Before you go any further you should spend some time making a list and working out how much time you spend on administration tasks and what those tasks are.  Many people will be quite surprised at just how long each day or week they spend on administrative tasks.  This is definitely not the best use of your valuable time is it?

1. Write down a list of the most important jobs you will need your VA to be able to do.
2. Get hold of at least a few VA’s, speak to them on the telephone and if you prefer ask them for a face-to-face meeting.  Most (depending on location) will be happy to meet with you to ensure that you are both comfortable working with each other.  It is also very important for you both to feel some sort of connection.
3. Ask for a CV so that you can be sure that the VA has an appropriate level of qualifications and experience to enable her to handle the role you need her to do.
4. Read her recommendations and referrals carefully – try to contact them if possible.
5. Remember, cheap is not alwasy the way to go!  Sometimes, paying a little more can save you a lot later on when things only need to be done once rather than wasting time having to redo things done carelessly.  Look for quality and value in the VA you choose.
6. Most importantly, discuss all Terms and Conditions, agree on them and ensure that you get a contract signed so as to avoid any nasty little surprises down the line.  Most professional VA’s will have a standard contract ready to show you and you will find that many will be flexible on small things if you ask and talk about it with them.

Good luck with your choice and I hope it all works out for you.

Nicole
CosmicXpress Secretarial Services

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This morning I sat down at my computer to be informed that Windows Live had a new update for me and that I should download it!   Being ever obedient I did this and to my surprise I found a great new tool called ‘Windows Live Writer’ which lets me add multiple blogs and then to add my information quickly and effortlessly.

Of course, this is the first time I am using it, so the proof will be in the pudding (as they say) when I come to publish my blog.

Hope everyone is well and thriving and enjoying the change of season.  All the trees are turning beautiful yellows, oranges and reds where I am.  What’s it like where you are?

Nicole
CosmicXpress Seretarial Services
www.cosmicxpress.co.uk

I found a great article this morning and just have to share it with you all.

I found it on the Smarta website and it just really struck home.  So many of us are working mothers not because we want to be but because somehow we have to bring in some sort of income to help support our families, and now they are condeming us for it and saying that our kids aren’t healthy!

What do you think about this article?

TAKEN FROM WWW.SMARTA.COM

Smarta can’t help but echo a piece by business magazine Management Today, which points out a new study into the healthiness of children of working mums ‘seems both unhelpful and misleading’.

The research, by the Institute of Child Health at University College London, studied the behaviour of more than 12,500 children of single mothers and found they were ‘more likely to spend at least two hours a day in front of the TV or at a computer, and that they were more likely to be driven to school rather than walk or cycle’.

The research prompted a series of accusatory headlines, including one from the Daily Express which had overtones of tabloid scandal to it. “REVEALED,” it snarled. “WORKING MUMS RAISE UNHEALTHIER CHILDREN”

Why are women still so stigmatised? According to various studies, the children of working mothers will fail at school, have slower emotional development, and now they’re unhealthier.

Management Today suggests it’s an economic thing: of the 60% of British women with a young child who have gone back to work, it says, ‘many haven’t done so purely for their own benefit; these days, lots of families rely on two salaries’.

It’s a good point, but research out earlier this month by the Joseph Rowntree Foundation which found ‘most families still hold on to the stereotype that a father’s job is to earn the money and protect the family’ (not to mention the, err, somewhat conservative attitudes displayed by some of the Daily Mail’s commenters) shows ‘traditional’ attitudes to gender roles still prevail.

Guilt-inducing studies into the behaviour of the working mums’ children are unjustified. Mothers have the right to work as much as fathers: chaining them to their kitchen tables will only result in a lot of unhappy, unfulfilled women.

Anyway: Smarta hasn’t seen any studies into the children of working fathers. In the interests of gender equality we suggest someone immediately commissions research looking at the correlation between the amount of time fathers spend at work and their offspring’s preferred Telly Tubby. We think you’ll be pleasantly surprised…

Please leave me your thoughts and comments on working mothers and fathers.

Thanks

Nicole
http://www.cosmicxpress.co.uk

This is a question which is often asked of a Virtual Assistant, and something which I often find quite difficult to answer, so I tend to be careful what I say.

It takes a lot of commitment and to be willing to put your skills out there and try to match them to a clients needs.  It is someone who has many years of administrative experience and who is open to constant learning and updating of existing skills in order to stay current with the market.

It is NOT someone who sits at home and can type, someone who has a few spare hours in the evening!  Being a VA is not a hobby.

Being a Virtual Assistant means that you are a business owner and need to behave like one.   VA’s need to register their business, pay taxes and insurance.  We have a home office all set up with printers, computers and all the relevant software which has to be kept up to date and in good working order.

A VA works together with her clients to help them to achieve their business goals, we have to continue to strive to improve are skills.  Now, many VA do not have degrees, but many do have certifications and a skill set which rivals most of the PA/EA’s you find in offices around the world these days.

In the last 2 years I have become a self trained ‘fundi’ in social media and marketing so that I can pass on my knowledge to my clients.  While I am not infallible, I have learn’t a lot that most people don’t know and don’t have the time to learn.  I have learn’t how numerous blogs work so that I can post my clients blogs for them.  I have also made sure I know my way around LinkedIn, Ecademy, Twitter and FaceBook.  Added to all of this, I have also been working on a number of newsletter which get delivered in different ways, so my creative side has also been developed along with everything else.  My goal is definitely to be able to effectively cover all my clients needs.  I have also become a Call Partner Associate and now offer a Telephone Answering Service which works really well for my clients as it offers a free 14 day trial and, saves them time and makes them money every day.

If you are thinking of becoming a VA, you need to realise that it is not a job which will only take up a few hours a day.  You will need to commit to the hours that your clients need as well as to commit to the hours that you will need to put in to market your services as well as the time it will take to keep your skills current.  Being a VA is a very demanding and challenging career choice, but one which has definite benefits!

I really enjoy my career as a VA, the challenge keeps me on my toes and keeps me out of trouble.   Every morning I wake up wondering what the new day will bring me from my clients.  I look forward to speaking with my clients and meeting new clients.

I hope this answers some of your questions around what a VA is and what it could mean to you if you wanted to go down that route.

Good luck, please come and join me on FB, Ecademy, Twitter or LinkedIn – hope to see you there soon.

Nicole
CosmicXpress Virtual Secretarial Services

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If you understand the influencing factors contributing to how long it will take to complete your transcription, you can try to lessen them and thereby save yourself some money. Listed below are some the main factors causing problems.

1. FORMAT AND QUALITY OF RECORDING
2. HAS AN EXTERNAL MICROPHONE BEEN USED
3. CLARITY AND NUMBER OF VOICES
4. ARE SPEAKERS IDENTITIES REQUIRED
5. SPEED AT WHICH SPEAKERS TALK
6. ARE COHERENT SENTENCES USED
7. BACKGROUND NOISE
8. REGIONAL ACCENTS
9. TECHNICAL OR INDUSTRY SPECIFIC TERMINOLOGY
10. FINAL CHECK

In more detail:

1. FORMAT AND QUALITY OF RECORDING.
Digital or minidisk recordings will always be clearer than any analogue format (standard audio tapes, mini tapes or micro cassettes). Using a cheap recorder will not save you money in the long run as the extra transcription costs will outweigh any savings made on poor equipment.

2. EXTERNAL MICROPHONE VS INTERNAL MICROPHONE
If a built in microphone is used to make a recording of anything other than dictation, you will experience very poor results. External microphones are essential for capturing clearly audible recordings. If your microphone is too far away from your speaker/speakers, they will be inaudible. It will pay you to supply a number of microphones rather than just one which will only record the nearest speakers voice.

3. CLARITY AND NUMBER OF VOICES
If your speaker is too far from the microphone, speaks too fast, too quietly or mumbles, this will mean that it will be difficult to work out what they are saying. With recordings of meetings, focus groups or discussions, transcription can be made more difficult as a result of multiple voices. Each voice will have a different tone, pitch and speed, not to mention accent. Also, people in groups often speak all at once, interrupt each other or raise their voices. Deciphering the different voices and labelling them will always take longer than 1 to 1 or single voice recordings because your transcriptionist will have to play the recording back several times in order to work out who is saying what.

4. ARE SPEAKERS IDENTITIES REQUIRED
If your recordings are 1 to 1 interviews or small groups, identifying the speakers by name is usually not that much trouble, but with larger focus groups or meeting where a ‘babble’ of voices may result, this becomes quite difficult and time consuming – especially if the transcriber is not familiar with the voices. A good way to get around this is to get speakers to identify themselves each time they speak throughout the meeting/recording, otherwise your transcriber will find it virtually impossible to identify the different voices and your transcription will take much longer.

5. SPEED AT WHICH SPEAKERS TALK
Now this might sound a bit backward, but it will take longer to transcribe someone who speaks fast than it will to transcribe someone who speaks slowly. This is because a fast talker will get more words into the same length of recording than a slow speaker will. More words = more time to type the transcript.

6. ARE COHERENT SENTENCES USED
As you are probably aware, every day speech contains a lot of verbal habits and quirks which we generally ‘don’t hear’ in conversation, and often people don’t actually speak in coherent sentences at all. In fact, people rarely speak in the same way in which they write. When this happens the transcriber has to go back to work out where to insert the punctuation so that the meaning of the sentence isn’t misconstrued. The more coherent the speakers are, the less time it will take to transcribe their words.

7. BACKGROUND NOISE
Background noise can easily ruin a good recording. For this reason choosing a recording location is very important and you will find that a quiet indoor environment is always best. You will find the microphones are not as good at filtering out background noise as our ears are. Microphones pick up every little sound and give each noise a level of importance which is amazing and which interfere with the voices the transcriber is trying to listen to. You will need to be aware of all the background noise, traffic noise, equipment interference, other voices, background hiss from the recorder can often also be heard and of course mobile phones will also interfere with a recording.

8. REGIONAL ACCENTS
No matter where your recording is made in the world, the speaker will have an accent which will usually be different to the transcribers own, often making it difficult to understand and this will affect the time that it will take your transcriber to transcribe the recording. Some accents are easier to understand than others, but it will still take time to get used to the accent and at times they may have to listen to the recording several times in order to work out what is being said.

9. TECHNICAL OR INDUSTRY SPECIFIC TERMINOLOGY
Information which is full of technical, financial or specialised terminology may be unfamiliar to the transcriptionist and may make it necessary for them to listen and relisten (often several times) to words, sentences and even whole sections. It will often help your transcriptionist if you can provide a list of keywords or some kind of brief about the topic you are talking about so that they will be able to check spellings quickly and easily. This research can of course be done by the transcriptionist, but once again, it will add time to the length of your transcription.

10. FINAL CHECK
Most transcriptionists will do a final run through of the finished transcript before sending it back to you. Always remember that this will take them at least as long as the length of the recording. i.e. if the recording is 1 hour then the check will take a minimum of 1 hour. So, your 1 hour recording will take on average about 4 hours to transcribe and then an additional hour to check.

Nicole Sterley
CosmicXpress Virtual Secretarial Services
www.cosmicxpress.co.uk

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In my experience, VA’s are often mothers and work from home, this in turn means that there are often children in the background which means that offering a telephone answering service is out of the question! When the children are of school going age, the times when they are home are minimal, but still disruptive when on the phone to a client.

As a result, many VA’s do not offering this service to their clients and this is a pity when there are a lot of clients out there (small and large) who are wanting a personal call answering service along the lines of what their office secretary/receptionist would offer.

Well, now that is possible and here is how it works!

THE SYSTEM

1. You (as a client or potential client) approach me with regard to call answering.
2. I, as an Associate of Call Partner, offer you a seamless call answering service which means that I can personally cover your phone calls, but at times when the children are home, I have a powerful backup network ensuring that all of your calls are answered quickly, efficiently and professionally and your messages are emailed directly to your Inbox as soon as they come through.

ALL THIS WITH A FREE 14 DAY TRIAL

See, it’s easy and still retains the personal element you are after. Most of your calls will be answered by myself, but at times when it wouldn’t be professional or possible due to client meetings, etc. I will direct your call through to the team (which consists of 4 people, UK based and English speaking) who would get to know you and your requirements just as well I would.

You have access to an online form into which you submit your details regarding your business and how you would like me/us to answer your phone.

Here are a few of the answers you may be asking …

What is the cost? Calls start at 99p per call (including answering and message taking), but you can but call credit at up to 15% discount which will give you the service for as little as 84p per call.

Is there aminimum monthly spend? The minimum spend per month is £5.00, as long as your call charges are more than the minimum that is fine.

Who answers my calls? You will be assigned a team of 4 people who, together with myself, will be responsible for your calls.   Your clients, suppliers and contacts will usually be speaking to the same people and they will never know that they are coming through to a call answering service.

What hours are available? We operate 24/7.  Typically, during office hours your phone will be answered my CosmicXpress, but if I am unable to answer your call for any reason, it will be switched through to The Team, and they will take the message.  Normal working hours are Mon-Fri, 08.30am – 5.30pm.  Calls outside of these hours are processed as usual, but with an additional fee of 50p per call.

I only want you to cover my calls during working hours… This is possible to set up for you.  You will need to get a 0844 number from one of our trading partners (www.yourfreenumber.co.uk) – a free service which provides the flexibility to set opening hours, voicemail messages and will also divert to mobile and landlines.  All you have to do is to set out 0161 routing number in your dialing list for a comprehensive call managment and messaging solution.

Can messages to be sent to different people? Yes.  You can set up multiple contacts (i.e. accounts, sales, etc) and each one can have different forwarding and messaging instructions.

What are the payment terms? The telephone answering service is handled seperately to any other services offered by CosmicXpress.  A pre-payment service is offered and top-up payments can be made through the website.  You will be notified by email when funds are running low.

How do I set up? Use the online form to register as a client and set up your service information.  It should only take a couple of hours to be come operational.  We will notify you of the number to use for calls once your set up has been tested.

Is there a contract period? No!  You have the freedom to leave the service at any time.

For further details and to claim your FREE 14 DAY TRIAL please join me at CALL PARTNER and/or contact me at cosmicxpress@btconnect.com for further information.

AUDIO TIME VS TRANSCRIPTION TIME

If you have been involved in research interviews, focus groups or market research you may have recorded the conversations and now be looking for an affordable transcription service. As with all services, you will find that there are many transcription services available, but more often than not, an affordable service will be hard to find. Transcription does not come cheap, and this is because it is a lot more involved than straight forward copy typing. This of course doesn’t mean that you can’t find an affordable transcription service – what you can do to help make it cheaper for yourself is to provide a good quality of recording so that the transcription will take a little less time to complete.

Did you plan on completing the transcription yourself? Unfortunately, unless you are a fast touch-typist and have the specialist transcription equipment, you will find that it will take a VERY long time to do. I have heard stories of people taking up to 20 hours to complete a 1 hour recording – Now, that is just too long!

You have to remember that it is impossible to type as fast as you speak, and even an experienced transcriptionist will average about 4 times the length of the recording on a clear, 1 to 1 interview or sole speaker – so, it usually works out as 1 hour recording = 4 hours of transcription … and then don’t forget to take into account another hour for the checking of the work.

A focus group with multiple speakers may take 6 hours or more per hour of recording. Remember that your transcriptionist will also have to make sense of what is being said, get the punctuation in the correct places and use the correct words.

Right, so the next question is how can you ensure that your recording is the best it can be? This is important because the easier you make it for your transcriptionist, the more likely you are to get an affordable quotation.

HELPING YOUR TRANSCRIPTIONIST

Any information you can provide to your transcriptionist will help to make the process faster and thereby more affordable for you.
Tip 1 : Try to provide your transcriptionist with a list of keywords, this will save time spent ‘Googleing’ technical terms to check the spelling, or names of organisations.

Format
Most transcriptionists work in a standard format – tabular, tabbed, interviews shown initials or full names, etc. However, most will be happy to work to your format as long as it isn’t too complicated since that will just take more time which means more expense. Find out what the basic format will be and see if you can live with that as it will be the cheaper/easier option. If you need speakers to be listed in different colours, perhaps consider doing this yourself once the transcript is returned to you.
Do you need a paper copy of the transcript? Remember, this will cost you more over and above the transcription as it is not usually included in the transcription service.

EQUIPMENT

Try to use the best recording equipment you can afford, and ensure that it is the correct equipment for your purpose, meaning that for interviews you should record with an external microphone rather then a build in one (a built in recorder is designed for one voice dictating). For focus groups you should have a number of microphones around the room (roving mics if possible) so that all speakers will be close to a microphone.

Digital Recording
Digital recording systems provide the best quality and these days you will find many transcriptionists only deal with digital. Therefore, it is definitely worth your while to consider going digital. There are many brands available out there, when making your purchase, go into the store and check the recording quality if at all possible.

Remember also that digital files can easily be emailed so saving you the time and effort of having to get a tape to your to your transcriptionist.

TYPES OF RECORDING

Interviews
Interviews should be conducted in a quiet room with very little of any background noise. Background noise may mean that a transcriptionist will have to listen to certain passages several times to work out what is being said.
Tip 1 : Spell out your interviewee’s name at the beginning of the tape to avoid later confusion.
Tip 2 : Speak any information you would like in the Transcription Header, i.e. date, time, Title of Interview, etc.
Tip 3 : Summarise your impressions at the end of the interview (once you are alone).

Focus Groups
A focus group transcription will undoubtedly cost more than a 1 to 1 interview, but you can still find affordable transcription if you make your recording the best you can.
• Conduct the group in a private, quiet room. Air conditioning can affect a recording, as can an open window, so if it is hot, it might be an idea to make a test recording beforehand to check the quality.
• Be a firm Chair for the meeting and before you get started remind all participants that while their views are valid and important, there are no rights or wrongs and you want to hear their points of view, they should not try to talk (or shout) over each other while making their point.
• Perhaps make up a signal and when things start to get a bit out of hand, raise your hand or something to remind people to calm down and not to talk over each other. If this doesn’t work, a verbal reminder is a good idea.

Conference Recording
It’s best to leave this to the professionals if possible! These days many venues will supply recording facilities of good quality – and it will usually be included in the price. You will need a microphone set up for the speaker and you should also ensure that there are people in the audience with a roving microphone to offer to any people wanting to ask a question.

TYPES OF TRANSCRIPTION

VERBATIM
Verbatim transcription included EVERY word, every ‘um’, every ‘you know’, every pause and cough or throat clearing. Of course this will add time to the transcription, and you have to ask yourself, do you really need everything transcribed?

INTELLIGENT VERBATIM
If your transcriptionist can edit out all the ‘stuff’ it will make your transcript that much quicker. All the ‘stuff’ gets filtered out, but the rest gets left exactly as it is spoken.

Different transcriptionists will work differently on this subject so do remember to check with them when you are getting your quote.

EDITED
Edited transcription means that the grammar and any mispronounced words will get corrected and all the ‘stuff’ will get edited out as well. This of course will make your transcript much shorter and more concise, but will come at a more expensive price.

 DON’T PAY FOR VERBATIM TRANSCRIPTION UNLESS YOU REALLY NEED IT!
 THE CHEAPEST OPTION WILL USUALLY BE INTELLIGENT VERBATIM …
 DON’T ALWAYS GO FOR THE CHEAPEST TRANSCRIPTION OPTION – YOU MAY END UP RECEIVING SOMETHING THAT IS UNUSABLE AND YOU HAVE TO SPEND MORE TIME CORRECTING IT, OR EVEN HAVE TO GET IT REDONE! MORE TIME AND MONEY THAN NECESSARY

More next week on The Influencing Factors in how long your transcription will take…

As much fun as ‘fly by the seat of my pants’ might be, taking time to do some planning will save you a lot of time, stress and untimaltely … money!  Make time to plan and you will see how it will pay off big time.

Here are a few things to think about:

1. How you currently work:
   1. Could you do things faster and better?
   2. Would you be able to run things better if you had a tracking system in place?
   3. Do you use remote contractors (i.e. a Virtual Assistant) or interact with clients regularly?
      1. If you do, how do you interact with them – what resources do you use to communicate with them?
         1. You can put everything for them online

Are you aware that there are systems available which would enable you to work ‘smarter’ and which would also let you communicate with your remote contractors without sending emails backwards and forwards all the time?  Some of these systems are free of charge and others (as usual) cost a bit to implement.  No matter which you choose to go with, it will help you to streamline your daily tasks and projects.

If you work with a contractor, someone like me – a Virtual Assistant, or are a Virtual Assistant,  then you will really appreciate what I am getting at.

Currently I work on Basecamp with one of my clients and I also use Central Desktop.  Basecamp is  a paid for system, while Central Desktop is a free resource.  Of course, there are other project management tools out there, both free and paid for, but these are the 2 which I am familiar with.

By using Central Desktop I find my life is made much easier as it enables me to track what tasks I need to complete for my clients and it also tracks the individual deadlines for each of my clients.

Please contact me if I can be of help to you.

Nicole

CosmicXpress Virtual Secretarial Services
www.cosmicxpress.co.uk

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As a virtual assistant my personal feeling is that everybody needs to be as creative as they possibly can and if you work together with a Virtual Assistant who is creative on your behalf – so much the better!  After all, 2 heads are always better than one – aren’t they?

Over here in the UK not only is the summer grey, wet and dull, but the economic climate is much the same these days.  All you hear about is the state of the economy and all the redundancies being made left, right and centre.  It really is starting to become personal now with people around me being badly affected by the global recession, pay cuts and job losses in my back yard so to speak!  When things are this bad, creativity is a BONUS and the only way to survive the downturn.

I am finding that my business is changing slightly and I am becoming a ‘PROBLEM SOLVING VIRTUAL ASSISTANT’ – you have a problem, lets solve it together!  I am finding that this is a brilliant business model in these trying time and rather than being only a supplier of services, I am becoming a Problem Solver.  No longer are potential clients coming to me and asking me to do this typing, that presentation, etc., rather I am getting asked questions like, how can we effect cost savings, how can we drive up sales, etc..

HOW AM I USING MY CREATIVITY?

Creativity and innovation are often undervalued skills and in good times, are often forgotten.  When times are hard, these are the skills that come to the fore and what keep us going.  Creativity has become my biggest asset.

BRAINSTORMING

Lets brainstorm!

If you have a problem, lets sit down and go through it, lets have a discussion, get all the cards on the table, and as am impartial observer, perhaps I will be able to see things from a different angle and help you to come up with a solution to your problems.

1. What is your greatest problem right now?
2. Turn your problem into a question and write it at the top of a piece of paper.  If we were doing this together, we would both have a piece of paper.  Take the questions I mentioned above – How can we effect cost savings?  how can we drive up sales? etc.  It could be anything you are having a problem with.
3. Now, write down at least 10 answers to your question – write down everything and don’t stop until you have a list of at least 10 items.  No matter how silly you might think an idea might be, put it down.
4. If you are doing this exercise with me, we should have a list of 20 ideas.  Together we could then go through the list and discuss each item, deciding how realistic each one is and which ones are worth further investigation.
5. Get the list down to the Top 3 Favourite ideas and then leave it to me to explore them further for you

I will take your list and concentrate on the top 3 ideas that you liked, but I could also look into more for you if you wanted me to.

In this way I have helped you through your problem and hopefully, together, we will have come up with a creative solution to getting you through this tiresome time!

Contact me (cosmicxpress@btconnect.com) and lets put our heads together to solve your business problems.

All the best

Nicole
CosmicXpress Virtual Secretarial Services

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