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.

Internet Research as a Service to offer Clients

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.

Survey

Hi all we have loaded a survey onto our Facebook page in the interests of trying to assimilate information about our industry here in South Africa.

It's here:  http://www.facebook.com/TAVASASouthAfrica?v=app_164167473601477&

Please all go and take it. You are going to have to like the page first :-)

What does a client look for when looking for assistance with a task?

What does a client look for when looking for assistance with a task?

This article is part of TAVASA's ongoing education campaign to clients and VAs in South Africa. 

By Alison Fourie

As a client what do you look for when you want assistance with a typing task? Are you looking for the cheapest assistance you can find or are you looking for someone with the experience needed to do the task you require?

Let me use the two common tasks that Virtual Assistant offer to clients: Typing and Transcription Services.

Do you as the client, care about how your work is done, if so, then price can be the object, but not the deciding factor in getting assistance, you will look for someone with the experience to assist you, and you must have the confidence in that person that they can do the job the way you would like it done. It is much better to go with the person with the experience you need for the task that you require the VA to do for you. If you send transcription to a person with very little experience in this skill you will end up having to resend your work to someone else to redo and finish it. Ask the VA about their experience, ask how long they have been doing this skill, ask do they proof read and spell check their work as not everyone does, it sometimes is not part of the job for some people to check what they are doing.

Do you want your typing done at the cheapest possible price, does getting the job done as cheap as you can, mean that the service quality will not be as it would be with someone with experience. Any can offer typing and transcription services but what is their experience.

If I was looking for someone to assist me I would look at the experience that person has in the skills they offer. If I required a job done urgent, I would look to the person’s skill and experience. Clients require a transcriptionist to assist them and often this task is urgent but they want to pay the least amount of money for this task. Transcription is a skill that has been learnt and perfected by transcriptionist’s. Transcription is not typing it is more involved, using listening, concentration, sentence construction, layout, punctuation etc skills. You have to know where to put in your punctuation etc. This is a task you cannot just give to anyone at the cheapest possible price if you do you must expect to get the service from the person that the price dictates. An experienced transcriptionist will not offer to do your work for a cheap price as she knows what is involved with that work, she knows the time it will take to complete and she will provide a quality service to you.

Ask the VA or Transcriptionist how long she has been doing this task, ask has she experience in transcribing focus groups, have they transcribed court cases. If there is more involved within your typing than just plain copy (coping text), if there is graphs involved, flow diagrams ask the VA has she experience in this. You have a problem if you assume they can do this and then send them work that they cannot complete as they don’t know how to do a flow diagram and then they send you back a flow diagram as a scanned image, is this what you want, often no its not, often you want that diagram to fit nicely within your document so you want it created, not everyone has this experience. 

Alison Fourie is a South African VA, the first certified VA within South Africa and owns her business AMF Typing

You have been asked by a potential client to type up a manual, they ask you for a quote, what do you do?

The article below was written by Alison Fourie of AMF Typing as part of TAVASAs ongoing campaign to educate both clients and VAs on the ins and outs of the VA industry. 

You have been asked by a potential client to type up a manual, they ask you for a quote, what do you do?

It’s easy to quote on something, to just toss out a price, but is that price right? What is involved with the actual task? Not all copy typing is simply copy typing like the clients say.

You will often find there can be graphics, internet research that is required, tables, graphs, scanning that is required. You might have to go and find graphics through Google images, and that is time taking, finding the right graphic can be costly using your adsl or 3G.

Often copy typing is not simple copy typing and we need to think of this when quoting for just so much per page for copy typing. There is no reason why a client can’t send you an example if they want the work done properly, if the clients simply refuse and ask for a quote with very little information, is that the client you want you want to work with, as often that work will end up taking a lot of time.

With each quote you need to get as much detail as possible. Find out what the content of the typing actually is. A flow diagram within a document could take you a few hours to do just that one page so is typing at a per page rate really the right way to go on a document that has graphics, flows, tables within. Graphs are time taking, you may have to go into excel and do the graph in there and then import it to your document. Its things like this that takes time. Also don’t forget that after the typing is finished you also must proofread and check that your document is laid out nicely, so make sure you build this time into your quote price.

What about when the document is finished and you send it back to the client and the client sends it back with major changes, how do you handle this, do you do it for free or do you put a price to changes. Here I would charge an hourly rate, to cover client edits, some documents can come back and forward a few times and that is taking up your time to do the changes so you can’t really just charge a per page rate for comebacks/editing.

Another thing I never, never send a document back to the client as a PDF file unless that client specifies they want a pdf file. Few clients will ask for this, most clients want a word, PowerPoint or excel file back as sometimes they want to do the changes themselves once the main body of the document is done. Don’t think that sending the document back as a pdf file means that the client will send it back to you for every change they need, they can simple convert it back to a workable file through software available. So this is no guarantee that the work will come back to you.

Always check with the client and ask first will there be updates, changes to the document and how would they like to handle this, have this question on your form of requirements for the client so that it is addressed by the client.

Ask for as much detail as possible that is your right before putting in a quote to any client. Quoting blindly will often backfire on you.

Your comments on the above article are welcome.

Alison Fourie is a comoderator of Tavasa, is the first Certified VA within South Africa and owns her own business AMF Typing. 

The transcription and VA industries in South Africa from a client’s point of view.

The transcription and VA industries in South Africa from a client’s point of view.

Tavasa - Transcriptionists and VAs of South Africa through the auspices of AMF Typing and Typewrite Transcription and Typing Services CC is embarking on an awareness campaign to make South Africans in general more aware of our industries.

There will be a series of articles published on this blog over the coming weeks in order to facilitate this.

I have been in the virtual industry since 2005. In fact, I first had the idea of a secretarial service in 2000, and tried it for a while, but back in those days we were stuck with dial up internet, and a whole host of other constraints that made working in the virtual field nearly impossible. I went back to work for a boss for five years, and then in 2005, with the advent of ADSL in South Africa, I was able to get my virtual business going.  In those days, we had ADSL, Google was not a big deal, and neither Facebook nor blogging was something that anybody did with any regularity. But the internet was there, and I was able to pick up clients quite quickly.

Fast forward until today when the trend is that many businesses register a Facebook account and build a business page before getting a traditional website, and such things as cyber schools are available, and popular in countries like the United States.

Here is the thing though. I have come to understand that in South Africa, many people just aren’t aware or aren’t very trusting that this new way of doing business exists.  A further constraint is that it’s the trend within South African virtual workers to take a low price for work that they do. On the reverse side of the coin, I’m not saying that one must overcharge.  We must not. But the low prices charged or accepted by South African workers has led to the reputation that South African virtual workers can be obtained much cheaper than our international counterparts. And when we try to charge rates the same as those of American or British workers, we come in for flak from the potential client, even though the work we provide is the same quality as that provided by them. How do we counteract this reputation?

A)     We continue to provide quality service

B)      We charge fair rates and stick to them

C)      We educate the business world that we exist and provide a good service

From the client’s perspective, it is rather scary embarking on doing things in a new way, a way in which they have not worked before. Therefore, it’s important to provide references, provide a quality look and feel and bring across the security of a professional presentation. Meet deadlines. Be communicative. Don’t let the client down.  Visibly advertise your services. Tell people about what you’re doing. Attend networking meetings and tell the world that there is a way of doing things that they may not have considered. Invite them to see your home office. Often in South Africa there is the mindset among virtual workers and clients that we are just secretaries. This is not true. We are not secretaries. We are business owners, who provide an administrative function. There is a big difference, but if we want businesses to treat us with respect, we have to demand it from them.  Remember that your client is looking for stability, for surety, to be safe in the knowledge that if he sends his work out into the big wide open, it’s going to get done properly and in time. This relationship is like any other – it has to be built up with communication and trust.

There are many questions that potential clients could have, for example what kind of service can be done virtually, what guarantees they have, etc, etc. Be as open and as communicative as possible. You can tell them that the types of services we can provide are typing, transcription, proofreading, editing, tables, graphic design, and many many more.

If you  are a potential client reading this post, there are things you too can do to ensure the mutual feasibility of this type of relationship. Send the work when you say you're going to. Acknowledge quotes received and let the virtual worker know if you accept or not. Pay when you say you're going to. Let the person know if there have been problems or if he or she has done good work. 

Anybody who has any questions is more than welcome to contact me via our Facebook page. 

Gaynor Paynter is a transcriptionist, writer and proofreader

Typewrite Transcription and Typing Services CC

Cell: +27834424689

Websites:

Typewrite Transcription

Typewrite Blog

TAVASA Cofounder and Moderator

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Time to nominate Exceptional Virtual Assistant for Prestigious Industry Awards

Nominations are now being accepted for international Virtual Assistant Industry prestigious honors, the Janet Jordan Achievement and Thomas Leonard Virtual Assistant of Distinction Awards, scheduled to be presented as part of the 7th annual Online International Virtual Assistants Convention (OIVAC)
The nominee for the Janet Jordan Achievement Award should be a VA who has been in business for less than 5 years and has reached a business milestone. This milestone needs to be an accomplishment that has helped to boost their business to be an overwhelming success.

The Thomas Leonard Virtual Assistant of Distinction Award honors a Virtual Assistant who has been in business for at least 5 years and who has contributed to the industry in such a way that it has provided a positive impact on many others and helped them build a successful business.

Nominees are VAs who “Exemplify the spirit of the Virtual Assistant Industry with their contributions to their clients and to the Industry as a whole”.

To nominate a Virtual Assistant for these Awards, submit the nomination form located at http://bit.ly/FOmacs by Saturday, April 15, 2012. Awards announcement and ceremony is scheduled for Friday, May 18, 2012 during International Virtual Assistants Day celebration.

To find out more about OIVAC, the IVAD Celebration Awards and/or to register for the Convention, click these links.

Gaynor Paynter is a moderator again

Hi everybody just to notify you that I (Gaynor Paynter from Typewrite Transcription and Typing Services CC) have again become a moderator of the Transcriptionists and Virtual Assistants of South Africa Forum (TAVASA) after a leave of absence of a while. My huge thanks to Alison Fourie for her continued support, it's a pleasure to be a comoderator with you again. Email tavasa@yahoogroups.com to join up to the forum.

Quote for the Day

"Never continue in a job you don't enjoy. If you're happy in what you're doing, you'll like yourself, you'll have inner peace. And if you have that, along with physical health, you will have had more success than you could possibly have imagined."    ~Johnny Carson~

Tips for Newbie Transcriptionists

PRODUCING HIGH QUALITY TRANSCRIPTS

I suggest that you join a forum aimed at VAs and transcriptionists. For South Africans I would recommend TAVASA. Working from home can be a lonely experience and trying to sort out technical problems can be very daunting. By joining a forum you will be in contact with people who understand exactly what is required and can assist with questions.

Best of all, this is where the more established people post their requests for assistance with overflow work. Having secured a shot at subcontracting this overflow work bear the following in mind:

• Obtain a template from the contractor and STICK to it – every comma, every underlining, every space. Do not get creative and do not try to improve on the template.

• Often the contractor will send a sheet through with his or her typing preferences and requirements. Read it carefully before you start typing and again before you proof your work and ensure you abide by the instructions.

• Communicate – if you are having problems with the recording it may be a bad recording. On the other hand, if you are the only typist experiencing problems then it is probably an incorrect setting or your equipment may be faulty. The only way to find out is by asking the contractor about the recording quality. Do not go merrily ahead and turn in a transcript littered with [unclear], [inaudible], etcetera.

• Make notes as you go, especially for names and words that you are not sure of. Should these become clear as the transcript progresses, it makes it easy and quick to do a global replacement.

• Proof your work thoroughly. Put those earphones on and go through the whole transcript – this is time-consuming and quite often expensive – it takes a long time to type your very first transcription and it can be quite discouraging in terms of your hourly rate, but you would be amazed at what you pick up on the second run-through. Words previously indecipherable will be clear once you are familiar with the context of the transcript.

• Spell and grammar check – spell checking is an absolute requirement but adding the grammar check function is very useful in picking up mistakes other than typos. Bear in mind that transcription is usually rendered verbatim and the most common grammar mistakes are made in speech. Do not be tempted to tidy up the speaker’s grammar unless specifically requested to do so.

• Google is your friend. If, for instance, you pick up a name and a designation but not the company name, chances are you will find it on Google. Many terms are industry-related or, in the case of medical transcription, the names of patent drugs, etcetera, are unfamiliar to most people. It is not enough to spell a word phonetically, add a question mark and move on. In the long run your efforts will be rewarded.

• Ask questions. We were all new at this once and I believe we would rather answer a dozen seemingly insignificant questions rather than receive a badly-typed transcript.

The above steps are very, very important. It is as well to remember that not only do contractors offer the jobs that will get you started as a transcriptionist but that they often recommend – or not – typists to other contractors. Shoddy work will put a halt to your career before you start. Commit to producing high quality transcription from day one.



Michele Johanson is based in Cape Town and owns Good Hope Transcription and Typing Services http://goodhopetranscription.weebly.com which offers general and legal transcription, typing, article and content writing and editing/proofreading functions. Recently we have added recording of small meetings to our profile.

How to collect Overdue Payments by Damaria Senne

Word Count: 745 Words

One of the problems facing small business owners is the issue of collecting payments for services rendered. The small business owner may find that while the clients are eager to use her services, their enthusiasm tends to lag when it comes to paying the bills. The following are some of the strategies which could help ensure that your don’t have this problem in the first place:

1. Bill effectively

One of the most effective methods of ensuring that your customers pay in time is to bill them effectively. Every invoice you send should be very clearly marked as an invoice should include a unique invoice number, the name of the person who authorized the purchase and their company order number. Your invoice should also include when payments is due (for example, payment due in 30 days or something). You may also want to offer an incentive for paying earlier. For example, offer a 5% discount for payments within 15 days.

2. Know your customers accounts staff

It’s to your advantage to know who is in charge of accounts payable at your customers company. That way, you know who to send the invoice to. Call them three days later to confirm that they received. During this call, ask whether the invoice was received, if there are any queries regarding the items purchased and the prices, and then ask when you will be able to collect the cheque. Your conversation should be friendly queries, they should be addressed immediately.

3. Review your ageing report on a weekly basis

Your reports should specify your current debtors, those over 30 days, 60 days and 90 days. Should current client not have paid you within the 30 day period, call and enquire about the cheque.

Despite your best efforts there are clients may lag in payments, allowing their account to be 60 days, even 90 days overdue. Here are a few strategies which may help you collect from them:

Call clients who are over the 30- day period

One of the biggest mistakes you can make is to have conversation deteriorate to:

‘Hello, its Jill from Craft Planet. I wanted to find out if our cheque for $750 is ready?’

‘No, it’s not. Sorry.’

‘Okay. Tell me when it is.’

You could be very lucky, and they would call you in a day or two to tell you that the cheque is ready. But if you dealing with a troublesome client, you will wait for a very long time.

So, when you make your call, establish whether the cheque is ready (no it’s not), when it will be ready, (ask for a specific date. An answer like we normally issue cheques on the 25th of each month will do) and then make it clear that you will call the day after to confirm that it is ready. Should they tell you that they pay by electronic transfer check the day after the payment was supposed to be made, and should there be a discrepancy, call them again to find out why. Yes, it’s work, but persistence is the only thing that will help you get your money.

Keep detailed records

For each customer call, enter the collection (or accounting) notes recording who you spoke to, and when they said the cheque would be ready. Where possible, set the recall date for the day before the cheque is due.

Stick to your guns

On the surface, negotiating with a client whose payments are overdue seems like offering him an incentive to pay his bills fast and thus, you get some money in. However, you are in effect, setting a precedent, and next time he buys something for you, he may let the account become overdue again, knowing that in your desperation to get money in, you will give him another discount. Also, you will acquire a reputation for your willingness to bargain payments down. Can you afford it?

Returned (undelivered) invoices and/ form letters

These must b investigated as to appropriate address. If a more appropriate address can be found, the customer master record must be changed to reflect it. In addition, the return of the mail as “undeliverable” and/ or “change of address” should be noted in the customer’s collection notes

Use outside collection services

If all else fails, use an outside collection service. Many are willing to work on a commission bass.