I don’t live in Melbourne, can we work together?

Yes! With phone, email and video calls at our fingertips, distance is no obstacle. If you’re in a different time zone we can easily find a mutually suitable time to chat.

Will you sign a confidentiality agreement?

Absolutely. I don’t believe it’s necessary because I will always respect the confidentiality of your business and clients, but I am more than happy to sign one if you wish.

What hours do you work?

Most of them! But generally I work weekdays between 10am and 4pm (AEST/AEDT). We can also talk at other times by arrangement. Urgent work and/or weekend work will incur an additional fee.

What are your payment terms?

An invoice will be issued at the time we agree on the work to be done. Payment is requested within 5 days of receipt of invoice. Payment can be made via direct deposit or using Stripe.

How much do you charge?

Packages and projects are customised depending on your needs and will therefore vary. However generally speaking, business support retainers start at $850 +GST per month, online course support starts at $1250 +GST, and copyediting is 2c +GST per word. 

What is a virtual assistant? Is that what you do?

A virtual assistant, in simplest terms, is an independent contractor and can either offer general admin support or be specialised in particular skills and tasks. Also known as a VA, they can undertake a variety of tasks to assist you in running your business.

What we do at The Melbourne Freelancer is so much more than general virtual assistance – Tahlia specialises in online business management, online course support, and document design and creation. She is more like a virtual business partner and will help you build out a strategy to achieve your goals, implement the key tasks needed to bring that strategy to life, and keep you accountable to your vision.

Why do I need to outsource? I can already do everything myself.

Just because you can do it all yourself doesn’t mean you have to. When you bring virtual support onto your team, you will free up your time and brain space to get back to doing what it is you most enjoy about your work.

I’m reluctant to give you access to my website/email/bookkeeping/Facebook account. How do I know I can trust you?

We treat your business as our own, which means we will only ever act in your best interests. Providing us with backend access to everything is the most efficient way to allow us to work on your behalf but that doesn’t mean you have to hand out your passwords – we use Lastpass to securely share sensitive information.

When it comes to your website and social media presence, we will never post anything without your approval, and we will never post anything we wouldn’t also publish under our own names.

Why do you use a retainer system?

It guarantees you a certain amount of support each month and it allows me to plan my time, ensuring that I am assisting each client as effectively as possible.

Why don’t you charge an hourly rate?

When you work with Tahlia and The Melbourne Freelancer team you’re getting so much more than our time – you get a wealth of knowledge and experience wrapped up in a motivated and efficient bundle. Plus, Tahlia is so invested in the success of your projects that you’ll often catch her mulling things over while washing the dishes or out for a walk, and you can’t capture that on a timesheet.

That said, there will be times when an hourly rate is the most appropriate option – in that case, it’s $85 +GST per hour (AUD).

You don’t have experience with (insert your favourite software here). So we’re not the right fit, right?

Wrong! A lot of software and online tools are pretty similar so chances are, even if I haven’t used the specific software you have in mind, I’ll be able to pick it up pretty quickly. Also #nerdalert, I LOVE the opportunity to learn something new! 

What’s the difference between copyediting and proofreading?

Proofreading is basically checking the finished book for minor mistakes – typos, spacing errors, that kind of thing. Copyediting is more in depth and will consider style, tone, consistency, clarity, punctuation, and so on.

Our service rolls both into one, because that’s just how we roll.

Why do you charge per word, not per hour?

Everyone’s writing is different and each piece will require a different level of editing. Charging per word allows you to know exactly how much you’re up for, cost-wise, from the outset.

Do you include fact-checking?

No. If you’ve included something we already know about and we think it doesn’t sound right, we’ll probably look it up to satisfy our own curiosity. But as a matter of course we will not be checking things that you’ve included and will assume they are correct.

If you require in-depth fact-checking let us know when we start and we can provide a quote for the additional service.

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