At some point, if you’re doing things right, you go from “solopreneur” to “solopreneur with helpers.” Part of the reason that people start businesses, and one of the major reasons that I did, is to gain freedom. But you soon realize that freedom has a price. And that price is lack of freedom. At least in terms of time. Being a solopreneur takes a lot of sacrifice in terms of time.
But eventually, or maybe even fairly quickly depending on your situation, you can outsource some of the work.
Outsourcing can be your best friend. You can outsource tedious taks you don’t like doing and have more of the one thing you can’t get back: time. For example, I have done projects where I outsourced backlinking. I don’t like doing it. And it’s time intensive. So doing it myself would mean I’d have to spend a lot of time doing something I don’t like doing (might as well get a job 
).
A good VA (virtual assistant) can also be a huge help when you are running multiple campaigns, projects or websites. There just aren’t enough hours in the day.
Or…a VA can be your worst nightmare…
You are letting someone into your business…your passion…your livelihood. There are a lot of things that go into picking a good VA. I’ve worked with both good ones, and bad ones. Here are five signs that you have the wrong VA:
Bad English
I, of course, say this as someone who needs to hire an English-speaking assistant. If you are bi-lingual, or are looking at foreign markets, you can obviously hire outside the English-speaking realm. The point is your results are only as good as your communication. If you cannot communicate with your VA clearly and effectively your results will suffer.
Bad Timing
TIMELY communication is almost as important as GOOD communication. I have two experiences from two different extremes with VAs. One was great. She communicated clearly and quickly. She responded to e-mails within the day. Working with her was a pleasure.
The other experience I had was not so pleasant. I was working on a project with a partner where we needed to create an eBook. We decided to outsource the task. The VA seemed to listen to our instructions and we decided to proceed. After making our first installment payment she disappeared. For weeks. We decided to go into a different direction and it took us another couple of weeks to get our money back. It really deflated the excitement out of the project.
Bad Reviews
This one is obvious. I hire my VAs through elance or odesk (though I prefer odesk of the two). A huge benefit of these sites is that they provide reviews for previous work the candidates have done. If a certain candidate has 99 great reviews and 1 bad one, you may not have anything to worry about. If there’s a pretty steady steam of bad reviews you may want to look elsewhere.
Lack of Reviews
This is a tough one. There are candidates out there that seem to communicate clearly and know what they are talking about it. But they may have absolutely no history on elance or odesk.
I fully understand that everyone has to start somewhere and you may want to be the brave soul that jumps in and hires someone who has no history of happy clients yet. I, on the other hand, having experience with a bad VA, do not want to follow that route. I would rather take the chance of passing up on a really good assistant w/ no history to hire someone who has proven themselves. There are enough VAs out there to find a good one, at the right price, with enough reviews.
Extremely Low Bid
You may come across a bid for a job that seems too good to be true. But, as most things in life, if it seems too good to be true it probably is.
If you have 10 candidates and 9 are all in the same price range while 1 is under-bidding you may want to heed caution. I’m not saying you automatically exclude the candidate from consideration, but ask yourself why the bid is so low. Are they so good at what they do that they can do it quicker and more efficiently than the other candidates? Are they in a part of the world where the exchange rate is such that it makes it feasible for them to put in the same amount of work for less money? Or is this candidate inexperienced and not really sure of what needs to go into the job to achieve success?
Analyze and then decide. Do not go strictly off of price.
A virtual assistant can either be a godsend or mean the death of a project. If you make sure to take the necessary precautions at the beginning of the hiring process it ends up paying you dividends in the long run.
Note: This post is part of the April Word Carnival — a monthly group blogging event specifically for small business owners. (It’s the most fun you’ll have all month!) Check out the rest of the fabulous carney work here.
I have to say that you’ve highlighted very good pints here. Hiring a VA is definitely more cost-effective but quality of work shouldn’t be compromised. I have worked with a lot of different VAs before and luckily, I’ve had good experiences so far. I really check precious employer’s feedback to get to know the candidate a bit before I hire her and ask her to send samples of previous work to help me evaluate whether she is suited for the job.
Samples is another great thing to ask for. I hired a writer once who was fairly new to Odesk (I know I preach against doing this in the post but there’s an exception to every rule
). So I asked for writing samples. I was able to get a lower price from her (her price has since increased with her experience) and the quality of her work was really good. I’ve actually paid more for other VAs since and there work hasn’t stacked up to hers.
You’ve included some very good points. The one thing I would add is to get referrals vs. going with Odesk or similar. It’s not a guarantee, but it weeds through a lot of the initial search and personally, I like supporting people in my network!
That’s a good way to go too. Not sure why I didn’t think of it and just went straight to the outsourcing networks. Although my guess is that you can get a better price on there because people are bidding for the job.
[...] Eugene Farber of Reality Burst Five Signs You are Hiring the Wrong VA @EugeneFarber https://www.facebook.com/RealityBurst [...]
Bad English is perhaps my biggest peeve. The person I outsourced some work to had a well written introduction and ‘about me’, so I presumed their command over English was strong. Boy was I wrong – the guy couldn’t even put a single sentence together, and spoke with a mix match of a scattering of words like.
“Now? You Fine?”
Which was so meaningless.
Interestingly, the leadership articles he created were of a good standard, so I feel he re-outsourced those to someone who actually understood leadership styles… and english!
That could very well be true. A lot of the people you hire are actually the heads of companies (which is crazy to think about when you consider the prices on there). So they’re just there to sell you the services but someone else completes them. Although I would think it would be to their benefit if they actually had an English-speaking person doing the selling. Oh well.
Heads of companies? I suppose that makes sense – if they’re on these freelancing sites then they obviously have a business head on them, and they won’t want to spend all the time writing articles and doing other monotonous tasks when they have a very cheap labour force at hand who don’t have the same level of internet access and accumeen.
Yes! You get what you pay for. It’s a lesson we all have to learn (sometimes more than once). But when your reputation is on the line, beware! Thanks for a great carnival post, Eugene.
My pleasure Tea. The funny thing is that I’ve paid much less for a VA that was doing incredible work for me than for a VA that disappeared on me (the one I mention in the blog post). I guess you never know, and there’s an exception to every rule. But in general, yes, you get what you pay for.
“The case of the disappearing VA/freelancer” is a tough one, Eugene. Before I got better at weeding out people who wouldn’t work out, I had to pull a couple of all-nighters doing things I had outsourced. Lesson learned!
Yeah. In my case it wasn’t a huge deal because it wasn’t mid-project or anything. But it did put a damper on things – completely sucked all the excitement out of it because we had to focus on trying to manage the VA rather than doing work.
I’ve never been able to hire a VA; mostly because I don’t know what I would give them to do.
I don’t want to give up control of my email, the way I do my billing is very specific, the way I send bids and proposals is unique… it’s not the smartest thing in the world in terms of being able to get away from my biz, but it has helped sales and customer service.
Still, I like the idea of being able to hire a VA – if only to get more time in doing the things I really want to do.
Great points here – thank you!
I’m kind of in the same boat. The VAs I’ve hired have been for “side projects” that weren’t my main focus. I guess I’m a bit of a control freak in that sense.
If you’re going to hire one it’s important to systemize things so that they have a very clear set of rules to follow. If a 12 year old can do it, then hire a VA
.
Ooo.. VA project management for side projects. Now THAT’S an idea with merit…
I completely agree with all your points. Collect VA options based on the facts, see if they measure up and then determine if they can clearly communicate with you based on your unique communication style. Sometimes people just aren’t a fit personality-wise, but it’s worth the extra time to find someone you can really depend on while also being able to get into an easy working groove.
All good points. VAs aren’t mythical beings you talk to through the computer, they are people. And the way you form your relationship and interactions is very important. Great addition to the list!
I’ve found that it is usually better to pay a little extra for quality. This ensures that you can communicate effectively, get the task done in a timely manner… usually if you pay less for the job, it drags out anyway and might cost you more than if you hired a gun in the first place!
That is a really good point! You may be paying less on a per-hour basis but if the VA isn’t any good, or if there is a communication problem, the job is going to take A LOT more hours – costing more in the long run. Thanks for the comment!
Eugene great summary of the pitfalls in hiring a VA. Yet again I think of the saying “You get what you pay for.” I have a fantastic VA – her rates are not rock bottom and I would have been worried if they had been. I interacted with her for months online before I had the need. I knew her to be dependable and articulate.
@Nick, perhaps start with small things and work from there. Using a VA is not an all or nothing. Build up the trust and rapport. Plus being unable to use other resources will limit your business.
That interaction before hiring is a smart move. I’ve never really attempted to do that before, but will definitely try to in the future.
I think if there are any side projects that aren’t a serious impact on your main business, they are a great testing ground for VAs.
This is a great post. I think those five points are worth following and we people can hopefully gain from them.
Thanks for sharing this informative post.
-Gracy
I think we are in the same phase, I also hire a VA in oDesk and been working a good and bad VA. I learn through experience also I look at if the english is good.
But there are some low bidder that has the skill, they bid low cause they badly needed a job. I hired a low bidder before but he is still working with me for almost 2 years.
Great advice on how NOT to hire the VA from hell! Good timing and meeting deadlines is a big deal for me. And boy do I agree on hiring the low bidder only after careful review and consideration. That low bidder can really cost you more in the end if you have to step in and do-over the work. It is even worse if it compromises a client relationship.
Wow Eugune…nice post and you make some very valid points. Being a VA who has never bid on jobs on either of those sites because the bidding is way below my acceptance, I suppose there are some good ones on their just trying to make money and I get that. But the higher quality of VA’s like myself and those that I associate aren’t on those sites either. I am blessed to be overly booked these days and 90% of my clients have always come from your referrals as someone else suggested. My happiest and largest client today came as a result of a referral and did not ask for samples at all…and the more I do for him the more he wants. I do believe it’s important for the client to know what they really are looking for and planning ahead helps. It’s a two-way street and it can depend on if you are seeking long-term or short-term. I suppose that can be a big difference when you consider costs as well.
I agree with you that one has to avoid low bids when hiring someone to work for you.
While sites such as Odesk are helpful to get started with obtaining work. These assignments generally pay too little. It is wise to promote yourself via other forums so that you can get good paying jobs.
We always hire our link builders ad content writers on ODesk. And reviews is the only thing we consider before hiring. Yes, low bidders sound good but in the end you realize their work quality is very low too.