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Hurricane Katrina - How To Use Your Business Loss To Get A Refund on 2004 Taxes
With the massive losses caused by Katrina, the economy of the Gulf Coast region is in extremely bad shape. Fortunately, there is a quirk in the tax code that can help you generate a large refund from your 2004 taxes. Apply Losses to 2004 Taxes...

Is Vacation Rental Ownership Your Business Opportunity?
It's a dream I've heard so many people express: "I want to run a bed and breakfast. They are so cute" Or "I want to own a vacation rental property, so I can get a free vacation and make money the rest of the year. But what is really...

Student Credit Cards 101
If you’re a college student, you probably already have a credit card. If not, you may have plans to get one or more soon. So why should you read on? Because financial debt is one of the main reasons that many students end up dropping out...

What Is A Home Based Travel Agent?
Many people are unclear about the travel industry. Travel agents are often thought to be the same as real estate agents. Becoming a travel agent or more specifically a home based travel agent is an exciting career change or retirement option. ...

Why Does FACTA Matter to Me?
As an employer, what you don’t know about FACTA can definitely hurt you. FACTA stands for Fair and Accurate Credit Transaction Act. FACTA is the law which allows any American access to their credit report once per year. The law went into effect Jan....

 
Creating Time the Virtual Way: How Virtual Assistants are simplifying life for small business owners

Virtual Assistants are taking on those time-consuming administrative chores and special projects, and giving business owners more breathing room to grow, succeed and fall in love with their business again.

--------------------

Time. As a small business owner, it's the commodity you covet most but never seem to have enough of.

If you had more time, you could complete all the administrative chores required to operate your business.

With enough time, you could do more marketing, more networking, more planning and systemizing.

If you had just a little more, you'd be a whole lot less hurried and stressed.

But how on earth do you create more time to do all the things necessary to run smoothly, build business, and create revenue?

The obvious answer is to increase your manpower. But hiring staff is not always an easy or affordable proposition for the small business owner. Fortunately, there's an outsourcing alternative - Virtual Assistance.

Virtual Assistants provide office support on an independent contractor basis. They primarily serve small to mid-sized businesses who have smaller workloads, need only occasional help, or who don't have the budget or space for in-house office staff, much less the time to train and manage them.

A Virtual Assistant (VA) works from their own fully-equipped office utilizing computers and other technology to deliver their services and communicate with clients.

They provide just about any secretarial service you can think of: word processing, transcription, data-entry, database management, spreadsheet creation, proofreading – you name it.

Many VAs offer additional specialties such as bookkeeping, web design, desktop publishing, writing and legal support services.

The savings can be huge compared to the cost of an actual employee because there are no payroll taxes or benefits to pay, and no extra office space or equipment needs.

Not to mention that not all employee time is productive (think breaks, sick leave, vacations and other downtime). With Virtual Assistance, clients pay only for


the time the VA spends working on their behalf.

That's 100% productive time; you can't get more efficient than that!

The Virtual Assistance profession has been around well over 10 years now, and has its own industry associations and certification programs.

Virtual Assistants operate their businesses as professional service providers. They come from a variety of business backgrounds, but the common denominator is that they are typically overachievers with extensive administrative experience and superior skill sets and training.

Virtual Assistants are not temps. They are highly-skilled entrepreneurs who love what they do and in business to provide consistently top-quality work to clients to whom they are committed.

Virtual Assistants are commonly interested in establishing long-term partnerships with their clients. As the VA learns about the owner and his or her business, supporting the client becomes more intuitive.

The ideal is to achieve a very simpatico working relationship where the VA's support not only instills more efficiency and productivity, but is key to helping the client create more time to concentrate on the roles they love most while growing their business successfully.

Although Virtual Assistants are able to serve clients from anywhere in the world, you can find a VA near you by referencing your local Chamber of Commerce directory, or searching the Internet using keywords Virtual Assistant or Virtual Assistance + your city or state.

There is also a great Virtual Assistant directory sorted by country and state located at:

http://www.mediamage.com/links/pages/United_States/

About the Author

ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Danielle Keister is owner of The Relief, a virtual assistance practice in Tacoma WA that has been delivering expert office support to small businesses since 1997. Ms. Keister has over 20 years administrative management experience in both the private and public business sectors. Her areas of expertise also include bookkeeping, desktop publishing and web design. For more information, visit http://www.TheRelief.com

 

Internal Revenue Service
The US government agency responsible for tax collection and tax law enforcement. Includes income tax forms, instructions, and agency publications.
www.irs.gov
 
Tax Information for Individuals
Access to useful information, booklets and other tools from the Internal Revenue Service.
www.irs.gov
 
Tax Center - Yahoo! Finance - Tax forms, tips and calculators.
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tax.yahoo.com
 
Taxes: Tax Planning, Tools and Advice - MSN Money
Microsoft's Tax Preparation site, in association with Tax Server.
moneycentral.msn.com
 
Tax - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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H&R Block | Taxes, Online Tax Preparation, Tax Software, Filing ...
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Taxes - Tax News for Home and Business from CNNMoney
The latest in tax law updates, news, forms & advice from CNNMoney.com. Includes a refund savings calculator, and interactive tax lessons.
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The Tax Foundation - Educating Taxpayers Since 1937
Devoted to educating taxpayers about tax policy and the total tax burden borne by Americans at all levels of government.
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Welcome to the Vermont Department of Taxes... ... Changes to Property Tax Adjustments in 2007 - updated 10/18. - Tax Expenditures Transition Report on ...
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Franchise Tax Board Homepage
The department that collects state personal income taxes and bank and corporation taxes for the State of California. Access to forms and tax information.
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HM Revenue & Customs: Home Page
News and information on tax and national insurance, including downloadable leaflets and forms and the latest news on filing tax returns on-line.
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