This Month’s Spotlight!
Tracey Turavani

Have you ever noticed, how when you do something well – you don’t mind doing it?

Let’s use cooking as an example – Let’s say you are a good cook who loves cooking. You might check out recipes, and experimenting with new foods or ideas. You gain pleasure in your cooking and in others enjoying your cooking. You cook often and you have all the tools you need to complete your recipes and if you don’t, you don’t have an issue going to get the tools you need.

Now on the contrary – Say you dislike cooking; some might say you are bad at cooking. This would be
something you might try to avoid whenever you can. Learning about cooking is the last thing you would
want to do in your free time and collecting tools to cook, why bother?

Now to put this into the context of your business when talking about office administration:

  • Is office administration something you enjoy doing?
  • Is office administration something you are good at?
  • Does performing office administration make you money?
  • Would you make more money doing what you do best: Selling your products or service, coming
    up with new ideas for your business, or maybe just enjoying more free time?
Sensible Office Services
Phone: 905 341 3982
E-Mail: Tracy Turavani
Website: SensibleOfficeServices.com

At Sensible Office Services I focus on providing business-to-business administrative support to those who don’t have administrative skills and/or have neither the time nor the desire to learn new skills. I allow business professionals to focus on what they do best.
I am what is called a Virtual Assistant. I am an independent contractor who provides administrative services to clients while operating outside of the client's office. I work from my own office, with all my own equipment and software. With the ubiquity of the internet, email and now cloud based applications and storage sites, my clientele can be anywhere in the world, although I do prefer Canadian based businesses primarily for tax reasons.

I have been operating Sensible Office Services since 2006.  Being versatile and ready to learn new skills and industries has enabled me to continue to grow my business over the years.   I have worked for an array of different businesses including Real Estate, Finance, Insurance, Law, Manufacturing, Mortgage Brokers, and Not for Profits to list a few.

Some of the tasks I have been responsible for include data entry, communication management, sales support, document processing, invoicing, generating purchase orders, research, general office management, payroll processing, staffing, and office organization.

Some of my clientele include customers I work with every day.  I am essentially an extension of their business that permits the customer to have a professional image with the illusion of in-office support.  Other clientele are customers I work with once or twice a month; one or two times a year, or the odd one every couple of years.

The advantages for my customers are they get the support they need when they need it.  They only pay for the time they need. 

Here is a breakdown of what a weeks’ worth of work would look with a Virtual Assistant and a full-time employee:

Virtual Assistant (VA)

Based on a 30-hour week

Employee

$1000.00

Wage payment

$1000.00

0.00

Payroll cost

$75.00

0.00

Computer cost / Office Space/ Hydro / Gas

$150.00

0

Breaks / Day for one week

$125.00

0

Vacation Pay for one week

$60.00

0

Cell Phone supplied

$20.00

0

Employee Benefits

$35.00

$1000.00

Total Cost

$1465.00

$110.00

HST ITC

0

$890.00

True cost for VA vs Employee

$1465.00

 

  • These two people would complete the same work at the same time, but the VA cost less to the business overall.
  • The VA would have their own computer equipment, phone, office space etc..
  • There are no employee costs associated with a VA. An employer would need to pay for EI, CPP, and WSIB, for an employee.
  • All services from the VA are 100% tax deductible and as a bonus the employer receives ITC on the HST paid for from a VA.

 The cost savings is approximately $575.00, in one week

Over a year that is a difference of $29,900 

So, if you find yourself overwhelmed and in need of some administrative support – contact me at Tracey@sensibleofficeservices.com or 905.341.3982.  We can discuss your needs and determine how Sensible Office Services can provide the office support that just makes sense.