Tasks that a Virtural Assistant can Eliminate for you

admin    Online Tools, Outsourcing, Productivity     Outsourcing, productivity, Screenr, VA, video capture, Virtual Assistant

You can dramatically increase the amount of free time you have by hiring a Virtual Assistant (VA). They can do many redundant things for you business or personal. When you hire a VA you might not have enough tasks for them for the 40 hour week so go through this list to help you get ideas:

Here is a list of standard things they can do.:

1. Scheduling interviews and meetings
2. Web-research
3. Following up on appointments, errands, and tasks
4. Online Purchases
5. Creation of legal documents
6. Basic Website Maintenance (web design, publishing, uploading files) that doesn’t require a professional
7. Monitoring, editing, and publishing comments for online discussions
8. Posting job vacancies online
9. Document creation
10. Proofreading and editing documents for spelling and formatting
11. Online research for updating blogs
12. Updating the database for CRMs (Customer Relationship Management)
13. Voicemail Transcription
14. Market Research
15. Financial Research
16. Business Plan
17. Industry Analysis
18. Market Assessment
19. Reports
20. Legal research
21. Analytics
22. Creating presentations
23. Reports and Newsletters
24. Search Engine Optimization
25. Maintaining and updating databases
26. Managing Procurement processes

It is best if you start with simple tasks then move to more complicated tasks. The best is to make a video outlining step by step how to do it. I recommend using Screenr which is a video capture webapp that is dead simple to use and super convenient.

Those are just some ideas. If you have more please suggest in the comment section below.

Step by Step Guide to Finding a Virtual Assistant

God    Online Tools, Outsourcing, Productivity    

What can virtual assistants do:

Virtual assistants (VAs)  provide personal and office support services, such as

1. general administrative tasks
2. making customer contacts;
3. writing reports;
4. editing documents; sending out marketing materials;
5. handling thank-you notes, gifts and follow-up letters
6. setting up and maintaining databases
7. handling billing and bookkeeping; and updating Web sites.

You can also get a VA to manage your personal life as well. Here are some of their tasks:

1. Some VAs even help clients manage their personal lives
2. Doing such tasks as arranging for pet-sitting
3. Calling the plumber
4. Scheduling doctor’s appointments
5. Planning an upcoming family reunion
6. Or coordinating a move.

For a comprehensive list see: Tasks that a Virtual Assistant can Eliminate for You.

Sites to find VA’s:

Many people have recommended using VAs from the Philippine because their culture and accent is close to North America. They are also hard working and very loyal. Some sites to use is Onlinejobs.ph ($49) and Manila Craigslist (Free). However I posted 2 of the same job description on Onlinejobs.ph and Odesk and I find the candidates on Odesk to have a lot higher quality response.

Searching:

1. Better to hire them full time and split with friends or clients
2. Lower rate is not a good thing. When a VA is charging too low of a rate it means that either 1) they are not good or 2) they will have to juggle too many tasks to make a living and your responsibilities will slip to the side
3. Have everything written and signed. This includes fees, terms and conditions, etc…
4. Consider working with someone on a short term project basis before fully jumping in. This will ensure that you two are compatible but also ensures that a VA is what you are looking for.
5. Find out the hours they are available and make sure it is compatible with their responsibilities.
6. If there are certain specialized tasks you have make sure they have the right tools and equipment to do the tasks you require
7. View sample work.
8. Ask them to fill out a survey. You will get a lot of applicants, the fastest way for you to filter it out is to have them fill a survey, you can use SurveyMonkey.
9. Look for training and certification. If you are using Odesk it provides this information.
10. Return business. Look up the history of the VA to see how much and how long does their client stay with them. If they have many clients but only a few or no repeat clients then it a telltale sign that they are not good. In Odesk I was able to see how much each client spends with them then I know that they are good.
11. Look for polish work. A sure sign of incompetency is spelling errors, typos, and gaammar mistakes.

Working Together:

1. Use a software to communicate – e.g. basecamp or other
2. Stay in contact
3. Set realistic deadlines
4. Set a communication schedule

once they are hired treat them like an employee. The saying goes “Hire slow fire fast.” If you get any clue that they are not the right fit end it as soon as you can. Make sure they are real issues and not just communication issues. One of the biggest issues would be punctuality.

Questions:

Hire one or hire many?

Hire from a firm or individual?

Signs of a good Virtual Assistant

1. If they ask for a consultation
2. They have a system or software they use to keep track

Zappos Customer Service Interview

admin    Outsourcing     candidate, hiring, interview, Outsourcing, zappos

My friend hired an Virtual Assistant and used the Zappos questionnaire to filter the candidates.

1. What does customer service mean to you?  How do you know if your customer is satisfied?
2. Give me an example of a time you went over above and beyond, why did you do it?
3. Tell me a time you came up with an innovative solution to a problem?
4. Have you suggested any new ideas to your manager?  What, why and how did you present it?
5. How did you get into this line of work?
6. What was the hardest thing you had to do professionally in the past month?
7. What accomplishment are you most proud of from the past year?
8. What do you like to do for fun?
9. What did you do at your last job to make the workplace more fun?
10. What was the best mistake you’ve made?
11. When was the last time you broke the rules/policies to get the job done?
12. Did you receive feedback from your last job and was it helpful?
13. When was the last time you asked for help?  How did you feel about it?
14. Describe a time you had to present unpleasant information to someone.  What and how?
15. Under what conditions do you work best and what can your manager do to make it better?
16. If money was not an issue, what would you be doing?
17. What is your salary expectation?

These guys tend to talk a lot when answering the questions so you may want to cut them off if you have a lot to ask them.  It took me a bit over 30 mins to get through the questions with each person.

Interview Questions for Outsourcing Candidates

God    Outsourcing     interview, odesk, Outsourcing, questions, VA, Virtual Assistant

In Odesk there is an explicit “interview” process where you ask the candidates questions. With other sites there are similar processes. Most likely when you get to this process you are pretty confident in the remaining candidate and have done the proper research.

The goal of this process is to discover the following:

1. Do they know and understand the importance of the project
2. Their knowledge and experience on the topic and style of writing
3. If their communication style matches yours

Either if you do not care to know those information, it is better to still do this process before hiring to make the candidate do more work. This will make the job seem more scarce and coveted and as such they will respect the job more and work harder.

Questions:

1. Why do you think this project is important?
2. What kind of related work have you done before?
3. What’s your knowledge and experience with the topic?
4. Describe the target audience?
5. How do you typically communicate with your clients? How often?
6. How long do you think it would take to complete the task?
7. What would be your process for completing this task?
8. Do you have experience doing this work and how does it relate?
9. Do you have any suggestions for the project?
10. Do you have any questions for me?

Those should be enough to get their response and their dedication to the project. Then you can filter out the candidates and find out additional information to select the right one.

Tips on finding the right odesk worker

God    Outsourcing    

Odesk provides great tools to find the right outsourcing staff. I personally find it much easier to use and filter on odesk than the other sites I frequent, vworker and scriptlance. However I still go to those sites for programmers. I have discovered some tips that would help you filter for the ideal candidate. Love to get your feedback on them to see if they worked for you or not.

1. Look at the hours they work on their projects – If a contractor is good they are usually hired for a long period of time.
2. Look for comment feedbacks – Look at how their employers rate them. Usually if they are outstanding they will get consistent enthusiastic comments. If you see lack luster comments such as “They did as required.” It’s an indication that the employer did not like their work and only wrote that to be polite.
3. Review the type of work they’ve done -make sure it’s similar to yours
4. Make sure they have a lot of hours worked (around at least 50 or 60). – This will ensure that they follow the system. You do not want to waste your time trying to manage a newbie.
5. Plan to select more than one worker. – If the task can be divided select 2 or more workers at the same time doing different part of the tasks. Depending on your task and your style, one worker will be better than another.
6. Invite contractors to get more applicants. - Whenever I outsource the odds of the perfect candidate applying is very slim. So I am always proactive and look for them. In the case of odesk this extra effort saves me a lot of time and make the process quicker. After setting my filters I invite those contractors to the job. Since I invited them I just review those I invited instead of everyone that applied which many do not match my filter. As well since I invited them they respond within 24 hours so I do not need to wait for applicants.
7. For article writing, hire from culturally relevant countries – It is important to hire writers that have same cultural perspective as your country. I’m from Canada and I find that the Copywriters I was looking at, only people from the US, Canada, and Philippines seem to write in a style that is ‘normal’ and relatable here.

This is the process to find good candidates.  You might be able to find contractors for a lower rate if they don’t have as much feedback or hours worked but I find that it is high risk and not worth your time.