Virtual staffing for your small business

What’s a Virtual Assistant? Virtual assistants are independent contractors or entrepreneurs who provide administrative assistance to multiple clients. Unlike regular assistants, they work out of their homes rather than at your business’ physical location. There are numerous advantages to using a virtual assistant: • Location. If you work from home, you don’t have to find a place to put an employee. • No Overhead. They provide their own office supplies, desk, computer, software, and phone lines. • No Benefits. They’re not your employee, so you aren’t responsible for paying social security or income taxes, holidays, insurance, vacation or sick pay. • Lots of Flexibility. It’s significantly easier to find a virtual assistant who can work evening hours or weekends—after all, they’re working from home. And you can give them more or less hours as your needs change. There are virtual staffing companies that match virtual assistants with small and home-based businesses who need help running things. How Do I Know What I’m Getting? Gayle Buske is the president and CEO of TeamDoubleClick, a highly reputed virtual staffing agency. Her clients are often concerned about hiring someone without ever seeing their face. She reassures them that because the agencies don’t get to meet the people they send to their clients—often they’re in different states—their hiring processes are a great deal more stringent. In fact Buske admits, “We turn away about 70% of the people that we interview.” Those who make the grade go through a 9-part interviewing process and then are trained and certified. Virtual agencies try to match each client with an assistant who is a good fit for their needs. They look at qualifications, personality and work style, and hours of availability—both number and times. Whatever your unique requirements, they’ll work to find someone who’s a good fit. Common Client Concerns • How do I know that my assistant is actually working the hours I’m paying them for? To allow you to track their progress, many agencies have their staff send daily reports of their activities. They may say how many inbound calls they received, how many outbound calls they made, how many appointments they set, what documents they worked on, as well as how many hours they put in for the day and their cumulative hours for the week. This can help you stay on budget—if you see they’ve already worked the total hours you planned to pay them for, you can push back other projects until next week. • How hard is it to work with someone from a remote location? Buske points out, “There’s so much technology now that really facilitates working virtually.” She contends it’s as simple as hitting the speed dial instead of the intercom or attaching files to an email rather than walking them to the next room. Most of your communication will be via phone, fax, and email. There are also online meeting programs (GoToMeeting) that let you do demonstrations and presentations, such as for training purposes. And their skills run the gamut—everything from accounting to marketing to graphic design. Whether you need someone to answer incoming calls and do mailers or someone who can manage your entire business when you’re away, you can find staff with all levels of skills.

Going paperless your route to the efficient office

Paper archives have a number of serious shortcomings, which at best cost time and money, and at worst threaten the viability of an organization. There is first of all the issue of space which is typically at a premium in most organizations. Filing archives take up an ever increasing, and non-productive, share of the workspace. Archives generally deteriorate in poor storage conditions, and become disorganized and untidy – out of sight, out of mind usually applies. Another important issue is the time wasted in operating and retrieving from a paper-based archive, which is very often hidden in general office activity but nevertheless can represent a real cost to the organization. Locating a document or file, even in a modest filing system, can take a long time, particularly if misfiled by the previous user. Finally there is the very real concern of security. It is theoretically possible to plan for disaster recovery in a paper-based archive, either by using fireproof cabinets, or by storing photocopies of all important documentation in some remote location. The cost implications of either of these options are obviously enormous. Fires frequently cause the destruction of key files, resulting in crippling consequential losses for the organizations concerned. Storing documents as electronic files overcomes all the shortcomings of paper archive in one hit. Filing space is more or less eliminated, document retrieval time is as long as it takes to key in a document or file reference on a PC keyboard, and files can be backed up either as part of existing IT procedures or on portable media such as the CD-ROM, stored in fireproof cabinets or in some remote location at very little additional expense. Starting your electronic document storage project need not be as complicated as you would think. Any piece of hard copy can be converted to an electronic file of one type or another, enabling it to be stored in and viewed by a PC or PC-based network, either individually, or as part of a larger electronic archive. Each document is then assigned a look-up key, for example Invoice Number and Supplier Code or Name, plus any other key which could usefully identify the document in question. At its least sophisticated, this would require a keyboard operation - a potentially costly element in the process if a large amount of data is to be entered against each invoice. However, there are a number of ways in which data entry costs can be reduced, including a bar code scan from the document or the import of data through a text file. So far, we have assumed that the database files would reside on a server, making the archive available across a PC-based network. A number of systems are fully portable, and can use CD's (or DVD-ROMs) as an alternative to a server. CD's can also provide low cost back up to a server-based archival system, for disaster recovery considerations. Some organizations prefer a web server to hold their data and this offers the advantages of extendible storage facilities and fixed pre-agreed costs with the web hosting firm.

Ways to improve your selling

It has long been known that until something is sold, nothing else happens. The selling profession is therefore one of the most challenging and most profitable career paths one can choose. And for those with an innate ability to sell, it can be gratifying and profitable from day one. Others, who may want the income and freedom that comes from sales but who are not as naturally gifted, will benefit from a few specific tips on their way to improving sales. First, acknowledge what type of sales you're best at. Door to door business to consumer, telemarketing, corporate business to business, and online are all different ways of selling. And while most salespeople must focus intensely on prospecting and business development, many in the corporate business to business sales world are responsible for closing million dollar deals in partnership with others at their company who generate the lead. Once you've narrowed down the type of sales you're best at, which may take years as you progress through your sales career, there are some additional resources that could help you. Sales coaching is a new form of improving your sales. You partner weekly with a veteran salesperson outside of your company who works with you on specific techniques, motivations, scripts, behavioral training, or attacks the call reluctance or lack of confidence you may feel in your role. The sales coach is your advocate, someone who has experience working with many types of salespeople and can assist you with a perspective that only an unbiased third party can provide. Another resource is lead generation. Specifically, find, hire, or create a method of generating more leads. Sales ultimately is a numbers game - the more leads you have in your pipeline, the greater your chances of closing more deals. If you can pay someone to generate more leads or create a direct marketing method of generating interest, much of your hard work will be done for you. This would free you up to focus on closing deals and generating income. The final resource to consider is one not many people think of, but can be tremendously valuable. This idea was first proposed by Ben Franklin and popularized by BLANK in Think and Grow Rich. Create a mastermind of salespeople. This requires some work up front but could pay great dividends, especially if you don't compete directly and mutually respect each other. A group like this could have various forms - you could be local to each other and meet weekly, or connect online or by phone on a regular basis, you could all be part of the same industry but sell in non-competitive territories, or you could hire a coach among you to assist each of you in getting the most out of this process. It's been proven time and again that a mastermind group of similarly driven and focused salespeople could be one of the most beneficial things you do. Regardless, if you're committed to sales success, you must continually improve yourself using either motivational techniques, lead generation and prospecting resources, or outside support from coaches or mastermind teams.

True information management far more than technical automation support

Across the Regular army, the term Selective information Management connotes different substance. In a garrison environment, a unit or section selective information direction military officer is typically that computer smart individual responsible for keeping their respective automation assets properly configured and Entropy Assurance Vulnerability Alert compliant in accordance with Directorate of Info Management policy. In a tactical setting, specifically at division and higher echelons wherever command and control and C2 entropy systems are the centerpiece of trading operations, the IM mission takes on a much More encompassing and critical function. A office that has the INTERNATIONAL MARITIME ORGANIZATION often focused solely on technical foul control and configuration of C2 systems and systems data moving across networks and throughout tactical operation centers. Effective and true up IM, however, focuses Thomas More on tailoring, filtering and fusing C2 data for relevancy and significance to ultimately drive the commander's decision cycle. Breaking out of the technological automator mold to info analyst to achieve dead on target IM is an inherent dilemma facing many IMOs nowadays. As the Signaling Corps postures itself towards the Future Force and Joint Operations, off-the-shelf technology is increasingly user-owned and operated and providing vast amounts of data, taking possession of, and focusing on the straight IM mission volition prove vital to keeping the Sign Regiment relevant. Continued from page 1. On larger scale the I Corps staff is acting as a JFLCC or CTF, the is caught up playing the conventional albeit misguided part of ' automator', particularly in getting center systems set-up and configured. This purpose is often extended throughout the initial phase of an operation until C2 systems and procedures are synchronized. The IM plan and established procedures dictate flow during this early stage. Once a routine struggle rhythm is in place, the is usually afforded time to focus on real IM and deliberate tailoring of for and signification. At this point, IM is done in a deliberate, proactive manner versus a reactionary mode during initial setup at the conflict major or chief's request. During his tenure as Chief of Bespeak, MG(R) Pat Cavanaugh accurately captured the take exception still facing Data Managers and the Betoken Regiment now: "The manager testament be faced with the daily dispute of determining just how his organization receives, manages, processes, protects and disseminates. The manager, then, wish need to be well-versed in operating and employing systems and communications networks, and equally literate in the art and science of maneuver warfare." If you canvass possible candidates for this position, it's quite clear the Indicate Regiment is best positioned to take on the - use. Our skills, training and experience cause us to cross all lines of handling: from the backbone infrastructure itself, to the local area networks in TOCs, to the systems and databases that power our Ground forces fight-command systems. We need step up to the plate and take responsibility for IM. As the moves from division and corps formations toward the Future Force of UEx/ UEy design, technology bequeath continually enable faster and Sir Thomas More voluminous TOC flow to commanders. Tailoring this for and understanding to achieve on-key IM is an , training and staffing gainsay for the Point Corps, and a focal for managers of and tomorrow. far to a greater extent than automation support. MAJ Norris is currently assigned as the I Corps G3 officeholder. His recent assignments include signal ship's officer in the Stryker Brigade Coordination Cell at Fort Lewis, Wash. and 8th G6 plans policeman at Yongsan, Korea. Norris is a 1990 graduate of Virginia Commonwealth University with a degree in journalism and 1997 graduate of Old Dominion University with a master's degree in applied linguistics.