This entry was posted on Monday, March 1st, 2010 at 11:19 am and is filed under Tech News . You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
March 1, 2010
Virtual assistants are a little like regular employees in that they do come and go fairly regularly. This means that you are going to need to teach a new virtual assistant every time someone decides that they no longer want to work with you.
This could be tedious and time-consuming, but there is an easy solution. For every task that needs completing, create an instructional video that can be used time after time.
If it is a task that can be demonstrated on your computer screen, then you can record the whole thing using free video screenshot capture software from CamStudio. If it is not something that can be recorded on screen, then make a video of yourself doing the job that needs to be done, or go through it on a whiteboard and video that.
Using videos in this way ensures that no matter how many times you have to train a new assistant to help you in your business, you only have to create the training materials once. You have once again automated part of your business, and you could take that one step further if you can get someone else to make the training videos for you.
Getting videos made is, however, something we will return to when we consider traffic generation strategies.
There are plenty of websites where you can find people to do your work for you, and they are not necessarily going to be too expensive.
For example, you should be able to find someone to do almost any job that you want doing from the International Virtual Assistants Association website. The overwhelming majority of IVAA site members are based in North America and therefore their charge rates tend to be a little higher because you are working with native English speakers for the main part. Nevertheless, you would still not be paying more than $5-$10 an hour.
If that sounds too expensive, there are other slightly cheaper alternatives like elance and guru. However these tend to be more design or writing oriented. Virtual assistance only works if the people helping you are competent. All the gadgets and software in the world can’t make them competent for you.
However, if you are using the IVAA site, you can either search for a virtual assistant from the members list, or you can submit details of exactly what you want, and invite proposals from members.
March 14th, 2010 at 11:49 am
I agree that some businesses who employ Virtual Assistants find that they may, at some point, have to move from one to another - there can be several reasons for that. Having been in the VA industry for 5 years now, I have several clients who are long term (3 years or more), some who need me periodically but not on a regular basis, and some who are hiring a VA only for project work that ends their need when the project is finished. I am taking issue with your statement that VA’s come and go and frequently have to be replaced. Most VA’s who are dedicated have taken the time and expense to plan and implement their own business along with a company name, website, promotional materials, the hardware and software to do their job efficiently and they are committed to providing top level skills to help their clients. Those VA’s are also looking for the ideal client who will need their services over the long term. Freelancers, on the other hand, are mostly project based and they do come and go and frequently have one-time clients and then move on to the next. Business professionals who need a good, stable relationship with one VA, should take the time at the onset to find the VA who will work well with them and share their vision of a long-term relationship that will grow and evolve into a partnership to meet the client’s goals.