Virtual Freedom. Chris C. Ducker
tasks for them to work on. Even with the support that he had in place, Jared was operating his business on what he now calls the “just in time” model, where he would stress himself out trying to come up with tasks for his staff to do—aptly capturing the anxiety that comes along with trying to manage every aspect of your business by yourself. He now recognizes that this is not a healthy, successful way to go about business; in fact, it’s a good way to exhaust yourself and make mistakes due to a lack of expertise.
Jared decided to switch up his business plan and hire VAs on a task-by-task basis. He now operates his business using what he calls the “just in case” model. This model entails hiring several part-time VAs to do the necessary work but only when it needs to be done. For example, he has hired VAs to aid in the design and development of a new tactic—hiring simply “just in case” he needs to.
Jared’s business is far more successful since he has made this shift in the way that he runs his virtual staffing plans—and his VAs are far more satisfied with their productivity.
Defining the Different Types of Virtual Workers
The moment you experience the power of a specialized, well-trained team of VAs, you’ll have access to one of the most powerful assets any entrepreneur can wish for—more time.
Just imagine what it would be like to have more time to work on your business instead of constantly working in the business. In order to get there, you must first begin by defining the roles your business needs to fill.
This is where your answers from the 3 Lists to Freedom exercise will come in handy. See, I told you we’d be seeing that again! My recommendation is to continually refer back to this list and use it as the framework for building your virtual team. When it comes to building a real team of your own, a team that becomes just as important to your business as the very customers that it serves, I consistently use the mantra, “Hire for the role, not for the task.”
Let’s take a look at the various VA roles, including typical duties within these roles and some rough pay scales. To make things easy to follow, keep in mind that these pay scales reflect a full-time (eight hours a day, Monday through Friday) position for an overseas virtual assistant. I’ve decided to base the figures on Filipino VAs because that’s the demographic I know personally, so please keep this in mind as well.
For part-time roles, simply cut the salary guidelines in half. Please note, however, that almost all virtual workers I’ve come across, both domestic and overseas, are much more interested in full-time positions than part-time ones.
The following are the primary roles that we’ll be discussing throughout the book. All of these are roles that both online entrepreneurs and more traditional brick-and-mortar business owners can use when marketing and growing their businesses in today’s economy.
• general virtual assistant (GVA)
• web developer
• graphic designer
• SEO (search engine optimization)/Internet marketing VA
• content writer
• video editor
• app developer
1. General Virtual Assistant (GVA)
As I’ve mentioned already, I’m a firm believer that every entrepreneur needs a GVA. Even if you already have a personal assistant, I recommend using a general virtual assistant as well. Not only are GVAs extremely affordable at a starting rate of around $3.50 per hour—which means they can do the lower level online work you’ve been giving to your personal assistant—but they’re also a great way to get accustomed to the idea of virtual staffing. Trust me, it’s not as scary as you think.
Pay Scale: $500 to $900 per month
Examples of Typical Duties
• Research keywords and topics.
• Maintain social media and post status updates.
• Manage your calendar, including travel and daily meetings.
• Upload blog posts and help with publishing schedules.
• Make small purchases, equipped with a prepaid credit card.
• Create and manage reports for website sales and product shipping.
• Check in with other team members, almost like a project manager. (We’ll discuss this role a little later on.)
2. Web Developer
These virtual workers are incredibly skilled and typically self-taught. They can create every type of website from basic brochure-style pages to fully functional e-commerce sites.
Consider the web developer VA as a digital contractor who keeps your web presence relevant, attractive, and functional. Without a solid web developer, you’ll soon find yourself with a site that becomes stale and lacks the content you need to gain higher rankings. However, keep in mind that a web developer is not responsible for designing your website. The developer’s job is to bring your site to life with the proper coding and to maintain its functionality.
Pay Scale: $600 to $1,500 per month
Examples of Typical Duties
• Install and customize blog and website themes.
• Install shopping cart and “buy now” buttons.
• Create e-commerce sites.
• Create membership sites.
• Maintain backups and make sure software and plug-ins are all up to date.
• Work with PHP and other scary programming languages.
Don’t worry if you don’t understand some of the terms above. You don’t have to understand the terminology to benefit from a web developer’s skills—trust me, I know!
3. Graphic Designer
Not to be confused with your web developer, your graphic designer VA will be in charge of creating customized graphics for both offline and online marketing.
Pay Scale: $600 to $1,500 per month
Examples of Typical Duties
• Create logos and business cards.
• Design product images and retail packaging.
• Make 3-D images for video.
• Customize web icons and buttons.
• Design original websites and create new concepts.
4. SEO (Search Engine Optimization)/Internet Marketing VA
The world of SEO is a rapidly changing environment. That means that only those professionals who stay plugged into what’s going on can offer lasting results to their clients and employees. What does that mean in plain English? It means that what may have worked last year will probably be less effective or not work at all today.
For example, on April 24, 2012, Google introduced Penguin, an algorithm update that was designed to decrease the rankings of websites that violated Google’s Webmaster Guidelines by using duplicate content, keyword stuffing, and other “black-hat” techniques to gain higher rankings.
Perhaps your SEO strategy never involved these kinds of tactics—but even if it didn’t, there are constant changes to search-engine algorithms that will affect your ranking. This is why it’s essential for you to partner with an SEO