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Reclaim Your Time With Effective Outsourcing
magazine
In Order To Scale You Must...
Why Building Your VA Team Is A
GAME CHANGER For Your Business
How One Entrepreneur Scaled Her Business From Her Laptop On The Beach!
Make
Outsourcing Work For Your Business scalablemagazine.com
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Grow with a Virtual Assistant BOOK A FREE DISCOVERY CALL WITH
Outsourcing Angel Let us help you find a virtual staff member that will support the growth of your business. Our unique service will walk through your requirements and onboard the perfect Virtual Assistant for you. We can hire general admin, web savvy, video editing skilled team members to support your business. As well as oversee their delivery of service and check in that you are happy with your new team member. We know how hard it is to find a Virtual Assistant who ‘gets’ your business and the time that it takes to train them up. Let us solve those problems, book a free discovery call with Outsourcing Angel.
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TABLE OF
Contents 7
TYRONE SHUM: RECLAIM YOUR TIME WITH EFFECTIVE OUTSOURCING
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APPS HELPING YOU SPEND MORE TIME ON YOUR BUSINESS THAN IN YOUR BUSINESS
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HOW ONE ENTREPRENEUR SCALED HER BUSINESS FROM HER LAPTOP ON THE BEACH!
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VIRTUAL ASSISTANTS VS. DIGITAL ASSISTANCE: WHICH ONE SHOULD YOU BE USING?
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LIHN PODETTI: WHY BUILDING YOUR VA TEAM IS A GAME CHANGER FOR YOUR BUSINESS
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OUTSOURCING: GET THE MOST OUT OF YOUR VIRTUAL TEAM
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THINKING OF USING A VA?
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HOW WILL NEW US CONTRACTOR LAWS AFFECT YOUR BUSINESS?
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Contributors Robyn specialises in helping entrepreneurs and business owners raise their profile, develop profitable partnerships, attract prospects and increase profits through magazine publishing.
ROBYN GIPTERS
With over 15 years experience in the publishing industry, a degree in Marketing and International Business and launching and marketing more than 45 top publications into Europe, Robyn went on to publishing magazines for large companies such as Bostik, Kmart, Big W, Video Ezy, Mathers, Target, Super Cheap Auto, Mitre 10, Retravision and Harvey Norman. She has created marketing concepts that have achieved hundreds of millions of dollars in sales. readpublishing.group
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Linh started her first business in 2009, and built multiple successful businesses using the outsourcing model. With nearly a decade experience in outsourcing, she saw an opportunity in the market to provide offshore staff directly to companies and hence started Outsourcing Angel in 2015.
LIHN PODETTI
Since the inception, Outsourcing Angel has always reinvested its profits to charitable projects because Linh believes in a business with purpose not just profit. outsourcingangel.com
With 10 years of experience as a Project Manager, Tyrone has worked in medium to large organisations helping them with all aspects of digital and web applications. Tyrone has experience running SEO / SEM campaigns, building, developing and managing websites in WordPress CMS, Microsoft Kentico, Magento e-commerce, EDMs, mobile marketing, membership sites, and creating social media campaigns using platforms such as Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, Instagram, Google Plus and Youtube. He is also the host of a very popular podcast show called Property Investory.
TYRONE SHUM
tyroneshum.com
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Editor-in-Chief
Katey Shaw
Hi and welcome to the first issue of Scalable Magazine! Bringing this Magazine to life has been quite the journey and we hope you enjoy it as much as we have pulling it together.
Having worked as a Virtual Assistant, then as a Digital Business Manager which transitioned into a Business Community Developer role, with various have seen what it takes to make a profitable business and it’s all in the way you scale (systems, processes and support team). Without them, burnout, overwhelm and anxiety sets in. This magazine has been designed to educate, inspire and create an opportunity for you to live life the way you want to. It has stories, guides and how-to methods for you to easily implement. Got a question you want answered...feewl free to email us team@ scalablemag.com In this issue, we have the amazing Robyn Gipters from Standout Marketing. She’ll be talking about how to build a global team and what tools helped her manage and grow a six-figured business. We also have Tyronne Shum from Property Investory who’s been a Project Manager for over 10 years talk about effective outsourcing, including what systems and strategies you should have in place to hire the right people. And we can’t talk about scalable team development without including the formidable Linh Podetti from Outsourcing 6
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Angels, who specialises in Philippine based Virtual Assistants and building a business with purpose. With all this discussion about outsourcing we thought it would be important to also look at some of the legal aspects of working with your team - in particular how the new contractor laws in California, USA can impact your business operations - even if you are in Australia and operating locally. As you can see our magazine is filled with information to set you on your way to scale your business. Our goal with Scalable Magazine is to help you set up and scale one business, so you have the time to explore and develop another business or the ability to escape for an extended holiday. My hope is that you enjoy this magazine and that if you have any questions, comments or feedback you’ll contact us at team@ scalablemag.com. Have an amazing day!
Katey PS. I would like to dedicate this first issue to my Aunt Jane. For without her, this magazine, and the life I lead today would not happen. I am grateful for her lessons on how to live life, enjoy what you have and to be of service to others. Thank you Aunty Jane xxx
Tyrone Shum: Reclaim Your Time With Effective Outsourcing scalablemagazine.com
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When running a business, there are a thousand things to think about each day; customer service, accounting, marketing, troubleshooting, ordering and stock control, to name just a portion of your day-to-day. For an enterprise that was supposed to give you the ultimate in flexibility and time back to do the things you enjoy, suddenly you find yourself just as chained to a desk as you did working for someone else! Digital entrepreneur and outsourcing expert Tyrone Shum found himself in this exact situation. He fell into online business by accident while working full time in retail. He was participating in the sport of dragon boating and was trying to order his own elite paddles instead of relying on borrowing others. There was nothing available in Australia, so he tracked down an overseas supplier, however the importing costs doubled his overall costs. Tyrone asked around his fellow competitors, many of whom were also chasing elite equipment to help them get the best from their sport. He ended up importing around 20 paddles and was able to strike a deal with the supplier, so he ended up splitting the import cost and even made enough to get his paddle for free. “I thought wow, I can do this. This is fun! So that’s where the whole idea of an internet business began.” Tyrone’s paddle business took off to the point where he was able to quit his full-time job and ended up earning six-figures per year. While he enjoyed it, he was still working the 60-plus hours per week. “I kept hearing people say that running your own business will give you more time back; 8
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it will allow you to have the freedom to do whatever you want. And I believed that, but I just didn’t see it happening”, he said. It was time to outsource. “This is where I was searching for answers to try and leverage myself, try and make things better, make more time back, make more money and so forth. And this is where I came across Tim Ferriss’ Four-Hour Work Week.” Tyrone digested the book and immediately started implementing the strategies. One of the first things he did was reduce his reliance on email for getting information to customers. He did this by setting up an FAQ where the customer would receive an automated message. From there, if the request was urgent, their query would be sent directly to Tyrone’s mobile. This eliminated at least 80 per cent of his inquiries – and saved his massive amounts of time answering each question individually.
Create a mindmap on how your business should run. Once you’ve got that, you can take the next step to hire people to fill in those roles.
He continued to find other ways to outsource, including hiring a VA to help with customer service and orders. “By outsourcing, I was able to bring my hours down from about 60 a week to about 10-15 hours a week and it was amazing, and if it wasn’t for my virtual assistants and my team of people that helped me, I wouldn’t have been able to do that.” Tyrone has since moved into teaching and supporting other business owners to outsource effectively, which essentially comes down to three key components; knowing what to outsource, finding the right people and supporting your team.
KNOWING WHAT TO OUTSOURCE Before you begin looking for personnel, break down your business activities into those
which directly bring you value and income, and those that are support services. Tyrone is a big advocate for the 80/20 rule, or the ‘Pareto Principle’. In the business world, this means that 80 per cent of your revenue should come from 20 per cent of effort. The key then is to find that 20 per cent and focus your attention on those activities. These could include video production, marketing, product importing and client relationship management. The rest you can eliminate or outsource, which could include customer support, email generation, setting up blogs or social media scheduling. “Think it through, then create a mind-map on how your business should run. Once you’ve got that, you can take the next step to hire people to fill in those roles,” Tyrone said.
FINDING THE RIGHT PEOPLE When searching for your VA’s, Tyrone’s experience has taught him to be quite specific about which areas of the world you want your staff to come from and what skills you expect. In the beginning, Tyrone had a few VA’s who just could not deliver. Their prices were good, but the quality and timeliness of the outputs were far below par. He ended up going with a company from the Philippines on the chance that these people would prove more productive, and thankfully, they turned out great. “From that instance onward, I have stayed with that company and the reasons why are that their service is absolutely topnotch. They understand what I need and communicate and are accountable to you
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every day. They are also very competitive in terms of their pricing.” Once you have an applicant who looks good on paper, set up a video call for an interview. This allows you to test their communication and technical skills, as well as get to know them a little better before proceeding with the work. “If their English is good and they can communicate with you, then that has already overcome at least 60 per cent of the hurdle. The other 40 per cent is the technical stuff, which they have or they haven’t, but they are willing to learn that, it is easy to train them up with videos,” he said. Tyrone also recommends you ask to see a portfolio of previous work, and ask them to specify which sections of recent projects they worked on themselves. For example, if they
list a website build as something they have done, find out which parts of the process they implemented. “I usually try to find people who have a strong portfolio of work, and yes, you will be paying a little bit more for them, but it is well worth it for the experience,” he said.
SUPPORTING YOUR TEAM With the right people on board, it is time to let them into your business and train them to get the work done to your expected standard. “Training them is often the hardest part, but if you have got a good project management system in place, managing your team is not too hard. Have daily accountabilities in place, have targets and goals set.” “Ultimately, once you have trained them, they are going to be an asset to your business. With the right support, your customers will feel it, you will feel it, and your VA will be there for the long-term.” It may take time to get the right people and processes in place, but don’t be disheartened. Once you have your outsourcing set up, your business can grow exponentially and you will finally have that time and flexibility you sought out at the beginning of your entrepreneurial journey. “Don’t give up. If you haven’t been able to find the right virtual assistants, don’t give up. I tried three times before I could find the right assistant. Keep searching and I guarantee you will find someone.” tyroneshum.com
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Apps Running a small business involves wearing a lot of hats. If you’re looking to increase productivity and organiSation — or just make your life as an entrepreneur a little easier — a good business app might be just what you need. Apps can save you time, improve your productivity, help you relax or simplify complex tasks. The best business apps increase productivity and can make the life of a small-business owner easier. To help you navigate the seemingly endless sea of business apps, we’ve compiled a list to get you started. Check with the individual companies for current pricing information.
FINANCE AND ACCOUNTING Gusto. Manages online employees on boarding, Gusto handles new-hire reporting and all local, state and federal tax filings; automates deductions for benefits and workers’ comp payments; and emails digital pay stubs to employees. Quickbooks. Track your business’ sales and expenses; view financial statements, such as profit and loss reports; pay your employees and vendors; track unpaid invoices; maximize your tax deductions; and more. You can
Helping You Spend More Time ON Your Business Than IN Your Business. access QuickBooks on your iPhone, iPad, Android phone or Android tablet. Freshbooks. Create personalised, professional-looking invoices to match your business; automatically bill your clients for recurring invoices; and accept credit cards on your mobile device. Track and organize expenses from anywhere and create customiSable business reports, such as profit and loss statements. Wave. designed for small businesses, independent contractors and sole proprietors with nine or fewer employees, Wave lets you track sales and expenses, manage invoices and customer payments, pay employees, scan receipts and generate accounting reports.
COMMUNICATION Addappt. When your business contacts, friends and family update their contact information, the changes automatically extend to your phone, provided your contacts also use Addappt. Skype. Use Skype to video or voice call anyone in the world; get up to 25 people together on a call; transmit video, photos and scalablemagazine.com
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files of any size; share your computer screen; and send text or voice messages.
directions to the airport and view weather reports.
Fuze. This video conferencing app hosts online meetings for all devices and operating systems, including iPads and tablets. It offers high-definition video and crisp audio, and it’s easy to set up and download.
Rescuetime. This app tracks time you’ve spent on applications and websites and sends you detailed reports based on your activity, giving you an accurate picture of how you spent your day. Set alerts to notify you when you’ve spent a certain amount of time on an activity.
Pushover. Push messages to any smartphone and organise messages and notifications from your devices in one common space. You can send 7,500 messages each month for free and receive an unlimited amount of notifications on Android and iOS devices and desktops.
TIME MANAGEMENT Tripit. Consolidate your travel plans into a single, master itinerary that you can access at any time and on any device, regardless of the website you use to buy your ticket. Users forward all their travel emails to TripIt, and the app takes it from there. You can also check departure times and delays, find
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OmniFocus. This personal task manager lets you create projects and tasks and organize them into to-do lists. My Minutes. Help you stay grounded by setting goals, such as “Spend only one hour checking email” or “Work out for 30 minutes.” The app is available for iPhones only.
MOBILE PAYMENTS Square. Is a good fit for businesses such as food trucks, beauty salons and retail shops. Its users get a small, portable card reader
that attaches to a phone or another mobile device to take fast, convenient payments. It also offers a point-of-sale system called Square Register Paypal Here. Attaches PayPal’s card reader to a tablet or other device and use it as a portable register.
ORGANISING Asana. View all your tasks and projects and follow progress on the Asana board, and you can share notes, upload files and communicate without having to rely on email. Trello. If you love a to-do list, then you’ll love Trello. Each card you create on a Trello board represents an assignment or task. You can add members, comments, attachments, checklists, due dates, and labels and stickers
to make the cards as descriptive as possible. Whenever you change a card, Trello notifies each member. Free and paid-for versions. Proven. Organise your hiring, letting you post job listings to multiple job boards with one click on your smartphone. You can also sort through dozens of application responses in minutes; categorise applicants into “yes,” “no” and “maybe” buckets; and note when you follow up with a candidate.
LEADS Mailchimp. Build and manage your mailing lists and easily create and send newsletters. You can also build and customise email templates and view performance reports about your emails. Mailchimp offer “Forever free” and paid-for versions.
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Robyn Gipters How One Entrepreneur Scaled Her Business From Her Laptop On The Beach
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Global media publisher and marketer, Robyn Gipters took her business from just paying the bills to a six-figure business in under 2 years by learning the art of scale and leverage. We sat down with Robyn to discuss her journey from lone ranger to a team of 15 staff across the globe.
TELL US A BIT ABOUT YOUR JOURNEY... I have owned and operated 9 businesses over the last 15 years. From a café through to a book vending business and several consulting and marketing businesses in between. Now, I am the owner of Read Publishing and StandOut Marketing. We have 15 staff across the globe and work with clients to promote them globally so that they stand out in their market. We create systems in the business to deliver them a consistent flow of leads and referrals. The businesses, quite literally, were run and scaled from lots of places; on the sand at the beach whilst the kids were on school holidays, courtside during the kids tennis lessons and in boardrooms all over the world.
WHEN DID YOU REALISE IT WAS TIME TO SCALE YOUR BUSINESS? I have always been someone that likes to be in control. In fact, in a session with my business coach she labelled me a perfectionist. At first, I disagreed. To me a perfectionist was someone who had to have rigid structure and wasn’t creative. But when my coach explained that I was a perfectionist in the sense that I thought ‘nobody could do what I do better than me’, it stopped me in my tracks. I realised that deep down, that is what I thought. It wasn’t that I thought I was
better than anyone else, it was just that I was protective of my clients and the service I was delivering. I had gotten very used to keeping lots of balls in the air. I almost wore my super-women multi-tasking skills as a badge of honour. The trouble was, in my effort to keep control of every facet of my business I was actually strangling my business’s ability to go. So after a tough chat with myself, I realised that in order to take the business where I wanted it to go, I had to look at scaling and bringing in people, processes and systems that would help me to manage and monitor things without staying in the weeds of the business. I took 4 steps to do that:
worked out what it was that I was 1. Idoing in the business that I didn’t like
doing - things that felt like a chore, like bookkeeping. These became the first things that I would happily delegate.
I researched tools that could help me 2. break down what I was doing into projects and tasks.
I wrote down the traits of the people I 3. wanted to bring into the business. Not just their skills but their attitude and demeanor.
worked out a budget and costs around 4. Ieach of the roles, tasks, projects that I wanted to delegate to other people.
Then I set about finding the right people to fill the roles that I needed for the right budget. That meant taking some of the tasks offshore to the Philippines and recruiting some contractors locally who could support me in the project work. scalablemagazine.com
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WHAT SOFTWARE/TOOLS HAVE BEEN CRITICAL IN HELPING YOU SCALE YOUR BUSINESS? The first one is a project manager software. We decided to use ASANA and I just love it. It has become the engine room of our business. I call it my brain. We create projects and tasks in Asana and can easily delegate those tasks to the staff we have globally. The next is Skype and ZOOM. We use these tools a great deal to keep in touch with our staff and clients who are located all over the world.
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In my efforts to keep control of every facet of my business I was actually strangling my business’s ability to go.
When you first start to let go of control and bring other people into your business, things can sometimes not go to plan. Mistakes can happen, in fact they will happen. Rather than blaming the person, we have a look at the business and the system and work out ways to stop the mistake from happening again. Ninety percent of the time it is a system problem not a people problem. This has been so beneficial to our business and my blood pressure.
Lastly, Google Drive. I was guilty of saving things to my desktop and of course that is not possible when you are working with a team. Now, in our business, everything is shared to Google Drive so people can access anything they need from wherever they are.
WHAT HAS BEEN A LESSON YOU HAVE LEARNT ON THE JOURNEY? There have been many, but probably the most valuable has been that people are going to make mistakes. Nobody is perfect.
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Virtual Assistants VS Digital Assistance: Which One Should You Be Using?
All business owners, company directors or executives need a little help getting through their work day. It is estimated that the average office worker will spend at least two hours of their working day responding to emails, returning phone calls and actioning enquiries. This is where assistants step in they can take care of administrative tasks, freeing up time, which allows workers to actually do their jobs without distractions. In the good old days (and in many cases still today) businesses relied on Personal Assistants to help cut through the workload; an extra worker in the office providing an extra brain and an extra pair of hands to get the job done. The world today however, is constantly changing and new technology 18
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is being introduced at rapid speed, meaning that businesses now have greater options when it comes to workplace assistance. No longer do they need a physical body in the office to help reply to emails and to answer phone calls. This is where virtual assistants and digital assistance step in.
WHAT IS A VIRTUAL ASSISTANT? Virtual Assistants are real people but rather than working in the office alongside you, they work remotely, often from another country. As they work remotely your primary means of
communication with them is via technology with them using a combination of online options such as email, sms messaging, Skype or chat services to accomplish the tasks that a personal assistant would. Basically a virtual assistant combines the best of the human element of having a personal assistant with the benefits of digital assistance. Benefits of a Virtual Assistant: Lower cost than a PA Usually freelance workers who typically have greater flexibility than office workers Higher availability than traditional assistants Do not take up office space Are humans capable of interpreting and understanding specific requests Add a human touch Able to interpret language Are able to multitask
Negatives of a Virtual Assistant: They are humans who still have human needs like sleep, sick days, toilet and lunch breaks – essentially meaning that they are not available 24/7 May have potential scheduling conflicts They are humans requiring ongoing payment for services rendered
WHAT IS DIGITAL ASSISTANCE? Digital Assistance is non-human help which is entirely virtual and which relies exclusively on artificial intelligence. Most of us who have a smart phone are already using digital assistance in some way. Aids like Siri, Alexa and Google Play are all forms of Digital Assistance. Digital Assistance is software programs that are voice or touch operated and set up to scalablemagazine.com
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Negatives of digital assistance: Difficulty understanding human speech Limited ability to interpret tasks or requests Not able to multitask Unable to manage multiple calendars Not human so will not provide empathy
WHICH ONE IS BETTER FOR YOUR NEEDS?
respond to commands. For many everyday tasks such as scheduling events, making notes and searching for information, Digital Assistance can be very convenient and highly efficient. Because this form of assistance is non-human, it means that the service can be accessed any time of the day or night. The down side to this however is that because it is non human there might be challenges interpreting speech and understanding command phrases and questions. Benefits of digital assistance: Convenient One-off cost and no ongoing salaries No human needs Available 24/7 Low maintenance 20
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Deciding if your business would best benefit from a virtual assistant or digital assistance is a very individual and personal choice. You need to identify what it is that you need specific help with and weigh up the pros and cons of each option. You need to factor in what benefits you are likely to receive from a Virtual Assistant as opposed to Digital Assistance and compare these with the negatives that come with each one and work out the best fit for your specific business. It might even be that you use a combination of both. Essentially the decision will come down to three main factors: 1. Cost 2. Convenience 3. Efficiency When weighing up these factors, it is essential that you look at the actual value that your business will receive from each one. Having a Digital Assistant available 24 hours a day seven days a week is really convenient, but if your business involves specific communication that could prove to be challenging for a non-human assistant, the benefits you receive from the convenience of it might be overshadowed by the frustrations you feel by continued misinterpretation. Ultimately, the decision of a Virtual Assistant vs. Digital Assistance will come down to which one proves to be the best fit for your specific business.
Lihn Podetti WHY BUILDING YOUR VA TEAM IS A GAME CHANGER FOR YOUR BUSINESS
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Her specialty is building strong and long-term virtual teams. “I’m most interested in creating more permanent long-term relationships,” Lihn says. “It’s in the best interests of everyone to match up the best VAs with companies, for the best rate and build a great culture within my own organisation of VAs.” “A solid team of VAs married together with good systems and processes can be a real game changer for a business.” Lihn knows that finding the right VAs can be confusing. Outsourcing Angels take the headache out of putting your offshore team together and she says it can all hinge on one thing.
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NAILING THE JOB BRIEF It is so important to get the job brief right, to ensure you match up with the right person for your business. Ask yourself what tasks do you want to delegate What platforms will you be using What are the hard skills and also soft skills, needed by your VA What times will you want them to work? eg. ad hoc hours mean you can’t be specific about when you need them. Long-term VAs can be available for you for specific hours. What skillsets are must-haves Don’t expect the world. Your VA is still human. You can upskill them later on those flexible skills. When you are looking at the applications, consider questions you would ask in an interview like marital status (to get some
A solid team of VAs married together with good systems and processes can be a real game changer for a business.
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Co-founder of Outsourcing Angels, Lihn Podetti runs an offshore recruitment agency with VAs from the Philippines.
background) computer speed, internet speed, etc. Outsource Angels use a specific form (WUFU) designed to ask questions that are specifically to give them an excellent snapshot of each candidate. They then conduct an interview, followed by a panel interview, so they can match the client and VA as best as they can. “We take the panel interview seriously. We want to match the best candidate up with the team so that it can become a ‘soulmate’ type long term relationship,” Lihn says. Recruiting for yourself, you will want to ask questions in the same way you would in a face to face interview. ‘Why do you want to work for my company? What have you enjoyed most about your previous jobs?’ You will want to look into their personalities and get to know who your candidates are so that you can match up well. There is a common misconception that when businesses offshore, everything goes offshore, which isn’t true. Often, businesses will use a combination of local and offshore staff. This enables the local team to have ample support, the business can grow and more local jobs can become available and secure. “If you can help your local team feel more secure and supported by an outsourced team, you may find your local staff are committed to staying long term for the company. It’s common for local workers to leave their jobs every couple of years. Your offshore team will be looking to hang on to their jobs for as long as possible.” Once you’re very clear on your company’s mission, you can use Lihn’s checklist (link below) to see what can be done to help you achieve that mission with an offshore team
and then, you can really take your business to the next level. Audit your own business and look for areas, such as social media, that your VAs can edit your content up or write it up into articles as well as managing your social media content.
WHAT YOUR NEW STAFF SHOULD EXPECT FROM YOU: Send them an agreement form to sign and they can start very quickly. Spend some time going through some orientation. Explain the company background. What is the vision for the company? How does the role fit into the company’s vision? What is the culture like? Explain the core values of the company. Do you have company goals? What are your expectations of them? Eg. A lot of communication or no communication; just results? Be clear on what you expect from them. Set up the communication system Skype, Asana etc. “Your VAs want to be a part of your mission. They want to know that their work is a part of the success of your company. Whatever problem it is that you are solving, you don’t want them to just be good at their task, that isn’t sustainable. You want them to feel a part of the company’s vision.” Check out Lihn’s E-Book and all the forms and checklists you might need at Outsourcingangels.com
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OUTSOURCING:
Get The Most Out Of Your Virtual Team When you are a one-person or micro-sized business you not only have to create the product or do the income-producing service, you also need to market the business, answer calls from customers, make sales calls, get a website set up, get active in social media, send out invoices, do the bookkeeping, and do a whole lot of other things, too. To keep up with it all you could easily work 12 to 14 hours a day, 6 or 7 days a week. 24
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Hiring employees to do specific tasks may not be practical or efficient - particularly in the early years of your business. Your funds may be limited and you may be concerned about adding a permanent expense before you are sure you’ll have enough work to keep the employee busy and steady income to pay the employee. Or there may be too many varied tasks that need to be done, making it difficult
to find one person who can do them all well. If your small business is home-based, you may not want employees coming to your house. You can solve many of these problems by outsourcing work to freelancers or other small companies. Outsourcing your work can help you save time, money and frustration as you start and build your business is to outsource as much work as possible to skilled, but cost-effective, external service providers.
THINK AHEAD When you attend local business meetings and industry events, keep your eye out for individuals or companies who might be able to do some of your work. Get their business cards and any company literature and check out their websites. When you’ve found people you think you could work with, check their references, and then start them out with a small project to see how well they perform.
CLEARLY DEFINE THE PROJECTS Service providers need accurate, complete information to present you with realistic proposals and to quote you a reasonable price. Be specific about the deliverables you expect the vendor to provide. Give vendors as much information as you can about what you need delivered and the way in which you need the work done. Also, be clear and realistic about your schedule requirements.
START SMALL When engaging with a service provider for the first time, start with a project that is
relatively small and simple in scope. This will give you a better idea of the provider’s style and capabilities before you entrust a “mission critical” project to them.
GET IT IN WRITING During the course of a service engagement, the scope of the project, deliverables or even the agreed upon price may change. Make sure that you clearly communicate any schedule, scope or payment changes to your service provider and get confirmation from them - in writing - that they understand and agree to the changes. Similarly, keep a record of any agreement changes requested by the service provider and whether you accept or reject those modifications. Save copies of any email exchanges that you have.
TRUST You can’t make an excellent product if you don’t trust who you’re working with. Micromanaging their actions, secondguessing their approach and constantly suggesting changes, of course, could impact your design and create a weak product. The ideal thing to do is choose the best-fitting partner you can find — and then trust them.
FLEXIBILITY When your outsourcing partner tells you something is not optimal or feasible, consider their feedback. In my experience, they want to do what’s best for you, and they want to create something that is beautiful and functional. Their reputation depends on it. This is why flexibility is crucial in outsourcing.
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NEGOTIATE OWNERSHIP OF WORK UP FRONT For any type of outsourced project, make sure that you are clear about who owns the resulting work product and any important components of that product. Make sure the service provider understands how you intend to use the deliverables that they are agreeing to provide.
LANGUAGE BARRIER Firms that outsource work often do so in other countries with native employees who may not speak English as a first language.
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The workers may be highly skilled in their areas, but if communication barriers are a problem, getting the work done correctly can be a complicated process. Make sure you enunciate and speak slowly to help listeners understand clearly. Avoid using jargon, repeat difficult concepts when you can and use technology to help you translate phrases you don’t know.
THINKING OF USING A
A Virtual Assistant or a VA is a person who provides support services to a business or businesses from a remote location – either within the same country or overseas. VA’s are usually independent or freelance contractors who offer administrative, creative and technical assistance to an individual or a business without needing to be physically present in a workplace environment. VA’s have become popular amongst small and emerging businesses as well as entrepreneurs and online businesses who need support and assistance but who don’t necessarily want to have extra staff on location and need to keep overheads to a minimum.
Many other larger businesses also use VA’s for specific tasks that can easily be done off site such as managing social media. VA’s are popular because they are not only highly efficient, they are also convenient, affordable and highly accessible to a wide range of businesses.
WHAT CAN A VA DO? Essentially a VA can do anything that a traditional Personal Assistant (PA) can do, except perhaps to bring you your morning coffee! You name it and basically a VA can do it – from anything such as basic scalablemagazine.com
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administrative and booking keeping work to more creative jobs such as website design and marketing. VA’s have a wide range of skill sets so the main thing to do is ensure that you choose the right and appropriately skilled VA to meet your specific needs.
HOW CAN YOU HIRE A VA? The first step in hiring a VA is to determine what it is exactly that you want them to do. Make a specific list of all the jobs that you need your VA to do and prioritise the jobs according to which ones are most important to you. The next step is to determine whom it is that you actually hire. There are many VA services available that will screen applicants and match you with candidates that meet your requirements. Alternatively there are also freelance services that allow you to advertise and look at possible potential VA’s. The final step is to reference check and find one that has already been vetted through a referral – this will save you both time and frustration.
WHAT DO VA’S COST? Most VA’s are freelance and operate from home. Usually they charge around $25 per hour but this rate may change depending on the complexities of the tasks or the amount of responsibility given. Some small businesses hire VA’s through a contract or employment position with these VA’s generally a lower rate of about $15 per hour but again this amount may vary depending on their skill set. There are a few key factors to consider when determining how much you pay your VA. These include:
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A lot of businesses outsource VA work to countries such as India and the Philippines. The rates charged by people working from abroad are far cheaper than hiring from Australia.
Type of work: If its basic admin you will be looking at between $15-$25 an hour whilst if it customer service orientated the rate will be slightly higher at around $25-30 an hour. For more complex skills such as digital marketing the rate is likely to be closer to $50 an hour. Experience: Experience level is another important factor that comes into play as to what a VA can charge. Obviously the more experience that a VA has the higher rate they can charge. Nationality: A lot of businesses outsource VA work to countries such as India and the Philippines. The rates charged by people working from abroad are far cheaper than hiring from Australia.
LOCAL VS. OVERSEAS VA’S? VA’s are everywhere and you can easily hire both local VA’s and VA’s from abroad. At the end of the day it will come down
to the skill set you need and the budget that you have which will determine if you hire from Australia or from overseas. The current leading world provider of VA’s is the Philippines. The Philippine Government has ploughed a lot of resources into schools and education – even in remote areas. The result has been a steady stream of highly skilled workers with excellent communication skills who are highly proficient in English making them the perfect VA candidates. The cost of hiring a Filipino VA is a lot less than the cost of hiring a local VA making it a very appealing option for many businesses.
TOP 10 THINGS TO OUTSOURCE TO A VIRTUAL ASSISTANT 1. Bookkeeping 2. Online Research 3. Database Entries 4. Data Presentations 5. Email Management 6. Social Correspondence 7. Travel Bookings 8. Scheduling 9. Pursuing Business Leads 10. Industry Knowledge Research
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Instead of having your business systems, SOPs and processes scattered all over the place – systemHUB™ organises everything in a central location.
Is systemHUB™ right for you? Find Out Here Intuitive design makes system creation quick, easy and fun for everyone on your team. Templates library allows you to copy, paste and customise our best practise SOPs, systems and policies. Custom sharing and permissions gives you full control over who can see, edit and delete systems.
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The vast gig economy is about to change and although it is only taking effect in California, the leader in laws regulating employment, is often followed quickly by other US states. So, how does this affect YOUR business? Californian law expert, all-round superwoman and self-confessed badass, Emily Baker is all over it. She explains how these new laws will affect you and your use of US-based contractors. “Even if you don’t live in California, this will still apply to other US states soon as these laws will likely be making their way across the country, once the process is streamlined,” Emily said. If your business is Australia, for example, and you use freelance workers in the US, then the bill means you will be liable to pay state
taxes for that worker. In September of 2019, Governor Newsom signed Assembly Bill (AB) 5 into law. The new law addresses the “employment status” of workers when they are claimed to be an independent contractor and not an employee. The bill could require Uber, Lyft and many other ‘gig’ companies to treat workers as employees, with all of the benefits of an employee. Why? “Assemblywoman Lorena Gonzalez, the Democrat who authored the bill, said it is designed to stop businesses from gaming the system by misclassifying workers.Federal and State governments believe that freelancers are being taken advantage of from big scalablemagazine.com
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companies like Uber, Lyft and newspapers etc. They are trying to protect the workers by enforcing that everyone should be hired as an employee,” she said. Host of the Gut Legit Law And Shit podcast, Emily is a Calfornian attorney with over 15 years experience and more than 10 years experience as deputy district attorney for LA. She has prosecuted almost every crime imaginable, twice over. Emily predicts Gonzales’ Bill is going to cause many business owners and contractors huge headaches. “What it means is, California wants to stop what it claims are ‘free-riding businesses’ from passing their own business costs on to taxpayers and workers. Gig companies, or companies who use mainly freelance contractors, have stretched branding and worker classification boundaries with vast armies of “nonemployees.” And, it’s going to become
increasingly difficult to keep it up.” It will be mandatory that workers are classified correctly. That means, under the new AB5 (Assembly Bill 5) most contractors will be re-classified as “employees” rather than as an independent contractor. Employers will need to hire them as such or face huge penalties. Having employees triggers federal and state tax withholding, anti-discrimination, health care, pension, worker’s compensation and unemployment insurance obligations. Employers avoid these extra costs by hiring independent contractors, but now, they may not have a choice. “If you work as an IC or freelancer and the government decides you are misclassified, you and the business are on the hook. Classifying yourself is now vital,” Emily said. A worker will generally only be considered an independent contractor if the work they do is outside the usual course of a company’s business. And, if a company exerts control over how they perform their tasks, or if their work is part of a company’s regular business, they will be classified and employee. “If the company uses your services in a way that deems you an employee, rather than a contractor, then you will be on the hook for back payroll taxes and fines, fees and interest. Uber is already talking litigation, arguing that being a second source of income is the reason companies, such as theirs, even exist. This goes for IT companies and “Californian law is
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changing so that businesses in California are not outsourcing all their work outside california because the freelancers will be required to pay Californian state tax. This kind of boxes businesses in. “This is about bringing revenue into California rather than protecting freelancers. I think this is a money grab,” Emily says. “Many contractors’ livelihood is gig work. Photographers, writers, wedding planners, (the list is endless) sustain an income contracting out to multiple companies, whereas now, they will be expected to be hired by those companies as paid employees. The catch is, if you are an employee, all of your work actually legally belongs to your employer. Designs, words, creations etc. It will all belong to them.” Under the IRS test, to determine who is an independent contractor, the IRS says you must evaluate 20 factors, and assess whether you are controlling the method, manner and means of the work. “Violations for items such as unpaid wages, missed meal and rest breaks, and overtime would be available to a worker misclassified as an independent contractor. It’s just not worth risking wrongly classifying your workers once this bill is under effect.” “Unfortunately, even if your employer is happy to contract you, you are happy to freelance, you will STILL have to work with these new laws.”
Who will it affect? If your business is in California. If your business address is California, but you live in another state or country, this will apply to you. If you run a business OUTSIDE the US, but you use contractors in the US, then this new bill will affect you. You will be required to jump through the local tax hoops relevant to that contractor. Read more about IRS laws on Emily’s website and see how your business will be affected. This 2 hour interview is full of invaluable information about these changes - listen here. https://www.crowdcast.io/e/interview with-emily-baker www.emilydbaker.com
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