Episode 36: What is a VA

September 13, 2021

A Virtual Assistant or more specifically a Virtual Specialist could be exactly what you need in your business. Yet often, as business owners we don’t know when we should be looking for an outsourced specialist, or where to find one. Today our special guest Rosie Shilo, the Founder of Virtually Yours Network. She breaks down with us all things VA or VS, and explains the benefits that a VA can bring to your business and what support you may be able to tap into when you need it.

Podcast Transcript Available Here

Duration: 28:48

Sarah Eifermann: Welcome everyone to today's episode of Financial FoFu I'm Sarah Eifermann. Trudi Cowan: And I'm Trudy Cowan. Sarah Eifermann: And today we have a very special guest, Rosie Shiloh from Virtually Yours. Hi Rosie. Rosie Shiloh: Hey guys, how is it going? Sarah Eifermann: Good, now Rosie and I go way back, like a very long time. Rosie Shiloh: We met through a very very young though. Sarah Eifermann: We started early in the business. Rosie Shiloh: Yeah when we were like negative five. Sarah Eifermann: Exactly. Rosie and I met through a local business network a long time ago. As we've already mentioned, Rosie always intrigued me because she's got this amazing bubbly personality and she's a bit of a disrupter. Rosie, do you like to tell everyone what you do? Rosie Shiloh: I love that's the best intro ever in just one sentence. I actually run an online community for Australian virtual assistants and I do a lot of advocacy around the industry and talking to business owners about how to outsource and grow their business with virtual assistants. And I train virtual assistants on how to set their businesses up. Sarah Eifermann: Yeah. When did you start? Rosie Shiloh: 2004 Sarah Eifermann: And the industry didn't really even exist then though did it? Rosie Shiloh: It was really small and close you know it probably was probably more people out there than we could see but because the internet was still so limited at that point, Sarah Eifermann: You mean like it is right now. Rosie Shiloh: It's just in every inch of your life whereas back then, it just was. I feel like we need to put your music in now but dial-up internet sounds easy. Oh, yeah. So it was a lot harder to sort of really see in presence, and because you know the internet was crappy then, there's a lot less you could do in the industry, then. Trudi Cowan: It was more of those traditional ways of conducting business by a fax machine. Rosie Shiloh: I had a fax machine I had, you know what, you want to do something off track I'm really good with, this is disrupted land here, I had an issue with my fax machine. Oh no no I'm wrong, it was my printer, I had a mouse in my printer, which was hilarious because I'm not talking about the mouse that I use. Trudi Cowan: Like you had a real mouse in your printer? Rosie Shiloh: I had a real mouse that was trapped in my printer. I had to open up the printer and leave it out overnight with my cat in that room, but I also didn't want to print on a mouse. The real situation, that's what it was like back in the day people, that's what we had to contend with. Sarah Eifermann: Gives you meaning to the word flatline. We could tell bad jokes all day. Trudi Cowan: You two probably could, so Rosie tells us what actually is a VA. Rosie Shiloh: So virtual assistant, by my definition is a business owner who is working remotely providing business-to-business services. Trudi Cowan: Okay. And is there, I guess specific categories of services they do tend to provide, or is it a really broad range of things? Rosie Shiloh: It's super broad but to give you a bit of an idea about it we're looking at stuff like you know, some virtual assistants will specialize in supporting tradings, some will specialize in doing website development others in social media management, some will be bookkeeping, others will be in formatting Customer Care CRM management. Trudi Cowan: Very broad. Rosie Shiloh: Yeah, Trudi Cowan: So basically if you need a very broadly termed admin person, there's gonna be a VA out there for you. Rosie Shiloh: Yeah, exactly. I mean admin, it's funny, because admin has always been, you know, linked in there because it's always been a part of it, but there's so much now that I wouldn't classify as admin. You know podcasts management, it's not really, I mean it is admin but it's not how we would naturally innately think of the words. Sarah Eifermann: I mean every job role on the planet has some amount of administration, that is part of that job, but I think I think the way I view a virtual assistant is more perhaps the outsourcing of a traditional role that you would normally have employed someone in house to do that you may not be in a position, or you may not need those sorts of hours you only may need three to five or 10 hours a week as opposed to a full-time position. Rosie Shiloh: Add to that now if you're running that business and you thought, alright we actually need a specialist in here for this particular project. So we're going to look for a contractor. Yeah, so someone who's going to do the graphic design elements for us. Now, that still falls on the virtual assistant industry now. Trudi Cowan: Yeah, so it's super broad, yeah, yeah. Does the industry I guess have a definition of what they are or is it as you're sort of describing a very flexible moving. Rosie Shiloh: I think over the years, it was really narrow in terms of people. So, someone working from home providing business administrative virtual services to someone, you know, located elsewhere. And to me, I've been advocating for that not to be the definition for the last probably a decade to say that is, business to business services that can be provided remotely because there is so much that we can do, you know, anything that you ask for in your business if it can be delivered online, or it can be delivered in a way that well even if it's by post or fax. Sarah Eifermann: 1996 called they want their fax back. Trudi Cowan: We laugh at this too many government bodies that require things to be submitted by fax. Rosie Shiloh: I still have one upstairs. I think that tells us a lot, doesn't it? Trudi Cowan: All right, so we've kind of covered what the definition is, and a little bit about what they do, but what are the benefits of the VA? Rosie Shiloh: Oh that's so great because you can tap into any sort of help that you need now in your business. I know when I first started off, obviously I needed somewhat like a vet slash techie to help me with my printer issue. I could find someone now to guide me. You know the removal of said mouse and the CPR that would be required afterward. That will be delivered that way so you can tap into support as you need it, when you need it, which just reduces that fear of commitment and so financial and time commitment to having someone come in and help you with your business. So you can just keep moving forward and as you need help, and as you can identify areas where you shouldn't be working on things in your business because really you're going to be below par or you're going to be too slow or it's just not where you're making your money. Trudi Cowan: And time money is effective Right. Rosie Shiloh: Exactly. And so now we can tap into that so easily, and share our files and share ideas and communicate with each other with so many different, you know, software programs and systems, it's just fantastically you can do anything now there's really no excuse, to be honest. Sarah Eifermann: So it's a potentially a good way gap in the employment gap that people might be having either permanently or just temporarily? Rosie Shiloh: In terms of reword that for me. Sarah Eifermann: So it's a really good way for business owners that are stuck, and not sure how to move forward but know that they've got to do something to either bridge a gap in employment, not having to take on someone full time or part-time either whether temporarily until they look for somebody else or permanently potentially. Rosie Shiloh: Yeah yeah you're spot on. And, you know, some people will look for an employee, and now we're the one thing that's come out of what's going on in the world at the moment is that people are so much more open to even having employees working remotely working from home, which I think is so much better for so many people's mental health. Yeah, so they can do that but they can also which is not my area obviously but I love that because mental health, you know, to me it's just one of the main things about running your own business, and having access to that support is so that you can look after yourself. But yeah, you're right, you can go, Okay, well, there's no way that I can afford or can commit to this many hours for someone per week or in ongoing capacity but I know I need help now. And that's okay. Trudi Cowan: Yeah, and I think for a lot of people as well, especially when it's your first, I guess the employee that you're looking to take on it's quite a scary step so, it is almost a good testing of the waters. Sarah Eifermann: Yeah, to see if it's working or what you need to think about as a business owner as well. Yeah, because VAs are like, they're their own business owners, what's the structure that mainly is available, it's a contract, subcontracting, is it employment? Rosie Shiloh: Yeah, it's usually contracting, and they might have subcontractors on their team to make sure that you can get more support and assistance that they might not be great at or they give you more time or whatever it might be. But yeah, the structure, That's one of the best things about it is they are business owners so they get what it's like to run a business and they're not going to sit there and just wait for you to hand work over to them they're going to be proactive because they know that to run a business, you need to be proactive and you need to be streamlining things and you need to be looking for opportunities and that's one of the best things I think. But yeah, the setup is as a contractor and everyone's got a difference depending on what service they offer. It's different in terms of whether they do monthly, you know, retainers, or monthly outcome-based packages or single packages or hourly rates, it really depends on what works for both parties. Trudi Cowan: Which makes it work really well in terms of having flexibility around payment options and package options. Sarah Eifermann: It also means that the price that you're quoted is the price that you pay compared to an employee where you would then have supper, holidays yeah. Other work covers costs potentially on top so you sort of know from the get-go, what your financial outlay would be, which I suppose leads straight into our next question anyway, which is what does the VA get paid what sort of price range are we looking at? A lot of business. When I get asked about this stuff as a business strategist as I get a VA and they're like, What is that, how much is that gonna cost me that's always the first question. So, Rosie Shiloh: It's funny isn't it because they worry about what it's gonna cost them, and they very rarely look at what it's going to cost them to do it themselves and do not get what they need. And I think it's really important to look at what the return on investment will be when you think about what it's going to cost. So, making sure that you're really clear on what the goals are that you're trying to achieve and what that will be worth and factoring that into your budget is really important. But in terms of what it costs. It is so insanely broad and I see people out there charging as low as 25 An hour some talking about Australian-based virtual assistants. Trudi Cowan: 25 an hour, that's cheap. Rosie Shiloh: It's too cheap. I've done the math on it and the problem with that. And you know the VAs that are charging that low probably get crossed with me but they do need to increase their rates because they're not going to be able to invest in the right software, insurance, and networking, to make sure that they stay around for the long haul and so they need to be really looking at what do I need to be charging to make this business viable and to make it so that I can provide the best service possible to my clients. So the VAs, on average, I'm finding most VAs charging between 50 and 60 an hour, but it can be above, it can be below that, but I think if you factor in that. And then if people go oh but that's so much, just think about as I said before, what's it going to cost you to do it yourself. Yeah. Remember, if you find someone who's a specialist in what they do, they do it very quickly, and also it's a really good idea just to get happy traits wherever possible when you're clear on what you want. Yeah, because $50 an hour is no different from $25 an hour if you don't know how many hours it's going to take. Sarah Eifermann: You took the words out of my mouth because I sense that like if you were to put on an employee and then have to train them. Yeah, it's probably going to take you three to five times longer anyway, then if you got somebody else to just do it, who knew what they were doing in the first place. Trudi Cowan: Or you do it yourself and do it wrong, and then What's it cost you, in the long run, to have it not done correctly. Rosie Shiloh: Exactly, and you know if you're a business owner, you need to understand that and you know you need to kind of get over yourself and I think it's really important. That we really kind of pander to it, don't worry, you guys have empowered me today and we'd like to, you know, it's gonna be expensive and I don't know if I can do a blah blah blah. Well, you're trying to run a business, yes. Sarah Eifermann: I mean it goes back to the stuff that we always talk about right if you've done a budget and a cash flow, and your business plan, you should know exactly what you're going to need to spend and when you're going to need that to get the optimal growth that you're looking for. And if you haven't planned for that you're not doing it right in the first place because the business plan is a mindset, not a piece of paper that sits on the shelf. And so even for your VAs, it's the same thing right, they've got a plan for sustainability and scalability as business owners do, and getting all the different tools that they need, the right people in the right places to help them achieve that in the fastest possible way. Rosie Shiloh: Yeah, yes, my language. Trudi Cowan: We've also spoken about that no one person can do everything. Yeah, no one has the knowledge or the skills to do everything. Sarah Eifermann: What are you trying to say? Trudi Cowan: Sarah, you can't do it all alone. It sounds like VA is a great way to help build that team around you to fill those skills gaps that you don't have personally. Rosie Shiloh: Yeah, and that's another really good point is don't build your team to have replicas of yourself you need to figure out what the gaps are and, perhaps. Sarah Eifermann: Yeah, completely. So we've talked about the benefits, what are the potential pitfalls, or things that business owners need to be concerned about. Rosie Shiloh: Yeah so I think, you know, as we touched on this before if they're not charging enough, you know, will they be around for the long haul, if you need them to be hanging, you know, hanging out with you and supporting you and your business, but making sure that you do communicate really well is one of the first things because your business is your business baby and you need them feeling really comfortable to communicate with them about where you want to go with it. What do you want to achieve with it? So communication and being really open about what your goals are is really important. I think that also just you know, checking out a, I need a VA can anyone help me on social media strategies in the universe. Trudi Cowan: I think we've all seen it done though. Rosie Shiloh: Oh, every single day. It's intense. And it's like, well hang on will you be short on time or money or bars because now you're going to be shorter on both because then you've now 873 responses to go through yeah you. Trudi Cowan: So, you know, so how should we look for a VA then? Rosie Shiloh: Well, I highly recommend that you go through the Virtual Yours Network. Trudi Cowan: So, tell us about the network then and how that benefits people. What Sarah does is she brings Rosie and she sends me the names. How does the network work? Can we search for particular skills that we're looking for? Rosie Shiloh: Yeah, so we've got on the Virtual Yours Network is obviously virtual assistants who are, they're part of membership so they're investing in their business they're investing in themselves and I think that's a really great indicator right there and the fact that they belong to a community of their peers shows that they've got a really good mindset. So the job is like when you come to us and you say you know we've got a forum on our website that asks you a few questions. We did have someone actually a little while back that rang us and said, I don't want to have to answer all these questions. I just want someone and we'll pass on that one. And it's not even a lot of questions, it just gives us enough so that we're not getting people to respond to you who don't have the skills and service that you need. My favorite ones are ones where they actually fill out the form with full-on personality in there so they really just go with their brand and that way they're getting responses that are, they can see clearly from the responses of our members who would be a good fit and who's paying attention. So they would get contacted by our members usually by the software programs often email initially so it's not too onerous, and then they can look at those, our membership has about 130 members so you won't get inundated with responses because they all have different skill sets, so you only hear from the ones that have the skills that you need and they know that I can see their responses so they won't apply unless they should be applying, and we can kind of get those responses so if you want to have a bit more of a conversation with any of them definitely look at you know have some sort of zoom call or something where you're seeing them and hearing them and having that conversation to see if it's a good fit, and then try them out, just give them something small to work on to start with, see whether the communications there, whether the understandings there and the style of work works for you, and then build up from there. Trudi Cowan: And I think that's a really important point as well that if you're going to take on a VA it needs to be someone that you are comfortable with and happy to communicate and chat with and that you sort of speak the same language. In respect. Sarah Eifermann: I feel like the name needs to be changed from VA to VS a virtual specialist. Rosie Shiloh: I like that. Sarah Eifermann: Because like you said VA is so general and broad these days and it's not really an assistant, it's somebody that said that there are specialists within their own skill set. Rosie Shiloh: I love that because with offshore we get a lot of confusion between onshore and offshore and they're quite different. Offshore is tends to be more assistant, so they are, you know, getting directives and following, you know what you've asked them to do which is great, but I find that onshore is more the specialist, more taking control of the outcome for you and guiding you to where you need to go to get to where you're trying to go, that's Yeah, Sarah Eifermann: So for some of our listeners that may not know what the difference between onshore and offshore is. Do you want to? Rosie Shiloh: Sure. Also when I talk about onshore and offshore it's very, very broad so let's work that out. So, every country has virtual assistants in it and the culture and style of work are different from country to country. But what we found generically speaking is that you're going to have similar pricing across most of the English-speaking countries, and then when you go to places like India and the Philippines, you're going to have a lot cheaper options there. But the style of work tends to be quite different and this is very generic it's not true for everybody because some of those virtual assistants, are really high end on, really, you know, doing fabulous things, but most of the time you'll find that they are working as a part of a company, and they get allocated as a staff member to you, and they work you know a certain number of hours per week for you. And usually, you know, following the directions you'll lay out what you want them to do each week and they'll just follow that and they'll go ahead, it's less, less likely that they will be saying, you know, coming to you with ideas and strategies around how to grow your business, because they just don't leave you they don't know the business culture and what the opportunities are here, and that the pressure is on Australian VAs to make sure they are doing that because they differentiate and show with what I'm worth. Sarah Eifermann: Yeah, so it's employee replacement, but versus business support. Rosie Shiloh: Yes, perfectly said yes, yeah, yeah, yeah. Sarah Eifermann: So going from that then I suppose that sort of answers again what the benefits of VA are. Trudi Cowan: Yeah and I think every answer has given us the benefits. Sarah Eifermann: How to find the right VA but then, when do you look to get a VA, when is the right time? Rosie Shiloh: Yeah. As soon as possible, I think, but you need to know where you want to go. If you don't know what it is that you're trying to achieve, and you're just kind of floundering and all over the place, you probably need a coach. Trudi Cowan: I did not set Rosie up to say that. You're actually mimicking things that I normally say. But it's true, how can you employ a VA to fill a skills gap if you don't actually know what that gap is and what the tasks are you're going to use them for. Rosie Shiloh: Exactly so many people go, I need to be extra, I don't have enough time and it's like, well they're not going to make time for you unless you know what it is that they're going to be doing. So, you can't measure the success of what they're doing. Unless there's a goal that you're striving for and, like, that's when you get resentment you get three months down the track, you're like, Well, why am I paying this bill, yes they're doing that stuff but I could do it myself, blah blah blah. And yeah, talk yourself out of it because you actually can't see what's working and what's not. Trudi Cowan: Because you've got nothing to measure it against like you just said, yeah, and at the same time your bank account balance may be going down. Yes, you're paying for it. You're not seeing the tangible outcome that goes with it. Rosie Shiloh: That's right because the strategy is not there. Correct. Sarah Eifermann: So have you got anything else that we, our questions may not have covered any tips or things to consider or any other lovely things you'd like to share. Rosie Shiloh: Sure. I think it's good to know that you can have more than one virtual assistant because obviously, I recommend more they specialize in what they do when you know we know in business, you've got to do 782 different things, but also if you hate if you're not a payment manager, that's gonna be a problem and having any kind of contractor on board or staff on board or whatever system you go with is going to be a problem if you're not a good manager and a lot of people suck at it. So there are actually virtual specialists who change my talk my lingo, who are called online business managers and they will manage your team, so they will be like right-hand assistants. Sarah Eifermann: Should see Trudi's face right now. Rosie Shiloh: And it's their job to make sure everybody doesn't want to beat some balls, and they're also someone who will, You know, give you a little bit of a smack if you get off track and you're not doing what you need to be doing. Trudi Cowan: So there's the accountability there as well which is really where a lot of area owners get stuck as well. Rosie Shiloh: Yes, I think when you're looking for a VA the ones that stand out are the ones that give you the accountability where they just go, what are you doing, why haven't you done this, You know you need to do this today, and with a smile but at the end of the day they slapping you around a bit because they know that you want to get somewhere and you're paying them for their service. It's like going to a doctor where they just go do what you want, do what you know Sarah Eifermann: If you don't achieve anything though, what's the purpose? Rosie Shiloh: Exactly, so you know if you're not great at managing people and managing projects then that's another service that VA can offer you need to find the ones that love managing those projects and love communicating because also, HR is an element there, you can ask the HR side to them and go again you can deal with the people please because I like everyone and I want everyone to like me, but true. We call them online business managers, usually they're pretty tough. So, you know, they know how to manage that. Trudi Cowan: Right. It sounds like we all need to go and get a VA. Rosie Shiloh: And start outsourcing, you stop working for yourself. Other people can do this and it's really addictive, it's awesome. Trudi Cowan: But I think first we all need to go and sit down and write that list of the things that the assistant can actually assist us with. So we can go and find that right person. Rosie Shiloh: And I can give you two things for your audience to help them with that. So one of them is simply 123 things that you can outsource to a VA so you can look through and get some ideas and the other thing is, I can give you a couple of preview chapters, I've got a book called The Outsourcing Secret. And so I can give your audience a sneak preview into that and that guides them through that process. Yeah, Trudi Cowan: Yeah wow fabulous. Everyone make sure you download those resources. Sarah Eifermann: We'll put them up on the website and then you can get them straight off that, that's financialfofu.com.au Trudi Cowan: Perfect, yeah. Well, I really enjoyed listening to Rosie again. My main point that I wanted to say was there may be a grace period as well when you take on a VA, you probably want to or a VS you probably want to have a little bit of time available to spend with them because I don't know your business. And it's really important to get the best out of both worlds is so you can actually invest and answer their questions and the first person may not be the right person for you so that's another benefit of using a network like virtually yours because you can just ring Rosie and say this isn't working out and try and try a new one. Sarah Eifermann: Yeah, or is it me, because sometimes it can be you because business owners really like to hold the rings really tight. Trudi Cowan: They don't like to delegate. I know that. Sarah Eifermann: Yeah so, I mean there could be a bit of that as well so I've loved having you on. It's been an absolute pleasure. Rosie Shiloh: I have absolutely loved this. Sarah Eifermann: It breaks the monotony of the day. Awesome. So, I will put the links in the episode description for Virtually Yours and pop them up on the website as well, and if anyone's got any questions they can come straight to chat with you. Rosie Shiloh: Yeah, lovely, thank you so much. Sarah Eifermann: Thanks for coming today Rosie, it's been a pleasure. Rosie Shiloh: You're welcome. Trudi Cowan: Right for the pregnant pause. Sarah Eifermann: So that's all we've got for today if anyone has any questions, feel free to shoot them through. Trudi Cowan: Thanks, everyone. Sarah Eifermann: Cheers Rosie Shiloh: Bye. Trudi Cowan: Bye

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