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:

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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.

Gender Violence

http://www.shukumisa.org.za/

16 Days of Activism Against Gender Violence, more information to follow

"Violence against women both violates and impairs or nullifies the enjoyment by women of their human rights and fundamental freedoms... In all societies, to a greater or lesser degree, women and girls are subjected to physical, sexual and psychological abuse that cuts across lines of income, class and culture."

—Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action, paragraph 112

Minute Taker

TAVASA is looking for a minute taker to work in Pretoria on Monday 31 May. You MUST have minute taking experience and preferably shorthand. Apply to me gaynorpay@gmail.com.

If you take us seriously, we'll take you seriously.

Michele Johanson (http://goodhopetranscription.weebly.com) runs a transcription business from home,and, when not pounding the keyboard for her daily bread, writes articles on the more domestic arts, cooking and gardening in particular. Thank you to Michele for the following informative article.

One of the drawbacks of working from home is the difficulty of getting serious clients who are willing to pay what you are worth.

I enjoy working from home as a transcriptionist and I have good and loyal clients who make it possible but how does one deal with the demands of people like this?

This was posted on Get a Freelancer today:
“I need only serious transcribers who can finish up the project by today. There is totally 3 hours of audio. You can be a team or person. But you must follow the below points strictly and there wont be any excuses:-

You must finish the project with in 5-6 hours It should be with 100% accuracy
Pay will be $7 or $8 per audio hour depending on quality (If you are not accepting for this bid, then please dont apply). The completed file should be proofread, spellchecked, formatted, grammar checked etc.

There will be a continuous flow of work if you finish this successfully. Note that turnaround time is very important. Once you place your bid be online. I will hire within 2-3 hours and you should have me the files back within 5-6 hours.”

Downloading 3 hours of audio could take several hours alone. A professional transcriptionist allows approximately four hours to complete one hour’s worth of audio, and that’s just the typing. Spell-checking and proofreading is a given and is included in the rate but could somebody please tell me how to check the grammar on audio? Surely the whole point of transcription is to produce a verbatim report? I do tweak here and there, particularly if I’m transcribing a foreigner, but limit it to replacing words like ‘choosen’ with ‘chosen’. If a client specifically asks me to fix the English I have more leeway, but even then I make an effort to stick to the original.

The above-quoted job provider is particularly arrogant and unrealistic but unfortunately there are many people that think that because we run our businesses from home we are not doing a “real job” and want to pay accordingly, or not at all. The following quote was taken from clientsfromhell.wordpress.com: “ … and by the way, I can’t afford to pay you for this job, but you will be paid in karma — which is so much better and more permanent anyway.” Better for whom? Can you eat karma?
We do real jobs and provide real quality. We pay our own overheads and work long hours and stick to our deadlines.

Sadly, there will be takers for this position but they are unlikely to have English as their first language and the job provider will get what she is paying her two dollars (or less) an hour for. I would love to see what she ends up with.
michelejohanson@yahoo.com
http://goodhopetranscription.weebly.com

3 Reasons you should promote your business on Public Holidays

Thank you so much to Damaria Senne, a Johannesburg based writer, for this guest post.

3 Reasons You Should Promote Your Business On Public Holidays

Valentine’s Day is almost here and as you know, many vendors are offering specials and discounts to entice their customers to buy something. As a transcriptionist /and VA, what are you offering your clients/potential clients to encourage them to do business with you? What message are you communicating to your clients about your ability and willingness to meet their needs??

As those of you who are members of the Yahoo discussion forum are aware, I have been writing articles about love, romance and Valentine’s Day for the past couple of days and will continue to do so until Sunday 14th February. And you may have assumed that it makes sense for me to make a big deal about the holiday because I write about love and sex and relationships for the OneLove Regional Campaign (www.onelovesouthernafrica.org). On the other hand, what does a VA and/transcriptionist have to do with Valentine’s Day, or Easter Weekend or Diwali?
Quite a bit, actually.

1. Each holiday has significance to a certain group of people and those people are your potential clients.

Which means that vendors who serve them for that holiday may become exceptionally busy. For example, during the Easter weekend, many church groups have intensive conferences, workshops, excursions and programmes. Are you targeting churches in your area right now to find out what they may need come Easter? if they’re going to have a conference, who’s developing their weekend programme brochure?

Many families with children also going on school holidays. Some of these parents may be business owners. Are you talking to them about providing tailor-made VA services so work in their business can continue to get done in their absence?

How are you going to clients that sell Easter-related products and services to be more efficient?

2. Holidays are a good excuse to promote your products and services anew.
Sure, you can have your own angle to promote your services, but why not pick up the low-hanging fruit too and use the opportunities public holidays provide?

3. You are indirectly reminding your clients to get on with their own promotions.
As I previously mentioned, Valentine’s Day is almost here, so most people have already planned and implemented whatever promotion plans they had. But there are many other holidays coming up, and if you plan early, you’ll remind your clients to also get the first worm. Which may very well make you a rock star VA/ transcriptionist in their eyes.

So what are you waiting for? Start planning for the next holiday!

Author bio

Damaria Senne is a writer based in Johannesburg. For the past year, she has been helping her clients create web site and build online communities, which include Kwanda (http://kwanda.ning.com ) and the OneLove Regional Campaign (www.onelovesouthernafrica.org ). Learn more about her and her projects at http://damariasenne.blogspot.com

Haiti disaster

Hello everyone, TAVASA wishes to express its condolences to the people of Haiti after the terrible earthquakes and subsequent loss of life.

South Africans can help by donating to Gift of the Givers

Please show the giving spirit of South Africans in general and TAVASAites in particular.

Outsource your tweeting and blog posts

Hi everyone,

"Social media" was one of the watch phrases of 2009. It has become one of the most important marketing tools of our time and making use of it correctly is a necessity for the survival of businesses today.

Yet, like everything else, it is time consuming. How many times have you been in your car or another environment where it's not possible to get to the internet, and have thought to yourself "oh I must tweet or blog about such and such a thing", only for the thought to drop from your mind, never to return?

Imagine how easy it would be to note your ideas down or to make a digital recording of that thought or dictate your blog post as you are on your long commute, send it to your transcriptionist to type up, and have it placed on the relevant social network without having to do this work yourself - and freeing yourself up to handle your core business, or to simply relax.

Make the most of this opportunity by outsourcing this work to me. - Gaynor gpaynter@telkomsa.net

Originally published by Gaynor Paynter on www.typewritetranscription.co.za

Prepare now for a busy time

Hello everybody and happy new year! Hoping that 2010 is going to bring the best of everything!

This week is probably a good time to get everything in order that you haven't already attended to - open new files for 2010, do final marketing, finish off small adhoc jobs that you may have, etc.

In the transcription field things already are very busy, with queries streaming in and I'm advising everyone to ensure that they have all their procedures in place for full steam ahead next week! January 2010 is upon us and it's going to be a good year!

Tavasa Logo Competition

Design a new logo to reflect Tavasa in 2010 Competition.
Competition closes 25th December, new logo to be presented on 1st January 2010, there will be an article about the designer and on why you choose the design which will be featured on Tavasa, website/blog and we will send out as a press release and submit as an article on many sites online giving good exposure to designer.
Anyone can do this in ms word/powerpoint, paint or desk top publishing software. You can send as many entries as you like. Entries to be submitted to info@tavasa.co.za or can be sent to myself/Gaynor. We welcome all entries.