Wanted Translators - Transcriptionists with african lanaguage skills

Tavasa requires transcriptionists and translators in the following african languages: Zulu, Xhosa, Sotho and Tswana. If you have these skills please email your CV to alison@tavasa.co.za.

Local Virtual Assistant and TAVASA comoderator Alision Fourie receives International Recognition from Industry Leaders Worldwide

Contact: Alison Fourie
Tel: +27011768 5028
Fax: +27 086 514 8475
E-mail: amftyping@mweb.co.za


South Africa – Alison Fourie, owner of AMF Typing Services cc announced today that she has qualified for the new worldwide Virtual Assistant Certification from VAcertified.com.

VAcertified.com is the new standard for Virtual Assistant Certification which clients worldwide can use to benchmark the services they are looking for in a Virtual Assistant (VA). The first internationally recognized VA certification, VAcertified.com offers a carefully calibrated and unbiased assessment of a VA's skills, education, professional experience and industry contributions to gain business owners' confidence in the skills of certified VAs.

To qualify for the certification, Alison was evaluated by 13 industry leaders and specialists from the four corners of the world on a broad spectrum of personal and professional traits pertaining to her expertise and professional ethic.

Alison is one of thousands of Virtual Assistants (VAs), business owners who work from their own offices providing professional support , services and skills to their clients via phone, fax and Internet-based technology. Partnering with a VA reduces stress, protects cash flow, eliminates administrative hassles and enables business people to find the success they originally set out to achieve.

As more and more businesses look toward affordable, online solutions to sustain and grow their bottom line in a tough economy, Virtual Assistants are enjoying increased demand for their services. For business owners and managers who may have considered outsourcing support tasks to a VA in the past but could not justify the understandable risk of hiring an unknown, VA certification provides an assurance that the VA in question has the skills and experience needed.
Alison specializes in typing and assisting new VA entering the industry and is a home-based administrative professional providing various online services to her clients. She started her Virtual Assistance career in 2001 to be able to assist clients with office administration and typing and to assist newbie Virtual Assistants entering the industry and to spread the word about the industry around South Africa.

Alison commented: “My certification is important to me as I feel I have the experience, skill to be able to assist clients worldwide. I feel I can make a difference to new VAs coming into the industry by showing them how to get to the position that I am in now, I believe in sharing my experience with others to assist them so they won’t make the mistakes I made coming into the industry.”

For more information about AMF Typing Service cc visit http://www.amftyping.co.za.. Alison is also comoderator of TAVASA, whose blog you are reading and whose website can be found at www.tavasa.co.za.

The VAcertified.com seal of approval tells prospective clients that a global panel of experts has thoroughly reviewed a Virtual Assistant's skills, experience and professional ethic. To learn more about becoming a certified Virtual Assistant or to discover the benefits of hiring a certified Virtual Assistant, visit http://www.VAcertified.com

About AMF Typing Services cc.
Launched in 2001, AMF Typing Services cc specializes in typing and office administration. Visit the website at http://www.amftyping.co.za.

About VAcertified
VAcertified.com is the go-to resource for Virtual Assistants who want credible, unbiased and international recognition for their skills, education, professional experience and industry contributions. Devoted to creating and growing a certification program that embraces diversity, VAcertified.com strives to enhance and evolve professional relationships between VA and client. Follow ( @ ) VAcertified on Twitter for up to date information about this worldwide certification for Virtual Assistants.
For more information contact:
Tawnya Sutherland
Founder, VAcertified.com
Toll Free: 866-943-6665
info ( @ ) vacertified dot com
Follow ( @ ) VAcertified on Twitter

A Day in the Life of A Writer - Damaria Senne

Today we are honoured to have a guest post from the acclaimed author Damaria Senne.
She works as a freelance writer, producing copy for a number of corporate and goverenment clients including case studies, news articles, profiles, press releases and in-depth reports.

Previously, she worked as a senior journalist writing for the daily online news publication of an IT website as well as weekly and monthly magazines respectively.

Her long-term goal is to write non-fiction books on how ICTs impact on how people work, play, communicate, learn and form relationships.

She is also a published children's author and creative writer, with a number of books and contributions to anthologies. She plans to continue writing children's books and other works of fiction.

Without further ado: A Day in the Life of a Writer, by Damaria Senne.

A Day In The Life Of A Writer: The Balance Between Building A Following & Delivering A Good Product/Service

It’s a warm late Spring afternoon – the sun is shining, the birds are singing, and Edward and Hayley, my chow-mix dogs, are taking a nap on the floor in front of my office door.

I still have a lot of writing to do today, but I feel like it’s been a good day and I’ve been productive because, it’s a little after two, and I’ve already updated my personal blog, wrote and published five posts on the OneLove campaign web site and initiated some discussions on the Kwanda and Read SA fan pages on Facebook. I’ve also posted two author profiles on the Read SA web site[these profiles will go live later in the week] and visited and commented on most of the blogs I follow. And my day is only half-way through.

This is not the routine that I envisioned when I first wanted to be a writer. Back in those days, when I was a little girl, I dreamt of spending the whole day writing novels, uninterrupted. I could create my characters and settings and situations, tell my stories, edit then and send them to my agent, who would then take up the responsibility of selling to publishers. I had the romantic view that once the books were published, the publisher would have the sole responsibility of promoting them. I didn’t look forward to having to go on an author’s tour – that would take me away from my office, and my writing and my books. And maybe there are authors who are so wildly successful that they don’t have to promote their works, because they have a horde of fans waiting for their next book. Nora Roberts, anyone?

But, you can bet your life that in the beginning, the famous authors also had to lay the foundation. They had to balance writing their guts out, with promotion. They had to build a following one fan at a time. And that’s where I also need to start. And where you also need to start, whether you are starting a writing/blogging/small business.

You need to find the time to do many of marketing activities which build the foundation of your business with delivering a very good product, and do so consistently. You need to connect with people, tell them about your business and make sure that your name is top of mind when they need services you can provide.
And where possible, you need build a captive audience, so that people who like you have a mechanism to come back to see what you’ve been up to and buy your services and products. Once you have won over their confidence, you will be able to tell them about what you’re selling daily/weekly/monthly, and it’s not a cold call/hard sell, because you already have a relationship.

And if they like you/your products and services, they will tell their friends about it, growing your fan base with little effort on your part. I was very shocked by how fast writers, editors and publishing professionals signed on for the Read SA campaign [568 fans in about six weeks]. But a large part of that was because there was an existing need, we were clear about how people who want to be involved could sign on, and current supporters were happy to tell people about the campaign.
Alison and Gaynor have also done really well building a captive audience through their discussion list. The list attracts transcription and VA professionals, and also builds their credibility in the eyes of the client. Because surely someone who can help newbies learn the business would also be able to apply those teachings in their own business?

So my challenge to you is this: what are you doing to build a following for your services and products?

Read more from Damaria Senne on her blog http://www.damariasenne.blogspot.com