Here’s Why I Don’t Have a Full-Time Virtual Assistant
Virtual Assistants, or “VAs” for short, are helping people get more things done each and every day. If you’ve read the 4-Hour Work Week, then you know that Mr. Timothy Ferriss is a huge fan of using VAs for all of the clutter and “the things that I don’t want to waste my time doing in my life” type of stuff. Like many internet marketers and other lifestyle design artists, I’m sure he has several full-time VAs working for him at this very moment.
I, on the other hand, don’t have any full-time VAs. I only hire providers and pay them on a per project basis. I’ll tell you why in a second, but there’s one thing I need to address first.
The topic of hiring VAs is a touchy subject for many, especially when it comes to outsourcing overseas. There are obviously two sides to the argument: on one side, hiring for cheap virtual labor overseas takes potential jobs away from those in the U.S. (or your respective homeland), who may be in need of work. Additionally, the labor can be very inexpensive, almost to the point of being ridiculous and unfair to the eyes of many.
On the other hand, some businesses could not survive with hiring people in the U.S. to do similar tasks that cost much less to accomplish overseas. And at the same time, the low wages that are being offered are actually competitive and comparable to wages in that particular country.
There’s much more to the argument than that, but before I go on, let me just say that this post is not a debate between whether or not hiring virtual assistants, overseas or not, is a good or a bad thing. To tell you the truth, I’ve hired designers and developers here in the U.S., and I’ve hired people overseas as well. I’m just hoping not to start a debate in the comment section of this particular post, but if you must, by all means.
Anyways, back to why I hire VAs only on a per project basis.
There are two mains reasons I do this:
- I don’t want to manage a full-time VA.
- I want to hire the best VA for the specific job I want accomplished.
Managing a Full-Time VA
I know a lot of internet marketers and entrepreneurs who have full time VAs working for them, and they love it. I also know a lot of internet marketers and entrepreneurs who have full time VAs and are struggling to keep them busy.
Managing a full-time VA is tough. If you can get to the point where you’ve setup systems and procedures and your VAs automatically know what to do, then that’s awesome. That will help your business become more passive. Getting there, however, does take a lot of work.
I’ve witnessed many VAs be let go just because the person who hired him or her couldn’t keep up, or simply didn’t have the time to keep them busy. You don’t want to replace the tasks that your have your VA doing with time spent managing your VAs.
For me, I’d rather focus on exactly what I need to focus on, and nothing else. If I have a project that needs to get done (website design, SEO, iphone apps, etc.), then I’ll hire a VA just for that specific project. Once the job is finished (website design is done, I’ve reached a certain ranking in Google, the iPhone apps are finished), then my time with that particular VA is finished as well, and those are terms that are understood by all parties from the beginning.
Yes, I know I could benefit from hiring a full-time VA do “continuous” jobs for me, like article writing, SEO, and things of that nature, but again I’d have to spend time continuously managing their tasks to make sure they are done correctly and on time, as well as spend time managing the finances of the relationship as well. Maybe I could hire someone to manage the VAs, but then who would manage that person?
Specialty VAs
With a Full-Time VA, you’ll often find yourself teaching the VA what you want him or her to do. It can be time consuming, and the fact is that in this case, you’ll rarely find that the VA will go above and beyond what you taught.
When hiring on a per project basis, I know (based on the qualifications, feedback, recommendations and portfolio of the person I hired) that my VA is nearly perfect for the job, and someone who already knows what to do. I’ll obviously have to give that person a scope of work, but I’ve never found myself having to teach someone I hired how to do the thing I hired them to do. That just wouldn’t make sense!
Furthermore, for almost every project I’ve outsourced, the specialty VA I hired has gone above and beyond the scope of work. For example, my website designers for The Smart Passive Income Blog (the incredible team at BlazerSix) did much more than I had originally asked for, especially when it came to the backend of the blog and making my life as the admin for this site much easier for me to handle.
Hiring a VA for a project doesn’t mean you cannot hire them again. If you love what they did for you, there’s no reason why you shouldn’t go back for them, or at least ask if they are available. In many cases, these one-time hires will become your “on-call” business helpers, because they live from project to project and would love to establish a long-lasting business relationship with you.
Before I finish up, I just wanted to remind you that there is no right or wrong way here. Again, this is just how I decided to work with VAs. How you plan to work with VAs is totally up to you.
How do you work with VAs? Have you had good experiences with who you’ve hired?
Thanks for your support. Cheers!
p.s. If you’d like to get automatic updates of new material here on The Smart Passive Income Blog, you can simply subscribe to the RSS feed!
Posted on : March 3rd, 2010
Related posts:
- What’s Stopping You From Using a Virtual Assistant?
- How to Utilize Virtual Staff to Create Multiple Streams of Passive Income
- Ask the Reader: Partial or Full Post in RSS Feed?
- Ask The Readers: Is Outsourcing Irresponsible?
- Ask the Readers: How to Motivate the Unmotivated
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87 Comments (Click Here to Leave a Comment Below)
VAs are terrible! I would never hire one!
VAs are awesome! I use them all the time!
Flame on.
-Erica
LOL – dang Erica! You’re up late! Oh wait, so am I.
Hi Pat,
Yeah, I’ve been up late the past few days. I’m working weird hours because both the developer and the HTML guy for my startup live in Eastern Europe, and I’ve been handing off tasks and making sure everything gets done from 10PM-2AM PST!
I don’t have a full-time VA and don’t see the need for one at this point, but I do outsource tons of stuff, including a fair amount of cooking.
On the topic of outsourcing, I couldn’t believe you spent a week painting your house! And then were so exhausted you couldn’t write…
I’m building a home video studio and quickly realized I wasn’t an expert, so I called one and she’s calling around getting quotes and finding the right stuff. I’m so glad I outsourced that locally.
-Erica
As much as I complained about painting my house, I actually enjoyed doing the work. It’s the artist/architect in me, that likes to see the results of the hard work I put in, especially when I can walk into a nicely painted room and know that I was the one behind it, if that makes sense
Good luck on the home studio! That sounds awesome!
While hiring VAs seems attractive to many entrepreneurs, sometimes the biggest stumbling block is ourselves. We’re so used to doing things on our own, it’s very hard to let go & delegate responsibilities when you have the attitude of “I know how it should be done the best, so I need to do it myself.”
I think the key getting past this psychological barrier is to just accept this fact. In handing off tasks to VAs, you’re likely going to get up to about 95% of your standards. So either you live with this or only give them activities where that extra 5% won’t make much if any difference on your income/business.
Pondering this will make you see how anal retentive you are about things that really don’t matter as long as they’re done. It’s the first step to truly being able to outsource your operation slowly to achieve that “4 hour workweek”.
Well said, Jordan. Thanks for setting it straight for many of us. Indeed, it’s managing ourselves that becomes the biggest issue when it comes to many things that we want to accomplish and achieve, in all aspects of life.
By the way, I watched some of your stand-up comedy on YouTube. Great work man! I really admire comedians and their ability to make people laugh like that.
Thanks again, and all the best.
I think Jordan said it right, too many people think that just because a VA (or anyone else) can’t do the job exactly the same as they can they must not be as good. Sometimes they just do things differently, sometimes they just didn’t understand how you wanted it, sometimes they suck, and sometimes you suck as a communicator.
Yep, totally right. One question though, how easy would it be for a person to tell if the reason things weren’t getting done was because their VA was sucky, or their communication skills were just not there. It’s hard for some to admit the latter, which is probably why many VAs get let go.
Hi Pat,
I’ve been lurking here for a little while and I always enjoy your posts. I’m learning a lot about passive income (have a project in the works) and love the way you share your experiences.
As a VA myself, I appreciate that you took the time to address both sides of the outsourcing issue.
I completely understand why you only hire a VA for a specific project. I also understand why some people hire a “full-time” VA. (overseas or not)
I feel bad for all those “in the middle” who need someone to oversee the hiring of specialized VA’s yet can’t afford to pay on a regular basis just to have that VA at their beck & call.
There are VA companies out there who have a slew of team members versed in all types of skills for people like yourself who don’t always have the time to do a search for just the right one.
Some require you pay a monthly fee just for the privilege of having constant access to their VA pool (which is not cost efficient for new & small businesses).
Some are perfectly happy to have you as a “per project” client on an ongoing basis. Which means you would call on one VA(Proj. mgr) with the details of your project and he/she would find the best VA (or VA’s) for you from their current team. You only pay the Project Mgr. VA who then handles overseeing the project and handles payment to the team.
@Jordan- I would hope that any VA you hire would go out of their way to try and hit that 100% of your standards (hopefully more). Otherwise, I would imagine they won’t be getting too much return business
Thanks again Pat for a wonderfully informative blog.
~Christina
@Christina: I hope so too, but it wouldn’t their fault if they didn’t. I’m just an incredibly nit-picky perfectionist and even I don’t think my own work is up to 100% standards. While putting pressure on myself may be a good thing, to expect this out of others you hire is just unrealistic.
@Jordan: Completely understand! I am just like you so hitting the 100% + (for myself or my clients) is not always possible but I always have to try.
Hi Christina, thanks for your informative comment. It’s nice to hear about VAs directly from a VA, and I know that most VAs will do their best to provide 110% to a client no matter if they are a full-time or work only on a per project basis.
Do you have any advice that my readers can use as far as what is expected on the VA side of things, as far as getting managed by someone else? Maybe 1 or 2 things that you’ve learned as a VA that you wish your clients would do more often?
Thanks! Cheers!
Hi Pat,
Happy to contribute!
The biggest thing is this: The client has to be very clear on what they want/need in THEIR head, before they can expect any VA to provide excellent service.
A VA cannot read minds and, being virtual, we can’t pick up on facial or body cues like we can in face-to-face situations.
If you are not happy- say so immediately and give the VA a chance to make it right.
A professional VA will have no problem letting you know if your instructions are not clear and won’t hesitate to ask as many questions as needed to make sure they understand the task you are asking them to do.
There are so many new VA’s out there. A lot are so excited about the potential to make money, they will take just about any client they can get. The bad part is when they take on a client whose project is something they know nothing about, then you get into the “managing” & “hand-holding”.
Run away asap.
I let all my clients know my skills as well as my Team members skills and I have no problem telling them I (or my team) have no experience in something but, I ALWAYS offer to help by either providing a little free research into alternatives or finding another VA to help.
As for what a VA can & can’t do:
We can’t bring you coffee or run your errands but, we can pretty much help you with your business in any other way- online. You just have to find the VA with the right “fit”.
~Christina
While I can understand the concerns that people may feel that a VA can’t do the job as well as they can, there are areas where a VA may be able to do a better job. For example, document formatting – it’s not cost-effective for a Consultant who bills his/her time at $100 per hour to do their own document formatting, transcribing meeting output, etc., especially if that Consultant can also charge back the cost of the VA to his/her client. One of my clients was asked by a colleague who does it all herself why she pays me to do her admin work. Her answer was that by helping her she was able to get more done by working with me.
Thanks for Sharing, Julia! Thinking about the costs of things, as well as how much our time is worth is very important to think about, indeed!
Great post Pat! As a real estate virtual assistant I think you did a great job in giving VAs the props we deserve. As for overseas VAs, I don’t think it’s a problem as long as the VA you are contracting with will do a great job and can communicate effectively. Too many times readers assume all VAs overseas are great when reading posts about using help from overseas. There are bad VAs from all areas. Make sure you understand what the skill set of the VA you are partnering with is.
For those that have trouble letting go and delegating tasks to VAs, I always recommend choosing one item you feel the most comfortable having someone else handle. Almost like a 10 step program for those that have to handle it all!
I loved the fact that you even mentioned hiring the same VA a second time on per projects. Sadly, this doesn’t happen too much. We really aren’t offended if you only hire for per project. That’s why that option is open to you. It’s a great way to get some of the workload handled when there are more important things you can do. So Bravo! Pat for pointing out that option. It’s always nice to see when someone totally gets what it is you are offering!
Thanks Serita! I didn’t realize I had so many readers who were VAs, that’s awesome!
Thanks for the tips about what to do when having trouble letting go of tasks. I know a LOT of people who can benefit from just choosing one item that you feel most comfortable handing off, just one! And then maybe, more and more will get delegated as they become comfortable with the idea of someone else doing work for them.
Thanks again, and wishing you all the best! Cheers!
Great post Pat! I came across your website last month and have been scouring it ever since. I’m a Canadian VA with a team of general and specialty VA associates. I would probably place my company in the middle of the spectrum since the majority of our client related work is on-going but certainly not what I would consider full-time.
When our clients come on board, they generally purchase our prepaid care package which is a grouping of hours that don’t expire that can be used for whatever project they have coming up. Some of our higher end clients (read: lots of work to give out) with regularly occurring projects do purchase our retainer packages which are simply hours with a shelf life of one month but that offer a discounted rate.
One very good point that you brought up is the need to manage your VA. This has been a constant concern for almost every client that has come on board. The way we manage this is to use and provide access to our project management software (we use http://www.myintervals.com). This allows our clients to go through past invoices, send new or updated projects directly into our work queue, and to be notified when their tasks have been assigned, updated, or completed. I find that this process allows people to feel more in control of their projects even if they don’t have immediate access to their VA.
@Jordan – I totally understand (and somewhat agree) with your position on standards. One of the biggest reasons I don’t have a _full-time_ VA for my own company is that exact nit-picky-ness. The way to overcome this is to find someone who is comparable to you and can handle the constructive criticism you may need to give. There are also steps you can take to help the process along too. I find that the clients that seem to be happiest with the outcome of the regular mundane type work are those who are explicit in their requests. No, we’re not a barrel of monkeys who need to be hand-held, but if a client will only be happy if things are 100% their way, they need to explain what that is in detail.
Hey Dawn, thanks for sharing your insight, and I think it’s really cool when the VAs offer to use project management software. I do know of a few, such as Basecamp, and Pelotonics, that can really help a VA understand exactly what, how and when things should get done, so it’s great for all parties. I’ll have to check out the link you provided, because I’m always looking for ways to improve not only my business, but other businesses as well that may be interested in hiring on a more long-term basis.
I think you bring up a great point about “details”. Giving the VA as much details as possible is the best thing you can do, no matter if you hire on a per project or full time basis.
Thanks again Dawn!
I hope that tip will help someone that is hesitating. We VAs tend to be a helpful bunch when possible!
And thanks for all the help you give to everyone. That’s why I love your blog so much! You are so full of helpful information!
Serita
So far, I’ve only hired people to do the jobs that I can’t do. Like Editing my eBook, or writing scripts, or developing iphone applications. Things that are above and beyond my capabilities. Plus, price is always an option. Sometimes I just can’t see spending money for someone else to do the things I can. No matter what, I think we all feel that no one can do things better than we can. Is it because we are bloggers… or humans?
Hmm, you bring up an interesting point. Maybe it is a part of human nature, hehe.
Do you have apps out on sale, or are you in the middle of getting one done? Awesome! Good luck with those!
Working on getting them done. I have a couple more ideas after I see how this first one goes. Thanks for asking.
I had a general VA who did work for me up to 20 hours per week. It worked out well but then he got super busy with other clients and the amount of work I had for him dropped off, so things sort of naturally came to an end.
That’s another issue, Jackie, that I’m glad you brought up. Of course, VAs have their own lives and things going on, that it can be a tough thing to see one leave when maybe you’ve finally got them to a point where they knew exactly what to do for you, and you’d have to go and hire and re-teach someone what you want to happen for you again. So I take it right now you’re just on your own with no part-time VAs? Any comments on the things that are getting done for your business before vs. after your VA left?
Pat,
As much as I think the idea of VAs is great, like you mentioned, managing them is a whole another task. Like you, I’ve hired a couple of programmers, designer, and now a writer, and hope to keep a good business relationship with them.
I’d rather hire someone to do grocery shopping and cooking for me. Now that’d be livin’ it up!
What you have said here leads to a good point of discussion on this topic. The VA situation is all relevant to the amount of work you actually do in a day. If you do not have the time to do everything you would like, multiple VAs to handle things is totally a good idea.
On the other hand, if you live a fairly simple life, the VA thing isn’t all that necessary.
@Moon: If I could find someone to do the shopping & cooking for me, I’d definitely hire them!
Are there “virtual” assistants who can cook for others? that would be awesome. If only our dinners and such could get emailed to us
Interesting angle on VAs. I’ve actually been looking for an inexpensive VA to help design a website I am working on. ( I am broke, can’t afford the big shots )
Is there any other suggestions for something affordable other than e-lance?
Well, with Elance, you get a wide range of prices, as is the case with Odesk as well. I do know that on the Digital Point Forums, you can find people to do quick tasks for you at a really cheap price, especially when it comes to logo design and things of that nature. You may be able to find a website designer there. Here’s the link to a sub forum for services:
http://forums.digitalpoint.com/forumdisplay.php?f=60
Colbycheeze I would recommend that you check out http://www.virtualassistantforums.com where you can submit an RFP (request for proposal). There is a very talented group of VAs there, many of which do nothing but web design.
Hey thanks Serita and Pat. I’ll definitely bookmark those!
I would suggest that you give rentacoder.com a chance also. In my experience, the RAC workflow is the best out there though it may seem like a old web 1.0 site. Hopefully we will also bid on your project.
Great discussion. I think the reasoning behind hiring VAs should parallel the reasoning behind hiring anyone:
- you need someone to perform repetitive, low value (but necessary) work so you can work on high value stuff
- you need someone to perform high value work that you don’t have the skills to perform yourself
and, as with hiring non-virtual, you should do great due diligence before hiring, check references, establish and document mutual understanding of expectations, look at prior work samples, etc.
being reluctant to let a VA do work b/c it’s quicker to do it yourself – well, everyone learns over time. If this is a long term relationship, and if the work to be outsourced is less valuable to your business than the *alternative* work that YOU could do, then it might be worth experimenting to see whether it could work out in the long term. Taking risks can lead to greater reward in the long term.
Well said, Ami. Thanks for breaking it down for us even further!
When I first read 4HWW I was blown away by the concept of a VA. But the more I thought about it, in a business sense, it does make sense. However, I also don’t think I would ever hire a full time VA to manage my life (handling conflicts between me and my spouse for instance as one of Tim’s examples in 4HWW) but within the context of accomplishing specific business tasks, i think they would be indispensable.
I would love to hear more on the hiring side of a VA. Where do you go to find the best VA for the job? How do you evaluate them? Do they work as a contractor for your business? How do you pay them? (sorry Pat, I know the answers to my questions could turn into a post by themselves!!)
Haha, I ws going to mention that part of The 4-Hour Work Week but decided to take it out of this post. It’s kind of a crazy idea, to have a VA for my relationships, to help solve problems and issues that may arise.
Finding the right VA for you can be tough, because different types of people work better with some people, and not with others. I personally love to use Elance, but I’ve been on it so much that I find myself going back to the VAs that I’ve used and have had success with in the past. They usually work as a contractor, again for that specific project, and I pay them either through elance which has their own payment system and escrow program for protection, or simply via Paypal and I let my bookkeeper/CPA deal with how that effects taxes and whatnot.
I’ve gone back and forth with and about VA’s so many times. I’ve used them before and have usually been unhappy with the results or had to double check their work which is counterproductive to having a VA.
Then at other times, I’ve been so busy with little things that don’t make any money that I could convince myself a VA is worth it.
Nowadays, I do fairly well getting stuff done for me for free and usually just by asking someone.
When I read the 4HWW for the first of many times I read it, I too was intrigued at many more ways I could use a VA but it happened again, I used one that was highly recommended and ended up being unhappy. Maybe I’m just too picky about certain things. I was
Thanks for sharing your feelings and experiences on whether or not to hire a VA for you and your businesses. It can be tough, because sometimes it seems like the perfect solution, when other times it just seems like it won’t work out.
That being said, I do know of a few people who have gone through 4 or 5 VAs that they were unhappy with before they found one that they loved.
I don’t necessarily believe in VA’s. Even though in my current position I rely on a lot of delegated tasks to designers, managers, etc. when it comes to providing content, I want to be the one delivering it, which means it is crafted from my notes and in my tone of writing.
My blog is centered around tutorials – so if I farm out these tutorials to other people, then what does that say about my authority? I think it shows people that I’m not really an expert and I rely on others to prop myself up. Which is not how I’d like to be perceived.
The VA model is an old school business model where you buy talent to assist in the creation of a product that you will make a ton of money on in the end. Its acquiring resources to have a greater return on your initial investment. If you’re concerned more with returns on investment, thats the most efficient way to go. If you’re more concerned about acquiring notoriety and authority in blogging, its not the best method.
It works for Tim Ferriss, Adam Short, and numerous others who have a different approach to blogging and business online.
@drezz – you make a very good point! You should never hire your voice out to anyone – whether it be your blog, tweets, or status updates. There are a number of things off the top of my head that a VA could help you with:
1. Uploading the work you do to your blog, website, or anywhere else you need it placed.
2. Taking your tutorials and transcribing them
3. Packaging tutorials and transcriptions and offering them as a bundle to your clients
4. Moving content to and from a newsletter service
5. Helping you to either find (for approval) or upload “filler” tweets that go out throughout the day/week while you’re not in front of Twitter.
6. Helping you create passive income with your work: taking your blog posts and putting them into an ebook format; creating a home study type product; create a membership site for more advanced techniques, etc.
By the way, I’ve got your site bookmarked. Super cool tutorials on there! Have you ever considered doing any type of graphic design related work like this? Cartoon renditions are hot right now!
Dawn: I’m positive there’s a lot of things a VA could help me with. But for some reason, I’d feel like I was dumping menial tasks on someone by doing that and a sense of guilt – even if they LIKED doing it.
I’d have no problem with the social media aspect of it, but being a designer by trade, I’m a bit pickier when it comes to the formation of content, so I’d definitely need to work with someone for quite a while before I could hand the keys over to the car.
A lot of the points you’ve mentioned are items that I’ve already begun the process of creating. I think if this were my full-time project, I’d be poised to launch most of it. Since I’m dealing with numerous other things in my life, they tend to be developed a bit slower.
And to answer your question about design related work, thats what I do for a living. This is the company I work for as a Creative Director – http://www.signaturegroupinc.com
Signature Group is located in Sudbury? I used to live in Val Caron. Small world!
Well said, Drezz. VAs will work out better for some business models, and not for others, obviously.
To respond to your comment, I previously hired a VA to help me with an audio guide. I tried to make it myself, but I just couldn’t because I sucked at recording my own voice, and I didn’t really like my own voice to begin with. I ended up scripting what i wanted to say, hiring someone to record it for me, and it turned out to be one of the most successful products I had ever sold online.
I guess it depends on what product or content your trying to get out there, and the process of how it’s all done. I did control what this person said in the audio guide, obviously, by scripting everything.
Hi Drezz,
“My blog is centered around tutorials – so if I farm out these tutorials to other people, then what does that say about my authority? I think…”
I don’t know. I’d wager that’s more of a limiting belief than anything else (a similar belief to the “no one can do it as well as I can” argument…)
I recently ran the first guest post on my blog. Kind of scary, because my blog is actually my name! It felt weird, but my readers *loved* it. I learned from that experience: As long as it’s good content, readers generally like it.
If you got a really good tutorial writer and that allowed you to post twice as many awesome tutorials, very few readers would have an issue with that.
-Erica
Erica: I suppose I was a bit vague with that comment. I’ll try to elaborate…
My blog is just over a year old, and it wasn’t until the last 3 months that I realized I needed to be more responsible with it. I had to treat it with the same respect that I treat my full time job. So, I’ve been working on building content with consistency and with purpose. Now that I’m starting to establish my position in the comics blogging niche, I didn’t want to hand over a portion of my content creation to someone who didn’t have the same level of detail as I expect for my readers.
Its not the idea that ‘no one can do it better than me’ – its knowing the expectation of readers that it has to be as good or better than what I can provide. I totally agree with having a good tutorial writer to chip in so the load is decreased on my end and the content is increased.
In my niche, generally guest posters come from trusted sources. I guess my definition of a VA is someone who is like a hired gun and is completely faceless. That would explain my hesitation.
I don’t currently have a VA, although I probably should just so I can keep my thoughts straight. A full timer would not fit into my current budget nor would I want to come up with things for them to do. I definitely see the value in hiring someone for specific jobs that I don’t have the exact expertise in.
As far as online sweat shop VAs- you get what you pay for…..
Hey Ms. Freeman! Thanks for your comment! Have you used a VA before? If not, what specific questions do you have that some of the VAs here in the community might be able to answer for you? Thanks!
I have not used a VA as of yet. I have an oDesk account and from what I can tell the pricing is very low ball. If I were to hire a VA I would probably use someone local, that I could meet-up with face to face at least once a month. I realize they are virtual, but one on one interaction-for me- would ensure understanding of my thought process and working needs.
Or skype at the minimum…I like to see and know who is actually working for me and what their work environment looks like as well.
Yikes…I’m rambling
Totally with you on this one, Pat — that is, I prefer ‘per-project’ respondents.
I have been working via ‘online’ / home office since 2005, and I can say that while VAs are wonderful to have, I feel I have never been able to utilize them to their fullest potential. When I was writing for several blogs/sites, I hired a VA to help manage the daily routines.
From this, two things happened:
1.) Instead of simply being a freelance blogger, I became a blogger, manager, ‘boss’, and HR director — obviously, this wasn’t working out for myself.
2.) With the advent of mobile apps, gidget-rich sites/tools, and Apple’s awesome products — I essentially outsourced my VA.
As you mentioned, VAs are more fit for different situations. I totally recommend a VA if you have a large website, or a business that is based on a global / beyond-local scale.
Great advice Jeff. And you’re right, with many new technologies and software becoming available to help us with these types of tasks, some of what a traditional VA might have handled isn’t quite as necessary anymore.
Thanks again, and all the best to you!
Hi Pat, I will have to disagree with you on this one point and here’s why …
You said ” 1. I don’t want to manage a full-time VA.”
I totally understand you, I don’t even want to manager VAs myself. Hence, all you need to do is find an outsourcing firm that can provide you with Virtual Assistants. The benefit with this is that they usually have on site managers responsible for managing the VAs on your behalf. The managers are tasked with taking the time to learn all of your requirements and the system you want implemented in order for your tasks to get done. By using an outsourcing firm with a managers on site you get the benefit of not having to worry about training or retraining other VAs you hire because the managers will do it on your behalf.
I will like to know what you think about my point?
Thanks for your comment, Owen. There are a few things about what you said about hiring a manager to manage the VAs:
1) If managers are hiring the VAs, it would be hard for me, personally, to be comfortable because then who is making sure the managers are managing the VAs correctly. It seems like having a middle man between myself and the person who is working on what I need to get done just creates another opportunity for some kind of miscommunication.
2) Would there not be added costs associated with this?
I do understand what you’re saying, and maybe it’s just a problem with me (because I am nit-picky and I want to know EVERYTHING that’s happened for my business myself), and I do appreciate you showing us this option because i did not mention it in the post. I know you work a lot with a VA team yourself as a manager. Do issues with communication between your clients and the VA team ever arise? I’d be interested in hearing your response.
Thanks again Owen!
Pat,
Me jumping in again
1) The idea behind hiring a Managing VA is to get some of the “stuff” off your shoulders. Choosing a managing VA is a tough process. You need to trust them to understand you and the way you expect things to be handled(believe me when I say I know how hard it is to trust others with your livelihood). Herein lies the reason to interview & check references. Don’t be afraid ask for a “get to know you period” of a few hours so you can test how you work together, before any contracts are signed.
2)Generally when you hire a Multi-VA company you are paying the same rates you would for each VA individually but, the idea is, you have a one-stop shop. Most Multi-VA firms use subcontractors who provide a slightly lowered rate to the Multi-VA owner. The owner then charges normal prices to clients and makes a small amount for themselves after paying the sub VA’s.
Just convenience, really. Costs should not be any higher.
~Christina
Thanks Pat for responding to my comment.
Your first point is valid but the managers are tasked with understanding your needs, the systems you want to used, and also your overall goals and desired deliverables. Once they understand this then they convey the message to the VA and also keep track of the daily results the VAs deliver to you and monitor it to make sure that your needs are either met or exceeded. Like all things systems are not perfect but its the responsibility of the manager to ensure that the client is getting what they are paying for. I suggest you get the managers and/or VAs to send you daily reports so you can see how well they are doing with each task.
Your second point is also valid too. There is going to be additional cost to get a manager attached to monitor your VA on your behalf but either way its never going to be as expensive as having an in-house staff, especially if you outsource internationally, because the dollar carries a higher value – my preference is to get VAs from the Philippines.
In regards to issues with the clients and the VA team, the manager has to constantly be in communication with the client and VA to make sure that first of all the client’s tasks are met according to their desired outcome (quality assurance) and also the VA is meeting them. The manager really is essential.
Its either that of you manage the VA yourself and that can be time consuming. We all need to free up time as entrepreneurs!
Hi Pat,
I always thought that having a VA would be good as they can help to take away some of our workload. However, after listening to your point of view I am thinking twice about getting a VA. It doesn’t make any sense if I am trying to free up my time but end up working to provide the VA with enough tasks.
Cheers,
Vincent
Hi Vincent, well – I think it depends on how well you think you can manage them, and make it so that things are more systematic that can eventually lead to getting things done without you having to lift a finger. Like with anything else, it takes time to get things to a point where they can be left along and automated.
Cheers dude!
Hi Pat,
I’ve been following your blog for awhile and am a fan of your Facebook page. I appreciate your post and have been reading through the comments/discussion with quite a bit of interest.
I agree that it goes both ways. For some it makes sense to have on-going monthly assistance and for others, it about having someone to go to for specific projects or specialty assistance. I have both types of clients in my practice. That’s the beauty of working with a VA…the flexibility and convenience. I also understand that some look for assistance overseas as a cost-effective option. I have no problem with that. I’ve always contended that my services are the convenient option to hiring an employee, not the cheap option.
As far as finding a good VA to hire, there any number of places where you can post an RFP with a VA organization or forum and sort through those who apply. There are also VAs out there with blogs who will outright tell you what to look for in a VA, what is needed for a good client/VA relationship and how to work with a VA. A good and ethical VA will make sure that it a good fit for both people before agreeing to move forward with working together. I’ve referred potential clients to other VAs, when I’ve thought they’d be better suited with someone else. Knowing who my ideal client is and then choosing to work with those who I think are a good fit saves a lot of headache for everyone involved.
It certainly makes sense that you shouldn’t be working with a VA that requires a lot of management. This defeats the purpose.
Again, thanks for the post and the discussion.
Hi Kimberly, thanks so much for your comment. Some great information about finding good VAs where people can hopefully match up well with each other. It sounds like you have a great, honest business going on there. Keep up the good work! Wishing you all the best!
VAs should be hired and managed pretty much along the lines that Pat has discussed here. And I should know what I talk about, because I run a company that currently has around 30 full-time VAs working for clients around the world (as well as other services, too).
If you need a website created – go to freelancer.com or elance.com and hire them for the PROJECT. If you need someone to consistently help you manage or run parts, or all, of your life (!!!) then you’ll need a full-time VA. And yes, you can find them on those sites, too – but, generally speaking, based on my experience, even if home-based VAs say they are working full-time for you, they arent – they have other clients, too. Use a solutions provider instead.
One thing is for sure though – if you end up going the full-time VA route, understand it is NOT a magic pill, that you can take and get everything moving immediately. They DO need training, they DO need encouragement (not to be confused with ‘management’, as they should be able to manage their own time, obviously!) and they DO need motivation – just like any other member of staff that works for you – whether its in your office or on the other side of the world.
Nice article, Pat.
Wow Chris, I hadn’t realized that you had such an extensive VA company! Very cool!
Thanks for adding your experience with the discussion. I think what you say about needing a project done vs. needing help with managing your life or clutter within your life makes total sense. And yes, like with anything that is supposed to help you, things are not an “easy button” or magic pill, like you said.
Thanks again Chris!
You’re more than welcome, Pat.
And hey – if you ever change your mind, and want to hire a full-time VA – give me a call…!!!
There’s a lot of different opinions on whether or not VA’s can help you or not. I think it is different for every business and situation.
For me, I hired a VA that I only pay when she is doing work. Every day M-F she logs in and checks to see if anything needs to be done.
For me, she answers support questions, enters orders in the database for a fulfillment site, takes phone orders, and calls customers to let them know their order has been shipped. I think having a American real live human to let you know your order has shipped, really helps me stand apart from the rest, and also to build lifetime customers. She does an awesome job and I haven’t had any problems.
I decided to hire someone in the US as well. It is more expensive but I think it is worth it. I found her on Linkedin by the way.
She has literally given me my life back! I was so tired of doing the orders, support questions, and taking phone calls. I can’t imagine not having her anymore and it has freed me up to concentrate on doing the tasks I need to do to make more money.
Great post! Your blog is cool Pat!
Hey John, thanks for posting a comment here. It’s great to see a fellow “old school” IBMer amongst the comment section here.
Glad to hear you’re having a good experience and much success with your VA, and especially for doing the tasks you listed, which I wouldn’t want to do either! Great stuff John, and keep up the good work! THanks!
oh my….this post is getting more action than an 8th Street hooker, Pat….lol….I just spent the last 20 minutes reading over all of the indepth and insightful comments….seems like you stumbled on a topic here that many of your readers are definitely knowledgeable about….
When considering things like product production (like your eBook), do you think you would ever hire a VA to tackle the written content (essentially, your product itself)?
….the funny thing is, my Info Barrel Success course actually began with hiring an entire company to do everything from eBook writing and creation, to sales copy and sales page generation……
I was generally happy, but, with regards to the complexity and uniqueness of the project, there were some limitations to having them do the entire project (even though I did pay them a hefty sum). There were just many things the course, and sales copy NEEDED, that took a very long time to convey….it’s not that I was completely dissatisfied with their work, I just found that many tasks (with this particular project) were best to be done by myself….
I do think sometimes, as entrepreneurs, our visions can be very VERY complex, and that can be a barrier or limitation to having anyone else do the work for us. On one hand, that requires more time and patience, but, like a previous commenter said, I do find myself to be very much a perfectionist…. (lol…that’s why the project has taken as long as it has to complete)….
Plus, for my first eBook course, I do naturally feel the desire (and obligation) to OVER-Deliver with the content….
Yeah a lot of people feel strongly about VAs one way or another. It’s great to see some good, lengthy comments coming in, especially from new folk!
You and your eBook for InfoBarrel definitely over-delivery in my opinion, Howie!
I think you’re using the term “VA” in places where the more general term “vendor” would be appropriate. I’ve never hired a VA, but like you, I have outsourced work both domestically and internationally (e.g. my logo designer, web developers, and technical consultant are in the U.S., and my SEM/SEO company is in Thailand). I have nothing against hiring a VA, but I just can’t think of anything else I am doing right now that could be outsourced; most of what I do now WRT my business involves coordinating between vendors, making final decisions, etc. Maybe that will change down the road, I don’t know.
Dave – In many ways a VA IS a vendor! We are subcontractors, not employees, own our own businesses, and receive 1099s for work at years end.
To answer your “I can’t think of anything else I am doing right now that could be outsourced” I have a quick and easy answer. I am a bookkeeping VA, which means I specialize in letting my clients build their business while I make sure the accounting is kept up-to-date and clean. My clients have me handle everything related to their bookkeeping from data entry to paying their bills/employees; and I do it all virtually. I don’t, however, do taxes. There is a multi-part reason to this, of course. First, taxes are complicated and keeping up on the IRS changes is practically a full-time job in itself, and second, having a separate CPA/Tax accountant is a good check and balance for ANY bookkeeper, not just a virtual one.
As far as finding a good VA, you want a partnership mindset rather than an employee. It is in the VAs best interest to help you grow your company as that helps grow theirs. Finding someone with good references and skills is the same as screening a ‘physical’ employee. Try submitting a RFP to various VA sites – http://www.virtualassistantforums.com has some solid VAs, and you can also find information on how to screen one.
Thanks for chiming in here, Lily! Well said!
Hi Pat,
Sounds to me like you just don’t have enough work right now to warrant a full time VA.
It would be kind of like hiring a receptionist if the phone only rang once every week, you wouldn’t do it.
If you had an overwhelming amount of work to be done every day why on earth would you hire it out per project? You wouldn’t, it would be full time.
One example for us that we’ve outsourced full time is our bookkeeping because we have 6-8 hours of it to be done each day.
Liam
Hi Liam, you’re probably right. And great analogy!
If I did have an overwhelming amount of work to be done, it would be because I have a lot of projects (that’s how I work, on a per project basis, projects that can be worked on now and set on autopilot later, for the most part [not including this blog, btw, hehe]) so I would hire per project.
6-8 of bookkeeping a day! I guess that’s a good issue to have, because that means money is flowing
Cheers Liam, and thanks for your insight!
Hey Pat.
I have a busy little recording studio in Nashville and I have some good “intern” traffic. But, just about the time I get one trained, he moves on.
So, here’s what I’ve been doing:
Every time I do something that I (eventually) want an intern (or VA for some of you guys) to do, I do a screen capture with a program called ScreenFlow for mac.
It makes me get very clear on what I want them to do for me and just EXACTLY how I want it done.
So the next time a new intern comes in and I want him/her to do that repetitive task, I just tell them to watch the video on my website and give me feedback for anything I missed.
BONUS: I’m doing these in such a way that I can make it a PRODUCT to sell eventually too.
Hope this sparks some ideas for you guys.
Hi Kevin, I know a lot of people who are doing this very exact thing. it’s kind of like another post I had written a couple weeks back about doing a coaching program, recording and keeping track of everything, and using your students’ feedback to eventually turn all of that into it’s own product. Doing this with VAs as far as procedures is a double whammy (in a good way) so you can teach new VAs, and potentially have a product in the end as well. Great stuff! Thanks Kevin!
hey Pat. What’s the name of that post you are referring to?
[...] Here’s Why I Don’t Have a Full-Time Virtual Assistant | The Smart Passive Income Blog [...]
Hi Pat,
One area to avoid is content development, e.g. getting people to write articles etc. Don’t do it unless you really know the VA.
You’re potentially exposing your company to all kinds of legal issues if the VA copy/pasted the material from elsewhere.
Things like logo design, coding, trans-scripting are good to go but be careful with content related activities.
Ivan
@taking the train to Hong Kong!
When you have 100+ sites like I do….a full time link builder VA is absolutely indispensable….ABSOLUTELY don’t know what I would do without him.
[...] Here’s Why I don’t Have a Full Time Virtual Assistant – There are a number of schools of thought when it comes to hiring a VA. Pat explains why he doesn’t use a full-time assistant. I don’t either and use a similar setup to Pat. [...]
Pat, I love this post. I’ll be speaking on something similar to this very soon. I use VA’s often, but in use with workflows for specific projects, much more manageable! Awesome, wish we chatted about this!
I’d be interested in reading more about what type of work they have VA’s do personally. I still think I’d struggle with figuring out what to make them do all the time.
I hire VA’s as needed although I do have 2 VA’s who only do SEO related tasks for me or a total of 10 hours each week. I’ve thought about hiring one full time person, but recognized that I wouldn’t have enough to keep them busy. Figuring out things for them to do on a full time basis will just add to my stress level, and my goal is to keep my business as low stress as possible.
[...] Here’s Why I Don’t Have a Full-Time Virtual Assistant [...]
Hello Pat. First of all thank you for this great blog. Your posts have helped a lot of people including me in a more fulfilling freelancing career. Can you recommend a way of hiring a VA other than the VA companies that come up on the first places of google results ? I’m in need of a helping hand but I feel VA companies act as an unnecessary intermediate between me and the VA.
Try placing an rfp on sites like http://www.virtualassistantforums.com. This is a great way to locate a VA that is the right fit w/out using a ‘middle man’ between you and the VA(s).
@Vangelis-As a VA, I can tell you one of the most important choices you will make will be whether to hire a VA or not. In doing so, here are some points to remember.
1.Once you decide to place the RFP, be clear in what you are looking for and the skills you need the person to have.
2. When you get responses, make a time to talk to the VA on the phone, to make sure that both work styles work together.
3. Ask about their work habits and check out their site. You can get to know someone by their site (if they are personable, friendly, creative, etc).
4. Remember that you and the VA enter a relationship and the communication should reflect that. You are both business owners and the partnership should be a mutually beneficial one.
Also, most VAs will be helpful in a wide range of topics. We like to help! I hope you have a great search!
Rebecca
Having read this post, i hovered the mouse pointer over and went to odesk.com!
There, i have been hiring a full time VA, but like you said, I cannot keep up with what they are doing and as such find the relationship deeply unfocused in terms of accomplished work.
Great post!!