One of the most common questions I get about how I run my portfolio of businesses is “how do you find time for that”? I have to say that I simply cannot do it alone so I have a team of Virtual Assistants (VAs) working for me.
1. Book Keeping. My team in India keeps all of my books up to date and reconciles everything every month; they produce invoices, account statements and sales tax statements, to be neatly submitted to my accountant.
2. Picture Organization. From time to time, I get a VA to organize all the pictures or videos of a trip and compile them into a physical album or video that I give it to members of my family. Great stuff!
3. Business Plans. I always run my own proformas when I invest in real estate or a business. However, it never hurts to pay someone to do the same analysis to double check my work. This is probably the most expensive expertise that I hire, but the value is definitely there.
4. Marketing Materials. I’m not that good at creating professional pdf files. Outsourcing this to artistic people is just great.
5. Copy Writing/Editing. Someone to go through my written word and make sure I write good 😉. (This blog post has been written by me but reviewed!)
6. Research. Sometimes I simply need research done like all of the properties in a neighbourhood that meet my criteria, or the best places to go when I am planning a trip to St Lucia.
7. Web Sites. This VA helps me setup my web sites on the proper hosting facility. Otherwise I would spend days trying to figure it out.
8. Search Engine Optimization. The ever-changing search engine algorithms need to be finely tuned so you show up where you need to.
And the holy grail:
9. General Virtual Assistant. I can (and will) write a separate blog post on this person. The GVA manages all of the other VA’s and acts as my Executive Assistant. I’ve tried (failed) many times to get offshore people for this role. Just recently, I reached out to someone local and I am trying this out. This person will be my “Person Friday” who will be able to coordinate all of the day to day operations while I do what I am best at and what I enjoy most.
VA’s are an amazing way to scale my business. It is a great feeling to go to sleep having assigned someone a task or two and wake up, see it is done.
There are a lot of advantages and also pitfalls, which I will describe in another post. If you cannot wait or you just want more information, read the following books. They are fantastic.
Virtual Freedom by Chris Drucker The A-Z Guide of Virtual Assistance.
The 4-Hour Workweek by Tim Ferris How to increase your efficiency 10x.
I have used these sites to Hire VA’s:
https://www.upwork.com
Very good site that has 1000’s of Virtual Assistants from all over the world. Although the amount of money Upwork keeps is quite high I have been satisfied with their performance.
https://www.fiverr.com
This is really good if you want something done “for 5 bucks”. Over the years they have evolved and have higher paid gigs.
https://www.toptal.com
This is a self-proclaimed service that claims to have “higher quality” VA’s. It is my understanding that VA’s here keep more of the funds that you spend on hiring them.
Nothing beats action. 3 Steps and $5 to Hire a Virtual Assistant.
1. Identify a very small project. (Research a vacation destination, or compare two credit cards you are considering.)
2. Define your project. (Write a paragraph about exactly what the deliverable is.)
3. Hire a VA on Fiverr.com to execute it.
In case you can’t think of a $5 Project:
- Design a Business Card
- Edit a Picture
- Write an email
- Research a Topic
- Update Resume
Good Luck, and let me know how it works out!
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