“Entrepreneuring” with a Virtual Assistant

I have a mastermind team that helps me focus on my nutritional products distribution business. It consists of myself, and three outstanding entrepreneurs with very diverse skill sets. We meet by phone every Wednesday and the time spent with these incredible people is usually one of the highlights of my week.

On our last call we were focusing on one of my teammate’s desire (and stated need) to find an assistant. It was his observation that having someone to handle the “menial” everyday tasks would free him to focus on, and better accomplish, his 90 day goals.

First of all I want to congratulate Leo on recognizing, and taking action on, something I believe is critical to being an entrepreneur – the fact that business is a team sport!

If you’ve followed me at all, or read other articles I’ve posted (like my article on The E-Myth book), then you know I think one of the biggest myths out there is that successful entrepreneurs got that way completely on their own.

Let me be so bold as to simply state: If you want to build a successful, thriving, sustainable business you must have a team!

Leo understands this, and he’s also smart enough to know what he doesn’t know. So he asked us, his mastermind teammates. I just love working with super intelligent people!

One of the great advantages we all have today, as opposed to 25 years ago, is that you can build an efficient and cost effective team virtually. I have a whole team of top-notch professionals in various disciplines whom I’ve never met face to face.

I realize that you may require a physical presence in your office. That ended up being the case for my mastermind teammate Leo. But for the most part a virtual assistant could be just what the doctor ordered as you build your successful business.

Here are some thoughts on virtual assistants (VA’s):

Where to find them? –

There are several “name brand” VA services out there. The advantages of using one of these services is you typically have access to a team of VA’s instead of just one. Check out this Wall Street Journal article for a comparison of four such firms.

Alternatively, you could hire your own VA through a service like Elance.com or ODesk.com. I’ve used both with great success.

How much will you pay? –

I would speculate that the vast majority of VA’s reside outside of the U.S. Because of this you will find hourly rates to be down right cheap compared to wages here in the States. I’ve seen hourly rates as low as $2/hr.

But, buyer beware! As the saying goes, you tend to get what you pay for. Be prepared to navigate the time difference between you and your VA. Understand that English is most likely not their first language. And, know that many countries have holidays we don’t have in the U.S. (some of them rather lengthy) where your VA will be unavailable.

In the end though, if you take into consideration all the above, a VA is still a great seo services Tulsa deal and can be a tremendous help.

How do you find the right one? –

One of the key golden nuggets to come out of our mastermind discussion about assistants was around a couple of suggestions made by my other teammates Heidi and Jim. They suggested developing a questionnaire that would help you pre-qualify your assistant, and then insisting on a trial period so that you can determine if things are working out as expected. The bottom line is you may need to kiss a few frogs first!

So there you have it – “entrepreneuring” with a virtual assistant.

I’ll close this article in the same way we typically end our mastermind calls…

By asking you – “what action do you feel inspired to take?” And, “are you willing to report back to us that you took action?”

Come back here and comment on your progress, ask your questions, or tell us of your success!

I look forward to hearing from you!