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Sam: Damien?
Damien: One of the things I’m going to [Indiscernible] challenge with is being over here. You know what I mean? So …
Sam: You spend way too much time in Vegas. Just go back to …
Neil: No, no. He’s in Vegas [Indiscernible] in Vegas, right? Vegas citizenship.
Sam: Do not meet anybody in Vegas.
Damien: You mean [Indiscernible]? But she said she did.
[Laughter]
Damien: So one of the challenges I’m going to [0:00:31] [Indiscernible] is getting some stuff going. I mean like [Indiscernible] to an admin assistant. Do I want [Indiscernible] something like a virtual assistant? There are certain tasks that I need [Indiscernible] they can follow, do this [Indiscernible]. So the question is, “How would I go around getting someone [Indiscernible]?”
I have lots of content and what I need is some of the [Indiscernible] have these questions in here like they get in a PDF. OK, put this logo on the top. OK, I’ve got loads of content for ebooks, for opt-ins but I just need someone to package it up and take off this logo like being on paper. The contents are there. I could use that as lead generation updates for the squeeze pages, like all of this sort of stuff.
You know, I’ve got loads of ideas but that’s – it’s someone to be able to give the task to. How will I go about doing that?
Sam: OK.
David: As far as finding them, I probably have the best source for that but I know when you have a virtual assistant, you want to make sure that you have everything laid out step by step so anyone could follow it and do it. Possibly you screencast if it’s something that uses a lot of computer stuff, that they see the actual screen in what to do.
You might want to consider someone with a little bit less strong of an accent [Indiscernible] who will understand what’s going on and I think that’s about it. You just have to make sure communication is key because I have good experiences and bad experiences with [0:02:18] [Indiscernible] and if you’re not crystal clear, then they will try and do one thing but it’s not what you wanted. So just make sure you’re communicating very clearly and you get what you’re paying for.
Damien: [Inaudible]
Sam: How much do [Indiscernible]?
Damien: Yeah.
Sam: Well, here’s – you know what? [Indiscernible] I will get into that when it’s my turn.
Ian: Well, there are some people that really know this stuff better than I do but I can tell you from my experience with pay, you can find somebody in the Philippines that you get for like $1.66 an hour. If you want to get somebody good, you probably want to pay him like $2.50, $3 an hour and then make them jump [0:03:10] [Indiscernible]. Give them tons of stuff and make sure that they do it on time and you can find them like on Elance, oDesk. There are a bunch of different places out there. It’s just a couple that they go and make sure that you give them a lead [0:03:26] [Indiscernible] and if they do the necessary things, then you can decide who [Indiscernible].
You basically want them to have 10 times more value than you’re paying or else it’s not even worth it because if you have to spend a lot of time telling them what to do all the time, then you’re wasting your time telling them what to do. So you just have to find someone that kind of thinks for you and knows whatever it is you’re looking for with SEO or whatever it is you want them for. You basically just want them doing admin …
Damien: Yeah. It’s more admin stuff. Basically a lot of like tasks to do [Indiscernible] these different questions. They put these pictures into this ebook or all of that sort of stuff there and just basically give them …
Ian: Editing.
Damien: Yeah, and I have a editor back home and [0:04:15] [Indiscernible] pictures and the logos, the banners.
Ian: So you just got to find somebody and find the right price point and there are a ton of good people out there but there are a ton of terrible people out there and you’re going to waste a lot of time trying to find them. But I think Sam probably has a really good [Indiscernible].
Neil: I’ve got 20 people that work with me pretty much fulltime all overseas. Sam obviously has more but what I’ve learned through the process is that there’s a hiring system and then once you hire them and then you got good people [Indiscernible] that’s actually doing the task and managing it, something like a hiring system [Indiscernible]. This is what I do.
Let’s just say I want to hire someone to do an admin task so I would go to Elance. OK? And what I would do in Elance is there are a few things that I do. I will post the job and tell them exactly what I want them, not too much in detail. I will post a project and then 15 to 20 people will come in and they will bid for the project, right? So what I do is – my intention is to find the right person so I will make a project private meaning I do not show the bids that people are placing. OK? And I will tell you why in a second. Only you can see the bids people are placing.
Of the 20 people [Indiscernible] OK? And the way I do it is you look at the rating system and every system has a rating system, right? No matter who you’re using. Elance has a star rating system. If it’s not five stars, dump it. Don’t even consider them. I’ve given too many people chances in the past and I know it’s a little harsh but you’re running your business. Time is important so don’t even worry about it.
After I go through that, I have four, five, six people. And you know what I will do? I will give all four, five of them the job, right? And I will tell them this. Look, here’s what I’m going to do. I’m willing to start a job for $50 for you. OK? I want someone to be in a continuous long term relationship but I’m willing to pay you $50 and here’s the task that I want you to do. Here’s what I do. I don’t tell them exactly step by step what to do. I will say, “Hey, you know what? I need this editing job done. Go and change the borders and the headers and do this and this is what I want.” And I let them go and do it.
Here’s what I’m looking for. In Elance, they will respond to you. I’m looking for someone that’s proactive and get [Indiscernible] done on time [0:06:45] [Indiscernible]. So if someone comes and does the job and gives me a crappy job, never asks me a single question, does not know how to do it, doesn’t know how to take the initiative to learn, then remove. Go. OK?
Someone who’s proactive takes the initiative. Sometimes when they ask the questions, I don’t even respond to them and the reason is I’m waiting for the person to come ask me a [Indiscernible]. I’m doing that to understand – to connect the kind of person that I want to work with. Sometimes I’m going to be busy. I want a really proactive, get it done, [Indiscernible]. Through the Elance system, I only pay them 50 bucks and what I’m doing is I’m paying 50 bucks to test the quality of the person. So you have certain parameters. The person with the best job, the person that delivers on time won. You’ve got a winner, right?
So then what you do is you start working with that person on a monthly basis or whatever the thing is, right? You pay them through Elance or you pay them outside the Elance system but the other two people, the other three people, if they’re really good, I just don’t let them go. I will give them a small task for 50 bucks or 100 bucks because sometimes, the relationship is only good after the third. People will do their best freaking job for you in the first week. That’s why they always …
Sam: The first day.
Neil: … [Indiscernible] second month, oh sorry [Indiscernible] I’m sick. I don’t have any lights. The electricity has blown off. The dog ate my homework and in the third month, you’re sending chain emails and they’re not responding to you, right? So I always keep a pipeline. I’m only paying 20 or 30 bucks of the pipeline but I’ve just got the psychological factor. It’s an evaluation system so I use it purely for evaluating and now I’ve got this pipeline of good people that I want to do. The person is good, is awesome, right? And then he [Indiscernible] and that’s a whole another discussion of how you do that.
So that’s how – it’s very high level. That’s a criteria I use for selecting people. I have got some amazing [0:08:50] [Indiscernible] system. If you’ve got good people working for you, then you ask them for referrals and they would be happy to tell you other good people [Indiscernible]. So that’s a second way I’m actually doing that.
Now the reason I ask you why I kept the pricing private, to answer the pricing question certainly. So now [Indiscernible] of who these people are that I want to work with. We’ve got them in the pipeline. The reason I keep the pricing private is I do not let other people see because if someone is bidding for a job, you want them to be in a long term relationship. It doesn’t matter. If they start bidding for the job, each one can see each other’s price point. They automatically value themselves. You know what I’m saying?
Instead of jumping from 50 bucks or pay them $300 or $400 a month, now they’re going to charge you 800 bucks a month because everyone is [Indiscernible] so what I do is I go and negotiate. OK? Yes, I’m Indian and I negotiate. All Indians negotiate and if you don’t negotiate, you’re not Indian, then something is wrong with you, right? And I can say that. I got away with it because I’m in Vegas. The sake bomb was good last night but here’s the most important thing. You’re not negotiating to be the cheapest [Indiscernible] right? You’re not doing that.
First what I do is that when someone says, OK, it’s going to cost me $50, [Indiscernible] for a small job. Then I will give this person an assignment and say, “Hey, look, you wanted 50 bucks. For the month, I’m going to give you 300 bucks or 400 bucks,” whatever the value is, right? But you want to make it a low price point because you really want to see how hungry this person is for the work and it kind of sounds strange. Like why wouldn’t you pay the highest price point? It’s not all about the money. Yes, they want the money and you want to pay them.
So I start at a low price point if the quality of the work is high because [Indiscernible] price points. If someone says, “I want 500 bucks,” I say, “You know what? I posted these 10 jobs. So now I just came up with 350 bucks. They got 10 times more experience than you. They get a five-star rating. I’m only going to pay you 400 bucks. Are you OK with this?” 99.99 percent of the time, they are totally OK with that. They have no idea.
So the reason I hide the thing is because I have negotiation. OK? And I can make any number and they will believe it. Obviously there are certain [Indiscernible] won’t work anyway, right? So you do not want to show the pricing for the jobs and I do that just to negotiate. If someone is really good and worth it, just in my sense working in India, Philippines, Pakistan, even working with people from Europe, in Germany and all that stuff and obviously this person is a really good person, someone really good, you’re looking at between 600 to 800 bucks a month. You know what I mean?
If you got someone working for 400 bucks a month and they’re really good, good for you but invariably, the quality is going to fall. We can’t really live at 400 bucks. You’re living hand to mouth. There’s no electricity because I had people cranking electricity and stealing electricity to put the computers on to do some work for them.
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Great input from Neil here. Very helpful post as I am thinking about hiring an assistant in next few months.