Hiring a temporary can come with a whole host of problems including their lack of skills, need to provide equipment, supplies, and office space, as well as going through several temps (or agencies) to find one that can adequately provide skills you need! Also keep in mind that temporary services normally take about 1/2 of monies you pay them -- when temp only receives $7 - $11 an hour, you really can't expect a high quality person. If you still think it's best to do it yourself, you'll find that your time is much more profitably spent on revenue-generating activities. Outsourcing to a Virtual Assistant adds to up increased profits for your business.

Work is transmitted via e-mail, fax, mail, overnight service, etc. -- they will coordinate with you to provide work to you in most timely and inexpensive manner possible. You can also keep in touch via telephone, e-mail and instant messaging.

Costs of a Virtual Assistant run from $15 - $50 per hour (depending on scope of work and their skill level) and some work by project or on a monthly retainer. I know of a few VAs that are willing to barter for right products and/or service. Always read any potential Virtual Assistant's website and take a look at their testimonials, client list, etc. If you notice grammatical and spelling errors anywhere on their site or newsletters, you can be assured that your work will come back with spelling and grammatical errors. A highly skilled VA will be very detail oriented and will not put out work with these errors.

I recommend contacting a few VAs via e-mail, then by telephone to see if rapport is there, which is very important for anyone you work with. The one you are most comfortable with that charges a reasonable cost is one to try first. You may want to keep contact information of your second pick where you can easily find it in case your first pick is unavailable for any reason. Then give them a small project and work up from there.

Soon you will find that a dependable, accomplished VA will become your indispensable partner for years to come.

(c) 2005 Nita Helping Hand?, all rights reserved.

You are free to use this material in whole or in part as long as you include the following:

Here's an example for this one: He asked, "Are you going to party?" "You bet!" she exclaimed.

If what you're directly quoting isn't a question or exclamation, quotes go inside exclamation or question mark.

An example of this is, 'Did David say, "You must have fallen out of bed"?', or 'Linda actually said "You must be right"!'

Remember, you don't have to worry about it while you're writing and editing your copy, worry about it after all revisions have been made and it's time to proofread.

You can also go to your local bookstore or library to choose a Grammar book to read and refer to. There are many to choose from so look through them to find one you like.

If you feel you don't have time to proofread, don't want hassle of trying to learn rules, or just don't want to worry about it, you always have option of hiring a professional proofreader.

Professional proofreaders can be found via a search on internet or by asking other writers who they use. When you're searching for a proofreader, make sure they have no errors in their copy -- if they aren't extremely careful with their own work, do you think they would be with yours?

The money you spend on a professional proofreader, besides easily being made up with increased sales you should expect by having a more professional product, is easily worth time, effort and frustration you will save yourself.

So take it easy, let creativity flow, send work off to a professional for editing and/or proofreading, then sit back and relax while your copy is being groomed to perfection!

(c) 2005 Nita Helping Hand?, all rights reserved.

You are free to use this material in whole or in part as long as you include the following: