I found a VA Service: $2 an hr!!

[saveTheWorld]

Hey guys. So I talked my way into a VA service while getting my muse web site finished.

Normal VA sites, like YMII and the like, charge $4 to $10 an hour usually. But this team only charges $2 an hour! And his communication skills are solid. He's only this cheap because he's just starting.

This guy started with no site, & a team of 15 people when I became a customer. Now his team is 25 people strong and his web site will be online within the month!

Let me know if you're interested. I can get you this VA service's contact info.

[diaoman]

I'm interested...please send me more information...

[saveTheWorld]

For sure Diaoman. Email me at jbryano@umich.edu and I can get you more info. I'm sorry I didn't include my email in the original post... thought that I did.

[Sven]

Not to spoil any party but focusing on low price is VERY deceptive...

If the 2.-- an hour brings you a smaller increase in profit than that 10.-- an hour he/she is too expensive.

Focus on higher profit with whatever you buy in.

[FrozenCanuck]

When I started outsourcing on Elance I thought $4 per hour was good, and I expected to pay $5.

I found that the quality varied a LOT and I was always targeting India, as per Tim's suggestions in the book.

THEN, I started using people in the Philippines. I learned about this from John Jonas, who is totally awesome.

Guys, if you hire someone FULL TIME in the Philippines the standard rates are about $300 per month. You can get people for more or for less, but the trick is to interview them properly and hire someone who you think can do what you need done.

When you look at it this way, $300 per month is $1.70 per hour assuming 22 days per month x 8 hr days. Throw in vacations and stuff, and you are paying $2.

So, your VA team that is selling service at that price is basically doing exactly what I'm doing, except he's paying them a bit less, taking a cut, etc.

If you hire your OWN employee then you can pay them directly. The amount you SAVE is irrelevant, but the fact that you pay them directly is VERY relevant. You can now bonus the person for a job well done. You get to treat them better than they otherwise would be treated and you build in loyalty to your company, not to the VA aggregator.

FYI I've blogged about this on a blog I started to document my online business activities. Here are the outsourcing posts (http://doing-business-online.blogspot.com/search/label/outsourcing).

[REOBULK]

The Frozen One has it right. I went to 2 separate OS "companies and got no where fast. I took some well placed advise, the Frozen One's advise, and it's been a progressive line ever since.
I'm in it for the long haul and I'm working with my VA by slowly teaching, one project at a time, and when it's time to grow, I'll hire another.

Read the Frozen Canuck's post.....and follow it.

[FreedomFinder]

Hey Frozen,

That's very true, I definitely here what you're saying. I have 2 VA's that I'm using right now in the Philippines, and it's going great. They are under an aggregator tho, which has certain advantages as well.

For 1, EXPANSION... I'm able to grow faster and bring on more ppl sooner with the aggregator.

2, Backup... As Tim mentions in the holy Bible, having a company gives you backup, if one person gets sick, drops out, w/e, you'll have backups to replace.

Overall if you're just looking for 1 VA to do your personal bidding, getting them solo can be a good option, otherwise, if you want to grow, and use multiple VA's at once, you'll typically need an aggregator. They're also worth the expense if you need a VA to do mission critical stuff that would typically be very detrimental to you if the VA you hired couldn't or chose not to step up to the plate one day.

Also keep in mind, w/ the individual VA's, that saving 1-2 hundred dollars might be kinda nice for you, but giving them an extra hundred or two makes a HUGE difference to their overall lifestyle, and you'll have a much happier and more loyal VA, vs. paying $300/month, which is still very little, they're FAR more likely to jump at the first opportunity for more $$.

[REOBULK]

They are under an aggregator tho, which has certain advantages as well.

For 1, EXPANSION... I'm able to grow faster and bring on more ppl sooner with the aggregator.

2, Backup... As Tim mentions in the holy Bible, having a company gives you backup, if one person gets sick, drops out, w/e, you'll have backups to replace.



Freedom, can you explain "aggregator" in this context? I have a VA who may end up being a "Team Leader" able to coordinate and instruct other VA's. Is this what you are talking about or something different?

Thanks.

[FreedomFinder]

You get to treat them better than they otherwise would be treated and you build in loyalty to your company, not to the VA aggregator.

I saw the word used in this post and I liked it cuz it definitely makes sense, and yes, that's exactly what I was referring to.

[FrozenCanuck]

@freedomfighter

Using an aggregator is helpful to improve business continuity, ie, decrease that risk of sickness, or VA quitting, etc. Yes.

BUT ... you can also build up a team on your own. Say you have 4 people working for you. Each of them understands your entire business. One of them is unable to be around for a bit (or say, they quit!). The other can cover until you get another guy in place.

Also, regarding pay levels. You may be assuming that I am looking to cheap out. That's not the case. Yeah, I want to save money compared to paying a middleman a huge margin (in which case the Filipinio generally gets paid even worse). But the real reason I hire my own guys is so I can control how they get paid. When they know I will bonus them for great work, they will deliver great work. When they know I'll give them raises, they work harder.

I plan to build up a team of guys who are paid well above average and LOVE working for me.

FYI, Filipinos are quite loyal .. even if they are paid below market. But I don't plan to pay below market.

[FreedomFinder]

Hey Frozen,

You've definitely added more great points to this overall insightful forum post. I have to agree with your bias towards Philippines, having now used Va's in the Philippines, India, Pakistan, and Canada, Phili's are really great.

When you talk about building you're own team though, are you referring to hiring a bunch of individual (work at home) virtual assistants?

Personally, I've never done that b4, and I can definitely see the advantages, such as, 1) No middle-man aggregator taking the cash, 2) Ability to pay higher amounts to VA's, which makes them happier and more loyal. 3) Ability to train them together, and have them replace each other when necessary, etc. So definitely some advantages.

A disadvantage it seems would be lack of management, which could be overcome in some instances by a pay-by-results (commission) vs. pay-by-hour compensation structure. Another disadvantage is that you'd have to take time out to manage them, or hire someone else to coordinate/manage them (another expense), whereas an aggregator charges to do that service for you.

Overall, I wouldn't say ones better than another, but it depends on your personal preferences and what you're looking for. I haven't personally built a team out of individual VA's, have you done this successfully? If so, I'd like to hear about it, since it could potentially be beneficial to my business model, if it passes the acid test.

[FrozenCanuck]

I've got only 2 people working for me right now, so I have some experience with this.

Yes, there is hand holding and training. Absolutely. And yes, they both work from their own homes.

I think that when I need to hire a 3rd person, my first 2 people will be really well trained and they will be there helping me train the new hire.

Also, I think that you will discover that one or more of your "guys" can become a project manager. You define the projects, and you pick one of your guys to become the manager of the project. You learn as you go. You stay focused on results, and valuable actions. Make sure to live by the rules of 4HWW in terms of getting people doing important tasks.

Just before posting this I recorded a 5 minute audio for my 2 employees. I told them the importance of one of our projects. I told them what I wanted, gave them some minor corrections to make, and told them to talk between themselves to figure out how to do it. I uploaded it to my web server and emailed them a link.

I go to bed soon and they'll be listening to it, implementing it and sending me simple spreadsheets showing me the results.

The training is INEVITABLE. You absolutely MUST train your people. Consider that a one-off investment, just like decorating your house (that analogy came to mind simply because my wife had me doing a bunch of stuff lately .. but the house now looks fantastic).

[ScottVA]

I have been trying out a few VA with random tasks (mostly research for random ideas in my head)

So far I have have found some that are not even worth 10 cents an hour.. and 1 that is worth far more than what theya re asking for (and I plan on paying them a bonus if the work causes sells)


I just need to find some good with advertising and all

[jackson]

Interested in your VA's contact info thanks

[FrozenCanuck]

Jackson - not sure who you were addressing your comment. My guys work for me full time. I'm not sending you their personal info. Thanks.

[Dus10]

I am currently in the process of outlining my first Filippino worker's first day of work. I followed John Jonas's information, but I found the worker on my own. I am hesitant to say how I accomplished getting around the recent Philippine Blockade because it almost seems like someone is paying the sites off to keep Americans from hiring them directly...

Anyhow, my worker already has a job and does some freelance. So, I am starting out small, just more freelance work, but paid for a day's work at a time. From what I found, the average university professor made about $300/month in 2007, so that is where I am looking to start and bonus up from there (including the "13th month").

[MaxK]

Hey Bro's and Gal's from the good life,

I am looking for a Filippino between 20-25, smart, and good with computers, and willing to work for 250-320 dollars a month. Where can I start looking for such people without actually flying there or middlemanning?

Thanks a lot,

Max

[FrozenCanuck]

Max - what you are after is VERY achievable.

I used John Jonas' site to do this. My blog (http://doing-business-online.blogspot.com) discusses this, and gives links (which, in full disclosure, are affiliate links because I'm a customer of his and LOVE his site).

Basically, the trick is to do this:

1) Get access to a job site, where Filipinos post resumes
2) Contact a bunch of them, and see who replies back ... usually 10-20 percent will reply.

3) Do some kind of chat with them to see if they can type, answer your questions, etc. You'll get an idea of who is smart and who is not.

4) Offer the lead candidate a job, and give them a difficult first task. If they accomplish it, you keep them. If they totally suck, you pay them what you owe them and move on. Rinse and repeat until you get what you need.

I have two employees now, both in the Philippines. They are both definitely working out, with SOME hand holding on initial training. Once they learn something, they don't need any help to keep doing it.

Life Changing ... seriously. DO THIS.

[joshg01]

I agree that this is very achievable. I just picked up the book and stumbled upon this forum and discovered that some of what Tim talks about I had recently already started doing.

One of those things was outsourcing. I had found that the primary hurdle I was facing in achieving results with the review sites I was running was the time consuming task of link building for SEO. All of the rest of my SEO was a one time setup type deal but I had been using an SEO company to do the link building and article writing for one site and it was costing at least $500 a month. This was a very unrealistic approach given that the site, at the time, was not making nearly enough sales to support paying so much.

So I finally fired the SEO company and started doing these time consuming tasks myself until I determined that it wasn't worth my time to do such a simple task either and started looking for other solutions. I stumbled apon a VA company out of the Phillipines with great customer service and less than $2 /hr. I have had a VA working only part time for me for the past 3 weeks and have already seen amazing results in the search engines for not just one site but 6 different sites that I have out there. This is definitely the way to go and I will never go back to hiring an SEO in the U.S. again.

As soon as funds become available my VA will be offered full time and I might even bring a second VA on staff for other odd and end tasks.

[jackson]

I am looking for a few VA's if anyone knows of anyone.

[paulwbrowning]

I had www.taskus.com recommended to me by an internet guru (whatever that means). I tested them with finding me as many blogs as possible in a certain niche and after 6 hours solid they came back with 20!

I complained but I'm sort of glad this happened because I know the standard they set now which was low. I've used India a few times but been let down consistently due to language issues and they tend to be too meek to say when they don't understand something so do it wrong, several times.

Paul