About
Susan M. Totman, Master Virtual Assistant, is a work-at-home Mom of 4 and Grammy of 1. Susan has worked in office support and administration for over 20 years in primarily the legal, non-profit and automotive arenas, has worked part-time from home as a virtual assistant since 1987 (though at the time it was not called “virtual assistant”, but “home-based secretary”) and opened Elite Office Support in 1999 as a full-time virtual assistant. She is a Certified Master Virtual Assistant as well as professional web designer and developer and has been a Notary Public for 21 years.
Susan is a mentor for budding virtual business owners and devotes a great deal of time to helping virtual assistants and small business owners in general to start and develop their businesses as well as offering affordable and sometimes free workshops to people considering starting their own virtual business. She takes on one business startup per year to assist them in setting up their virtual office business. These businesses are chosen randomly based upon a desire to succeed and the need for assistance.
Susan has written many articles on the virtual profession and business in general, the most popular of which was entitled, Cultural Differences—Making it Work Virtually: Some Common Sense Rules of Etiquette, which has been widely published on the web and was inspired by cultural differences arising within the virtual assistance arena.
In 2002, Susan developed a business startup e-course with her business partner, Janice Kalyniuk of Australia, to help people interested in virtual business that were on a restricted budget get started.
Susan has also developed a series of forms and templates e-books for several types of small businesses that she has experience working in, called the Elite Small Business Essentials Series. These e-books contain forms, templates, sample documents and worldwide small business resources and links to help jumpstart small businesses starting out.
Susan continues to spend a considerable amount of time and effort working to bring about recognition and find ways to promote the industry. Her virtual assistant portal & directory, EliteOfficeSupport.com is now a free searchable listing for virtual assistants worldwide. Susan thought a virtual business directory with other promotional resources seemed like a terrific opportunity to promote the industry and help boost business for fellow VAs and offers many other services and tools for members to help build their businesses.
Civic Activities
- Volunteer for Adopt A US Soldier , a 501(c)3 organization devoted to supporting all deployed US soldiers around the world.
- Troop leader for Girl Scouts of America.
- Pro bono website development for non-profit organizations (on a very selective basis and as time allows)
To learn more about web development options for your company or organization, please visit: www.elitewebstudio.com.
Articles
Cultural Differences - Making it Work Virtually