Chances are someone else is wondering the same thing you are wondering. Check here for answers to our most popular questions. And remember, the only silly question is the one never asked.
A. We’ll schedule a quick 20-minute Discovery Call to discuss what you’d like and how MaplewoodVA services could fill-in the gaps, help you get more strategic, and possibly be your extra set of hands. There’s no obligation to the call and it’s completely free. Click here to reach out.
A. We actually have all three options though each are not applicable to every service or level of support. The smallest admin support retainer offered is 5 hours and begins at a rate of $50/hour (billed by the minute). Not every task requires an hour to complete. Many things may take less than 10 minutes. Retainers are blocks of time to be used within the month, nothing rolls over if time isn’t used, and you can have numerous ala carte services or one-off projects. The time is worked down until it’s exhausted. If you need to purchase another retainer, that’s possible or we can tack on some overage time. All along during the month, retainer clients are provided time summaries so you always know how much time is left to use before the end of the month. Often, we’ll suggest additional tasks to help you use the time.
If we know with certainty what’s needed along with which services are typically bundled together to execute the task, we’ll provide this in a package at a fixed price. And yes, we’re happy to custom-create a bundle specific to you and your business needs. Packages are nice because they deliver value regardless of how much time is needed and you always know the price won’t change, even if something takes a bit longer to complete.
A. Here are four recognized criteria to determine if your business has the size, foundation, and sustainability to support needing an OBM:
- First and most importantly, you must have an established business to manage or if you’re an emerging business which isn’t quite there yet.
- Second, you have already defined your target market, you have marketing systems up and running, you have services or products your established customer base are actively purchasing (over and over), and you have a proven business foundation which is solid and growing.
- If your business is grossing $15K or more monthly, your business is in a position to bring on and sustain management level team members.
- If you find you are spending more time doing tasks which run the business rather than being the leader of your business where you focus on leading, on development and research, on making strategic connections, and on growing your business.
If you’re not quite at the OBM level, our virtual assistant services can help you grow by serving as your Project Manager.
A. Payments are due upon receipt of invoice via Paypal which accepts both debit cards and credit cards.
A. No, it does not. The writing done for you is yours to claim and use as your own. Even some of the leading published authors occasionally need a hand or co-write their works. MaplewoodVA aims to capture your unique voice in the writing and may request samples or an interview to achieve this result.
A. Our services include:
- Proofreading (Level 1): Check grammar, spelling, punctuation, capitalization, verb-tense consistency, pronouns, spacing, and formatting consistency. Don’t expect editors to make radical changes to your sentences or words because those services fall under the next level of copy editing.
- Copy Editing (Level 2): In addition to the proofreading services, the copy editing focuses on the “five Cs” – writing that is clear, correct, concise, complete, and consistent. Adjustment to sentence and paragraph structure, the elimination of redundant words, replacement of repetitive words with synonyms, and substitution of weak words, phrases, and sentences with powerful alternatives will be applied to the writing. With these edits I will strive to ensure your original tone remains intact. You can expect noticeable change to your original document and should be prepared to review the changes to ensure you are happy with them. Microsoft Word’s Track Changes feature will be used to track these revisions so you can see changes and quickly accept or reject them with the click of a button.
- Substantive Editing /aka Line Editing (Level 3): Editors will rewrite major portions of your document if this type of copy editing is requested. Most people who need this service need help writing the paper, not just editing. Level 3 is essentially developmental editing in that the editor rewrites your document with the intent of educating you on how to better write. Expect your work to change substantively. New content will be added if the editor feels arguments made in the body of the paper lack substance or need support. New references, citations, and research may also be added. Substantive editing is time-consuming and expensive. It also demands extra time from the original author to ensure the editor’s changes hasn’t altered the intent or tone of the paper. Rewrites are often prone to the loss of the author’s original voice. It often takes multiple revisions to get everything right.
A. I am honored to be a team member or associate VA on numerous leading virtual professional teams. Let's talk. I'm always open to learning about your business and how my services may compliment what you're doing or lend a hand on one-off projects. Please reach out via my Contact page to get the conversation started.
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