Where do I find an affordable VA

 

Welcome to part 3 of our series “Creating an Outsourcing Master Plan for Your Business”. If you have missed part one or part two you can find those links below.   The big question is where do I find an affordable VA?

Today I want to focus on where you find a VA or part time worker for your real estate investing business. This is actually one of the easier parts of outsourcing.

 

The “White Elephant in the Room”

First of all, I want to address “the white elephant in the room”; hiring overseas workers and just say it's tough to find an affordable VA.

I think most of us would rather keep the jobs here than to have to go outside the US for qualified workers. I want to state that whenever possible, I will hire US workers.  You can find them on all of the big outsourcing sites like Upwork (Odesk), Elance, Fiverr and many others.

The very first thing that I tried to outsource was a transcription job; I needed to have some videos transcribed.  I looked for someone for about a week scanning through resumes on several online sites. This wasn’t a job that required any special skills; just good typing skills and being proficient at English were all that it took. Sounds pretty simple doesn’t it?

Here’s the problem I had. When I was looking for someone that was an affordable VA or part-time assistant all of the American workers that I found that were willing to do this job fell into one of two categories:

  • They either claimed to have a reasonable rate but estimated the hours it would take to be 3 – 4 times longer than I knew it should take to transcribe a 30 minute video.
  • Or, they asked for a rate of $18-$22 an hour which was unrealistic for this type of work.   I tried and tried, but I was unable to find a suitable candidate.

 

 My Awesome VA

I would like to go on record and say that “I love my VA”. She is awesome!  I also have several friends that have a VA (virtual assistant) that they love. My gal is from the Philippines. She is smart, very motivated, detail oriented, follows directions extremely well, and is efficient with her time.

Whatever tasks I give her (and some of them are daily, recurring tasks) she does exactly as requested. If she runs into any type of glitch she simply sends me an email telling me what it is. If she will be out of town or on vacation, she lets me know in advance about those sorts of things. She is the perfect part-time person for me. She is not only an affordable VA but she takes great pride in doing a good job.

 

So, Where Did I Find Her?

Odesk is easy to use, and they have good systems for tracking the time people on your “team” spend on your work. They send you regular weekly updates, but you can check your VA’s time log online at any time.

I also use Fiverr all the time; I guess you could say that I have a “Fiverr addiction”. To date, I have ordered close to 70 “gigs” as they are called.  You have to admit, that “gig” sounds a whole lot more sexy than “job” or “task”.  If you aren’t familiar with Fiverr it is a site where you can get just about anything done for $5.00 so be sure to check it out. Every once in a while I will get work back that wasn’t exactly what I wanted, but by and large they are great.

I also use Fiverr all the time; I guess you could say that I have a “Fiverr addiction”. To date, I have ordered close to 70 “gigs” as they are called.  You have to admit, that “gig” sounds a whole lot more sexy than “job” or “task”.  If you aren’t familiar with Fiverr it is a site where you can get just about anything done for $5.00 so be sure to check it out. Every once in a while I will get work back that wasn’t exactly what I wanted, but by and large they are great.

 

Next Week

Next Tuesday we will go over the 4th piece of the puzzle; “How Do You Decide How Much to Pay Your VA?  See you next Tuesday.

 

If you missed part one or part two of this series you can find the links below:

 

If you haven’t already subscribed, be sure to do that today so you don’t miss any of the business building tips I have coming your way. I want 2013 to be your best year ever! And if you enjoyed this article, please share it.

 

 

Pin It on Pinterest

Shares
Share This