Here at Smart Document Solutions we like to help keep our clients productive. In case you haven’t noticed, more and more people are working from home or virtually. 10-20 years ago the vast majority of people commuted anywhere from 10 minutes to an hour – or more – one way. Today that is not necessarily the case.
Included in the growing numbers of virtual workers are Virtual Assistants. A virtual assistant (V.A.) is someone who, “is generally self-employed and provides professional administrative, technical, or creative (social) assistance to clients remotely from a home office.”
The great thing is that many times – virtual assistants can do work for you at a fraction of the price it would cost to hire a new person to come into your office and do the same work. So the first question that comes to mind is…
Where Can You Find a Virtual Assistant?
For the longest time it was a toss up between the two biggest players in the virtual and freelance work space. Odesk and Elance, who recently merged to form UpWork. As more and more people start to work on virtual basis there are a number of other options available as well.
Upwork (Merger between Odesk and Elance) – is the world’s largest freelance talent marketplace. As an increasingly connected and independent workforce goes online, knowledge work —like software, shopping and content before it— is shifting online as well. This shift is making it faster and easier for clients to connect and work with talent in near real-time and is freeing professionals everywhere from having to work at a set time and place. Freelancers are earning more than $1 billion annually via Upwork. Upwork is headquartered in Mountain View, California, with offices in San Francisco, California, and Oslo, Norway.
Guru – Allows you to search for services being offered by freelancers that match your needs. Their global network of over 1.5 million gurus are eager to help with any technical, creative or business projects you have on the table. You can explore each V.A.’s profile and browse their previous work so you can hire with confidence. Payment is simple and fast once you’re satisfied with the finished product. You pay Guru and they pay the V.A. only after you approve the work. It’s a secure, “win-win” arrangement for both sides.
Zirtual – Zirtual set out to hire only freelancers and virtual assistants based here in the U.S. and was funded by Tony Hsieh. They have had a bit of drama recently, having run out of money, fired all their staff, and shut the service down, though it appears that it is back up and running thanks to an acquisition by startups.co.
Craigslist – You are probably familiar with Craigslist at this point. Craigslist is a classified advertisements website with sections devoted to jobs, housing, personals, for sale, items wanted, services, community, gigs, résumés, and discussion forums.
Virtual Staff Finder – Chris Ducker – a British expatriate who lives in the Philippines started his own virtual staffing company that specializes in virtual assistants based in the Philippines.
Fiverr – Fiverr is the bargain basement of virtual assistant sites. Quality may be questionable or in some cases exceptional. But if your budget is pinched and you need a simple task done relatively soon fiverr may be the right alternative for you. Pricing Can be anywhere from $5 (for fiverr) to $50 an hour -or more- depending on the length, difficulty and expertise needed for the tasks or series of task you are hiring for.
Virtual assistants can handle a litany of tasks from handling email to screening phone calls. Personally I hire my Virtual assistant to handle a lot of heavy lifting in the research area. That being said virtual assistants can be hired to do very odd things as well.
Fiverr would be the poster-child of odd-task handling as people will do everything from having grown men sing happy birthday to a friend clad only in a g-string to another recent post where the promoter promises they will “uncurse you forever”.
To be honest, finding the virtual assistant that is right for you can be difficult, but when you find the right fit it can be a magical relationship – especially if your assistant is overseas. You give them a task, go to bed and when you awake it is magically completed.
Who Uses Virtual Assistants?
Probably the biggest name using virtual assistants a familiar name if you are in the world of internet Marketing – Tim Ferris. Tim Ferris basically wrote the how-to-guide on internet marketing when he wrote the 4-Hour Work Week.
Chris Ducker – Is another internet marketer who as mentioned above started his own company focused on virtual assistants native to the Philippines.
Jeremy Frandsen & Jason Van Orden – are the two (now) millionaire minds behind Internet Business Mastery and they have a staff – now including a CEO that is all virtual as Jeremy lives in Utah and Jason lives on the other side of the country.
Pat Flynn – a friend of Chris, Jeremy and Jason – is known for his blog/podcast/brand smart passive income and has used virtual assistants almost from the beginning.
So in conclusion if you are looking for help and don’t feel like taking out a local ad to support someone in a physical building – consider a virtual assistant.
