Hard to believe that January is already GONE and tomorrow starts February of this fresh, new year! I have no idea where the time went to and everyone I talk to agrees, it just FLEW~!

I know a lot of bloggers, online business owners and others who I am involved or connected with who seriously need at least one more hand or even one more head. Why not give the “gift of time” to someone you know that has so much to do they feel they will never catch up?

Or, even give the gift of time to … YOU! All of the experts advise to outsource the busy-work or tasks you do not want to do or that drain your time so that you can be free to concentrate on what you love doing the most and/or are best at. This is a wonderful way to test the waters, as they say, with having your own Virtual Assistant .

Take my help, for example … Love to write blog posts but hate the actual posting? I can easily do that for you and love doing this. Until I have a designation on the site for that purpose, you can just use the Schedule a Product option and tell me what you want me to do for you.

I see a lot of really informative, beautiful and entertaining blogs and web sites but they are full of typos and spelling & grammar errors – this is my favorite task of all so you can hire me to proofread and edit your pages so that you can showcase your work in its best possible light.

If you offer seminars, blog talk radio or other shows, do webinars, etc. it is a great idea to have those audio recordings transcribed and yes, I do perform this service . Plus, as an added bonus, your file is triple proofread / edited before I consider the assignment to be finished!

This option is often over-looked by web masters, coaches, performers, etc. because they offer a down-loadable mp3 or other file for people to listen TO, but I can tell you from not only some of the shows I have transcribed but also those I have just attempted to listen to, a lot of times it is hard to hear every word, especially with talkers who talk over each other, run on sentences that should be cut into paragraphs, start one story and then interrupt his or her own flow by going in another direction entirely and so much more that you might not realize unless YOU were trying to type it all up for a file people can read!

The other way I can help you save some time for the fun things you want to be able to do is with assistance with your Social Networking maintenance. I can search for others in your chosen niche for you TO connect with, weed out those you would not care to associate with, send hello, welcome and thank you messages to those you want to connect or interact with, etc. and free YOU up to just do the fun part; the interactions and conversations. This is another service that is not yet designated on this site but can be scheduled with just a message to me.

I plan to offer help setting up Face Book and Face Book Fan Pages soon – I am still learning my way around them myself but as I learn, I will be glad to share that expertise as well as help you set up and maintain a Twitter account and/or a professional networking presence on LinkedIn .

If you are needing help with any of the above mentioned Social Networks, just let me know and we can work things out – I have insisted on keeping my name and reputation clean and honest for over 11 years on the net so you can rest assured your passwords and log in information are safe with me and if in doubt, feel free to contact any of my wonderful clients who will be glad to vouch for me.

If hours of assistance is out of your budget, or if you are just curious about how much time a helper really can be, I have reasonable and highly competitive rates and you can try “just an hour” or just one project. I do offer discounted rates on bigger or long-going projects, so this might be the option you prefer. I am easy to work with and love what I do and think I can safely say it shows with the service I give my clients and the tasks I perform for them.

Have a wonderful, love-filled, Happy Valentine’s Day and I am “wishing” you the Gift of Time for this holiday and every other day.

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

I have had a great week with my Virtual Assistance business and have learned a lot of new things plus some new ways to do “old” things! As I used to tell my newbies that I would mentor, never stop learning – things change so quickly on the internet, that what was brand new last week is obsolete this one. It was so true.

I have had the pleasure of working with a very smart and savvy lady this past week and have learned a lot by doing so. Things I know HOW to do in one program or control panel, etc. are completely “new to me” with a different system.

In an earlier blog post I had mentioned that Even VA’s occasionally need VA’s . I have had helpers on previous projects and appreciate them greatly. This time, I have the pleasure of helping another Virtual Assistant, Amy Bleser of virtualservices4u . She has been extremely patient while trying to teach “this old dog new tricks”. I am quite proficient in my limited range of expertise BUT am still a newbie with a “new to me” system, editor software or website and am like a sponge soaking up every new thing I can learn. Amy has been the epitome of patience and sweetness. Go visit her site if you have the need for a really well organized and knowledgeable Virtual Assistant who offers a much broader world of services than I do, with my specializing in proofreading , editing , transcription , and various miscellaneous duties like Social Marketing Assistance and doing research, etc. for other Webmasters or small business owners .

I *met* most of my terrific clients AND my helpers on Twitter and am proud to be connected with all of them. I do the very best work I can, with the most strident mind to detail I can give and know they are pleased with my work. I am also very happy with the VA’s that have helped me with assignments I could not have finished in a timely manner without their generous support. AND, I get the extra added bonus of learning both new things and new ways to do the old things I was already doing.

One of the latest things I have learned is how to use a program, I guess it would be called, that enables VA’s and their clients to manage assignments, files, time sheets and more. The one I am getting familiar with is called BaseCamp . It has every feature I could imagine would be needed and there are several different levels, from a free “one project” level to the ultimate. I learned that each of my clients or VA’s that I help have the same basic things the same but then their own unique ways of handling the assignments, etc. I rarely endorse a product so my doing so here says a lot – I really like it and think it can be the answer to almost any businesses assignment needs.

Remember, I’m a Virtual Assistant who LOVES to do editing, proof reading & transcription assignments! PLEASE help me spread the word if you know of someone who could benefit from my services.

Jan Tallent
Tallent Agency Virtual Assistance

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