Barbara Turley is the founder of The Virtual Hub, an agency that pairs businesses with virtual assistants, and she’s an expert at delegation. Barbara has paired over 500 virtual assistants with companies and her team is over 240+ in the Philippines. In this episode, she pulls back the curtain on how it’s worked for her, and how it might work for you.
This episode is very helpful if you are building a remote company, are thinking about using virtual assistants, or have tried and failed to use VA’s in the past.
Key Points in the Conversation with Austin Brawner of Ecommerce Influence:
- How Barbara started her virtual assistants business
- Roles for VAs that often get overlooked
- Managing teams in different time zones
- Where to start when hiring virtual assistants
- Tools used to manage communication
- The importance of having a process before hiring
- Becoming a good delegator
- Barbara’s team structure
- Is there importance in connecting with a remote team in person?
- Building culture for a remote virtual assistant team
- How to not get burned from a VA experience
- Paying virtual assistants and economic considerations
- Where people get burned when building a company
- Why you need an operating system
- Hiring virtual assistants through word of mouth vs hiring process
Key Takeaways:
“Some people say, “Well, I really need help today, and I don't have any processes”. I go, well, that's okay, too, as long as you know that, and a VA can help you create processes and you can do it together as long as you realize that that's a collaborative thing that needs to happen in order for you to get the maximum return on investment of having a VA regardless of where the VA is”
“When hiring someone, you're not looking at the person’s skills. Skills are like the last thing you're looking for. You're looking for energy, enthusiasm, cultural fit, and an ability to train people - coachability and smarts, you can teach anything”