right for the types of clients that you wish to draw into your company, are clients seeing that you could be an asset to their company/s/businesses.
Do you know the types of clients that you would like to work for doing the type of work you enjoy doing.
If your rates are low, why are your rates low, if you are a new VA starting out you do not have to charge low rates, you are doing this job because you have the skill and experience to do the job, you are new to running your own business but your skills and experience go back through your career. So why offer low rates.
Is your advertising being seen by potential clients, ask clients where they found your details. Write good content that will pull the client towards you and not to the other VAs advertising around you. Try to make your content stand out from the crowd.
Your website is your advertising on the internet, it must look good it must draw the client to contact you further. Refresh your content regularly, change your look often, keep your site current and dont let it just sit there. How your website looks is very important, does it portray what you are doing, does it look inviting, do you feel if you were a client would you make further contact or will you just go and look at the next website.
Be careful when submitting quotes, dont go for the lowest rate, contact the client first, ask questions, show interest in what they want you to do, tell them how good you are, put in a competitive quote. Sell your skills and experience to the client, ask them why they are looking for quotes, ask why they want the lowest quote, ask them why they can't give you a go and use your services as you think you are better than the competition out there.

To be continued...

Partnerships

Lately I have been getting a lot of requests about partnering from other VAs and Transcription companies. These are some of the questions I would think to ask:

1. Why does the VA/Transcription Company want to partner with me?
2. What are the benefits for me and my company if I go into partnership with them?
3. Does the VA or Transcription Company have current and past clients?
4. Is the VA or Transcription Company working to full capacity or not?
5. How long have they been in business, what are their business ethics and values?
6. Is the company earning a profit? (If I am interested then I will want to look at your companies books to see your financial situation.)

Ask for company information re website, Facebook, Twitter, Linked in details etc. Check the company out, ask for a list of their current clients, speak to the client’s, and get a feel of the company. If the company has nothing to hide they will let you have access as they know partnering with you is very important and could be a benefit to them, you need to know about the company and its details. To partner with another company it has to be mutual beneficial for both companies. Partnering with another person or company is not easy; make sure that both companies are adequately covered with contracts and agreements. Know what each companies is doing at all times, have close communication. Partnerships are not easy, everyone needs to be on the same page with goals, missions and values and if this starts out shaking then it might not work. Both companies need to have full confidence in each other, there has to be trust and mutual respect. Make sure there are written procedures for you both to work from.
And lastly, make sure that a partnership is what you want and not just what the other company wants.