Hiring a VA in the Philippines - Hiring A Virtual Assistant Or Outsourcing For Beginners Tips

About this video

Note: the transcript track for this video is in Dutch (ledger lang=nl) — the content below is a faithful English summary of that Dutch track. Martinez argues for hiring a virtual assistant because trying to do everything himself caused stress and took all his time; a VA lets him delegate tasks he dislikes or is weak at and focus on what he enjoys. He says one VA has been on his team for over four years, with weekly calls and shared Airtable. Uses he lists include product research, writing descriptions and titles for Amazon selling, Merch by Amazon, Redbubble, KDP and eBay work, general design, and hiring a talented artist in the Philippines for line drawings, illustrations and colouring books. He says VAs can be hired almost anywhere — he recently hired someone in India who is doing well — but many prefer the Philippines because English is a second language there, the work ethic is strong, and the culture is similar to the US. Sites named are OnlineJobs.ph (paid monthly) and Upwork (free to post). He then posts an example Upwork job for print-on-demand designs: a clear title, a long-term description (daily work, two days off per week), a screening trick asking applicants to reply ‘Hello RJ’ to prove they read the post, screening questions, and filters such as worldwide location and high job-success/English scores. On pay, he says he prefers a fixed monthly amount, citing examples from his own team such as $400-$500/month, starting some people around $250/month and raising pay (e.g. $50 raises) and bonuses as they perform. He advises making training videos (reusable for future VAs), giving a paid test task with a 1-3 day deadline, starting with a video call to test communication, asking about the applicant’s goals, being kind, and running workflow through Airtable columns for niche, keywords, inspiration links and notes, plus a shared drive and Skype/Slack group chat for accountability.

Key takeaways

• Hire a VA to delegate tasks you dislike or are weak at instead of trying to do everything yourself
• The Philippines is favoured for English ability and work ethic, but Martinez says he also hires elsewhere, e.g. India
• Post on Upwork or OnlineJobs.ph with a clear long-term job description and a read-the-post screening phrase
• He prefers fixed monthly pay, with raises and bonuses tied to performance, per his own team examples
• Train with reusable videos, use a paid timed test task and a video call, and manage work via Airtable and group chat

Episode details: published October 26, 2020 · 25:42 long. Summary written by Self Growth Videos from the episode itself. Business results and any income figures mentioned are RJ Martinez’s own claims, shared for education — they are not typical or guaranteed.

← Previous: How To Sell Shirts On Merch By Amazon - (Amazon Merch Step By Step Tutorial For Beginners) · Next: Interview With $150k Print On Demand T- Shirt Seller - Juna From @DetourShirts →

All RJ Martinez videos · RJ Martinez profile · RJ Martinez on YouTube