Outsourcing Your Business To Virtual Assistants
Tags: Entrepreneur, finding virtual assistants, how to find virtual assistants, Internet Marketing, Marketing, virtual assistants
Posted by Trevor on October 9th, 2008
I’m settling into my “new morning routine” of waking up early (tough to do when you’re a lone ranger internet marketer) and getting crap done early in the morning… it makes me feel better when I get up early… but it’s tough to create a new routine for pretty much anything in your life.
Anyhow, as I’m writing this this morning… I’m getting work done on my business… without actually having to do the things myself. My Virtual Assistant is taking care of things for me.
You see… three months ago I had a breaking point in my online business. I was spinning my wheels and pretty much getting nothing done everyday… but I was working hard as heck at it. You know the gig. You do EVERYTHING in your business… you find yourself buried in your computer for hours on end hacking your way through html, submitting articles and social bookmarks, etc.
The “busy work”.
Then… once I started to actually make some good money online (away from my offline marketing consulting)… I decided that something had to change… and what had to change was TAKING ME out of MY BUSINESS.
I Was Hurting My Own Business and Progress
So, here’s what I did.
Nothing special… crazy new… nothing like that.
I just took the advice that people were giving me for months on end and buckled up and finally hired my first virtual assistant.
Just like with anything… the first month is pretty much a wash as far as having the work my VA did for me actually take time off my hands. The first month you have to train your VA, write up the processes for things you want them to do, and on and on.
But…
Once you get past that first month or two… and your VA passes the test… you’re on your way to being a REAL ENTREPRENEUR and having that entrepreneur lifestyle.
What I Outsource Right Now
Right now, I admit that I still suck at really handing off everything I should to my Virtual Assistant… just haven’t cut the umbilical cord on everything yet.
But, here’s what I have my own VA doing for me:
- Article posting
- Social bookmarking
- Editing videos
- Submitting videos to video sharing sites
- Creating podcasts and editing the podcasts
- etc.
Really… I want to start handing off even more tasks… I guess I just need to buckle down and really think of the things in my business that AREN’T FUN. Truly… if you’re an entrepreneur you should be doing it because you enjoy doing it. So, anything you don’t think is fun should be outsourced. Period.
How To Know What To Outsource Yourself
Here’s what you need to do…
- Write down the tasks that you’re currently doing yourself in your business throughout the day/week.
- Write down how many hours you spend on each task every week/month.
- Write down what you hope to make in income in the next 12 months… then divide that by 12… then by 30… then by 8 (basically compute your hourly income based on what you hope to make in the next 12 months). For instance, if you hope to make $100,000 over the next 12 months… your hourly worth (figuring 8 hours a day… which is WAAAYYY to many hours to work a day
is $34/hr.That’s the number that you value your own ti
me at. Anything that you can hire someone for less than that # should seriously be considered to be outsourced (for like $5 $10 an hour to a VA).
- Then, take the 2 tasks that are taking up a ton of your time but worth the least to you as far as your time value. Find a virtual assistant, draw up a process map for them to follow to complete those two tasks for you… and hire the VA for a couple weeks as a “trial run”.
- IF you like the VA, stay with them and increase the hours as needed
- If you don’t like the VA, keep looking until you find one that is great!
It’s really that simple.
Here Are Some Websites To Find Great Virtual Assistants
- www.elance.com (bid type site)
- www.guru.com (bid type site)
- www.agentsofvalue.com (great company according to a friend of mine. They’re based in the Philippines and charge about $5-$8 an hour)
- www.teamdoubleclick.com (mostly based in the U.S… charge between $15-$30 an hour)
I found my current virtual assistant simply by typing in the type of VA I was looking for in Google.
At the time I was looking for a virtual assistant to do audio/video type stuff. So I went to google and typed in “multimedia virtual assistants”… scrolled through a few sites… interviewed a few people… and went with the one that I felt the most comfortable with.
Really there’s no science to this. You just need to buckle down and make the decision that you’re going to find a virtual assistant for x number of hours a week and run a week or two trial until you find a VA you like. Spend the $100 it takes to hire a VA for a few projects and get after it.
Do what you love to do and what you think is fun… have someone else do the other stuff… that’s what being an entrepreneur is all about… it’s not about doing everything you can in your biz. Sound good?
Let me know your thoughts and questions.
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Friday, October 10th, 2008 at 2:44 am
I’ll take it to the next level:
People should only do what they do best, *and* love to do. Everything else should be delegated. And to get the most from that, it really makes the most sense to not try to outsource tasks, but look for a Virtual Assistant who can become your right hand person. There’s so much more power in the relationship with an assistant like that than there will ever be with a task-based inexpensive outsourcer
Friday, October 10th, 2008 at 4:19 am
Hey Stacy,
Thanks for chiming in!
You know what… I totally agree. If someone simply uses a virtual assistant for “tasks”… then basically the entrepreneur is still not free from the “minutia” of their business… rather than doing the tasks they are just “managing” the tasks and the VA (which isn’t a good thing).
Having the VA become a part of the business is very important rather than just an “outsourcer”… I totally agree w/ you.
Really, there is space for both types of virtual assistant relationships. One virtual assistant can’t do ALL of the work that I don’t like to do… so ideally you would have one main virtual assistant who is your right hand… and several others who specialize in specific tasks who are more task/project oriented. Then the main VA and the entrepreneur can be freed up to really pump out some rockin’ business.
Hey thanks again!
What kind of VA work do you do?
Chat soon,
- Trevor
Friday, October 10th, 2008 at 2:39 pm
Trevor – great post. I love the way you laid out how you went about figuring out what you wanted to outsource to a VA. Many people don’t put that much thought into it, call a potential VA (or post an RFP) requesting services that are vague at best. You truly need to know WHAT you want to outsource before deciding WHO to outsource to.
There are other sources out there to find a GREAT VA. While places like e-lance, guru, etc. are great places to get competitive bids, it’s difficult to forge an ongoing relationship with a VA using those sites. Submitting requests to sites to Virtual Assistant association sites should be considered. Submitting requests to associations such as the International Virtual Assistant Association http://www.ivaa.org or the Virtual Assistant Networking Association http://www.vanetworking.com will give you access to Virtual Assistants who are business owners like you and have made a commitment to their businesses – not just someone who’s looking to make a quick buck on the side.
Monday, October 13th, 2008 at 11:53 pm
Hey Trevor,
Glad you’ve found the joy of working with a competent Virtual Assistant (VA)!
Regarding your comments to Stacy: Stacy is the owner of the best VA training program on the planet; Stacy owns AssistU. Stacy also blogs at Virtual Moxie, of which I’m an avid reader (I love her moxie).
Trevor, if you have a competent VA, you don’t need to have more than one. A relationship oriented VA is your right hand woman, and if you need something done that your VA doesn’t do or you’re giving her more work than she can handle, your VA goes to her rolodex and finds someone to handle the work she doesn’t do or someone to handle the overflow of what you give her to do. Because your VA is your trusted partner, she takes on the role of project manager and keeps an eye on those folks who are handling your overflow and the work she herself doesn’t do. In this way, you’re not managing more than one person.
The VA industry doesn’t recommend finding a VA at the freelance websites. The VAs on those sites work for virtual peanuts, and frequently the quality of their work reflects that. In addition, these VAs are task oriented, which means that you wouldn’t use one of them as your right hand woman. They just want to do tasks as quickly as possible and move on to the next task. Task oriented VAs make their money by quantity of tasks completed so the faster they can do the work, the more money they make. Unlike a relationship VA, task VA don’t take an interest in your business and don’t suggest ways to make your business operate more efficiently or talk to you about new marketing ideas, etc.
If you ever lose your VA, I strongly recommend you go to the AssistU web site to find a new VA. AssistU maintains an RFP (request for proposal) system that helps webpreneurs find qualified VAs.
=>Donna Caissie, Owner & Virtual Assistant
ExtraOrdinary Assistance
dcaissie@extra-assist.com
Thursday, October 30th, 2008 at 4:23 pm
Hey Donna,
Great point… and that’s a mindshift I’ve been making the past month or so. Before I looked at VA’s as a way to get tasks done… but now I’m coming to the realization that a good VA is just like you said… a “right hand man (or woman)”.
Thanks Donna!
– Trevor