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Hiring a Filipino VA (Virtual Assistant) Scuba Diving and Outsourcing my Butter

I've wanted to hire a VA ever since reading the 4-hour Workweek back in 2007 but never really had a reason to aside thinking it would be cool.  Honestly, up until this point in my life, I didn't really need one, and the hassle of hiring and training one would have been more work than just doing it myself. However, it's time. I need to hire an assistant if I want to free up my day to day activities and allow my business to scale.

I thought about hiring an intern or someone in the US, but decided that a Filipino VA was the way to go.  It all started by realizing how easy it was outsource my Bulletproof coffee delivery.  


I used to waste a ton of time driving to pick up fresh coffee beans, sticks of Grass-Fed butter and realized that I could just have it delivered. Now I've decided to outsource the rest of my day to day activities starting with:

1. Sending out Shipping Confirmations / Tracking Numbers for New Orders.
2. Updating my Book keeping / Manually entering profit and expenses into a Google Doc
3. Eventually taking over all of the day to day activities of my dropshipping stores

Why am I finally hiring a VA?

I'm going scuba diving in a few weeks. The exact same reason why I first got into the 4-hour workweek 5 years ago.  But this time,  I actually have real responsibilities and a real business to run. On Feb 5th-13th I'll be without internet as I'll be diving in the Similan islands on a liveaboard which is basically a cruise ship that takes divers out far away into the middle of the ocean to dive the best sites, while you eat, sleep and live on a boat for 3-7 nights at a time.

Check back in a few weeks for an update on how the diving was and what it was like both in the Similans but also the liveaboard experience itself. I'm excited as this is my first time doing it!




How I'm hiring a VA?

I asked around and everyone recommended either Virtual Staff Finder or Online Jobs Ph, I decided to do the cheaper option as I'm just starting with someone part time and didn't need VSF to do the interviews for me.  

I signed up with OnlineJobs.ph and posted my first job posting today. I instantly got a bunch of generic applications, so decided instead, to put some Easter eggs into my description to see if anyone actually wanted the job bad enough to go through my tests which included:

1. You'll be using Shopify to fulfill orders, send me any eCommerce store that uses Shopify as their back end.

2. You'll be doing some basic accounting daily, tell me if a customer ordered an item for $429.99, our cost was $310, shipping was $40 and our credit card transaction fee was 2.9%, what was our net profit? Please tell me how you calculated the profit.


Just for fun, go through the above tests your self, calculate the gross profit and leave a comment before to see if you would have passed the test.

I'll keep everyone updated on the hiring process, but so far so good, i'm excited to be hiring my first VA to join the team. Currently I have one guy in the US that answers all of my customer service calls, and my girlfriend Larissa who I partner with for our new store, but this will be my first day to day VA which I hope to one day upgrade to full time.

By the way, the reason why I'm not having my guy in the US do the day to days is because first it'll be 1/4 of the price to hire someone in the Philippines but also because I don't want my business to be reliant on just one person.


Edit: It's been about an hour since I posted the job opening and already I got 10 applications. Some were terrible such as:

"I am very much interested to apply in your good company." - Princess Junika

But others were fantastic, followed the instructions, did the math correctly and now I already have 5 people that I've asked to move onto the next phase which is to record a 1 minute Youtube video answering a few interview questions.  The reason why I'm having them do this is first to see how technical they are, if they are willing to spend the time to actually do it, and because it saves me from getting on Skype with them right away.  The last stage would be a short Skype interview, and then I'll hire someone, at this rate, it should be within a few days!  I'm excited.

Keep in touch and bookmark my blog to keep updated!

Warm Regards,

Johnny
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Post a Comment

  1. Hi Jonny
    Thank you so much for sharing this information I've found it really helpful.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Hey Luvly you're super welcome! Enjoy the blog!

      Delete
  2. Thank you very much for this post, indeed that Virtual staff could be a great help in your online business. I found this great virtual staff here and he is very good in SEO, Social Media, Internet Marketing and some website stuff. I highly recommend him. this is his website http://www.virtualstaff4u.com/

    ReplyDelete
  3. Glad to know that more and more people believe in Filipino Virtual Assistants'abilities. It was at Online Jobs PH where I found my first job online and it was one of my very memorable experience. I received my first salary in my whole life ever! :D

    VA Jen

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Hey Jen, really cool that you're blogging about your VA experience! If anyone wants to check out her blog or hire Jen as your VA her site is: http://virtualassistantexperience.blogspot.com/

      Delete

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