Recording categories for clients

I added the following content to my services page:

WHEN REQUESTING A QUOTE FOR TRANSCRIPTION PLEASE INDICATE TO THE BEST OF YOUR ABILITY WHICH OF THE FOLLOWING YOUR AUDIO FALLS INTO (if you are unable to we will make this assessment for you)
Category A:
Clear speech
No background noise – recorded digitally in a quiet surroundings
A cleaned up verbatim transcript is provided unless specifically stated that strictly verbatim is required.
Category B:

Group discussions, Telephone recordings, Multiple speakers
Background noise, Technical subject matter, Outdoor recording, Low quality digital files
Speakers using English as a second language
Poor recording quality due to inferior equipment.
Analog recordings made on cassette

Business Mentorship and bouncing ideas off people

Some days ago I asked followers on my Facebook page how they cope when they've got a job to do that they know they can do, but they wouldn't mind bouncing it off someone else for ideas.

I rather liked Alison Fourie's idea - from AMF Typing - she said she bounces it off me, and that's the type of relationship we have - most of my challenges get bounced off her too. I guess we are each other's mutual mentors.

Other comments were also interesting - Roger Frost of Wett Inspections said: I usually Google my idea, and see what's out there. There isn't much out there that already hasn't been done. Usually it is just a matter of taking an old idea or product and putting a new spin on it.

Done van Mollendorf added that she approaches family and friends and also mentioned that joining online communities with the same interests helps so that one can get an idea of people's feelings and thoughts on the matter.

 When you work in an office full of people, you have colleagues. Usually there's the computer guy, there are office staff, managers, directors. Colleagues who you can brainstorm with. When you're self employed, working for yourself, that can be negated. So it is important that you establish a network of people that you can bounce your ideas off. I would love to see more comments on this post about this.

Related Article: Audio Recording categories. 



Tweet

Niamh Greene - A Message To Your Heart

Niamh Greene is an author who writes with a compassion that makes you feel she speaks to you directly. I chatted about one of her books at our local book club the other day and I was asked what makes the book readable. My answer was that I feel like her characters could be me.

Those of us starting and running our own businesses are going to love A Message To Your Heart. The running of the business is not the main subject of the novel, but the life of the business owner is. Do you feel like your family don't take you seriously? Have you got overheads you are not sure how you are going to meet? Do you have staff and other people in your life who are just not performing as you believe they should? Then read A Message To Your Heart.

The book itself is about a literary agent, Frankie, who has set up her own agency after having worked for a larger one. She is, to put it bluntly, battling to make ends meet. She has one big client, and the person who rings her the most is the bank manager.  To her family, she seems work obsessed and addicted to her phone, which her brothers call her Crackberry.

On a make or break business trip to San Francisco, Frankie loses the phone and once in America, she hires a temporary one. (There is not one business owner I know who can say they have never lost a cell phone, at least, not honestly). However she soon begins receiving strange text messages. Eventually she decides to reply to one to inform the person sending them that she now has the phone and is not the intended recipient of the messages. To her surprise, she receives a call from the person sending the messages - and things twist and turn in sometimes comic, sometimes heart rending, but always human turns of fate. Does Frankie get the client? Does she save the business? What is the reason for the text messages? You're going to have to read the book to find the answers to these and a lot of other things! I was sad to reach the end of the book. I wanted it to go on. I felt I'd made friends with Frankie!

Follow Niamh Greene on Facebook here.   If you want to read more about Niamh Greene, who she is and how she got published, then click here.

Related article: We talk to novelists Jassy McKenzie and Joanne Richards.

Query from a wannabe VA newbie

We received this query today:

Hi there

The term VA  is new to me! I never knew anything like it existed, but at the same time, it makes so much sense!

I read about it for the first time in a magazine this weekend.

It makes me feel like there is hope after all!

I am in a complete “limbo” situation at the moment.
·         45 Years old,
·          female,
·          never been married,
·          no children,
·          retrenched from a reasonably-paying management position just over a year ago (interior industry),
·         now in a much more “scaled- down position” (…. with a “scaled-down” salary to go with it),
·         never invested in property….
·         Not likely to inherit much
·         … and EXTREMELY concerned about my future …(I have literally 20 years to get myself together before I retire)

A Day in The Life of a Virtual Assistant with Children

Trish Donmall owns Conor's Admin Services.
Here she chats about running her business AND having children.

A Day in The Life of a Virtual Assistant with Children

 

I often hear people say that they want to work from home to spend more time with their children, then when they do they are discouraged as the “extra” time they have at home doesn't always turn into more family time. I know there are quite a few out there that will relate to this.