The Virtual Assistant myths (and what I’ve done)

I have had several virtual assistants (”VAs”) work for my businesses over the years. I now have at least 2 full-time and 2 part-time VAs (all but one are in the Philippines). “Virtual” means (of course) they’re not physically here. They’ve never stepped foot inside the U.S. And I’ve never traveled to meet them.

A VA is not an ’employee’. They’re essentially independent contractors. That means you are not required to pay any payroll taxes, additional insurance premiums or benefits – regardless of what country they’re in – even in the U.S.

Here’s a picture of my VA Raymond with his family. Raymond and his wife have been working with me for at least 6 years:

Raymond (background), his daughter and wife Ryshel enjoying some RARE time off

Raymond (background), his daughter and wife Ryshel enjoying some RARE time off

There are myths about about VAs, (at least with regards to the Philippine-based ones), so let’s tackle them:

  1. They have no education. Many are college-educated
  2. They have no experience or skills. I’d be hard-pressed to find a larger pool of educated, loyal and skilled workers here in the U.S.
  3. They can’t speak or write/type in English. Many are moderately to fully fluent in English
  4. They can’t be trusted. I’ve given them limited access to my Amazon and Paypal accounts without any problems, ever. Filipinos value trust and loyalty very highly
  5. They are ‘slave labor’ used by greedy businesses. Although they’re far cheaper than American labor, ‘salaries’ of $250 to $350 per month are totally sufficient for a full-time basic-skilled, college-educated VA. On the opposite end, a high-end FT programmer can earn $1000+ per month and live like a king. (By comparison, hiring a U.S.-based programmer can cost at least 10x as much)

My real challenge years ago re: VAs was finding ones that were already vetted and with Amazon experience. I had to train them myself. But lucky for you, there are services today like FreeeUp, one of only 2 providers I trust.  Services like FreeeUp have already trained and at-the-ready VAs for your businesses – not just your Amazon or eBay business, either. FreeeUp has done the headache-stuff: finding, vetting, hiring and training a VA for you. That’s invaluable because doing that yourself that can take weeks to months. I know because I’ve done it. Keep in mind the FreeeUp employee is not ‘yours’. FreeeUp is essentially a (trusted) agency with a few dozen talented VAs at the ready.

And all you do is pay per hour for each VA (versus hiring them outright.)

Don’t do what I did: I am my own ’employer’ so I pay my VAs regardless of the amount of work they have. So there are times when they are idle for hours to weeks but I choose to pay them regularly nonetheless (I’m loyal to them). With FreeeUp, you’re only paying for the hours the VAs work for you. FreeeUp is their ’employer’, not you! Also – FreeeUp has highly-trained VAs from all over the world (including the U.S.), not just the Phillipines.

By using a VA service like FreeeUp, you don’t have to worry about:

  • Philippine Holidays. They don’t work on certain holidays, and IF they were your own full time employee, they expect you to pay them double their monthly salary in December (it’s their ‘bonus’ for the year and it’s part of their local law and culture).
  • Paying them for idle time. You’re only paying for the work they’re doing
  • Training them. In most cases, FreeeUp VAs already know how to do at least 7o% of ‘what you need them to do’)
  • Remembering to show them new processes (see above)
  • Hiring or firing. FreeeUp does that
  • Finding replacement workers. FreeUp does that. In many cases the replacements are probably at the ready
  • Vetting good employees from bad ones (FreeeUp takes care of that)

In this new blog post, Connor of FreeeUp explains how a VA can help your Amazon or eBay business: jordanmalik.com/blog/virtual-assistant-amazon-ebay/

Feel free to post a comment below and let me know what questions you have or, what your own experience with VAs has been like.

– Jordan

The post The Virtual Assistant myths (and what I’ve done) appeared first on Jordan Malik – Amazon and eBay Selling Expert, Bestselling Author.


The Virtual Assistant myths (and what I’ve done) was first posted on January 30, 2017 at 2:55 pm.

Source: jordanmalik.com

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