Employer interviews who have hired virtual assistants and shared their experiences of outsourcing.
Interviews
Reader Interactions
Example Job Description for An Ebook Illustrator and Selection Process
Example job description is part-4 of an interview from Stefan from Germany, who lives the Four Hour Work Week lifestyle in Thailand.
Summary:
- You can also invite virtual assistants that have specific skills directly for an interview instead having them apply for your job.
- It’s a good sign of a candidate if he straight away provides his contact details (e.g. skype name) in the cover letter.
- Always check for copyright details whenever you use any images on your website.
Start of the Interview:
Francis:
Okay. So I have made a screenshot of your example job description, Stefan.
Stefan:
Yes.
Francis:
And we have talked about it before but I can give you feedbacks about your job description if you would like to. But if you have questions first…
Stefan:
Let me just explain first what I’m talking about is. Why I wrote it like that and I wasn’t so sure because my experience with outsourcing is limited.
So in the past when I outsourced the jobs, I just wrote the job – what you have to do – in very simple words. So, somebody that is working with me would understand or I would understand it.
And from that, I search for an outsourcer that would have a good profile – a high quality profile that have a good ranking and whatever and that should possibly able to understand what I mean.
Francis:
Yes.
Stefan:
So by writing it very simple and just put it out there. Then I wrote to you that what you think about it and how could I improve it. From that point, I didn’t want to wait so long until you help me out with your expertise.
I just invited a few people that I found on oDesk that I thought were maybe good. I invited them to the job and I got a couple of applications. A lot of them were crap because they’ve just said, “Okay, I accept.”
That was the whole application. But there was one person in particular that wrote me and explained to me what he wanted to do. He would like to have the job and he also sent me his Skype name right away.
Francis:
That is a very good sign, by the way. That would be a test I would do if I were interested in finding a good applicant. So he is actually a very interesting candidate. Go on, please.
Stefan:
Yeah. I thought that was good right away because I didn’t need to write him back and wait for the message again. So, I just added him on Skype and wrote him.
I wrote him and he was online right away. We chatted a little bit. We exchanged ideas and it was right away a good communication.
We didn’t talk so much right away about the payment and about stuff. We talked about the job and I thought that was also a good sign because a lot of people, most of the time in the past interviews, were like this.
I asked what would you do with this job, what are your idea? …and the person tells me I have experience with that and that and that.
And that is all. It’s just listing the past experience. Not so much like I think that we could do that and we could do that. So I thought that he gave me right away possible solutions for the problem and he listened to my problem in detail.
Then, it was a good sign that he didn’t talk about payment right away at all. We didn’t talk about payment for he worked for me 2 days already. It wasn’t a full time job. It was a – how do you say?
Francis:
A part time job.
Stefan:
Part time job, yeah. Like maybe 1 hour a day, 2 hours a day, maybe with a fixed price offer. And the next day, he sent me a sample of his ideas – of his work. That was really good. I saw that he has a few ideas and that he really had thought about that stuff.
Then we discussed it further and further. The biggest problem about the job wasn’t so much the redesigning of the layout.
The biggest problem that is still on the table with our E-book creation is that we have to redesign the pictures that are in the E-book that will be used in the E-book.
Because I can’t produce pictures from scratch, from zero, so I take copyrighted material from Google image search and I just have to make it non-copyright material.
So, my idea is to just take it and redraw it because if I redraw it, 99% of the copyright problem is gone.
Right? If they are like cartoon styled, totally different style, change the angle of the work and stuff. It’s hand-drawn or something like that. Okay, just some solution.
Francis:
We just want to interject here. Since I’m not a lawyer, I cannot give you legal advice. However in your case, I would double or triple check if hand redrawn picture will keep you safe especially if you give the instructions “Please re-draw by hand” and the results is pretty similar. Then you will be in trouble, perhaps.
Stefan:
No, no. The result doesn’t have to be similar. It mustn’t be similar.
Francis:
It shouldn’t be.
Stefan:
No, it mustn’t be similar. It has to be the same information for the human eye, for the reader, but it doesn’t have to be the same. You know what I mean?
A reader has to get the same value from the picture but a Google reverse search engine doesn’t have to find the original image where it came from. Okay?
Because it’s a medical E-book and the human body is not copyrighted, okay?
Francis:
Yes. I understand.
Stefan:
And so writing a vertebra is not copyrighted in any form – you drawing a vertebra. So it just has to be the same value of the information of the picture.
We tried a few examples. We tried to take the original picture. That was the first idea, take the original picture and make a vector graphic from it.
But that was still too similar – way too similar. It looked the same. The arrangement of the picture was basically the same. It was just a different graphic style.
Google image search is very good to find the original still and that mustn’t be possible. That is the thing that I want from my designer that he draws a picture.
And if I take that picture and put it into image search from Google, I can’t find the original picture where it came from. We have to achieve that.
Francis:
Okay. So, let me take over the conversation again. I think that is possible. But just for food for thought and as a little sidebar, as you said the human body is not copyrighted; please double check.
And if needed, get an assistant to research that for you. Is it possible that some of the pictures you plan to re-draw could be found in the very similar way in the Creative Commons area in the Wikimedia, in Flickr, in other image source which you can use for commercial reasons for free?
Stefan:
No. Not in this quality and especially not in this being so easy to find. There are a lot of different because I don’t know exactly what I’m searching for and if I’m using Google image search to search for.
I have a thousand or many, many pictures that I can choose from. And to search that volume from open sources would take an immense amount of time from my side. More than it would take to use images from a source that I don’t know if copyrighted or not and let them be re-drawn.
That is basically the easiest solution and since we made so much progress in the last days to find a solution to this problem.
I’m confident that this is the way to go because it saves a lot of time from my side. And my time is the most valuable in this whole calculation, you know.
Francis:
Understood. So, the possibility of having someone else does the picture research for you, someone potentially cheaper and just as effective.
This possibility aside, I think your job description is rather effective overall. It still has a few flaws.
Stefan:
Yes.
Francis:
I tried to point them out in our mastermind group which we have which is closed so I won’t link to it. But unfortunately, Google plus deleted somehow my comment when I pressed enter and I didn’t want to write it again.
Entrepreneur Interview With Stefan Who Lives The 4-Hour-Work-Week In Thailand
Stefan and I did a very interesting entrepreneur interview about outsourcing via Skype. The whole interview was transcribed and put into blog posts so that you can learn from his lessons and my insights about how to become an employer and get better results with your virtual assistants.
Enjoy the interview!
Stefan has had some good results with using transcription software. On the other hand, software will never be as accurate and flexible, as well as fast as human transcription. Read our discussion about voice transcription software vs transcription by a virtual assistant.
You will be surprised how much more effective a human transcriber can be if you do it right.
If you do decide to hire a transcriptionist, you might think about using this person for all other virtual assistant duties. But that is probably not the wisest decision. No one person can be a do-it-all-for-you assistant – unless you learn how to train them right.
Of course, hiring someone to do transcription for you costs money. On the other hand, the best software for transcription is also not cheap. If you train your transcriptionist right, you can reach a very high transcription speed.
In the third part of this interview we talked about a freelance transcription VA and some general but valuable tips for finding the right fit for you.
Since Stefan wanted to outsource his ebook creation from the cover to the illustrations and even the format of the content, we went through an example job description from him. There are many lessons to be learned from this discussion – you’ll be able to…
- Save time
- Find a better candidate
- Learn about Ebook creation
If you take the time to read this section of the entrepreneur interview closely.
From this specific example, we quickly covered all there is to know about how to write a job description on Odesk.
Knowing these tips, you will quickly see how much time a concise but precise job description saves you as an employer. But you’ll also understand what really motivates a VA to stay with you long term.
With the strategy of “split testing” the performance of two VA’s against each other in the first week of an assignment, you’ll optimize your hiring results to the maximum.
Depending on what tasks you are looking to outsource, you will need a different type of virtual assistant. Generally, it’s tough to find the do-it-all-person right from the start. It takes a lot of time, effort and money (pay your assistant for his training!) to reach the level of a professional administrative assistant with an affordable rate.
As you “form” your assistant to your needs, there are some sentences you will be most happy to hear from him:
- I will find a way.
- If I don’t know a way, I will research it.
- Don’t worry, I’ll figure it out!
What was really interesting to me was that Stefan has, like me, made great experiences with outsourcing to the Philippines. Although his outsourced project was way different and much more crazy than what I usually do 😉
The biggest advantages and the great work ethics found with Filipino VA’s are clearly visible from this part of the interview. As a bonus, you will learn the one downside of working with freelancer from this country – and how to avoid it.
In the end, the interview finishes with more tips about how to improve a job description on my favourite outsourcing service – and more about how to really save time in the hiring process.
How Effective is Video Screen Recording in Communicating Your Virtual Assistant?
Video screen recording is part-5 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:
- Video screen recording as a tool in communicating with your virtual assistant across the globe gives your outsourcing effort the ultimate edge.
- How effective and reliable is video screening in relaying insights and ideas with your virtual assistant?
- What are the odds with audio-video application and video screening as a tool to channel instruction?
Start of the Interview:
Francis
I would like to go back to the basic research that you were not able to get overnight and that was not making you happy at the beginning.
Assuming that you have read the transcript from this interview and you’ll say, “Okay, at the beginning, start with very basic tasks.”
Even if you say, “Okay, now I finally hired a virtual assistant. It took me a week to find the right candidate and lots of time to hire and interview. And now, we finally have them and have given them the Dropbox account and whatever.” Now you just want to get to work.
I can’t totally relate to that since now I’m looking for a full-time VA to expand my team because I have so many ideas just itching in the back of my head wanting to get them out. But, I need the assistant to invest the time to get those ideas running. Because, to be honest, I, myself am not disciplined enough and willing to put the time into it, nor effective enough at working online in comparison to my assistants that I can do it myself.
Eric
Right. One of the things that I thought that I should have done was be on Skype more with my virtual assistant.
At the beginning, I was a little apprehensive to get on Skype with them. I thought that I could just basically use the chat function in Elance or the program that you use and that would be sufficient. And just send them over a text document and then they could just get to work.
And I realized that’s not how things need to be. There needs to be a one on one communication with each other just like we’re doing right now talking with your virtual assistant.
Let them hear your voice, let them see your face so that they can get to know you a little bit better. So that you can know them and make form that relationship with one another.
And also one thing that I wish that I would have done was started using Skype share screen.
Because, I think that if they can follow you and you can show them exactly what it is that you’re doing. And, then if they have any questions, they can ask you right then and there.
Well, you know, “Okay, Eric, I don’t understand exactly what you’re doing. Could you show me that one more time? Or could you explain that in a different way so that when I do that I won’t have to ask you another question later.”
I think if I have done that at the beginning that I wouldn’t have had as many problems. Because, then it would have kind of gotten rid of the whole delay process of back and forth questions between the two of us.
Francis
Okay. It’s funny that you say that because I have heard the same feedback from a friend of mine, another entrepreneur, who said it’s crucial to him that the virtual assistant has Skype access and is willing to Skype.
Eric
Yeah.
Francis
Because, even when you watch videos, you expect a lot of going back and forth question and answer. And to be honest, the feedback I received almost always from my virtual assistants, even new ones when I make videos, is that they say everything is clear and it’s much better than emails.
Then, in general, they just give some feedback of work and then I make another video commenting the new skill level. And then after sometime, it really is optimized.
And, I believe that if I put the time into connecting with Skype, waiting until the other party has set up their mic, etc; it would take much longer. And so to speak, my time is very valuable.
So, I try to find the most time effective way to communicate. And perhaps, it’s my way of talking in the recordings that’s different than others. I do not know.
But, in my experience, screen recording were always sufficient and it did not leave open very many questions. So, perhaps, we have to talk about how to record a screen recording so that we can communicate effectively.
Eric
Well, yeah. I think my issue was that because I tried to do the screen recording and it seemed to be okay, there was still a couple of questions that they would have.
And I think, as the person who’s used to doing that task, if somebody who’s familiar with that task and is used to doing it over and over again, I think that it’s harder for us to explain it to somebody who’s never done it before.
Francis
Oh, yeah. That’s true especially with propriety systems like content management systems or especially the SBI! system. But, as a side bar, so to speak, the SBI system has the big advantage that it has lot of training materials built in.
And just tell him, “Here, read this guide. Read this article then watch this video. Then come back if you have a question.”
Eric
Yeah, definitely. But, I think the problem is that like I’ve done something 150,000 times so when I go to explain to them, I’m not going to be as detailed because to me it seemed simple to me compared to somebody who’s never seen that platform before. It makes absolutely no sense.
So, I think that one of the things that we need to remember as employers when we’re hiring a virtual assistant is to remember that the virtual assistant may have never been exposed to anything like that before.
We need to be a little more careful when we’re explaining and not go too fast or not to skip these steps. Because, a lot of times, we’ll do little tricks or whatever that we’ve learned from using the software or using whatever it is and then skip over steps that leave room for confusion or places for misinterpretation of what we want done.
Francis
I also have made the experience of encouraging my assistants to look for the solution themselves and its good. So, for example, let’s say at the basic task, you have a research.
You have a research that’s more complex than you think yourself. But, perhaps you can tell me. Are you willing to tell me about the research and perhaps leave out critical information that’s sensitive to your business?
Eric
Yeah, definitely not a problem. Basically, what I wanted my assistant to go in and look for is, I wanted him to do research on different backlinks of a competitor and then give me a spreadsheet so that I could go through it and contact the people who were linked in to my competitors site.
I can’t remember exactly what the program was at the time but it was just a basic backlink checker software or a website and I would have them go in and type the URL of all of my competitors and then go in and find what is linking back to them.
And then find the contact forms and contact information for those people in those sites that I could send them an email to possibly get a link to my site.
Francis
Okay. Yeah. This is actually not so complicated for a research but I can see a few details that might put off the virtual assistant or take them longer than you imagine yourself.
So, if you have a small task like this, especially in the beginning, it would be more helpful than if you start with more complicated stuff.
Continue reading part 6 – Getting started with a virtual assistant
How Audio-Video Software Measures Productivity With Virtual Assistant Communications?
VA communications is part-7 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 in working with VAs!
Click here to read part 6 of this interview – Getting started with a virtual assistant
Summary:
- Audio-video recording software is the most reliable means of employer and virtual assistant communications.
- How to monitor and increase your online business’ productivity with recording software.
- How reliable recording software is to get your message across your virtual assistant.
Start of the Interview:
Francis
So, I think we would have probably to compare screen recording video that I do and that you do and see if we can learn which style we’re doing it in.
When I do my screen recordings for my main assistant now, there’s a lot of implicit knowledge already there.
But, with the new assistant, in general, I’m trying to think about whatever questions they might have and try to answer them in advance because I know how annoying it is to lose time on back and forth questionings.
Eric
Right. For me, I think that the issue was that I wasn’t able to see or judge what the questions were that they were going to ask.
So, it was hard for me to be able to kind of be like “Okay, what questions are they going to have or what areas are they going? Is there going to be places for concern?”
So, then that makes things difficult when you’re trying to make the recording because you want to try to make it as detailed as possible.
But, you’re not exactly sure if this area is going to be something that’s going to be of an issue or I think that that just comes with time and once you learn the strengths of your virtual assistant, too.
I think once you see where the areas they’re strong in and the areas that they’re weak in . I think you’ll be able to tell or gauge a little bit more when it comes to areas areas that they need help with or where they will need a little assistance or a little more clarifications on certain things.
Francis
Yes. Another thought that came to my mind just now, especially in the beginning of the working relationship, is to make it clear how would you like the communication to be.
Many assistants assumed that you are available online, email, most of the day. And then you just write an email with one question. And then perhaps, you even take time during your day job and secretly open a Gmail window and just answer the question. That’s how you do it, but it’s not very effective.
So, in the beginning before he even starts the project, you should clarify how you would like the communication to be. You could say something like, “Okay, I’m sure many questions will come up.”
Put a list of questions together and send them to me at the end of the day. I will answer them all at once.
Eric
Right. Yeah, kind of batch your questions together rather than one at a time.
Francis
An alternative is okay. You will have many questions, you are allowed to do the background research and you are also allowed to put in time to work in presenting possible solutions. Make the job as easy as possible for me, the employer, to answer you your questions.
For example, they tell me “Okay. I tried to do the research but the service in question did not work for me, did not accept my email. It was not possible in my country or it’s now a paid service and it doesn’t work like your service in the video.” Something like that.
Then, the ideal continuation of that question would be, “I tried to find out several solutions. I have researched 3 different services in half an hour. Do we have a preference for one of them?”
Then they can say, if you definitely need this service, I propose these solutions.
- You send me your login data;
- You pay the fee for the service. And then, I will use the login center, whatever.
So then you just have to give a yes or no answer.
Eric
Yeah, definitely. Because, then too I think that was them feeling more comfortable to suggest things to you (the employer), as well as being freely able to search for solutions at the same time.
Francis
Did you watch the series called A House of Cards?
Eric
No.
Francis
It’s the super actor who did the American Beauty.
Eric
Yeah, I know who he is. I can’t remember his name either, but I know what you’re talking about.
Francis
Yeah. He has this great style of looking in the camera and saying sarcastic remarks in the series. It’s superb. I really recommend it to you. And why I’m talking about it is because there’s a great scene pretty late in the series.
I’m trying not to spoil it, but he’s talking with a guy, an important powerful guy, and he’s a businessman. During the meeting with this politician, he’s interrupted all the time by phone calls. He just takes up the phone and then just waits a second so the effect is more powerful when he speaks. Then he waits a few seconds and he’ll just say “yes or no” and hang up.
And I’ll ask my virtual assistant if he can find a video extract from the scene. Perhaps, this is possible to find. But in principle, that’s what you’re looking for. The assistant should prepare his questions with additional possible answers and you should just be able to say, “Solution 3 is fine.”
Continue reading part 8 –How to effectively extract virtual assistant concerns and questions?
Voice Or Text – Which is Most Effective Type of Communication?
Verbal or Written type of communication is part-9 of the second interview from Stefan from Germany, who lives the Four Hour Work Week lifestyle in Thailand.
Click here to read part 8 – Virtual communication between you and your virtual assistants
Summary:
- Voicemails are much faster and effective ways of communication.
- Video communication is also good mean of communication, but If you make video without voice then don’t make video at all.
- You can make one instruction in the evening, talking about everything takes half an hour of a video then post it to your assistant and this will be sufficient work for your virtual assistant for the following day.
Start of the Interview:
Stefan:
Would you, which I in the past never did, go with the voice orders in the video or would you go text based?
Francis:
Definitively with the voice. That’s the whole point. If you make video without voice then don’t make video at all.
Stefan:
Yeah. I mean the voice instructions or if you had to chose.
Francis:
Yes?
Stefan:
And let’s say because for me taking a voice recording is more difficult than writing.
Francis:
Okay.
Stefan:
Because when I’m doing voice recording I have the problem that I don’t know if I told everything, you know.
Francis:
Okay.
Stefan:
If I had everything that I have to say so the person understands what I’m talking about. If I write it, I can review it. I can read it again and find out that I put everything in that – yes or no.
Francis:
Okay. So this is a question of style. I hate writing. I’m very write-lazy. That’s why I use transcription all the time including this interview. And that’s why I love video transcriptions. On the other hand, I have no problem talking. You probably hear this when I’m talking with you.
But if I have the feeling that I might have missed something at the end of the video I would say something like “I tried to explain it to you as best I could in the video but I feel I am missing something. Can you explain back to me what you have understood from my video?” Sort of make your assistant make the written instructions.
And then you review the written instructions perhaps with screenshots from your video and then you will know, “Oh, I missed this important part.” So your assistant takes away the work from you working out the written part.
Stefan:
Okay. Yes.
Francis:
This is only if, of course, you are okay with your assistant investing time and therefore your money to do this. You say this is not worth it then write your instructions yourself. For me, the missing element is time.
I think for many people who work day jobs… at the same time they don’t have the time. Normally, I make one instruction in the evening. Talking about everything takes half an hour of a video then I post it to my assistant.
He works the whole day while I’m at my day job. And when I come home, I get his feedback and I make a new video. So it goes from day to day, in general.
If you, for example, have a lot time but not have a lot of money to invest then it probably make sense for you to create written instructions with bullet point format and screenshots.
This takes a lot of time but you don’t need to invest money in him watching the videos and understanding these things. And if you have made them once, you can reuse them for any other assistants you might hire in the future.
Stefan:
That could be useful.
Continue reading part 10 – Importance of communication between you and your virtual assistant
Transcription Service Cost Comparison
Transcription service cost comparison is part-2 of an interview from Stefan from Germany, who lives the Four Hour Work Week lifestyle in Thailand.
Click here to read part 1 – Human vs voice transcription software
Summary:
- Voice transcription software is a single time investment whereas a human transcriptionist will charge you as and when he/she works for you.
- It can take 4-5 hours to transcribe one hour of audio recording.
- It’s important that you speak clearly with an easy to understand accent so that your transcriptionist understands it easily.
Start of the Interview:
Stefan:
How much does it costs you to transcribe like let’s say one hour of talking?
Francis:
Hmmm, that’s a tough one. Let me estimate. So, transcription takes roughly 2-4 times as long as you speak. This depends on how complicated the stuff is that you speak; how fast you speak.
It also depends on if you make many comments or side bars. It depends on if the transcriptionist has experience with this work or not.
But let’s say the worst case scenario, if it takes four times as long as the time you need to record. So if I record 1 hour of recording in the normal speed, it would take 4 hours of work.
Let’s not make it 5 hours, keep it 4 hours. So in this case, I would need to invest between $4 and $8 to pay for the transcription.
Stefan:
Okay.
Francis:
Of course, it’s not always right from the beginning this effective. Any virtual assistant, even a transcriptionist, needs to be accustomed to you.
So for example, I have a sort of a slight German accent. With that, I try to force myself to speak correct English while I talk. So this is some conscious effort I try to make.
I could, of course and you know that, make my German accent worse and then it wouldn’t help to be understandable so much. But I think if you speak decent English, it’s okay.
If you give your assistant some time, the first few hours, to be accustomed to your style and also let him work out which format you want your transcriptions to have then it can be okay.
For example for me, I like my transcription files as a Word format ideally with paragraphs. And the notes which I make I like them in Word comments.
So, perhaps, you would like your transcription results in a Notepad or an Excel sheet.
Continue reading part 3 – How you can use a freelance transcriptionist for other administrative Jobs
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