Wondering whether you can afford one more employee? Why not consider a Virtual Assistant for those duties you need performed?

With the help from a writer I invited to share with my readers,

Let’s compare cost differences between the two…

Here you are the entrepreneur with a business that is nicely taking off with the grace of an eagle … Your dream is now a reality. Your agenda is now overflowing with meetings, you are working 50 hours PLUS per week, paperwork is piling up, and you’re about to lose your mind!

The amount of work you have at hand is not only keeping you up at night, but also prevent you from playing golf with the boys next weekend or getting your nails done with the girls. So congratulations, you have just posted your new “help wanted” ad for a full time administrative position.

So, what are your options? Well, you can hire full time help, outsource your work to a Virtual Assistant, or keep doing the administrative work yourself!

Making the decision to hire full/part time help is the traditional way, but does it mean that this is your best choice? Do you really know what you are paying for?

Based on surveys done by Salary.com and America Online, the average base salary for an administrative assistant in the United States is $39,795.00 per year, or $19.13 calculated on an 8 hour per workday.

Again, from these surveys, workers admit to wasting an average of 1.15 hours per workday, which adds up to $5,720 per year, per worker in wasted salary dollars. You could have re-invested that money into your business!

In other words, if you hire an assistant at $39,795.00 per year, you can expect to loose $5,720 per year on wasted time!

Your second option is outsourcing your administrative work to a Virtual Assistant.
Now, what is a Virtual assistant, and how can she or he help you?

First and foremost, a virtual assistant is NOT an employee, but rather a self-employed professional that offers administrative support services from her or his own home office.

A virtual assistant is a full time partner that has a vested interest in the growth of your business and will work in collaboration with you towards the success of your company!

When you outsource to a virtual assistant you only pay for the work contracted out and not for idle time frittered away at your expense! How much will that cost you? Rates usually vary between $20.00 and $45.00 per hour, depending on the expertise required and the project at hand.

In addition, because you are outsourcing your work, you are saving on the following: payments made to Medicare, workers comp, administrative costs, recruitment, base salary, benefits, office space and furnishings, equipment, etc.

On the other hand, if you would still rather do the administrative work yourself, let us examine if your rate of return is really worth it.

You contract your services at a price of $150.00 per hour, and, in this past week, you have spent 5 hours of your precious time doing routine work at the office.
In other words, you just lost $750.00 doing the work by yourself.

Now, if you would outsource your work to a Virtual Assistant, let’s say at a medium price of $35.00 per hour, your cost would be $175.00 and you would realize a savings of $575.00.

All and all the decision seems simple to me. Which would you rather do? Hire full time help, and pay for wasted time and equipment? Keep on doing the work yourself and lose money and marketing time for your business, or maybe take the proven and affordable route of outsourcing your work and hiring a Virtual Assistant.

Remember a Virtual Assistant is a professional that will work with you… A Virtual Assistant is a collaborative partner, and his or her success is measured by your success!

thanks for letting me use this article, Alba Figueroa
inpro-va.com

So, what CAN a Virtual Assistant do for YOU? Your Virtual Assistant can do any number of office tasks which can be sent to her or him via emails, uploaded to a web host, downloaded from your site / blog / webinar or other means and do it all from her or his home office.

Some of the duties that I can perform for you are:

Proofreading your document, book, report, sales message, email communication, web site or blog or any other item that you need checked for grammar and spelling and word usage errors.

Editing those errors and changing the word or phrase or spelling, etc. as needed to make your written item as perfect as possible.

Transcription which is a typed up document of your webinar, interview or any other spoken / audio file.

( with MY transcription service, you get FREE proofreading and editing thrown in! )

Data Back-Up so that in case of computer info loss due to crash, virus or other catastrophe or because you just want to have all of your important data stored on cd’s, dvd’s and/or stored on another computer, your important and valuable downloads, reports, files, etc. will be safely stored elsewhere for you.

Customer Support which can be your own help desk type set up or customer service, run by a virtual staff.

Social Networking Help to help you manage your growing social networks with maintenance and updates plus doing searches with your criteria on who and what you want to be networking with and for.

Blogging Maintenance for updating, proofreading and editing and other tasks to do with your blog and then making sure it is seen and the updates are announced in various mediums.

And various assorted duties that can be worked out between us by my asking you to email me to Schedule a Project or let me know what you are looking for in a Virtual Assistant.

Why not check out my rates and feel free to read my testimonials from happy clients and I am sure we can work something out!

To your success!

Jan Tallent
Tallent Agency Virtual Assistance

For the potential Virtual Assistant

The life of a freelance worker before the Internet was very different from what it is today. In the past, any freelancer would need great mobility or spend hours on the phone, either asking for work or finding out WHO to contact for this endeavor. In order to get around to pitch yourself to potential customers, you would require boundless energy and an ability to deal with being told “no” face to face or over the phone. So much of freelancing is about speculation, after all. You could try to sell yourself a hundred times and could be told “no” a hundred times. Although the Internet offers no guarantees of acceptance, it does make things a bit more equal for the freelancer.

There are many sites on the Internet that offer the opportunity for freelancers to pitch to potential customers on specific jobs – a searchable database means that you can even check for jobs that match up perfectly with your own specific skills and abilities. You can name your price and tell the customer how quickly you can turn a job around. The days of having to get out there, pound the pavement and then be told “sorry, we’re not interested” are more or less over. Not to mention that the Internet provides a truly monumental research tool for the jobs that require a bit of extra knowledge. The internet is nothing less than a launch pad from which to set your career in motion.

For the potential CLIENT

Outsourcing Using the Internet

Sometimes in business, as skilled as you may be, there are things that you are unable to do. A customer will come through with a very specific task and, although you will be able to do most of it, there may be a part of the job that poses you problems and prevents you from completing the task. In this respect, it may often seem that you will have to turn down the opportunity. But that is not necessarily the case. With the Internet at your fingertips, you have ready access to a skills base that means you can complete on that job even if some of the work is outside your own skill or time reach. Welcome to outsourcing or using a Virtual Assisant.

Thinking of it as a non-Internet situation for the moment, imagine that you are an interior decorator who specialises in hanging wallpaper, painting and plastering. It may just be that a job comes through that involves all of that, plus laying a hardwood floor. You’re good, but you’re not experienced in laying down floors. With the use of some contacts, you could pay for the services of a person who is capable and experienced in that part of the job. By paying them to take those duties on, you can accept the job and move forward.

There are many workers out there who do business via the Internet, and to contact them all you need to do is pick up the phone. If you cannot complete a job all by yourself, but it will pay well, there is no need to give up. Just log on, find a contact and get the job done.

Jan Tallent
Tallent Agency Virtual Assistance

Jan Tallent is the owner of Tallent Agency Virtual Assistance for 11 years, a marketing and small business online newsletter for going on 10 years, an internet marketer for my own digital products PLUS tangible products and an avid social networker . I also have an eBay store so stay pretty busy 10 to 12 hours per day, mostly on my computer and the net.

I am concentrating my VA biz on proofreading , editing and transcriptions as these are my favorite assignments to take on and where my strengths lie. If you are in need of these or any of my other Virtual Assistance services, send me a message and we can Talk about and schedule your project or projects .

The Virtual Assistant Transcriptionist

Audio and video media are becoming commonplace in online business. It is easier to record this way for later use. Businesses will need the services of a virtual assistant to turn the recorded media into print.

Medical professionals have used Dictaphone and dictating services for a long time. Doctors later have their notes transcribed for patient and hospital records. The same goes for legal proceedings. It is more convenient to use a recording device and later create a written copy.

The Market

Online businesses have found ways to market their products with audio and video. Tutorials, how-tos and interviews are uploaded to websites for viewing and hearing. But, we all know that sometimes you can’t always understand what is being said. That requires the need for a transcribed record of the recording.

Just like movies , audio and video can be translated into other languages to increase your marketing efforts. Many business owners would like to do that but they don’t know how to transcribe or translate. They need the help of a professional like a virtual assistant well versed in transcription and translation.

Transcribing recordings is not as easy as you might think. As a virtual assistant transcriptionist your clients will not have to struggle with this issue. Using your transcription software, you will be able to handle all sorts of recordings for them using the format that they choose for the written copy.

Some of your services can include:

• Medical Transcription
• Legal Transcription
• Video Transcription
• Podcast Transcription
• Transcription Translation
• Audio transcription for business meetings

Clients can email their work to you as audio or video files according to what file extensions you accept. They may even want to mail CDs or tapes for non-rush jobs. Depending on their needs, you can provide verbatim transcription or cleaned-up transcription that is grammatically correct.

For the virtual assistant transcriptionist who is also fluent in another language, you can offer translation services to your clients. This gives them the opportunity to expand their customer base with products for non-English speaking customers. Each area of transcription can become a sub-niche if you want to specialize further. Medical or legal transcription alone can turn into a lucrative business.

Transcription services are one area that a virtual assistant can specialize in as a business idea. As more and more online businesses use other media as marketing tools, they will need the skill of a transcriptionist and even a translator for their work.

Jan Tallent
Tallent Agency Virtual Assistance

p.s. I attended Rolla Institute in Rolla, MO and took a course in Computerized Medical Office Technology. With this course I was given extensive training IN medical transcriptions, which I must admit was the hardest but also most rewarding class I have ever undertaken!