Posts Tagged ‘customer service’

To Specialize or Not, as a Virtual Assistant

Tuesday, May 25th, 2010

Tallent Agency VA Services
When I decided to move my home based office services business
forward to the now popular Virtual Assistance niche, I saw a lot
of advice both for and against specializing my services.

Knowing where my strengths lie and where I have NO expertise,
I decided that specializing was the way for ME, personally, to go.

It is like when I worked in the *real world* as a Kelly Girl, which was a huge employer
for temporary office help, I only accepted assignments for file clerk, receptionist or general office. I could DO many office tasks but either did not feel qualified or frankly, did not WANT to perform several of the jobs that were offered to me.

I turned down several office management job offers although I was qualified TO do
the jobs – I instead opted to train someone else to fulfill the duties for those jobs.
I did not want the responsibility of running the offices and preferred to have set tasks
to perform daily as apposed to being in charge of staff and the stress that I saw coming with those jobs.

This said, there are Virtual Assistance services that I cannot do or do not want to do.
So I am concentrating on my strengths, which are:

Proofreading

Editing

Transcription

Social Network Assistance

Research

Because each client is as different in his or her way of wanting things done
as each office is, I am constantly in training as I work with each person.
Since I love to work and love to learn, this is a great business for me to be in.

Kind of like when I had temp jobs with Kelly Girl, I am responsible to get my portion
of the work done but ultimately NOT having the headaches and stresses of the business owner. Of course, I do still have those with my OWN businesses, but that is another story.

Since I know that most of us are feeling this money crisis, to both ensure that I can work steadily and to help the budget of potential clients, I have come up with my retainer plans. This can be of huge benefit to those who need my services but cannot afford, or do not want to spend, my hourly fees. I have beaten every other reputable deal I could find
in my specialties to achieve this.

Here are my Retainer Services – Paid in advance ONLY:

* Proofreading, Editing, Social Networking Assistance, Help Desk Assistance,
Email Account Maintenance, Blog Posting, Web Page updates, Submitting your Blogs
& Articles to directories, etc. can be retained weekly or monthly to save you money
and assure continual work flow.

* Ten hours per week $15 per hour = $150

* Fifteen hours per week $13 per hour = $199

* Twenty hours per week $11 per hour = $220

* You can use your entire retainer fee on one project
OR mix them up in any categories as needed

* Monthly retainer of at least 20 hours per week, EVERY week,
booked and paid in advance for a month at a time = $10 per hour.
Limited to TWO monthly retainer clients.


Click here to schedule a retainer project
.

Remember, I am a Virtual Assistant who LOVES to do editing,
proofreading and transcription assignments!

Jan Tallent
Tallent Agency Virtual Assistance

573-775-4520 jan@tallentagency.com

Your Virtual Assistant can do your research for you

Friday, May 21st, 2010

Tallent Agency VA Services
One of my duties or tasks as a Virtual Assistant is doing research
for my clients.

I have checked out several categories of businesses, found tax
and law information, researched people, places and things and
much more in the research capacity.

I like to first do a search in google, followed by one in MyPoints search bar
and it is amazing what one or the other might have that I would miss if
I stuck with just one search engine or method.

I first started out doing research for clients when a fellow eBay seller needed someone
to do the listings on her eBay Store and wanted some original descriptions and different pictures than were the standard “stock” info that eBay supplies.

I now do this for my own eBay Store where I sell popular and hard to find books,
movies and memorabilia.

I have also helped a client who has an eZine find compatible articles, digital products
and other content for his newsletter.

I do a lot of research myself for my Health & Wellness Blog and luckily, there is a huge wealth of information on the Internet, all you need is the patience ( and time ) to look
for it OR a Virtual Assistant who can do it for you.

If this sounds like something that you would like to have someone do for YOU,
you can get in touch with me by email or by using the Schedule a Project option
on my services page.

Remember, I am a Virtual Assistant who LOVES to do editing,
proofreading and transcription assignments!

Jan Tallent
Tallent Agency Virtual Assistance

573-775-4520 jan@tallentagency.com

Social Media Virtual Assistance

Tuesday, May 11th, 2010

Tallent Agency VA Services
I love to network and use social media but there are some sides of doing so that, for me, are more WORK than they are enjoyment. Most of the avid social networkers I come across agree.

I have a couple of clients that I assist with the “chores” facet of their networking so that they can concentrate on the FUN sides, and I know I would love to someday have a helper to do my “busy work” for me as well.

I love to do my own searches for new people to connect and interact with but a lot of the people I am in contact with do not like this stage of the game. To me, the biggest chore is weeding through new connection requests to make sure the person is someone I would want to be associated with, have something in common with or at least has something interesting to discuss now and then.

I have helped others set up their social media personas, find like-minded people for them to connect and interact with, written or at least edited their profile descriptions and weeded through their new connection requests.

I have both a personal Facebook presence and a professional or business one. Some people tend to “friend” every person that asks so that they have a huge friend list. This is probably fine for personal social gossiping, sharing fun stuff, etc. but for my business, I feel that I need to concentrate on people who are my peers or in an industry compatible with mine or that might someday either need my services or at least know someone some day who does.

I also have an account on Linkedin for the sole purpose of connecting with other business people and getting and sharing tips, advice and resources with my peers.

My most fun, and most USED social media platform is Twitter. I am quite active on twitter and have some really interactive connections there. I have also made some real friendships from being on Twitter AND have gotten the bulk of my clients and referrals from my connections with this great platform.

If you love social networking but want to concentrate on the fun, interactive and connecting side and need someone else to manage and perform your maintenance for you, please keep me in mind.

I can set up your account for you, search for people in YOUR designated criteria, weed through your connection requests for the people you DO want to be involved with, send them a personal hello and welcome so that you do not have to use an autoresponder or even send them NO hello and welcome message and pretty much anything else to make your social networking experience a more fun and/or rewarding one.

Discover 350 Powerful Social Media Tactics You Can Implement To Your Business Right Now For More Traffic, Leads & Sales …

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In this unique package, you’ll receive a set 7 reports in 7 different topics, all targeted to helping YOU take advantage of high traffic social media sites.

Welcome

Over the past 12 years, Jan Tallent has spent countless hours providing writers and webmasters with free friendly tips on how to correct spelling and grammar errors in their written material.

From the feedback received she decided that since proofreading and editing help was so desperately needed she should build a business around something she enjoys doing, while at the same time providing a valuable service to business owners and writers.

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Contact Information

International Council of Online Professionals


Tallent Agency
P.O. Box 858
Steelville, MO 65565
Phone: (573) 775-4520
Email: jan@tallentagency.com
Twitter: @jantallent
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