Employer interviews who have hired virtual assistants and shared their experiences of outsourcing.
Interviews
Reader Interactions
Preventing Failures From Your Workers
Preventing failures from your workers is part-11 of the second interview from Stefan from Germany, who lives the Four Hour Work Week lifestyle in Thailand.
Click here to read part 10– Importance of communication with your virtual assistants
Summary:
- Try to maintain daily communication with your workers, this will let you keep an eye on their performance and help you preventing failures from your workers.
- You can even ask them to install a productivity tracking software, this will also help you to analyze his performance.
- Another way to avoid frequent mistakes by your virtual employee is to hire the right person for the right job. This involves a bit of time and effort in the hiring process.
Start of the Interview:
Stefan:
Yes. And I also expect that the work that wasn’t done yesterday is done tomorrow or this evening. But I don’t know. It often fails. It often fails at this point.
When there’s one time I’m some sort of lost time, it’s often a back stab and it doesn’t go back to the way it was before. You know. We lose a massive amount of track from the employee side.
Francis:
I think very early you have to make clear that you’re not joking with the communication. When they fail it one time, warn them. Tell them this was your first warning. Most people are like kids. With kids, you start counting 1, 2… and before you say 3, kids will go running.
So this is the same psychology. You tell them, “Okay, this is serious matter. I do assume daily communication. Perhaps, I didn’t make it clear enough but now you know. You will have to communicate. If you don’t, I will be not happy.” They can assume what this means on their own.
And then the next time you tell them, “Okay. I want you then at that date. This is the last warning. I expect the regular communication.” If then, of course, he works half a year very, very nicely. Then he misses the communication again; then please be human. Don’t fire him.
Stefan:
No problem. No.
Francis:
But we’re talking about the first weeks here.
Stefan:
Yes, the first weeks are crucial.
Francis:
Yeah. If we don’t establish the right communication in a very strict and disciplined way at the beginning, there’s no chance to make it nice and lenient in the future. I am at the point where I tell my assistant “Well, do it however you want. I know you do it right.”
Because at the beginning I was very, very specific and he now knows what I want. But if I didn’t do it at the beginning, you would do whatever.
Stefan:
Yes, that’s what’s happening.
Francis:
So I think the key for you to improve the communication with your assistant is at the beginning of the working relationship, be very strict, daily communication, a lot micromanaging and a lot of checking up on what your assistants are doing on oDesk screenshots.
You can even ask them to install a productivity tracking software and tell them that you’re closely managing them at the beginning because you expect them to learn your working style. And then, things can go on natural course.
Do you believe that if he does this from the start with a fresh assistant, you have might have better results?
Stefan:
My only problem with that approach is that it’s a very time and money investing approach.
Francis:
How much time are we talking about here? We hire someone in a very closely managed interviewing process. No money spent and probably about 4 hours of work spend if we sum it all up together.
With this, you screened a least 50 assistants with a basic interview tests. I call it a Sunshine Test. So, you tell them a code word within the job description and tell them “Start your application with that word. Else, I wouldn’t read it.” This screens out half of the people then we have 25 people left.
Those you check which ones have the right portfolio, the right qualities, and the right work feedbacks and there you choose your 5 preferred people. Those 5 people, you send them interview requests with further questions.
For example, send me a screenshot of your internet speed. Let’s do a Skype call. And then you have 3 people who actually shut up. With those 3 people, you make 10 minutes Skype call. You stop your timer and you only have 10 minutes. After that everything is done.
Stefan:
Yes.
Francis:
Then you have perhaps 2 winners where you’re not sure who to take. Both of them are good. Either you hire both of them and let them work against each other and see who is working better.
Or, you hire one and keep the other one and tell them”Okay, I’ve found someone who’s slightly better than you. But if it doesn’t work out, I will come to you first things first.”
Keep that contact in mind and be nice to him, right, because he already passed all your interviews. If the first person fails within 1 week, hire the second person immediately.
You can also tell your first person “Okay, you have made the catch. You are the best interviewee but it was a very close call to another guy.
And I’m hiring you on a trial position. We work for 1 week, we establish the communication and we see it before we work together in a nice way. If you pass this week and you continue to keep that work morals upright then we can continue working together.”
Be open with your applicant. If they’re fresh, have them have a probationary period like in a real job.
And then, don’t allow for more than 1 week of experimentation. If the communication doesn’t work after 1 week, it will not work ever or it is too time consuming to correct that behavior.
Continue reading part 12 – Short term vs long term virtual assistants
Part-Time vs Full-Time Virtual Assistants: Which One Fits the Job Title for Outsourcing?
Part-time vs full-time virtual assistants is part-13 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!
Click here to read part 12 of this interview – How do you fire assistant who is unfit for the job?
Summary:
- Learn about the pros and cons between part-time vs full-time virtual assistants
- Learn which virtual assistant works best with your online business: part-time vs full-time.
- Learn when will be the right time to hire part-time and full-time virtual assistants.
Start of the Interview:
Eric
If we could talk a little bit about the first one because I know that I have a little bit of experience working with project based assistants and you’ve had a little bit of experience using permanent assistants. Maybe we could talk about that.
Francis
Actually, it’s the other way around. I have had almost only project based assistants. Well, not project, but non-permanent assistants. So, on oDesk, what will define project based assistant and permanent assistants?
Permanent assistants are like a full time position from an assistant in the Philippines. For example, I’m saying that because I believe they are for full time assistant positions because often they are looking for that.
So, someone who really has a contract – has 40 hours paid work time even if you don’t come up with ideas for them to work. So, they still get paid like a real employee. That’s, in my opinion, are personal assistant.
And then a project based assistant, or how I understood it, was someone from oDesk or Elance or any other hourly billed service. And then you just tell them what you would like to do and they work on that. If they don’t work, they don’t get paid.
Eric
Okay. I get what you’re saying. I get you.
Francis
So, I have most experience with oDesk based assistants who are working on one project after another or several at the same time. Except for my main assistant who’s working about 30 hours a week for me, so almost full time; I have had no full time assistant for long.
Eric
Yeah, yeah. Most of the time, I’m just doing specific projects, specific things that I need done and then call on those people when I need those things done.
Francis
Okay. So in principle, we are on the same page based on our experience with the assistants. So, perhaps let’s change the topic to “In what ways do I believe a full time assistant is better or worse than a project based assistant?”
Eric
Okay, that will work.
Francis
So, obviously, I know the advantages of a project based assistant. And only if you sort of have a project based assistant and really feel okay, he’s working 30-40 hours regularly; I might just as well have a full time assistant.
Eric
Now here’s the thing, I didn’t feel like I had enough work or enough tasks because I would like to have somebody working full time. Because, where I am right now, I could pay to have somebody working full time.
But, I just don’t feel like that I have enough things for them to do. And it might just be me who was thinking that, you know I’m not willing to give up certain parts of my business here. You know what I’m saying?
Francis
Yes. That’s true
Eric
Because, I think that there are certain things that I could give to a virtual assistant that I’m just not ready to give away at this point. I think that’s where we have to kind of bear ourselves as employers and be like okay:
- what are the things that we don’t want to do?
- what are the things that we shouldn’t be doing?
And then give those things off because it’s going to free us up for more time, free us up for more opportunities to do more high level tasks. You know what I’m saying?
Francis
Yep. I totally get that. But, there’s also a slight difference between going back to high level maintenance and being sort of the inspiration guy and just giving away the business. So that the assistant sort of works to make the money for you while you don’t care.
Eric
Yeah, right. Yeah. I know what you’re saying.
Francis
And the second option is I think what many people associate it with when you have a full time virtual assistant. Also, there is some marketing into that direction which perhaps gives people the wrong perception.
Like, “Okay, I have this business in a box idea.” You just hire a full time virtual assistant then you just give them the idea and then they’d find out the rest and you get tons of money.
I do not really believe that this works, at least not on a long term, stable and fulfilling basis. Perhaps, it does technically work. But, I think one of these factors is then not meant.
So, I have the same problem of finding a list of tasks, especially for a beginning virtual assistant, that will fill 40 hours.
But, from the experience with my full time VA, the beginning was so rough with discussions going back and forth and I was not really habituated to having so many questions anymore. Because, working with my main assistant has been so long already that I’m used to that.
Also, that assistant is helping me in managing the full time assistant. So, I think it makes sense to first start out with hourly based assistant until you have reached a certain experience with the outsourcing thing. And then have a person to help with training the next person.
Eric
Yeah, and you can almost promote that person who is your general assistant to kind of be more like a team leader or a management type of position, I guess you could say.
Francis
Exactly. That’s actually what I’m doing. So, I try to do everything on my own when, or mostly on my own, my assistant did some research for the candidate.
But, then when I was interviewing and getting to know that person which was my last full time assistant from the Philippines, I was involved too early.
I was personally involved and I really felt connected to that person. She’s fun and was interesting to talk to and I had almost all these ideas ready. And then when it didn’t work out like I wanted it to, I was not able to give up easily.
My assistant had to get very, for his standards, very drastic in his rhetoric to tell me, okay; perhaps my approach is not the most efficient one to just continue doing what does not work.
And because I did not only give that assistant (the full time assistant) one second chance; I gave her like 4 second chances. And really there were many people who were giving me advice to say “Okay, just try someone else. Perhaps, someone else will make you much happier.”
And I do not think my previous virtual assistant (full time assistant) was a bad person nor did bad quality work. But, we really had problems with the internet connections and they just weren’t solvable. So before, I’m technically stuck.
It’s better to switch to another assistant and go away in peace. And then find someone where it really clicks. Right?
Eric
Right, yeah.
Francis
So, those are obviously the disadvantages of the full time assistant. You have to set them up and then you probably need support to keep them going. So, in the beginning, I had all these ideas and we were just talking about SBI! sites and my ideas in how the content management system feeds then this system.
Then there’s an auto-responder who delivers traffic which can be split test optimized to monetize, you know. Right? Then I just lose them.
But then I said okay, if there are any questions, please first talk it out with my sort of Hiring Manager assistant. And then if both of you can come to the conclusion that there’s something you don’t know then come back to me. This filters out 95% of the questions.
Continue reading part 14 – Learn how to handle a newbie full-time virtual assistant
What Are The Standards In Hiring Part-Time Administrative Assistant?
Part-time virtual assistant is part-16 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:
- Learn how to hire a part-time administrative assistant for project-based tasks
- Know the rules and standards in hiring a part-time administrative assistant
- How to effectively progress project-based tasks with a part-time virtual assistant
Start of the Interview:
Eric
I have a question for you, Francis. Like say, for example, that you’re trying to build your team and you want to have somebody do those specific roles; would you hire somebody specifically for like say, for example, graphic design? Do you think that that’s something that you would hire that person for full time?
Like, say that you got to the point in your business where you felt like you were able to support that role, would that be something that you think that should be hired full time or you think it’s something that should be just a project type of thing?
Okay, I needed a new graphic created for this particular page or I need something created, you know what I’m saying?
Francis
Yes. Unless you are in the service business yourself or unless your day to day work needs graphic design often, I would not have an idea why I should hire a graphic designer person full time.
Also, in my opinion, graphic design is one of the most expensive things to outsource. At least if you want quality.
Eric
Because I’ve been thinking about, okay, if I wanted to really build my team the way that I wanted, I would probably need a graphic designer. I probably need a video editor, an audio editor and all these different things.
But, then I thought okay, that’s going to be very expensive to keep up with each of these roles. I wouldn’t be able to pay for each one of those people. So, I thought, okay, maybe I could just keep them, you know the functions that I really like and then just use them as I need them to do specific things.
Francis
Yeah. And also, I think you have to find a sweet spot between expanding your team and losing additional time with communication. So I talk to my assistant through video recordings almost every day for sort of, let’s say, on average half an hour.
This means that sometimes I don’t say anything and sometimes I record just a 5 minute feedback because I had a good idea. And sometimes I sit down and record a one hour big, big talk about everything.
On average, half an hour a day and with one assistant. And that assistant takes care of the communication with up to 3 or 4 other assistants at the moment. So I leverage the time so that I only talk to him and don’t need to talk to 5 different people.
But in the end, it makes sense to stay in contact with your other team members because they have to feel also like part of the team.
Even if your communication goes over one hiring assistant, from time to time you have to talk to your other team members directly. That they know we have an open ear for their feelings, for their problems and even if it’s only to tell them Happy Birthday, Merry Christmas, something like that. I have to say I’m not very good about that either, but I’m trying.
Eric
Yeah, yeah. Well I think it’s just that there are so many different things that we do as online business owners that I feel like I could hire a hundred different people to do all of the little things that I do.
Francis
Yep.
Eric
But, I couldn’t see myself paying the money to do that right now, you know what I’m saying
Francis
Yes.
Eric
And have a hundred different people working for me at the same time.
Francis
Yeah, it makes sense to sort of max out the time working with one person as much as possible. So if you have a project based video designer, I think it makes much more sense to train them for a podcast creation and, I don’t know, slideshow creation or something like that because it’s similar.
And it has the same business strategy ideas behind them. You build a podcast on iTunes for the same reason that you build a video presence on YouTube.
So the big picture is the same. And I think the technical aspects are also similar.
Eric
Right. Because I mean, it doesn’t have to be a perfect video, I can just find somebody that can maybe transition into both roles rather than having to have an individual do every single thing, I guess.
Francis
Yeah, exactly. When you have that and you say, okay, you still have more videos and things to do, then you expand. You either expand by one other project person to take care of the 10 additional hours.
And then as you expand more, you then just say which person does a better job on videos and which person does a better job on podcasts and then separate the roles.
They still can complement each other when needed. But, if you start out and say, okay, I have 10 hours a week for podcast and 10 hours a week for video and you just hire 2 full time positions. And you end up with lots of overtime that you just fill with nonsense because I want to fill them, the time.
Or you lose time because you have to do the hiring process and the business relationship building with both people.
Eric
Great, yeah. I mean, that’s great. Thank you. I appreciate that. It makes a little bit more sense than having to go out and just hire 20 people to do something that you could split off between maybe 4 or 5, you know.
Continue reading part 17 – how to outsource with YouTube marketing strategy effectively
Real Life Experiences About Outsourcing to the Philippines
Outsourcing to the Philippines is part-7 of an interview from Stefan from Germany, who lives the Four Hour Work Week lifestyle in Thailand.
Click here to read part 6– Qualities A Professional Administrative Assistant Must Have
Summary:
- If you are outsourcing to the Philippines, you will find them very hard working, active and charming.
- Thes best quality most of the virtual assistants from the Philippines have is their English language skills.
- On the flipside, they are very sensitive and require special treatment and attention when working with them.
Start of the Interview:
Francis:Please go ahead. I will separate this interview in subsections into ‘Outsourcing to the Philippines’ so that it will readable for anyone.
Stefan:
Okay because ‘outsourcing to the Philippines’ is a little bit outside of this context.
Francis:
No problem.
Stefan:
I had this one assistant from the Philippines. It was a girl. Her job was, because I wanted to rebuild the idea from Tim Ferriss that he outsourced his dating life… and I wanted to rebuild that.
I wanted to make it a business. I wanted to see if it’s possible to hire somebody to create dates and then faking that this outsourcer is a person somewhere.
Francis:
Okay.
Stefan:
Going on a website meeting people, arranging dates and the client just has to go to the café and go on the date with the other person that the outsourcer arranged.
I had this and she was very active. She was charming. I had the feeling that she was charming and she had very good English skills.
I had the feeling that it was from male client to find girls. So I thought it was the right kind of way to go with a female to flirt with other girls because she has the understanding of how women think.
That’s was my first idea. And we worked but very soon she was like two weeks into the work; she’s got it. I reviewed her work again and again.
In the beginning I was giving her time to find a solution. The problem was I couldn’t teach her how to arrange these dates.
I didn’t have the time and I didn’t want to take her by the hand. I want that she finds a way because I didn’t know myself how to make the best possible way.
So I wanted her to try out a little bit. And I told her again and again, it isn’t about success. We don’t have rates. We just have to find this out. To figure out if there is a way to figure it out.
Okay, this is all trial. I paid her hourly and I told her, a lot of times, this is a long term commitment. Okay, this is a long term job. Please do your best because I’m confident in you.
After a couple of weeks I reviewed her work and I gave her daily or 2 days for the things that she should have done until then.
Francis:
Yes. Yeah.
Stefan:
And she didn’t achieve that. For example, writing 50 messages in one day even if it’s just 5 different types of messages 10 times sent each. You know what I mean?
I constructed the workload so that it will be definitely possible for her to do on this day, on these two days. And she didn’t fulfill that.
Instead of 50 messages, she did 5 messages or 20 messages or 15. So I told her I reviewed your work and you didn’t do as much as I wanted from you. It’s not a problem. If you have to work more hours on that job, please do that. No problem. I pay you more. This is all no problem but please achieve that amount that I want from you.
The problem continued that I don’t know, maybe it’s the same problem because she didn’t reach the goals at all. And I told her, I saw that you didn’t achieve that goal today, please achieve it tomorrow.
But she didn’t achieve it tomorrow and it continued and continued and continued. And I tried to fix that, to find why she isn’t doing the things that I tell her because they were simple things.
At some point, she just quit. She just couldn’t do it anymore. And wasn’t able to communicate with me why she couldn’t do it.
So this work relationship broke apart.
Francis:
Yes. If I can give you my take on what happened, you did a few things good and a few things not so good but without knowing enough about outsourcing to the Phillipines.
What you did good is that you encouraged her. And what you did very good for someone from the Philippines is that you emphasized the long term relationship.
If you’re outsourcing to the Philippines, they as virtual assistants in general are looking for, ideally, a fixed term job with one employer which they can do on a long term basis. That would make them happy.
They are not asking to be partners in your business. They do not want get risks or even be part of your gains – you money gains.
Stefan:
Yes.
Francis:
If you tell them I will pay you half of what I earn, they will not be so interested. But if you tell them I will pay you this amount of money for this amount of time and there’s a possibility of a raise; they will be interested.
Stefan:
Yes.
Francis:
So that’s perhaps the first thing what you did very good while outsourcing to the Philippines. What was not so good was, in general, that you ask from her something which you couldn’t do yourself.
So, please set up this online dating thing without you knowing exactly how to formulate these emails. There were many things she could have been unsure of.
- From which cultural area can these people be from?
- How long do the message have to be?
- are they chats? Are they emails?
- Have their pictures?
- Have their fake personal information?
- Which characters does she impersonate or whatever?
So all these uncertainty will help make her insecure about her work. She could have proposed something and you might have been happy with it.
But because she thought there are so many possibilities, the probability that I do the right things is low; so my employer will be angry even if he doesn’t say he’s angry. He will be angry. So, I’m feeling insecure. So I don’t say anything.
Stefan:
Yeah I understand why she could have thought so but the only thing that I wanted from her is that she does like the thing – the specific amount of emails.
Even if she would copy-paste it like 50 times the same thing. At least, she would’ve reached that…
Francis:
Goals?
Stefan:
Yes the number goals. And that is the only thing that I criticized about her.
Francis:
Okay. But perhaps, she had her work ethics that would not allow her to make one email and copy-pasted 15 times and say, I’m done.
She wouldn’t have accepted that for herself. And so perhaps, she wrote 4 emails and then she ran out of ideas, didn’t know where to get new ones; didn’t know how to make you happy.
Just stayed there in front of a computer trying to find it out. Time went by. Perhaps, she started do to something else where she felt more comfortable doing it. And then your work got stuck.
Stefan:
Yes, I definitely see it the same way.
Francis:
Okay.
Stefan:
We tried to figure that out in the beginning with possible ways to approach that work. And from there on, I let her because I needed information. I needed a statistic and I didn’t have that statistic.
Like let’s say from thousand emails that she wrote, 1% was the success; which 1%? And if we just make it all emails like this 1%, is it then 100%? I needed data. I couldn’t give her data because I didn’t have any data.
Francis:
Okay.
Stefan:
I could do it myself and then it would work but I couldn’t give her a way that always works. We didn’t find a way that always works. I only knew a way that works because I do it and I’m creative about the approach of how I’m doing it with online dating, for example.
That was very hard. I knew that I couldn’t outsource my knowledge. I couldn’t outsource people to behave like I would behave.
So, I needed more data and I needed her to create that data to maybe then spread it to other outsourcers. And yeah, it didn’t work out like I wished.
Francis:
Perhaps, we’ll slowly come back to the subject. Let me share a few last ideas and then propose that we discuss this topic on another time.
I’m very interested in your project because I like the idea of personal real life outsourcing very much. I’m also interested in starting several projects of my own life where I outsourced my own life.
This one, fortunately, I don’t need to outsource but I’m very interested in the results. And if you would start any web project, I would be interested and motivated to plug it from my website.
So my last ideas towards this project, if you would have a new assistant who wouldn’t be – I’m confused about what you wanted to do.
Let’s say you want to start to work yourself, you start going on an internet forum where people date online. Then you would take out a few threats and use voice recordings to tell your assistant how you would have reacted.
So take a chat from whatever platform you would be using and then react in several different ways illustrating your knowledge as you do so.
In one time be like the honest guy, one time be the cool and sassy guy; one time be totally macho. Different ways.
I’m sure you know what I mean.
Stefan:
Yeah.
Francis:
And as you do so, you can either have your reactions be transcribed as a basis or it is training material for your assistant so that he/she knows what scopes of reactions are allowed.
You can also make negative examples. Say, you have a chat from a female person who contacts you and says, “Your profile is very cute, I would like to know you.”
And then you say, literally say, in a voice recording, “See, I just got this message. This would be the wrong way to react, ’Haha! You’re hot! lol’ or something like that.”
Stefan:
Yeah.
Francis:
And you really exaggerate. You can even make it funny especially when outsourcing to the Philippines. But it will teach your assistant where the line is to be drawn.
And it will also teach your assistant that you can make fun, that you can be a fun employer. And this will make everything a little bit less formal.
Stefan:
Yes.
Francis:
So with this, I propose that you come back from outsourcing to the Philippines to the main topic from your job description.
Continue reading part 8 – How to improve the existing job description…
Concluding The Outsourcing Interview From Stefan
This is the conclusion and last part of the outsourcing interview from Stefan from Germany, who lives the Four Hour Work Week lifestyle in Thailand.
Click here to read part 21 – How to keep your assistant motivated
Summary:
- In this interview you can learn about hiring process, about the tools you need to communicate to your assistant like video instructions and online productivity tools.
- We have also discussed about the different services that are out there like the Fiverr, Mechanical Turk, oDesk and other services in this outsourcing interview.
- You would also learn how to train your virtual assistants with new skills and how to motivate them to build their inner confidence and initiative.
Start of the Interview:
Francis:
In this outsourcing interview, I could answer your questions or try to answer your questions directly. But the website has grown pretty big and there’s a lot of free information on it and in my humble opinion, I think there’s lots of lessons to be learned.
So if you do have free time, please take the time to check out different sites. Although it’s a lot of stuff to read, I think if you implement the lessons from my site; you might be able to save time on the long run.
Especially about the hiring process, about the tools you need to communicate to your assistant like video instructions and online productivity tools. And the different services that are out there like the Fiverr, Mechanical Turk, oDesk and other services.
So if you haven’t had time to take an overview about this, please look at it and see if you cannot increase the quality of your hiring strategy.
Stefan:
Yes.
Francis:
Promise?
Stefan
I have to change my hiring process because it’s not working yet.
Francis:
That’s right.
Stefan:
it’s not giving the results that I want to have. But I’m most likely would only go for long stuff in the future. There are two things that I will definitely change. One thing is a way bigger…how do you say this…
Francis:
So you’re looking forward to build a bigger team of people who will be working at your project at the same time.
Stefan:
In the beginning, for like the first 5 hours and then shave off 50% of the people. And then let the rest work another 5-10 hours. Shave again the half of them. And then, figure out one person. But all of that is not for an immediate project.
Because when I need the immediate results, they most likely won’t deliver that. So, it’s basically just dummy work to find someone who is able to improve himself and become my virtual assistant for the future.
Francis:
One word of warning to this, please don’t be too nearsighted. If you hire someone for 3 hours then fire them because the first 3 hours were not good. You might be losing out. Some people need some time and I’m not talking about several weeks but at least 1 or 2 weeks.
So if you decide to hire several people and keep only the best of them; I would always propose that you hire 2 people for 2 weeks. And after 2 weeks, you keep the winner. Do not work with more than 2 people at a time because you will lose the overview. Also, you will lose too much money in a short period of time.
And always by pairs of 2 against 2 weeks, check the performance objectively by the people. See how often they reply, how willing they are, how motivated they are and don’t let your time invested into 1 person be lost too easily. So always think about your second chance if makes it worth it in the long run.
Stefan:
Yup. But again, as I said, this is rather a long term thing. From my experience, I think I can conclude that if I need a job done right now like let’s say in 1 week or 2 weeks, 4 weeks or whatever…
I would have to train someone first. That doesn’t work out. So I’d rather do that on my own right now.
Francis:
Okay. So I think that’s a good bottom line for this outsourcing interview. For important short term projects, figure it out on your own first. But build the basic building blocks so that you can have 1 or, perhaps, several long term assistants in the future.
Stefan:
Yes. For the future project, if you already have someone who is able to do various things then okay. But if you don’t have anybody, don’t search for that person because most likely it won’t work. That’s my experience for short time.
Francis:
Yeah, for short time. For long term, you would…
Stefan:
But let’s say for 2 weeks the project has to be done or like in 4 weeks, it’s very unlikely that the person whom you hire right now will deliver those results.
Francis:
I think it’s very difficult. Yes, that’s true. I would like end this outsourcing interview from this part about the motivation of the virtual assistant unless you have a final question about this.
Stefan:
No. No further questions.
Francis:
Okay. So thanks for that.
Why Outsourcing Fails and How to Prevent It?
Why outsourcing fails is part-7 of the second interview from Stefan from Germany, who lives the Four Hour Work Week lifestyle in Thailand.Click here to read part 6 – Asking your virtual assistant for his previous work samples
Summary:
- In the initial phase of outsourcing, you might get a feeling that it’s rather not cost efficient and therefore often you decide to quit it.
- For successful outsourcing results, it’s recommended that you hire one main virtual assistant who looks after most of your work.
- Finding one perfect assistant is however not easy, you will have to invest a lot of time and money in training to make him perfect for your needs.
Start of the Interview:
Francis:
I want you to gain back the trust into the idea that outsourcing works.
Stefan:
I know this works but the problem is I experienced that it is on the verge of not being cost efficient anymore. When I put everything inside – my time, my nerves. You know, everything that I put inside, the money there that I put inside, everything.
If you combine all of that, it goes over this cliff where this is the safe border on the side where there’s good and productive and everything. There’s the cliff where those just says “Just do it on your own.” No?
Francis:
Okay. I think you are on a very delicate point here. In my opinion, if you pass this situation where it’s on the cliff even if you, for a few weeks, are not money efficient. It only goes up from there.
As long as you continuously learn from your failures and implement steps to eliminate the failures in your future. It can only go up. And after you pass the situation where you are, sort of, not cost efficient; you come in to the area of its being crazily time and cost efficient.
Stefan:
Okay.
Francis:
So I think coming to that point is worth it, at least for me personally. I think over the cost of the time, I might have mentioned this in the other interview already; I have invested a few thousand dollars in outsourcing. I have received quite some results.
I did many, many different projects and I learned tons of stuff. Most of all goes in to this website so that others don’t need to invest same money to learn the same lessons. But now that I have learned all of these, it’s really easy for me.
I have one assistant who is perfect and if some point in the future he decides to change his work situation; I am confident that I will be able to train and form a new person almost as perfect as the old assistant in a quite short amount of time.
So, this takes away the fear of the system not functioning anymore for me. And I think that’s priceless. Now that I know how to do this, I can be very confident in working a lot of different projects at the same time.
Stefan:
I didn’t know if I want it hand drawn because I knew also that this is time consuming.
Francis:
Yeah, yeah.
Stefan:
I agree that it’s definitely possible and definitely cost efficient at some point. But for small jobs and for just outsourcing occasionally, it’s a very delicate situation.
Francis:
Yes. If you don’t outsource on a regular basis, I wouldn’t recommend – how do I say this? – going into contract outsourcing. I propose that if you say, “Well, some weeks I don’t have anything to do and some weeks I have something to do.”
That you get one do-it-all assistant, train him for whatever comes up but tell him beforehand, “Well, on average, it will not be more than 10 hours a week” so that this assistant can also go out and get other jobs. This would be fair.
But then if you have something to do and if you have established a good working relationship; he knows that it’s fun working with you and he gets well paid then he will come back to you whenever you need him. But it’s not as efficient as having someone dedicated to you.
Stefan:
Yes.
Francis:
But that only works if you have a lot of work for him.
Stefan:
I assume that I would have a lot of work and give him that. What do you mean dedicated like 40 hours a week or 10 hours a week or whatever’s possible?
Francis:
At least 20 hours a week.
Stefan:
Okay. So that’s a full time assistant or a part time assistant.
Francis:
Exactly.
Stefan:
Okay.
Francis:
That’s the most efficient way to do it.
Stefan:
From myself, I would say that if I have someone who’s working for me 20 hours a week, I would definitely find enough work for him to do. Given that he could do it because the stuff that I would tell him to do would be such a wide range.
It could vary from graphic design to layout to web design to web formats to websites or to just somewhere and do some specific tasks. Very different things but actually someone who is web affinity, you know?
Francis:
Yes.
Stefan:
Has some web affinity and can grasp these things. And is basically a new pair of hands for me. Just do stuff while I don’t do stuff.
Francis:
Work while you sleep.
Stefan:
Yeah, exactly. That would be a lot when I don’t feel like working.
Francis:
Yes.
Stefan:
Then I have a motivation low, I can be at least reassured that stuff is done.
Francis:
Yes.
Stefan:
And I learned that if I would need a full time or a part time assistant or only a web designer or only the data entry guy.
Francis:
Yes. If you want to go this way, to have someone working much for you; there is no way around efficient communication in the first time.
So at the beginning, you let him only do one job and do it well until he understands how you think and how you want it. Then you expand to the next job. You cannot start with 10 jobs at same time. That’s not efficient. I don’t recommend it.
Stefan:
How do I find someone who can do potentially everything? Who is just an online nerd who learns and then loves stuff like that and can do so many things?
Francis:
By being very careful in the interviewing process and finding the person who for the right price for you has a lot of availability. So, does not work for 10 other projects but says okay I have 40 hours a week shows you in his portfolio and in his application that he’s very smart and very skilled; and shows you within the interview process in the first test task at the beginning that he’s a problem solver and a quick learner.
If you have such a person on your hand even if is he’s not very skillet yet then you have a winner. Because you can always train him, if he’s a quick learner and doing whatever he needs. If he has, for example, basics of graphics design down.
Stefan:
Yeah.
Francis:
I think that’s really the most difficult step where there’s a little bit of luck involved. But if you asked the right questions, if you’ve given the right test tasks, really closely consider how fast he’s learning and how fast he’s implementing stuff on his own.
If you really screen for such people, then earlier or later you find that person who is self motivated – self learner – and whom you can give lots of different tasks overtime.
But to find that out, if you need to be closely tuned in to your applicants and assistants. And here I would really want to go back to the sort of point where I talk about the communication.
Stefan:
Yes.
Francis:
If that’s okay with you…
Stefan:
Yeah, totally.
Continue reading part 8 – Establishing Effective Virtual Communication with Your Assistants
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