There has been a lot of buzz lately about overseas virtual assistants (specifically those in India and the Philippines). Although I do not necessarily consider these VA companies my competition, it does still strike a nerve. There are so many people still unemployed (my husband included) and looking for jobs. To see any U.S. business promoting the use of overseas workers just because they are cheap makes me a little disgusted. I know this practice won’t stop because some companies are just looking at their bottoms lines, but I was interested in hearing from companies who specifically chose to hire a U.S. based virtual assistant and learning why they did so and what their experiences were. Please pay particular attention to what Deborah Bailey has to say, because she is exactly right.
Here’s what they had to say:
My name is Deborah A. Bailey and I’m a writer, entrepreneur and author of “Think Like an Entrepreneur: Transforming Your Career and Taking Charge of Your Life” available on Amazon.com. I’m also the host of a talk radio show called Women Entrepreneurs Radio on blog talk radio.
I first used a VA when I started my radio show and I needed help scheduling guests. The VA I hired was based in St. Louis and she was a great help in my getting the radio show on the air and assisting me with blog posts, twitter, Facebook and setting up webinars and teleclasses. She also helped me later when I started using an online cart to sell my information products. It was a very successful partnership because she took on the tasks that helped me to focus more on my business. I feel that women entrepreneurs tend to take on too much and think we must do it all. But we can’t grow (or accomplish very much) if we don’t delegate.
I would only work with VA’s in the US because I believe in hiring people here first. As an entrepreneur I’m well aware of how important it is to have clients to sell my services to. If my potential clients don’t have money to spend because they don’t have jobs, then that impacts me as well. If we can circulate money here, then that can help someone else to be able to pay their bills and help put money into their community as well. I’d rather pay the money to have the job done the way I want it, and to be able to communicate with the person during my business hours. If I’ve invested time and money into my business, then I ‘d rather invest in support staff that have the knowledge, experience and expertise. It’s not about hiring the cheapest choice, but about hiring the best person for my business.
My name is Marjorie R. Asturias, and I’m president and founder of Blue Volcano Media, a Dallas-based boutique Internet marketing, SEO and content firm that specializes in helping small and medium-size businesses enhance and convert their website traffic. Ive been using an Arizona-based virtual assistant since February, and I couldn’t be happier. I found Tawny on oDesk.com and have since found her to be indispensable in the success and continued growth of my business. She started out doing basic administrative tasks, including creating spreadsheets and doing Internet research, but shes slowly learning more and more about the business and has really helped keep me organized and on top of all the different aspects of running my company. Shes so extremely organized, its scary. 
Some of the things she has accomplished for me in the relatively brief period of time shes been working here:
* organized our company’s participation in a small business expo/trade show in March, including locating printers for the
* banners
* located a graphic designer
* found the perfect person to be our SEO specialist
* organized all of our company-wide meetings and conferences
* spearheaded the organization of our complex pricing schedule (no longer complex, thanks to Tawny!)
…and so much more. I’ve hired overseas VAs before, and although they were also quite professional and relatively inexpensive, the time difference was just difficult to overcome (most of them didn’t or wouldn’t work all US hours). Also, as a growing business, I really need someone who can jump in and start taking ownership almost immediately of some of the more critical projects, and the learning curve was just a little too steep for the foreign VAs. I’m not much of a micro-manager, especially since were technically a startup, so I found it frustrating to have to check and double-check my foreign VAs work all the time. Tawny quickly understood my personal work style and knows exactly how I want certain things done, which is a huge blessing for someone like me who can sometimes live a little too much in my head. She and I are still adjusting a bit to how the whole VA thing works, but I’m quite happy with her performance thus far and am looking forward to expanding her responsibilities and hours as our company grows.
I hired a US-based VA to write titles and descriptions for about 100 posts on a blog that I run after it was moved to WordPress. I hired through Odesk and specifically looked for a US-based VA because of how poorly a non-US-based WordPress expert had done moving the blog from Go Daddy’s blog platform to WordPress. With no language barrier, the work went much more smoothly. The blog traffic has doubled, and the blog is producing twice as many inquiries as it did before the tags were redone. The blog that was redone is I-Tutor-English.com. I’m a private tutor in Wesley Chapel, Florida.
How has your life changed when using your virtual assistant?
Our life has changed immensely. When we finally decided to hire our first stateside VA 3 years ago we were drowning under daily repetitive tasks like customer service, tracking sales and invoicing (to name a few). Once we got our VA up and running we were no longer bogged down by mundane daily tasks but able to work on our business, not in it.
Did business improve?
Yes, our business greatly approved. We were able to not only launch new products and even a new business but our customers were happier because they were being gotten back to sooner and more efficiently. We also implemented
a ticketing system so that all customer service requests could be handled in
that matter and tracked for follow-up later. Our VA was key in setting this system up.
If so, by how much?
As mentioned above, greatly. We were able to grow our business and launch new products but we also were able to start new businesses and ventures. As working parents it also provided us more free time to be parents.
Why did you decide to go with a US-based virtual assistant, as opposed to an overseas assistant?
We have used and on occasion use offshore virtual assistants for certain tasks. However, we needed a stateside speaking virtual assistant who not only could speak English well but also understand the American mentality/etc. We also wanted someone who would be working in a similar timezone. Our current VA is 3 hours ahead of us on the East coast which
works out perfectly as she often has tasks completed before we even start our day but is also working during our own business hours for the most part so we can interact daily as needed.
What type of tasks do you find the best to outsource to your virtual assistant?
We outsource most of our daily repetitive tasks to our VA. Things like: customer service, sales tracking and customer follow-up, scheduling and some assistance with bookkeeping from an auditing perspective. She also pays some of our bills and tracks progress on some projects. We have also utilized her as a second set of eyes for new content, new products, and new websites. We don’t believe that VA’s are a good fit for “large project based” tasks or major implementation plans that are meant to “grow” your business. VA’s are great for maintaining your business. We actually utilize interns to grow our business and put them on project based tasks.
I have owned a small web design company (200 clients) for a little over 10 years. Most of my clients are in the professional services industry (coaches, authors, speakers, attorneys, financial advisors). In 2004 I had my first opportunity to work with a VA through one of my clients. She happened to be in Canada but after working with her a few months through our mutual client, I quickly realized how valuable a VA can be. In the years since, I have worked with at least a dozen VAs, in the US, Canada and a few other countries. I have found that US (or Canadian) VAs are best for the majority of my clients. The time zone issue is probably the biggest problem with working with VAs from other countries, not to mention the language barrier.
We have worked with VAs for simple administrative assistant tasks, event planning/coordination, sales and marketing, even hiring/firing for companies. Most often the VAs we work with help our clients with their technology needs (sending newsletters, setting up shopping carts, helping with blogging and social media, etc). Our clients find that VAs take less time to get up to speed than hiring an actual employee. With a VA you pay for only what you use (not stuck with someone on the clock even if there is no work to do), and VAs seem to “get” the challenge of running a small business better.
We continue to work with about half a dozen VAs with our current clients, and also have our own VA on staff to support our own company (as well as help our clients).
Tags: angela Nielsen, blue volcano media, deborah bailey, dreama lee, eric anderson, i tutor english, intern profits, marjorie asturias, One Lily, virtual assistant, virtual assistant industry