In the old days, when the business needed additional
administration help, it meant hiring a new employee. After an application and
interview process, the right person was signed on to the company payroll and got
to work. In our days when almost every company is online in some way or other,
administrative virtual assistants who work on a freelance basis creates the
need for a new way of hiring while still completing all assignable tasks that
keep the business running smoothly.
Of course, that companies still hire administration
assistants as they used to and these people offer invaluable services,
including email management, scheduling, workflow organisation and even customer
care. However, after they complete all the tasks, they sit at their desks and
keep drawing a paycheque. And it is where the difference is. The Virtual Admin Assistants
charge you for the tasks they complete according to their client agreement,
without any wasted expense or downtime.
Virtual Assistant Save You Time
The most obvious way a virtual assistant saves a company’s
time is by handling specific tasks so the business owner or employees can set
their focus in other directions. Many of the jobs dealt with by a freelance VA include
things like organising, managing and answering email, addressing support
requests, phone messages and the social media posts, maintaining a schedule or
calendar programme so that you never miss an important meeting or deadline
again. The entire company can run far more smoothly without unwanted
interruptions.
Freelance Virtual Assistant Save You Money
When a business decides to hire a new employee, it creates not
only a new paycheque to leave the company’s funds, but also other expenses
associated with hiring. The business can face new tax situations, additional insurance
or other benefits that will have to pay. New employees also (in most cases)
require equipment such as a computer, mobile phone, possibly a landline and
even a chair and desk for businesses that operate with a physical location.
When you decide to work with a VA, you will soon realise
they operate from their own office or home, already have existing computer
hardware and gadgets necessary for them to provide the services they offer.
Since Freelance VA aren’t salaried or hourly employees, they are not generally
bound by the legal guidelines associated with providing health care and other
benefits or insurance either for that matter. There’s also no wasted expense
associated with paying for slow periods or times when there’s not enough work
to go around. Freelance agreements should spell out clearly what are the tasks you
are being charged for.
Virtual Assistant Save You Headaches
Imagine a daily schedule on your mobile phone, an
appointment calendar in the cloud, multiple email accounts demanding attention,
social media overrun with questions, spam attacking from all sides, the phone
ringing off the hook and at least five other tasks that have been forgotten or
pushed aside in favour of simply maintaining a company’s forward flow. Running
a business involves a lot more than having a vision for the future, setting
goals and making profits. A professional virtual assistant can do more than
save you time and money; they can also reduce stress and alleviate the
uncomfortable feeling that the company is a house of cards.
The right virtual assistant removes the day-to-day struggles
to keep organised and on top of everything. Some administrative VAs begin by
setting up your calendar, scheduling, email and social media accounts for
easier management. They then remove the challenge of giving enough attention to
each aspect of these tasks to make the business run smoothly. When the company
owner feels confident everything is flowing smoothly in the background, he or
she can truly focus on business growth and future development.
So tell me, what is your business about and what type of
help you need. I am sure I can help. I promise you will not be disappointed
working with me.
HOW TO RECOVER AN UNSAVED WORD DOCUMENT IN 5 STEPS.
It happened to me many times before. I have been working on
a document and out of the blue my computer screen went blank, and I realised I didn’t
save the most recent updates!!! Well,yes – it happened to me several times. It
happened to me quite recently when I was working on meeting notes for one of my
clients. I thought I will cry as I thought I have lost few hours of my work! However,
I decided I am not going to give up as it must be a way to recover it as it has
to be stored somewhere. I knew that if I was only able to recover version from
10 minutes before the computer went off, I would be the happiest person in that
minute in the world as it would save at least 3h of work. I managed to do it
and decided I will make a post on how you can do it if it happens to you. So, how
to restore an unsaved Word file? You can find step-by-step instruction below.
Before you do
anything and start digging deep into the computer files, I recommend you check
your Recent Word Files, as you might
be lucky and find version current enough there. You can check it by opening a blank
Word Document. It should show a list of the most recent documents you were
working on before the computer crashed. It would be possible if you have your
save option set up to autosave every 1 minute. Below you will also find an
instruction on how to set up your save options.
How to set up your Autosave option the o
minimise the loss of document?
It is not as difficult as you may think. All you have to do is open a
Word document. Even blank will do. Go to File (top left) choose Options and
next Save; Now you have to make sure your autosave is set up to 1min. By
default, it is set up to 10 min. Please be aware that setting it up to 1 minute
make slow your computer down as it will be saving your work every minute. I
tend to have it set up to 5 minutes but re-set it if I have a very long
document to type up or prepare. The last thing you have to do is to make sure
your auto recovery saving path
is set up.
If you have not found your file in your Recent Files,
the next place you can check is Managed
Versions. You can do it when you
have a blank document open by going to File (top left corner). It will open up
a list of options to choose, and you can locate the Managed Versions on the
bottom left. However, it might be that your document will not be there. It
happened to me!
For some reason when I clicked Recover Unsaved Documents, the folder was
empty. If this happens to you, you will have to dig a bit further. However, you
might be lucky ;-).
Chances are you still have not been able to
locate your lost document. I was there and believe me; it wasn’t a nice
feeling. I had to dig further. Therefore, our next step is going to Windows folder
and checking if there is something saved in a Recovery File.
However, before we do it, we have to make sure we can see all the folders
that are there. We have to enable an option to see hidden folders.
How to enable an option to see hidden
folders
Not that complicated.
However, we have to make sure we enabled the right one. Ok, so let’s open up Files
Explorer, next go and open up the View tab, find Options and open it up to
change settings.
The above picture shows how it should be set up. Please, remember to save
your new settings. Now you should be able to view all your hidden folders.
Now we have to Recover the file. Please follow it Step by step with me.
Go to your C-drive
where your Microsoft Word is installed.
Locate Users Folder, choose the
user under which you have been working on. Go to AppData, Roaming, Microsoft,
Word,
and all the unsaved documents should be there.
It might be that there are files
in there in a different format than *.docx, probably a *.asd
files.
Now you have to Open up the folder you have just found. So, follow me again: open
blank Word document, go back to last saved version of the document by following
the path AppData/Roaming/Microsoft/Word and open up the most recent *.asd
file as a Word document.
That should bring up the most recently saved option of the document you
were working on.
I
usually open it up by clicking Compare,
so I see the changes that have been made over some time before the document crashed.
You can either Accept all changes or Reject depending on what you were doing
with your document. However, now after you have recovered your document Please Make Sure You Saves It Under New
Name.
How a Virtual Assistant Can Help You Build A LinkedIn Strategy.
Do you have a specific strategy in place when it comes to dealing with LinkedIn? It may be correct to say that a lot of small business owners bypass this social platform altogether, but this is increasingly a mistake due to the amount of work that the network itself has put in over recent years. Now it makes a great deal of sense to spend time on building up your LinkedIn profile and company pages, to say nothing of getting involved with their Groups feature. Maybe you need to have a detailed discussion with your virtual assistant who can operate your LinkedIn profile daily.
Even if you have a LinkedIn presence, how “fresh” is it? Just take a look at your profile for example. How up-to-date is that photograph? It’s incredible how many people use a relatively low-quality picture that they just happened to have in a folder somewhere. It shouldn’t be understated how important that first impression is and in this case your photograph needs to be professionally composed and produced and show you in the best light possible. If you are going to use LinkedIn to its fullest extent and are the type of person to attend industry conferences, meetings or events then you want to be instantly recognisable. Of course, you don’t have the time to talk to every single person at such an event, but what if that potentially lucrative contact happens to recognise you from the far corner of the room? Now you will see just how important it was to update that photograph, after all.
Nothing stands still in life in general or in your business world. Why is it, therefore, that people tend to leave their profile “as is” for an extended period of time? LinkedIn itself has made some changes to the makeup of the personal and company pages, and you should work with your virtual assistant to ensure that your profile is adequately optimised today.
You may well find that you can use some good industry buzzwords within the body of your profile to make yourself appear more relevant within your industry. Don’t be afraid to blow your own trumpet here and remember that your updates will be shared with the networks you belong to, so long as your virtual assistant has enabled the appropriate setting within your profile details.
We all know how important keywords are in our online world. Do you have the right keyword phrases in your profile summary? Have a good look at your skill set as itemised in LinkedIn. Are you missing out on search exposure because you have less than a comprehensive set of skills listed? Keep updating your profile headline often, and you will find that you have more and more visitors to your profile; this can only be potentially lucrative in the long run.
LinkedIn is part of a network of sites that your virtual assistant must maintain for you including of course your blog and your website. By keeping up to date, fresh and relevant within LinkedIn, you will be able to grow your network, enhance your visibility and drive traffic to your commercial sites.
How The VA Can Help You With A Technological Minefield
These are exciting times for any business owner. In the space of only half a dozen years, the face of marketing has changed almost beyond all recognition. Conventional methods of marketing, while still in existence, are being increasingly overtaken by the new methodology. This new approach was until fairly recent times known as “Web 2.0,” but such is the pace of development and technological advancement that many are now starting to refer to a completely new era in Internet marketing, even a “Web 3.0.” (more…)
How The Virtual Assistant Comes To The Business Owner’s Rescue
Many business owners today find that writing is just not their forte. Indeed, they can deal with contracts, agreements, invoicing and so on, but they just do not feel in their element if they are asked to create an article or even a white paper of some kind. Content creation is not for everybody, yet it has become increasingly more important in the small business world. (more…)
How To Clone Yourself, Or Come Up With An Alternative Solution
Have you ever wished that you could clone yourself to come up with a carbon copy, an identical version of you? If you’re an entrepreneur or operate a small business of some kind, the answer to that question is a “resounding” yes. We have all been in that position and simply wish that we could “count on” somebody who could do all the work without any complications or problems. (more…)
