Unlimited global market.  Virtual Assistants fulfil secretarial and transcription roles online and can do so from any remote location.  There is no need to have a Virtual Assistant physically in your office, crucially freeing up business space for you in your office.  Businesses can hire Virtual Assistants from a wide range of locations and countries.  This gives you a tremendous choice of skilled personnel and huge cost savings and advantages.

Frees up your time.  Virtual Assistants are highly trained, highly productive personnel who are used to large volumes of output and offer quick turnaround times.  They are ideally suited to pressures of deadlines and operate at a time when your business requires it, with a view to freeing up your time to increase your productivity.

Cost effective.  Virtual Assistants offer an independent service to your business as and when necessary.  They are not employees, you only pay for what you want, when you need it.  This is a highly cost effective option for your business, reducing the need to employ staff or pay full time wages or taxes.

Reduce your overheads.  Virtual Assistants work from home or from their own office.   Virtual Assistants do not take up office space and your business can enjoy cost savings and reductions in electricity and utility bills employees accrue.  You do not need to purchase additional equipment for their use, Virtual Assistants operate from fully equipped offices, using the most up to date technology.  No need to incur additional postage or courier costs to outsource your work to them – telephone, fax and internet based technology provides an immediate solution.

Minimise employee obligations.  A Virtual Assistant is an independent contractor, they are not engaged in a contract of employment.  A Virtual Assistant is not a company employee, there are no ancillary employee taxes or benefits to be paid, providing a cost saving to your business.  As Virtual Assistants are self-employed business owners they are responsible for their own taxation liabilities.

Critical cover.  By engaging a Virtual Assistant, your business has the ability to outsource important work during peak periods or to meet pressurised deadlines when the need arises.  Crucially a Virtual Assistant can be engaged to provide effective support and cover for staff absenteeism.  A Virtual Assistant is a reliable and viable alternative to using recruitment agencies for temporary in-house staff.

Customised business service.  A Virtual Assistant can fulfil the role your business requires whether it is a short time or long continuous period of engagement, either on a regular or ad hoc basis.  This degree of flexibility is essential in an ever changing business world.  So whether it is once-off digital transcription or ongoing administrative tasks, a Virtual Assistant is the most efficient solution for your business. 

Diversity of Talent.  Virtual Assistants come from a panoply of disciplines across the professional, business, academic, technical and support sectors.  Your business can choose a Virtual Assistant according to the skill set that the task requires, whether it is highly specialised or generic.  Virtual Assistants are creative thinkers and excellent problem solvers.

Outsourcing equals productive output.  A dedicated Virtual Assistant is 100 per cent committed to your business project.  They are self employed personnel and so are aware of the exigencies of performing tasks to deadlines.  Engaging the service of a Virtual Assistant ensures that each hour of labour provided is of optimum productivity and effort.

Efficient use of time.  Effective use of time management means your business can be served by a Virtual Assistant operating in a different time zone to meet your business needs.  As your business day ends, a Virtual Assistant’s day can begin and this flexible time solution results in greater business efficiency and turnaround.

These are just some of the key reasons to engage a Virtual Assistant.  The role of the Virtual Assistant is ever changing and ever expanding and is and will continue to play an important function in the emergence of a modern online business world.

Go Digital – Dictation and Transcription made Easy!

It can be said with certainty that dictation and transcription as we know it has been transformed in the last decade.  We find ourselves permanently in “contact me” mode via cell phone or email.  Access to the internet is ever easier and soft VoIP’s (voice over internet protocol) like Skype have narrowed geographic boundaries.  Now with greater work pressures, digital dictation means you can generate work in any location to be transcribed remotely.  So what’s all the hype about going digital and what exactly are the benefits over analogue dictation? 

1.      Immediate file delivery.  Sending digital recordings via the internet means no delay between dictation and transcription turnaround, saving your business time and money.  Files can even be emailed from your mobile phone!

2.      Clarity.  Digital technology allows you to control the speed of dictation without causing pitch distortion, making dictation easier to understand.  This improved clarity ultimately aides transcription accuracy.

3.      Sound Quality.   Digital sound is superior to that of analogue recordings.  Digital technology eliminates background noise making it easier to understand and thus reducing the likelihood of error.

4.      Faster turnaround.  Because error reduction is achieved through enhanced sound quality and clarity, Transcription Specialists can work faster.  A quicker turnaround time is a cost saving for your business.  At the same time, Transcription Specialists increase their earning potential as they can deliver higher volumes of work to many clients as a result.

5.      Easy editing.  Need to insert additional comments?  No problem!  You can add to, edit or delete voice recordings with ease without overwriting previous recordings.  You can even insert a piece of text or a digital image from another location to your digital file.

6.      Bookmark.   Transcription Specialists can skip to any section within a file to find a particular piece of dictation, so no need to fast forward through an entire cassette tape to find something specific.  You just place a marker on the digital file for ease of reference. 

7.      Easy transfer of work. Whether you are in the office or working offsite, you can plug the recorder into a PC and download your recording.

8.      Superior recording quality.  Digital recordings do not deteriorate over time.  The quality is retained and the original can be copied with no adverse affect on quality.

9.      No limitations.  A traditional cassette is usually only 20 or 30 minutes each side, digital recordings are as long as you need without the need to change sides!  There are no length restrictions.  No cassettes required!  Just press record and go!

10.  Dictate and go!  No need to wait to fill up a tape before sending it on for transcribing.  Dictate as you need to and send on immediately.  Just re-record your next piece of work as a new digital file.

11.  Length of recording.  A digital file states the how many minutes and seconds a voice recording is once the file is opened, so no more confusion about the length of a recording.

12.  Important information at a glance.  File headers can incorporate important information like the name of the person dictating, work priority, case name (for legal transcription), patient name or chart number (for medical transcription), date, etc.

13.  Space saving:  voice recordings are digital files stored on a PC, no valuable office space is required for storage.

14.  Portable:   Handheld digital solutions allow you to dictate anywhere, just stop and start whenever suits until you’re done!

15.  Productive workflow.  Digital transcription increases output efficiency and streamlines the process from dictation through to the finished transcript.

16.  Reduced risk of loss, damage or deletion.  When you download your recording to a PC files are less likely to be lost, damaged or erased in the way traditional cassette tapes can be.

17.  Original dictation untouched.  Your original recording is stored on your PC, not erased like cassette recordings.  Invaluable if you need to revisit a piece of work!  Files can be backed up on CD or stored on a network for added protection.

18.  Retrieving the dictation.  No searching for the cassettes to retrieve dictation, use the ‘Find File’ facility on your PC for instant retrieval.