Virtual Assistant - Philippines

Inside Tassie Beach Shack - Place to stay in Northeast Tasmania

2011-06-13T04:43:00.000+08:00

What is a Virtual Assistant?

2011-03-22T21:26:00.006+08:00

You have a job and have the skills that makes your boss look good and feel better and you're very successful at it. But you're now tired of commuting and wants a change in your daily routine. You want to be home when your kids arrive and help them with assignments anytime. Maybe you're tired of the hustling and buzzling of city life and wants to settle somewhere in the mountains or by the beach without suffering your opportunity to earn for your family.

Good news! The virtual world is here. A great opportunity to work from the comfort of your own home is one of the best things the Internet has brought. Offering online services are now possible by being a virtual assistant or VA.

What do VAs actually do? Entrepreneurs,independent professionals and small business owners tend to work more than eight hours a day. But then no matter how busy they are, they don't see the need for a full-time secretary or office manager. What they do is they hire a VA to help them in the nitty-gritty part of their activities.

A VA's tasks may include office administration work, scheduling, project management,logistics coordinating and more. If you happen to get a VA job for start-up company, you may be busy researching for resources that could propel their businesses with minimal budget. An author or a consultant may ask you to manage his or her hectic life by arranging more personal things like making sure that his appointment with the doctor won't conflict with client meetings. Expect lots of market research, assignments to send out marketing materials and news releases, handle the billing and bookkeeping, or update your client's Web site.

As a VA, you may work "on call" or set your own schedule as long as you deliver your client's needs.

VAs in US are usually paid $20-$40 per hour. Those with more specialized skills could earn as much as $100 per hour. VAs in the Philippines are paid an average of $5/hour depending on skillsets. Those who offer more technical skills like web development, programming as well as project management earn $10-$20 per hour. Others charge a retainer fee or arrange a per project fee.

In all cases, you are virtually working from your home for clients who may be based in your community or on another continent.

Communication is done mostly by e-mail, phone, fax, instant messaging and other online communication tools like Skype and Magic Talk. There are also lots of online project management tools like Basecamp, Zoho or Google site to coordinate about your project.

Just like in any other business ventures or professional endeavors, being a VA is rewarding only if you will put your heart in it. Your success as a VA earning dollars per hour in the Philippines depends on your dedication, hard work, honesty and integrity in doing your work. After all, being in the virtual world is all about building virtual relationships. So why not build virtual business client relationships and do virtual business together that would benefit your client, by having a great VA from Philippines, and you, by delivering your client's needs even while your laundry is spinning in the washing machine.

Tips to Start Your Day, Blogger

2011-03-17T10:04:00.003+08:00

As I was reading and surfing around feeds that I subscribed in to my Hootsuite account, I found it interesting that tips for bloggers could be a quotable quote too...

At the end of the day, you need to work out your own system, but you need a system - Marketing Savant
Having deadlines has been a great benefit to me. It’s taught me to cultivate self-discipline, stay organized, and stop wasting time. - Jennifer Fulwiler
Let go of perfectionism - Jennifer Fulwiler
First Thought, Best Thought - Allen Ginsberg
The only “rule” of blogging that I’d be brave enough to preach is: find your own way. - Darren Rowse

The Official Website of Karla Chin

2011-03-14T13:28:00.000+08:00

The Official Website of Karla Chin: "Holistic Nutrition & Lifestyle Coach. Founder of Thriving Lifestyle."

A Virtual Assistant's Resolution for 2011

2011-01-03T18:04:00.000+08:00

I'd like to start this year with resolutions aimed at organizing things from my life and business and begin anew.

Remove clutter from my workspace. A clutter free workspace helps me focus better.
Better time management. Alot more time to those that require more attention and whom I've given my commitment to.
Nurture clients who nurtures me as a person and not just a hired VA. Some clients I've served well started to demand more work hours but at a lesser rate and seem to forget that I have a life too other than being their VA.
Write more posts for my blog. a blog post a month isn't that bad, right?
Connect more in LinkedIn, Facebook and Twitter. These are the only three that I'd like to use in reaching out to entrepreneurs and business owners who are looking for services that I can offer.
Shrug off the bulges. Hmm... it's been so long since the last time I jogged. Recently the only exercise I can regularly do is typing exercise and it's doing nothing against my belly bulges.
Learn something new. This is a constant goal.

I think it's time to start anew and get going now... Cheers to a more prosperous 2011!!!

The Pajama Workforce - Talent Management

2010-09-22T22:04:00.000+08:00

The Pajama Workforce - Talent Management
By Ken Lahti.

Step 1: Business outcomes: Identify the business outcomes that drive performance in the role. How do these roles help accomplish the organization's mission? This information can help clarify the sensibility of moving the work to remote delivery and also informs the choice of assessments. Solving for improved customer service may require a different approach than trying to drive sales or reduce project timelines.

Step 2: Competencies and skills: Identify the work behaviors, including judgment and decision making, that drive successful performance in the role. What actions differentiate high and low performers? This information is usually gathered through a rigorous job analysis, the results of which are documented in a formal report. Typically, information about job requirements can be rolled up into a manageable number of competencies and skill areas that can be evaluated during the selection or placement process.

Step 3: Assessments: Identify the tests, simulations, interviews and performance information that will be used to assess candidates or employees to objectively evaluate job-related competencies and skills. Yes, performance is a form of talent measurement, and if current employees are being considered for at-home roles, take into account relevant competency-based information from their demonstrated performance in the organization.

By following this recipe, talent managers can integrate information about organizational goals, business metrics and job requirements into an objective assessment process that will produce business intelligence on which employees are more likely to perform well and stay with the organization. Today, given the maturity of the assessment industry, in most cases it is possible for organizations to build a valid assessment and selection process using some combination of existing tools, eliminating the need for costly custom research and development efforts.

Keep It Real

In recruiting and staffing processes, how talent managers assess at-home work potential depends on things such as:

Job type and level — contact center agents vs. technical professionals, for example.
Volume of candidates.
Number of at-home positions and the urgency with which they must be filled.
Criticality of the position and how important it is to get it right: What is the cost of a bad hire?

Often it comes down to how much time talent managers have to evaluate candidates and how much time they are willing to spend on the process. Are talent managers trying to squeeze an evaluation down to a 30-minute online assessment plus a one-hour hiring manager interview? Or do they have the luxury of 90 minutes for online testing, perhaps spread across two sittings or separate test events, plus another two to three hours or more for interviews?

Usually, potential for success in at-home work is one component in the assessment program, along with evaluation of other job-relevant skills, technical knowledge or key competencies. For example, in a one-hour assessment battery for at-home contact center agents, the assessment of at-home work potential may be only 10 minutes of the process. It may be administered along with a call center simulation, behavioral or personality scales, and biodata or background information — all of which are designed to predict success performing the full range of duties for contact center agents — delivering service, selling effectively and providing technical support — not just their ability to work from home. Other times, the at-home work arrangement is so unique or such a critical determinant of success that the evaluation of at-home work potential is nearly the entire focus of candidate evaluation.

Talent leaders can be successful sending people home to do mission-critical work for their organizations, but only if they choose the right people. Given the stakes, it is worth the investment to set up an effective talent measurement program to assess candidates for key competencies, skills and fit with the work environment.

Ken Lahti is vice president of strategy and content at PreVisor.

More countries may join possible BlackBerry ban

2010-08-17T16:17:00.000+08:00

This is bad news to Blackberry owners out there. I just hope the Philippines is not one of those. Besides, millions already purchased this smartphone and the security issues between RIM and the government must not make the consumers suffer.

A WAHM's Choice

2010-08-07T11:24:00.005+08:00

Yesterday, I accompanied my mother to the supermarket. Then out of the blue she asked me, "How do you see yourself at this point in time next year?" I answered, "Filling up this grocery basket with same items but with higher price tags." And we both laughed.

That night, the question echoed in my mind. It's a simple question that struck the chord in me that resulted with so many questions in my mind. What do I want to do? Where do I want to go? How am I going to do what I want to do? Why will I do it? More questions are popping up in my mind with answers all suspended in my brain. I took a deep breath. Breathing has never failed to help me stay calm and organize my thoughts.

I am a VA but my services should never stop there. I live in a poverty stricken world in one of the poorest urban communities in Metro Manila where informal settlers are rampant, being unemployed is just normal, half-naked tattooed individuals just walking down the streets, drug pushers and users publicly interacting and gang wars among youth as young as 9 years of age are taking place. I live in a community where many are trying to survive in ways they know. Life is, indeed, a big game of survival.

I want to make a difference and this is what I want to do. Why? Because I want to help people in my own ways. How? The answer is I don't know yet. I may choose to continue being just a WAHM doing VA jobs and wait for years to pass by until my eyes can't no longer stare on my computer monitor, or still be a WAHM doing VA jobs while helping people. During my teens years, I've been one of the youth leaders here as I lead our youth organization members to do productive things for the community. This time, maybe I can create jobs by being an entrepreneur. How? Well, I've been planning to start a business that can create jobs. By way of this blog site, I can also help other WAHM out there in their journey as a VA. There are lots of possibilities, lots of opportunities. But one thing is sure, at least I know what I want to do now and I think I've planned enough. It's time to act and make things happen.

Everything in this world is our choice and I chose to be what I want to be -- a WAHM doing VA jobs while helping alleviate poverty in a small corner of the community.

123hired.com IS A SCAM

2008-08-07T07:18:00.010+08:00

I recently emailed a posted ad in Craigslist.org that's looking for Customer Service Agent. The job is basically to post ad and respond to emails.

After a day, I received this reply:

Hello Maria. How would you like to work for me? Right now I'm running a business on Craigslist and I'm having a hard time keeping up with customer emails. My email box is jammed full of emails I can't answer fast enough. I'm losing business(about $600 a day).

But first, let me tell you about our business. We are a resume and recruiting company and help people find jobs in North America. We post jobs on Craigslist's job forums and help people write resumes and we also work with companies in the US and Canada to find employees. We are currently very busy, so we are in need of a customer service agent.

I need you, along with a few other employees, to help me post messages on Craigslist and answer customer questions. Does that sound doable? I'm willing to pay you a good salary + commission if you work hard. If you're interested in my offer, please return my email along with salary requirements. Thanks. Oh and if you know anybody else who would like to have a job with me, please refer them and I might be able to hire them on. Best wishes.

Jennifer Mason, CEO Career Perfect
www.123Hired.com

Of course, thinking I have a good reply there, I forwarded the email to one of my colleagues who Google searched for "Jennifer Mason, Career Expert" and this one pulled up -- http://www.harrisblackwatch.com/

This is what he'll actually ask you to do:

I am a recruiter serving companies all over North America and as a result, I receive over 2000 resumes by email each day from prospective candidates for the jobs I need to fill. I need some help replying to all my emails. We offer the candidates a resume revision service which they order directly from my website. The jobs are all real and we will find these people employment.
If you are interested in this work:
First create an email address similar to our business name(i.e.careerperfect5@gmail.com). I recommend gmail) and put as your outgoing name “Career Perfect” (with a capital C and P) like I have. Your outgoing name should appear as Career Perfect exactly as I’ve typed it. Then using that email account, create an account on Craigslist. (I omitted the other instructional part on posting and emailing)

Payment:

We pay every Friday by either paypal, certified check mailed to your home, or Western Union. Please let me know how you wish to be paid. If to your home, please provide your full name and address. If to Western Union, please list the address of your preferred Western Union office. If by PayPal, please provide me the email address you used to register your PayPal account.
I am very busy and my time is limited but if you have any questions not covered by this guide, please feel free to ask. The jobs are real, we are not a scam, and are here to provide an excellent and much needed service. You do need thick skin for this work because nowadays people using online services are very skeptical and can get quite “creative” with their language instead of simply saying “No thank you” but it’s best to just ignore this. Time is money and it is not productive that you stop and respond. We have been helping people since 1997. If we were a scam, we would’ve been closed years ago. (??????)
*Whenever you write me, please write me only from your Career Perfect email account.
Thank you and looking forward to a prosperous relationship with you.
Yours faithfully,
Jennifer Mason, CEO Career Perfect
www.123Hired.com

TO ALL HOME-BASED WORKERS: DON'T EVER DO ANY BUSINESS THAT HAS ANYTHING TO DO WITH JENNIFER MASON DISGUISING AS CEO OF CAREER PERFECT. IT'S A BIG SCAM!

10 Signs of a Full-time WAHM

2008-07-25T09:15:00.012+08:00

Your kids are always with you all workdays.
You're mostly in your pajamas during office hours.
Your coffee pot is always on overtime.
You're face-to-face with your computer more often than your partner.
All your bill payments are enrolled to online payment services.
Said this --"Sshh... Mommy is working now."
Brownouts give you headache.
Good internet connection is a daily "must-have"
You're always on lookout for a good coffee.
Oops! Is that a lego under your desk?