Your VA Success Equation
Freedom Spotlight: Pat Flynn, SmartPassiveIncome.com
SECTION THREE: Managing Your Virtual Staff
Don’t Be a Virtual Vulture
Case Study #5: Steve Dixon, Dixon Clothing Group and Breakthrough4Business
How to Manage Different VA Roles
The Difference Between Revolving Tasks and Projects
Using Project-Management Software
Reports from Your Virtual Staff
Freedom Spotlight: Justin Fulcher, Kinda IT
Paying and Motivating Your Virtual Staff
SECTION FOUR: The Big Question: Stay Local or Go Overseas?
The Advantages of Staying Closer to Home
Why Outsourcing Overseas Is Not for Everyone—or Every Business
What About Customer Support?
The Outsourcing Destination of Choice: The Philippines
Case Study #6: Fiona Lewis, Super Savvy Business
5 Things to Remember When Working with Filipino VAs
Case Study #7: Paul Holland, VideoTise
SECTION FIVE: The Next Level: Building Your Virtual Team
How Different Types of Virtual Employees Will Work Together
Case Study #8: Nate Ginsburg, Onset LLC
Setting Company Goals and Rewards
Meeting Everyone in Person
Setting Up a Social Network for Your Virtual Team
Freedom Spotlight: Joe Daniel, The Football-Defense Report
When to Create the Virtual Project Manager Role
SECTION SIX: The Case for Content
Why Your Business Needs to Produce Online Content Consistently
What Is “Good” Content?
The P2P (People-to-People) Philosophy
Case Study #9: Joshua Van Den Broek, Fitco Health Technologies
The Importance of Being Remembered
Getting Your Virtual Team to Do (Almost) All the Work for You
Freedom Spotlight: Natalie Sisson, The Suitcase Entrepreneur
SECTION SEVEN: Time to Get Started
Your First Six Months
Conclusion
BONUS SECTION: Top 10 Virtual Team-Building Mistakes (and How to Avoid Them!)
Resources
Gratitude
About the Author
Index
A radioactive spider accidentally slipped into the backpack of high school student Peter Parker and delivered a life-changing bite. Peter didn’t know it at the time, but this moment was the birth of the Amazing Spider-Man.
At first, Peter’s gifts were nothing more than a novelty, allowing him to become a quasi-television star and make some easy cash. But as he soon discovered, with great power comes great responsibility. As an entrepreneur, the same is true of you.
You and I may not know exactly when it happened, but you, too, were bitten. Chances are the bite wasn’t from a radioactive spider, but it was just as potent—and just as transformative. It was the bite of the entrepreneurial bug.
For some of you, this bite came in the form of a life-altering event, such as accidentally creating a new product or service, inheriting a family business, or getting laid off. Whatever happened, you developed powerful skills and abilities as a consequence.
Your superhero powers probably consist of
• the ability to see opportunities that others don’t
• the drive and energy to work fourteen-hour days
• the courage to approach strangers and share your ideas
• the dexterity to morph into the different roles your business needs
These powers are a blessing because you have the potential to impact countless lives with your vision and innovation. At the same time, your powers are a curse because you can easily be deceived into thinking you can travel down the entrepreneurial road alone.
Welcome, my friend, to superhero syndrome. Your symptoms will no doubt include the following:
• If there’s any money to be saved in doing something yourself, you’ll do it.
• If you don’t know how to do something, you’ll teach yourself.
• You may have the inability to take criticism of any kind.
• You’ll believe that your ideas and concepts are far greater than anyone else’s.
• The word “recharge” will only apply to your cell phone.
After all, your business is your baby, and who better to take care of that baby than the person who gave birth to it—you! However, this will all eventually catch up with you, and the strength that you possess as an entrepreneur will start to backfire. Your superpowers will ultimately begin to control you, eating away at your energy levels and stumping any potential for freedom in your life. They will leave you stressed and overworked, and ultimately you will be no good to anyone or anything—including your business.
You might assume that as an ambassador of virtual staffing, my professional journey has always been lined with an army of virtual assistants (VAs) doing the work while I strategize and delegate from a remote location wearing flip-flops and a Tommy Bahama shirt. As sexy as that may sound, it is not my story.
Reaching Burnout
In 2008, I started
