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When a small business starts to see growth, a common challenge is how to manage that growth. And, especially when it comes to human resources.
Hiring new staff must consider not only the talent – the skills, background and unique experience to fit that business. But, also the cost.
The term “overhead” comes up.
And, when running the financials with a new, salaried employee, the math doesn’t always work, and the risk grows. What if I cannot attract clients at the same rate?
Questions you may be asking:
What if my best clients drop off for reasons unknown to me? How can I sustain this extra “load”. I will not be able to keep employees, and certainly not these new hires. Oh, me…!
You start freaking a little. And, losing sleep is the last thing you need when growing your successful business.
What to do? Look to get help using a virtual personal assistant – it can be a great option. If you are small, hire a person to help you with all the “mundane” tasks so you can REALLY grow your biz.
A regular, salaried person that may or may not work out is another problem to deal with. There are labor laws, contracts and regulations to contend with. Every region and job area is different, but clearly – if you have a limited staff to deal with Human Resources issues, it’s another head ache you may have just attracted.
Why not try out a virtual assistant – starting as low as $4-8 dollars an hour?
You don’t have to commit much time or money if you find the right person, or company that can help you with this.
Here are some virtual assistants websites I’ve used/using. Take a look:
Have you tried any of these? What has been your experience?
P.S.
Timothy Ferriss recommends http://www.asksunday.com/ – they are very professional, but not for SEO.
Jon Rognerud is the #1 online marketing expert for Entrepreneurs. His best-selling SEO book, "The Ultimate Guide to Search Engine Optimization" from Entrepreneur Press/McGraw-Hill is in bookstores now. Act fast, and get a free gift here. Connect with Jon on Google+
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I’ve worked with BrickWork India, GlobTask, LongerDays.com, and a work from home VA in the Philippines.
I really didn’t like working with Brickwork. It seems like they have a different rate for every single task which was frustrating. There was hardly any project management, so I felt like I was doing extra work to coordinate tasks for different departments. They advertise low rates, but anything like webwork, or graphic design costs just as much as it would here in the states.
GlobeTask was pretty good. Some of their work was a little sloppy, but it was cheaper and far better than BrickWork India. Like Brickwork, GlobeTask has “premium rates” for certain tasks which I wasn’t a big fan of.
The independent contractor from the Philippines was good, and had surprisingly good writing skills, however she could only work 3rd shift which made coordinating work difficult. If there was a single question the work would have to be delayed for 24 hours, and phone support was not possible.
I think Longerdays.com is the best. They are based in the United States, everyone works together in an office so I know my information is safe. They are in the same time zone. Their rates seemed high to me at first. But after thinking back to the “premium rates” that I had to deal with at other VA companies I realized LD costs the same amount, they are just honest about their rates.
I’ve never used odesk or elance. My interest was in a more long term situation. I always assumed elance was for one time projects?
I’ve never paid a virtual assistant $4 per hour. I assume that if you pay someone crap, you will get crap work back.
Also, I don’t believe a VA is only good for mundane tasks. That might work for some people. But not for my business.
Heya Chad – this is simply great feedback. Thanks for sharing this. I’m still testing 123employee.com – not sure yet. The owner seems very dedicated to success though. Yes, elance is a little more for “project” projects. (time). I know of longerdays – but haven’t tried them. I’ll report back when I have more. Rock on! Thanks, Jon
Hi Chad! And hello to you, Jon! I’d just like to share that there are quite a few smaller organizations/teams of online workers as well. More like a collective of various skills and talents to actually do tasks in shorter time. One could focus on the design, another writes content and email marketing materials and maybe another one or two are working on social media/networks. So you get three or four tasks done in 2-4 hours instead of having to look for different VAs or per-project workers.
I manage a team of six and we get like 3 projects done in a day. For us service providers, it’s really a matter of putting up innovations that is up to the clients’ standard. Dedication to our crafts, hard-work and being always motivated with this work are our keys to success. But, yeah. I agree with you, Chad. We sometimes feel the time-zone difference and its pressure. So we make sure we indicate that before we bite off on projects.
Hi! I suggest not to work on 123employee.
Hi – can you give some more details on it?
Give this site and its people a try. Experienced, reliable and actionable. Give them a task–consider it done!
(866) 757 – 5667
Hi Jon, excellent list and a great place for people to start their VA search.
Personally I’ve had some success finding good long-term VAs on Elance, though I’ve been badly burned by web developers on the same platform. Recently I’ve been testing out oDesk as well, and the initial results have been positive.
Over the past year and a half, I’ve become somewhat obsessed with the world of outsourcing and virtual assistants. During that time I researched and compiled a pretty extensive list of outsourcing services and have collected a ton of user reviews on those companies.
I’m hoping it proves to be a valuable resource for everyone interesting in learning more about working with VAs. Please check it out and let me know what you think:
http://www.virtualassistantassistant.com/virtual-assistant-reviews-ratings
Many thanks!
Nick Loper
VirtualAssistantAssistant.com