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I am wondering what the three biggest challenges have been during your search and subsequent hiring of VAs. Also, is there anything in particular that you absolutely refuse to hand over to someone else?
Thanks for the inspiration Tim. :)
Warmly,
Tina
@Diana:
The three biggest challenges when hiring VAs:
1. Letting go of micro-managing and being willing to let the small bad things happen in the beginning. It's all part of the process.
2. Firing VAs upon which you become semi-dependent if they stop performing. It's hard to do, but it's like a band-aid -- faster is better. It's not that hard to find replacements.
3. Shifting from a "per hour" mindset to a "per project" mindset. Someone who costs $20/hour might be cheaper than someone who costs $5/hour if they take 1/4 the time or do great work with fewer mistakes. Look at the cost per completed project or per week, not just per hour.
Hope that helps!
Tim
Thanks again for sharing what you do. It makes the process much easier.
Are you saying that if you have multiple e-mail accounts it is best to use gmail?
I think I will implement this and then just have one ultra personal e-mail address for my partner, parents and close friends which as you say will remain pretty much empty.
I'll be sharing this post with my clients and the VA's that work for me.
best regards
Gavin Allinson
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Thanks for the comment, Gavin. I'm not saying that Gmail is best, necessarily, but that it is perfectly effective if you are using multiple accounts to firewall your attention and prevent commingling of trivial vs. important e-mail. Hope that helps!
Tim
Hey, what happened to your 4-hour workweek?
Do you invest your money to let it work for you? (I make $thousands working just 2 hrs/month managing my investment portfolio.)
I'm enjoying your book and plan to review it on my website soon.
###
Good question. It comes down to what "work" refers to. It's different in the title of "The 4-Hour Workweek" and "work" in "work hours" here. In the book title, I'm referring to things people would rather spend less time on. That generally means financially-driven work that is boring or excessive.
In the case of "work hours," I simply mean "active hours" when I'm working on projects of various types, whether that's dissecting Hebrew (coming soon), doing national- or international-level educational work (www.litliberation.org), or simply available for phone calls from my assistant.
The 4-Hour Workweek isn't about being idle -- it's about doing more of what you want to do. In my case, those projects are pursued in what I referred to as "work hours," and I use that label just because no one would understand "active hours," even if it's more accurate :)
Hope that helps,
Tim
Have Fun out There....
Jose Castro-Frenzel
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Hi Seb,
I use referrals and client feedback (on sites like www.elance.com) to weed out the incompetents, then it's a matter of watching performance over the probationary period. It's closer to "conditioning" than training, in the sense that you want to see a continual improvement curve as they learn from trial-and-error what your preferences and rules are. If they're not 80-90% there after two weeks, I move on to someone else.
Hiring is hiring. I encourage anyone looking to find a good VA to read how good HR people recruit good workers. Look at articles about Google or Southwest hiring.
Good luck!
Tim
Although, if I were in a high profile position, and if my email account got to the point of 50 a day, I would implement these.
###
LOL... snarky is fine. If the errors were in the article body before the "rules," I take full responsibility. I ain't no real journalist, to be sure. BUT, if the errors were in the "rules" themselves, they were mostly written by the VA in herself. So if you found any errors therein, you understand why I recommended she and her sub-VAs read The Elements of Style, no? :)
Well played, sir,
Tim
Thanks for the heads up on the Seth Godin call! The last two people who borrowed my copy of The Dip quit their jobs about a month later and are living much happier lives (no more 50 hour work weeks or living in hotels).
Great template for dealing with a VA. For now, I work in the banking world and there are rules governing behaviour, so I am not allowed to communicate with clients from a non-work account, for example. I also tend to use my work email for personal emails to family and close friends, since outside of the working day I do not want to be answering email.
I have a full time assistant here, who helps me with research. He is bright. But I don't want my personal emails going to him.
Do you have any ideas for someone in my situation that would meet the following criteria:
1) Don't want my assistant dealing with my personal email
2) Don't want to be dealing with personal email in the evening because that's family time, highly valued.
3) Need to be able to access personal email from work, and in my environment most web-enabled mail programs (gmail, etc) are blocked by the IT department.
I've just started with Getfriday and am working with one guy there. Since you use many VA companies, can you tell me what you still delegate to Getfriday exclusively?
last one: Why tim@XXXX instead of info@XXXX if people know they're not actually emailing you personally?
be well,
Bill
Seems that'll just result in people spamming him by phone rather than by email, wouldn't it.
It's kinda funny that for me, I treat phone&email almost the opposite of what he does. All phone calls go to voicemail; while all emails to my (non-spam) email account are dealt with within a few hours. If I get a voicemail that needs action, I email myself a summary of it.
If I had an assistant, I'd have them send me email summaries of my phone calls rather than voicemail summaries of my email.
Totally agreed about his multiple-email-addresses to pre sort email, tho.
What you need to include is where can I, first, find an assistant?
###
Hi Justin,
Please check out the links at the bottom of the post, as well as the two in the post on "personal outsourcing." Those will get you started, and you can find someone for $5-10/hour.
Thanks!
Tim
This is one of my favorite posts that you have put up recently... very good information, thanks for sharing the results of your experiment. Also, I notice certain patterns in your blogging style and frequency… When are you going to post your experiment results about blogging? :)
It was hilarious to see all the Digg people griping because you were on the Front Page! I love it when you stir the pot like that... reminds me of when I was reading the controversy about 4HWW on Amazon last year right after I read the book for the first time. Brilliant.
Erik
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Thanks, Eric. I'm continually amazed at the volume of griping online -- it's great fuel for the fire, regardless. Here is the first thing I've learned online: if you have anything remotely worthwhile to say, some people will love you and some people (very vocal people) will hate you for it. Par for the course, and I'm down to play :)
Tim
And give me email all day long over phone calls. Just a few reasons:
1. If you can't clearly convey it in writing, then I'm likely uninterested.
2. I can read/review on my schedule, not yours.
3. I can reply on my schedule, not yours.
4. Urgent matters can be text messaged with some note that I need to call immediately. Then I'll call and put out a fire if necessary.
But that's me. And my life is boring. I'm no Tim Ferris!
"We are not if or when Tim will offer the PX Method for sale, but there are no plans at this time. "
should read
"We are sure not if or when Tim will offer the PX Method for sale, but there are no plans at this time."
###
Doh! Thank you. I'll get it fixed.
Tim
I'm American (yank), but spent 3 years off & on traveling the world after college. The stories I could tell- my, my- no one would ever believe me. The surf, the girls, the parties, the comedy, & the pictures to prove it...
Even if I never did nothing again, I'd still have "lived a million lives". It's hard for most people to comprehend that, but oh well.
Just wanted to say thanks for blogging & the tips. Much appreciated man.
:)
Probably why every exec in the world does this.
And A pda w/o wireless sync? what is this, 1994? Go buy a blackberry already.
I've seen your book around and I've heard great stuff about it, but I thought you'd like to know that after reading this post, I'm going to order your book right away to see what else you have to say. Thanks, for the valuable insight and information you provide.
###
I'd love to visit Israel! It's definitely on my list. I'll keep you posted... :)
Toda,
Tim
I am by no means a computer expert and have just seen the value that Apple offers to its clients. Their machines are cool, I use both Windows and Max OS X on it. Anyhow, i am still digesting this blog. Piece by piece I am understanding it.
Enjoy LIFE......
Jose Castro-Frenzel
ps. Any seminars coming up in the N.E. anytime soon?
Just want to say thanks for your overwhelming generosity. Seriously. My partner and I read the book recently and it added structure to what we've been working toward for the last 6 months. July last year i hauled myself out of a 24/7 3continent job (which I loved, but was undeniiably addicited to!), and we are now focussing on elimination automation et al!
I have recently tried outsourcing some stuff to rentacoder, and had 2/3 bad experiences so I am going to take you up on some of the other companies you mention in the book and here on the blog.
I hate answering emails... it is like a slow painful death for me, so I will be heading down this path soon.
You mentioned that you had a process for how to deal with the emails. What I see here is a whole bunch of rules. Is this list somthing you started when you took your VA on, and just keep adding to? Or is there anothe document that you're hiding somehwere. If this is it, I'm willing to give it a shot and start from the top and work my way down. Give me freedom any day of the week.
As for all the typos comments: crumbs! Isn't that your whole point? No-one is going to die over a typo!!
Anyhow... cheers, thanks for the roadmap, thanks for the inspiration, and bring on salsa in Cuba!
Cheers,
joey
If all you are doing is sending back an item list to your assistant then cutt the email all together and send the list to your VA's email with jott! It is an amazing tool that i use all the time to send people email and notes when I dont want to either text them or send them an email. All you do is call jott and your message gets transcribed and can be sent to anyone on your list or a telephone number as a text.
its as simple as that. I would also recommend jott to anyone out there who wants to remember things but doesnt want to constantly have to take notes. You could even Jott to your VA and have them put it on your calendar ;)
AMAZING post!
###
Hi John,
Thanks for the kind words! I love Jott, and this is a great alternative. I just find that typing it out forces me to be clear in my instructions, but Jott could work really well as a sub and prevent getting caught in the inbox. Good suggestion.
Mahalo,
Tim
ciao
I receive many reader' questions via email (plus comments on my blog) and I'm having a hard time keeping up. I love the community that my blog is generating and I really want to respond to readers. Any tips from you, Tim (or his VA)? Thanks!
Best
Jose Castro-Frenzel
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Hi, Jose. Twitter is fun to play with thus far. I'm not really using it for "updates" as much as either notifications in real-time to those who care, or invitations (like last week's invite to see "There Will Be Blood" with me). I set it up primarily for last-minute invites and notifications for those who might want to grab a drink with me or do something cool I learn about at the 11th hour.
Tim
I have a gaming keyboard (Logitech G15) with a built-in stopwatch that I use to make sure I only spend 2 minutes per e-mail (as per Gettings Things Done) - else it goes onto my TODO list to be prioritized normally.
For real productivity geeks, check out Steve Pavlina's excellent article on Time Logging:
http://www.stevepavlina.com/articles/triple-you...
This requires more discipline (but less money!), but can help you find the sweet spot where you work the least and get the most done (and can show you where your bottlenecks/outsourcing-targets are).
-Charlie
One question, do I set an autoresponder so that people know that I am away from e-mail and that an assistant will deal with it?
Kavit
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Hi Kavit,
Good question and congrats! I don't currently have an autoresponder on my personal email, as few people have it, and those who do know my policies. My assistant does have an e-mail autoresponse, which not only sets expectations for responses but also indicates that -- due to volume -- it isn't possible for us to respond to certain types of e-mail. If I travel, I will put an autoresponse on mine as well.
Good luck!
Tim
Brilliant, as usual Tim.
I use the stopwatch in my keyboard (Logitech G15) to make sure I'm sticking to the Getting Things Done 2-minutes-per-email rule. As soon as I'm making enough money to justify the amount of time I'm spending on my inbox, I'm adopting your system.
If you're really into this stuff, you might want to check out this article on "time logging" but Steve Pavlina:
http://www.stevepavlina.com/articles/triple-you...
Both Tim and Steve's approaches to decreasing time without losing productivity are blowing my mind. Keep up the great work guys!
-Charlie
http://www.kirbywallace.com/KirbyWallaceIndex.a...
Will that do?
Read your book, Awesome. You a Cool MF too.
Hired my first VA, $5 hr (India) Elance
Stopped answereing E-mail
Got rid of my Cell Phone.
We are kinda the same, I've been Traveling abroad to Thailand,Cambodia, Hong Kong,Macou, Shenzhen China, Canada for the last 3 years. Staying in Each place for a Month or Two. Each place I go I set up shop and start an Import Export while I'm there. It's Awesome. Some how I make so much more money overseas than in AMERICA it's CRAZY!
You see I know what you really do...
Travel the world and Meet Women.....at least that's what I DO!!
Keep up the Good Work
- Alex S. 27 Bethesda, MD
Having a VA to handle emails meants he/she has access to my inbox, read highly sensitive/critical info. Are you suggesting that we can trust a stranger with our mail contacts, bank, loan info?
Thanks for the advice.
If you're really concerned you can always set up a seperate e-mail address that just has the personal stuff. I'm doing that for my partner, parents, and key clients so that I'll just be answering those e-mails.
If you don't want to do that, i don't think much sensitive financial info is ever sent via email anyway not from banks anyway, I always have to go and login somewhere else.
Gavin
Hey Tim, it struck me as odd that you'd go for the lowest end PDA available rather than a Tungsten E. Wondering if you can shed some light on your choice in this PDA, other than the fact that it is a hundred bucks cheaper? Thanks.
Also, have you read the Zen To Done ebook? http://www.zenhabits.com/. It's something you may find quite valuable. A mix of David Allen's GTD and some new tweaks.
Cheers from Portland, Oregon
###
Hi Adam,
It was the only PDA I could find that would give me syched calendar and contacts without Internet access! I don't want a live inbox in my pocket. Too tempting to procrasterbate with :)
Hope that helps,
Tim
Just wanted to say GREAT JOB on detailing out the instructions/rules for your VA's. I operate an outsoucing company providing VA's and Bookkeeping using QuickBooks. I have to say, since the release of your 4HWW Book it has really brought awareness for the need of a VA's for small to medium business.
Also wanted to comment on your post regarding "Time without Attention is Worthless"...you nailed it!!!
~ Todd
I love it. :-) (And so does my wife. :-)
I loved the 4HWW and have put a lot of it to use in my life.
And... I really enjoy this blog. This is the first time I
got a KILLER hint from a comment. SO...
Tim you are building a community beyond yourself that is great. :-)
I am enjoying experementing with my own living style. :-)
Thank you.
Tom
Now just to deal with the emotional addiction aspects ...
Question: one of your rules involved email templates set up in gmail. I've given my team a document of templates but it would be nice to just have them all in one place. How are you approaching this with gmail? (drafts? google docs?).
###
Man, you'd have to ask my VA! I would be apt to have them in drafts, which is what I do with personal templates.
Tim
what about people working for you? Do they find your suggestions useful? Do they follow your 4-hour workweek rules?
I haven't read your book yet, I'm going to order it now!
Many compliments,
Valerio
Yes, it does take some time to work out the kinks with your VA but it can be done. When it is done you have an efficient machine answering and sizing up potential sales for you without you having to do anything. Then you will be able to go after only the most promising leads. Product question leads should be fairly linear and follow up emails can be answered by someone who has a good business op tree and can be forwarded along once the questions escalate.
As long as you have the mentality that you are the only one that can run your business because you are the only one that can run it right. Then you will always be the one doing everything with no free time on your hands.
I would recommend reading Tims book!
Ciao!
No email... means increase in snail mail and phone conversations, which REALLY suck!
###
Hi Georgio,
That was written by one of my assistants, as indicated. That's why I asked them to read it :)
Tim
January 22nd, 2008 at 8:31 am
If you have an assistant you are either very lucky, or up the food chain of the corporate world. With that in mind, you probably can get access to a personal email account on your work PC. You probably have more political clout then you think.
1) Make friends with the IT guys to find out what the magic form is that 'God's 3rd level assistant' needs to sign to get around the GLBA/Sox issues and allow special dispensation for you to access email outside the tower of babel (I am assuming from every other corporation, especially Financial services company I have seen).
2) If that does not do the trick, try getting a corporate laptop for travel (also for remote access from home, disaster recovery/planning to be able to work remotely in the event of a disaster-see the disaster recovery plan for your organization for how to play this one). You need to be able to access your work from on the road, and they are often more open for Internet.
3) Talk to some of the geeks around the office or the company (but not directly in charge of IT lockdown of security) to find out what Anonymizer websites (here is your 1st ones - www.anonymizer.com, http://www.answers.com/topic/anonymous-remailer) you can get to.
4) There is a service that can email you a webpage (free) when you send an email - not exactly browsing, but might meet your needs.
5) Drop the $400-800 for a laptop, and $100 for a Sprint card for Cell Internet - This has finally become a viable solution for many - http://nextelonline.nextel.com/NASApp/onlinesto...
. The monthly is $60 for unlimited, but keep an eye on the market, it just shifted with unlimited voice plans coming out from 3 vendors this past week. Helio is another one to take a look at.
6) Get a Blackberry or iPhone with Internet access and use that for your personal email accounts.
7) See if all the instant messaging programs are locked out. Many of them are configurable to be able to get around firewalls and standard blocking. Again, look to the young geeks in the area that are happy or productive - they probably already figured it out. You can forward your email to them and then work through that.
8) Try a program like LogMeIn.com (go a little slow in the menu, there is a permanently FREE version, not trial version) that lets you work your home PC from the office. That lets you solve a lot of different problems at once. Of course if you need some of the extra capabilities your can get the paid version, it is pretty cheap. There are a variety of programs/websites like this that allow remote access to your home computer with just a browser access (from work, from a starbucks, from a cruise ship). A guy I know used it to continue client support while dragging his family through Poland.
By the way I have been using multiple accounts segmented by the different parts of my life for years. While I am still spending way to much time reading email -hence the reason for reading the blog after the book to start shifting my life - it helps a lot in shifting from project to project. Toughest part is getting the habit to check all projects on a regular basis.
I hope there is a solution in there somewhere that your can implement.
February 5th, 2008 at 5:14 pm
I think what Tim is saying, and has been true in my world, is the easier it becomes for people to throw communication (email, word processing, voice mail) around, the more communication that gets thrown around. And most of the time there is not a corresponding increase in value to the increase in communication.
For example, this particular blog and its extensive comments could probably be boiled down to half or a third. If someone took the time to really write and edit it. I am not saying this to be mean, just stating my opinion. But, by making it easy to throw a lot of information around allows for new ideas, and more ‘noise’. Of course the art of (living, managing your job, managing your life, managing others) is optimizing the ‘signal to noise’ ratio. And my signal may be your noise. Going back to John's comment, any communication is communication. But, certainly a lot of the communication being emailed is CYA (cover your assets), and ‘will you do for me, what I won’t do for myself’ – or noise to many. And since people do not perform much editing on what is written in most emails, it tends to have more noise then other forms of communication.
Just look at how well this comment is not written in communicating the points I was trying to make.
Or - This comment could be an example.
It's main aim is to reduce inbox chaos, by transforming emails into tasks, prioritising them, categorising emails/info/files into projects and generally reconstructing your inbox as a highly efficient personal database. It is even benefical for teams. The website also has some general tips on common woes with email, and how to address them.
Thanks!
Barbara Langer
Director of
Asistencia-Virtual.com
That's fine. Please just indicate the source and link to this post. Thx!
Tim
Email outsourcing does not necessarily outsource the ones that are personal in nature or require your expertise but many emails are standard in nature and require standard responses. It does not have to be all or nothing and you do not have to lose the personal touch.
Terri Carey
Virtual Assistant for Coaches
Have a nice week and thanks again!
Barbara Langer
Asistencia-Virtual.com
Came across this one tonight just browsing your blog. Love the post, any tips for training a VA to think like me? One of the issue's I have had with my VA is that his emails sound foreign sometimes, otherwise he is great, but I have had a hard time having him send emails or make phone calls on my behalf because of it.
I was just thinking that you should right a tactical outsourcing book. Detailed guidance, strategies, tactics, and implementation steps for outsourcing anything.
For high end support like executive assistants and email managers, where have you found your best ones? (Best country, Best VA website, Best VA company)
Your blog rocks big time. You are changing so many lives every day. Keep up the great work!
Thank you!
This company hires all American college educated assistants who are living in Israel. Because the economy is not so great over there for those who do not speak the language, this company has been able to find an incredible group of assistants. All have local US phone #s, through VOIP and my clients do not even know where she is calling from. I love the time difference. Both my assistants work late into their nights. So I have coverage in CA until 3:00PM and when I give them projects in the evening my time, iit is their morning - so they are done when I wake up.
My one assistant used to be the Personal Assistant for one of the top guys at Goldman Sachs and my other used to be an account at Deloitee & Touche. They have been able to significantly give me the ability to work on only those things that I can do. DELEGATE DELEGATE DELEGATE - is one of the things that I learned from Tim Ferris. Contacting them is the easiest way to start getting closer to that four our work week we are all striving for. Feel free to e-mail me with questions about Secretary in Israel. I am a big fan because it has changed my business.
The VA industry has come along way since you wrote your first book. We are now in 2009 and readers are still inspired enough to leave comments on your original blog. This is an amazing testament to your vision.
I wanted to thank you for being so inspirational. My business has grown out of the demand for VA's that your book, articles and blogs have helped generate. We are probably the first VA recruitment agency worldwide.
What are the major changes that you have seen over the past 12 months?
I've always thought using web-based mail, linked into my Outlook and Mac Mail, would allow me to access e-mail wherever I found myself. Seems that's part of the problem, wanting to always be in touch with e-mail.
When you use your own Outlook or Mail, don't you need an outside provider? Maybe you don't.
I use email like a database and often go back into past years to find stuff. Problem is, every year it seems to grow exponentially. How do you archive email, and back it up so it can be easily accessed?
Part of the problem is I'm sort of an email pack rat. But it's my digital diary, sort of.
Why don't you have an iPhone?
i tried to order PX method several times during the past 9 months but failed every time. is there some place or web site i can get a copy?
Like everything else I've read here, this was awesome and inspirational! Thank you!
A friend shared your book with me a week ago, I am now following you on Twitter, and I am inspired by your time-work vision. I have been trying to change education as a teacher for 15 years with a Pepperdine master's degree in Ed Tech, been a real estate broker for 5 years to fund life, work about 80-90 hours a week, and was one of the first beta testers for GMail and have used it to leverage both careers. Exploring the idea of VA doing my email is like being a back seat driver - and it's exciting! Thanks for planting the seed.
Bryan
Fresno, CA