» NY

Budgeting for Business & Pleasure

Deb — Thu, 15 Sep 2011 16:26:39 +0000

A few weeks ago on Business Darlings I wrote about how important it is to have a budget. I think it’s important for both your business and your own personal finances.

According to an article I read recently a good rule of thumb for where you should be spending your money is as follows:

25-30 percent on housing

15-18 percent on transportation

16 percent on food

The remainder to be divided between discretionary spending and savings

Do you know if your spending is in sync with this breakdown? Have you ever prepared a budget to see where your money goes to? Creating a budget helps you spend responsibly and achieve your goals. It also helps eliminate stress. Wouldn’t it be nice not to have to stress over money! You’d also be able to avoid that “money” argument because you’d always have the answers!

If you’d like to read the rest of the article, hop over to Business Darlings and read it here.

Have a great day and remember to smile, life isn’t so bad

Sticky Business Task 3…pricing your product or service.

Deb — Fri, 19 Dec 2008 19:24:28 +0000

Task 3 of the Sticky Business Contest asks us to outline how we will price our products or service. Just a reminder I’m not actually participating in the contest, I’m just following along and completing the tasks myself. Which you can also do, you’ll find all the tasks by visiting Men with Pens and looking at the posts having to do with the Sticky Business Contest. Here is how I determined the rates for the services provided by Gem’s Virtual Office.

“Deciding what to charge for your services, is probably one of the most important decisions you’ll ever make when it comes to your business. You of course want to make a profit, but at the same time you don’t want the per hour charge to be set so high that it turns potential clients away. In deciding how much to charge per hour for Gem’s services I relied on several different sources:

The first thing I did was to start researching the virtual assistant industry. On both Virtual Assistant Forums and VANA, which are two forums I belong to, rates are discussed almost on a daily basis. Someone always has a question on what they should charge. I spent a lot of time going through the numerous threads on the subject and asking questions. I then began looking at other Virtual Assistant’s websites to see what they were charging. I looked for VA’s that had comparable experience and services to mine and took an average of that.

In reading all the threads on the forums, I came across a recommendation for Freelance Switch’s Hourly Rate Calculator. It’s a pretty simple tool to use and only takes about a half hour to complete after you gather the information to fill in all the blanks. So I did all the math and came up with their suggested rate.

I then took another step and researched rates in my local area to see if what I had come up with rate wise was within reason. And they were, so finally, I took the average from my virtual assistant research and the suggested Freelance Switch rate, which were pretty close in number, and decided to vary the rate depending on the services that a client requires. Determining your rates should not be a quick decision. Do the research first and use one of the many rate calculators that are available online to help you.

On Gem’s website you will find a Rate Comparison Chart, which compares the rates of working with a Virtual Assistant vs. hiring an employee. Take a look at it and see how working with a Virtual Assistant can save your business money today!”

That’s it for Task 3, can’t wait to move onto Task 4. I’d love to know if you’ve been following the contest and participating yourself. And if you haven’t why not get started today! Thanks again to Men with Pens for letting everyone benefit from this contest!

10 Tasks Gem's can complete for you in an hour:

Deb — Mon, 14 Apr 2008 18:53:12 +0000

10 tasks Gem’s can complete for you in an hour:
1. Balance your checking account
2. Enter your vendor invoices
3. Call clients in regards to past due accounts
4. Post your cash receipts and make a deposit
5. Pay your bills
6. Invoice your customers
7. Generate P/L reports
8. Manage your e-mail and contacts
9. Send out your flyers/brochures
10. Research/make your travel arrangements

*Each project is unique; times may vary depending on numbers.