Fast Easy Tip

Featured Article by Marlon Sanders

Marlon’s In-Depth 16-Point Guide To Hiring Your First Part Time Virtual Assistant Based On How I Hired My Own Virtual Assistants.

Let’s talk about hiring your first part time virtual assistant:

– Can you afford it?
– Where do you find them?
– How do you work with them?
– How do you save 50% on their pay?
– What country should you hire them from?
– What if their work isn’t up to par?
– What skills do they need?

One of the big steps in your online career will be when you make that move to hire your first online assistant.

There are many ways to outsource your work. You can, of course, hire freelancers off of elance or other sites.

That’s good for one-off projects.

But very soon in your career, you’re going to want to hire a part time virtual assistant and later a full-time one. That way, they can learn over time how you think and what you want.

You get a higher quality result with less work.

As you know, Lisa worked for me for 7 years. I’ve had other virtual assistants. And now I have some employees. But I worked my way up to this point over time.

Here are my tips for finding and using your first part time virtual assistant:

1. Hire someone in Canada. They have high speed Internet and are Internet savvy. If you’re in the U.S., they’re on US time.

Lisa was in Canada. Rick Hanson did my technical stuff for many years. He’s in Canada.

2. Hire someone in your relative time zone.

It’s hard for me to work with virtual assistants in UK or Australia because of the time zone difference.

Whatever country you’re in, I think you need to look for someone in the same time zone. That way, you can collaborate on projects during work hours.

The cool thing is that if you’re a night owl, you can find a time zone where that’s someone else’s work day.

3. Grab a 50% discount on pay

The great thing about Canada when I started there with Lisa was I got a 50% discount due to the exchange rate. Over time, this wilted.

But when you’re getting started, look for that exchange rate discount.

4. Use your resources to find people

a. Craigs List — That should be obvious. I love using Craigs List.

b. Newspapers. I ran classified ads in several newspapers in Canada.

c. Post in forums. Post what you’re looking for in forums like Warriorsforum, Digital Point forums, the Rich Jerk forum, abestweb forum, Anthony Blake’s forum (ablake com). There are many other forums you can use, depending on the talent.

5. Do NOT be scared to hire someone if you have revenue.

As long as you have a profitable sales process, don’t be scared to hire someone part time. You’ll NEVER feel like you can afford it.

But as long as you have a product that’s selling, a target market and a lead generation process, you will very likely find it pays off.

You WILL be scared to death to hire that first person. But if you have a sales process that’s working, I really believe it’ll free up your time and let you concentrate on higher return activities.

Face it, answering customer service emails doesn’t make you any dough.

6. Hire talent over pay

I’d rather pay more and get someone really talented than pay less and get mediocre talent.

You want someone you don’t have to train. Trust me on this one.

7. Find someone with exposure to Photoshop and good writing skills. When you’re hiring that first virtual assistant, you need a jack of all trades.

Someone whose very computer savvy, has had a little customer service experience, good writing skills, and a little art background or Photoshop is great. It’s ideal if they can do the basics in Dreamweaver.

When I hired Lisa, she was already doing customer service for Internet Marketing Challenge but they let her go when Corey bought the company. She could do a drop shadow in Photoshop and had taken a correspondence course on html.

8. Call them first thing every day and plan the day’s work. Even if they’re part time, you need to review their work plan daily. Just call and go over the work for the day.

This is why I say you need someone in your time zone. In my opinion, Skype doesn’t cut it. You need to be able to talk over the phone.

And you need to be able to EASILY reach the person. If you have to email them and get a response overnight, this isn’t going to work out long term.

Yes, you can do that for repetitious outsourced projects. But the virtual assistant person is your RIGHT HAND. You need them on demand at least during set hours.

9. Here are some tasks you can have them do:

a. Fix html problems
b. Customer service problem solving
c. Compile pdf’s
d. Create reseller pages and contests
e. Respond to the needs of affiliates or jv partners
f. Create products
g. Design banner ads for affiliates
h. Write emails
i. Write postcards to resellers
j. Do things you don’t want to

10. Dictate your promo emails to your VA.

This is why you want someone you work with every day. You can dictate your promo emails to them.

Over time, they’ll learn how to type these up and you get promos out to your list just by dictating an email in your morning call.

11. Set rules upfront about days off, time off, emergencies and advancing pay.

a. Set a rule upfront that you don’t advance pay.
b. Set a rule on time off from work hours for personal errands.

Virtual assistants sometimes don’t see it as a job. And you have crucial tasks for the day when they up and announce they have a dentist appointment or need to take a family member to the Pharmacy. Whatever. Set the rules upfront.

c. Decide if there will be vacation time.
d. Have some form of non-disclosure agreement even if it isn’t legally valid. At least you can have a clear, unambiguous agreement.

12. Be quick to pull the plug.

If junk goes on such as their Internet goes down all the time, tasks don’t get done and you get excuses, critical mistakes are made, pull the plug.

13. You’ll know within one to two weeks if the person is good. A bad hire will want to take a month to get up to speed and research the tasks. A good person will hop right in and start doing work.

14. Let the person in your plans. Brainstorm with them. Let them experience fun and exciting tasks also. Don’t always just give them boring stuff. Find out what they love to do and see if you can work some of those things into their responsibilities.

15. Let them grow in the position.

If you see potential, talent or abilities they aren’t using, pay for them to get a little training and see if that talent will blossom.

I bought Lisa a Photoshop book and in 30 days she had gone through all the tutorials and was amazing. But she had an art background and tons of talent.

16. The hardest person you’ll EVER hire is your first.

I remember Corey (Rudl) telling me that once over the phone. And it was so true. And it’s true.

———————————————————–
Marlon Sanders is the author of “The Amazing Formula That Sells Products Like Crazy.”

Give me a few minutes and I’ll show you how the Amazing Formula can sell your products like crazy! Whether you’re selling on the Internet or offline, the formula will work for your business!

Click here to take “The Amazing Formula!” for a test drive:

==> www.marktse.com/recommend/amazingformula/

Most of today’s emerging entrepreneurs prefer to conduct their business online. Thanks to the internet, entrepreneurs can now reach different countries all over the world just to advertise and sell their products or services. If you want to become a successful internet entrepreneur, you must focus on your entrepreneur website. And why is that?

The foundation of an internet business is the website. Your success is dependent on the perception, feel, and look of your site. It is therefore very important to maximize your site’s effectiveness so that more subscribers are attracted to it and in turn boost your sales.

You must be able to have a squeeze page on your website. How will you do it? First and foremost, you must have a hosting account and domain. The domain should be in the hosting account. You can build your website by going to Microsoft FrontPage. This is a very easy thing to do so you will not encounter many problems. The form found in the squeeze page should match with the Autoresponder form. This way, personal information on the squeeze page can be captured correctly.

To catch the attention of internet users, your site must have a captivating headline. You can entice subscribers by giving them free bonus reports, newsletter, or even eBooks.

Some entrepreneurs put their photos on their site’s squeeze page. If you want to do the same, you must be extra careful as photos take up great file sizes. Your photo file should be reduced to a smaller size first so that it will not affect the boot up of the squeeze page. Waiting too long for a page to boot up will definitely discourage visitors.

Putting your photo is not a very good idea because some visitors are distracted by it and so they might miss some important information on the site. Sticking to text only on your squeeze page is the best way to load faster and provide all the information needed by the visitor.

If you can do these things to your website, you will not have many problems and not only that, more people will want to subscribe. Many entrepreneurs have started from scratch. Some of then even had to experience botched partnerships, failed businesses, bankruptcy, and heavy debts but despite the misfortunes, many entrepreneurs were able to survive. Now, they are earning thousands of profits every year.

Becoming a millionaire as an internet entrepreneur is not that hard. In fact, putting a physical business is harder than establishing an online business. However, both require hard work, dedication, and perseverance.

If you have the qualities and skills of an entrepreneur, you must try to establish your place on the web right now. Know your online business opportunities and start by creating an effective website.

As mentioned earlier, the entrepreneur website is one of the important keys to success. There is extreme competition among entrepreneurs online so you must be ready for it. Try to identify a market need that you have to meet and then answer that need by putting up an online business.

There are many resources that you can find online to help you out as you start your online business. You have to do some research so that your efforts will be rewarded when the right time comes. Being an entrepreneur is the best way to reach your dreams the soonest.

A successful entrepreneurial business has many parts but it always begins with the understanding of why you do such work. Aside from that, as an entrepreneur you should also understand the people you serve, their struggles, and the difference that your business will bring to their lives.

You also have to reach your clients in such a way as to make them fervent to do business with someone like you. The most important thing is to be able to manage your energy so that you can do your work effectively and earn great profits.

If you want profit to consistently flow to your business venture, here are the necessary steps that you need to take:

• You have to make it clear to everybody what you’re doing and why you are doing it. You should avoid mistakes as much as possible. Everything and everyone has a certain purpose. As an entrepreneur, you’re considered a “unique” individual. If you can clarify this to yourself, you will feel a surge of energy and enthusiasm. These things can attract prospective clients. Everything you do now is like a magnet that attracts energy.

• The next thing that you have to do in order to earn great profits is to establish your market. You should have an exact target for your products or services. You have to study the qualities of your customers so that you can make your own product or service stand out from your competitors.

• You should make use of every marketing material that you have to craft a significant message to your customers. You have to communicate with them honestly and authentically. Everything you do should be rooted in truthfulness and reliability. By doing this, you will attract more clients. With your energy, people will be drawn to you.

• Some entrepreneurs fail because of doubt and fear. They hesitate to take some risks involved in the business. They doubt their abilities and skills. This is a barrier that you should be able to knock down otherwise clients will shy away from you.

• The next thing is to organize your schedules. Prioritize… your business obligations and responsibilities should be done at the right time and at the right order. You have to manage your time effectively. If you can develop and master this skill, it will mean more clients and definitely, more money.

• You have to have the right system for your business so that you can also have time away from work and be able to generate new ideas for other business ventures. You must have a system for your business operations, marketing, and offerings.

• Change is the only thing permanent in this world. You have to adjust your business ideas according to these changes. Try to see if the products or services you offer are still in demand.

• Some entrepreneurs live only for their business. They often forget about achieving the proper balance between personal and business life. You have to establish specific strategies so that you can enjoy your success in all aspects of your life.

By following these steps, you will surely have a more successful business life and you can expect more money to come your way. Being an entrepreneur will surely give you more money that what you’ve ever imagined. Do you want to become an entrepreneur? Don’t forget to follow these quick steps.