During my real estate career I have pretty much outsourced every aspect of my business. For experienced realtors, outsourcing is the way to go. The only part of my business I didn't really outsource was creating relationships with the title company and other affiliate business'es. Other then that, you can outsource every part of your business, even working with the homeowners. I don't want to go into the team building, however I wanted to give you insight on the max you should pay for virtual assistants.
Virtual assistants can be hired for 1K a month, for 8 hours a day, 5 days a week. You can use these virtual assistants to develop websites, internet marketing, creating blogs, writing articles, link building, and much, much more.
Well I want to give you ten tips before you begin any outsourcing activities.
1. Be sure you know exactly what you want and don't take shortcuts writing your specification. You almost want to write as if you were explaining every imaginable detail you could think of.
2. Ask to see detail examples of the freelancers previous work similiar to projects or task you are requesting.
3. When posting a bid on any of the outsourcing sites, you want to put a specific question that requires a specific answer within your post to avoid any bots or canned responses.
4. Ensure that you check the freelancers profile and review the feedback and ratings, all feedback is not negative as some customers are hard to please, however if you see a trend, be aware.
5. Always start with small task before you hire a freelancers, if you can't get a small job completed, you may want to reconsider. You want to make sure you get a preview of the VA's work first.
6. You always want to use an third party escrow service never pay upfront.
7. You want to ensure you have constant contact with your virtual assistant, and you want to use skype of an free instant messenger service that you will be always able to contact your assistant. If you do not get a response within the hour from your assistant then you want to look into another. (during the hours the work is suppose to be performed)
8. You always want to give detail instructions, and keep all records of any conversations you have with your VA online or off. Attempt to always communicate with your VA on the platform where the payment is being kept to ensure that you are documenting in case you must request a refund. Record all your calls if you have technology to do so.
9. Always keep in mind that your virtual assistants are human, and when they make a mistake its human, however when they do a good job, praise them as that will encourage them to keep up the good work. Appreciate your VA's because most likely you are getting an extremly good deal if they are good.
10. Last but not lease ALWAYS pay on time, and when you can, always pay a little extra bonus, when they make you money. You can get two assistants for less then 2K a month. If you instruct correctly, you will be getting a great deal.
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