A few weeks ago I wrote that I was starting off with a virtual assistant. I’ve received many questions from all of you so I thought I’d give you an update on how things are going. It’s been around 2 weeks since I have bee working with my new VA (his name is DJ) and so far I’m pretty happy. For DJ’s services we (Chess Media Group) pay around $400/month and he works 6 days a week for 4 hours each day, basically between $4-5 an hour. Our VA is always on skype during work hours and we’ve even gone on a few skype calls together when certain things need to be clarified. He’s extremely friendly and says good morning and good night whenever he signs off and/or on. Sure that might seem trivial but sometimes starting off your day with a happy good morning can make a big difference in the rest of the day.
I can’t tell you how many hours DJ has saved me just from scheduling meetings for me. DJ has full access to my calendar so he knows when I am free to have a meeting. He also handles all of the coordinating to set up a time that works for both me and for the person I’m meeting with. I used to have to go through several back and forth emails to get this done, now I just forward the request to DJ and watch it appear in the calendar. Here are a few other tasks that DJ is also helping out with:
- Submitting my website to relevant directories and syndication sites
- Adding tasks into my Basecamp account
- Searching for potential speaking opportunities and reaching out to them
- Looking for marketing/advertising agencies with specific criteria that I can then later reach out to
- Basic research and information gathering
DJ keeps his own task list so I always know what he’s working on and what he has completed. We use Google Docs to make this process pretty simple. I also created specific instructions and tasks for him to do which I can edit/add to whenever I want (but usually I just tell DJ on skype what I need done and when).
We are currently working with DJ on a part time basis but I’m hoping that we will move to more a full time relationship in the near future. So far DJ has been handling some of the basic things for us but as he gets more comfortable I’m going to have him get a bit more involved with certain projects. The only real issues that I have come across was some of the grammar in emails. Nothing too major but just a few minor things here and there. Of course, all of those are quickly corrected after a brief skype chat. Overall, I’m pretty satisfied with DJ and the work that he is doing. It’s great that he even works on Saturday when both my business partner and I are not online. It’s great to know that DJ can pretty much do any tasks that can be done online or searched for.
Have any other questions regarding working with a VA? Now is the time to ask.
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