This is an article from Donna Toothaker from StepItUpVA who is a coach
for other Virtual Assistants and really knows her stuff.

Set Boundaries to Stay Sane
by Donna Toothaker on FEBRUARY 24, 2011

As a Virtual Assistant, you have the fortunate circumstance of being able to work from home, and work with clients from all over the world via e-mail and phone. At the same time, as an upstart business owner, you also rely on new and longstanding clients for income. Sometimes it can seem like you started your own business only to discover that you have multiple bosses! Here are a few tips to ensure that you always have the ball in your court:

Set expectations early. Be extra clear with potential clients about your services, your work style, what they can expect from you and what you expect from them. Be explicit in defining what you don’t do – as in your services or work style. Things to consider not doing: having an “open door” policy (an invitation to be micromanaged), giving out your mobile number,
or giving the impression that you are in any way “on call”.

Feel free to ID. It may be difficult to let voicemail pick up when you’r e trying to service your clients, but voicemail and caller ID are great time management tools that will allow you to maintain some sanity in your day. Caller ID is also a great barometer for assessing the “neediness” of those clients who tend to micromanage. Outline your voicemail and e-mail-checking routines with clients, and within what period of time they can expect a response, leaving wiggle room for true emergency calls.

It’s nothing personal. Keep your conversations via phone, e-mail, and social media primarily on a professional level. It may be comforting to your clients to know a little bit about you personally, but giving too much information or getting to know your clients too personally opens up a “grey area” from which it is difficult, if not impossible, to return.

So, if you use Facebook for your business, avoid posting personal information, photos, or posts that may be considered off-putting to your clients, even though your friends might respond with an LOL. Use security features to restrict what your clients can see, if necessary.

Say no. When you were just starting out as a VA, you may have said yes to clients, projects and situations that really didn’t serve you in the long run. You may have done it to get experience in a certain area, build up your client roster, to impress a potential client, or in the hopes of getting more business. However, rarely does saying yes to something that doesn’t suit you or pay you a fair price truly help you. Don’t continue to burden yourself by saying yes to clients who demand too much of you and your resources, who constantly haggle or question your fees, or who push you to provide a service outside your scope.
You will find that letting go of them will open a space for a better client to sign on!

Keep the reins of your business firmly in hand by setting boundaries from day one. Doing so will ensure that you will build mutual respect, turn new clients into long-term clients, and truly enjoy working with them.

Donna Toothaker is CEO, founder and coach of Step It Up VA Coaching. These highly sought-after VA coaching programs have been created for established, successful VAs who wish to create the 6-figure business of their dreams. Visit HERE to receive the free report, Top 3 Mistakes to Avoid in Creating a 6-Figure VA Business.

thanks, Donna, for another great gem I am glad to share with my visitors.

This question goes out to other Virtual Assistants AND our customers:

Where do you draw your lines – what boundaries do you set and expect to have set for you? I would love to hear comments from both sides of the fence.

Remember, I am a Virtual Assistant who LOVES to do editing, proofreading
and transcription assignments along with research, blog posts, article submissions
and social media maintenance!

Why not Schedule a Project now?

This article by by Mark Nichol for my favorite writing tips ezine, DailyWritingTips.com , says it all. I am using this great document
with permission from the webmaster.

The Problem with Grammar Check

A couple of years ago, a visitor to this site posted a comment asking
for help. In a Word document, this person had written the sentence

“The nouns and verbs are the main content words in this poem and without emphasis
on them, this poem has little to no meaning.”

Word’s grammar check admonished the writer to insert a semicolon in place of the comma following them.

What?

Errant nonsense, and puzzling advice, at that. One respondent erroneously agreed with Bill Gates, while two people associated with this site validated the original writer’s reluctance to follow Word’s word. But they didn’t explain why the grammar check had recommended this faulty course of action. I didn’t understand it, either, but then I looked a little closer.

As another poster remarked, a human editor trumps a computer-generated one.
Computers may be able to defeat humans at chess, but I doubt they’ll ever beat people
at editing.

Why? They can compute, but they can’t think.

Here’s where Word went wrong:

Read the rest of this article HERE …

The moral of the story? Word’s grammar check, like its spell-check function, can be helpful, but it can also misinterpret your intent as a writer. As the sage says, “Trust, but verify.”

I love the tips I get from this ezine, file all issues and often refer to the ones in my files.

I have noticed in doing my own editing assignments that Word spell and grammar check
and even my Thunderbird email spell checker DO, indeed, occasionally mis-read the intent
of the written document. I am learning when to go by the softwares’ suggestions
and when to go with my “gut” as a former straight A English and Spelling student.

Remember, I am a Virtual Assistant who LOVES to do editing, proofreading
and transcription assignments along with research, blog posts, article submissions
and social media maintenance!

Why not Schedule a Project now?

Can you believe we have a fresh, brand new year? We can accomplish
lots of new tasks and make new dreams come true.

It is 1-1-11 – that is so awesome! What do you plan to achieve with this fresh start you are getting? I am determined to make regular and loyal updates to my blogs, here and for my ezine of almost eleven years,
Rim Digest at Rim Digest blog AND my newest that I had wanted for years: Healthy Living, which is the one for my Health & Wellness Products Superstore.

I wear many hats, only one of which is of a Virtual Assistant , specializing in proofreading , editing , transcriptions and social media assistance.

As a proofreader, I bring to the table one of my all-time pet peeves that was drummed into my head by all of my English teachers in both grade school and high school AND later in tech school where I got my degree in Computerized Medical Office Technology.

Some of my editing clients prefer I leave it “as is”, so I do, but the article in
Daily Writing Tips , which I am using with their permission, really sums it up for me!

A Person Is Not a “They.” Neither Is an Army.

So you want to be politically correct, you want to be inclusive, and you would never assume that every nurse and every teacher in the world is a “she.” Right?

Right.

But sometimes this worthy thought leads us to perform some very clumsy gymnastics. Consider this passage from a guide for a doctor’s front office staff:

Show the patient how to use their medicine.

Does this patient have three heads with three mouths through which to ingest medications? Or maybe the patient is using a medication produced by several Big Pharma companies?

We can see the impulse behind this absurdity: whoever wrote this document didn’t want to suggest that every patient in the practice was a “he.” Or a “she,” unless the doc’ was a gynecologist. But this good intention led to a moment of bad grammar: pronouns need to agree with their nouns.

We have several alternatives that honor our desire for inclusiveness without sliding into the ridiculousness. One obvious strategy is simply to make the noun plural:

Show patients how to use their medicine.

Another is to change the pronoun (his, her, its) to an article (the, a, an):

Show the patient how to use the medicine.

Or, if it works in the context, we can change the singular “medicine” to the plural:

Show the patient how to use medicines.

Each of these approaches allows the writer to make sense without offending anyone’s sensibilities.

Remember: in U.S. English, collective nouns are singular:

Zappit Electric just raised its rates. (Not “their rates”)
An army travels on its stomach. (Not “their stomach”)
The jury returned its verdict. (Not “their verdict”)

Not so in the Queen’s English: Brits see collective nouns as plural (e.g., “The jury returned their verdict”). But when you’re writing for a U.S. publisher, corporation, government agencie, and similar entities, take singular verbs and singular pronouns.

What do you think? Do you use *they* in this way and find that you are happy doing so?
If was editing YOUR work, would you feel I was maybe too nit-picky or would you appreciate the fact that I really CARE how your writings come across to those of us who ARE picky when we are reading?

I would love to hear your comments and opinions!

If your web pages, blog posts, reports, sales pages, books, etc. are not grammar and spelling error free, why not contact me and we can get them all into shape for this brand new year!

Spelling & Grammar Errors Are Costing You Business!

Remember, I am a Virtual Assistant who LOVES to do editing, proofreading
and transcription assignments along with research, blog posts, article submissions
and social media maintenance!

Why not Schedule a Project now?