There is an alternative to hiring staff.

There is an alternative to hiring staff.
By Dee Matheson

With all the tumult of the world wide economy, there are more and more smaller business owners and entrepreneurs who have seen opportunities and grabbed them with both hands. However, one thing that most of them did not think of at the time when launching their business, was all that admin. Many small to medium sized business owners get bogged down with the day to day running of their office and do not get enough time to focus on what is really important – making their business grow, networking and seeing clients.

 

Immediately there is the old school of thought  that “ I have to employ someone but I cannot afford a full time person with the type of experience that is needed and  I don’t have enough work to keep that person busy “. Yes, you can hire a temp but often you never get the same person and then you have to retrain each one. Where is the productivity in that? And you have to pay an agency fee.

 

The alternative is here in South Africa and not many business owners know about it. It is the Virtual Assistant. Yes, that is correct. Nowadays everything is done via email; Skype and the internet so why not use a Virtual Assistant as well?  A Virtual Assistant is a dream come true for small to medium size business owners. You would get a “secretary” with many years of experience that handles everything from answering the phone right up to sending out invoices and following up payments and only have to pay her for the hours she works.

 

What are the benefits to the business owner?

1.       Flexibility – available as and when needed. If you need 20 hours support one week but only 5 hours the following, a Virtual Assistant can do that.

2.       Pay only for the hours worked – as a Virtual Assistant is dependant on referrals and regular work flow, it’s in their best interest to complete your work as timeously and efficiently as possible. A virtual Assistant will provide you with an experienced service at an hourly rate.

3.       No need to pay employee taxes, benefits or office equipment – since a Virtual Assistant is not permanently employed, you don’t have to pay holidays, sick leave, maternity leave, taxes, training or even office equipment. A Virtual Assistant works remotely whenever you need her so you only pay for the work completed. No overheads as she will carry that herself.

4.       Match your requirements with a specific skill set – if you are looking for someone to transcribe legal or general documentation, look after all the invoicing or have something more specific in mind such as project management, search for someone with that skills set. By working with someone who matches your specific business needs, means you don’t have to ‘make do’ with someone unqualified again.

5.       No need to micro-manage – once you have delegated a project to your Virtual Assistant, you can focus entirely on other things safe in the knowledge that you willl receive the completed work back in time and error-free.

6.       Never miss a deadline – like you, a Virtual Assistant runs a business.  Your Virtual Assistant understands first-hand the importance of a good reputation. When you hand over work to your Virtual Assistant with a set deadline, that deadline will be met no matter what.

7.       Care about your business – your Virtual Assistant will understand the highs and lows, stresses and worries of running a business. They can provide you with support from a business perspective as well as an individual task level.  As your business grows, the likelihood is that so will your support requirements grow. By caring about your business and supporting you while you develop it further your Virtual Assistant will be your biggest support. She will have got to know your business and even use her initiative to help it along.

 

The biggest benefit is working with a Virtual Assistant that you will become to trust and whom you can build a solid working relationship with. Once you have found that person, you will have all the support you need to keep your business ticking over and reaching new heights.

 

For more information, contact Dee at info@dfm-virtualassistant.co.za or visit my website: www.dfm-virtualassistant.co.za.

Are You A Virtual Assistant With Integrity?

Are you a Virtual Assistant with Integrity?

By

 

Dee Matheson

 

Regardless of where you are in the world, you can reach out to anyone within seconds nowadays and there are a lot of untruths about Virtual Assistants making the rounds, which is rather disheartening. Social media has opened so many doors for our industry, but they can close just as fast with tales being spun that can cause irreparable harm.

Because of the way the world works now, more and more people are turning to an alternative source of income and those that are very good at being Secretaries and Personal Assistants, use their skills by opening up their own Virtual Assistant businesses from home. This is great for the industry but with so many newbies starting out, business and personal ethics sometimes flies right out of the window. Most veteran Virtual Assistants are very happy to help and point a newbie in the right direction, which is one of the wonderful things about our industry. But when these veteran Virtual Assistants get paid back by unethical newbies, it makes our industry suffer and nobody gains. Veteran Virtual Assistants will stop helping the newbies and then where will we be?

Query from a wannabe VA newbie

We received this query today:

Hi there

The term VA  is new to me! I never knew anything like it existed, but at the same time, it makes so much sense!

I read about it for the first time in a magazine this weekend.

It makes me feel like there is hope after all!

I am in a complete “limbo” situation at the moment.
·         45 Years old,
·          female,
·          never been married,
·          no children,
·          retrenched from a reasonably-paying management position just over a year ago (interior industry),
·         now in a much more “scaled- down position” (…. with a “scaled-down” salary to go with it),
·         never invested in property….
·         Not likely to inherit much
·         … and EXTREMELY concerned about my future …(I have literally 20 years to get myself together before I retire)

Trish Donmall owns Conor's Admin Services.
Here she chats about running her business AND having children.

A Day in The Life of a Virtual Assistant with Children

 

I often hear people say that they want to work from home to spend more time with their children, then when they do they are discouraged as the “extra” time they have at home doesn't always turn into more family time. I know there are quite a few out there that will relate to this.

 

Is the South African Market Ready for Virtual Assistants?

Is the South African Market Ready for Virtual Assistants?

By Dee Matheson

Trawling the internet and making contact with experienced Virtual Assistants in South Africa has given me some insight as to what I would need and how to get my Virtual Assistant business started, but what no-one tells you is how challenging it can be to get the concept of a Virtual Assistant across to entrepreneurs, especially here in South Africa.

In the US and UK, as well as the Far East, this concept has been around for many years and widely accepted. But in South Africa, very few businesses are aware of this phenomenon and so far there has only been very limited exposure and most of that has been word of mouth. I take my hat off to veteran Virtual Assistants like AlisonFourie and Gaynor Paynter.  How they have managed to start off and keep going for 12 years, is astonishing.

I attended the local Chamber of Commerce networking session yesterday, and during my little promotional speech, I was gobsmacked to see the ‘aha’ moment that happened with some entrepreneurs. Unfortunately many business owners are still under the misconception that if they have work, they need to employ someone permanently in a job and these people need to work in their office.

Here is a challenge to all the Virtual Assistants that belong to this forum, get out there and tell people about this business and note the ‘aha’ moment. This entrepreneur might not need you, but you have now sold the idea to him/her and they could pass on this concept to others. The more we talk about it, the more popular it will become and everyone will be a winner.

I am doing my bit, are you?

Dee Matheson's ability to communicate with people from all walks of life, handle various tasks simultaneously and produce a top notch result timeously every time is what makes her a perfect Virtual Assistant. Small to medium sized businesses cannot always afford an efficient, professional and loyal person with 30+ years of experience, so her reliable, flexible and “can do” attitude is waiting to help you.

 

Typing for Students

I thought I would repost this article as I am getting quite a few requests coming in from students looking for assistance in typing their Assignments.

When typing for students the first thing you need, whether doing copy typing, formatting or transcribing student files is the student’s guidelines from their professors on what they want the document to look like/layout, formatting etc. Each student receives the guidelines before they start writing up assignments.
Most students follow the Harvard Business methods and Academic writing methods with their assignements (there is copies of these documents in our Tavasa files online in our Yahoo group.

Referencing:
Referencing must be a specific way: (placing of brackets around references)
• start of a sentence, example: Malcolm Knowles (1984)
• middle of text, Lieb (1991: 1),
• end of a sentence, example: (Jarvis, 1987: 185)

University Professors are very fussy when it comes to references and students often get marked down on their referencing.
You can assist your student by checking that the references at the end in the reference list, link back to references within the document. With each reference listed within the text there must be a final reference for it at the end of the document in the reference list.

Example of Harvard Business method reference style:
Wayne, S., Liden, R. & Sparrowe, R. (2000). An examination of the mediating role of psychological empowerment on the relations between the job, interpersonal relationships, work outcomes. Journal of Applied Psychology, 85:407-416.
Put the book or journal title in italics the rest of the reference is not in italics.
The students, professor Guidelines will give you instructions on:
• Font
• Spacing
• Underline, Bold and Italics
• Justification
• Bullet points.

Your first page which is normally the student details, student number, title, the title page is normally not numbered, hidden number, your second page onward including table of content should be in roman numerals, then the page that your assignment, thesis, dissertation starts should be on the first page number 1, and carries on with ordinary page numbering.
Any tables, figures, drawing within your document, must be listed underneath the reference list at the end of the document. Each table, figure, drawing within the document must be named underneath or above it, example, Table 1, Graph of Trends, Table 2, Three Hats etc.
Underneath reference listing you should have:
List of Tables:
Table 1, Graph of Trends
Table 2, Three Hats

The same applies to appendices.

Make sure you proof and grammar check the assignments etc. At the end of your typing always read through your work to make sure you have missed nothing and reading through gives the addition of proofing after doing a spell and grammar check.
The one thing that I find it a hassle to use is Track Changes, I never seem to be able to switch it off and every time you open the document the track change come on, you then have to Review, and Final, this then closes Track Changes until the next time the document is opened.

If you want to add anything to this article or have additional comments please email me at amftyping@mweb.co.za or alison@amftyping.co.za, or skype: amftyping.