When you hire a virtual assistant in the Philippines, you allow yourself to live your life again. No more working 70 hours a week. No more staying up late at night maintaining your business. No more telling your family “I’m sorry, I’m too busy, maybe next weekend.”
Starting a business is supposed to be liberating, not enslaving. You don’t have to handle everything yourself. A virtual assistant could handle the different tasks you need to do to keep your business afloat, maybe even do it better. Take back your life today. You deserve it, your friends and family deserve it, your business deserves it.
Despite the “assistant” part in the job title, a virtual assistant (or VA) does more than take your calls or schedule your appointments. A virtual assistant can do that, true, but also a whole lot more. A virtual assistant can be anyone who helps you run all the myriad tasks required to run your business.
A virtual assistant can work on your accounts, do research for you, manage your social media presence, write content for your blog, maintain your website, and even help you find hotels for your vacation.
According to entrepreneur Chris Ducker, there are four main types of VAs:
A virtual assistant can be very flexible and these roles intertwine often.
If you don’t want to be buried in menial tasks, be behind in your books, be invisible on social media and search engines, then you’re going to need a hand. A virtual assistant’s purpose is to make things easier for you, lighten the load on your shoulders, and to help you conduct your business as efficiently as possible.
Let’s talk about an aspiring entrepreneur who we’ll call John.
John is a dreamer and he works hard to achieve his dreams. One day, after a soul-grinding day at his “normal” job, John receives an epiphany: he will never be happy being a slave to the grind. He wants to spend more time with his family, take them to exciting places, achieve this “passive income” thing that people talk about, and live his life the way it ought to be
So, John quits his job and devotes all of his energy on running an online business. Now, he’s no fool, he knows it takes work. Passive income doesn’t happen overnight. He studies every aspect of online marketing, builds his own website, and does every small task needed to sustain his business.
However, the work keeps piling up. Next thing he knows it, he has become more overworked than when he had a normal job. Plus, his family barely sees him anymore. He starts to lose hope until he has another epiphany: he needs a helping hand.
He hires a virtual assistant and soon finds that he has a lot of free time. He could finally live his life a little and spend time with his family. The journey isn’t over, there’s still work he needs to do, but it just got a whole lot easier.
You don’t have to waste precious time doing everything yourself. There’s nothing wrong with having someone to help you. A virtual assistant could be a real lifesaver for you and your business.
There are virtual assistants in other countries besides the Philippines. There are even virtual assistants in America. There probably isn’t any difference in talent between the U.S. and the Philippines. Cost, however, is another thing entirely.
Having an employee in the Philippines means you pay Filipino salaries. An administrative assistant in the U.S. has an hourly rate of $15.45, while in the Philippines it’s only $1.48 dollars.
Now, the Philippines isn’t the only country out there with low labor costs, but Filipinos can communicate in English better than the other options. If you want a virtual assistant, you’re going to need someone who can speak your own language proficiently. Miscommunication could be fatal to your business projects.
English is an official language in the Philippines. Filipinos are very well-versed in English thanks to growing up in English-speaking schools and a lifetime of watching English-language movies and reading English language books.
Because of this, the Philippines has become one of the best (if not the best) countries for offshore outsourcing.
There are recruitment agencies out there that’ll help you find a VA, but you might be better off hiring someone yourself. It’s more cost-effective because you don’t have to pay the agency for the tools and office space required.
Hiring someone directly is easy. OnlineJobs.ph is the site to do it best. It has the most number of promising resumes and there are no extra fees when you hire someone. There’s only a $69 dollars monthly subscription fee but you can cancel that as soon as you hire someone.
On OnlineJobs.ph you can browse resumes to find a VA you like, but it’s faster to post a job listing. Be sure to be very specific when creating your listing. You have to state the duties the job will entail, the skills required, salary, and your preferred level of experience.
It’s also helpful to include something that’ll tell you that the candidate follows instructions. Example: ask for a specific subject title or let them answer a question.
After the applications come in, discard those who didn’t follow instructions or those who don’t measure up to your requirements. Shortlist the candidates you like and conduct interviews with them. Don’t forget to ask about internet connection speed, a VA will need a reliable internet connection to do his job properly.
You will need to decide how you will conduct these interviews. Know that not everyone is comfortable with video calls and it’s not always necessary, you can easily interview someone by chat or email. However, if the kind of VA you are looking for will need to make calls or requires speaking, a video call is best to find out how good they’re English speaking skills really are.
After that, pick the candidate who has the right skills for the task. If they’re all good candidates and you have a difficult time choosing, go with your gut. Your instinct is usually right.
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That depends mainly on two factors: the experience level and the tasks required.
At the very minimum, you could get a VA for less than $2 an hour. This will mean that your VA will be very inexperienced and you will need to teach him how to do his job.
If you want to hire someone already experienced, the salary will depend on the education and level of previous experience the candidate has.
According to Chris Ducker an average full-time salary of VAs are as follows:
This is only a guideline, and you don’t have to follow Chris’s salary suggestion. The actual salary will be negotiated between you and your chosen VA. The above merely informs you of what is reasonable to prepare you for negotiation.
PayPal is the most popular option but not necessarily the wisest one. Money transfer services usually have hidden fees. If you send money via PayPal the hidden fee can be as low as 2% or as high as 8%.
We recommend using TransferWise because of the lower cost of transferring money internationally.
Alternatively, you can wire money directly to a bank account but it’s not as mistake-free as payment services like PayPal and TransferWise.
Having a VA around is not a sure-fire ticket to success. It could still go wrong. Some people have had no problems at all with their VAs while others have had horrible experiences.
We don’t want you to be part of the latter group. You don’t want to waste your time and money, so here’s how you can make things work:
VAs can’t read your mind, nor do they know exactly what your business is about without you making it clear. If you hired an entry-level VA, take the time needed for training. A VA’s worst nightmare is not knowing what he’s supposed to be doing.
Taking the time to familiarize yourself with common Filipino cultural traits goes a long way in maintaining positive working relations. Online Filipino workers have an unfortunate habit of disappearing on you if you don’t establish open communication and let them know they can ask you about any problems or issues they may encounter. Not all Filipinos will do this, but it’s better to be safe than sorry.
Communication is one of the most important things in working with a VA. Some VAs get intimidated by their employers and might be hesitant to open communications. You have to take the initiative here. Encourage your VA to ask questions and report problems. Give lots of feedback and let your VA know that you’re happy with the results of the day.
When you hire a virtual assistant in the Philippines, you will free yourself up to do the things you’ve always wanted to do but were too busy. It may even bring you closer to the elusive “passive income” that everyone wants. Once you’ve hired a VA, breathe a sigh of relief, enjoy a cup of coffee, and finally relax. You’ve earned it.
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