Episode #11 VA Outsourcing with Clay Navarro

Episode #11 VA Outsourcing with Clay Navarro

 

I had the pleasure of interviewing Clay Navarro from VA World to deep dive into outsourcing internationally.  During this interview we covered so much including the background of some of the VAs, what are some of the things you need to outsource, trust and risk mitigation, the cost to you as well as ethical outsourcing including cost of living.  We discussed the deep dive and also the benefits to clients.

I hope you enjoy this episode on how you can outsource internationally in an ethical way.

About Clay:

Clay is the Director of VA World Outsourcing. Although the business is less than 2 years old, they have had some success supplying companies in Australia and the US with high level virtual assistants to support them with various tasks in their businesses. Clay loves having fun and is always trying to find new ways to keep himself busy.

During this episode:

  • Clay Navarro’s story – background
  • Preferred Background of the Virtual Assistants
  • How he started outsourcing to international VAs
  • Cost of Outsourcing
  • Trust and business risk in Outsourcing
  • Processes of outsourcing successfully
  • Pitfalls that can be avoided

Want more systems tools and resources?

Connect with Clay Navarro

Website: VAWorld Outsourcing
About Clayton
Services: VAWorld Outsourcing Services
Facebook: @clayton.navarro
LinkedIn: @claynavarro

Start Outsourcing to a Virtual Assistant with the Right Mindset

Start Outsourcing to a Virtual Assistant with the Right Mindset

So you’ve decided to start outsourcing a Virtual Assistant.  Hiring a virtual assistant is a huge step for any business owner or entrepreneur. It can mean giving up some control over your business but it doesn’t have to be too much until you are comfortable. But it’s also your first move towards scaling up your business so that it can grow beyond its current limitations plus build a quality team to support your business.

If you’re thinking about taking this vital first step, there’s a certain mindset that you should take on.

Learn to let go

When you hire a VA, you’re not giving away the keys to your business. But you are letting go of some part of your business operations, even if it’s just a handful of tasks.

Your business is your baby and virtual assistants understand that as well as they also run their own business . Up until now, you’ve done everything yourself. It’s easy to understand why outsourcing any item of your business is scary. The way to overcome this fear is to focus on the positive. Think about the immediate benefits you’ll receive from outsourcing certain aspects of your business and what you can fill in the place of that time.

You can also alleviate this fear by being careful about what you hand over until you are more comfortable with outsourcing.  Keep the tasks limited but also ensure that you spend some quality time on procedures to ensure quality is maintained. Hire a VA you can trust and start simply by only sharing with them what they need to get the job done.

Outsourcing fees

It’s certainly true that hiring a virtual assistant costs money. How much does it cost? This depends on what you need done. The more simple tasks the less the price but the more extensive tasks will cost more.

You can lessen this risk by allocating a budget you can afford. Work out the numbers beforehand and make an offer that doesn’t break the bank. Hiring a virtual assistant, if done right, will earn you greater profits in the future especially once you build a good working relationship with them.  This takes time.

One way to adjust your mindset is to think of hiring a VA as buying time. You pay for the VA to take tasks off your hands so that you have time to focus on more important things.

Managing others

One mindset challenge that many face is that they don’t want to become managers. Up to this point, you’ve only had to manage yourself and, for some of us, that’s enough of a monumental challenge. But now you have an employee and you are their boss.

Working with a VA isn’t the same as managing a busy office. First of all, as the name suggests, it’s “virtual.” You give the VA tasks to do and check in regularly to see how they’re doing. Once the training and onboarding is finished, they’ll require little management, and the investment you make in training will pay off with the time you gain.

Mitigating risks

You may have heard some horror stories about virtual assistants who caused issues for other businesses. Especially the first time, hiring a VA isn’t easy and there are many things that can go wrong.

While it’s true that it’s a complex and often a frustrating process, you can overcome this by being prepared. Carefully consider the tasks you need done, search for the right person, and prepare a good training procedure and onboarding process to get them started. It also helps to realise that a bad VA experience isn’t a business-ending event but a learning opportunity.

Want to learn how to hire the right VA and get started growing your business?

Download our Cheat Sheet to Outsourcing to start your first VA relationship on the right foot. Check it out here:

Virtual Assistant Traits to Consider before you Hire!

Virtual Assistant Traits to Consider before you Hire!

There are many traits that you might look for in a virtual assistant. These virtual assistant traits can be dependent on the role that you would like them to perform.  They may also be dependent on your requirements for your business, along with your vision and your goals that you would like to achieve.  Let’s take a look at some simple steps in outlining these to find your perfect virtual assistant.

Vision and goals

Do you have a clear picture of where you want your business to be in 6 months, 1 year, 5 years, etc.  If you have your goals set, your virtual assistant will be keen to work towards this goal with you to help achieve your long term vision.  These can then be pulled down into smaller measurable goals which will lead to your big picture goal so when more team members come on board, everyone can work towards this vision.

What to outsource

The ventures that you should be focused on are the expert tasks that only you can perform, such as; building your business, interacting more with your customers and subscribers, building strategic alliances within your industry, expanding your reach to get your brand to new markets and planning for future growth. While you are developing these growth projects, your virtual assistant and potentially other team members can handle the remainder day to day tasks.  To decide what to outsource, the first step would be to write down the tasks that you spend time on but you do not need to, these tasks are usually monotonous and can take a long time for you to do.  They can easily be outsourced with a process to a virtual assistant that as an expert in their field will get them done quickly and efficiently.

Perfect Virtual Assistant traits

To hire the best virtual assistant possible, you will need to find the right fit for your business. No two virtual assistants are the same and they all come with a range of experience and expertise.  So once you have defined your goals and vision and written down the tasks that you would like to outsource.  It is time to find the perfect virtual assistant.  Let’s take a look at some of the virtual assistant traits to consider.  Have a think about what type of experience you would like the virtual assistant to have according to your current task list ie: Basic, intermediate or advanced experience.  Then it is time to look at some of the traits that the virtual assistant should possess to fulfil your vision and current tasks. Which are most important to you? Here are a few traits to get you started:

  • Can-Do Attitude. The virtual assistant is not scared to jump in and give it a go.
  • Forward Thinker. They see the whole picture and offer ideas and ways to implement tasks to help you reach your goals.
  • Self-Motivated. They are proactive go-getters. They don’t wait until the last minute to start a project.
  • Dependable. They ensure work is completed as requested and delivered on time.
  • Trustworthy. The virtual assistant is someone that you can build a relationship with and someone that is trusted.
  • Initiative. If they see something that needs to be completed, they get it done without being asked.
  • Resourceful. If they don’t know the answer to something or how to do something, they know how to find it or learn it.
  • Organised. Highly organised virtual assistants normally use project management tools such as Asana to stay organised and to also help you stay organised too.
  • Efficiency. Efficiency is a must in business and can be the difference between getting a sale or not.
  • Good Communicator. Good communication reduces confusion and errors. When they can clearly see your vision and what you want competed, the virtual assistant can quickly get to work.
  • Professional. They conduct themselves in a professional, self-confident way

While thinking about the traits for your virtual assistant, you may want to take it a step further and consider the type of personality it takes to do the job. For instance, if your virtual assistant will be talking to your customers, they’ll need to be friendly and be great on the phone. If they are sending emails and correspondence to your customers a great typing speed, attention to detail, along with being confident at writing correspondence is a must.

Case Study 1

Joe is a Health Professional in his own practice and is after a virtual assistant to answer the phones, transcribe letters to start with.

Although Joe didn’t mention it, he will essentially need someone to book appointments in his diary so the virtual assistant will need to be able to manage an online diary for appointment bookings and have experience in transcription.  The most important trait that Joe will need is for the virtual assistant to show empathy, compassion and understanding while speaking with clients.  The virtual assistant will also need to be dependable to answer calls in a timely manner.

Case Study 2

John is the main presenter and speaker of his training company.  He requires a virtual assistant to help with social media, newsletter, adding articles to his website, updating website pages, following up with customers and booking students in on training events.

The main traits that John should be looking at for a virtual assistant is someone that is tech savvy and has experience with his website platform. A virtual assistant that is proactive and dependable to develop content for social media and his website.  John should also be looking for someone that is professional on the phone, a good communicator to speak with his customers as well as super organised to ensure that course information and events are organised in a timely manner.

As you can see John essentially needs a virtual assistant with a little more experience and high level skills for his business.  John is not necessarily looking for a clone of himself but someone who is approachable, friendly, uses initiative and is quite tech savvy. 

Lastly, finding the perfect virtual assistant can be hard, there are many virtual assistants out there that have many traits.  The best way is to speak with a few virtual assistants and start to build a relationship with the virtual assistant, long term virtual assistants become a apart of your team.  You can start with small tasks and build up to a full task list once you become more confident with them and trust in their ability.  You can check a virtual assistant’s testimonial and even look through references to give you some background information and an idea of their traits.  Many testimonials and references cover these in detail.

 

This article was featured on SavvySME here.

Secretarial Services that you should outsource now

Secretarial Services that you should outsource now

If you’re a business owner, influencer or industry leader, we understand that you are already extremely busy and it is probably time that you look into outsourcing your secretarial services. While you might not notice it at the current moment, the truth is that outsourcing your secretarial services will do wonders for your overall productivity and profitability. It means that you can work on what you want to work on.  If you find the right person, it is someone that you can run ideas through and also someone that can take care of your business while you are on holiday.  It also takes the pressure off sorting the basic day to day things that can easily be outsourced.  Here are some of the popular day to day services that many businesses outsource:

  • Transcription
  • Typing and document formatting
  • Diary bookings
  • Appointment setting
  • Template creation
  • Invoicing
  • Customer followup
  • Travel arrangements
  • Email replies and followups

Some of the above seem quite old school for 2017 but are still popular, below are some ways that these services have been rejigged into an online format, these include:

  • Uploading Blog Posts to your website
  • Social Media scheduling
  • Transcription of podcasts and interviews into blog posts
  • Email newsletters
  • Online file organisation
  • Database updates
  • Online training maintenance, followup and technical help

How it’s done

Thanks to modern technology and ability, you can now outsource all of your secretarial work. In past decades, most of this work would have to be done in-house, but because of the new technological advances, it’s undoubtedly something that could be handled by an outsourced contractor. Secretarial services might seem like something that aren’t easy to outsource but the easiest way to think about it especially if you do travel alot is to consider the secretary being back in the office and you need to phone them or email them with the work to be completed.  Other ways to assign tasks is to use project management software such as Asana, Trello or Slack. But what about File sharing, I hear you ask.  Well, there are many file sharing options available including uploading to a project management software (as indicated), Dropbox, Sugarsync and of course google drive.

The best thing about outsourcing your secretarial services is that if you find the right person to handle the job, they normally offer a 24 hour turn around, which means that you can have the work back on your desk the next day. Too often, a lot of people that run businesses have way too much work than they can handle so by getting the initial steps completed, it frees up your time to focus on running your business.

 

Susan Wilkin
Online Business Manager

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