VA
August 29, 2009 by admin
Filed under Uncategorized
Tim Ferriss, in his book “The 4 Hour Workweek”, strongly recommends hiring virtual assistants to do work activities that take a lot of time.
I actually tried taking his advice a year ago… and hired a “VA” to help me with my business. The result was a disaster! I used one of the Indian companies that Ferriss recommended and the VA was totally incompetent.
However, my business has now grown so much that there’s no way I can maintain a Hobopoet lifestyle unless I get help. So I just hired a new VA. This time I got a personal recommendation from another webeneur friend. The VA is American and thus more expensive… but she’s very professional and already this is a much better experience.
What is she going to do for me? Well, here’s a list:
- upgrade graphics on my website
- compile research for the book I’m writing and organize it by chapter
- call experts to arrange interviews (for my book and/or my lessons)
- screen and organize my emails
- manage my appointment calendar
- take care of travel arrangements (ie. flights)
- moderate comments on my blog
- edit and upload my videos
You get the idea! By doing these things, she frees me to focus all my time and energy on doing what I love to do: teaching, traveling, connecting, making lessons, etc…
And rather than have a wage-slave employee, I support another entrepreneur who is happy with her own business.
So yes, this VA thing can work.. you just need to be picky about who you get!
I’m so happy to see that you’re posting again! I’ve read through Tim Ferriss’ book a couple of times and loved the idea of a virtual assistant. However, Ferriss recommends using outsourced labor… which I’m not too keen on doing. The whole idea of having an assistant that doesn’t speak English as their first language seems like a business relationship that’s bound to get lost in translation. What kind of rates did you find when looking for a home-based VA? $13-15/hour?
Will, My US based VAs (I have two) are both $20 an hour. They are fantastic… organized, friendly, and really superb.
HI Thanks for your incite on VA’s.
I’m producing an event called The Blind Cafe, it’s’ a concert, a community discussion and dinner in the pitch dark where all servers are visually impaired and blind. We raise awareness, build community, engage people in the arts of music and food in a unique and inspiring way. We also donate funds to local organizations that support the blind and visually impaired community in the cities we travel to.
I’m taking it across the country and hope to build it to fund service work projects internationally at some point.
So I’m looking at scaling this project and I am thinking of working with a VA.
You mentioned that I should get a recommendation, well can you recommend someone?
Smiles and blessings
rosh
I recommend Team Double Click– they are a great VA company!