Business Fit Magazine August 2017 Issue 1 | Page 47

Article 45
02
I put all my eggs in one basket
If you are looking to get good work done cheaply that’s totally an
option! You’re just going to have to go through a fair few outsourcers
before you find one that suits you. There are exceptions to the rule,
and everyone has a friend that found the first Virtual Assistant they
hired to be a dream, but that doesn’t happen often.
My mistake was that I needed work done quickly so I went for a more
expensive option… and I was somewhat burned by it. The work
wasn’t bad per se, it just didn’t reflect the price I paid for it.
After that incident, I now hire several people and give them the same
brief, the person that comes back with the best work I include into my
team and let the world deal with the rest.
There are two types
of tasks that you’ll
outsource, mechanical
and creative.
I give everyone the same brief so that I can objectively judge their
work and directly compare each individual’s skills. I did try to maximise
my return by giving people similar projects but found I spent more
time weighing up their pros and cons than being able to make quick
decisions.
It costs more initially, but it’s worth hiring three to five people to
execute on the same job in order to find someone that’s actually
good. Once you get a good feel for finding outsourcers, you’ll learn
how to vet profiles better, but until then, a quick way to accelerate
finding a good person is to hire multiple people at once.
03
I wasn’t specific
If you’re hiring someone online, English probably isn’t their first
language. It pays dividends to be very specific about what you’re
looking for them to do.
There are two types of tasks that you’ll outsource, mechanical and
creative.
Mechanical tasks that I outsource are ones that I could program a
robot to do, these are repetitive tasks like data gathering, sending
prospecting emails, and putting receipts in a spreadsheet.
In order to get the hire to perform these tasks properly, I use ZOOM
(www.Zoom.us) or OBS (www.OBSproject.com) to record my screen
and my voice performing the task. I’ll repeat the action three to five
times so that the person understands exactly what I need from them.
Note: OBS is an incredibly powerful tool for recording and streaming
video, but is difficult to understand. Use ZOOM if you can’t be bothered
to learn how to use a new program
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