Outsourcing Your Business To Virtual Assistants »

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…

1. Write down the tasks that you’re currently doing yourself in your business throughout the day/week.
2. Write down how many hours you spend on each task every week/month.
3. 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).

4. 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”.
5. IF you like the VA, stay with them and increase the hours as needed
6. 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.