New Member of UKAVA
Conors Admin Services is proud to announce that it is now a member of the United Kingdom Association of Virtual Assistants.
Please check back as we will be updating the site regularly with new details.
An accredited member of the UK Association of Virtual Assistants.
The one-stop information resource for virtual assistants and their clients.
http://www.ukava.co.uk
New Risk in Elective Surgery
For those of you considering having elective surgery this is something that really needs to be considered before you take the plunge.
It has been reported that Brits who have gone to India and Pakistan to have elective cosmetic surgery are returning home with a gene that can turn a common or garden bug into a superbug. The resistant gene has been identified by the medical profession as NDM-1. The gene has the ability to alter bacteria and make them resistant to nearly all antibiotics. It is most common in the E.coli bacteria, or on other DNA structures that area easily copied and passed onto other types of bacteria.
While the numbers of people currently identified with the gene remains very small the real threat of this bacteria altering gene is likely to spread worldwide with people all over the world looking for cheaper and quicker options to have elective surgery.
To read more about this superbug go to http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/197509.php
National Women’s Day in South Africa
I know it’s been a while since I updated my blog, just goes to show how busy one can get.
Today, I’m going to write about the holiday we are celebrating today in South Africa, National Women’s Day. This holiday commemorates the march of 20,000 mostly black women, who moved heaven and earth within their worlds to be able to attend the march on the Union Buildings, this day in 1956. What were they marching for? Simple, they were marching in protest of the apartheid pass laws that required every black person in South Africa to carry a “Dompas” which prohibited their free movement. The Dompas was the apartheid government’s way of monitoring the movement of the black populace as it controlled which township areas they were allowed to live in.
Once they arrived at the Union Buildings they presented bundles of petitions with more than 100,000 signatures at the door of then Prime Minister, J.G. Strydom. They then stood silently for 30 minutes. Many of these ladies, had children on their backs, and if they were nannies for white people then the children on their backs were their white charges. They sang a song of protest written in honour of the occasion entitled Wathint’Abafazi Wathint’imbokodo (Now you Have Touched the Women, you Have Struck a Rock). It is from this song that the phrase, that now represents the strength and courage of women everywhere, “You strike a woman, you strike a rock” comes from.
While unfortunately, there are still too many women suffering silently at the hands of unscrupulous people, we are slowly making changes but nationally and internationally in the rights for women.
If you have a special woman in your life, today is the day to give honour to her.
To all the women out there, thank you every day for your courage, convictions to change and for your indomitable spirit that keeps this nation and the rest of the world moving in the right direction.
SA – It Does Not Matter
While we’ve had a very interesting and exciting World Cup, the fact that we haven’t qualified is not an issue.
If you want to know why have a look at this file and you’ll understand.
Press Release
Contact: Patricia Donmall FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Tel: 078 563 2757 April 9, 2010
E-mail: trish@conorsadmin.co.za
Entrepreneur & Virtual Assistant Capitalizes on
Professional Growth Opportunity via Online Convention
Fish Hoek, Western Cape – Changes in the economy, coupled with statistics showing alarming numbers in corporate and government unemployment, have indirectly assisted in the phenomenal growth of an increasingly popular go-to resource for small and entrepreneurial business owners; the Virtual Assisting industry. Between May 20th and 22nd this year, Virtual Assistants (VAs) and their business partners will be furthering their growth as business owners, as well as the growth of the VA industry by attending and participating in the Online International Virtual Assistants Convention (www.OIVAC.com).
As a member of this virtual industry phenomena, Fish Hoek resident, Patricia Donmall, will attend this year’s May 20-22, 5th Annual Online International Virtual Assistants Convention (OIVAC); specifically designed to enhance the ability of attendees to grow their businesses and combat economic obstacles.
As attendees participate from the comfort of their homes, via the Internet, they forego travel/airport hassles, airfare costs, hotel bills, the high cost of registration fees and even the fatigue traditionally associated with conventions. More importantly, they access communication and technology training and are able to network with their peers, without leaving family and business.
“The Convention brings together VA’s from around the globe and provides low cost training and extensive networking opportunities that are second to none,” says Sharon Williams, OIVAC founder. “Today’s economic landscape is having a global effect and this online, interactive convention provides communication and technology training, workshops and networking opportunities that increase business growth at relatively low costs.” Visitors can also frequent online exhibitor halls and spend time interacting with VA and non-VA industry vendors in VoIP and text-compatible meeting rooms.
“The industry has exploded,” says Donmall, whose company specializes in providing typing and transcription services along with admin support to SMMEs and individuals. Donmall originally conceived the idea for her business in May 2002, starting her business in order to assist initially doctors with their typing and transcription work.
Since 1996, thousands of administrative professionals around the world have taken the necessary steps to become highly successful VAs. This year’s convention focuses on the importance of keeping current with technology and business and marketing strategies for an extremely lucrative VA business. For more information about this year’s Convention, visit www.oivac.com.
About Conors Admin Services
Launched in 2002, Conors Admin Services specializes in typing and transcription services along with admin support to SMMEs and individuals. While we do specialise in the field of medical transcription, we also cover general and legal transcription and typing work. Visit the Web site at http://conorsadmin.co.za
The IVAD Creed: Dedication, Experience, Expertise and Determination to Succeed of professionals providing administrative and other business support services, virtually (DEEDS), exemplifies our integrity and commitment to provide superior service
If you take us seriously, we’ll take you seriously.
Michele Johanson (http://goodhopetranscription.weebly.com) runs a transcription business from home,and, when not pounding the keyboard for her daily bread, writes articles on the more domestic arts, cooking and gardening in particular. Thank you to Michele for the following informative article.
One of the drawbacks of working from home is the difficulty of getting serious clients who are willing to pay what you are worth.
I enjoy working from home as a transcriptionist and I have good and loyal clients who make it possible but how does one deal with the demands of people like this?
This was posted on Get a Freelancer today:
“I need only serious transcribers who can finish up the project by today. There is totally 3 hours of audio. You can be a team or person. But you must follow the below points strictly and there wont be any excuses:-
You must finish the project with in 5-6 hours It should be with 100% accuracy
Pay will be $7 or $8 per audio hour depending on quality (If you are not accepting for this bid, then please dont apply). The completed file should be proofread, spellchecked, formatted, grammar checked etc.
There will be a continuous flow of work if you finish this successfully. Note that turnaround time is very important. Once you place your bid be online. I will hire within 2-3 hours and you should have me the files back within 5-6 hours.”
Downloading 3 hours of audio could take several hours alone. A professional transcriptionist allows approximately four hours to complete one hour’s worth of audio, and that’s just the typing. Spell-checking and proofreading is a given and is included in the rate but could somebody please tell me how to check the grammar on audio? Surely the whole point of transcription is to produce a verbatim report? I do tweak here and there, particularly if I’m transcribing a foreigner, but limit it to replacing words like ‘choosen’ with ‘chosen’. If a client specifically asks me to fix the English I have more leeway, but even then I make an effort to stick to the original.
The above-quoted job provider is particularly arrogant and unrealistic but unfortunately there are many people that think that because we run our businesses from home we are not doing a “real job” and want to pay accordingly, or not at all. The following quote was taken from clientsfromhell.wordpress.com: “ … and by the way, I can’t afford to pay you for this job, but you will be paid in karma — which is so much better and more permanent anyway.” Better for whom? Can you eat karma?
We do real jobs and provide real quality. We pay our own overheads and work long hours and stick to our deadlines.
Sadly, there will be takers for this position but they are unlikely to have English as their first language and the job provider will get what she is paying her two dollars (or less) an hour for. I would love to see what she ends up with.
michelejohanson@yahoo.com
http://goodhopetranscription.weebly.com
The Importance of Client Contact
It still amazes me that people avoid contact with their clients about seemly simply things. Yesterday I got a new client because his previous transcriptionist had gone on leave and not bothered to inform him that she would be unavailable to do work for him. How did he find out? His office manager found out when she rang the transcriptionist on Thursday evening to find out where the work was. Hence him ringing me at 7:30 in the morning.
While I am not going to get into who should look for the replacement to cover work while you’re on leave as I believe that’s a personal choice issue, I do however believe that you should advise your clients either way if you are going to be unable to do their work for a period of time.
While a week may not seem long to you in the life and work of a doctor that can be a long time. Whatever the reason you are unable to do the work common courtesy should prevail. If you were an employee you would ask for leave from your boss, but as a self-employed professional you should advise your clients that you will be unavailable to do their work and the dates you will be unavailable. If you are arranging the cover then also let your client have at least minimal contact details for the person providing cover for you in case they need to get hold of them urgently.
To my new client’s previous transcriptionist, I hope you had a great break and good luck with finding new work to replace what you’ve lost.
The Importance of Client Consultation
Today I have a guest article from a successful UK Virtual Assistant.
When I first started out as a virtual assistant, more years ago than I care to remember, there weren’t many other VA’s around and therefore not much competition. Nowadays, a sizeable proportion of the clients I take on have worked with at least one other VA in the past. When I ask what differences they notice between how we work and what they have experienced in the past, it is often commented on that what they like more than anything is that we work as a partnership with our clients, being proactive in their businesses and looking for opportunities for them and suggesting ideas, as opposed to those VAs that just sit and wait for work to be delegated to them.
So how do we achieve that distinction? Part of it is the mindset. When you make the leap from being an employee to a sole trader or business owner you will quickly realise that if you sit around and wait for work to be delegated, you won’t get very much of it. At that point you learn to make yourself an active member of your clients ‘team’ very quickly or you will soon start to flounder.
To give a great impression straight away it’s important to ask the right questions at the first meeting with your potential client, before they sign up. You need to ascertain where you can be most useful to them. What are their weak points? What work they have to do that they continually put off either because there is no time or because they don’t enjoy it? Find out what their plans are for their business. What do they want to achieve?
Once the client has come onboard you need to maintain the momentum with scheduled meetings as an ongoing process both with regular and ad-hoc clients. By having detailed monthly catch up meetings, either in person or by telephone, you can identify what is coming up in their calendar and how you can help them by sharing some of that workload.
For some really great documents to help you with initial client consultations and ongoing client reviews, take a look at our New Client Template Pack and Client Management Template Pack.
For more detailed information about how to conduct a client consultation, download our Podcast on Client Consutation here.
Copyright 2008 by Justine Curtis
About the author
Justine Curtis is the director of her own successful virtual assistant business My Virtual Assistant which is now recruiting a team of virtual assistant licensees and founder of The UK Association of Virtual Assistants (UKAVA) which offers free resources and information to its subscribers – sign up at http://www.ukava.co.uk. Justine is the author of Setting Yourself Up As A Virtual Assistant and is proud to be able to pass on the benefits of her vast experience of the VA role to aspiring and progressive virtual PAs as a co-founder of the VA Success Group.
Bank Phishing Schemes
Having just received two more of these phishing emails I feel compelled to blog about them.
In the interests of those who might not know the term phishing, it’s the label given to those emails that you receive purporting to be from someone they aren’t. For instance in this case my bank, claiming that my account was being accessed by a third party and that ownership was in doubt. They usually include a link or form that you need to fill in and send back. The problem is that they’re really not from who they claim to be.
Usually the easiest and best way to tell if the emails are real is to look at the spelling. In genuine communications I’ve received from my bank via email the spelling and grammar has always been pretty perfect.
The phishing emails have spelling and grammar that would leave most First Graders pulling their hair out at how bad it is.
If you have any doubts about whether an email is authentic or not please contact the sender and ask before you click on any links.
Having had a bank card cloaned a couple of years ago I can tell you the trouble and inconvenience of having to try and resolve the matter is truly astounding. Certainly it could have been made easier by my bank if they’d given me all the information that I needed right at the start rather than in small bite size pieces.
I truly hope that none of you are or become a victim of the phishing exercises.
Otherwise I hope you all have a super weekend.
Be Honest When You Work as a Virtual Assistant
What is honesty you may wonder. Well in the world of the Virtual Assistant it is the ability to admit your shortcomings and areas that are not your core business. You either then need to subcontract the work out or alternatively you need to admit upfront to the client that you are unable to assist them.
I’ve had numerous calls over the years from clients who have had work done by people who claim to be experts at what they do when in actual fact they aren’t. The classic was the one I received today. The client had hired someone to assist in finalizing a tender document to be sent to a government organization. The lady who worked all day for them actually was not as experienced in terms of the needs for the clients as she claimed to be. The client is now left with a document that needs urgent attention with a very tight deadline, the tender needs to be submitted tomorrow.
As a virtual assistant it is imperative to have a network of like-minded people to interact with. This serves a multitude of purposes. It allows for a sounding board on those days when things are falling apart faster than you can pick them up, as well as to celebrate the joys with you. The other useful factor of such a network is the ability to be able to either subcontract or pass on work to people who are better equipped, or have more experience in areas where your skills may be lacking.
If you are in South Africa, or Africa, then there is such a network and what a wonderful group of people there are on it. If you want to join then sign up with TAVASA (http://finance.groups.yahoo.com/group/tavasa/).