Do You Want To Multiply Your Income? Clone Yourself!

Im not surprised by your offer, you really are a top bloke. However i decline the offer - simply because it would be wrong for me to benefit from my failure to properly teach the VA. I mean, that would be the probable reason for the VA getting it wrong.

But having said that i am gunna bite the bullet so to speak and hire a VA in the coming days for a simple task i need doing, and keep in mind the points you have covered here.

Thanks BTB

BassTrackerBoats said:

I have a good friend that had the same issue, Hawkster. I finally got him talked into hiring someone for some of his work and he is a new man with increased revenue as he now has time to build other things that have been sitting on the back burner for ages.

You're a good guy and I would like to see you even more successful; I'll make the same offer to you that I did to him.

Hire a VA, train them properly and if what they do does not make a significant impact in your ability to expand what you are doing or make it so you can do additional things to generate revenue, I'll pay for them for a month.

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Hired a VA for some jobs I needed to get done - I write the instructions properly and told them what to do if they find some problems. They did the job very well and I was pleased. Now every time I need something that I don't wanna do or will take too much of my time, I hire one.

Yes cloning myself would make my life so much easier! Great tips.

Great information B2B. It's easy to see how your view of the various shareholders and stakeholders throughout your companies are linearly aligned with your overarching people skills. It's rare to find someone who balances treating everyone in contact with a business the way they would want to be treated. Your tips are excellent even as general management tips!

I know that the answer to this question will be different for everybody, but from your seasoned perspective: Roughly how much money do you think one should be making/month (after bills and whatnot) before taking on a VA?

For a long time I have resisted hiring VAs. But I'm now embracing it and it is awesome.

First VA I hired was to manage my PBNs which is does wonderfully.

Next VA I have hired is to be my design/video guy. He is doing a fantastic job.

I took the time to write out extensive training materials and do screen captures of what I want. I then created test tasks and gave them to multiple potential VAs and hired the best of the lot. I also overpay by about 20-40% of what is normally expected and let my VAs work to a schedule that suits them and take breaks/time off when they need it.

The result is my employees are awesome and create content that I can monetize. I'm going to be looking at hiring my VAs in the future.

Hawkster said:

Ive been mulling over getting myself a VA for weeks now, just cant bring myself to do it. And im not sure why - i think maybe its because i like to know things are being done right and couldn't live with the OCD checking constantly that the VA is doing everything right.

Informative read as always, cheers BTB

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You need to get rid of this mindset. Not being able to delegate tasks and trust employees will SERIOUSLY hinder your growth.

Let me give you an example.

I know this German business man (much older than me, in his 60's) who is very successful and made his money in logistics (large scale transportation, semis, cargo ships etc.) He said he originally had a partner, but they had different intentions and eventually split ways...

At first, both him and his ex-partner were about the same size, around 10 employees each. But, the man i know was much better at delegating task and trusting his employees.. He told me that micromanaging is the absolute WORST thing an employer can do.
His ex-partner on the other hand, was a serious micromanager and would breathe over his employees shoulders to ensure they were on task and doing the work up to his standards.

Conclusion: The business man i know is now worth several hundred million dollars. His ex-partner? Still living in Germany with the same 10 employees...

hmmm, this is really long winded, hopefully it helps someone though!

Excellent share BassTrackerBoats. This has been one of my biggest obstacles when trying to expand my main money site. Patients is defiantly the key. 2nd obstacle has been the pub!

This might be an incredibly dumb question, but it's been on my mind for a while now.

When you give the VA access to whatever project you're outsourcing.. What stops them from running off and starting their own operation that mimics your project completely?

Good post I already had most of this in mind but for the things I need a VA for it kinda scares me as they could really screw me over or steal from me.
I'd have to find a way to prevent that, and i'm not quite sure how yet lol.

Are most VAs honorable in your experience?

For those who unsure how to get good VA, you can try on various microjobs sites like fiverr and etc. When finding in fiverr for example, do not search using the keywords like Virtual Assistant, rather search in the particular jobscopes you want.

For me I have successfully hired a few VAs thru fiverr like handling my social accounts updating, blog postings/setup and video animation creation. For just $5 or so, you can test on their skill level, delivery time frame and communication.

Just throw them some jobs before asking them to become ur VA, and they will be glad to do so, as they are paying more without fiverr 20% cut, faster payment without waiting 14 days fund clearance and regular work instead of waiting.

I believe it's hard to find trustworthy VAs these days.

Great post. I am in the process of hiring some VAs and this would surely help. We indeed need to keep in mind a lot of factors while hiring a VA.

Great post as always. I guess the precursor to this is that you should always make your method or your business model scalable in the first place - sometimes if the model is over complicated or too reliant on individuals then it's very hard to scale out and outsource the workload in this way.

Something most of the small business owners neglect .It can cut down a lot of stress and increased productivity.

Asusual, Great post BTB !

Im ready to become VA lol

Euphorix said:

I know that the answer to this question will be different for everybody, but from your seasoned perspective: Roughly how much money do you think one should be making/month (after bills and whatnot) before taking on a VA?

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Initially odds are that you are not going to get the most you can out of a VA unless you have some history/experience in hiring and people so keep that in mind when you first consider hiring one.

As to monthly income/revenue, that is hard to say but you want to ask yourself a couple of things if you are going to take the step:

1) Am I going to use the time I save wisely? Lots of people do not as they think they are on easy street now since a bunch of stuff is not in their to do box. Make good use of the time you save and turn that into money. This is not so much a quality of life move as it is a business move.

2) If the cost of my VA is 100.00 (salary + tools + VPS etc, how much will I make from their efforts in a worst case scenario? Then deduct 10% from what you think you would make.

3) If I totally screw up with my VA and make nothing at all, will the cost cause undo hardship to me? Let's say you completely fail and get ZERO return, if the investment is going to make your family miss meals then you are not in a place to venture there yet.

Floopa75 said:

This might be an incredibly dumb question, but it's been on my mind for a while now.

When you give the VA access to whatever project you're outsourcing.. What stops them from running off and starting their own operation that mimics your project completely?

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That is actually a good question, Floops, and one that lots of people think when they are considering a VA. I usually only give them a piece of the puzzle. If I am building a car, one builds the transmission, one the drive train, one the motor, one the body etc. The transmission guy does not know about the engine guy and the engine guy does not know the body guy.

If all they are doing is pieces, then it is pretty hard for them to steal your ideas or methods and that is how I always start them out until I get to know them.

Also most of the VAs don't want to be the man. They just want to go to work, do their work and collect a pay check. Not everyone is an entrepreneur like yourself with a vision to build, many are happy doing their job and taking a check. That is why factories the world over have been successful for decades.

bmminc said:

Good post I already had most of this in mind but for the things I need a VA for it kinda scares me as they could really screw me over or steal from me.
I'd have to find a way to prevent that, and i'm not quite sure how yet lol.

Are most VAs honorable in your experience?

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Honor as to stealing has not been an issue with the ones we have hired in past and the ones we work with on a regular basis. I have had issues with some people not wanting to come to work and that is not a VA specific issue as that is a real life job issue as well when you are hiring a lower end employee.

Honor as to stealing has not been an issue with the ones we have hired in past and the ones we work with on a regular basis. I have had issues with some people not wanting to come to work and that is not a VA specific issue as that is a real life job issue as well when you are hiring a lower end employee.

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I would have to say that employee theft continues to be a major issue offline. From my experience managing and owning
offline ventures -- it's a big deal. Actually when it came to auditing box stores and handling security we always busted employees
rather than customers shoplifting.

Online I've had 2 assistants attempt to cause harm and it was caught before things got too out of hand. I have seen
less theft among virtual employees which is astonishing -- of course depending on their access level what can you expect -- still you can't go wrong with remote access software. A lot of people I employ on the regular I buy a company laptop for and track it. =)

You bring up a solid point that I certainly did not, RK; you can't just give the VA the keys to your business without getting to know them which is why I just give them a piece of the puzzle to start out.

Once you get them on board you can relax and give them projects or processes that are more sensitive. As in any business, employee management is required to different extents depending on the tasks, employees and required training.

Using Teamviewer or some other remote access software is an excellent way to get them in the fold as you can see their every movement if you are sitting in the same room and many of us have computers sitting in closets gathering dust that you can even use to get started.

great share been looking to hire VA's and this thread is very helpful.