It costs ~$500 / month to hire a virtual assistant from the Philippines. I’ve been thinking about it. But I got a little stuck. What tasks can you outsource? I did some research. Here’s what I found.
Research
Entrepreneurs are using VAs to generate leads.
VAs collect names and emails of potential customers, partners and industry influencers. They reach out to these contacts to schedule meetings. This business development work leads to interviews, sales meetings, and partnerships.
VAs also do web research.
They build lists of competitors, source new products, find people to hire, and find data to include in high-value blog posts.
Online Presence
VAs manage social media accounts.
They can post to Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, Pinterest etc…, respond to customer support requests.
If you and your clients email back and forth a lot they can handle the back-and-forth for you.
They manage and optimize product catalogues.
If your website needs more visitors they can generate back-links for SEO by submitting blog posts to relevant news sites and commenting on other bloggers’ posts.
Content Creation
Some VAs create content.
Some will write blog posts for you. Others will help you edit posts you’ve written. You can find VAs who can edit videos, podcasts, photos and more.
Some VAs are skilled designers. They can help you put together eBook covers, infographics, and print-ready media.
Some can code landing pages and other parts of your website. Some can handle copywriting, design and UI / UX work.
Sales Automation / Systems Integration
Want to put your business on auto-pilot? Some VAs are skilled at engineering and systems integration.
These VAs can help you with email & CRM automation setup.
They can help you build sales funnels and lead magnets. They can help you set up email sequences and drip campaigns.
Project Management
Some VAs are skilled project managers who can track the work of other VAs.
They will hold weekly meetings with remote teams, motivate team members and distribute work.
If you are looking to expand your business they can run recruiting tasks and provide reports on team performance.
Hiring VAs
VAs can either be hired directly (via an appropriate job board) or sourced through an agency.
A VA hired directly from the Philippines costs from $1-$10 / hr depending on skillset
A VA hired through an agency costs from $15-$30 / hr
The advantage of sourcing through an agency is that the agency has a vetting process. They will help you screen and select an appropriate VA. Also, some agencies can provide on-demand VAs for short term tasks. The advantage of hiring a VA directly is that it’s less expensive.
If you would like to get an idea of what it costs to hire a VA directly check out →
If you want to hire directly but you’re worried about the interview process you can outsource it.
Check out these agencies →
http://www.virtualstafffinder.com/
These interviewing services cost about ~$400
Some Inspiration
Michael Lynch has a great article on hiring freelance cartoonists to create cartoons for his blog.
Hiring a VA helped his blog posts spread really well on twitter.
It really wasn’t that expensive. He spent $280 for a block of 10 cartoons.
I think outsourcing seems worth it for certain kinds of tasks. What do you think?
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