How To Find A Virtual Assistant For Your Ecommerce Business | Designer | Illustrator

About this video

The creator explains how he finds virtual assistants, designers and illustrators for his ecommerce / Merch by Amazon business, with onlinejobs.ph as his long-time favourite. He says the site charges a monthly fee of about $69 (his wording) but gives full contact details such as Skype and email, so you can take the relationship off-platform. He warns a job post can draw 50 to 100 applicants, and advises working through them one by one, shortlisting the top five or ten, interviewing five to ten people a day, tracking them in a spreadsheet, and narrowing to one to three hires. Alternatives covered are FreeUp, which he says he covered in an interview with Nathan and which pre-vets freelancers by level, and Upwork, which handles payments but which he says he has not used; he does not recommend Fiverr because he prefers building a relationship. He says he works with about four or five VAs daily via Skype and his first designer had been with him over a year, helping them pivot strategy when competition increased. On pay, he recommends offering a monthly salary rather than per-job rates, giving the example of $600 a month for 300 designs, and frames the first month as an investment — the creator claims his own first month was negative $42 before designs began selling.

Key takeaways

• Use onlinejobs.ph as the primary source: the creator says it costs about $69 a month but provides Skype, email and other contact details for candidates
• Expect 50 to 100 applicants per post; shortlist the top 5 to 10, interview 5 to 10 a day, track them in a spreadsheet, and narrow to 1 to 3 hires
• Consider FreeUp if you want pre-vetted freelancers (it interviews and certifies by level, per the creator), and Upwork as a free option that handles payments; he does not recommend Fiverr
• Offer a monthly salary for long-term work — his example is $600 a month for 300 designs — rather than paying per job
• Build a real long-term relationship with your VA (he works with 4-5 daily via Skype) and treat early months as an investment, not instant profit

Episode details: published November 18, 2018 · 11:40 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.

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