How to outsource everything and anything like a boss without going broke
I have been outsourcing a lot of lead generation, and general VA jobs in the last 5 years and I want to share how I do it, why it works and how you can implement it.
I shared this in the past but this time I want to talk more about the process of hiring, keeping your VA happy, scale, etc.
Hiring a VA
I only hire via Facebook . Facebook allows me to see people’s profiles.
I hire people with human profiles, not profiles only created to apply for jobs. This means, I’m looking at the things they post, their profile photos, even their statements.
What I stay away from:
Political statements, hardcore religious posts, or any type of post that is too polarizing, I know this sounds weird, but I want people that are not so easily triggered.
I want:
Family people, positive ones, happy people
Where to Hire VAs
Facebook Groups
You want Facebook groups where they are looking for work , so let say Virtual Assistant groups.
Find groups that are based on demographics for location not niche or industry.
It’s easier to deal with VA when you know their culture vs the industry they understand. In other words your understanding of their world, helps you to keep them in the long term
How to hire them
The process I follow is this for VA
Before I hire them I set up a symbolic test as an interview. This test is a task that I know takes NO MORE than 30 minutes, you can pay for this task if you want but regardless every single VA needs to do the same task.
Example: I want you to go to the next 5 sites and find the contact details of the owner following this instruction guide.
The goal is for you to measure if
They did
How fast they did
How many questions they ask you
Their effort
You are not measuring the result, you are measuring their commitment to try to achieve it.
The instructions guide
It’s vital any trial comes with instructions, and this is when many biz owners fail, we tell them go and do this and come back…
The goal is for us to give them very comprehensive instructions and then analyze how well they perform it. Once again, the secret is for us to see if they can follow the guide.
The Guide itself
Your goal with any initial outsourcing task is FOR YOU to do the task first and then build the guide.
The reason is that it gives you a perspective of how long it takes.
I know what you are thinking… what is the point of hiring someone if I need to do it…
Well for this unique “Gab outsourcing system” to work you need at least to know if you can do it and at least try to perform the trial task yourself.
Let me repeat this: you are only going to trial VA’s to do something you have done before. Only when you have done it you are aware of the time required and it gives you a perspective of how long it can take.
Who To hire
I never hire based on CV
I hire based on communication and will to learn
People that are keen to improve, they want to give it another go or they are committed to improve
It’s also vital how engaged they are when I talk to them.
All the chat or conversation happens via Messenger and Messenger is a great way for you to know if they are “into the chat”
Once again we are measuring interest vs skill
Can Skill be learned?
The tasks we are hiring are not advanced so in my system I prefer to hire people willing to learn, that may take longer vs people that “know how to do it” but they are not flexible enough to change their strategy
Once again, I’m building a team vs hiring outsourcers
Why not hiring an Outsourcer in an Outsourcing site
Outsourcers are by default entrepreneurial, they are already actively seeking jobs, bidding, pitching…. I want a long term VA that is going to learn to adapt to my business, by using my process and that’s why not going to the outsourcing site gives me the freedom to hire someone that is looking more for a long term position vs the gig.
How do I hire?
I personally hire people ONLY full time, paying per week and never never never per hour.
Per hour makes each process to be “I’m doing this because I get paid for this” vs “this is my role’
By hiring someone full time , specially a VA I now have the accountability of keeping them busy and pushes me to build KPI, guides, and tutorials to be sure they are learning and improving.
How to train them
Your tutorials are a must and if you don’t have processes in place start now, because you will need them. But you can also use Youtube as tutorials and once your own VA has seen and watched a Youtube Video about how to perform 1 or 2 tasks the VA itself can build the tutorial and create guides that will be vital to train more people or even find their own replacement.
Typical mistakes
Always hire people willing to work at your time, don’t split hours and be sure you don’t fire them too fast if they are showcasing effort.
You are usually paying less than via an outsourcing site so be patient enough to keep them for a bit long.
The ROI is the long term relationship of having a full time VA, vs the specific task they have to perform that day or week.
I hope this helps, I have hired over 100 VA’s in my lifetime and many of them are now close friends… outsourcing the right way and building your team is the best way to grow while reducing stress… I hope this tiny guide helps you.
