Helping Entrepreneurs Go The Distance In Business… And Life!
This guest post by Jaime Tardy is part of the VBL Guest Post Month!
I only work 20 hours per week. Recently, I thought a virtual assistant could push my business forward faster. I coach local entrepreneurs but wanted to branch out online. I wanted to find a virtual assistant that was computer savvy and could help me grow my audience online. I hired my first Virtual Assistant this past May.
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Las Vegas - I'm Coming... Get Ready!
Number of Days in the Office: 19, Total Number of Employees: 211
This month literally flew by – faster than any other this year, without a doubt. And, if I was to be really honest, I probably worked harder and longer hours this month than I have over the entire year, too. People have even been emailing and tweeting me saying things like ‘Chris, everything okay… You’re very quiet!’ – mainly because I have been 110% focused on hitting this Virtual CEO goal of mine.
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PLEASE NOTE: This post was originally published in September 2010. Since then the ‘work from home’ industry in the Philippines has, and will continue to develop immensely over. I’ve therefore decided to update this post regularly, so that no matter when you visit, it’s always up to date!
One thing is for sure – if you pay peanuts, you’ll get monkeys!
Since launching Virtual Staff Finder back in 2010, we’ve received thousands of questions on the subject of working with virtual assistants – particularly from the Philippines. Everything from hiring and training them, right the way down to working with your VA on a day to day basis, and how to keep them motivated.
However, the number one question we hear more than anything else is “How much do I pay my Filipino Virtual Assistant…?”.
So, to answer this question in a concise, yet highly knowledgable way – based on years of experience – and the fact that myself and my VSF Team are based here in the Philippines, all year round, this post has been put together as a general guide to doing just that – paying your Virtual Assistant based in the Philippines.
Please bear in mind these salary guidelines are for home-based Virtual Assistant’s from the Philippines, working from their homes, for you directly. If you don’t want to work with virtual staff directly, nor train them, motivate them or even speak to them – then I suggest looking into a more professional outsourcing set-up.
So, here you go a guideline on the four main types of Virtual Assistant’s, what you can expect them to be able to do, task wise, and what you should be looking to pay them for both full-time, and part-time positions. Hope this clears a few things up for everyone.
There are also other types of virtual workers available from the Philippines, such as video editors, audio editors, graphic designers and the like, however, based on us working with hundreds of entrepreneurs over the time we’ve been in business at Virtual Staff Finder, we’ve found this set of four to be the most sought-after.
Please note: After a full signup audit in November 2013, we realized that 72% of our clients are looking for General VAs (GVA), and therefore now only focus on this one role at Virtual Staff Finder.
For the longest time, Paypal has been the standard for paying your staff in the Philippines… and it remains that way. It’s super easy for your staff to get their hands on their money, and a whiz for you to set-up – just be cool and pay the fees!
Ultimately, its down to you, as the virtual boss to decide what you are happy paying for your virtual staff. However, to be able to attract, hire and keep great staff working for you virtually by outsourcing to the Philippines, you also have to be very aware that the industry has, and continues to change immensely. The people are becoming more and more experienced, and more and more in-demand.
They know this, and therefore it is no longer possible (in our eyes, anyway) to get a General VA for $250 a month. Not if you want them to do a great job for you, anyway!
The following are current average full-time salary guidelines that you can follow, keeping in mind that there are less experienced workers willing to work for less, and more experienced workers that will want to see much bigger numbers – its all relevant:
I’ve seen more people recently asking for additional types of virtual staff on a regular basis over the last year or so. They are as follows, and again – all rates are approximate and based upon market conditions and experience levels, obviously:
* Part-time rates would obviously be 50% of full-time rates.
Now, again, these are just guidelines. For example, 5-6 years ago, you could get a full-time General Virtual Assistant from the Philippines to work for you for that $250 I mentioned earlier. But, times change, and the home-based virtual staffing world is changing, too.
If you have any more questions on this subject feel free to comment below, or for more in-depth answers and advice, just reach out to the fantastic Virtual Staff Finder team directly.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3Ov_ERjPpQ4
I’ve been an entrepreneur, my own boss, for close to 10 years now. Living an entrepreneurial lifestyle isn’t as easy, however, as a lot of people think it is. Sure, you have the freedom to do what you want, when you want, with who you want and to work on whatever you like, whenever you like – but, there is more to it.
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My desk at the Live2Sell Group HQ – Yes, the one I want to give away!
Location: Home Office – Reading Time: 6mins
Number of Days in the Office: 13, Total Number of Employees: 213
So, here we go with another monthly round-up as I get closer and closer to approaching my end of year goal, and becoming that (hopefully) full-time Virtual CEO. First up, I spent considerably less time in the office this past month, which is great. This wasn’t actually down to me making sure I did this, however, it simply ‘just happened’ as I have been focusing on different projects and have been working more from home to stay focused throughout the ‘creative’ stage on things.
The biggest part of August was the launch my of Virtual Staff Finder service. For a full run-down on the service and its features, you can visit the seperate website, or read my full launch post here on the blog.
We were, frankly, blown away with the response and I have been up to my eyeballs in consultation calls over the last couple of weeks. As we launched the service to the VBL subscriber list only we expected a certain number of people to sign-up, but saw a lot more sign-up’s than we anticipated. So far, so good… with over 20 virtual assistants already deployed to entrepreneurs around the world, through the service.
Although this is not 100% ‘passive’ income, it is to a certain degree. Meaning, nothing actually takes place until someone sign’s up and pays for the service. At that point, myself and my team work on things. I must say, I have enjoyed coming back from dinner and from being out on the weekend, to see emails from Paypal…!
Other going-on’s this month included:
We also surpassed our target of 1,000 RSS subscribers here at the blog, too (at the time of writing this report we are around 1,020, I believe). Thanks to all the subscribers and if you haven’t added us to your reader yet, please do so, to make sure you never miss an update on the blog. Be sure to also join us on Facebook and follow me on Twitter, too.
Another point to mention is that our iTunes Podcast has grown from strength to strength, and has been featured very predominantly throughout the last month in the ‘Noteworthy’ section of the Business listing consistently. You’ll see in the above image that we’re featured along with Pat Flynn’s great new podcast, too.
So, a pretty strong month. Thanks to everyone for their continued support on these reports. They won’t last forever, in terms of the current format anyway, and I do enjoy reading the feedback from you all, very much so. See you on the next post!
Screenshot of Robb’s Excellent Blog!
This is a guest post by Robb Sutton.
Blogging has become an incredible medium for income generation online. With thousands of internet entrepreneurs making a full-time income online through their content, thousands more eager bloggers are hitting the market to hit it big and live the life they dreamed. So there you are…wanting to start a blog but have no clue on where to start. While there is a ton of information online on how to setup a blog (you can even see my tutorials by clicking here), if you are looking to actually generate income through your content, you need to take some things into consideration before you even pick a domain name.
From what I have seen over the years, there are really two types of income generating blogs and you are going to fit in one of these categories.
What may surprise you is that the plan of attack with each scenario is basically the same with differences in content production and site layout. As we look at each, one solid truth rings through…
We have to attract a buying audience and keep them on our blog.
Without a buying audience in either scenario…there is no dollars changing hands which equals no income for the blogger. You can not make income through content alone, so let’s get out there and find where the money is being made.
If you are a company that is looking to generate more leads for your business, you are in luck. You already know who your customer base is so you can taylor your content to attract more customers. Once you get your new leads to your blog, you are going to want to capture those leads through an email newsletter and keep them up to date on what you have going on with your business. Easy enough…
If you are going to start a blog for profit, your job is a little bit more difficult. Your trick is to find a blog topic that is going to attract buying eyes to your pages so you actually have the possibility of making an income online. Here are a couple of things to look for as you come up with a blog topic (preferably one that you know a lot about…do not start a blog about blogging if you do not have a successful blog in another niche).
If you keep to those theories and tips as you create your blog from day 1, you are starting off on the right foot in respect to income generating blog production. Once you have found that perfect niche for you, rock out the content and create a email newsletter to capture those leads to keep them coming back to your content. The rest will be history…
Robb Sutton blogs about blogging and how to make money online through his experience with Bike198.com at RobbSutton.com. He also teaches people how to get over $100,000 per year of free review product with blogs in Ramped Reviews.
As todays business world becomes more and more web focused, creating passive income streams online should be one of your main focuses when building a business in the new economy – whether you’re doing this on your own, or with the help of virtual assistants that manage your blog, or even handle the marketing of your site – you’ve got to love making money while you sleep!
This doesn’t mean that (if you have one) you abandon your traditional business. It simply means that you can probably capitalize on the way that consumers are purchasing, more than you currently are.
If you’re a chiropractor, for example – why not create an eBook or audio guide on marketing and promoting your chiropractic clinic in your local area? You could then sell that to other chiropractors to help them grow their own practices.
The possibilities for creating passive income streams are endless – especially if you know what you’re doing! Here’s an infographic I created to expand on this further:
Want to REALLY catapult your passive income to the next level?
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The ability to create numerous money-making vehicles, switch them onto auto-pilot and then reap the financial benefits is paramount to living a successful entrepreneurial life in the modern world. There are many people doing it successfully, and there is no reason why you can’t join them!
In this short video I share with you SIX ways to be able to produce passive income streamsonline and ‘make money as you sleep’. Also, try to keep in mind that although its not required to begin with, all of these passive income generating ideas can be made a LOT easier by utilizing a virtual assistant.
There are countless avenues to explore when creating passive income streams, the six I discuss in this clip are:
These online income generation ideas are nothing new… heres a video from 2010 which explores the exact same conceptions as in this post, and infographic. As you can see, the rules of the game might have changed, but how you play it hasn’t.
Obviously, there are many different ways to create passive income streams, the most important thing is that its done with passion and great content. Putting something together is one thing, but making sure that people get genuine value from it is a different ball game completely.
If you’re looking to take your online earning potential to the next level I strongly suggest you check out the following articles for more relevant information:
Thanks for dropping by, and feel free to share this post, graphic and information in general with your friends if you think this stuff will help them.
If you have had success with your own online passive income streams online please consider tweeting me – I’d love to hear all about it!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=umUTmnnYQUM
Location: Company HQ – Reading / Viewing Time: 4mins
Personal Outsourcing isn’t anything new. However, the best selling book, the 4-Hour Work-week certainly helped push it into the limelight in more recent years. Savvy entrepreneurs from all around the world now ‘know’ what outsourcing is all about and more and more are getting turned onto it with every passing month.
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Location: Home Office – Reading Time: 5mins
If you’re already a subscriber of the Virtual Business Lifestyle blog you’ll know that I’ve regularly talked about virtual assistants and how I use them to help run, support and grow my business. Today, I’m excited to announce the launch of a brand new service called Virtual Staff Finder.
In a nutshell, the service was put together to bridge the outsourcing gap between entrepreneurs that want a hard working, experienced home-based VA, but one that is selected and ‘checked out’ in a more professional way, with the entrepreneur doing pretty much nothing in the process, accept making the final ‘hire’ decision.
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Location: Company HQ – Reading Time: 4mins
Imagine a life where you…
This is not a dream world. This is a reality that you can build for yourself using FEARLESS HEALTH – How to Thrive in an Unhealthy World. FEARLESS HEALTH is a brand new manifesto by Matt Gartland of Healthy Lifestyle Design. It’s a powerful guide to achieving remarkable health and using this energy as your means of lifestyle domination on your own terms! You may remember Matt from his earlier guest post here at VBL – 4 Ways to Manage Your Healthy Lifestyle Like a Virtual CEO.
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Chris is a serial entrepreneur and highly regarded as THE authority on the subject of building a profitable personal brand business.