lol am I in 1100s Europe?
"What if the commoners start learning how to read?"
The business model of having someone do a significant part or the entire work, while expecting them to not have a mind of their own and behave like intelligent human beings, has only been able to survive for so long elsewhere because of the cost to run a business that can compete and lack of publicly available information and resources. Welcome to freedom of IM.
I don't hire someone, prop them up like I'm programming a robot to do my work for me, and expect them to keep their head down. Don't create your own competition, unless you know how to deal with them. Do retail employees know how to make the clothes or what the sales margins are? Do waiters know where the spices are originally sourced from and how to get the best shipping rates?
As we know that having the know-how isn't all that's necessary, this is where networking and the meat of business school comes in. If you don't hold onto what makes what you do different, then you're just another "Me Too" operation.
I've never hired a completely automatic VA, but if I did, they'd never understand how I do what I do unless they tried and failed and tried and failed and tried themselves. And even then, they'd be doing their own thing, because I would never openly sell myself out unless I'm selling my business. This is, after all, business.
In an industry with as low of entry barriers as IM, you can't be a lazy and pridefully ballin' boss. Think chain of command and keep things need-to-know.
