Employer interviews who have hired virtual assistants and shared their experiences of outsourcing.
Interviews
Reader Interactions
Establishing Effective Virtual Communication With Your Assistants
Long-distance communication with your virtual assistants is part-8 of the second interview from Stefan from Germany, who lives the Four Hour Work Week lifestyle in Thailand.
Click here to read part 7– Why outsourcing fails?
Summary:
- Daily communication from both parties is essential for successful outsourcing results.
- One effective way of virtual communication is video instructions.
- Start out talking like you would talk normally and then adapt your video presentations based on the feedback of your assistant on if you make it difficult or less difficult.
Start of the Interview:
Francis:
As I’ve said before, it is very important especially at the beginning to have daily communication. Not necessarily from you to your assistant but from your assistant to you. In other words, he writes you daily emails or makes a presentation or he calls you and you take time, when you have the time, to respond to all his emails.
The most efficient way for you to talk to your assistant, in my opinion, is video recording. If you make video screen recording, you can in a very fast way, tackle a lot of different subjects without needing to explain what you’re talking about because the assistant can see what you’re talking about.
If it’s a designer job, you open your screen recording, point to what you like and what you don’t like. And as you talk, you open a new window – open Google, research something. Show how you would research and ask him to really closely review the videos and learn from that.
And while you talk about when you will be available and how is he doing and what you like and what you don’t like. At the same time you open a window, you show him stuff; you show him a tool; you show him a forum where he can research and tell him, “Open an account and asks questions there. I have made great experience with this forum, for example.”
Or at the same time you have the video running, you put an E-book for the first training into the Dropbox and tell him he can find them in the Dropbox and please review it for 3 hours. This E-book will answer all your questions.
This will keep the time you need to interact with micro-managing his work to minimum. And from all the feedback I received from my assistants, they all loved video recordings.
Stefan:
Okay. I don’t have the experience with how others think about video recording. But when I have video recording then I see, for example, I have a problem and I go to YouTube find the tutorial for something.
I’m very annoyed by people who are talking about something and they take 2 or 3 minutes by showing me this is a browser and you go there, and then click on it. Then you open it and you drag it to your screen and then you read it. Really stupid stuff…
Francis:
Yeah. For you, it’s stupid. For someone else, it’s perhaps very useful.
Stefan:
But the very important stuff is only like 2 seconds and they skip it which is very nerve wrecking for me because I have to analyze what did he do, how did he do that? Because they skipped like 2 minutes and then he’s like what is he doing?
Then I go back and the very important stuff was 10 seconds and the other important stuff. So I want to prevent that from doing that myself when I’m doing, as you proposed, video recording.
Francis:
Yes.
Stefan:
How did I “Don’t do that mistake”?
Francis:
Since you don’t record a video to post to YouTube to get many views, you don’t do that for that reason.
Stefan:
Yes.
Francis:
But you can do it. You can publish your video right after sending it to your assistant and create some content this way if you want. But you are doing the video for the sole reason of training your assistant, so do the video as it feels natural to you.
Don’t force yourself to do it a different way than you would do it naturally. But ask in the video as you talk tell him, “Whenever there’s something unclear in this video, let me know.”
Then adapt your style of video recording to whatever your assistant feedbacks to you. If for example he says, “Yeah, I know what a browser is and please don’t tell me to click on things. I will figure that out.” Then you make it easier.
If you send him a recording and, for example, you open a window and say, “Yeah, you just login to your WordPress dashboard then you show the published post and you SEO optimize them.”
Stefan:
Yes.
Francis:
Then your assistant says, “What’s a dashboard?” Then, you know to make your video simpler. Then you say, “Yeah, you click on this URL (you do it). Then here is the login button. Here you find the dashboard. Here you find the published post. Here you find the draft post, etc.” Then, you know you had to go back and back simpler.
In my opinion, start out talking like you would talk normally and then adapt your video presentations based on the feedback of your assistant on if you make it difficult or less difficult.
If your assistant doesn’t tell you clearly, this is not understandable; you will find that out automatically if you can implement your instructions or not. If you cannot implement it then it’s clear he hasn’t understood it.
If you explain more simple than he needs it then you cannot know. Then you need his feedback and he has to tell you, “Yeah, you can make it more complicated.”
But if you repeat something 2 or 3 times then on the second video, you don’t have to explain “Here’s the dashboard from WordPress, etc.” anymore. You can just say, “Yeah, review the last video if you don’t know how to do it.” Have them keep and review the videos until they know it.
Stefan:
Yes.
Francis:
The idea is to record one time on your end as an employer and the employee has to review the video as often as needed until they are able to ask questions or ask for clarifications or simplifications.
Your job is done once when you do 1 video. The assistant’s job is done when they have implemented the work or given you feedback that they need more instructions. Then, the next video comes.
Continue reading part 9 – Discussing different types of communication
An Effective Job Description Solves Virtual Assistants Retention Problems – Save Your Precious Time
Virtual assistants retention problems is part-3 of the second interview from Stefan from Germany, who lives the Four Hour Work Week lifestyle in Thailand.
Click here to read part 2 – Fixed price vs hourly rate
Summary:
- If you always keep firing the people, you are just running behind your project and it gets never done
- A good job description always help you to retain your workers so it’s recommended to communicate as clear as you can at the start of the cooperation.
- You need to handle your virtual employees very tactfully, otherwise they will flee away without any prior notice.
Start of the Interview:
Francis:
If an assistant, when he works with an oDesk, chooses to leave the job because he can’t do it or because he doesn’t have the time; he risks two things. He cannot earn more money from you. And much, much more important, he risks a bad oDesk feedback score.
You, as the employer, have the responsibility and/or the power to communicate truthfully how your virtual assistant works for you during the contract. If he stopped working for you because he didn’t do what was agreed beforehand, in my opinion, that’s justification enough for a bad feedback score.
There are several subsections in the feedback score – the quality of the work, the punctuality, the availability, the communication and stuff like that. In this case, I would give a bad feedback score in availability and say in my comment, “Well we started out with an agreement, 10 hours per week. After 1 week, they didn’t do it. I wouldn’t recommend working without a clear contract, something like that.”
Stefan:
Yes. I totally agree with that.
Francis:
This is not to scare to the worker or to destroy his future on oDesk. If you communicate that this would be the natural consequence, this does not seem inhuman for me.
I mean, you had an agreement if they break the agreement they should expect something to happen. If you don’t take your consequences then you will continue with this working style all the time.
Also, you have to note that when someone else is applying for your job, they will check out your feedback score. They will check out what sort of feedback you leave to your workers.
And if you leave such a worker feedback one time with the back feedback score and say, “Okay. Normally, I don’t give a bad feedback score without a reason but this guy didn’t deliver on our agreement of 10 hours per week.”
Then the next person who applies to your job will be very careful because they know you will take consequences of not fulfilling the time quota.
Stefan:
Yes.
Francis:
I think this is a mixture of being strict and honest. If it was me who would be in this situation, I would tell the assistant, “Okay, I see you deliver much less work than expected. If it’s a personal issue, please tell me. If you just lose your motivation then we need to figure a way out.”
Either they get their motivation back or we slowly fade out the work and then finish the job. And while they slowly fade out the job, they need to take notes about everything they have learned so that the training process for the next person is easier.
Stefan:
Okay. This is a very hard situation actually. Because when you ask your worker that you lose the motivation, that you lose the interest in the job. And he just replies to you, “Yes, I lost the interest in the job because, in my opinion, I understood it wrongly.I thought the job was easier, the job was more interesting” and whatever the personal reasons are.
He tells you, he isn’t interested in the job anymore but you have a contract; what are you going to do now? Are you just going to fire him because he made a bad decision for accepting the wrong job?
Francis:
Firing is, perhaps, the wrong word. In practical situations, yes, you press the button to say end the contract. But in reality, this is open communication. You expected results, he expected some sort of work and the money. He doesn’t care seemingly about the money because the task is so not compatible to him.
He communicated that to you. So this is honest. This has to be respected. And now, we see where to continue, okay? One step would be to save the time trained into him by having him note down what he learned. That is damage control.
The second thing is you say, “Okay, thanks for communicating this. The next person I hire, I will be more clear with the communication if it’s interesting or not.” So you can have him write down what is not interesting on the job and put this as an attachment in the next job description. And say, “Review the job description. If you don’t agree to do this; if you don’t agree to do, for example, boring work…”
Stefan:
Or apply for what’s too difficult for them because he didn’t understand the work.
Francis:
Or that. I think both of that are totally viable. As long as there’s some improvement in your hiring process then you get closer to your goal. If you try the same job description the second time, you will have the same result the second time unless you’re lucky.
Stefan:
Yes. So as conclusion, you gave me the idea that every time you employ someone and you face problem like at the start, you should have him or her write a new job description for you.
Francis:
That is one idea. Of course, you don’t want to pay that…
Stefan:
And you’re going to do is take that and change your existing one. Mix it up. Create a new one that is better. And then when that happens again, you let that person create a new job description.
Francis:
Yes.
Stefan:
So you, again that leaves a good, perfect job description.
Francis:
If you want to save some time and money, you can also do a few job description increasement loops at the beginning of your job. Just hire someone to understand the job and to increase your job description quality. Communicate that so let the people convince you to keep them.
We are not; we are never forced to give out money. If you are happy with the work and want to continue the job, then continue to spend money.
If you are not happy, no one forces you to keep a contract. You can remove your credit card information whenever you want. You shouldn’t ever think that your money is to be taken for granted. You work hard for your money.
You expect hard results for your money. And if you don’t get them, be quick with damage control.
Stefan:
The only problem will be the job gets never done.
Francis:
Well…
Stefan:
If you always fire the people or remove the contract, you are just running behind your project and it gets never done
Continue reading part 4 – How to master the art of effective outsourcing
Asking for Virtual Assistant Works Samples at the Time of Hiring
Virtual assistant work samples is part-6 of the second interview from Stefan from Germany, who lives the Four Hour Work Week lifestyle in Thailand.Click here to read part 5 – Effective email communication with your virtual assistants
Summary:
- At the time of hiring a virtual assistant, check if they have a portfolio in their profile and put it as a requirement in your job description that you need a portfolio
- For design jobs, services like 99designs or Fiverr are more relevant than oDesk.
- You can ask them to attach a work sample before you even start the contract. This will show you who is really motivated to do the job for you and who is able to give you a work sample.
Start of the Interview:
Francis:
Another tool in your hiring process which we didn’t talk about yet is asking for work samples. Check if they have a portfolio in their profile and put it as a requirement in your job description that you need a portfolio. This will take care of all the applicants which do not have a portfolio you don’t even interview them.
Also, you can ask them to attach something, a work sample or something else, in their interview. This is before you even start the contract. This will show you who is really motivated to do the job for you and who is able to give you a work sample.
On the other hand, it will drastically reduce the amount of people who will apply for your job because they have to invest a lot of time and perhaps don’t even get a job.
But if your experience is that when you open a job description and you get a hundred applicants then you can put hire requirements to cut down on the people who applied to you and really filter out the best of the best for you.
Stefan:
Yes, that’s a possibility that you could this.
Francis:
This can all be happening before you start the contract within the interviewing phase.
Stefan:
Most of the time the portfolio is very good actually and shows work which is to me is totally surprising because I wouldn’t hire someone whose portfolio of his past work is not okay – is not good.
Francis:
Yes, of course.
Stefan:
But, surprisingly, I don’t understand why often it’s very difficult for people to reproduce what they already did in their portfolio. I don’t understand this. This is totally illogical. I mean, they could do it once why can’t they do it again?
Francis:
Well, as I said in my opinion, I wouldn’t do graphics designs on oDesk.
Stefan:
Okay.
Francis:
Something like that. So E-book writing, transcription, data entry, data analysis, all website administrative tasks – all of those technical stuffs can easily be outsourced to oDesk.
Stefan:
You wouldn’t do layout, designs or all creativity stuff?
Francis:
At least, I cannot teach you anything about it. I never have done designer jobs over oDesk.
Stefan:
Okay.
Francis:
So if I tell you, “Do it”, I wouldn’t be honest.
Stefan:
No, it’s okay.
Stefan:
There’s also Gigabox, for example.
Francis:
Ah yes, that’s true. So I would probably go over there if I wanted to have a designer job. It might be surprisingly time and money saving. If you invest $100 once and have a great design instead of losing a few weeks of time, a lot of nerves and then $40 without having a result by training an assistant and not getting the results. Then if you do it the second time then you easily has invested $100 also.
Also, with most professional designers you have the chance to have your work reviewed once or twice even on Fiverr. So if you’re not happy with the results, you are not paying the full price unless they have revised it once or twice. This is, in my opinion, a very good solution for designer jobs.
Stefan:
Yup. Right now, I don’t need a designer. But in the future I think I will do it whether it’s two versions. Either I do it small as you suggested in Fiverr. Do the 5 solutions – 5x 5, its $25. Or, do it way bigger also as you said Ninety-nine designs where you pay like $700 for a design or for 20 designs but you only pay for the one you choose.
So, from my experience, I think it’s very likely that only those 2 things are practical. Either go very small or very big for design and art stuff. On the other side, for technical stuff; for writing or what I need right now is not writing but layout.
Arrange the words and the pictures in the layout in a book. I’m writing the E-book right now and if I would outsource that, I am anxious to outsource that because somewhere deep inside I know that this won’t work.
Do you understand what my problem here is? Because from the past experiences I don’t trust this system anymore, I don’t trust that I can hire someone who does the job as I tell him to do the job. There’s also a little burying inside of me already.
Francis:
Yes, of course. If you have had failures in the past, then you will not be as trusting as if you had a lot of success in the past. That I think is natural. In my opinion, it is a doable thing. But if you already have lost your trust in the ability of your assistant then it will be difficult to get this job done.
So for anyone reading this interview, I think an editing and template doing job is very doable in oDesk or Elance or any other outsourcing platform for that matter. For you Stefan, personally, I propose to you that after the interview we talk about how you want the job done.
I figure out with either my assistant or someone else I hire especially for that to do it. I figure out how to make the instructions and then I give this back to you and you try that out with increased instructions.
Stefan:
Okay, could try that. I could try that.
Continue reading part 7 – Why outsourcing fails?
How To Ask Virtual Assistant Work Revisions Without Compromising Quality
Virtual assistant work revisions is part-3 of an interview with Eric, a fellow entrepreneur interested in outsourcing his work to virtual assistants all over the world.Follow along to learn from our experience on working with VAs!
Summary:
- Will getting too many revision offers from a virtual assistant give the employer peace of mind?
- Will asking your virtual assistant for work revisions compromise the quality of work and delay your deadline?
- Can hiring a person without seeing him face to face affect the ability to judge the character and compromise your business?
Start of the Interview:
Eric
I worked with virtual assistants from all over the globe. I worked with some from India, from Bulgaria, from Hungary and different places, and I’ve noticed, for the most part, mostly all of them are very eager to want to give me exactly what I want.
They’ll say, “I will give you as many revisions as you want” for a particular thing or they’re just very eager to give me exactly what it is that I wanted.
Francis
Yep. And did you use this offer? For example, they will write an article for you and they tell you, “You can have as many revisions as you want” would you then take them up on the offer or are you just saying okay they’re offering me this and then I’m happy?
Eric
Well, I think it gave me a little more peace of mind. I mean, when I was hiring them. Because, I think, especially, when you’re hiring someone that you don’t see face to face, it’s kind of hard to judge their character or judge the output that they’re going to give you. I think that by them offering that, it just gave me a little more peace of mind.
But, really like the last person that I just hired was somebody to work on a cover of one of my products that I’m going to put out next week and really I didn’t have to ask him for any revisions at all because the quality that he gave me was perfect.
He followed my instructions exactly the way that I wanted him to. And, so I really didn’t even ask him for any revisions at all. So I think it just depends.
But then, there are other times where I’ve asked for 4 or 5 revisions because it wasn’t exactly what I wanted and they freely gave me the revisions that I wanted and didn’t have any problem with me about that.
Francis
Okay. Perhaps, that’s a take away lesson for virtual assistants if you really want to jumpstart the trust between you and your employer offer bonuses like that. Free revisions, going over what is requested and then you are off to a good start.
Eric
But, I think there can be a problem there too. I mean, I know that there are (probably) some employers who could probably take advantage of this in the same extent.
Yeah. I mean, I think that most people that you worked with, if you’re willing to offer that to them and you give them a good product and you worked hard and you follow the instructions exactly as they’re given to you.
I don’t think that they’ll really take advantage of that. I don’t think. But, you know there are still probably some people who will.
Francis
Yeah. I assume that both of us, we have quite strong ethical values or standards. That perhaps it’s inconceivable for us how abusive some employers or wannabe-employers can be.
Or are not really employers, they are just people who gained the system of trust or initial trust of virtual assistants. And gain the fact that there are possibly many and growing more people of also beginner assistants trying to make a name for them and have a lot to lose.
So, I think that is a fact that one cannot ignore when we have to react to some reactions of your virtual assistants. So, for example, they are a little bit withdrawn in the beginning.
Continue reading part 4 – How to encourage virtual assistant feedback and suggestions
Virtual Assistant Improvement Tips And Tactics
Virtual assistant improvement tips is part-17 of the second interview from Stefan from Germany, who lives the Four Hour Work Week lifestyle in Thailand.
Summary:
- First and most valuable measure you take for your virtual assistant’s improvement is to provide him training.
- Another thing which really improves the motivation of an assistant is to bring his own ideas into the work. This is a sign of self-confidence and motivation.
- It’s just important that you show interest in the motivation of your assistant even if it’s very small. It’s like a small plant that you water with nice feedback.
Start of the Interview:
Francis:
Let’s go back really improving how to research. We talked about research as an example. And we can always expand research by forum, internet research, Youtube videos and PowerPoint archives. If you are very motivated, you make a profile and start asking questions in the forums to get even better research results.
There are survey tools which results in anonymized research results which your assistant can add to the research. If you want to go even further, you can tell your assistant to research for E-books that can train him even further. And then you decide if you buy that E-book and let your assistant read it. So that he can improve his work.
Research is perhaps not the best result example but website creation is a very good example. If you have a WordPress website or another website or a blog, there are lots of free E-books out there. Let your assistant research a few E-books, download them or show you where you can find them.
You check all the resources very quickly, decide which research he should read and then you tell them “Okay, this is a paid training. Take 5 hours reading this.” And then implement everything.
This only works if really he’s already delivering the basic work then we can add the training.
Stefan:
Yes, that’s no problem for me. If I would hire someone long-term, I would be interested in improving this spectrum of abilities, of course.
But that’s only if he already delivered that he is capable of improving himself and not leaving next week or 1 month or something.
Francis:
Yes. I think these tactics are only been there when you are already working with your assistant for 2 months, at least.
If we’re still in the first week and that was the previous part of the interview, you need to make sure that he does what he’s told and he doesn’t leave you without a second note.
Stefan:
Yeah. Okay. And after that, you can work on improving him.
Francis:
Yes. You don’t start with this. Else, you lose a lot of time and money.
Another thing which really improves the motivation of an assistant to bring his own ideas in to the work is to repeat a lot how much it’s important to you that he brings improvement ideas. So this is very easy to do when you do video instructions.
You can talk off the top of your head. While you do video instructions, you can always tell “Ah yeah. By the way if you have any idea to make this better, please tell me in the next email- the next daily email.”
And while it takes you 2 seconds to say in a video recording when you repeat this from time to time, your assistant will start bringing you his own ideas. Perhaps, his own ideas at the beginning are very small ones and you cannot do anything with it. But the fact that he has given you idea from his own perspective means a lot. So don’t disregard it.
If for example you have a WordPress blog and ask “Okay, do you have any idea to make this better?” And he said, “Yeah. I have the idea to research how to do WordPress blogs and then we can make it better.” This is not a tip that would bring you much. But he brought his own tip and then you tell him “Okay. It’s very good that you bring your own tip.”
Actually, you did already know this so nothing will change but it’s very, very good that he brought his own tip and please continue to doing that. Encourage him to bring his own ideas into it.
When he brought to you his basic first tip, tell him what you already know. That it surpasses his basic tip and that after he has implemented all that; he should feel free to bring even more complicated tips.
It’s just important that you show interest in the motivation of your assistant even if it’s very small. It’s like a small plant that you water with nice feedback.
Continue reading part 18 – Mastering the art of having a self-motivated virtual assistant
A Virtual Assistant For Your Small Business – How To Find, Train And Keep Them Self-Motivated
Even more intense and info-packed than the first interview, you’ll find here the overview about my second interview with Stefan.
Stefan is a friend and fellow entrepreneur, only that he moved to Thailand to learn about and experience the 4 hour work week.
The main topic of this interview is how to get a self-motivated virtual assistant for a small business, that solves all your problems.
Although it’s not as easy as it sounds, it’s doable. But read it all for yourself…
The basics: What to look out for / Best practices
When you start out with outsourcing, you first don’t know what to look for in a virtual assistant.
In the interview, we talk about
- Pitfalls of under-delivering assistants,
- How to build trust for long lasting success
- And what the most desirable skill in a virtual assistant really is.
Money is important – both for you as an employer as well as for the virtual assistant. But how best pay your VA?
To the often asked question about hourly vs fixed-price payments, you’ll learn about the pros and cons of each payment method.
Mostly look out for unethical assistants that
- report more hours than they worked for you
- or work on so many different projects at the same time, that yours does not receive the attention it deserves.
However, money is not all to keep your virtual assistants happy. As we lay out next, there are challenges with saving time in the recruitment step as well ass with keeping “the good ones”.
Don’t get trapped in the time waster of burning one employee after the other. Else you will never get the results you are looking for. A certain politeness in handling your virtual employees is also crucial to avoid virtual assistant retention problems.
Graduating from the basics: How to improve efficiency with your VA
Doing personal outsourcing can be time-draining, if you don’t do it efficiently.
What is effective outsourcing?
- Learning about when to do a task yourself, and when the time is right to outsource it. Not all your tasks should be given to your VA.
- Mastering effective communication from and to your virtual assistants.
Since you will mostly communicate with your VA’s via email, it’s important to know about effective email communication.
To be effective, you should communicate often, ideally daily. Even a short info exchange can increase your results!
If you don’t have tíme for email, Skype or video recordings (from you) and email responses (from your VA) have proven to be time savers.
My assistant makes a daily Google presentation with illustrations and bullet points of all the work he does during that day and it worked out really well for me.
Initial effort well-invested: How to screen for the right candidate
Remember, the final goal is to have a self-motivated, excellent virtual assistant with a “can do” attitude.
Setting up the basics is important.
An underused screening trick to speed up the hiring process is asking for work samples from your potential virtual assistants.
The quality of their portfolio will tell you volumes about their past work attitude. If they cared a lot about the work quality for their past employers they will also care about yours.
When you then first start working with your assistant, you can’t expect all to go perfectly. There is a learning curve.
Don’t mistake the process done when your assistant is learning with failure in your outsourcing efforts. If you quit right from the start, you risk losing more time and money than necessary.
The rest will be a result of
- your training,
- his attitude towards work
- and the long-term working relationship you build with your VA.
Communicating with your VA = Your Success
If there is one recipe that will guarantee you better results:
Daily communication with your assistant.
Even if you have a virtual communication using email, video recordings and phone calls, you still will build trust between you and your assistant.
Learn how to talk to your assistant with the right frequency that is best for you and him. This will speed up the communication more and more.
How you communicate with him, is up to you. But there are many tools and many types of communication to choose from.
They all have their pros and cons, as you will read in this part of the interview with Stefan.
The importance of communication with your VA cannot be stressed enough.
How often you communicate with him, is up to you. If you want to start out right, put your need for regular communication into the job description as a requirement for the job.
Frequent Communication = Prevented Mistakes
As a nice side effect, you’ll see that regularly communicating with your assistant will prevent failures from your worker.
You will…
always be up to date about the performance of your VA
find out more quickly if your VA is the right “ideal helper” for you
save money by not working with the wrong person longer than necessary
Good work relationship = Potential long term virtual assistant
Improving your cooperation with your partner to the point that you gain a long term virtual assistant for your online business is a win-win situation for both of you.
- He has a reliable source of income and a solid job.
- You have a motivated, loyal and trustworthy business partner that helps you build your successful online business.
How to communicate this to your assistant while you still get to know him?
Drop hints from time to time about your long time goals. Ask for his advice from time to time.
Even if you have to pry a bit, asking for the honest advice of your VA will leave him with a sense of belonging and respect.
Of course, if your VA does an awesome job and the communication goes really well, nothing speaks against giving a monetary bonus from time to time.
Sidebar: other cultures, and what to look out for
Stefan and my interview got side-stepped at this point for a bit. We talk a lot about Asian work ethics, because most virtual assistants can be found in Asia.
There are pits and downfalls, and sometimes even surprises. But you do best if you adapt your communication style to your assistant a bit.
Empathy is key when dealing with an assistant from another country. A bit of care and tact when talking to your employees doesn’t hurt, either.
Then, dealing with international cultural differences is not such a big challenge any more.
Back on track: What if your communication is bad?
Simple:
Learn from this interview how to improve your communication skills with your assistants.
Learn when to be strict (insist on regular communication) and when to be understanding (when dealing with different cultural backgrounds).
Learn that your work relationship is your ongoing investment into your success.
Remember:
bad relationship with your assistant = little chance to have a self-motivated and productive assistant
Next Milestone: Motivate your VAs!
To get an assistant that works independently, he needs lots of motivation and self-confidence. In the interview, we discuss closely how to motivate employees, and how to teach them to take initiative of their own about your work.
When your assistant is trusting you and is motivated, you should invest into the training and improvement of your virtual assistant.
Any dollar invested now will pay back in the long run in better results for you.
Mastery: Having a self-motivated and proactive virtual assistant
If you keep working on your communication, your trust and the motivation of your assistant, you will have a self motivated virtual assistant.
Note that you don’t ever start here, no matter how much you are willing to pay. This level of mastery is the fruit of your long term efforts.
That’s right, it can take at least a year to be at the point where you would trust your assistant with most of your online business assets (with care).
But the power of leverage you then have is priceless.
Don’t forget to keep your assistant motivated! Don’t destroy what you have invested lots of time and personal energy in by losing your cool over a mistake.
You seriously risk everything, in the worst case scenario.
If you do that, you achieve the dream of every time-challenged entrepreneur:
To have one full time virtual assistant that says:
“Yeah don’t worry about it. I’ll get it figured out. I’ll research it. Don’t you worry.”
We discuss what this means in the context of an outsourcing case study about picture research.
Example: An Assistant for Traffic Generation
Time for another example of an outsourcing case study about traffic generation.
On the basis of a very simple traffic generation technique, we discuss how training your assistant to learn more and more complex skills is key to his independent thinking.
Soon, he will be looking for training materials all on his own (without you needing to do any more).
A long interview finally at its end
Phew! A long interview finally wrapped up!
Stefan and I skyped over 3 hours about all sort of topics. At the end of this outsourcing interview, we summarize again shortly what we learned, and take a well deserved break.
There are many services where the tips shared here can be useful for you. Now it’s your turn to bring your assistant to the level of mastery!
Closing Words of Thanks
Thanks for taking the time to read such a big interview. I hope it was helpful to you and that you could learn a lot from it.
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