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About the Virtual Assistant industry for VAs and for clients

Monthly Archives: September 2007

Is a job offer by email genuine?

If you’re like me, you get lots of job offers by email. Let’s face it, as soon as your email address is on display anywhere, it’s going to get grabbed and used by others. Or even if you send an email to someone who has an infected machine, the address can then be picked up as well.

A new member at one of the VA forums I belong to recently posted an email, asking about a particular group who had emailed her about a job. She wanted to know if anyone had heard of them and whether it was genuine? This is my reply to her.

For me the rule of thumb is – if I receive an email promoting jobs, telling me they’ve viewed my resume or anything similar, I steer clear. And if they start sprouting how much money I could make and the fantastic opportunity I want to run away very fast.

There’s a difference between receiving a request from a single client, enquiring about my services and how much it would cost and receiving an email offering me a ‘job’.

I went to the site just to look at it and immediately got a warning (several in fact) from my antispyware/antivirus program that this was a dangerous site to visit. So I decided to do some research via Google and found a chat forum with people discussing this group. Some had joined and were getting jobs but it seems that xxx is actually an employer type company – you get given the work to do and they pay you fortnightly, it doesn’t sound like you actually connect with the client as Virtual Assistants usually do.

The forum seemed to fade out in 2006 and new posts in 2007 were complaints from people who had paid the joining fee but had heard nothing more – last post was in July this year.

So, I’d tread carefully – do your research (I know that’s why you asked on this list) by doing searches on Google or your favourite search engine and see what else you can find.

My advice to you is the same – do your research and due diligence, ask questions. Those Virtual Assistant organisations and networks that are real have easily obtained contact information so you can make contact with the owners or operators, many of the sites give you direct access to their members for contact (after all the members want clients to contact them) and the VA chat forums are full of information and past experiences from other members. KMT

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When Is An Hour Not An Hour?

This is a reprint of an article I wrote in September 2004. I feel it’s important to bring this topic back up since there are new VAs on the scene all the time, and new clients.

The team and I had an interesting discussion online the other day, which resulted from a client and team member having a different understanding about something. And that something was the time involved, and related costs, in transcribing a recording. What the client hadn’t understood was that there is a difference between an audio hour and a transcription hour, and therefore the fee he thought he’d accepted ended up being considerably more and he and the team member had to negotiate for something that was acceptable to both. After all she’d put in a lot of hours, but he wasn’t expecting to pay as much. Which brings me to the point of this article.

We always try to explain as best we can what is entailed in any job we take on for our clients, but on occasion that may fail because we haven’t asked you (the client) enough questions or perhaps the other way around.

In transcription work there is a vast difference between the audio hour (the recording) and the transcription hour (the typed manuscript) because the ratio between the two can be anywhere between 1:3 – 1:6, i.e. it could take up to 6 hours to type one hour of recording (worst scenario). The reasons for this are many and include:

* Speed and clarity of speech
* Background noise
* More than one voice speaking
* Terminologies
* Accents
* Poor quality recording.

Experienced transcriptionists who are also fast typists may charge somewhat more per transcription hour than another who types slower, but it usually works out much the same in cost to the client. If you (the client) get quotes for transcription work that vary vastly however, then it is worth asking questions why – the difference may well be that some transcriptionists charge by the audio hour (much higher rate) than by the transcription hour. The first gives you a guaranteed price; the second gives you an approximate price for the completed job, however if the work took fewer hours than more, you could end up with change in your pocket.

Perhaps in your own industry you find client understanding of what you do may also differ considerably and it is important that we all help to educate each other in our particular specialties. There have been times when I’ve spoken to people on the phone about something I didn’t understand and I’ve had to remind them that they know their own business, and I don’t and they need to explain it to me in a way that helps me to understand. Unfortunately often these people are new staff, or in a role that has vast turnovers of staff with hurried training, and therefore seem to be inexperienced or untrained in explaining properly how something works or worse, they assume the customer knows. The customer doesn’t always know and we should never assume they do. That doesn’t mean we treat them like they’re simple or an idiot, but rather we should take time to ask them do they understand that………..and quickly and clearly explain what is involved. It makes for a happier life all round for everyone involved. KMT
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Membership to VA Networks – do they add value to my business?

I recently had a new VA email me about joining the network I manage. She asked a number of the usual questions but then also asked the question which is the subject heading of this post.

Interesting question and one I thought I would share here.

I know that whenever anyone starts up in business they are looking for value for their money. They want to spread the word about their business as far as possible without it costing them an arm and a leg. I wanted to do the same when I was first starting out, although at that stage there weren’t any VA networks, but rather mainly business networks.

It is important to look at the member benefits of any network you choose to join, VA or otherwise, and weigh up what the benefits would be to you, and your business. One of the most obvious would be ‘exposure’.

How well exposed is the network you are planning to join? Because, once you become a member, and if they have made available online their directory for the public to view, then you will benefit from that exposure. Your membership fee could almost be seen as an advertising cost and this becomes ‘cheap’ advertising for you. Some of the VA networks have in place extensive web advertising, write publications that are read by a large audience, and some even have Yellow Pages advertising in place for the country in which their head office is based. Add to that the collaborative advertising various members of that network do and suddenly your $$ is spreading much further than you could manage on your own.

With the network I manage, not only do we get job requests almost every day of the week and some days we get several, but clients also contact team members direct without coming through my office. The only time I hear about this is when a member contacts me to tell me about a client they’ve been working with, who came through the ACS website. I’m always pleased to hear about these stories because it’s good to know the system is working.

But that’s not the only benefit, although it would probably be the number #1 on most people’s lists. Many of the networks have chat or board forums for its members and this is where so many of the VAs learnt to develop their businesses. They learn from others who are already operating. They can ask questions, make comment, seek advice and just join in. And then, depending on the network, there will be other things such as web hosting, training and coaching, possibly things such as insurance, stationery discounts and so on. Some of these benefits can only be country specific as it’s relatively obvious that some items cannot be offered on a global basis.

I found when I was first starting out I looked at local business networks to see what benefits I would get as a member. Some worked out great, others I only remained a member for a year and moved on. It’s important for VAs to remember that VA networks aren’t your only choice for promoting your business – you need to look at what other networks are out there that would help you advance your business. And be prepared to join in – the more other members get to know you, the better it is for you with regard to possible work referral, job sharing and so on.  KMT

Be Careful of the Technology You Choose

I love exploring all the things available to us in various software programs but there are some things I prefer not to use, although they were designed to make my life easier.

Read Receipts for example – I don’t necessarily want people to know the minute I’ve read their email so I have my program set not to process read receipts, even when someone requests it. Which is probably frustrating for them. I had one person contact me on the weekend and said she was using them because she wanted to make sure I was getting her emails – that I can appreciate but I still don’t like Read Receipts. My story from long ago will give you a good idea why. Why not have a look and see? Email Etiquette III

Auto responders are ok if used responsibly (see Email Etiquette II to give you a good idea why you might not want to use them – at least coupled with other tools) but if you are going to use them, because you are going away on leave, then please be kind enough to go ‘nomail’ on all the chat forums you belong to. Otherwise the other members continuously receive your autoresponder to say you are on leave – we know you are, it doesn’t have to be rubbed in! Or, if you use them in the daily process of your work, ensure you use a different (unconnected) address for your groups and forums so that the autoresponder does its job without increasing email traffic unncessarily for everyone else.

If you’re going to run a business online (as VAs do) then it’s in your best interests (and that of your business) for you to learn how to use your daily tools as much as possible – they really can be your best friend!

Presenting Your Business Via Email

Regular readers will have noted my recent absence but hopefully they will have known or realised I was away on leave – well and truly overdue and very much enjoyed. I went to Japan with my husband to visit one of our daughters – if you read my family blog you’ll see some of my posts there with photos.

Whilst I was away there was an innumerable amount of emails, even with my going ‘nomail’ on the chat forums I belong to, and so I did check regularly in case of important matters, i.e. family needing to get hold of me or one of my team who were looking after my clients for me.

I received an email from someone in another country seeking to explore how they could develop business with me. I responded briefly to say I was away and will get back to them – they replied and sent a whole lot of information for me to go through on my return but it really was not clear why they contacted me or what they wanted. In the end I asked them a direct question what did they want and it soon became obvious they were seeking to get work through my VA business. At that point I felt it was important to advise them that even if I did have work to give them, I couldn’t for the following reason. I’m sharing my response to them here because I really feel it is very important for anyone seeking work/business from others that they do the best they can to present themselves well.

To start with, the weblink they sent wasn’t correct and I had to ask them to resend that.

Next I made a suggestion that they carefully spellcheck their email before sending them. Our emails are often the only thing that clients see to assess our abilities and if you are wanting to provide services to English speaking/reading/writing clients then it is most important that you spell correctly and use the correct words. I honestly could not forward any work to them even if I wanted to simply because the email they sent did not instil any confidence in their English writing ability and the majority of work we do is very much embedded in written English. When I do receive work that is for another language I make sure that only those VA team members who have a suitable background (native speaker/writer or have done extensive studies in that language) receive the work.

I appreciate that there are times when those doing computer based work may just be copy typing but frequently clients depend on us to correct their spelling and grammar, as well as to format documents properly – whilst the latter wouldn’t have presented a challenge to this person, based on the samples they sent, the former, i.e. spelling and grammar would have definitely been a challenge. When I pass on work to my VA team I connect them with the client. I am not involved in the work passed on, nor do I spend time checking and correcting errors in that work – if I did it would mean I’d have to charge much higher fees to cover my time and it would put me in a role of ‘employer’, rather than someone who manages a VA network.

I did finish of with that if, however, they were just having a bad day with their typing, then I can understand that, we all do, but again, I reminded them that when you’re prospecting for business it is most important you put your best foot forward.

Now, granted I knew this person wasn’t native English speaking or writing, however they were promoting in their paperwork their high level of skill in the English language. What they sent to me though definitely did not match what they were claiming and I was giving them the opportunity to correct that instead of just saying ‘no’ and not explaining why.

When you approach prospective clients or places to secure work, make sure you check everything and present yourself in the best possible way – sometimes you only get the one chance. KMT

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