How To Use A Virtual Assistant

How does Dave Schneider hold down a solid blog whilst scaling Ninja Outreach?

How does Kavi Gupta smash out BIG articles for Forbes AND still have time to write his own book?

And how can Andrew Warner manage to be so PROLIFIC Mixergy guest quality?

Because he is spending his time editing, writing transcripts for and promoting each episode? Not sure…

Maybe there is something these guys know… that we don’t (Clue: it has something to do with using a Virtual Assistant).

The goal of this post is to understand how they are doing this.

So you can do the same.

But before we do that, I am going to uncover a secret.

A secret so well guarded between the rich and powerful that I am probably going to get in trouble by simply sharing this blog post.

You Don’t Have To Work Hard To Be Successful

What?

You mean all of that stuff that Gary Vaynerchuk and Grant Cardone say about “Hustle” is rubbish?

No, not necessarily…

I’m just saying that if you have the knowledge, skills and resources, there is another way:

Building a system that is operated by competent and experienced Virtual Assistants.

Take our podcast for example:

(Any excuse to mention that we hit #1 New & Noteworthy LOL)

I spend 3-5 hours PER WEEK producing this DAILY value bomb that is getting downloaded 400 times per day.

How?

Because I have a system.

(Operated by a Virtual Assistant and a podcast editor)

Or how about my male leggings company that is making a modest but automated £1.4k per month:

Again, I spend 3-5 hours on this business PER MONTH.

How?

Because I have a system.

(Managed by a Virtual Assistant and my mother, who is responsible for distribution)

But that’s enough about me.

Let’s see what these top online players have to say about using the Virtual Assistant/s that manage the systems that are responsible for their success. I asked just two simple questions:

1. Why did you choose to work with a Virtual Assistant?

2. What effect has this had on your productivity?

ANDREW WARNER – MIXERGY

Table of Contents

When I started working with my virtual assistant I only had enough work for a few hours a week, not enough for even a part time assistant. So a friend recommended that I hire his Virtual Assistant.
Huge improvement.

GUN HUDSON – UPGRADED TRAVEL

1. To save me time to be doing more highly leveraged tasks in my business.
2. I have found I get a TON more done if I pay someone else to do things for me 😛

JOHN JANTSCH – DUCT TAPE MARKETING

We find the best of the best and can scale up and down as needed.
Delegating by task rather than function has been great.

DAVE NEVOGT – HUBSTAFF

We need to use a VA because we have lots of customized processes but we also need cost savings. So we teach the VA our processes and get the cost savings.
It doesn’t affect my personal productivity but it affects the cost we can get leads at.

ADAM FRANKLIN – BLUEWIRE MEDIA

To take stuff off my plate that I knew I shouldn’t be doing.
It’s greatly freed up my time to focus on high value activity.

DAVE SCHNEIDER – NINJA OUTREACH

It great, affordable labor.
It has allowed me to focus on bigger items and be more productive. Our business has grown a lot thanks to their help and we wouldn’t be able to afford traditional western labor.

CHRIS DYSON – TRIPLE SEO

I use VA’s to free up my time & allow me to perform the tasks where I can add value.
VA’s allow me to get more done. By doing some of the time consuming / lower priority tasks it gives me more time to do the jobs which need my full attention such as strategy, planning & creative work.

LOZ JAMES – CONTENT CHAMPION

I use a VA to edit my podcast and another one to write my show notes. I’ve found that doing this helps to free up valuable time to focus on more strategic aspects of running my business.
It has probably saved me in excess of 4-5 hours a week.

MATTHEW ALLEN – DUMB PASSIVE INCOME

I choose to use Virtual Assistant’s because there are not enough hours in the day for me to do everything that needs to be done.
Personally? I still get just as much done as I did before I was using Virtual Assistants. But overall – way more stuff gets done in my business. Instead of doing all of the writing and various tasks – I instead spend my time managing a small team to do most of it for me.

JUSTIN COOKE – EMPIRE FLIPPERS

We’ve been working with our small team of VA’s in the Philippines for years and they’ve become an integral part of our organization.
Once we have established Standard Operating Procedures (SOP’s) we’re able to hand over the day-to-day work to our team in the Philippines. Constantly replacing ourselves allows us to continue to grow exponentially.

KAVI GUPTA – NOMAD BIBLE

Helps me take care of less important tasks so I can focus on higher impact to-dos.
Made me a much clearer communicator. I have to articulate very well what I need so there isn’t more time wasted on back-and-forth.

NICK LOPER – VIRTUAL ASSISTANT ASSISTANT

Whenever I find the pain of inaction becoming unbearable, that’s when I know it’s time to hire.
Working with Virtual Assistants has forced me to work ON my business instead of IN it. It’s made me a better communicator, delegator, and hopefully, a leader.

MOHIT TATER – ENTREPRENEURSHIP LIFE

So that I can focus on the high value revenue generating tasks of my business.
I have much more free time now to spend on growing my business and also with my family.

TONY DURSO – REVENUE CHAT

Managing social media is a lot of work; a full time job sometimes! The only way to grow it is to get help from someone. It is the only way to be working ON your business instead of IN it.
More followers. More notice. More retweets.

KRISTI HINES – KIKOLANI

I chose a Virtual Assistant to do research projects and manage comment moderation on my blogs.
It definitely gave me more time to focus on tasks that I specialize in versus those that anyone could do.

NATHAN CHAN – FOUNDR MAG

To find leverage in our business, at a fraction of the cost to hire someone locally.
It’s allowed me to claim my time back doing cumbersome tasks that I shouldn’t be doing as a CEO of a company. It allows me to get more done in an effective manner.

CAZ & CRAIG – Y TRAVEL BLOG

To save me time and so I can focus on doing tasks I love and are skilled in.
It’s allowed me to grow and expand my business and create epic content.

SARAH PETERSON – UNSETTLE

There were far too many things that I shouldn’t have been doing with my time. I chose to spend my time on high-impact activities and strategy rather than administrative.
My personal productivity – not much, but the tasks that I wasn’t able to do before are now getting done!

ZAC JOHNSON – ZACJOHNSON.COM

Once you’ve mastered the art of something, you can delegate out the timely stuff to further focus on what you specialize in. This is where I tend to use VAs the most.
Running your own business, you have many hats. When hiring a VA, it’s important to make sure you delegate out the small and tedious things that add up during your work.

GAIL GARDNER – GROWMAP

I has become impossible to keep on top of everything without assistance.
Many tasks that would not be done at all due to time constraints can be accomplished – provided I can make the time to train the VA to do them. Once trained, specific tasks can be more consistently completed.

JOHANNES VOLKNER – NOMAD CRUISE

I choose to work with a VA so they can help me with time consuming and easy repetitive tasks.
I have more time to focus on the most important aspects of business and more free time to do the things I love.

ZACK YOUNG – ZACKYOUNG.CO

To leverage the power of outsourcing & to boost my personal value by having a third party assistant handle many of the tasks I used to.
It enables me to focus on my core skill set, bill for more hours & appear more valuable.

TOMAS LAURINAVICIUS – DESPRENEUR

There are many repetitive tasks I need to do on a daily basis. Investing my time in writing clear instructions and training my virtual assistant will be paying off in the near future.
I feel like I can focus on bigger things and small details are taken care of. Also, by making less decisions I don’t feel that exhausted after a working day.

CLAYTON B. CORNELL – SPARTAN TRAVELLER

Low cost, scalable solution for getting things done.
Having virtual assistants has allowed me to outsource large blocks of repetitive work, saving countless hours over the last 7 years.
In many cases I’ve hired VAs who are part of an agency that handles many clients, which allows me to scale up or down as needed without taking on the burden of hiring full-time staff. Agency VAs can handle a few hours a week up to full-time+ when business is booming.
Hiring VAs is a good option when on a strict budget, or any time you can’t automate with technology (e.g. a developer or Zapier.com).
I’ve also used VAs extensively for personal research and scheduling tasks (e.g. finding the best hotel or Airbnb accommodation for a specific trip).

STUART WALKER – NICHEHACKS

Impossible to run a successful business without one IMO so it’s a necessity.
It free’s up more time for me to focus on money tasks….or be lazy. :/

OK, now I’m not going to comment on each of these separate opinion as I am sensing a common theme…

Each of these top online players have certain abilities AND tasks that they enjoy doing, are good at doing and will have the biggest impact on their business.

And probably the only reason that they are reached such heights in their respective markets (an average of 9632 followers on Twitter) is becuase of their ability to focus on these tasks over the long term becuase they are NOT handling menial, low $ value tasks that could be completed by a competent and experienced Virtual Assistant.

But what are they actually outsourcing?

Of course, I also went on to enquire as to what each of these players are using their Virtual Assistant for:

It seems as though that in order to really start pushing boundaries in your industry, become an influencer in your marketplace and to truly add value to a large amount of people, you need to join the 61% of these top online players and start outsourcing your general admin tasks.