The term VA or Virtual Assistant has bugged me for a long time.
You’re not hiring an “assistant”.
They’re not a nebulous “do anything but don’t be particularly good at anything” person.
Yes, I’ve hired a couple of those over the years.
Actually, the first person I ever hired was like that. He knew nothing.
But that was because there was no other way to hire someone back then except through an agency. And…agencies aren’t particularly good at finding great people. They’re just good at bringing in a warm body and marking up their salary.
It worked out for me…but it was frustrating at the same time.
Today, it’s so easy to zero in on the exact talent you need, and, for the most part, I don’t want an “assistant”…
…and neither do you.
You want a specialist.
From the Philippines.
Who works online.
An Online Filipino Specialist. OFS.
Someone who is good at something.
You want a graphic designer,
or a social media marketer,
or a PHP programmer,
or a content writer,
or someone experienced in lead generation,
or an ecommerce specialist,
or an Amazon FBA specialist,
Or a dedicated sales agent,
Or a bookkeeper,
Or a data entry specialist,
Or a FB ads specialist
Or …
Or …
…
I could go on and on with this.
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TIP: try using quotes around your search term on OnlineJobs.ph. like “Ecommerce specialist”
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The point is, yes, you can hire a “virtual assistant”, and that person can be really good for you.
But you can also hire a specialist. An Online Filipino Specialist.
Someone who will be loyal and honest and hard working and have great English and help your business grow.
That’s who I hire.
I have
Joven – Data security specialist
Julia – Content specialist
Raymund – PHP programmer
Avery – UI designer
Junelo – Backend admin specialist
Sydney – Data entry specialist
Ben – Social Media specialist
Hazel – HR expert
Peter, Jocelyn, Bing – Customer support specialists
Jessica – Process management expert
… and about 25 more people, all who are really good at what they do (sorry for not mentioning each of you by name!).
I’ve had too many people tell me “I’m just not sure if they’re capable of doing good work” because they’ve heard the words “virtual assistant”.
The Philippines culture is all about making people happy.
All about doing good work.
All about delivering results to the customer.
Hire an OFS. Not a VA.
John
I do okay hiring for jobs I know how to do. But when it comes to a “specialist”, my hiring results have been very poor. If I know something is possible with a specialty– whether that is email marketing template creation, offise SEO link-building, Facebook ads management, onsite split-testing, API web programming, or whatever– there is nothing more disappointing than paying a specialist for weeks of a multi-month project and then getting to a part where they get stuck because they do not in fact have the level of proficiency they claimed when interviewed.
How can you really vet the skills of someone in a specialty where you yourself do not have expertise but just enough knowledge to know what you want and what should be possible?
This is really really difficult.
It’s hard to do in the US and it’s hard to do in the Philippines.
My best suggestion is to
1. look for more experience (generally more experience means higher salary)
2. interview really thoroughly
3. learn a little about the thing you’re hiring for so you can at least talk the talk with the person. Read a couple articles about it. This will give you a much better shot at hiring someone good. It also helps as you manage the project.