Typing Sense

I've just been busy proofing a transcription from a subcontractor and I amazed, shocked and appaled at the lack of sense that the report makes. Granted I had to listen to it a couple of times, which is a whole other ballgame, but please if you're typing at least read what you're typing to see that it makes some sort of sense in the context of what you are typing.

Some of my all time classics (bearing in mind that I do medical dictation) have been:

1. The person who changed gender about 5 times in the space of a dictation of 1 minute.
2. The person who had a short leg cast of his arm (now surely even with no knowledge whatsoever you can all work out what's wrong with that one).
3. The person who had a Chief Comlaint of a Right wrist fracture who had a Left short arm cast placed.

Like I say those are just a couple and are all medical related but I think you now all get the idea of what I'm talking about.

If you're a Virtual Assistant (VA) starting out in business please remember to factor in time to proof read your reports when quoting to clients.

How to Manage your Outlook Inbox with Rules

If you're finding that your inbox is becoming too cluttered and you're struggling to find your important emails then you really need to set up rules to help you manage them.

Setting up rules in Outlook is very easy, quick and will work on all the existing messages that you have already in your inbox.

There are some very simple easy steps that you need to take to set up rules:

1. Go to Tools, Rules and Alerts,
2. This will then open up another dialogue box where you select the various options to manage your messages. You can select it to work on a certain email address, a certain person or with certain words in the subject or sender email address.
3. Once there you select where you want to move the emails to, you can create a new folder from here as well.
4. Once you've set up all the rules you need/want, if you click Run Rules Now, and this will process all of the existing emails in your inbox.
5. Once complete click OK and all future emails will be sorted out according to the rules you've created.

New Virtual Assistants and there cashflow crisis

As a new Virtual Assistant (VA) you willl often have problems with cash flow until you're up and running and making a regular income.

As a new VA though, when you take on your first few clients and until you have built up a relationship with them it might very well be worth asking for anywhere between 50 and 100% upfront for the work that you are due to undertake. While this may seem stiff it is a lifesaver for many a VA.

While not guaranteed a client who has to part with some or all of their money to get a project off the ground are likely to be more reliable to work with than one who is concerned about paying you anything upfront.

The main thing though is to trust your instincts and if something doesn't seem right about a Request for Service then before you get involved in the nitty gritty of preparing a quote why not run it past some more experienced VAs and see what they have to say, they may well have had dealings with the perspective client and be able to give you some good feedback on them.

Admin Processes

Sorry, I haven't posted for a couple of weeks, but I've been busy updating my website.
While the aim of a Virtual Assistant (VA) is to provide office support to others in many forms of admin, it's very important that the VA doesn't forget abou their own admin policies and procedures.

If as you are starting out you create a plan for your admin processes, i.e. you invoice your clients on 25th of the month, you spend an hour a day marketing, and half an hour a day filing etc, then as you business grows and expands those policies will be easy to maintain and keep you on top of the all essential admin.Your clients won't be very impressed if they get invoiced on 20th this month, 30th next month and anytime in between the third month, it just shows that you are incapable of staying on top of your own admin procedures.

While filing may not be the thing you really enjoy doing, if you don't keep on top of it on a regular basis you will find yourself swamped under paper and unable to lay your hand on that vital file when your client requires it.

While the procedures should not be carved in stone they should at least be a start point for you to work from, as and when you get busier.

A New Career for 2010

Are you an experienced administrator or Personal Assistant looking for a new challenge, or are you struggling to get into the field. If so, you could consider becoming a Virtual Assistant (VA). There are many different definitions for what a Virtual Assistant actually is but a broad definition as taken from the Virtual Assistant Networking website is as follows: A Virtual Assistant (or VA) is a solopreneur who specializes in providing ongoing, one-on-one, collaborative-style administrative support. Like other professional service providers, Virtual Assistants operate remotely from their own places of business and utilize today's technology to deliver their services and communicate with clients. Virtual Assistants are first and foremost administrative experts. Virtual Assistants sometimes offer additional, separate specialties that fall under creative and/or technical services. Having a look at this definition it is clear that not all VA’s are equal. All VA’s will carry with them a different set of skills that they are able to provide to their clients. Among the many services that are offered routinely by VA’s are transcription and typing services, data entry, web site design and maintenance, drafting of presentations, diary management, project management, internet research, proof reading and many more. The skills and services that you offer as a VA are directly linked to the skills that you have and are comfortable offering. It is possible, and many VA’s do start their business as a part time, additional business while holding down a full time job. This obviously initially places limitations on the services that they are able to offer. Once comfortable it is possible to increase the size of your business and also ultimately say goodbye to your existing full time job. While working from home as your own boss may seem idyllic there are many considerations that you need to take into account. The first and foremost thing that you need to consider is your own ability to manage your own time. If you are capable of ignoring the glorious day outside when you have a deadline to make then you can consider the option of working as a VA. If you get distracted at the drop of a hat then you may wish to consider doing a time management course before considering this as a career.