Gaynor Paynter — Virtual Assistants In South Africa

Once more, it is what's involved and another special guest. We were hoping for two special guests. We got one this time though. Who am I going to be talking to tonight? I'm going to be talking to Gaynor Painter. Hello Gaynor, how are you? - Hi David, I'm well thanks, how are you? - Good, thank you. My goodness, have we tried to get this interview done, hey? Since last year, but fortunately or unfortunately, our sort of lockdown situation hasn't changed that much. So still very relevant in terms of what we're going to be talking about. And what we're going to be talking about is this whole concept of VAs or virtual assistants. I first came across this a little while ago and I thought, sounds great, but most of the people that I'd heard of that we're using VAs, we're using VAs out of the country, in other countries, et cetera, et cetera. I didn't even know that we had something like that running in this country. So before we get into what you currently are doing, tell me a little bit about Gaynor. Give me some of your history, your background. - Okay, great. Basically, I started off doing a secretarial diploma in the late 90s. I always wanted to sort of run my own business and all that, but we didn't have the internet capability.

So, but I did a secretarial diploma, but I got a few years of working experience behind me. And then sort of 2005, we were starting to catch up with internet and all of that. And I decided to start my own virtual assistant business. So, and we've been going since then. And yeah, basically, well, I like to say, we worked from home before it was cool for everybody to work from home. So, yeah. - How things have changed. Gaynor, what is the name of the business? - Typewrite Transcription and Typing Services CC. That's the full name. I just go by Typewrite Transcription though. - Okay, now, when you say Typewrite Transcription, is that the main focus of what you do? - Yeah, you know, what happened with me was, I started off with a very broad spectrum of work that I did. And I found it the main area of work that I got was transcribing. So that's where I sort of specialized, but I do do other things, typing, I do proofreading, I do editing. That's basically any sort of virtual admin work that can be done. But the bulk of my work is for students, for anyone, new meetings to be transcribed, that sort of thing. - Is that, I mean, is there a lot of work like that out there or are you the only one doing it?

Are there many people? 'Cause I know you founded an organization, which we'll chat about in a little while with Alison Farie as well. Is there work for virtual assistants here in South Africa? - There is work, there's a lot of us doing it in the pandemic, more people are doing it. One has to try and move with the time. So there's a lot of software that comes along with people can use now. But as I say, we do, there's a lot of student work because students are basically pretty too busy to do it themselves. Student work for small businesses, people who will record their corporate meetings, corporate funds, I don't necessarily do bookkeeping, but there's a lot of bookkeeping work for people. Anything almost that doesn't have to be done in an office, we can do. So during lockdown, we did backflip it because the economy is sort of shut down quite a lot. But basically we can provide a service to any business or almost any individual. So there is definitely work. - Brilliant stuff. Now talk to me, 'cause I know that you've been doing this for a number of years, you've been consistently busy with it, but then you founded an organization, didn't you? - Yes, Alison Farie, Alison is from AMF typing.

She wanted to be here today and unfortunately she couldn't make it. She's been in the field even longer than me since I think 2001. So I knew of her right from the start. And basically we realized that when we started, there wasn't a lot of support.

It's quite lonely. You can be quite lonely working in your own office with nobody to ask for assistance and anything like that. So yeah, I think it was 2008 we started Tivasa, which is the transcriptionists and virtual assistants of South Africa. So that's been going, you know, that's pretty good. People will come and just ask us or ask each other, you know, advice on a daily basis and give advice. So it was basically started just to let other people have a less lonely frustrating road than we had starting out, you know, in South Africa. - Okay, now with this, is it a membership sort of a group? You pay a membership fee, a monthly or a yearly fee? - You know, we don't charge a fee. A lot of other places do, but because we run it very simply sort of on WhatsApp and you know, ask other members to give input where they can. So, you know, we started off on sort of a Yahoo forum. We got a website, you know, then it will sort of as changes happened, you know, went through to an email support forum and now we're on WhatsApp. So, but we don't charge anything. So anyone can basically just send me their number and ask to be added to it and that's how we go. - I was actually quite amazed about WhatsApp and how WhatsApp gets used for business these days.

I came across a lady the other day, she grows and sells orchids and her entire business is run via WhatsApp. It was absolutely amazing to see that she was doing that. It's something that did never cross my mind. You know, I was still sort of reeling from the shock of everybody going, we're going off WhatsApp now and we're gonna be doing this, that and the next thing. So anybody who's worried about WhatsApp, I'm gonna have in the next little while, I'm gonna have a guy by the name of Ross Saunders on the show. Now, Ross is a internet and daughter security fundee and I'm going to put all of those questions to him. But now again, the kind of people that would join up with to Varsa, what sort of scope is there? I mean, you mentioned, and I'm trying to get my head around this is like, if you've got any sort of secretarial skills and I'm thinking now, I have a friend of mine who was up until quite recently, like an executive PA now no longer has a job. And she was actually asking me about this whole idea of being a virtual assistant.

What is the scope of work that people who are virtual assistants do?

- Yeah, basically, if you know, any industry can work virtually, almost any industry can work virtually at the moment, but from our side is basically, we call ourselves business services. So we offer business service support, almost anything. We can do social media management, we can do website copy, we can do editing, typing, basically proofreading. I mean, one of my latest clients that I've picked up, they record their meetings, but they don't want transcripts. So we turn it into minutes, so it saves the person almost sitting in the meeting or you can do that via Zoom now, so which most of them do. So yeah, anything, as I said, what I did was I did an N5 secretarial diploma and basically learned to type. So I think almost one of what I do recommend is people learn to type properly, not the sort of two-finger typing most people do nowadays, but yeah. - I'm laughing because that's what I do. I've heard it referred to as hunt and peck, which is what I do. - Yeah, yeah. - And I'm very fast, but I could certainly not keep up with somebody talking to me and typing at the same time. - Yeah, I think traditionally learning to type with the quirt keyboard and all that is gonna give you a good background, you know, a good solid way to get started.

And so I think that's what most people, if they wanna start out in our kind of business, I would recommend doing some sort of secretarial course that includes typing. But yeah, what's nice about it obviously is there's not really much of an overhead. Most people nowadays already have good internet and a computer and that kind of thing and a laptop. You don't have to have a big capital outlay. Obviously that's a big benefit. And that's how we benefit businesses is there's no overhead. So they pay for the job or whatever. And we pay for our own electricity and coffee and everything else, you know. So, and no traveling is an advantage I think. So yeah. - Yeah, absolutely. - Yeah, especially now during COVID, you know, we can prevent interaction and prevent exposures and that kind of thing too. So I think it's win-win. - Yeah, wonderful stuff. My special guest is Gaynor Painter. She is from Type Right Transcriptions and they do VA, virtual assistant stuff. She's also one of the founders of Tivasa. When we come back, I'll be finding out Gaynor touched on some of the bits and pieces that we need. But when we come back, I'm gonna find out the other bits and pieces that we might need. If you're thinking of maybe becoming a virtual assistant, getting involved in that.

This is what's involved. We'll be back in just a bit. And we're back with my special guest, Gaynor Painter. And we're talking about virtual assistants. Now, Gaynor, just before the break, we mentioned that, you know, most people these days have a good internet connection or a fairly decent internet connection and a laptop. What else would you need if you wanted to set yourself up as a virtual assistant? - Maybe just a quiet space, you know, it's obviously better to have your own place that you can call an office, you know. And I don't really recommend working in your lounge or in your bedroom or something. Or unless you, you know, if you've got kids around or dogs around or what have you, you know. So that we do have quite a professional sort of appearance, you know. And I think, you know, there's just too many distractions if you've got everybody else going in and out. But so that's, I think that's about, you know, that's about what we do. And the first thing I would say is a person needs to set up a website, you know, or that you can direct people to. And now there's Facebook pages, Twitter accounts, that kind of thing. Market yourself, daily marketing is important. I think one does have to think out of the box because I'll be honest, we've struggled a little bit during lockdown that I think everybody did in South Africa.

So I'm hoping now that the restrictions are lifting again, that the market will open up a bit more. But of course, the nice thing about us is we can market internationally. We could work, you know, I've got American, British clients, Australian, but they're almost as close to me as anybody in Cape Town or Santin is, you know, because there's just a click of a button, you know. So I think that's basically what one would need to get to set up. - Okay, yeah, so it stands to reason. I mean, a website would be a good thing to have. Maybe if you've got some references, that kind of thing, get some social media, can't set up. Obviously, software would be important depending on what you were doing because you might be asked to, I don't know, help with somebody's newsletters or something like that. - Yeah. - Is this something, though, that Tivasa could help me with? Let's say I'm now sitting here and I'm thinking, I have to do something to make money. So many people have lost their jobs or been laid off or whatever the case may be. Is this something where I could go to you guys as Tivasa and say, hello, this is what I want to do. Please help me. - Yeah, we can give advice, you know, as maybe hard to market, what sort of things you'd need to set up, what maybe, what kind of equipment that you'd get.

And what's nice is we have people of all ages. So, you know, I don't know about you, but I'm sort of 45 and I tend to get, it's hard to keep up with these things, you know. So we can go on there and then somebody can say, but, you know, try this, do that, you know. So definitely it's a good place to ask a question. - Okay, now, just talking about this in terms of this, you know, 'cause the idea of working from home sounds absolutely wonderful and everybody loves it. I've also been working from home and from a home office since way before it became cool to do so, but what are you, what working hours? I mean, you mentioned that you've got clients in the States and in Australia, that's different time zones. I mean, are you expected to, do you keep strict office hours? - I don't, I think it's a matter of kind of discipline. One of, you know, I do tend to get a little bit overexcited and then I turn it on and look at the clock and it's really late and I think I already got it bad. But one does need to maybe try and have a little bit of self-discipline, you know, but you can, you know, for my work, most of it is not like overnight work. So, you know, I can, even if they're in America, I'll still have a sort of a couple of days to get the work back, you know.

But some people do, you know, literally they're working for American companies. So they would need to shift their hours, you know, to maybe we would probably call it like a night shift, you know, but they would sort of be working American hours and then taking the rest of the time or for sleeping or whatever. So it's an adjustment, but I think that's also one of the nice things about us is we do have that option to be able to say which hours we can work. I find most of us tend to work a lot of hours, which is, you know, I always say what you put in is what you get out. I think I'm getting to the stage where I'm sort of limiting myself to an eight-hour day now. So, yeah. But then again, you can sort of have people that you can sort of, they hold you kind of accountable, you know, to help with self-discipline. - No, Daniel, in terms of this, if you're setting up something and let's take something that you do quite a lot of, which is transcriptions, is it generally something that is charged for by the hour? Do you charge by the word? How does the pricing work there? - I charge per audio hour. So if you have a sort of a 60-minute file, I'll give you a set rate. I like doing it that way because then I can sort of, before the job starts, I can quote and I can give you the exact amount that you're gonna pay.

There's no sort of set standard or set rule. So some people do charge per page or per audio minute. What I like to tell people is, you know, if you were in an office, you would sort of work out, I need to earn maybe a hundred rand or 200 rand an hour. So you work out quite based on how long the job will take you and so that you don't shortchange yourself and overcharge. But for myself, I like to keep it simple by telling the person this is what you're gonna pay before I start the job, you know? So some people say, like, some people speak faster, some people speak slower, so they wanna charge different rates. But to me, it all sort of comes out in the wash. So yeah, that's what I do to try and provide clarity. - Wonderful stuff. My special guest is Gaynor Painter from Typewrite Transcriptions, also one of the founders of TIVASA, which is the Typing and Virtual Assistant Association of South Africa. Did I get it right? - Yeah, yes. - Wonderful stuff. We're gonna come back and then gonna charge a little bit more with Gaynor. And I wanna find out a bit about what else she's done 'cause I believe there's an ebook or something, but we'll talk about that when we come back. This is what's involved.

My special guest is Gaynor Painter. We will be back in just a bit. And we're back with my special guest. What's involved it is, Gaynor Painter joining me. So Gaynor, if somebody needs to get hold of you, we're gonna get into that. But before that, you've written a book, an ebook, haven't you, with some hints and tips, et cetera, et cetera? - Yes, yes, I did. Yeah, sort of quite early on in my career, right? And then every year or two, I updated it. So it's basically my story or I wrote down what I, the journey that I've taken to start my business, sort of how to do marketing, how to start the business, how to sort of manage the challenges that we have, how to deal with clients. So yeah, it's quite an inclusive book that might provide support to transcribers. And I know Alison Furry has also got a book whose focus is more on the virtual assistant sort of typing side. So yeah, there are those books available for anybody who would need that kind of support. - Now, where would we get those books from? Is there a website we can go to? - Yes, mine is on my website, which is www.typewritestranscription.co.za. And Alison's is on hers, which is www.amftyping.co.za.

And obviously one could just drop us an email or a WhatsApp. - All righty. And all those books, is that a paid book or is it a free resource? - Mine, they're paid, but they're on quite big specials at the moment because of COVID, I basically marked mine down to what I first started charging in 2009. So there's something like 90 rand, so. - Oh, that's not bad. That's not bad. - Yeah. - Okay. Now, with this work that you're doing, et cetera, et cetera, you've written a book. I also saw a very interesting website that you've done bits and pieces on. You're a bit of a follower of music, if I'm not mistaken. - Absolutely, yeah, it's my second passion, yeah, absolutely. Music, TV, movies, everything that's kind of exciting out there. So I definitely am. - Talk to me a little bit about that because I've found that quite interesting as well. - That's okay, it's called "Tweak the Golden Thread." And basically I had a little bit of a sort of difficult past and what I would find was that I would turn to my movies, my TV, my music, to sort of lean on to get through things. And I don't know if anyone can relate to that. And so what I did was I started a website that would sort of celebrate the people or the industries that had like, you know, touched it.

"Tweak the Golden Thread" is basically based on a concept. It was John Ritter, the TV actor, who said that he would like to be remembered as someone who tweaked the golden thread. So he would like touch people through races, generations, years. And so that's the way the concept is around that. I like to interview people and chat to people, actors, and honestly, the acting, the entertainment industry is really struggling right now. So I think they need all the support they can get. But those are the people, you know, that you, you know, everyone's got their favorite TV show that they, you know, remember. And those things are just help, they help keep us sane, I think. So that's what that's about in quite a bit of nutshell. - Now, John Ritter, he was with the one TV series I remember of his was "Threest Company," if I'm not mistaken. - Yes, yes, absolutely, yeah. - Which was brilliant. So now, on their tweak the golden thread, have you interviewed anybody recently or not so much? - I haven't too recently, but, you know, I have interviewed people like, you know, a guy from Brother Beyond for the music, one of the stars from "Threest Company" is on there. And a lot of theater people, Godfrey Johnson is a wonderful entertainer.

So he features on there quite a lot. You know, there's a lot of theater stuff in there. Unfortunately, theater is pretty quiet at the moment, but I did a lot of support work for Collette Dawson from the CoLab Network. So, you know, all of the productions that she's done feature on there. And, you know, so anybody who wants to see anything about the theater industry can hop on to there. - Wonderful stuff. So truly, that's a passion project for you. But I want to issue you with a bit of a challenge because I've heard you talking and I've seen what you can do and I've seen you on social media and LinkedIn, and you're very active in those environments. But now we're recording a show. What's involved? - Yes, absolutely. - I've seen you the audio of the show. Would you then be able to put it into words for me? - Absolutely. I've done quite a number of shows for other presenters. So yeah, absolutely. It's my specialty. - Oh, lovely. Okay. Because I'm noticing more and more people that have been asking me about the podcast is, we love listening to it. It's great. But, you know, do you have show notes? And I'm like, what? No, I don't. And people ask me about transcriptions and all sorts of things.

And I really don't 'cause it's something I'd never thought about. But I'm seeing in the States that it's getting to be quite a thing now to have your transcriptions along with your show. - Very much so. And yes, I will happily provide a transcript of the show for you so you can show it off to people with pleasure. - Wonderful stuff. I'm looking forward to that one. I'm really, really, oh, put your false teeth back in, David. I'm really sorry that Ellie couldn't join us. But some amazing work. If we need to get hold of Tovasa, what do we do? How do we go about that, Gaynal? - I think for now, the best way is most probably to send me a WhatsApp. So I can give my number. It's 083. - Yeah. - 442. - 442, yeah. - 4689. - 4689. So that's the WhatsApp number, hey? - Yeah. - And then you'll give them all the other details and all the other bits and pieces. If somebody wants to get hold of you specifically, Gaynal, maybe they've got some work in mind or just wanna ask you some questions, same number? - Same number, yeah. - Wonderful stuff. Well, we're reaching the end of this particular edition of what's involved in this chat. Gaynal, plans for you now that the country's opening up a bit. Are you planning on expanding, getting into different markets?

What are you looking at doing? - I am. What's nice about this period, if there's anything nice about COVID, is that so many people have now discovered that virtual work is a thing, you know? So a lot of companies, international companies, or people are working remotely. So I'm doing quite a lot of international marketing because, as I said, it doesn't matter where we are, basically, as long as you've got a, I like to tell people I've got a good power backup and good internet. And so we're using LinkedIn quite a lot in the South African market. I would sort of almost like to say to South African companies, be aware of us in South Africa, rather than maybe automatically going to international providers. We are here and we'd love for South Africans to support us, which they have obviously been, but even more so would be great because one needs to build the local market just as much as anywhere else. So yeah, we would love for more South African support. But yeah, as with any business, one needs to be versatile to survive. So yeah, we were opening, especially to international and different industries. And basically everybody is welcome to come along. - Wonderful stuff. Yeah, I mean, when I was first researching this, I saw there was a lot of people, and a lot of the stuff was getting sent out to Indonesia and places like that.

And that's great, that's good and well, but that's not necessarily where English is the first language, which can be a bit of a challenge. And also I think in South Africa, because we've got so many different official languages, some of the VAs are able to translate, et cetera, et cetera. So give it a go, just get hold of Gaynor. Gaynor, is there a single email address? 'Cause a lot of people find email easier before I let you go. - Yeah, Gaynor, so it's G-A-Y-N-O-R at typewritetranscription.co.za. So T-Y-P-E-W-R-I-T-E transcription, T-R-A-N-S-C-R-I-P-T-R-O-N, that's G-A-Y-T-Z-A. It's a bit of a mouthful. - Wonderful, Gaynor at typewritetranscription.co.za. Gaynor Painter, thank you so much for taking the time out to have a chat to us, and we wish you all the best going forward. - Thank you very much, David. Thank you, I appreciate the opportunity. - There we go, that was my special guest, Gaynor Painter from typewritetranscription. Talking VA Virtual Assistance wraps it up for us for this edition of "What's Involved" to each and every one of you. Stay safe and thank you for listening.