SVA Forum

[Emma Ewers]

To all Virtual Assistants

We are a Virtual Assistance company ourselves operating in the Essex area of the UK. I am conducting a small survey with virtual assistants to register any interest there may be in support services for virtual assistants. I appreciate that this site offers a form of support and networking for us all, I am thinking more about getting legal advice, it support, hosting and such. This is merely an exercise at this stage and would appreciate it if anyone interested would contact me to fill in a questionnaire.

Quartet Virtual Assistance operates from offices in Maldon, Essex. In addition to this company, we are associated with Quartet Recruitment, Quartet Hospitality Management and The George Hotel, Burslem, Stoke on Trent. Where I think this would benefit virtual assistants is we have a large network of contacts, suppliers, IT support, Web Design services including hosting, back office and SEO. We use these services and contacts in our own business; however I think maybe the time has come to offer some solid, beneficial support to the Virtual Assistant Industry as a whole.

Alongside this we would like to asses if there is a need for Virtual Assistants to;

a) Obtain more business at quieter times

b) Outsource some work themselves but in the long term earn more money

I think having a company backing you through association would be hugely beneficial to virtual assistants country if not worldwide, after all we take the strain from other companies and who takes the pressure off us?

Please complete and return by e-mail to emma.ewers@qvaltd.com or fax back to 01621 860319.

Please let me know your thoughts, it is much appreciated.

QUARTET VIRTUAL ASSISTANCE LTD

www.qvaltd.com


Emma Ewers
Director

[Sally@Stonetext]

Think you need another option - £0

Of all the things we have to spend our money on, legal advice really isn't something that would naturally appear at the top of our "most desirable" list.

Sorry to seem like a killjoy.
_________________
Sally
Stonetext Online Admin Services www.stonetext.co.uk
Spida Web & Graphic Design www.spidawebdesign.co.uk

Please help to support SVA by donating to: http://tinyurl.com/37urec

[Emma Ewers]

Not at all Sally,

I'm with you on £0 a month too! It's part of the research I am conducting for my idea.

All opinions are good ones!

Emma

[sara - Office Bird]

Another vote for £0 per month as well. I will pay for legal advice should I need it but there is no way I would pay you all year and never use it!!

I have associations with Solicitors and Business Link will give you 30mins free (as will most solicitors) which is enough time to decide if you need to pay for legal advice or go it alone.

Sorry!
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Sara
Office Bird
Your Perfect Business Partner

www.officebird.co.uk

[dawnjlane]

I'm another on the £0 option.

As I have Public and Professional Indemnity Insurance, free legal advice is included with the policy. Also most home insurance policies have free legal advice and I would hope that all VAs who work from home would have advised their insurance company that they are adoing so and should therefore be able to call on their policy advisors if need be. Also any one who is a member of the FSB gets free legal advice included in that membership fee.

With regards to IT support and web hosting support etc, I would prefer to have someone closer to me geographically for this so that I can meet with them face to face to discuss and also hand over my laptop/PC if needs be.

Again, sorry to be a killjoy but I think many VAs will have other priorities to spend their money on monthly rather than a 'just in case' scenario.
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Dawn Lane VAcertified MAMS MInstAM
Your Office Online - www.your-office-online.co.uk
Virtual Business in a Box Ltd - www.virtualbusinessinabox.co.uk
dawn@your-office-online.co.uk
dawn@virtualbusinessinabox.co.uk

[ASAP Admin]

Another vote for £0 per month. Again I wouldnt want to be paying for something that I am not using, if the need arised then I would pay. However having previously worked in a Solicitors office and currently doing work for some, I would be able to get some assistance from cleints should the need arise.
_________________
Lyndsey Gilchrist
ASAP Admin
Call Team

[Emma Ewers]

thanks for feedback to all.

There are two votes on the poll tho and I didn't vote so there are two people out there who would! Come on own up show yourselves! All opinions count.

I understand where you are coming from, but why do we pay insurance?? just in case...

Our IT support is done using logmein or on site adn is available 24 hours a day. They can provide back up advice, sorce cheaper software and hardware than we can as individuals etc. Paying a monthly premium so to speak would reduce prices and in the package would include an option for IT support.

It may be an option for start up VA's finding their feet etc. The fact is there are many of us who are business savvy and are happy working on our own and can cope with whatever life throws at us. Some people like the confort factor that if things go wrong someone can help out.

As mentioned in another post QVA also have Quartet Debt Recovery as part of our group of companies. This is another factor that can be brought into the package or used on an adhoc basis. I would be happy to negotiate lower fees for any VA's that need assistance in this area. visit www.quartetdebtrecovery.com for a peek.

Emma

[caroline]

I think it's a great idea for small businesses - however from experience VAs tend to fall into two camps - those who are starting up and bootstrapping and have no cash and those who have an established business set up and probably have things like FSB membership/lawyer/IT guru etc. already.

The startups have no money but lots of time so they'll happily spend literally DAYS researching things for the business (ignoring the fact that their time is money - practice what you preach!!).

There's definitely a need for VAs to fill their roster during quiet times and to expand their team by outsourcing, but a lot of VAs have chosen to work on a singular basis - they prefer being quieter during the summer holidays and only having themselves to organise. Taking on associate VAs (even really excellent ones!) means you have to be much more organised and disciplined yourself. This includes manuals/how to do lists/distributing information from clients etc.

sorry - I'm a yes in theory to the idea for small businesses but no to using it as a VA.
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