Most people going into business for themselves do so because are very good at what they do – a skilled joiner, a fabulous PR person, a talented public speaker.  However, it doesn’t guarantee they are great at the admin!

So how do you make sure your business is in the successful 20%?

Most small businesses fail for two reasons:

1. Cashflow
2. The owner has enough of working long hours and doing everything themselves and gets a 9-5 job.

It seems silly to employ someone full time to do admin when “I could do it myself”.   That’s not even considering the minefield of employment law for essentially just a few hours a week.  So you end up working long, tiring hours and doing more of the admin and less of what you love.

STOP!

There is another way: a Virtual Assistant!

We’re available for as little or as much as you need us – you only pay for what you use.  And because we’re subcontractors there are no HR headaches, tax or admin to worry about.

Not sure what we can help with?  Have a look at just some of the services we can complete in an hour (or less!).

So if I can do that from Glasgow, what’s to stop me being in Bangalore or the Philippines?  Absolutely nothing at all.  I could actually already **be** there and I doubt you would notice the difference.

About two years ago, in the interests of research we decided to see what the competition was offering – we decided to send them a couple of our own internal tasks and see what the results were.

We used a couple of different offshore virtual assistant companies but strangely had a similar experience with all of them.  Here’s my findings and top tips:

Deadlines mean nothing

Whether it’s the time difference or simply because they think it’s okay to miss deadlines, the work was always late.  To mitigate this we provided the offshore assistants with www.timeanddate.com and also established that all deadlines were UK GMT time.  Being VAs ourselves, we had a reasonable idea of how long all these tasks should take, so we weren’t guesstimating an unreasonable turnaround.  Deadlines were still missed and I concluded that we couldn’t rely on the offshore VAs to complete anything with a set deadline – it was supposed to be saving me time, not costing me time!

Virtually Sorted’s deadline on all work an hour  long is next working day. Larger projects will be quoted on a case by case basis and you will get an estimated delivery time when you book your project in.

Speak like a child

Tim Ferriss who recommends using offshore VAs in his bestseller “The Four Hour Work Week”, advises that you need to keep language really simple and produce a step-by-step plan for your offshore VA.  There’s also a degree of micromanagement involved because you need to check part way through the task that they have understood your meaning.  If you have the time to be that hands-on, great.  Otherwise you may end up with a large bill, useless results and the feeling that “I might as well do it myself”.  You need to break down your project into simple steps, relay that info in child-style language, and then check up on the progress at least an hour into the project and then once per day.

All our VAs are UK citizens and work from their own small office environment.  Our office hours are 9am-5pm Mon-Fri and during these times your project will be acknowledged within 30 minutes maximum. Our VAs are trained to ask you the questions they need to know so your project turns out exactly the way you want it.

Team/Individual

You may feel happier working with a team of VAs.  In our experience using the offshore VAs, this doesn’t guarantee a team back up system you can often be left without a VA and still paying their monthly fees.  The benefit of the company-style model was that it was less risky than sending Paypal payments to a hotmail account…

We’re a UK based sole trader – we’re happy to accept Paypal/cheques or indeed can provide you with our BACS details so you can use internet banking.

Time/Billing

My idea about time and their ideas about time were very different.  For example, I know that to change a couple of links on a webpage and upload it via FTP takes maybe 30 minutes.  I couldn’t understand why I was getting bills for 2 hours on tasks like these.  So the cheap rate I was getting was offset by the added time it took them to either comprehend or complete the task.  We usually set out an explanation of the task, a deadline for the task (which was at least the day before we wanted the actual work!) and also an estimated total time for the task.  This didn’t solve some of the more “inventive” entries in their timesheets but it did mean we had some recoil to challenge it.

Billing was in US$ converted from Indian Rupees so the exchange rate fluctuated all the time.  A lot of the companies will hound you to sign up to their pre-paid plans.  Don’t!  The work quality really suffers and you’ll find yourself hounding them to do your work once you are on a monthly plan.

With Virtually Sorted you have an estimated time and charges for all tasks and access to all completed tasks in your own billing area.  No unpleasant month-end surprises!

The things we loved

The prices: they range from $5-$15 an hour.  Going out to dinner (which the offshore VA had booked) with friends and listening to them ranting about Indian call centres – we said nothing!  The wonderful and slightly strange emails we got wishing us a pleasant day.  The drudge work – they transcribed an entire year’s bank statements into an excel document overnight for example.

Offshore VAs aren’t all bad – but it depends on the kind of task you are delegating.  Our VAs can advise when tasks can be offshored and also monitor them for you.  We also have access to “Smartsourcing” a tool that lets you outsource small repetitive tasks to an army of homeworkers for a fraction of the cost of a traditional VAs.

Local is good

I did find the Indian VAs EXCELLENT at sorting out BT issues.  Because of course, BT’s call centre is also based in Mumbai and they could speak to each other easily.  What was less effective was getting them to call up and get quotes for venue hire in the UK – I got a lot of internet search results and no actual prices because the venues hadn’t been able to understand the offshore VA’s accent.

You might need the VA to call up a prospect and book in a meeting – how do they know how long it takes to get from your house into Central London?  Or for example, how do you explain the intricacies of Royal Mail’s special/recorded delivery to a non-native?  Despite the world getting smaller the cultural differences still make it difficult to work with an offshore VA.

The Verdict:

In general terms, the offshore VAs have their place.  Say you want to recreate a document which you only have in hard copy format or need your VA to type up the entire UK phonebook or even to visit all your competitors’ websites and create a database of prices and services offered…  Brilliant!  “Grunt work” is what these guys do best.  I actually recommend using this kind of outsource offshore VA to my clients if they have a project like this which is non-time-specific.  It would be fairly criminal to take £25/hour for something they could get for $5/hour, plus it’s boring for our highly-trained VAs to do.

Am I worried by the competition?  No.  It’s not the same service at all.  Our VAs are highly skilled, native English speakers who have a variety of skills suitable for small businesses in the UK.  They understand where to go for information, what it really means when someone says “the cheque’s in the post” and how UK business actually works.  Clients want to be able to speak to them during office hours and not have to micromanage each and every thing they do.  They want quick turnarounds and perfect results.  In essence, our clients are looking for someone who is able to understand their business and create practical solutions to their “big picture” ideal.

But did I keep the VA on just to deal with the dodgy offshore call centres?  You bet!

Without naming names:

• There’s the VA who thought that having a computer or answering telephone calls/emails was merely optional, and therefore left her poor client hanging around trying to get her original documents back for SIX WEEKS!
• The VA who had no anti-virus and infected a whole office of computers with the documents she created since they bypassed the usual firewall being zipped files.
• The VA who used the client’s databases for her own marketing… Eek!
• The VA who decided her client was being a bit slow to pay, so logged into their Paypal account and helped herself.  The reason she hadn’t been paid is that she hadn’t completed the project, which was overdue!

Of course, not all virtual assistants act like this – we act under a very strict Code Of Ethics.

Do you know of any other horror stories?  Add them below… All posts get a Tasty Treat!

I looked a bit puzzled.

I don’t spend anything like that amount of time on marketing my business.  I’ve always thought that being organised is actually an advanced form of laziness and have accordingly adjusted my activities to suit…  So how do you figure out where to put the effort in?  And what are the biggest timewasters?

• Timewaster 1: Networking meetings. These work terrifically for certain types of business – ones that every business needs and where personal relationships count: accountants, printers and lawyers all do well out of these.  But when you figure the cost of joining, the weekly fees and your time into the equation, what exactly is the return on investment?  Having done a fair few over the years, I figured that it wasn’t economnically viable for me to get enough business to justify doing this on a pure fees basis any more – and many more businesses have made the same decision, leading to reduced numbers and reduced client prospects for their members.  Expect to be roped into some sort of marketing drive eventually to drum up new numbers… For me, I tend to only go to the ones I really enjoy: Girl Geek Dinners score highly on this!  And thus it’s a business expense, not an investment and any returns I make are a bonus on a fun night out.
• Timewaster 2: Social Media. Social media is another excellent tool which is much celebrated but usually done pretty ineffectually.  The first problem is that people spend hours and hours on it: I spend no longer than 15 minutes a day monitoring all my social media accounts, using Hootsuite.com.  The second problem is that businesses don’t monitor the results they get from their social media activity.  I can pinpoint exactly which tweet generated which spike in visitors to our website using Google Analytics – it’s worth investing a little time in setting the reporting up properly.  I can also tell you that for our business, Facebook is singularly ineffective at producing quality leads – if you are an entertainment business Facebook is your friend, but if you are a relationship based business Twitter is your little black book!
• Timewaster 3: Climbing halfway up the mountain. I’m always astonished by the number of people who launch massive campaigns and then fail to do follow up.  Much better to do a smaller number of leads and follow them up properly than to launch a huge campaign which is a one-hit-wonder.  Remember: on average it takes 7 communications before someone will buy from a new provider.  It’s like climbing halfway up the mountain, only to turn back without seeing the view from the top.
• Timewaster 4: Not knowing where your business comes from. This one is fairly obvious, but you’d be surprised by how many people have no idea how their clients found out about them.  You don’t need any fancy tracking at all for this, simply ask all your new leads “Where did you find out about us from?” then keep track of what marketing is working for you – and scrap the marketing which isn’t paying for itself!

Further reading:

For a small business getting cost effective marketing in place is essential.  But if you’re never marketed before, how do you know what method will be most effective or whether the results are getting are typical?

Usually what we recommend is a “follow up sandwich” approach.

• The Bread: Our first slice of marketing is a postcard or letter mailed out to a list of potential prospects.
• The Filling: A sandwich filling of an email reminder with more information accessible online.
• Final slice: Finally a top slice sandwich phone call to those who have clicked open the email and shown an interest.

Where do you get your prospects data from?

We work with a list provider who allow us to filter the data using search criteria such as size of business, location, industry, number of employees etc. so that we get a small number of extremely targeted prospects who are most likely to want the product or service you are marketing – the more info you can give us, the more targeted we can make the list.

The data is yours – you purchase it and you own it.  The list provider can offer list cleansing so that you aren’t contacting people who are on the TPS/MPS lists.  For this reason, we always recommend using the most up to date information, rather than data which is historic.  The very best data is, of course, data which you have gathered yourself from people who want to know more about your business.

Why the follow up email first?

Mail merging bulk emails is a relatively quick process – it usually takes about half an hour to set up a basic email including personalised details such as “Dear <Joe Bloggs>” or including their company name in the main body text of the email.  Our tracking system allows us to monitor who has clicked on the links in the email for more information, and this gives us a “hot” list of prospects who are interested in the service to follow up via phone.

And the follow up phonecalls?

Phonecalls are quite time consuming to do – you’ll often not reach the person you were trying to contact on your first try, it may take up to 2-3 times to get hold of the right person since they may be in meetings, out of the office, on another call etc.  When you make this sort of effort to contact someone, you want to be fairly sure that it’s worth your time and that they are interested in the product/service – hence why we use the email to filter our list to those people who are genuinely interested in what you’re selling.  People who make decisions are often very busy and although your postcard or email is lurking around their desk, often all it takes is a very gentle follow up call to convince them they need your help!

To get your own “Follow Up Sandwich”, call 0141 423 8255 or email info@virtuallysorted.com

Anyway, perhaps the most interesting shift in the VA world is the increasing acceptance of virtual working and home working, with more companies offering this both to their own staff and self-employed outsourcers.  In years gone by, home working was often looked down upon as “unprofessional” whereas now it’s seen as being a smart, economical, green and a more balanced way of working.  With increasing legislation both in employment and environmental law, companies are now taking note of virtual working as a realistic business model.

However with this flexibility comes a responsibility to ensure standards are upheld.  So many people want to become virtual assistants and forget that you still need childcare, to keep regular hours and deliver on your promises.  It really makes me angry when I hear of people calling themselves virtual assistants without basic skills or knowledge and then letting clients down, reflecting badly not only on them but on the industry as a whole – and in turn, on me!

Read about Our Business Ethics and what you need to ask when hiring a Virtual Assistant.

If you haven’t booked your Summer holiday yet, let us help. Our friendly virtual assistants will look after everything else whilst you lie on the beach.  Taking a break from the business is essential to recharge your batteries and remain at the top of your game.

If you’re a solopreneur or small business owner, the likelihood is you’ll be packing your iPhone and carrying on as normal in a different location, albeit with slightly inferior office facilities. That’s not really a holiday, is it? Make sure you have a PROPER holiday, using our Entrepreneurs Escape Kit!

Month Before Escape:

Your escape kit starts before you go – start documenting what you do and how you do it.

Fortnight Before Escape:

Check-in online to book your holiday cover: www.virtuallysorted.com/services-costs/i-need-a-holiday/ We’ll take a full brief of everything you need us to do whilst you are away including setting up phone diverts, checking emails and processing orders.

Day Before Escape:

Put auto responders on your personal emails, make sure business ones are diverted to us.  Transfer your calls over to us, we’ll take care of it from there. You pack suitcase and look forward to some nice wine!

Catch Up:

When you get back, we’ll send you an update of everything that has happened in one easy document. Caroline’s Top Tip: Add an extra day to your holiday and spend it catching up once you return, to ease yourself back into working life!

We know that choosing your virtual assistant can be daunting.

• What can your VA do?
• How long should it take them?
• What do you need to supply?
• How do you choose one VA over another?

We’re confident that working with Virtually Sorted will convince you to use us again and also recommend is to your friends. So we’re happy to offer a free virtual assistant trial with no obligations.

The strings are (of course!) that we need to keep as much time available as possible for paying clients, so our free sessions are limited to one day per month and one session per person/business. To keep it fair, each person gets a 30 minute phone consultation followed by 2 hours of virtual assistant time and it is limited to people who have not used the service before.

Simply email info@virtuallysorted.com with “FREE VA FOR THE DAY” as the subject and your contact phone number.

This month’s FREE VIRTUAL ASSISTANT session is:

Thursday 19th January