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.

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.

List of top 99Designs.com designers

God    Uncategorized     99designs.com, logo design, Outsourcing, website design

In this post I discuss tips on using 99designs.com. It is an effective way to get great designs for your website or logo. It is very important to invite some top designers to enter, after many hours of searching through all the designs here are the top designers.

Logo designers:

1. customlogographic
2. Krishna99
3. Athenabelle
4. PixelSolider
5. Janks
6. Marry
7. DeAngelis Designs
8. bluehat
9. ilegit616
10. DanaG

Website designers:

1. Lordbandit
2. Ryan Mitchell
3. Divine Style
4. Carey Creative
5. Richard de Pijper
   
6. RT Design
7. T-Bone
8. ngMedia
   
9. PradG
10. Michhael Bei
11. Dawid Milewski
12. marshaan
13. 7ocean
14. MaxPro
15. Fourth
16. FusionIdea
17. ssmita
18. CH-Webart

If you want a Web 2.0 style design, check these designers:

1. diamond_webdesign
2. RTDesign
3. lazy-boy
4. bearbrick
5. alfredms
6. netbluez
7. darkosss
8. Melwyn2010
9. usmanmd

If your winning design is from any of these designers, you can’t lose.

Tips for using 99Designs.com for website, logo, and graphic design contest

God    Uncategorized     99designs.com, logo design, Outsourcing, website design

If you are looking for a website or logo and are picky or not sure what you are looking for then 99Designs.com contest might be right for you. You post a ‘contest’ where people can submit logos and website designs to you and you pick the one you like. If you don’t like any then you would get your money back.

The contest cost have risen recently and while hiring a professional designer might cost less now, what you get is choices. Another thing to keep in mind is that you get to give direction and get what you want but it does require some time to communicate with the designers.

Here are 10 tips for you to get the most out of your contest:

1. Contact Designers
   The higher your reward is the most submissions you will get. However in both of my contest which was at different tier prizes most of the top designs were from designers I invited. If your award is the lowest one it is important for you to invite many designers.
   The best I find is to give them a compliment. Pick designers that you like and tell them which designs you like and why. Don’t waste time with designers you do not like.
   See below for my list of top designers.
2. Provide full supporting documents
   Provide as much supporting documents as you can to help the designers. If a designer ask for something, attach it publicly so everyone can see.
   Here’s a list of what you should provide:
   1. logo – both with transparent and dark colour background
   2. pictures
   3. fonts
   4. other design elements such as brush strokes or icons
   5. company brochure, posters, or business cards
   6. images of similar designs you like
   7. website that you like (if you are designing a website)
   8. mood board (if you use an agency before or a designer, they might have created you a mood board which is a collage of images to create the ‘mood’ of your design)
3. Write full details in your description
   Remember to write as much detail as you can on the direction you want but keep your mind open for better solutions.
4. Provide timely feedback
   Designers are like humans (because they are actually humans!), they can lose interest quickly and lose the ideas in their mind. Keep them motivated and ideas fresh in their mind. They might need 4-5 revisions before you get what you like so the sooner you provide feedback the more revisions you can get before the contest ends.
5. Tell them what you like
   The best way to avoid wasting time is to communicate what you like publicly. When you respond directly to the designer people can’t see so you might need to tell each designer over and over again. The best way is to post reviews on the main area so all the designers can see.
6. Guarantee your prize
   Guaranteeing your prize will build confidence from the designers and get you more submissions. I recommend you doing this as soon as you know you will go with a particular designer. The design does not need to be perfect, usually the designer is more than eager to provide changes to make you happy.

   The sooner you guarantee your prize the more time you will have with motivated designers. That’s why it’s important to provide as much feedback at the beginning as possible so you’ll get a design you like and guarantee sooner.

7. Sort out the details as soon as you can
   Think about your whole project.
   It is expensive and time consuming to organize these contests so likely you would like your winning designer to more work in the future. If not then you should consider this, finding a good designer is hard and providing a consistent theme for your brand is important. I would recommend you sort out the pricing and other details as soon as you feel that the designer is right for you. For example tell him what you need, ask him about his skills, and what prices does he charges. That way you will feel confident in investing your time in coaching him along.

   It is also important to make sure the communication styles match. Make sure he responds quickly and answers your question clearly. For me I look for response within 24 hours and that each point I brought up is addressed. If you find that some of your points are missed or if they do not understand you, this could be a red flag. Communication could also be your issue too, if you see that many designers are not understanding you then it’s probably you and not them.

   The worst is if you find someone you like then realize that you guys can’t come to terms with designing additional pages to your site. As well as before you select the winner you have the negotiating advantage.

8. Show them what you want
   Pick sites you like and explain why
   Graphic designers are visual people it is a easier to communicate with them in pictures then in words. Before you start your contest discover what you like and compile it. You can send them links to your favourite sites. But I recommend that you browse through template sites, it has a larger variety; you can browse a lot quicker; and you’ll eliminate those dreaded moments when you think, what site should I go to now.
   1. Template Monster
   2. SiteGround – templates
   3. Free web templates

   When you attach the templates, note what you like about it such as the colours, how clean it is, the layout, the cool icons etc. It is important to have a direction first and show only consistent ideas. Don’t pick one that is nice clean and conservative with blue and also pick a funky one with red and orange and add it. Only pick the ones where you can envision that being your site.

9. Don’t forget to remind them-If you forget, they will too
   If there are designers that made a version or couple of revisions and did not finish don’t be afraid to remind them. Also if there are designers who promised to submit a contest but have not done so, do not hesitate to remind them but most likely if they haven’t been active in making a design your reminder will not help.
10. Prepare for the busy last 24 hours
    You can expect a lot of things happening around the last 24 hours
    I suggest you book some time in your calendar for the last 24hours, that’s when a lot of things happen. This is crunch time and many of your designers are making final changes for you, it’s important that you are available to give feedback and accept revisions. While your designers can be from anywhere in the world you don’t need to be there for the whole 24 hours, just make sure you check in throughout the day. In additional many designers do not want their designs copied so they won’t release it till the last day.
    With this in mind I suggest you start your contest on Tuesday so that the last 24 hours fall on Monday. This is good for you because you will be in the office (if you have an office). As well as the designers can work on Monday to finalize it, Monday is more likely chance that they are free then on Sunday. Also recommend starting your contest earlier in the week as people get more busy later on.
11. After the deadline
    The deadline is over but the contest is not. You can still communicate with the designers and get them to email you designs but don’t use this as an excuse for not communicating and providing feedbacks during the contest. If you are getting a website remember to ask them for the rate of designing additional pages. Maybe they would even offer to do it for free, if your prize is high enough so they win. I was in a situation where I chose a design because he offered to do the additional pages for free.

These are the tips I have for making your 99designs.com contest a success. Please provide your feedback and come visit often as I will be adding more tips from my experiences.

Couple of other sites you might want to check out is LogoSnap which provides free logos and charge $99 for a custom logo. Or HatchWise which provides same service as 99Designs but some say has higher quality submissions.