Many conventional outsourcing experts will tell you that you can only delegate mindless and repetitive tasks to VAs. My experience proves that Filipino VAs are capable of so much more.
After the revelation I had with my first two VAs when I realized just how capable they were (see my last email), I wanted to try an experiment.
I wanted to know how much and what kinds of work I could delegate to my VAs. Exactly how far could I push this outsourcing thing??
So I hired a third Filipino VA for the sole purpose of testing how much he could do independently. But I didn’t tell him that.
I wanted to see if, under my guidance, he could build, market and operate a profitable website on his own. The prospect was intriguing.
For his first training, I recorded myself talking for 45 minutes about the new business model. In that recording, I explained:
– How the website would work
– Why it should work
– How it would make money
– How to drive traffic to the site
– The overlying objectives of the whole business
Next, I trained him on the basics of WordPress using voice recording and screen captures.
After that, I bought a domain and asked him to figure out how to set up WordPress on it. He set up the theme according to how I’d described it in the audio. Kind of.
His first attempt was actually terrible; I’m not going to lie.
But I worked with him. I sent him descriptions of what I wanted changed, and he tried again. Then I sent him another video with more fine-tuned instructions and he tried again. And we continued the process over a week or two and tweaked everything until it was perfect.
Then I had him write a content piece for the website. It was awful. So we repeated the same process of training and tweaking, training and tweaking. Once he got it right, I never had to write that kind of content piece again.
Then we repeated the same training process with SEO.
Then Google Adwords.
Then with affiliate programs.
Social media,
RSS feeds,
forum posting…
All of the marketing elements that I knew we should be implementing (but I had no time to do them on my own) were now implemented and kept up by this VA!
Once he completed all of the training, I decided to test his ability to maintain the website and all of its moving parts. I let go of the business (almost) completely and let him run it.
We communicated daily. I was always there to answer his questions and give additional training when he needed it. I also kept a close eye on everything he was doing and required him to send me regular updates.
But he ran all of the day-to-day processes; I didn’t have to touch the website or marketing.
I taught him what to do, stuck with him until he really nailed it down, and I’ve never had to do those things myself again.
In the first month, this experimental business made $200. Within three months, it was making about $1,000/mo. At the 6th month mark, it was making roughly $5K. By the end of the year it was making close to $15k/month.
The experiment was a success.
It was a major time investment for me initially. All of the teaching and training wasn’t roses. But it worked!
Tip for the day: You rarely get it right the first time with your VA. It almost always takes training then feedback then training then feedback then…you get it.
But once you get it right, you never have to deal with it again.
You get the right people doing the right things, you train them and you work with them, and then you train them some more. That’s it. That’s the magic.
After they’ve been thoroughly trained, all you have to do is manage and oversee their work.
You can create your own freedom with help from a Filipino VA. Take time and think about it – what else could you be outsourcing? Then go and make it happen.
John