- Mar 10, 2010
- 42,695
- 107,109
With the advancements in science it is possible to clone sheep, dogs, horses and a variety of other animals.
What we have not seen is science cloning a human (as far as mainstream science has shared anyway) but there is actually a way to clone parts of you to increase your revenue and actually make your life easier.
How you ask?
Virtual Assistants.
Anyone that knows me well in the IM industry knows I use VAs a lot and they are an integral part of how I am able to juggle not only my online activities but also free me up to handle a bunch of offline things in which I am involved. The proper use of VAs can increase your revenue at a low cost and make your life tons easier if you operate correctly.
Here are a few tips on how you can clone bits and pieces of yourself and make more money, free up more time and give you opportunity to expand in your IM revenue streams.
1) Treat your VA as a legitimate brick and mortar employee that you have to look in the eye. Your perspective may change in how you approach them, talk with them and consider how they fit in your life. Remember, they are people and not machines and you want to treat them as such.
2) Train, Train, Train. This is probably where most go wrong when hiring a VA; they simply do not train enough. Make videos, write tutorials, and do the work they are going to be doing for you from their perspective so you can see what they see. If you are going to have them log into a computer you own using Team Viewer, do that yourself and see what they see. If they are going to be using one of your VPSs, log in and work their process for a little while so you can see if the VPS is fast enough. And... record your videos from the perspective they will be working so they are seamless in their training.
3) Understand they are not you and do not know what you know or even why you are doing what you are doing. They also don't care 99% of the time, they just want to go to work and get paid. They are not you and will never be so do not have that expectation. Do have the expectation that they will perform certain tasks you thoroughly train them on.
4) Build a relationship with them so you can learn from what they actually may see from their perspective. I never treat anyone that works for me like some kind of third party entity but rather as a person so I know what their life is a little about. You may find that getting to know them will give them cause to offer some advice on how they can do a better job for you if they deviate from your explicit instructions.
5) Don't be steadfast in how you want something done. If the VA has an idea to make his work easier, see if that will work. When I was raising children and one wanted to do something, I did not look to see why they could not but how we could accomplish that and it be best for them. Do the same here.
6) Stuff happens... there will be times when they can't come to work... that is the same in EVERY business in the world and some outside of the world too. Factor that in when you are calculating returns on the costs of a VA.
7) Expect them to make mistakes; EVERYONE MAKES MISTAKES. Usually it is best to see why the mistake was made and see how you can implement something so it does not get repeated. Usually it is a training issue too, so it is on you as the trainer most of the time.
8) Overpay your people. One surefire way to get the best out of someone is to overdeliver and in this instance it means over pay. If your deal is for X amount of dollars per hour, pay them X.3 per hour. They can't get a gift bonus usually (like a watch, gift certificate, etc) but they can get a cash bonus. Come payday step up to the plate and hook them up if they are taking care of you.
9) Limitations should be understood by you and in a sense cater to your VA. You want the most from them understand what they can offer and run with that. Remember this person is not you but rather a "part of you" and you need to be comfortable with that. Find what aspect of "you" they can be and you'll be dancing in the streets.
10) Communicate so they understand you when you are sharing something. Odds are the VA does not use your native tongue as their mother tongue so you need to be sure that what you are saying is being heard as you want it heard. It is real easy to talk to them and miss out that what you are saying is Latin to them so when you explain something, make sure they understand and make sure they know it is OK if they do not so you can share it another way.
If you want to launch your boat in deep waters, you will need some help and you can get that with a properly trained qualified Virtual Assistant. I personally could not do 1/5 of what I do without the VAs I use and I'm not only blessed by being able to accomplish more but I've built relationships with some real quality people in the process.
What we have not seen is science cloning a human (as far as mainstream science has shared anyway) but there is actually a way to clone parts of you to increase your revenue and actually make your life easier.
How you ask?
Virtual Assistants.
Anyone that knows me well in the IM industry knows I use VAs a lot and they are an integral part of how I am able to juggle not only my online activities but also free me up to handle a bunch of offline things in which I am involved. The proper use of VAs can increase your revenue at a low cost and make your life tons easier if you operate correctly.
Here are a few tips on how you can clone bits and pieces of yourself and make more money, free up more time and give you opportunity to expand in your IM revenue streams.
1) Treat your VA as a legitimate brick and mortar employee that you have to look in the eye. Your perspective may change in how you approach them, talk with them and consider how they fit in your life. Remember, they are people and not machines and you want to treat them as such.
2) Train, Train, Train. This is probably where most go wrong when hiring a VA; they simply do not train enough. Make videos, write tutorials, and do the work they are going to be doing for you from their perspective so you can see what they see. If you are going to have them log into a computer you own using Team Viewer, do that yourself and see what they see. If they are going to be using one of your VPSs, log in and work their process for a little while so you can see if the VPS is fast enough. And... record your videos from the perspective they will be working so they are seamless in their training.
3) Understand they are not you and do not know what you know or even why you are doing what you are doing. They also don't care 99% of the time, they just want to go to work and get paid. They are not you and will never be so do not have that expectation. Do have the expectation that they will perform certain tasks you thoroughly train them on.
4) Build a relationship with them so you can learn from what they actually may see from their perspective. I never treat anyone that works for me like some kind of third party entity but rather as a person so I know what their life is a little about. You may find that getting to know them will give them cause to offer some advice on how they can do a better job for you if they deviate from your explicit instructions.
5) Don't be steadfast in how you want something done. If the VA has an idea to make his work easier, see if that will work. When I was raising children and one wanted to do something, I did not look to see why they could not but how we could accomplish that and it be best for them. Do the same here.
6) Stuff happens... there will be times when they can't come to work... that is the same in EVERY business in the world and some outside of the world too. Factor that in when you are calculating returns on the costs of a VA.
7) Expect them to make mistakes; EVERYONE MAKES MISTAKES. Usually it is best to see why the mistake was made and see how you can implement something so it does not get repeated. Usually it is a training issue too, so it is on you as the trainer most of the time.
8) Overpay your people. One surefire way to get the best out of someone is to overdeliver and in this instance it means over pay. If your deal is for X amount of dollars per hour, pay them X.3 per hour. They can't get a gift bonus usually (like a watch, gift certificate, etc) but they can get a cash bonus. Come payday step up to the plate and hook them up if they are taking care of you.
9) Limitations should be understood by you and in a sense cater to your VA. You want the most from them understand what they can offer and run with that. Remember this person is not you but rather a "part of you" and you need to be comfortable with that. Find what aspect of "you" they can be and you'll be dancing in the streets.
10) Communicate so they understand you when you are sharing something. Odds are the VA does not use your native tongue as their mother tongue so you need to be sure that what you are saying is being heard as you want it heard. It is real easy to talk to them and miss out that what you are saying is Latin to them so when you explain something, make sure they understand and make sure they know it is OK if they do not so you can share it another way.
If you want to launch your boat in deep waters, you will need some help and you can get that with a properly trained qualified Virtual Assistant. I personally could not do 1/5 of what I do without the VAs I use and I'm not only blessed by being able to accomplish more but I've built relationships with some real quality people in the process.
