Comments on: Your Reputation is at Stake. Will You Trust the Lowest Bidder?

By: Kevin

Kevin — Thu, 22 Dec 2011 06:07:50 +0000

I meant “Justin” on that last comment.

By: Kevin

Kevin — Thu, 22 Dec 2011 06:05:51 +0000

Hey Josh,

Instead of hiring VAs for your business, have you ever considered hiring interns? Instead of paying them an hourly wage, I just pay them on a commission base (20-50% of the profits of the deals that come through them). I work with about 13 interns all across the country. Now, I’m really starting to see the value of interns and how building a team of them can really take your business to a whole new level.

VAs can be a big waste of time and money. The great thing about interns is, the worst that could happen is that you get a bad intern (I’ve had quite a few.) But in that case, just hire another one (or a couple more.) There’s no limit to how many you can work with and you don’t need to pay them unless they make money (in which case you both make money.)

I have a recently been helping other people hire their own interns by giving them all the files and resources that I use to hire and manage my interns (job descriptions, interview script, email templates, list of tasks, etc.) I’d be more than willing to share any and all these files with you or anyone else that desires them.

By: Justin Pierce

Justin Pierce — Tue, 25 Aug 2009 17:00:52 +0000

Josh,

Great point. I have been considering a personal assitant but I have had employee’s before. The only reason you should hire someone is to save you time by relieving you from the mundane tasks. I find, however, it is so time consuming to instruct, oversee, and correct employees that I have just continued doing it myself.

Picking up an assitant is not a move that should be taken lightly. This is a great post to make people take the time to consider if an assitant, specifically a virtual one, is worth the “ALL” the costs.

Justin

By: Joshua Dorkin

Joshua Dorkin — Mon, 24 Aug 2009 17:29:23 +0000

Thomas –
Thanks for the complement. I appreciate it. Being the face and voice of your own company is an EXTREMELY important thing. Feet on the ground gives you a much better perspective than reading what is going on from a weekly/monthly memo, IMO.

By: Thomas Nolen

Thomas Nolen — Mon, 24 Aug 2009 16:23:26 +0000

Great article. I’ve never heard of virtual assistants but I had a full time one that I used to make do a lot of hands on stuff that I should have done. I released her from her job and she is a great real estate agent now. I’m back into doing the voice to voice and face to face and besides paying better dividends, makes me more aware of my business from a day to day action instead of month to month. Integration. Thanks for your insight and article. I like your style.

By: Laurie Morgan

Laurie Morgan — Mon, 24 Aug 2009 16:20:49 +0000

I think it depends on the role you establish for your outsourced provider. A marketing agency is a different thing from a virtual assistant. Professional marketers can often do as good — or better! — as you would do yourself. It costs a little more … but, as you point out, your reputation is worth it.

By: Joshua Dorkin

Joshua Dorkin — Mon, 24 Aug 2009 02:06:59 +0000

Fleire – I wasn’t disparaging all Filipinos or all Filipino virtual assistants – just the ones who do a crappy job, and that goes for VAs from everywhere on earth. I was merely pointing out that the nationally known speaker from the USA is clearly not living in your country, and the person acting on their behalf was certainly not either a) a native speaker or b) as highly educated as the speaker I was referring to. I don’t do generalizations . . .

That said, I don’t care if someone gives you specific instructions, you’ll still NEVER be a good replacement for the person you are acting on behalf of, for the reasons I mentioned in the post. That is not meant to be an insult, just fact. Just turn it around . . . give me great instructions and I’ll never be able to act on your behalf as good as you could do it yourself, despite my education, background, or experiences.

Thanks for the comments though, and good luck with your business!

By: Fleire Mae Castro

Fleire Mae Castro — Mon, 24 Aug 2009 01:53:56 +0000

Right on. I am from the Philippines and yes, I do reputation management and social media updates for my clients. The difference is that they have specific instructions laid out and of course, been approved before sent out in the wells of the internet.

I am sorry that you had to investigate and see that it was from a Filipino like me but I hope there is no generalization here.
.-= Fleire Mae Castro´s last blog ..4 Reasons for A Cup Of Social Media Coffee =-.

By: Allison Ables

Allison Ables — Mon, 24 Aug 2009 00:09:52 +0000

Good article. I was thinking about hiring a social networking assistant.

By: Joshua Dorkin

Joshua Dorkin — Sun, 23 Aug 2009 18:20:03 +0000

Dick –
Thanks for your thoughts. I can see the usefulness of having a VA write for you, provided you do read, approve, and post yourself. I’d want them to be well versed in the topic, and extremely resourceful. Interview, interview, interview!

By: Dick Rosen

Dick Rosen — Sun, 23 Aug 2009 17:12:46 +0000

Very good points Josh and I couldn’t agree with you more. I am in search of an assistant to write blog posts for me simply because I can’t seem to come up with anything to write. I wouldn’t want a stranger to do my social networking but I do see the usefulness of someone else writing for me and I then read, approve and post it myself.

Any comments on that would be appreciated.