How to stay productive while working from home

Working from home is a great opportunity, especially if you have young children. However, it isn’t as always easy as it sounds and presents some major challenges. Being your own boss has a long list of pluses, but it takes some great organizational skills and motivation to stay productive. If you follow these few tips bellow, you should be heading towards success with your business:



1. Create a Specific Space to Call Your Office
Preferably you have your own office, with a door that you can close. If that’s not possible, make sure your family members know which specific space in the house they have to consider and respect as your office.

2. Limit time wasters
Instant messaging, Twitter, web surfing, Skype are all distracting your work and will result in lost productivity. Reserve a certain time slot during the day for these activities and limit them for the rest of the day.

3. Limit distractions and interruptions
Schedule times to review and respond to mail, email and voice mail. Set up a separate business phone line. Turn off e-mail and let the answering machine pick up the phone during the rest of the day.

4. Let friends and family know that you are a professional
Just because you are working from home, doesn’t mean that you are available for coffee breaks and phone calls all day long.

5. Create a schedule to start and complete a given task and stick to it
Begin and end tasks on time. A daily or weekly "To Do" list can also be a helpful tool to stay on track and stay productive.

6. Learn new tools for better time management
Invest some time in learning new tools that will help you save time in the long run. Share your favorite time saving tool in the comments! I like echosign.com to get my contracts signed and returned to me in no time (no more faxing, reminding, sending back etc.)

7. Take breaks and exercise
Mistakes happen more often when you are tired and overwhelmed. Take a break, go for a walk or a run. Physical activity clears your head, reduces stress and therefore boosts your productivity.

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Outsourcing Virtual Assistance Work Overseas

Maybe you have read Tim Ferris’s book "The 4-Hour Work Week" or maybe it's just a common misconception of the term "Virtual Assistant" that made you believe that you can get quality work for as cheap as $3 per hour. Don't get me wrong, you can find Virtual Assistants who work for 3$ per hour, I'm just not sure about the quality... Denise Griffitts, a Virtual Assistance Industry Expert, wrote an excellent article on that subject and she was kind enough to let me post it here. Thank you Denise!


By Denise Griffitts · March 1, 2010 ·

Question

Hi Denise.

What do you tell people when they say they can hire virtual assistants overseas and pay them $3.00 an hour? What are the pros and cons of that? Have you posted any blogs on the subject? Do you have any good articles I can read so as to know how to respond to people when they say this?

I also have had people tell me that they have tried to use virtual assistants in other countries and that they experienced problems in communication because they didn’t speak good English and they also received documents that were full of language, punctuation and formatting errors. I believe you get what you pay for and I don’t know how anyone can expect to receive quality for $3.00 an hour.

I would really appreciate anything you could tell me on this subject and any blogs or articles you can refer me to.

Thanks!

Debbie Forte

Answer

That is a great question Debbie and I will do my best to answer it for you.

My motto is and will always be, “Do What You Love and Outsource the Rest!” Now that is an easy premise for me to put forth, but what does it actually mean to the entrepreneur who badly needs ongoing assistance to build and grow their business?

As a business owner you realize by now that running a business, be it a traditional brick and mortar business or an online endeavor is one of the most time-consuming things one can think of. Your life as you knew it changed dramatically the moment you became self-employed. Being your own boss and enjoying creative freedom is for many, a dream come true. But honestly, how many hours have you spent on the dull, uninspiring, and extremely time-consuming work of keeping a business running? Across the board, entrepreneurs of all descriptions describe the biggest drawback in their business life as the drain of the daily minutia that chews through hours and drains creativity.

As a business owner, you end up wearing multiple hats. You are your own accounting department, marketing department, sales, tech support and customer care. On especially bad weeks you might find yourself spending more time on these tasks than on actual billable work.

Hiring a Virtual Assistant, someone who can take care of things you don’t have time for, can help you build and grow your business while retaining the creative passion that launched you into entrepreneurship in the first place. You can now find Virtual Assistants offering pretty much any service you might need assistance with, from administrative to social media marketing to web design.

If your business is in its infancy, or if you have a very limited budget you may be considering outsourcing some of this work to other countries. At this point, especially if you’ve read Tim Ferris’s The 4-Hour Work Week, you might be thinking about hiring an offshore Virtual Assistant, probably based in India or Philippines. You can find many of these “Virtual Assistants” on Elance.com, Guru.com and similar sites. You can also find them by performing a simple Google search by using the term “offshore Virtual Assistant”.

Offshore VAs can offer a wide variety of services, including some very technical ones such as web design. And their rates are incredibly low compared to their colleagues in the US and Canada. It is not uncommon to post an RFQ on Elance and receive bids with rates as low as $3 per hour. Virtual Assistants in the US and Canada, on the other hand, set their rates to an average of $30-35 per hour and some go as high as $70 per hour, depending on their core competencies.

Given these wildly different rates, making a choice seems like a no-brainer. Pick an offshore VA and save both time and money, right? You might feel a twinge of guilt over sending work overseas, but then you have to think of what’s best for your business, don’t you?

You’re absolutely correct – your business interests should be your top priority. That’s exactly why the “no-brainer” choice, the one based solely on cost differences, might not be a good one for your business, and may actually hurt it.

Most bestseller business books and top-of-search-engine articles on the subject will wax eloquent about all the potential benefits of cheap overseas labor. But search for “offshore outsourcing problems”, dig deeper into Elance reviews, and talk to fellow business owners who tried this option and you start getting a more balanced picture.

Most of the complaints about offshore vendors in general and Virtual Assistants in particular mention issues such as language and cultural barriers; inadequate communications from vendors; lack of experience or specific skills, especially when it comes to creative services; cost and time overruns; lack of project and process continuity; and need for close and continuous supervision.

While some services might be well-suited for offshore outsourcing, others simply are not. Consider content creation – all those articles, press releases, blog posts, newsletters that businesses now use as part of their marketing. Even if, and it’s a big if, the content is grammatically correct, there’s still the relevancy issue. It is unrealistic to expect an offshore Virtual Assistant to communicate effectively with target audiences that are distant in terms of geography, language and culture.

Cost and time overruns are not unique to offshore vendors. But they become much more difficult to control when combined with inadequate communications and cultural barriers. If choosing an offshore Virtual Assistant, you need to make sure to communicate early, often and state your concerns or requests in a very clear way, all of which can become very time-consuming.

Another very common complaint is the amount of close supervision, if not scrutiny, that is required when working with offshore assistants. Sure, even if you hire a local VA, you might have to do a bit of hand-holding at first, just so that your assistant learns the ins and outs of your business as and your management style. But any close supervision beyond this adjustment period defeats the entire purpose of hiring virtual help. Keep in mind that the VA you decide to work with is ultimately going to help you build and grow both your business and your online presence. A highly technical, highly competent Virtual Assistant actually partners with you to help you meet and exceed your business expectations. You should be able to have complete confidence that your VA is treating your business that same way she/he treats their own business. As if it was the most precious thing in the world!

The extremely low rate of offshore services is the reason behind yet another commonly-cited problem. Virtual Assistants who charge such low rates make money on volume. With hundreds and even thousands of clients and projects, they simply don’t have time to ask all the questions, review the alternatives and advise you of the best ways to handle specific tasks. Another issue is that they primarily work on one-off projects. For example, instead of dealing with just one project manager for all your tasks or projects, you might end up communicating with several people.

This is exactly the opposite of how higher-paid Virtual Assistants approach their clients’ work. Even though many accept occasional projects, they build their businesses around ongoing work with a handful of clients. These Virtual Assistants go beyond simply completing the tasks assigned to them. They approach each task while keeping the bigger picture – their clients’ business goals – in mind. As small business owners, they relate especially well to their clients’ concerns.

On the other hand, offshore VAs are mostly employees of virtual assistance companies. It is simply unrealistic to expect an employee in India to really understand the issues facing a business owner in the United States or Canada.

We all look for bargains. Keeping costs down definitely helps maintain a healthy bottom line. But when looking for a Virtual Assistant, a business owner needs to remember that a VA is much more than simply an implementer and that price and value are not the same. There are potentially many hidden costs and lost opportunities hiding behind a low rate offered by offshore Virtual Assistants.

Denise Griffitts
Virtual Assistance Industry Expert
http://virtualassistantindustry.com
info@ virtualassistantindustry.com

What is your opinion on the subject? Please leave your comment.

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How Can A Virtual Assistant Help You

Are you or your small business overloaded with administrative tasks?
Does the term "Social Media" give you nightmares?
Is your to do list never ending?
If your answer to the above questions was "yes", then you should check out this great slide show that demonstrates how a Virtual Assistant can help you. It has been put together by my friend, Sophie Guiziou, who runs her own Virtual Assistance business in Paris, France. Visit her website at: www.optimoffice.fr

How Can A Virtual Assistant Help You

View more presentations from optimoffice.

Other posts that might interest you:
How does the remote relationship with a VA work?
7 tips on how to communicate effectively with your VA
What exactly is a VA ?

7 Tips on how to communicate effectively with your VA

In our busy lives it's easy to fall into the trap: you (the customer) want to start delegating to your new VA as quickly as possible . You have signed an agreement and are now ready to get that precious time back in order to focus on your core business. She (the VA) is also eager to start working ! So after a couple of e-mail exchanges each one of you gets back to doing what they do best. But that's where the trap lies: you have not clearly defined your expectations and before you know it little misunderstanding will arise and bring some tension to your new business relationship.

A solid communication plan is very important in a relationship with a VA. Especially because this relationship is virtual ! Both parties need to be very clear about their expectations and their communication.

By applying the following 7 suggestions and integrating them into your communication plan, you can avoid the unpleasant misinterpretations and build a successful business relationship right from the start:

1. Give specif, step by step instructions You might want to write a short manual about repetitive tasks, a FAQ document with relevant questions (and their answers), as well as some email templates.
   
   
2. For more complex tasks consider showing your VA directly on your screen with a Screencasting tool like the one available on Skype*
   
   
3. Be clear on your expectations Don't assume she knows what you are expecting. Communicate your expectations preferably in writing or over the phone.
   
   
4. Be clear on deadlines Tell her when you expect the project to be done. "Asap" is not clear !
   
   
5. Arrange weekly updates & monthly calls Once a week your VA should send you an update of her progress. And once a month you should schedule a call to discuss the goals and expectations of the current and the following month.
   
   
6. Communicate your working hours Be sure that both parties communicate their working hours. Your VA might be working part-time, so be sure to know when you can reach her. If you live in different time zones, make sure you know until what time at night it's ok to call.
   
   
7. Request regular updates on hours used If you have agreed on a retainer plan (a certain amount of hours per month) discuss with your VA how often you would like to be updated on the amount of hours used. A weekly update at the beginning is recommended.
   
   

*Screensharing on Skype: go to "Share" and then click on "Share your screen"

Effective communication lead to mutual understanding and will hopefully result in a long-term commitment and successful business relationship.

Are you a Virtual Assistant or do you work with virtual assistants? How do you make the client-assistant relationship as effective as possible? Please leave your comment.


Other posts that might interest you:
How does the remote business relationship with a VA work ?
What's the difference between a Virtual Assistant and an Employee ?
What exactly is a Virtual Assistant ?

To find out more about working with a VA click here !

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Why rocks ?

Some of you may have wondered about my reasoning when I chose my logo... This post will hopefully convince you that I didn't just randomly pick one, but actually gave it some thought :-)

1. Link to the word "Simplicity"
   When I chose my company name, I immediately thought of "Simplicity". First of all I like the sound of it, and second I think it expresses the "raison d'être" of my business: we help other companies to simplify their work day. So when it came to choosing a logo to go with my company name, I did what everybody would do: I Googled "Simplicity" and hit "images". The result is a strange mix of pictures, but the second one in that huge selection convinced me (see below). It expressed everything that subconsciously was engraved in my mind when thinking about "Simplicity": simple things in life, simple yet sophisticated, "nature made" versus "human made" etc. Do you see what I mean?
   
   
   
2. Building on something
   What I also liked about this picture, is that it's not "only" a scene of natural beauty, like a beach or a mountain, but there is obvious human involvement visible. Somebody built that rock stack with great care and concentration. And that's what we do at Simplicity Admin Solutions: we build small things, with great care and attention to detail. Our clients focus on their core business and the big picture, while we concentrate on the little things that need to be done.
   
   
3. Global notion
   Last but not least I wanted to give my logo a "global look". As a multilingual VA I work with clients from all over the world, and I wanted my logo to express that notion. So we added the circled arrow which stands for "around the world".
   

So there you have it. This was my reasoning when I created my logo. Are you convinced ? :-)

P.S. I worked with the Logo Design Team to create my logo and they were great. Very good value and excellent customer service!


"Simplicity is the ultimate sophistication", Leonardo DaVinci

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How does the remote business relationship with a VA work ?

If you ever had an assistant, one who worked with you in the same office, your communication probably looked similar to this:

• you tell her to book a flight to Zurich, reserve a hotel and a rental car (she books everything and prints out confirmations for you)
  
  
• you tell her to make a Powerpoint presentation for a meeting in 2 weeks, you send her some files by e-mail to give her an idea about the content (she prepares the presentation and e-mails it to you)
  
  
• you tell her to schedule a meeting with a client for next week (she sets up the meeting and you get the confirmation on your calendar)you tell her to translate a document on your drive (she does it and lets you know where to find it)
  
  
• you tell her to write an article for your blog and post it (she writes the article and lets you know)

Now, if you worked with a Virtual Assistant, there's not really that much that would change. Instead of telling her in person, you would either send an e-mail, call her, skype her or send her an Instant Message. Instead of printing you those reservation confirmations, she would just e-mail them back to you. Since she would have access to your calendar, she could easily book that meeting and for the translation she could either remotely access your drive or you could just e-mail her the document, whatever is easier for you.

There are so many tools and applications which facilitate this kind of distance relationship. Here are a few examples:

• Skype: free calls, teleconferences, video calls, file sharing, screen sharing, instant messaging
• Sendthisfile.com: send large files (for free)
• Logmein.com: remote computer access
• Microsoft Office Workspace: free file sharing
• E-Fax.com: receive free faxes

So you see, Virtual Assistance works because of the immediacy and efficacy of electronic communications – Instant Messaging, Skype, e-mail, Internet. A successful business partnership does no longer rely on physical proximity.

Click here if you would like to find out more about working with a VA.


P.S. If you are a VA reading this article and have another favorite tool that you like to work with, please list it in the comments. Thanks!

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Learn German on Twitter - word by word

Did you ever think about learning a new language ? Why not German ?
You might have German ancestors, taken some classes in high school, have German business contacts or just simple have an interest in that language.
For me, German (Swiss German to be precise) is my mother tongue and I use it on a daily basis. In my private life when talking to my kids or for business when I translate a text for a client or communicate with a customer based in Germany or Switzerland. My husband himself is in the process of learning German (he is Canadian) and that's how I came up with the idea to use my knowledge and share it with the Twitter community.
So, starting this Sunday, Feb 7th, my followers will receive 1 German word or expression (with the English translation) per day. I will be using the hashtag #learngerman.

Since I am limited to 140 characters per post, I won't be able to give much explanation about pronunciation or phonetics. But if you have a doubt, there's an excellent website where you find an audio recording of a big selection of German words. Here's the link.

So, are you up for the challenge ? Auf geht's ! (let's do it !)

I am looking forward to seeing you on Twitter !


Sarah Santacroce



P.S. If you need a document or a website translated (German to English or English to German) please visit my website for more information about the services I offer.

P.P.S. Please RT this message on Twitter. Thank you !

P.P.P.S. If you are really serious about learning German there are other Tweeters who send out a (different) word per day. Follow for example @DoubleTranslate

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