Part 3 in our Client Case Study Series. Melisssa Khalinsky is supported by one of my Virtual Assistant team members, Kylie. Melissa is in Victoria, Australia and Kylie in New South Wales, Australia.
Q. Please tell my readers a bit about who you are and what you do.
I am Melissa Khalinsky, founder of Business Mums Network. We provide support, information and resources for Mums starting and running a business.
Q. When did you realise you needed admin support for your business?
There have been a number of times I realised this, however in the last two years, my attitude to new projects has been “how can I get someone else to work on this”? This decreased my workload dramatically and the results are much better than I could have done.
Q. What type of support did you originally obtain?
The first type of support was editing our magazine, then administering our conference, then I got up the courage to let go of things such as my email newsletter.
Q. Is the support you receive today the same as then or has that changed and if so, how?
It is different and the same. The same VA puts together the magazine, and has done for the last 2 years, however that is about to change. One VA started with just my email newsletter, and now does so much more including transcribing workshop recordings for us.
Q. Do you have more than one VA supporting you, and if so, perhaps you’d like to give a brief idea what the difference is?
Yes, I have more than one VA, and each does different tasks. One administers the conference, as that is an area they specialise in. One edits our magazine, and another does our enewletter. I originally split these between 2 VAs as the newsletter job came up the same time as magazine deadlines!
Q. How did you find out about this type of support?
I use members of my network, though I first heard about it from the US before I started my business, although I don’t think the industry was called “Virtual Assistance” then.
Q. How long have you had your current VA? (Feel free to name who they are)
I have been working with Donna-Marie Coggins of Jacaranda Business Support Services for nearly 2 years editing the Business Mums Magazine.
I have been working with Kylie Short of Tilda Virtual Services since last September working on our email newsletter, transcribing audio recordings and other tasks.
I have been working with Glenys and Richard of Stockdale ACS for about 2 years administering the Business Mums Conference.
Q. Anything else you’d like to share?
I love having a VA work with me. It’s cheaper than hiring a staff member, or in my case, multiple staff members for the various tasks I outsource. Each of my VAs are experts in what they do, which is why I’ve chosen them. They also produce amazing results that help my business grow.
Kathie is the former owner of VA Directory and is former past President of the Australian VA Association. She founded the Virtual Assistant industry in Australia in the mid 90s, having already been operating a home-based secretarial service. Today the VA industry covers a multitude of office-based services for clients worldwide.
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