Have you heard about KIVA?

Kiva is an organization designed to alleviate poverty by making “loans that change lives” (http://www.kiva.org/about).

I am so fortunate to be an entrepreneur in a country where money, clients and opportunity are plentiful. And whatever the state of the economy, and whatever my individual money worries and concerns might be, I really do have so much in comparison to so many.

Kiva has established a network connecting people around the world who need loans (usually in under-developed, struggling and impoverished nations) with those with an ability to lend. “Kiva’s mission is to connect people through lending for the sake of alleviating poverty.“

Loans can be as little as $25, up to however much you’d like to and are able to afford to lend – with 100% of the money from the loans going to the people/group you’ve decided to lend it to. Kiva does ask for a completely voluntary donation of 10% of the amount of your loan to help cover their costs, but this is completely voluntary and if you don’t want to donate to Kiva, you can still lend.

How often have you thought to yourself, “How can I possibly make a difference?”. Well, with Kiva, you can help support a person/group wanting to improve their lives, their family’s lives and those of their community. You can help others towards a sustainable future. I encourage you to check out Kiva’s website (http://www.kiva.org/about) to see what they are all about.

The only hard part is trying to decide which person/group to lend to. They are all so deserving. There are so many that want to make a better life for themselves. I find it most encouraging and motivating, and I’m so pleased that there is something I can do to make a change for the better in someone else’s life.

By coming together as a global community and for as little as $25 at a time, we really can make a difference. I think that’s just awesome.

As we approach the holiday season, and I know money is tight all around, I ask you to check Kiva out and, even if you can’t lend, that you pass on information about Kiva to the people you know. Together we can make a difference. Thanks.

Manage your Time

In our struggle to be successful and stay successful, we are often running on all cylinders – rushing to meet deadlines, scrambling to get invoices out, networking, marketing, sales…the list is virtually endless.

And that’s just in our efforts to earn money.  What about at the end of the day?  (If there is such a thing?!)

Once we have shut the shop for the day, that’s usually when our second job kicks in (or third depending on your specific situation!).  Then there’s homework to supervise, laundry to get done, tidying, meals to prepare, bills to pay, events to plan, cards to send…again, the list goes on and on.

So how can you manage it all and keep your sanity, clarity of thought and not lose motivation?  Let us show you how.

Contracting with a Virtual Assistant (VA) is a great way of freeing up your time, increasing your productivity and saving you money.

Utilizing the services of a VA can easily give you back an hour or more every day to focus on other things – in your business and in your personal life.

Outsource those reports, accounts and call-backs just for starters.  How about tackling that long list of (never-ending) emails?  A VA is a great way to get it done!

On the home front, let a VA to help you plan an event or get those Christmas cards mailed out.

A VA will help you stay on track, stay focused, increase your earning potential and contribute to a much more relaxed and stress-free downtime.

Let us help you get it done.

If you’d like to know more or have any questions, please leave a comment, visit our website http://www.rmeg.ca/va or send me an email at rosem@rmeg.ca.

Virtual Assistants Increase your Productivity, Save you Money and Give you Back your Time

VAs increase your productivity by taking those mundane, time consuming back-office tasks off your hands leaving you free to pursue the money-making aspect of your business more vigorously – focus on sales, making contacts, networking, business growth and more.

By checking your emails, returning your calls, drafting reports, letters and accounts – or whatever else you need – a VA gives you back your time by an hour or more everyday.

VAs saves you money because they are independent contractors who work off-site.  That means no facilities costs for you, no having to buy, maintain or upgrade any additional office equipment and NEVER having to pay for downtime, sick days, inclement weather or coffee breaks – ever.  Contracting with a VA means only paying for the work you need done, when you need it done.

Let R-meg VA show you how we can increase your productivity, give you back your time and save you money. If you’d like to know more or have any questions, please leave a comment, visit our website http://www.rmeg.ca/va or send me an email at rosem@rmeg.ca.

Go Green, Get Organized and Save Money

Going Green is not always an easy proposition. Many forms of waste seem unavoidable, however, there are small, but very tangible things we can do to be Green. This list is by no means complete, but can be a great starting point:

Desktop Faxing - If at all possible, stop or limit your use of paper fax machines. There are many great desktop faxing applications that are inexpensive and easy to use.

Save electronic/digital copies of your work – Store your documents on your computer. Instead of a file cabinet full of paper, create directories on your computer for each client, with whatever sub-folders are relevant to your clients/business. You’re doing back-ups anyway (right?!?), so loss of data won’t be a concern in the event your computer crashes. If regular back-ups aren’t enough security for you, consider mirroring your hard drive or increasing the redundancy elsewhere on your computer system.

Don’t print out your emails – Store them directly in your email by designating folders for each client or subject, etc. Alternatively, emails can be stored by most computer applications as well.

Get a recycling box – And use it! Most cities and municipalities will give each household and business at least two recycling boxes for free.

Buy recycled products – Try to make sure that the paper and supplies you are buying are recycled, refurbished and/or come from sustainable resources.

Send your used printer/toner cartridges back to the manufacturer - Many manufacturers include a prepaid shipping label to put on the outside of the cartridge box so that you can return the spent cartridge directly to the manufacturer.

Use florescent light bulbs - This might cost a bit initially if you haven’t already started making the switch. The great thing is, though, that the cost of these bulbs keeps coming down and long term savings are all but guaranteed.

Shut your computer monitor – When you’re not at your desk, shut your monitor. Every little bit helps.

Shut your computer down - This one can be tricky for some because some programs need your computer to be on in order to do what they need to do (receiving desktop faxes, for example). Having said that, however, if your workstation runs off a main server that houses all those nifty programs and applications, leave your server on, but shut down your individual workstation.

The obvious benefit of going Green as much as possible is to reduce our carbon footprint and help our environment, our planet and our fellow woman/man enjoy a long and sustainable future. That, in and of itself, might be motivation enough to make your best-efforts at achieving ultimate Greenness.

Going Green can also contribute to a neater and more organized work space for you. Also a great motivator to Go Green.

But if it’s not, remember that Going Green saves you money! And I think it requires way little effort compared to achieving a way greater good.

Go Green!

If you’d like to know more or have any questions, please leave a comment, visit our website http://www.rmeg.ca/va or send me an email at rosem@rmeg.ca.

Networking lunch…

On Saturday, I had the pleasure of networking with some of my fellow VAs at a luncheon of the Golden Horseshow Virtual Assistants Group (http://www.ghva.ca/).

Being in business for yourself can be very isolating – especially if you’re a sole practitioner.  Forums are a wonderful way to access resources, ask questions, get answers and communicate with your colleagues.  I’m a member of some really great VA forums as well, and I think that forums are invaluable for the scope of people, talent and different levels of experience you can come into contact with and benefit from – forums are also great at alleviating that sense of isolation.

It’s nice, though, to get together with your colleagues in person and sit down, share information, exchange ideas, experience and knowledge with one another.  It’s a social get-together, complete with a nice meal with people who can relate to your struggles, herald your achievements and bolster your confidence.

I encourage all VAs and entrepreneurs to join an association affiliated with your business, a chamber of commerce or other group in your area so that you can physically attend the functions of that group.  Not only is it great for alleviating your sense of isolation; it’s a terrific learning and networking opportunity and it’s just one more way to get your name out there and to put a face to the name (valuable EXPOSURE!).

Remember to bring lots of business cards and enjoy yourself!

Where do you need help?

What is your businesses particular struggle?

Is your bookkeeping behind?

Too little time to respond to your emails?

Have client calls gone unanswered?

Are your reports/contracts/proposals/letters up-to-date?

Does your cash flow fall short because you haven’t been able to get around to billing?

Can’t find experienced staff?

What does your business need to keep improving, growing and succeeding?

I would like to know what your struggles are and the opportunity to demonstrate that R-meg VA has solutions to these challenges and more.

If you’d like to know more or have any questions, please leave a comment, visit our website http://www.rmeg.ca/va or send me an email at rosem@rmeg.ca.

What’s new…

R-meg VA has updated its website!

Check us out at http://www.rmeg.ca/va to see what’s new.

We have new links to some great articles about how virtual assistants can benefit your business.

If you’d like to know more or have any questions, please leave a comment or send me an email at rosem@rmeg.ca.

Free up your time…

Most people know that Virtual Assistants (VAs) are great for outsourcing time-consuming administrative tasks to.  But VAs offer even more in freeing up your time.

How much time do you spend keeping up your professional blog?  Do you even have one?  Has your blog gone unattended?

Is managing your Facebook or MySpace page taking you away from generating revenue?  Are you spending your leisure time maintaining your pages?  Have you thought about creating a page on Facebook or MySpace, but simply don’t have the time?

We all know how important social networking has become.  It is a great way of communicating, generating prospective clients; promoting and marketing business – but only if you can utilize these social network sites to their fullest potential.  That’s where your VA comes in…

A VA can get you started by creating your online presence in whichever social networks, forums and online communities are relevant to your business.

A VA can set up your profile, moderate, comment and participate in groups, research new people to invite to social network, manage your events, track conversations, comment on blogs, create pages, ad campaigns and so much more.

Creating and maintaining social network sites and blogs for clients is just one way a VA can help businesses stay current, generate revenue, increase their exposure and expand their business.

If you’d like to know more or have any questions, please leave a comment, visit our website http://www.rmeg.ca/va or send me an email at rosem@rmeg.ca.

Secret of my trade?

I was recently speaking with someone about my last blog (”One way to get the job done faster”) about how you can get the most out of the AutoCorrect feature in MS Word. He suggested that I was giving up a great “secret of my trade” – that even though people might know of the AutoCorrect feature, most certainly don’t know about its broader capabilities. Won’t that hurt my business in the long run?

Well, maybe on one hand it could. But I don’t think so. AutoCorrect is a great feature that you can really make the most of, and it can make you more efficient. But I think that a virtual assistant offers much more than a great typing speed to their clients.

Wikipedia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Virtual_assistant) says “Virtual Assistants (typically abbreviated to VAs), are business owners who provide professional administrative, technical, or creative (social) assistance to clients — usually other independent entrepreneurs and consultancy small businesses. Virtual Assistants work from their own office (hence “virtual”), thus making it a fairly popular…profession in centralized economies…^“.

Mary H. Ruth, author of “Virtual Assistants and Your Business” (http://www.asthemoonclimbs.com/combined01-11-08.pdf) puts it wonderfully: “Virtual Assistants work from a remote location, often their home office. This means: no facilities costs for you; no costs for office equipment; no wages, benefits or taxes (Virtual Assistants do business by independent contract); no missed work because of inclement weather or traffic problems”.

I have been a virtual assistant for more than seven years, but I called myself a freelancer until recently. I started doing office overload type work in 1992 – picking up the work from my clients and bringing it back when it was done. This transitioned in 2001 to obtaining the work electronically or digitally and delivering it back the same way. I guess this is when I became a “virtual assistant”, although I only became familiar with that particular term myself about a year and a half ago.

Being a virtual assistant allows me a continuing education in many diverse fields because I can work for such a different range of clientèle. The only boundaries or limitations are those that VAs (or any other entrepreneur) set for themselves. This cumulative experience benefits myself and all my clients as well. We all reap the rewards of shared knowledge. I make available to my clients more than 20 years of varied administrative experience, and they know that I am never further than an email or telephone call away; ready, willing and able to provide them the assistance they need for whatever project is at hand.

I believe in the “pay it forward” philosophy. If I can help someone by sharing something I know, and I can, in turn, learn from others’ expertise and knowledge, we all benefit – and I’m sure there’s more than enough success to go around.

If you’d like to know more or have any questions, please leave a comment, visit our website http://www.rmeg.ca/va or send me an email at rosem@rmeg.ca.

One way to get the job done faster…

Did you know that MS Word is equipped with a function called “AutoCorrect”? AutoCorrect is pre-set with many corrections to replace common typographical errors with the correct spelling of a word when typing.

For instance, if you type “becuase”, AutoCorrect has this error pre-set in its memory and will automatically correct the spelling of this word when you hit the space bar or enter any type of punctuation immediately after the word. This is quite handy and helpful, and you may have noticed that MS Word does these types of corrections already without knowing exactly why or how this was happening – or how you can use this to improve your efficiency and your business.

Even better than being able to correct common typo’s is that AutoCorrect will let you customize it to add your own words to “correct”, but rather than simply correcting, you can customize AutoCorrect to insert any written material whatsoever into your written projects.

This function can be (and is for me) an INVALUABLE tool that I use on a daily basis.

How it works is like this:

First, you will find the AutoCorrect function under “tools” in MS Word (I have it added as a function on my toolbar). This will bring up the AutoCorrect box within which you will see a “replace” box and a “with” box.

In the “replace” box, type in a series of letters, or code so to speak, of something you will remember for things you type repetitively.

For example: If you type “with respect to” a lot, then the AutoCorrect code in the replace box might be “wrt” for this (or whatever else you’ll easily and always remember). Then, when you type “wrt” and then hit the space bar or any punctuation, MS Word will automatically add in the whole phrase.

But you are not limited to short phrases. I’ve added in whole sentences such as “which we trust you will find completely satisfactory” with the code “wwt”. The possibilities are virtually endless.

There are a couple of things, however, that you must keep in mind when using the AutoCorrect function:

One is not to enter words or phrases in the “with” box with any capital letters (unless it’s a proper name, of course) because, if you do, AutoCorrect will always replace your code using capital letters. Having said that, however, if you type “Wwt” with a capital for the first letter, AutoCorrect knows this and automatically adds the phrase with a capital on the first word, or if you enter the code as “WWT”, the phrase will be in all capitals – which makes using this tool even better. Cool, eh?

The second thing to remember is NOT to enter codes in the “replace” box with words or initials you actually need to use regularly. Accordingly, if your name is “Tina Oldman”, don’t use the code “to” to simplify typing your name because if you do, every time you write the word to, you’ll automatically get “Tina Oldman”, which is not at all helpful or efficient. So, if your name is “Tina Oldman”, your code might be “tto”. You get the idea. (Tip: A quick click on the “undo” key in your toolbar will reset any “correction” to its “code” form – i.e. hitting undo will re-set “Tina Oldman” to the word “to”).

And finally, AutoCorrect will not accept corrections that have a “return” or “enter” key if what you’d like to code is, let’s say, two small paragraphs at the same time. If you hit “return” or “enter” within AutoCorrect, it saves what you did up to the “enter” and closes the AutoCorrect box. Therefore, you’ll have to code each small paragraph separately, which I don’t find to be a problem at all. In fact, it allows for even more flexibility and customizing of projects this way.

I really like the AutoCorrect function because it is completely customizable; you can add, delete, re-do and re-vamp the codes at any time to suit any purpose or project. If you’re doing a project that requires you to type a name over and over, imagine how much time you’ll save by having two or three letters as code to type instead of having to type “Theodore Jason Prometheus” in full every time. Entering “tjp” is just way faster and efficient.

As a virtual assistant, utilizing the AutoCorrect tool in my business really is invaluable in greatly simplifying my projects and making me more efficient. Even more importantly though, this is a benefit to my clients because their projects are completed that much faster – which keeps the clients’ costs down; which leads to repeat business and referrals.

I hope that I’ve been able to provide this overview concisely and clearly, and if I haven’t, please leave a comment or don’t hesitate to contact me at rosem@rmeg.ca directly with “AutoCorrect” in the subject line.

If you’d like to know more or have any questions, please leave a comment, visit our website http://www.rmeg.ca/va or send me an email at rosem@rmeg.ca.