Virtual Assistant

Friday, February 20, 2009

#36 - #40 One-hour Projects

36. Build a custom spreadsheet.
37. Research venues to visit on your trip, along with directions to get to them.
38. Format and submit your article(s) online.
39. Create a fill-able form.
40. Organize a stack of files, label, and ship back to you, ready to drop into your file drawer.

Thursday, February 19, 2009

Money Saving Tips

Pay cash to avoid overspending; it is more 'personal'. By using cash instead of a credit card, it becomes a more emotional event and therefore you are less likely to spend your money frivolously. For large purchases, sleep on it, tell yourself you'll come back and buy it later in the week, if for the next 2 or 3 days, the item keeps 'calling your name', and you have the cash to buy it, go get it.

Limit your purchases to to the cash you have on hand or better yet; what you have budgeted. Use envelopes to store the money and/or receipts that have been budgeted for groceries, gasoline, personal items and blow money. I must contradict myself here, since I am very uncomfortable having so much cash on hand, I don't put the cash in the envelopes; I have the amount budgeted on the envelope and use my debit card only. Then the receipts go in the correct envelopes and I keep a running total so I know, at a glance, where I am in my budget.

For more tips on saving money and becoming debt free, check out Dave Ramsey.

#31 - #35 One-hour Projects

31. Request and follow up for hard copies or files of recent print mentions.
32. Follow-up research on a client, prospect, applicant, or competitor.
33. Book your flight, hotel, and/or rental car reservations.
34. Delete spam from your e-mail, sort, answer, or redirect remaining messages.
35. Convert document files to PDF format.

Tuesday, February 17, 2009

#26 - #30 One-hour projects

26. Select and schedule 15 individual handwritten greeting cards for delivery.
27. Design a graphic advertising banner.
28. Create a customized, detailed Google business listing with images.
29. Research best features & price for a needed service, technology, or item.
30. Order a shopping list for home or office delivery.

Thursday, February 12, 2009

#21 - #25 One-Hour Projects

21. Enter calendar deadline reminders.
22. Filling and submission of grant applications.
23. Design print-ready company letterhead.
24. Add a press page to the company website.
25. Set up a blogging account add the link to the site menu.

Home Health Procedure

A home health nurse contacted me about designing a process to improve her efficiency in her work. This particular nurse is highly educated, loads of credentials and years of industrial nursing experience, but new to Home Health Nursing; I'm honored that she chose me to assist her.

Here were the problems:

1. A big, backpack size, heavy bag of supplies and small equipment only some of which are to be used at every visit, the others must be readily available.

2. The forms; numerous forms for different situations; opening a case, closing a case, referral for other services, basic visits; some forms are used at every visit. There is also Mrs. C's Daily Activity Log; mileage between patients, the date, patient's name and time & length of visit.

3. Where to put a small number of office supplies: pens, post-it notes, paperclips, small stapler, staples, tape, etc.

4. Mrs. C also requested a form designed to leave with the patients that lists all of their medications and when to take them so the patient can reference it as she sees a need to help the older patients remember the proper times and dosages of their medication.

5. Notes were being taken on the back of a form and then later entered in the appropriate one, in an effort to save time.

6. Client files containing medical information, information which by law (HIPPA) has to be safeguared, but Mrs. C needs accessible if she needs to refer to something.


Here are the solutions we came up with:

1. We got a small, zippered, clear make-up bag for the supplies that are used at every visit and can be kept inside the bigger bag; after every visit Mrs. C re-stocks the small bag to have ready for the next patient.

2. We picked up a clip board, file folders, labels and a plastic 'milk-crate' that we made sure the file folders would fit in. We labeled a folder each patient's name and Mrs. C put the forms in the order she knew was necessary. The forms each got their own labeled folder and all folders were put in the crate, alphabetically with the patient files behind the forms' folders. There are some forms to be used at every visit, so we paper clipped one set for every patient she was scheduled to visit the following week and put them into their own folder at the very front of the crate, all she has to do is reach in and grab one set before she gets out of her car. We also put one set on the clipboard and used dental floss to attach an extra pen. The Daily Activity Log is kept on top of the clipboard (it hides the medical forms below it) and is filled out immediately upon arrival at the patient's home and immediately before leaving the patient's home.

3. We bought a small, hard plastic 'pencil-case' to store all the office supplies and it sits inside the crate.

4. Using Word we designed a form to leave with the patient; the form has their name, a list of all medications being taken, the date and time of the visit and who to contact if the patient has questions about their medication. This took about an hour.

5. Instead of taking notes on the back of another form, we added that form to the paper clipped forms used at every visit, therefore Mrs. C is only writing the notes once. She has since told me it sure saves her a lot of time!

6. We solved most of this issue when we handled the forms, each patient has their own folder, labeled with last, first name only and they are stored behind the forms' folders. At the end of the day, Mrs. C takes the crate into her house for safe storage. She also spends 15 minutes double checking her supplies and forms to be ready for the next day. Mrs. C has remote start on her car so the heat or air can stay on for a while during the visits to help keep the temperature fairly even to protect the medical supplies.

This procedure, including the shopping trip & designing a Medication Form, took us 4 hours at a cost of $100. Mrs. C has since contacted me and said it is saving her approximately 1 hour a day, that she no longer feels like she forgot something and the investment of $100 for my time actually saves her $250 per week for the time she used to spend!

Wednesday, February 11, 2009

#16 - #20 One--hour Projects

16. Type handwritten notes from a seminar.
17. Edit and post multiple blog entries.
18. Monitor and forward info from multiple sources of client industry news.
19. Create PDF's for numerous company documents, whitepapers, charts, etc.
20. Gather info on grant opportunities.

Friday, February 6, 2009

#11 - #15 One-hour Projects

11. Research travel, hotel and meeting facilities.
12. Update web site content.
13. Article or blog or press release submissions to 5 sites.
14. Update and manage your online calendar.
15. Research for specific projects.

Monday, January 26, 2009

#6 - #10 One-hour Projects

Here are five more 1-hr projects or services to outsource to us and you can use the time for something else; like reading blogs!

6. Create correspondence for a client or prospect.
7. Edit and proof a minimum of a five page report.
8. Create a PowerPoint presentation.
9. Setup the process for an ezine or newsletter.
10. Balance a monthly bank statement.

Sunday, January 25, 2009

Projects we can do for you in about an hour!

To truly understand the value of working with a virtual assistant, we won’t just tell you about the value you will receive, we will show you! Everywhere businesses and business owners are faced with many tasks that take away precious time from building their business. What may take a VA an hour or so to complete, may take you hours because of the distractions and other necessary projects that have to be done. Our goal is to ensure that you know how just one hour of using our quality services can do for your business!

Here are five projects to get you started...

1. Warm call 25-30 prospects.
2. Phone a minimum of 25 clients for a specific project.
3. Mail merge 50-100 letters including stuffing and mailing.
4. Create an Email campaign.
5. Data Entry of a minimum of 50 contacts in an Excel spreadsheet.

Give us a call today!

Tuesday, January 20, 2009

Organizational Tips

  • Rearrange often-used items so they are within arm's reach, unless you're deliberately trying to exercise.
  • Take a break every hour; stand up, stretch, do a quick cleanup of your desk.
  • Paper or Plastic? Neither, buy reusable bags and take them with you to the store.
  • Get extra work space by placing a table at a right angle to your desk.
  • Buy a better file cabinet; place heavy book in bottom drawer, if pulls smoothly, buy it!
  • Straighten out your desk drawers by storing every item in a compartment.
  • At year-end clean out your file drawers by transferring inactive files to an archive file cabinet.

Wednesday, December 5, 2007

About Us...

We are who people from around the world call to help with their administrative needs without adding to their overhead.

We can do anything an ‘in-house’ administrative assistant can do except make your coffee. We free up valuable time allowing you to focus on your goals and other profit generating activities instead of mundane office chores.

We provide administrative support by utilizing today's technology; email, text messages, IM programs, and Skype. Our services include but not limited to: Bookkeeping, contact Management, Desktop Publishing, Document Preparation and Office Organization. We have access to people who specialize in other services, so if we don't offer what you need, we know someone who does.

"Statistics reveal the average executive spends 150 hours a year searching for lost documents and a moderately disorganized person loses about two hours every day due to disorder."

Our primary goal is to build long-term relationships with our clients by providing the highest quality of service; in other words, if you succeed, we succeed. The end result of using our services is you will have more money in your pocket because we save you money on overhead costs. Costs that eat away at your profits: office supplies, furniture & equipment, insurance, hiring & training, payroll taxes, and workers comp. These expenses can add as much as 35% to your overhead!

"Sometimes all a business owner needs to grow and become successful is to be organized."