project based va

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.