- Hey, hey, Tampa Bay.
It's Denise O'Berry.
I hope you're having a great day today.
It is a rainy day here in Tampa Bay,
and I'd like to welcome all of you from the Tampa Bay area
and around the world.
If you're watching me live,
please make sure and put a note in the comments,
let me know that you're here,
because I'd love to say hello to you.
If you're watching the replay, then welcome to you, too,
and I'm happy for you to leave a comment.
I love to see your comments.
You might have some questions throughout this session today,
so make sure you leave 'em in the comments,
whether you're watching live or on the replay,
and I'll make sure I get back to them.
Now today we're gonna talk about
one of my very favorite subjects.
You might say I have a love/hate relationship
with this subject,
only because how it's approached online.
What I'm gonna talk about today is
the three biggest mistakes
that people make when they're hiring a contractor.
You can call this outsourcing.
You can call it hiring a VA,
which is where my love/hate relationship starts,
because I believe that we should banish the title VA,
or virtual assistant, from the world
because everybody's a virtual assistant these days.
Everybody who's on Facebook and in business
is a virtual assistant,
but they don't all do the same thing.
And that's where the mistakes come in.
So I wanna talk about those three biggest mistakes today.
I see them repeated over and over and over again.
So first of all,
let's talk about mistake number one that people make,
and that is the most common.
It is putting out a call to whatever groups they're in,
or on their Facebook page,
or on their Facebook profile, for help.
And what they'll do is
they'll be really, really general in their requirements.
They put a shout out and say they need a VA.
And of course, we all know there's a gazillion types of VAs.
There's people who are copywriters, designers,
projects managers, social media strategists,
social media managers.
Oh gosh, all sorts of other types of people.
Project managers.
So everybody is a virtual assistant these days.
They help you in your business and they work virtually,
so be really careful when you're putting a shout out
for help, for virtual help, or from contractors.
So here's what happens when you put out a
general call for virtual help.
You'll get tons and tons and tons and tons
of disqualified people.
And then you'll have to slog through all of it.
You'll be ready to pull your hair out
because you've got so many applications,
and so many of 'em aren't the kind of people
that you're looking for.
Then what you'll do is you'll throw your hands up in disgust
and say, you know what,
this outsourcing thing just isn't for me.
Trust me, I have seen it way too many times.
And the problem isn't that
outsourcing isn't the thing for you.
It can be a really good thing for you
to help you grow your business.
But it all starts with you.
If you don't know what you want
and can't identify that in specific terms,
then that's where the problem lies.
Let me give you a few examples.
I see 'em every single day posted online.
I'm gonna read these to you.
I have three different examples.
The first one, hi, everyone.
I hope you're having a great day.
I'm looking for some referrals for virtual assistants
that you've worked with in the past
and had a great experience.
Thanks in advance.
Here's the next one.
Okay, I think it's time to start considering hiring a VA.
I would prefer someone in the U.S.
What is the going rate?
Any recommendations?
And now here's the third one.
This one was written in a particularly clever way,
but it's just as ineffective as the first two.
Are you a virtual unicorn just dying to let
your glitter and rainbow-colored magic shine?
Well, your time is now.
We're looking for a virtual unicorn
who can take direction easily
and make magic happen behind the scenes.
We're asking for recommendations only at this time.
If you're recommended,
please fill out the application below.
And if you know someone who brings the glitter and sparkle,
and spreads it everywhere on your team,
tag them below so we can get to know them.
Okay, so that's cute.
But have you ever met any unicorns in your life?
Now we all wish we'd met some unicorns,
much less a person that's a virtual unicorn.
What the heck do they mean, spread your glitter?
What are the requirements for this position?
I have no clue.
And it's the same thing with the first two.
Those are general questions.
Who do you know that's a virtual assistant?
Well, good God, I know hundreds of virtual assistants.
And I bet you do, too.
But we don't know, number one,
what kind of business these people are in
who are asking the question.
And number two, what kind of help they need
because they haven't told us.
So that is the hugest mistake.
And these folks, these three folks,
and the many, many other calls for help
that I see online every single day,
those people are gonna be sorely disappointed.
So that is major mistake number one.
Don't make it.
You need to be specific in your job request.
What are you looking for?
What type of skills do you want?
What kind of other requirements come with the position?
If you can identify what you're looking for
as closely as possible,
then you're likely to get
much better respons to your request,
and you're gonna find somebody that you can work with.
So let's talk about then mistake number two.
And that's expecting people to be a rockstar unicorn
and then paying them peanuts.
You cannot have it both ways.
It's important to remember
that when you're contracting out help,
outsourcing it to someone,
the people that you're outsourcing it to
are business owners.
Those business owners have business costs.
They have to pay their salary.
They have to pay their taxes.
They have to pay their business expenses
that come along with having a business presence online.
So there's things that they have to pay,
unlike somebody that you hire as an employee.
Now that means that paying somebody
$15 an hour just isn't gonna cut it.
Frankly, I had a pretty heated discussion
with someone one day about a $15 an hour rate.
This particular person had, I kid you not,
a two-page list of responsibilities
for an assistant that they wanted them to do.
Number one, the list was ridiculous, trying to get somebody
with all of those skills was truly gonna be difficult.
And she felt that she was paying them a really great amount
just by offering them $15 an hour.
Couldn't change her mind, so we just agreed to disagree.
But think about that.
When you're contracting out work, when you're outsourcing,
this person that you're outsourcing to is a business owner.
They have to make a living wage, too, just like you do.
Okay, and another thing is, those advertisements,
this one was a real killer for me.
It was a glorious advertisement for help.
It was very, very specific in what the responsibilities are.
It went on and on
about the business being in business for quite some time,
that they were stable.
They were a seven-figure business,
blah, blah, blah, blah, blah.
And then, at the very end, it said,
the rate they were willing to pay
for a person to help them do all this laundry list of things
was $15 an hour.
Folks, somethin' doesn't work right here.
If you want to get good help,
you need to be willing to pay for it.
Now I realize when you're first starting out,
it's a light bit tough, but you need to remember,
you do get what you pay for.
And remember that those people
are gonna help you grow your business.
They're gonna contribute to your bottom line.
So you need to make sure and pay them what they're worth.
All right, and last, and this is really, really important,
and many, many people don't address this issue,
and that is hire for culture and train for skill.
I don't know if you've ever heard this before,
but this is a really great mantra
when you're bringing a new person in on your team
that's gonna be doing work for your company.
You need to make sure that they have the right values
that your company embodies.
You need to make sure that you
and that person are a good fit
because you're gonna be communicating, normally virtually,
and that's a much bigger challenge
than communicating in person.
So you wanna make sure that
they're a good fit culturally with your company.
They could have every single skill
that you've listed on your request,
and not fit with your values.
And I would tell 'em, shh,
nope, sorry, not hired here.
If they have some of the things on your list
or a start of some of the things on your list,
and they're a super-great match for you culturally,
I'd hire 'em in a second
because they're gonna serve your business better
and they're gonna serve your business better.
So those are the top three mistakes that most people make
when they hire to outsource to an assistant,
a virtual assistant of some sort.
And that is the three things that I have for you today.
Now looking at the comments,
oh, Yolanda, thank you so much for showing up.
She's made a really, really excellent point here.
She says, 'The client doesn't set the pay.
"A virtual assistant is a business owner
"and they set their own rates and packages."
And that is so true.
They are the ones who are gonna tell you
what they wanna make in order to serve you properly.
So you need to be willing to go ahead and accept that,
or move onto the next person.
But like I said, you need to pay them a living wage.
And Yolanda loves the
hire for culture, train for skill, too.
Yolanda and I think a lot alike in that category.
She and I have a tendency to comment
on a lot of different posts across the Interwebs
on people that are looking for outsource help.
So those are my three biggest mistakes
that I'm gonna share with you for today.
Thank you for watching and,
don't forget, the biggest mistake you make
is being too general in your job description,
not paying people the money that you should,
and the third one is,
make sure that you don't just hire for skills,
hire for culture.
That's the most important thing.
Thanks so much for joining me today.
Have a great day, and I'll see you next week.