FOSVA Limited

Is it still cost effective to outsource?

2011-11-07T17:39:00.002Z

2011-10-03T15:29:00.000+01:00

Now is the time to train your teams.

I hope you are enjoying what's left of the 'Indian Summer' and are gearing up for the autumnal months.

Since our last training news issue there has been a steady increase in business and I have to say that August and September have by far been our best months ever - I'm so pleased and it's all down to our wonderful clientele (grovel, grovel).

I'm constantly reviewing our services as I am hot on customer satisfaction and would be keen to get some feedback from you, so if you have any ideas for future articles or would like to discuss anything relating the courses themselves and even how we price them then I'd love to hear from you. I would like to think we are very competitive but if you think we're missing something please do let me know! Take a look at our current price list and tell me what you think.

This month we've added a new course called Managing Stress by Sarah Beckitt and you can read her article below.

Happy reading and if you would like to discuss anything to do with training please do not hesitate to contact me on 01252 758575.

regards

Anne

Stress Busting

You are not immune from stress, but then who is these days? Life often seems overwhelming. Constant deadlines, ever-increasing responsibilities, things that take twice as long as you thought they would. The pace of work gets faster and faster. Tempers get shorter and people get frantic. Is this any way to work or even live?

Stress has become such a way of life that most of us consider it to be a normal state of being. Just as individuals suffer from stress - so do organisations. It is estimated that 40 million working days a year are lost due to stress related issues at a cost of £4.5bn! Alcohol related absenteeism, which is associated with stress, costs industry around £100m a year.

However, some people don’t appear to suffer from it, in fact they thrive on stress. The amount of stress we’re subjected to affects our ability to perform well. Too little stress and we don’t summon up enough energy to perform - too much and we become too emotionally stirred up to be able to achieve our best. Somewhere between these two lies your optimum stress level at which you can perform at your peak.

Take a quick test now to determine your stress levels:

• Do you feel drained at the end of the day?
• Do you feel tired when you wake in the mornings?
• Have you lost your sense of humour?
• Are you socialising less?
• Do you skip breakfast or lunch?
• Do you feel your brain is at full capacity?
• Have you suffered more than one physical complaint in the last 6 months?
• Are you becoming more short-tempered with those around you?
• Do you sometimes ask yourself “what’s the point?”
• Are you less able to rise to the challenge of extra work?
Assess your stress level:
• If you answered ‘yes’ to more than 7 questions, it’s likely you’re on the way to burn out and need to take action now.
• If you answered ‘yes’ to more than 5 questions, you're probably starting to feel overwhelmed and under pressure. Something needs to change.
• If you answered ‘yes’ to more than 3 questions, this indicates stress signs that should not be ignored.
• If less than 2 ask yourself how you would benefit from understanding how to continue to keep stress under control and achieve you goals.
We feel it’s essential for staff at all levels to have an understanding of how to recognise and respond to the signs and consequences of stress. We’re delighted to offer a one day workshop enabling you to take control of stress rather than let it control you.

Email us fosva-enquiries@fosvatraining.co.uk to claim a £50 saving on this course before 31 October.

Know How or No Way?

Knowing how to do something is much more likely to boost your confidence than not knowing how to do it and just muddling through.

How do you know? - By learning!
How do you learn? - By someone teaching or showing you how!
It's really quite simple.

How much productivity do you think is lost by NOT training your staff or not brushing up on your own skills?

Not training people to do their jobs effectively will result in you spending far too much time working in the business cleaning up others' mistakes (or your own) and thus losing valuable time that could be spent working on producing results.

Often training is put on the back burner due to budget restraints but this could have an adverse effect on your bottom line long-term. Even the larger organisations are guilty of this and they usually have the biggest budgets! So if you don't want to throw money down the drain along with your staff morale then put your training plans into action.

We offer a 100% satisfaction guarantee on all of our training programs whereby if you are not completely satisfied we will repeat the program for you all over again at no extra cost - what do you have to lose?

Do it now - invest in your people - invest in your business - invest your profit when you see the results!

As a special incentive, until 31 October (yes Hallowe'en, it's not that far off) we'll give your company a special in house price (at your company site) of just £175/delegate for all personal development and management training programs. That's a £50 saving per delegate.

To find out more call us on 01252 758575 and mention this article.

Now you've got your CRM System what are you going to do with it?

2011-08-11T16:11:00.000+01:00

I hope you're enjoying the summer holidays despite what's happening in the news at the moment. I'm certainly looking forward to a break early September it has been a very long and busy 8 months.

We have another new starter this month. Hannah has joined us part time and will be scheduling our courses as well as doing other adhoc office tasks.

Other news is that I have recently revised our prices so you should be able to make a few savings on our old prices.
Telephone Selling & Customer Service

Last month in our virtual offices edition of the newsletter we focused on CRM systems and knowing your target audience and how to keep in touch. How many of you make follow up calls to potentially new clients or keep in touch with your existing customers and if you don't what is the reason? Could it be you're a bit nervous on the phone or that you just don't have the right techniques, or both? If you're a bit reluctant to pick up the phone maybe you (or your staff) need a little push in the right direction by attending a telephone techniques or telephone selling course.

Selling over the phone (or cold calling, telemarketing, telesales) doesn't always come naturally but our trainer Alan is here to help you overcome these fears and lack of knowhow so that you'll be confident in taking the first step to gaining new clients confidently on the telephone.

Telephone techniques, for those of you working in call centres, reception or customer service roles is another area where you need to be able to confidently take ownership of a call through to resolution so that your clients get a great customer service experience. Again, these techniques can be learned and Jo our customer service trainer will teach you. See what some of our delegates have already said about attending this course.

I hope you find the rest of the contents of this edition helpful and if you have any queries, please do not hesitate to contact me on 01252 372824.

2011-07-11T15:18:00.000+01:00

Do your target audience know who you are...

Wow, what a week last week was! Hectic was not the word! How was yours? If you're anything like me you thrive on being busy, albeit stressful at times, but it's better being busy than sitting twiddling your thumbs with no work to do. We're getting more and more calls from our clients' customers so that must mean you're all busy too which is great news for all concerned - unless you have links with the News of the World in which case, maybe not!

We have another new lady who started last month in our virtual call centre and her name is Zarda. A very busy, well established mum, with a degree to her name but she has spent the last 14 years bringing up her young family and very well I might add. I don't know how she does it as I only have 2 dogs to worry about! Anyway, Zarda has been with us for a couple of weeks now and has been let loose on the phones and I have to say has picked it up very well and has become a very valued member of our virtual team in a very short space of time. So she will be attending to your clients' calls Monday to Wednesday mornings - let us know how she's doing!

I've also just uploaded our new on line brochure so take a quick peek. This was created by Stephen Haxby, of Business Proposals. If you need his contact details, let me know.

Customer Relationship Management

How to you find the right contacts and how do you go about reaching your target audience once you have found them? What do you do about keeping in touch and communicating regularly or do you just think about gaining new customers and forget about your existing ones? A lot of people forget about their current clients but fail to realise that your existing clients are your best asset. They have already bought from you so you know what they need so surely it's worth keeping in regular contact to see how you can further help their business? Some ways of keeping in touch would be:

• A telephone conversation - just a courtesy call to see how they're doing

• Newsletter - sent by email using email marketing software (like I'm doing today) - which is a very good way of keeping folk informed

• Snail mail - send a good old fashioned mail shot in the post of any special offers you may have

• Skype/MSN - if you're on the computer all day and a bit shy of the telephone, why not send a PM to break the ice?

• Forums - there are many on line networking forums you can join and connect with other small businesses like you

• Networking meetings - a great way to meet new people and get known in the business world - remember to focus on 'relationships' and how you can help your fellow networkers - not so much how much you can sell to them!

If you need help cleaning a current database then we can certainly help to do this for you by way of a data cleansing exercise meaning if you have a list of existing contacts and you need to make it current, we will call them and update a spreadsheet with the correct information. We can also help manage your email marketing campaigns using this data - you send us the newsletter content and we'll do the rest.

Here are a few ways of getting in touch with us:

• By Email

• Call us on 01252 372824

• Visit our website

I hope you enjoy this edition and we'll be back next month with our training news. Read on for a few more tips.

Yours sincerely

Anne Donnelly

Managing Director

PS - Find out how we can get your database up to date for just £20/hour. Book your time before 31 July and benefit from 20% discount.

How many of you as managers feel your employees are not meeting their pay grades?

2011-06-17T15:38:00.000+01:00

It seems a long time ago since our last newsletter. The reason being I have decided to do alternate between our training and virtual office newsletter each month so you get each every 2 months.

We have just moved into our new office in Farnham, although we will not be offering training here, but clients and colleagues are free to come and see me here at anytime (subject to appointment of course!) to discuss any training needs or just for a cuppa and a chat.
Also this month I have taken on a new lady called Zarda who will be helping with administration and handling our calls. She is based remotely in Manchester so this means we have more resources for our north westerly clients.

What could you possibly do to help your employees - or do you feel it's not down to you?
Last month we talked about different ways of teaching and learning. Jo gave you a good insight on how to get the best from your trainer. This month we're going to touch base on how to get the best from your staff just by setting out clear objectives!

Most of you know how to do your jobs. Some of you do them extremely well and are given good processes to follow, have great managers who know how to get the best from you but then there are those of you who want to do a good job but the work processes and possibly your managers are letting you down in that they're not given you great advice or guidance and procedures to follow.
Most of you will perform much better if you have a clear outline of what your manager wants you to do - even something as simple as a job description will help you to identify what is expected of you.

Case Study - Management and Staff Performance Issues

An events company, a couple of years back, asked me to come in and help run their office for a while. After a few days I was pulling my hair out as there were no proper processes in place and everyone was expected to know everything about everything.

No clear guidelines were laid out for anyone. The guys on the road who had their jobs given to them were often disputing with management and the coordinator with such things like "that's not my job," "I dont know how to do that," "can't he do it?" or they'd simply go in blind and mess up the job only to be reprimanded later - often publicly (which should never been done if you don't want to undermine one's confidence).

There was no stock control system in place so things were going missing or equipment just wasn't available for jobs that were booked in. The result of all these failings was a very badly disorganised, dysfunctional workforce and regular complaints from clients.

In an effort to improve things, I set out some process guidelines for the office staff and created a simple stock control database for which the warehouse staff were then responsible for upkeeping. I then gave each employee a job description and sat down with each of them individually and went through it.

The first lad looked as though he had a weight lifted from his shoulders as I went through his expectations with him. He immediately had a clear understanding of exactly what was expected of him and I could see the difference in him straight away by his newly found confidence. Beforehand he had just slumped at his desk, complained a lot about management and his colleagues and was regularly late for work. He turned up on time the next day with a 'can do' attitude.

All of this worked well for a while. However, after I left, unfortunately, it all fell back into chaos. So unless you as a manager implement and maintain good processes and procedures and communicate effectively with your employees, your staff just won't feel valued and you won't get what you need from them. They will either underperform and do the job incorrectly, or just lose interest altogether which will in turn affect the whole team's morale.

To find out more about how to get more from your teams and manage your staff effectively, book on one of our management training courses where you'll meet Jo. We've already had some excellent feedback from these training programs.

How do you...?

We introduced the Q & A sessions recently but we've not had anyone ask us anything! Does this mean you all know everything you need to know about training? I'm sure some of you must have at least one question about management, computer training or personal developmnent? For instance:

•How do you create a pivot table in Excel?

•How do you deal with a difficult person at work?

•How do you give a great presentation?

There are lots of questions we may well have the answers to so please email them to us and we'll publish your question, with answers, next week - so come on, don't be shy!

Which Course?

Most of you will have an idea of what course you need to attend but if you're unsure of what training course will best suit your needs, then please contact us on 01252 758575 or by email to discuss your requirements especially if you're looking for in house, 121 or a tailored solution.

We offer a 100% satisfaction guarantee on all our courses whereby if you are not completely satisfied we will run the course for you again free of charge with the same delegates utilising a different trainer. We also offer a 'match price' guarantee for all scheduled courses on a like for like basis and in the same county. You will also get support options.

Special promotion for this month - buy one, get one free on ALL open courses. Just quote 241JUNE when enquiring. This is valid until until the 7 July so make sure you book before then to take advantage of the savings.

Anne's Top Tips

Customer Service

•Always smile on the phone - this comes over in your voice and thus gives the caller a sense that you're actually interested in what they have to say

•Always answer good morning/afternoon, the company name and something like "how can I help" or "Jane speaking" etc.

•Never leave a caller on hold indefinitely - always go back to them every so often and apologise for keeping them holding.

•During a call always repeat back the information you take - read the number out to them after you have taken it and a summary of the other information they have given you Eg. So it's Mrs Smith from Smith and Co, and you would like to know the amount of your last invoice.

•When finishing a call - especially with a caller who has an issue - summarise what you are going to do with the information you have taken and how it will be followed up. eg. "what I'll do is get a call logged for you and a member of our support team will call you back shortly."

•Always sound professional and have a 'can do' attitude. Remember the customer is always right even when they're wrong.

•When selling it's a good idea to get up and walk around as that will exude confidence.

•Never argue with a customer - listen to what they have to say, without interrupting. Let them get it off their chest and then offer a solution.

•Even if it's not your problem, take ownership of the call and follow it through to resolution. Even call them back to make sure the person in question has been in touch with them. This will give you lots of brownie points!

If you would like to attend our customer service course or book an in house session then get in touch by email or call us on 01252 758575.

Large organisations can benefit too...

2011-05-09T19:55:00.000+01:00

Well with Easter and May Day bank holidays over with we're back to the grind stone. I enjoyed the time off I have to say and weren't we lucky with the weather? I spent a bit of time with my dogs Scooby and Topsy. Scooby, one of my faithful German Shepherds, has a new mobile walking frame that seems to have given him a new lease of life since we've started using it. He can now walk much further than he could previously without collapsing at the end of it - in fact it's me trying to keep up with him now! He still hasn't got the hang of his 3 point turns though! Good old Scoobs!

Employment Agencies vs Virtual Office Services

As a virtual business I'm keen to bring the virtual PA to the High Street and this is my aim for 2011. It's tough getting one's head around the virtual office concept if you're not open to it. Small businesses are already benefiting from using a virtual PA or virtual office service but what about the larger organisations that still tend to rely on temps from employment agencies? Do these organisations realise what they're missing out on or are they just opposed or reluctant to change?

There is a lot to be said for hiring a temp from an agency and having a physical presence in your office, but are you really making the most of your budget by doing this? Using a virtual temp would be far more cost effective. With an on site temp, or even a permanent* staff member you would have to pay for:

•Holidays
•Minimum wage
•Set number of hours
•PC, desk space, telephone and contract provision
•Maternity/Paternity leave*
•Pension*
•Employer contributions & agency mark up
•Notice period*
•Agency placement fees if they go permanent*

Why fork out when you don't need to? With a virtual temp (also know as Virtual Assistant, Virtual PA, VPA) you don't have any of the above issues to contend with. All you have to worry about is:

•A set hourly rate agreed in advance of every task

That's it!

So why, if you're responsible for hiring temps for a large company, are you not reaping the benefits? Everything a temp can do we can do better! I'm talking from experience as I was a temp for a lot of my 20 years working in Corporate. I know what's expected and that temps are often thrown in at the deep end and left to fend for themselves or more often than not given the jobs that no one else wants. We don't mind getting the jobs no one else wants - we thrive on it!

We have a virtual temp for any eventuality each with their own specialist skills; so anything you need, anytime of day, we can deliver.

When you're ready to explore how the wonderful world of virtual working can work for your organisation, be it large or small, all you need to do is:

•Email us
•Call us on 01252 372824
•Visit our website

As a bonus for all new customers this month, I am offering 2 hours for the price of one until the end of May. So any hours you pay for this month, we'll double! You need to act quickly though as it's only applicable during May - ie the hours can't be carried over to next month. Just quote NEW241MAY.

Don't worry if you're an existing or previous client - there's something for you too! Come back to us and spend £60 or more and I'll give you a 50% discount on any training you book with us during May (there is no time limit as to when you can take the training, you just need to book and pay for it during May). Quote RETURN50%TRAINING to qualify.

Both these offers expire 31 May 2011 so don't sit on your laurels!

I hope you enjoyed pondering the pros and cons of a virtual temp and I look forward to catching up later in the month with our Training Newsletter.

Yours sincerely

Anne Donnelly
Managing Director

PS - Find out how we can give you and your customers a great customer service experience by investing in a virtual office.

Finding the right course is one thing, but how will you get the best from your trainer?

2011-04-19T14:37:00.002+01:00

Not long until Easter and 2 long weekend breaks! Have you planned anything nice? I am looking forward to a well earned rest and the odd day trip out. Our trainers have been relatively busy over the last few months so will also be welcoming the time off.

Easter is a quiet time for training so we haven't scheduled any open courses during this period. As a tribute to our hard working trainers I'm going to do a spotlight on them over the next 2 issues which you can read further down the page.

How do you know you will absorb and remember what you have learnt?

We discussed last month about choosing the right course for you but how do you know the trainer will be up to scratch? Do they have the right credentials, experience and attitude to deliver an all emcompassing training session so that you get the best you possibly can from it? Sometimes the trainer makes all the difference. People learn in different ways so trainers have to compensate by knowing the different learning preferences. Here's what I mean:

Visual Learners

People who are 'visual' learn through 'seeing'. That means they take more in by watching the facial expressions and body language of the trainer. They will also have a tendency to write lots of notes. Typically these learners will like to make use of diagrams, pictures, presentations etc.

Auditory Learners

Those who are 'auditory' learn through 'listening'. Meaning that they will get the best from attending a lecture, or other type of verbal discussion. They will have a knack of interpreting the underlying message by the sound of the voice, tone, pitch and speed of what is being said. Typically these learners will use tape recorders or read out loud to take in information.

Tactile/Kinesthetic Learners

'Tactile' or 'kinesthetic' people find they will learn best by 'hands-on' interaction, by way of of touching, doing, moving and exploring what's around them. Typically these people will have a short attention span and be a bit figety in a classroom (such as myself!) and need to 'get stuck in' especially when learning a new job role.

These different preferences are part of the VAKOG model: visual, auditory, kinaesthetic, olfactory, gustatory. We will explore more about learning preferences later on. In the meantime, read on for an insight into who our trainers are and how they can help you.

Trainer Profile

Josephine Pelle - Speciality - Management and Personal Development Training

Josephine has facilitated Management Development Training since 1990.

She has qualified in psychometrics, NLP, transactional analysis, training and counselling skills for the development of learning. Jo is passionate about helping people to build their confidence and increase their personal effectiveness at all levels.

Jo is responsible for delivering all of our management training courses and also our personal development programs both scheduled, in house, 121 and tailored solutions. Every session that Jo has taken since joining FOSVA Training in 2008 has had excellent feedback from the delegates.

Personally, I find Jo to be an exceptional trainer and amazing person. I am in awe of her when she's doing her stuff - quick witted, quick at evaulating and responding to questions and issues that delegates put to her and she knows her subjects inside out. I don't know how she does it but she does it very well!

If you would like to attend one of Jo's sessions, or indeed ask her any questions about how she may be able to help your learning, then get in touch by email or call us on 01252 758575.

Ask Jo

We will be doing a 'question time' for our trainers on a regular basis. This month and moving forward you can ask Jo anything you like and we will post her responses in the next issue. As this is a brand new section we have no answers to individual questions yet so Jo has this question for YOU:

Question: When addressing different learning preferences how can you tell if the trainer is actively influencing the learner?

Answer:

Next time you attend a course, pay particular attention to the language used by the trainer - and note the mix. Did they say stuff like "Can you see yourself doing that?", "Is that not just like music to your ears?", "How does it feel?"

Language is an important medium to convey your message and tune in to your audience back at work.

1.What style did I finish on?

2.What is your preference?

3.What about your staff - do you adapt your conversation to suit them or just stick to your favourite speech all the time?

Next month we'll have another 'question time' so please feel free to send us any questions on any of the course subjects or related queries in the meantime and we'll list them with the appropriate trainer's response next time.

Anne's Top Tips

Well it seems no one needed any help with anything since our last issue so I'll have to rack my brains for some helpful tips again this time:

Tip 1 - Telephone Techniques

To stop an irate caller getting more irate, let them rant and get it off their chest - they will then calm down. If you try to interrupt this will only exacerbate the situation.

Tip 2 - Telephone Techniques

If a person wants to chit chat and will not get off the phone then just be silent at the other end - they will soon get bored. The more you entertain the conversation, the more they will continue to talk!

Tip 3 - Time Management - Meetings

When attending a meeting, to help it run smootly, make an agenda with a list of subjects and required outcomes with a time scale attached to each subject. Make sure you circulate the agenda ahead of the meeting to give people time to prepare. Get the minutes out within 48 hours.

I will have a few more tips for you next time. Remember my door is always open if you have any questions you need a quick answer to.

http://www.fosvatraining.co.uk/
anne.donnelly@fosvatraining.co.uk
Tel: 01252 758575

Don't get caught on the hop.....

2011-04-15T11:38:00.000+01:00

It'll soon be Easter so I hope you have stocked up on those chocolate eggs for the little 'uns (although I have to say I'm partial to the odd slab of chocolate every so often so not just for the little 'uns)! I don't know about you but I'm looking forward to two long weekends off in a row and it's won't too soon I can tell you - all work and no play and all that!

So how many of you were the subject of a practical joke last Friday? It's never nice to be on the receiving end of a joke - even though it's usually hilarious if you're the one implementing it.

Last month we showed you two case studies - this was not only to give you an idea of just how we can help your business but also to spotlight some of our clients' businesses in the process and this is something I hope to do regularly. Doing business with us will give you a great customer service experience. It's a two way street and helping you succeed is something FOSVA prides itself on. We'll also save you employment costs in the process - and that's no joke!

How we helped one business

Case Study: Machine Tool Direct
Need: Somebody to man the phones, take enquiries and make our business look professional on all fronts. We wanted to look bigger than we are and look as if we employ people.
Problem: The phone would ring, we would miss it, being a small company we can't afford to miss calls when out or otherwise engaged.
Solution: We opted for the quarterly call answering service including 10 calls per month provided by FOSVA and have never looked back.

"We have been using FOSVA for a few years now - our business was founded back in 2005 and like all new businesses needed to keep overheads down. This service provided an ideal solution for us. Here we are 6 years on and never needed to employ an individual as these guys provide us with all our office needs. MTD is an online business that promotes machinery and tooling to the engineering industry, it provides news and regular updates on in stock promotions from UK suppliers,. Using FOSVA means we can spend our time marketing and not on admin. It really is great value for money, keep up the good work.
" Paul Jones, Director, Machine Tool Direct Ltd.

As you can see, we have taken the burden away from Paul so that he can concentrate on 'building' his business. Using us to answer his calls means he doesn't have to worry about missing a potential sale from the next caller and can rest assured his customers are getting through to a fully trained professional sounding person on the other end of the phone who acts as a member of his team to instill confidence in the caller - what's more, no one need know he's using a call answering service - well except for all our readers of course! To get in touch with Paul, call him on 01933 313835 or by email.

If you would like to feature in the next case study, please get in touch. Our newsletter is distributed to 5000 subscribers so you may even get some enquiries from it!

How would you like someone to take your calls when you're busy doing other things? Here's how:
•Email us
•Call us on 01252 372824
•Visit our website
So there you have it, outsourcing to us is an easy, cost effective way of getting what you need without breaking the bank - so don't put your eggs in one basket this Easter - try our basket for size.

That's me done, time to crack on!

Yours sincerely

Anne Donnelly
Managing Director

PS - Find out how we can improve your staff productivity and benefit from a 10% discount in the process.

You know everything you need to do your job, so why go on a course?

2011-03-18T16:33:00.001Z

Spring is just around the corner. I personally cannot wait for the warmer weather as I don't function too well in the colder months. Also, spring brings with it the budget next month so now's a good time to hedge your bets and throw caution to the wind before the tax man cometh bigger and greedier than last year! What better time than now to invest in YOU and YOUR TEAMS.

Which course should you choose?

Knowing which course to go on is a mine field in itself. Which level do you choose, do you go for a 121, in house, tailored, or open course? Ultimately, you need to decide what you are missing and what best suits your needs. It may be a 121 is better for you as you'd get more intense training which focuses purely on your needs and not the needs of a whole group. An open course is more generic and tends to stick to the syllabus. Then there's in house and closed courses which are aimed at individual companies who need to train all their staff to fit in with company requirements. Perhaps a tailored course would be more appropriate - maybe what you need is not covered by the syllabus in which case the trainers can usually put something together just for you.

Whichever you choose FOSVA can help you and your staff to achieve the missing skill sets. I am so confident that you will get what you need from our courses that I offer a 100% satisfaction guarantee and also a match price guarantee on like for like open courses offered in the same county as ours.

Read on to see if there is anything that takes your fancy.

Personal Development Training

To be effective you need to identify the core skills that help you to reach your goals – and then find a way of enhancing them so you can deliver at a high level.

Here are a few programs that explore different aspects of personal development:

Effective Telephone Techniques

You’ll discover how to manage both yourself and your caller to get the best possible outcome.

Negotiation Skills

This program allows you to explore the mind-sets of both yourself and the person you’re negotiating with for a win-win situation.

Successful Business Presentations

You’ll be able to structure a presentation, deliver it in front of a group and ultimately meet your audience’s needs.

Successful Telephone Selling

You’ll learn the techniques that you need to contact potential clients and help them to make buying decisions.

Time Management

Find out how to work smarter, save time and to increase the results and outcomes you achieve.

To book a place click on the relative links, page to the bottom of the screen and choose a date. Alternatively, call us on 01252 758575 or email us with any questions you may have or to speak to us about in house, 121 or tailored training for your company:

Book an in house or closed session and get 20% discount - just quote PERSDEV20%MAR11 - offer closes 31 March 2011.

Management Training

What is Management?

Management is getting results through the best use of the people and resources available. Obviously, ‘best’ depends on what the required result is and this can only be decided by management. Resources are simple to manage as you know what you need. People, however, are a whole different ball game as they often see things differently to their managers.

If you employ someone with the right skillset, show them the task and appraise them regularly, things will be great, right? Unfortunately, this is not true to life. If you want your staff to achieve, the first step is to lay a solid foundation for them. The second step is to get them to buy into the process and to finally take ownership of each outcome they generate. It may seem obvious and what most staff should be doing anyway. However, the reality is that it takes hard work on the manager's part to get people to work in this way. If your staff are already open minded and willing, it will be easier. The more set in their ways and closed minded they are, the harder it becomes.

People Management - This program will give you the means to develop effective management skills.

Train the Trainer - Five days that cover the entire spectrum of training skills from researching training needs and developing material, through coaching, facilitating and presenting to evaluating the outcomes of training.

To book click on the relative link and page down to the bottom to choose a suitable date. Call us on 01252 758575 or email us if you need more information or would like to discuss Tailored/121/In House/Closed Management Training.Book an in house course and secure 20% discount - quote MAN20%MAR11 - offer closes 31 March 2011.
Anne's Top Tips

One of our readers suggested we do a 'Top Tips' section in the newsletter, so here are my 'top tips' for this edition.

If you are still using MS Office 2002 or 2003 and are often sent 2007 files, then you can download a compatibility update that will allow you to open and view these documents in your older version. Download the update here.

If you are running Office 2007 and wish to send a PDF instead of a Word document so that the recipient cannot amend the file then you can download an add-in to Office that allows you to save your Word documents as a PDF. Download here.

Just a little a taster, more top tips next time. If you have a question on Microsoft Office, Adobe or a Soft Skills question feel free to email me and we'll list them next month with the answers.

Negotiation Skills

Negotiation is the art of deciding what cannot be changed and then agreeing to compromise on the things that can be changed. This way everyone gets something out of the transaction. As a rule:

Make sure you have ALL the facts
Listen carefully to what the other person has to say
Show genuine interest in their views
Ask questions to find out why they have formed their opinion

There are a few aspects of negotiation which you should be familiar with at the outset. Basically, there are two sides to negotiating - the practical and the psychological. A little understanding of the psychology behind negotiation helps to underpin your practical skills.
Negotiation Skills

This module is intended to give you a wider view of situations that go beyond the ‘obvious’ which will enable you to improve your decision making overall. In this program you'll learn how to:

Create a discussion where everyone gets what they want
Negotiate at any level
Identify what really matters

Adobe Creative Suite 5

If you spend a lot of time as part of your every day work designing brochures, web sites, or other graphics then you may well have heard of Adobe Photoshop, Illustrator and Indesign. It is by far the most popular graphic design software suite currently on the market and is available in various versions, the latest being CS5. Even if you are not in the graphic design industry you may still have an interest in creating designs in your spare time, editing photographs or perhaps for a new design business venture.

With Creative Suite 5 you will be able to create print, web, video, audio, and mobile content using industry-standard tools.

Adobe Photoshop CS5 - Create HDR images, remove noise, add grain and create vignettes with state-of-the-art photography tools.

Adobe Indesign CS5 - Learn how to use tools for designing, preflighting and publishing print ready documents, online, or to mobile devices.

Adobe Illustrator CS5 - Learn to create distinctive vector artwork, using sophisticated drawing tools.

To book, click on the relative links and page down to choose a suitable date. Call us on 01252 758575 or email us to discuss in house, 121 or a tailored solution. Book 2 or more places and get 1 free by quoting CS5342MAR11 - offer closes 31 March 2011.

Microsoft Office Access 2010

Most companies maintain and manage large amounts of information so utilising Access is an efficient and powerful way of managing that data. Information can be stored, linked and managed using a single relational database application and its associated tools. Microsoft Access 2010 is the latest version of the database creation software and comes in 3 different levels:

Access 2010 Level 1 - In this module you will examine the basic database concepts and create and modify databases and their various objects using the Microsoft Office Access 2010 relational database application.

Access 2010 Level 2 - This module is designed for individuals who wish to learn intermediate-level operations of the Microsoft Office Access program.

Access 2010 Level 3 - This module is for those whose job responsibilities include working with heavily related tables, creating advanced queries, forms and reports, writing macros to automate common tasks and performing general database maintenance.

To book on a scheduled course click on the links above, page down to choose a suitable date and then checkout.

Alternatively, call us on 01252 758575 or email us to discuss in house, 121 or tailored programs for your business.

Book 2 or more places to get 1 place free quoting ACCESS342MAR11 - offer closes 31 March 2011.

To book on the open course below by clicking on the link above and page down to choose a suitable date. To learn more about 121, in house, or tailored training for your company call us on 01252 758575or email us.

Book 3 or more people on a closed or in house session quoting NEGGRPMAR11 and secure a 20% discount - offer closes 31 March 2011.

Working in the business prevents you working on the business.....

2011-03-08T18:18:00.000Z

I hope you all enjoyed Valentine's Day and have your pancakes at the ready for tomorrow! We have a few daffodils and crocuses poking their heads through so despite the cold patch last week it looks like spring could be just around the corner!

Last month we discussed audio transcription and we've done quite bit of it for a brand new client this month so thank you to him.  We've also taken on board a few new call answering clients - this is always a very popular choice. Read on to see our case studies.

If like lots of people you spend most of your day in the office working on the 'everyday stuff' and are 'tied to the desk/phone' then you're probably too busy to find the time to actually focus attention on getting more sales, improving customer service and building your business... so you're working 'in' the business instead of 'on' it.

Maybe you think you're the only person who knows your business well enough to run it but there will come a point in time when you need to expand and this is a good time to outsource the donkey work. Provided they get the proper instruction from you as to what needs to be done, you will find that most people who have the relative skills and experience would be perfectly good at doing what needs to be done be it administration, sales support, event coordination etc.

Your Own Personal Assistant

In 2008 a business man came to me for a simple call answering service which also involved giving information about the products his company sells over the phone. We set up a call answering service for him at our usual pay per call rate. However, after the first year things started to get much more busy and involved to the point that a simple call answering service just wasn't adequate. We started taking 5 calls per month and after year one this increased to around 60 per month. So we put him onto our Virtual PA rate which was billed by the hour.

By doing this we were able to not only answer his calls but also quote for the different products, take payments, send orders to suppliers and arrange suitable delivery dates with his clients. Now in year three we bill between 20-30 hours per month as his business has steadily grown. Unfortunately for us, even though a long standing client, he doesn't want his potential customers to know he uses a Virtual PA so I cannot disclose the company name but he is a prime example of the sort of work we do for our customers.

Thankfully, some of our other clients have agreed to let me do a brief case study about the problems they were having and how we helped to solve them and you can read them below:

Case Study 1: ActivityForum Limited

Need: Professional call handling service.
Problem:   Unable to find a suitable company to provide a constantly good experience for the customer by being consistently good.
Solution:   Quarterly call answering service including 10 calls per month provided by FOSVA.

"ActivityForum provides an affordable web based solution for a wide range of membership organisations. These organisations vary in size from 50 members to 50,000 the tools they use are the same.

We promote the service on the web to potential customers, with our contact details phone number and e-mails, many potential customers feel happier on first contact to speak to a person who presents a competent approach and is “HELPFUL”.

As first contact to a great extent determines the level of confidence which a future customer has with us, then our choice of FOSVA has proven to be the right one."  Roger Panton, Director, ActivityForum Ltd.

Case Study 2:  John Austin, MBA Student

Need:  Professional, confidential, local audio transcription service with a quick turnaround to type up 10 interviews
Problem:   Client unable to transcribe himself due to time constraints. Data Protection issues and some suppliers did not offer this guarantee.
Solution:   Pay per audio minute audio transcription service provided by FOSVA turned around within 24-48 hours. Non-disclosure agreement signed.

“As an Account Director in the software industry, fitting in a Masters Degree has been greatly rewarding but a huge challenge on my time. My dissertation includes a case study based on 10 interviews that needed to be transcribed for both analysis and submitting.  I cannot begin to think how long it would have taken me to complete this process.

The FOSVA service is professional, with assurances of confidentiality, rapid in turn around and accurate in delivery. Add to this the benefit of competitive fixed price costs at the outset. I can highly recommend FOSVA to anyone requiring a transcription service and will use them again.” John Austin, (mature) MSc student, Royal Holloway University of London.

How do you get a Virtual PA, Audio Transcription or Call Answering service to help your company?

It's easy - get in touch by one of the following methods:

Email us
Call us on 01252 372824
Visit our website.

As it's my birthday today rather than dishing out a few cream cakes, I've decided to offer a huge HALF PRICE discount to the first 5 people (including returning customers) who contact us for a ANY brand new service by 10 March so you have just 3 days to respond.

Right I'm off to blow out a few candles (and I mean a fair few!) - ooh chocolate cake AND pancakes, nice!

Yours sincerely

Anne Donnelly
Managing Director

PS - If you need computer or soft skills training, don't forget as a subscriber you can benefit from a 10% discount for all course bookings made through our training site

How could you better your computer or personal skills?

2011-02-17T16:03:00.004Z

Why should you invest in training?

Well for one, knowledge is power. The more you learn, the more you know, the more you can do, more people look to you for advice and you get better results. Having a skilled workforce will increase output and make a big difference to your bottom line! There are many ways to enhance your skills so read on for some inspiration.

Microsoft Training

If you use a computer you have probably come across Microsoft Office. It is by far the most widely used computer application software and boasts an ever developing suite of tools for computer users to create, edit and enhance documents and spreadsheets and also for communicating on line.

If you are new to 'Office' then here are the main titles that people use. To find out more about each course click on the relative link and to book just page down to the bottom of each page to choose a date. It will then take you through the checkout process.

Adobe Training

Adobe boasts a creative suite of design packages including Photoshop, Indesign and Illustrator. Widely used by graphic designers, print shops and publishers to create fancy brochures, newsletters, posters and other amazing visuals and becoming increasingly popular with the general population.

Our very experienced trainer and ex designer is here to offer you tuition on all three versions of Photoshop, Indesign and Illustrator CS3, CS4 or CS5 in both basic and advanced levels. Other titles are available on demand. Don't worry if you can't see something listed on our website - it doesn't mean we can't help.

It's not just computer skills that will help you to get the best from your documents, presentations and communication. You also need personal skills in order to deal with people in the most appropriate way and to get the best from your staff and clients. Attending a personal development or management course may be out of your comfort zone but in the long run you will benefit and reap the rewards. Here are a few examples of the types of courses that could help:

People Management

The management of people is specialised art but do it well and the long-term benefits can be very rewarding.

As few managers are taught the art of managing and developing their teams, it is often left to chance. We’ll be looking at the key issues that develop ordinary people into achievers that are a credit to the team and are likely to exceed the expectations of everyone concerned.

The key to success is not just carrying out people management skills, but being able to measure the results – proving you have made a difference. This means that measurement and evaluation are critical to this process. This module is intended to overview the entire process of managing people and consequently, of developing a high performance team.

Telephone Training

The telephone is one of those tools which is very useful in the right hands! This program is aimed at taking you through the basics of professional telephone handling. Whether you work on reception, in a call centre, or are responsible for handling customer queries in any department, you’ll find this an excellent grounding in what works and what doesn’t!

You’ll learn techniques that will help you to deal with people in all states of mind, so that you can remain calm and objective and still help them to get what they want. It’s important that you don’t respond to people who are expecting some kind of service with “I can’t do that.” Even when you can’t do what someone asks, they will respond much better if you explain what you can do and what you can’t.

You’ll find there are techniques for helping you to maintain the approach you need and how to engage the customer and make them feel that you are really trying to help them.

Time Management

If you can manage your time effectively then everything else will be fine. Of course, this is not always the case. If you manage your time effectively you will certainly gain considerable benefits, but everything will not be 'fine'. However, it is an excellent place to start – mainly because if you are disorganised yourself, you will have a really tough time getting the rest of your team organised.

This programme is called ‘time management’, because this is the key to managing your time successfully. The disorganised manager tends to be an object of ridicule rather than respect. Most people are guilty of mismanaging their time, even when they know better. The tools that we will cover are aimed to provide some good basic rules to follow, plus some advice on how to deal with the inevitable emergencies, fires that need fighting and circumstances that are beyond your control.

To book on any of our courses take a look at our schedule or call us on 01252 758575. You can also email us.

Happy Valentine's Day

2011-02-08T13:57:00.008Z

From FOSVA with love.....

With Valentine's Day just around the corner we're all loved up this month and are spreading the 'lurve' to our clients with a few special treats but you need to read on......

Rumour has it that January is the new spring when it comes to property hunters. Usually the demand to move or get onto the property ladder is at its height in the spring/summer but spring seems to have come early if what I've heard is true. With this in mind, those of you in the property business, such as surveyors, letting agents, solicitors and insurance companies may have additional workload when it comes to typing up inventories or surveyor reports for instance.

You Talk, We Type

If you're constantly on the go and find it difficult to get your reports typed up, or your current method just isn't working for you then it might be time to outsource. A transcription service will save you time and effort leaving you free to do what you do best. Presentation is everything and a professionally typed document or report will set you apart from your competition and could be the deciding factor when it comes to winning the business of a potential client.

It typically takes 4 times the length of a file to transcribe from audio to paper so be wary of those charging by the hour. A 50wpm typist will take much longer to type than a 90wpm typist and this will be reflected in the price. Also some unscrupulous individuals may take longer or add on a few more minutes just to make a bit more money from you. We don't do that. We charge by the audio minute. So no matter how long it takes to transcribe you know upfront the exact cost you will pay for the work. All work is turned around within 48 hours or less if required.

How do you get a transcription service?

Simples! Just contact us using one of the methods below:

Email us
Call us on 01252 372824
Buy your audio minutes on line at our website

As promised, as a special Valentine's Day treat, if you purchase 1 hour of audio I will give you another 30 minutes absolutely free! To take advantage though you need to buy your hours by midnight on 14 February!

Well if that isn't enough, the first 5 people to place an order for any of our services to the value of £80 or more, by the same time on Valentine's day, will be entered into our draw to receive a free place on any of our open courses listed on our sister site. You have a 1 in 5 chance of winning - so get your skates on!

Download our price list here to view all call answering, and virtual office solutions which includes some more newly added locations and also to view our Virtual PA and Audio Transcription flyers.

I would like to thank you for reading and I hope you have felt the love this month! It's my birthday next month so all presents welcome ;-). Cupid has now officially left the building!

Yours sincerely

Anne Donnelly
Managing Director

PS - If you are an existing client you can benefit from an ongoing 10% discount for all course bookingsmade through our sister site until further notice as well as a further 10% discount for writing a testimonialfor either of our websites.

How do you think your clients perceive you - do you give them the right message?

2011-01-18T18:22:00.000Z

Welcome to 2011! I hope you all had a great Christmas and New Year. Were you all pleased with your presents or are you dreading the thought of returning them without offending your nearest and dearest?

One thing I'm big on here at FOSVA is the importance of customer satisfaction. There's no point having the goods if you can't deliver! Wouldn't it be nice to be served with a smile when you purchase a garment or your weekly shopping? Customer service is something that seems to be lacking in the UK as was pointed out by Mary Portas on The Graham Norton Show last night. A simple please or thank you costs nothing. A bit of eye contact with a genuine smile also goes a long way. They say 'behaviour breeds behaviour' so the best way to get results is to put more in - the more effort you make, the more you'll get back. So start by making sure your customers get what they want.

What do your clients think of you when they call your business?

The first port of call is your receptionist, or someone in a similar role. How this person deals with this initial call is the first impression your clients will get of your company so it is vital that they know how to answer the phone correctly and also to deal with any queries or complaints in an effective manor without alienating the person on the other end.

How many of your staff deal with people over the phone? What do they say when someone is shouting at them down the phone? How much business do you think is being lost due to lack of training in this department by staff who just don't know how to behave on the telephone?

What do you think will happen if they had the correct tools to enhance your customer's experience when dealing with your company? A telephone techniques course will give your employees these tools and explain how to use them to an advantage.

Some benefits from attending such a course would be:

More confidence meaning better results from your calls
How to handle difficult people without getting emotionally involved and help to resolve any issues
You will sound and feel more professional and your reputation will grow
Your customers will feel looked after and retain loyalty
You will get job satisfaction and achieve more

How do you get to attend one of these telephone courses?It's easy to book on a telephone techniques course as we run them regularly both on a scheduled and in house/closed basis. As a special promotion I'm offering buy one get one half price on this course - that's a saving of £187.50. This offer closes on 31January 2011 so you must book your training before then to benefit from the savings. Next available dates are 25 January and 1 March.

Use one of the following methods to book quoting bogohp31jan11ett :

Call 01252 758575
Email us.
Fill in our on line form
Book on line

For more titles, visit our list of scheduled courses. All courses are also available on 121, tailored, inhouse at your premises and closed course basis at our venues.

Thank you for reading and I look forward to catching up again next month!

Yours sincerely

Anne Donnelly
Managing Director

PS: If you're currently using our virtual office services then you're already entitled to 10% off all course bookings! E mail us to get your special on line booking discount code.

Don't get bitten by the VAT increase

2011-01-10T13:54:00.000Z

I would like to wish you all a very Happy New Year, allbeit it a few days late! I hope you all enjoyed the Christmas holidays and are ready for a brand new year.

Well the 20% VAT rise is now in effect, but since we de-registered for VAT at the end of September last year due to the threshold being uplifted considerably, you won't pay VAT with us for the foreseeable future. We haven't yet increased our prices to compensate so you will benefit from lower prices if you are not VAT registered but I can't guarantee this will be forever.

New Year, New Start

If you're thinking of starting up a new business or expanding but can't afford to take on staff just yet then a virtual temp (or virtual PA/Assistant) could be just what you need. Buy hours on a pay as you go basis so you just pay for what you use. Using a virtual assistant will save on desk space, holiday pay, maternity pay, employer costs such as pension and insurance amongst other savings. A virtual assistant can take care of the little things you don't have time for so that you can get on with building your business rather than just working in it.

I hope some of you took advantage of the 50% savings last month but if you didn't there is still time as I've extended the offer until 20 January to help you get started. You have 10 days to respond! Everything below is included:

Call Answering Service - inclusive packages only
Virtual PA Services (includes data entry, copy typing, administration, secretarial ie all hourly services - minimum spend 2 hours
Mail Shots
Audio Transcription - minimum spend 30 mins audio
Book Keeping
Data Cleansing
Print Centre (laminating/photocopying/scanning/binding - for those smaller jobs)

How do you go about getting the savings?

It's very easy to get 50% off, here's what you do - contact us by 20 January 5pm by one of the following methods quoting MAILCHIMP50%JAN:

Email us
Call us on 01252 372824 begin_of_the_skype_highlighting 01252 372824 end_of_the_skype_highlighting
Buy your hours on line at our website and we'll double them

It's that simple! The discount applies to all new purchases only, ie not something you are already paying for on a regular basis.

Other Info

Download our price list here to view all call answering, and virtual office solutions. You can also view our Virtual PA and Audio Transcription flyers.

I'll see you again next month with a bit more news and in the mean time don't forget to take advantage of the savings as they won't last for long!

Yours sincerely

Anne Donnelly
Managing Director

PS - If you are an existing client you can benefit from an ongoing 10% discount for all course bookings made through our sister site until further notice.

How do you know which is the best course for you and if it's at the right price?

2010-12-10T16:37:00.001Z

Brrrrrr...... well winter has well and truly arrived! I hope you haven't been too affected by the snow. Not long now until Christmas so you'd better get cracking with that Christmas shopping list. Don't forget to budget wisely! Talking of which, I suspect training budgets will be reviewed for the coming year soon, so with that in mind what better time to focus your attention.

I mentioned last month that investing in training is imperative for staff performance as it will instill more confidence in their abilities and indeed your own. The question is how do you identify which course is right for you and/or your teams? There are so many courses, companies and venues to choose from so getting it right first time is important especially when it comes to cost and course content. We pride ourselves in customer service and getting it right for our clients so much so that we offer a 100% satisfaction guarantee on all of our training. If for any reason you are unsatisfied after completing the training and post training personal action plans we will let you repeat the course free of charge but we are so confident you WILL be satisfied that this wouldn't be necessary.

What other benefits are there to training with FOSVA?

On top of our 100% satisfaction guarantee we also now offer a match price guarantee on our computer training courses so if you can find the same course elsewhere in the same county for less we will MATCH that price - so to summarise the benefits:

Scheduled, One to One, Closed/In House and Tailored training programs available
Training Needs Analysis carried out where applicable
100% Satisfaction Guarantee
Match Price Guarantee on scheduled computer training courses in same locality
3 months' FREE email support for all computer courses
1 month's FREE email reminders related to your soft skills action plan
Post course support options available for both computer courses and soft skills programs
USB disk with exercise files and workbook pertaining to your computer course
Work book included for all soft skills open courses
Free quick reference guide for Microsoft courses
Customer service focused company
Ongoing discounts for regular/block bookings and newsletter subscribers
On demand facility
MS Certified and CIPD qualifed trainers
4 venues in the South East to choose from
We can also come to you UK wide!

I think you'll agree that what we offer is very good value for money. Cheap and cheerful we are not! It's that old saying, "you get what you pay for" but with us you get that little bit more with jingle bells on.

As a special incentive for January I'm offering closed course bookings at your premises for up to 8 delegates at heavily discounted rates:

Computer Training (Microsoft & Adobe) - £1750 per course inclusive (saving £750) - quote CT10JAN£750
Personal Development Training - £2000 per course inclusive (saving £750) - quote PDT10JAN£750
People Management Training - £2000 per course inclusive (saving £750) - quote MT10JAN£750
Train the Trainer - £4000 per course inclusive (saving £1000) - quote TTT10JAN£750

How do you take advantage of these offers?

Call 01252 758575 quoting the relative code above.
Email us.
Fill in our on line form.

Don't forget to quote the relative codes above. This offer closes on 10 January 2011 so you must book your training before then to benefit from the reduced costs.
For more information on open/public dates, visit our list of scheduled courses.

That's all for 2010 so I'd like to take the opportunity to thank you for your continued support and to wish you all a very Merry Christmas and Happy New Year. I hope you enjoy your presents - don't say I never give you anything!

Yours sincerely

Anne Donnelly
Managing Director

PS: If you're currently using our virtual office services then you're already entitled to 10% off all course bookings! E mail us to get your special on line booking discount code.

Saving money at Christmas time is not always easy with all the expenditure that goes hand in hand.

2010-12-03T18:29:00.000Z

Yes it's that time again folks. Up to our necks in cold white stuff and some of us in the hot brown stuff when it comes to finances! How deep are your pockets this Christmas? Are your kids going to miss out on expensive computer games, or are you having to forego that trip abroad for the festivities?

Well, it's not all doom and gloom. As a special thank you for sticking with us I'm offering YOU a half price deal on ALL the services listed below if booked before 5pm Christmas Eve. Yes, that's everything here:

Call Answering Service
Virtual PA Services (includes data entry, copy typing, administration, secretarial and other ongoing roles - basically all hourly services)
Mail Shots
Audio Transcription
Book Keeping
Data Cleansing
Print Centre (laminating/photocopying/scanning/binding - for those smaller jobs)

How do I go about saving half the cost?

It's very easy to get 50% off, here's what you do - contact us by 24 December 5pm by one of the following methods quoting MAILCHIMP50%DEC:

Email us
Call us on 01252 372824
Buy your hours on line at our website and we'll double them

It's as straightforward as that! On receipt of your enquiry or purchase payment we will get right back to and set about putting your request into practise. You can't say fairer than that. This applies everyone but for new services only, ie not something you are already paying for on a regular basis.

Other Info

Download our price list here to view all call answering, and virtual office solutions. You can also view our Virtual PA and Audio Transcription flyers.

Well that concludes 2010. I hope you have a wonderful Christmas and a prosperous New Year. Look out for more fantastic savings next month. See you on the other side!

Yours sincerely

Anne Donnelly
Managing Director

PS - If you are an existing client currently using our ongoing services (virtual PA and virtual office/call answering) contact me before 10 December to find out what other savings I can offer you this month.

Is your temp up to scratch?

2010-11-11T16:43:00.001Z

Well that's another Guy Fawke's night blown into oblivion. Just a temporary imprint of colours on the night sky until next year - speaking of temps....

I used to be a corporate temp (contractor) for many years between 1986 and 2004 before starting FOSVA and I gained a lot of knowledge of the corporate protocol and operations within various departments. Whilst I didn't tend to get too involved in office politics I was on the receiving end of some office bullies along the way (on more than one occasion). Maybe they were scared for their jobs but I know managers found it easier to bury their head in the sand, after all I was only a temp and an easy scape goat. Companies and people especially don't often like change so a temp is sometimes an easy target and can often cause upset within teams.

Corporates and some other large companies hire a lot of temps as due to budget restraints and head counts they can't always take on permanent members of staff but these temps still have to integrate with the current workforce. Hiring a temp also means finding extra desk space, extra PCs and telephones and then you have to train them up as they aren't always 'up to scratch' even though you have been charged the 'thank you very much' agency fees simply for sending you their CV.

It seems, unlike in the US, that larger companies here still don't quite get the concept of a virtual working (or working from home), but with technology the way it is this is the way forward and more and more people, even those employed, are working from home. One way to avoid this awkward scenario with temporary members of staff is to use a virtual temp as they won't physically be present in your office so no noses will be put out of joint. The glory of a virtual temp is they don't come with the hefty price tag either. You simply pay for what you use (ie buy your hours upfront as with a pay as you go mobile) and you can top up at any time.

A virtual temp could do sales order processing, be your PA, look after your diary and appointments, training coordination, secretarial tasks and the list goes on. Basically any office function you need to find another pair of hands for.

How do I get a virtual temp?

It's very easy to get a virtual temp. Here's how:

Email us
Call us on 01252 372824
Buy your hours on line at our website

It really is that simple! As soon as we receive your enquiry we will get right back to you with the options available to you and most importantly the price which is very competitive and no hidden costs. As a special incentive I'm giving all readers a 20% discount on all virtual temp roles booked before 3 December 2010. Hours must be paid for in advance before then to qualify. This applies to new clients and new services only, not ongoing services you may already be using with us.

Other NewsFurther to last month we have added some more virtual office addresses in addition to London W1, Basingstoke and Northampton.

New addresses are (but not limited to):

London N13
London E14 Docklands
London SW6
Ham, Surrey
Bushey, Herts
Wakefield, West Yorks
Leeds, West Yorks
Stockport, Cheshire
Salford, Manchester
Blackpool, Lancashire
Edinburgh, Scotland

Download our price list here to view all call answering and virtual office solutions.

Well that concludes yet another update from us for this month and we'll see you again in December just in time for Christmas!

Yours sincerely

Anne Donnelly
Managing Director

PS - Quote NOVNEWSAUDIO to get 10% off all transcription services until 30 November 2010.

Brushing up on personal and IT skills will enhance your career when you put them into practise.

2010-10-20T01:16:00.000+01:00

So if I book on one course, I'll get another free of charge?

We're back from a summer break and although autumn is on its way and it's started to get chilly you won't find anything cold about us. In fact we've got a few things bubbling over as we head towards hallowe'en. Three 'buy one get one free' offers and a free virtual trial but you'll have to read on to find out what they are!

We now have over 4000 subscribers to our newsletter which is fabulous so thanks for taking the time to listen it's much appreciated. In the last issue I told you we were moving to Ewshot, but unfortunately that fell through so we are now based in Crondall, near Farnham, Surrey. The good news is though we are still operating in Camberley, Basingstoke and now also Guildford and London which will hopefully make things more accessible to those of you not from the south east. We can also come to you so if you require a closed course or a one to one or even tailored training so don't be afraid to ask and and we'll arrange it for you.

We've added some more dates to our schedule but we've also added an on demand facility whereby if you cannot attend one of the dates we have scheduled you can just register your interest in any course (by filling in the contact form) and we will let you know when we have enough interest to schedule another date to suit the majority.

So, how are things looking in relation to your training budgets? Are things still pretty tight? Is your company holding back to see what other cuts the government is going to make before rolling out any training initiatives? I would imagine a lot of businesses are still tightening their belts, but can you afford to scrimp on development of your staff or even yourself? By investing in training now, while the costs are very competitive, you will enhance your company's skill set and in turn improve on peformance which will no doubt lead to increased revenue. An optimistic notion you may well think but the long term benefits mean increased productivity and profititability.

What you can save until Christmas.

We're all spending less but FOSVA is not giving less - until the end of 2010 you can take advantage of 4 amazing giveaways from us:

Buy one get one free - buy any place on any IT course during 2010 and receive another place on the next level course absolutely free
Buy two get one free - book 2 places on any personal development or management course during 2010 and receive a place on any IT course absolutely free
Buy three get one free - book 3 places on any IT course during 2010 and receive a place on a soft skills program of your choice absolutely free
Take out any in house/closed course for your company (minimum 3 delegates) and receive a Virtual PA's talents for a day or a call answering service for one week.

So to take advantage of Jo's talents (CIPD qualified), book a Management or Personal Development program. For Microsoft courses you will benefit from Sue's and Sophie's (MS Certified) expertise, or choose Martin for Adobe courses if you're more creative. If none of the courses you're looking for are listed, just ask, we may still be able to help.

For more information on how we can help jump start your learning, just take a look at our list of scheduled courses. Don't miss out, you need to book your places by the end of November to qualify for the special offers. Just contact us quoting OCTBOGOF specifying option 1, 2, 3 or 4 to book your places.

Short and sweet this month (just like me!) so that's all for now.

Yours sincerely

Anne Donnelly
Managing Director

PS: If you're looking for a training administrator for your business then email us to see how we can help.

If you are a small business you need all the help you can get. Investing in a Virtual PA or adhoc office support could make all the difference to your bottom line especially when you can't afford to employ a permanent member of staff.

2010-10-06T18:12:00.004+01:00

Have you been affected by the tax credits?

Cut backs, cut backs, cut backs. That's all we seem to hear these days. I'm guessing you've had to cut back yourself on certain luxuries, such as a valued member of staff. Maybe you've had to move back to a home office rather than working from a serviced office to save the pennies. Times are trying but don't worry - it'll soon be Hallowe'en and we have a few things brewing that can help cut the winter costs.

Some news this month, I've finally added an on line payment facility using Paypal to our website where you can subscribe to on going Virtual PA hours, annual Call Answering services, or purchase administration, data entry, copy typing and Audio Transcription credits as you need them by credit or debit card saving on the hassle of setting up BACS transfers or writing cheques.

Last month we added London, Regent Street to our virtua l office offerings and we have since added two new Basingstoke business park addresses. Slightly more expensive than London but still good value and use of meeting rooms and wi-fi is available on site. All addresses can be used as your registered office or just as a mail forwarding address if you want to have a 'big company' feel to your business. We can also do company formation and are Money Laundering registered to fully comply with the legal requirements as all virtual office and company formation agents need to be.

Now you have a virtual office address who is answering your calls? Are you missing potential sales? If you are then it's probably wise to invest in a call answering service to ensure all your calls are answered. The good news is we can do this for you at very competitive costs for a quarterly or annual fee. Package deals are also available. Download our price list here to view all call answering and virtual office solutions.

How can I help you?.

When you start up or already run a small to medium sized business, you tend to be a 'Jack of All Trades, Master of None'. Meaning you do everything from handling calls, to selling, to administering your website, taking orders and doing the admin and invoicing, the list goes on. This can be very stressful and tiring for some, especially for those of you who aren't so good at multi-tasking (yes guys you know I mean you!). Wouldn't you rather concentrate on what you do best? Whatever you spend your day doing I'm sure you'd feel safe in the knowledge that a professional person is handling your business enquiries. Not many people like talking to answer phones, or on dodgy mobile phone connections so doesn't it make sense you have a virtual 'receptionist' to take the burden away from you and ensure your clients get their initial enquiry dealt with as soon as possible? You could also combine a message taking service with a virtual PA service and double the effect.

HOW IT WORKS

The call answering service can be set up very quickly, often the same day provided we have all the relative information in time.

You will be allocated a dedicated phone number which will present your company name on our switchboard so we know exactly who we’re dealing with. You can simply divert your own number to this number at your convenience or advertise it as your own company number. All calls are answered within 3 rings and a concise message forwarded to you by email. Any out of hours calls will reach our voicemail system and will be forwarded to you via a .wav file the following morning. You will be charged the per call rate for any voicemails that we pass on. We can also text urgent messages (included within the per call rate), but if you require texts for every message than an additional charge per text would be incurred.

The standard service is Monday to Friday 9am-5.30pm although 24/7 cover is available on request. The annual or quarterly service is payable upfront and your call charges are billed monthly in arrears or you could go for one of our all inclusive packages and make a few savings. Each month you will be provided with a spreadsheet of all your calls for the previous month along with any additional per call charges for reconciliation.

We provide that all important first port of call to your clients allowing you to rest assured that you will never miss an important call or even potential sale. Our team work on a shift basis and we always have at least 3 people on the phones at any given time. As we’re a small team and not a large call centre we also offer that personal touch as we get to know our customers and, in time, yours.

Customer service is paramount and I am always mentoring the team to ensure they are providing that same level service to you and your customers that you would expect. Please see what our current clients say about us if you're still unsure of how good we are.

So if you think you would benefit from one of our Virtual Office packages then please contact us for more information or see our website if you want to buy on line. All call answering/business address inclusive packages purchased before 31 October will benefit from a 15% discount - so don't miss out on the savings get in touch now quoting OCTVOCA15%

To find out more about our services or to request further pricing, contact us by email or telephone 01252 372824.

As ever you can still get a 10% rolling discount by writing a testimonial for our website.

We've also scheduled some new dates and reduced our training course prices until further notice so if you could do with brushing up on your IT or personal skills then take a look at our course schedule which includes Microsoft 2003/2007/2010 and Adobe CS3/CS4 & CS5 courses as well as Personal Development and Management programmes! In house, 121 and tailored courses are also available on request. and we can come to you if it's easier.

Don't forget we're always at the end of the phone, email, Skype or MSN.

Yours sincerely

Anne Donnelly
Managing Director

PS - Quote OCTNEWS to get a further 10% off all hourly services if paid up front during October. This is only valid until Hallowe'en after witch the pot will be empty.

Money is tight in the current economic climate so saving money where you can is paramount if your business is to succeed.

2010-09-02T19:05:00.001+01:00

How are you going to adapt to losing staff?

With the current economic situation many companies are having to scale down their staffing. That's all very well in order to save money but how are these companies (and you if the case may be), going to cope with the additional workload? Things may have quietened down for businesses over the summer holidays but no doubt that will change over the next couple of months.

Don't get caught short when it comes to your office support functions. The work still needs to be done and if you can't afford to employ someone the next best thing is a Virtual PA. If you're still confused as to what a Virtual PA is or does then you needn't be. It's basically the same as having a temp in your office but they are not physically at a desk, yet still at your beck and call when it comes to answering phones, taking messages, typing up reports or other secretarial and administration duties. The advantage to which is most definitely the PAYE and other employment cost savings (Employer's Insurance, Holiday Pay, Maternity Leave etc). A Virtual PA (or Virtual Assistant) is there to help and usually from a corporate background so will have the relative knowhow and expertise to deal with most office support functions in various areas (such as sales support, operations administration, training coordination, secretarial or reception/telephone work).

We have a huge range of clients such as retail stores (on and off line), events companies, solicitors, surveyors, accountants, security firms and aviation companies. Our Virtual PAs are very versatile and can fit in to suit your needs. We try to get things right first time but if we don't we will endeavour to correct and continue working to improve relations to give you an excellent customer service experience.

Another of our offerings which compliments the Virtual PA is a Virtual Office.

A London Presence.

Since losing our 2 main London addresses in the city due to our supplier being overun with companies wishing to use the addresses, I have still been getting lots of enquiries for a London location so I am pleased to announce that I have now secured a Regent Street address in London which you can use as your registered or mail forwarding address. There are meetings rooms available to hire and wi-fi on site. We are still offering Northampton and some other locations are available on demand. As a special introductory price I am offering the LONDON address to new and existing clients at a reduced cost of £199 (saving £26) for the first year. Mail forwarding is charged at 75p/item plus postage (or you can collect for free). This again can be combined with a call answering service where someone will answer your calls, take messages and forward to you via email.

To take advantage and get your name on the map please contact us quoting LON£26SEP before 30 September.

To find out more about our services or to request further pricing, contact us by email or telephone 01252 372824.

As ever you can still get a 10% rolling discount by recommending us.

See you in October! In the meantime if you're looking to improve your skills, take a look at our course schedule which includes Microsoft 2003/2007/2010 and Adobe CS3/CS4 & CS5 courses as well as Personal Development and Management programmes! In house, 121 and tailored courses are also available on request.

Yours sincerely

Anne Donnelly
Managing Director

PS - Quote CAVO25% to receive a quarter off a combined virtual office and call answering service - this offer is only valid until 30 September. (NB: does not apply to renewals).

In a predicament? Need Support? Maybe you can hire VA Team?

2010-07-20T16:48:00.000+01:00

A little bit later than usual this month's newsletter as I've just got back from my holiday in sunny Sharm El Sheikh where temperatures reached 39 degrees! Phew, that was extremely hot even for a sun lover like me! I have to say a have a pretty good tan, although not as good as last year! Yawn, yawn, I hear you say! Anyway, as it's late I thought I would combine this newsletter with August's so you won't receive another one until September now.

Further to our news last month, unfortunately our office move fell through so we're still as we were. Somewhat disappointing but these things happen. This means that our Ewshot address is not now available.

What can I say though June and July have been extremely hectic. We're averaging around 80 calls a day now which is fabulous. Most of these are for our call answering and virtual PA clients which Luise, Margaret and Sam have been handling extremely well. The general nature of the virtual PA work is that clients come and go as some can then afford to take on full time on site staff so things are constantly changing for us giving us a nice variety of tasks to do week on week. This month we've been inundated with enquiries for mail forwarding addresses and Copy Typing.

Last month we said about getting yourself organised with an administrator - so how did that work out? If you still haven't managed to sort out that extra help then perhaps we can help get you started. Maybe you have a large pile of handwritten notes that need typing up or an audio file that needs transcribing? Maybe you need someone to book some flights and manage your diary?

Get those words on paper.

If you're a busy surveyor, solicitor or insurance broker, or perhaps even a private investigator, then you most certainly would benefit from having someone transcribe your written or recorded notes into a legible format. A secretary is definitely the way to go. What's more a secretary will most certainly have those typing skills and qualifications you may not have and also excellent IT skills to put your thoughts down in print. Some of you may think, "well it's cheaper if I do it myself!" That's all well and good, but how professional will your finished transcript be? Will it be laid out correctly? RSA and Pitmans qualified secretaries will most certainly be able to do this much more effectively and probably a lot faster!

All of my team are suitably qualified in their given fields and I always ensure I put the most adept on any projects we undertake giving you an affordable, expert helping hand in your time of need. Plus, don't forget you wll save on employer's costs, holiday pay and other PAYE costs by hiring a Virtual Assistant. There are no minimum fees or retainers, just per minute billing as and when you demand it. Our rates are very competetive and start at just £15/hour for data entry, £17/hour for administration, £20/hour for any PA/Secretarial/Coordination roles and from £1.20/audio minute for audio transcription. We're also still offering a rolling 10% discount on all services in exchange for a testimonial on our website.

An Secretary/PA organises your time for you and takes care of those little jobs you just can't finish allowing you to do what you do best - your job!

To find out more or request further pricing, contact us by email or telephone 01252 372824.

I hope you have enjoyed reading and I look forward to catching up again in September! In the meantime if you're looking to improve your skills, take a look at our course schedule which includes Microsoft 2003/2007/2010 and Adobe CS3/CS4 & CS5 courses as well as Personal Development and Management programmes!

Yours sincerely

Anne Donnelly
Managing Director

PS - Quote JULAUGVPA25% to receive a quarter off ALL secretarial based hourly services during July and August - this offer is only valid until 31 August and applies to NEW projects only (ie we can't give you a discount on ongoing services we're already providing to you - if in doubt please ask).

I need to go on a course but I can't find one that meets my needs.

2010-06-03T00:15:00.001+01:00

It's that time again. Bank Holiday over and back to the grind stone. Did you enjoy yours? I have to say I had quite a good weekend as I actually got to spend most of it with my husband as he had the whole weekend off and that doesn't happen very often. We went for a lovely meal on Sunday and thoroughly enjoyed it!

So what has been happening with you? I noticed quite a lot of you have been regular readers of our monthly news and have had quite a lot of clicks on the IT courses again. Definitely some interest there so it's all good! We have some news which is quite exciting, we're moving offices! Yes, from 1 July our new head office address will be in Ewshot, Surrey (very posh you know!). I have secured a lovely unit on Dares Farm which also has a rather large training room which we will be using to run some of our courses in over the next few months. Set in semi rural location right on the A287 not a million miles from Farnham, Farnborough and Guildford. We're still running courses at Camberley, Surrey and Bracknell, Berkshire venues so wherever you are in the South East you should be able to get to one of them quite easily from the M3 and M4. Even if you're not in the South we still may be able to help you.

So moving on from last month's featured course Excel 2007 Level 2 we've had a huge number of enquiries for IT training such as Access and Excel, but by far the most interest has been in Adobe Photoshop and Illustrator. So with that in mind I'm pleased to announce that we have added Adobe CS5 and Microsoft 2010 to our portfolio. Although there are no course outlines on the site just yet please ask if you have an immediate requirement as these will be uploaded over the coming weeks. What's more we have extended our IT support to 3 months free email support after your course and have added some other support options to our offerings.

So what course is best for you? You know you need training but perhaps you have a varying degree of knowledge in the subject and can do some intermediate stuff but not some basic stuff? Maybe you don't like large groups or would prefer to attend something with your own work colleagues? Sometimes you need something that is outside the norm so what do you do in those cases?

Scheduled, In House, 121 or Tailored?

Decisions, decisions....!

Scheduled courses are handy for individuals looking for a cost effective way to attend and gain across the board knowledge on a given subject such as Adobe Photoshop Basic Level. These courses are usually open to the public so anyone can attend and the price reflects the generalisation of the course, although the quality is still upheld. In House training is where the same course can be run specifically for one company usually at their premises and are not open to everyone but will normally cover the same topics with perhaps a slight deviation depending on the group. Some that spring to mind are Train the Trainer or Management training. 121 Training is just that - you and the trainer in a very focused training session that is based on your individual needs. A lot can be achieved in such an intimate setting - much more than you would get from a scheduled course where there can be up to 10 people and we've had some very good feedback for one such session just last month. Lastly, there is Tailored Training. This is primarily aimed at larger companies with bigger budgets who require the services of a consultant trainer to come in and tailor the course to the needs of the company and the course content and exercises are very specific. Usually much more expensive as a lot more work goes into preparing these, but ultimately worth every penny.

All of our trainers are extremely experienced in their given fields and all can deliver on all 4 counts. We have a certified Microsoft trainer Sophie who has recently been added to the team who will happily travel across the south east to undertake In House, Tailored and 121 sessions. Sue covers all our Microsoft scheduled courses and local 121, In House and Tailored programs. Martin is our Adobe trainer who again will gallavant all over the UK on demand as well as running our scheduled courses! Jo is our CIPD qualified Management trainer and also takes our Personal Development courses mostly within the Thames Valley area either In House or at one of our own venues.

I hope that enlightens some of you as to what these terms mean and gives you an insight to what our team can offer.

Personal Benefits of Attending a Course

Upon successful completion of any training programme you will:

•Be more insightful and have a better understanding of a given subject

•Be more confident to deliver results

•Be better prepared to tackle IT projects

•Be on your way to improving your career chances

•Be able to communicate better with your peers and get what you want from situations

So if you're serious about enhancing your skills then get in touch!

To learn more about how training can help you or your business, check out our range of courses or get in touch to discuss 121, In House or Tailored training. Special discounts for our newsletter subscribers during June are a whopping 25% discount off ALL courses scheduled during June and July in 2010 only. To get your special discount code, please email our training coordinator quoting the course and date you wish to attend (don't forget to mention the June Newsletter). We can also give you a 25% discount on In house, 121 and Tailored training during June and July so it doesn't stop at our scheduled courses. To discuss in more detail please call us on 01252 758575.

That's all from me for this month - see you in July just before I jet off to Egypt!

Yours sincerely

Anne Donnelly

Managing Director

PS: Are you a private individual, not having training funded by your company? Email us for how you can receive even more discounts on your booking.

A problem halved....is a problem solved!

2010-06-01T16:25:00.001+01:00

A truly disappointing bank holiday weekend with regards to the lack of sun but now that June is here hopefully the weather will improve - stranger things have happened! I did enjoy a lovely meal on the Sunday though which has to be the most delicious roast I've ever had! Not your usual run of the mill carvery affair so I would highly recommend the Foresters in Church Crookham on the Aldershot Road!

Moving swiftly on, we have some exciting news this month - we are moving into our new office suite mid-June. As you may know we had to relinquish our offices at Regus for reasons I won't go into but have secured a lovely unit at Dares Farm in Ewshot, Surrey. The good news is we can now offer a mail forwarding address from our new office at a very reasonable cost at a jaw breaking £150/year as we have no third parties to worry about - as a bonus I'm offering the first 5 companies to take up the new address by 1 July a further £50 discount bringing the price down to just £100 for the first year. We will personally sort and forward the mail daily. This additional address will be available from 1 July so any locals looking for a mail forwarding/registered office address look no further! To take advantage please email me directly.

I have to say, we have had a manic May! Calls are still on the up and the Virtual PA service is more popular than ever with lots of new projects and tasks coming in daily such as research, Word document creation/amendments, hotel bookings, follow up calls, appointment booking, estimates, invoice chasing, CVs to name a few. Some of our most popular services include call answering, mail shots, mail forwarding addresses, audio transcription, data entry and virtual PA roles. So when are you going to take the plunge and reap the benefits of using a Virtual PA in your business?

Last month we said about getting your message across - so did you? I hope so! Maybe now you're getting enquiries and need a hand sorting through them or have to put together quotes for your potential clients?

Get yourself organised.

Almost every company will have an administrator or will need one - administration is the core backbone to any successful business. Some small businesses may not be able to afford to employ one! However, if your company paperwork is not in order then your business may well be disorganised and chaotic especially if you don't have a good filing system and need to get your hands on important documents quickly! How much time do you spend searching for documents amongst the mounds of paperwork on your desk when it would be so much easier to just flick through an alphabetical filing system for instance? Maybe you have to sift through supplier quotes to compare the best deal and don't have a lot of time to spend doing this. Perhaps you have to check a proposal you're putting together for spelling mistakes - sometimes a fresh set of eyes makes all the difference!.

Why not let us take care of this for you and take it off your hands? We'll get you sorted in no time and the good thing is we only work when you need us. No employer's costs, no holiday pay, no minimum fees or retainers, just per minute billing. Our rates are very competetive at just £17/hour for administration work with discounts to be had in exchange for a testimonial.

An administrator takes the strain of every day mundane office tasks freeing up your time to get on with running the business.

To find out more or request pricing, contact us by email or telephone 01252 372824.

See you in July for the next thrilling installment! In the meantime if you're looking for an IT training course, take a look at our course schedule which includes Microsoft 2003/2007/2010 and Adobe CS3/CS4 & CS5 courses as well as Personal Development and Management programmes!

Yours sincerely

Anne Donnelly

Managing Director

PS - Quote JUNEADMIN10% to receive a rolling 10% discount off admin services when you place your first order before 30 June 2010. Also applies to existing clients who have not previously used the service.

Access your potential to Excel, Project your Words and get your PowerPoint across!

2010-05-07T02:08:00.000+01:00

So whilst I'm thinking up catchy taglines I'm listening to the election news and by the time you read this when you get into work in the morning we should know who will be running our country for the foreseeable future. Although from what I hear not everyone got to cast their vote which is a tad controversial and I guess we'll be hearing about this for days - oh what joy! I wonder how this is all going to affect training budgets and general cashflow for a lot of businesses! Worrying times I should think for a lot of you out there but it's not all bad news. To elaborate - I'm pleased to announce I have booked my summer holiday as some of you may already know! I'm so looking foward to relaxing on the golden sands under the Egyptian sun. Probably not what you were expecting but rather than mope around thinking about what could be why not just live a little and think positive. Now is as good a time as any! Ever the optimist! I'm also pleased to announce I became an auntie again today for the ninth time! IT Takes Time Well it's taken a while but we've now uploaded most of our IT course content to the website - I am sure some of you noticed that a few of the links were hitting empty pages last month. I've been working very hard with Sue and Martin our new trainers (who between them have 31 years of experience in delivering computer training) to get the revised content together and up and running so you can benefit from what we can offer in the way of software training. It has been a very long and tiresome process but we're finally there! We have had a fair bit of interest in the new courses from some big corporate firms and some SMEs so that's very promising for us and certainly inspires confidence. It's always difficult to gain trust from new clients but with our fabulous customer service ethos and one month's free email support I am certainly confident they won't be disappointed. I hope you will stick with us to find out what we're all about. Microsoft Office Excel 2007 - Level 2 Are you quite computer literate and use Excel with confidence on a daily basis easily performing calculations, creating pivot tables and formulae? Or are you a complete techno phobe and wouldn't know a spreadsheet if it hit you in the face? Perhaps you're a little anxious when it comes to using Excel or other computer applications, or just haven't been given the right instruction on how to use them?Well it needn't be daunting. It's like anything in life once you have learnt the fundamentals you can put them into practise and build on them. It's really quite addictive once you get into it and find out just how you can save time by creating electronic documents and cut out all that manual paper mess. It will certainly improve your timeline once you know the short cuts. As most of you probably know Excel is a series of worksheets that allow you to manipulate data into many different formats and calculations and is a very versatile and widely used package not to mention the back bone to many databases such as Microsoft Access.There are various levels in Microsoft Excel - both versions 2003 and 2007 which are the most popular I would say and you would naturally start with level 1 the basics and move up to level 2 the intermediate level which is what we're featuring today, then on to level 3 the advanced functionality. Personal benefits Upon successful completion of this course, you will be able to:

Calculate with advanced formulae
Organise worksheet and table data using various techniques
Create and modify chargs
Analyse data using PivotTables and PivotCharts
Insert graphic objects
Customise and enhance workbooks and Microsoft Office Excel environment

So are you ready to tackle that PC with a vengeance? If so, read on. To learn more about how to use Excel to an intermediate level, attend our next course on 18 May - more dates will be added soon. Book on line quoting 'EX07LVL210%' BEFORE 12 May to save £32.50 from your booking or call us on 01252 758575. That's all folks! See you next time. Yours sincerely Anne Donnelly Managing Director PS: Multiple delegates to book on a course? Email us for how you can receive even more discounts on your booking and what's more if you're already a FOSVA client you are automatically entitled to receive 10% discount on all courses.

Do you have to post some information out to people quickly? How much time and effort will that take you?

2010-05-05T22:01:00.000+01:00

Don't shoot the messenger! One down, one to go! Let's hope the next bank holiday will be a bit warmer and drier than this one was! That said I hope you enjoyed the short break. Well I am pleased to say I have booked my summer holiday to sunny Sharm El Sheikh on the Red Sea Coast of Egypt. I think I deserve it and I can't wait to don (no pun intended) my red bikini and shades and lap up that glorious middle eastern sun! Forget the Morris dancers - belly dancers are on the horizon and those other funny men that spin around on one spot for about 15 minutes - how they don't fall over I'll never know! It certainly makes me dizzy watching them. Wow, what a month we've had here at FOSVA. I have yet another member to welcome this month and that is Luise who I have to say is doing a tremendous job on the phones so far! Her first day she had an extremely irate client on the phone swearing to her and she handled it beautifully. We are averaging around 50 calls a day now and that's just our clients' calls! VA Team is going from strength to strength. We've had more clients wanting call answering, mail shots and mail forwarding addresses this month. Not to mention the ongoing research, audio transcription and virtual PA roles we're working on. We're loving the variety and every day throws something slightly different at us. Quite a few clients are coming back to us after a break which is fantastic news for us and we welcome them back with thanks. Repeat business is the mainstay of any company and I certainly appreciate everyone who makes use of our services and there are benefits to be had being an existing or returning client such as discounts and no set up fees for certain services. So what's next on your agenda? Mail forwarding address sorted - are you on the map now? I hope so, but simply having a good address is only the beginning. Are you communicating on a personal level with your potential or existing clients? Are you keeping them informed of your services and goings on? How can you be sure your name is on the tip of their tongue? Getting your message out there. There are occasions when you need to communicate by mail - when you have information to get to people that simply works better on paper. It might be a Christmas card, a flyer explaining a new product, your latest price increases or just a means of getting people's attention with something a bit different. In all of these cases time is often of the essence. How much time do you actually have to spend typing up a letter, entering names onto a database to merge with the letter once you've fiddled around trying to sort out all the merge fields (which can be a chore in itself for the novices)? Then you have to wait for it to print before you have the laborious task of stuffing the envelopes. Not to mention sticking on the stamps! This could take you hours which you could put to better use dealing with other things. We can do all this for you including creating your database if required (Excel or Outlook or .CSV etc). We supply good quality paper and envelopes and we don't even have to go to the post office to buy the stamps as we use Royal Mail Smartstamp which just enables you to print stamps straight onto labels. So much less hassle than queueing in your local store. We also have a post box right outside so we can get this off in a jiffy (or standard white envelope if you prefer!). We can also send out any other documents that need to go with it. A mailshot gets your message right into the hands of your clients or even your staff if you have a company message to send out in writing. To find out more or request pricing, contact us by email or telephone 01252 372824. See you next month and don't forget to take a look at our new course schedule which includes newly added Microsoft and Adobe courses! Yours sincerely Anne Donnelly Managing Director PS - Quote MAYMAIL10% to receive 10% discount off mailshot services (mail merge & printing costs) when you purchase before last May Bank 2010.