Our guest today has been on the show before, but I had to have him back because there was so much we needed to talk about!
Rich Brooks is the founder and president of Flyte New Media, a digital agency in Portland, Maine, and is a nationally recognized speaker on entrepreneurship, digital marketing, and social media.
Today, we’re talking about our own remarkability.
I like the ONLINE Black Friday. If you are like I am, you spend a lot of your business dollars on online tools and services. So we might as well get the best deals possible, right? I’ve spent the last several weeks compiling a list of the best Black Friday deals for online entrepreneurs. I’ll be updating this list all the way through Cyber Monday (November 29).
In this brand new podcast episode, I chat with Stefanie Ignoffo, the founder of Plantspiration NFP Inc., and Food For Life Instructor with the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine.
This isn’t the kind of conversation you normally hear on the Front Row Entrepreneur podcast, because a good bit of this is about wellness.
But when I discovered Stefanie Ignoffo, I knew I HAD to have her on the show! Her story is amazing and her energy and passion is off the charts. You’ll see what I mean when you listen.
In this brand new podcast episode, I chat with SEO and copywriting expert Brian Dean, (founder of Backlinko and Exploding Topics).
When I ran across his blog a few months ago, I was completely blown away. In my opinion, Brian has mastered what it means to “give value” in his marketing. I started reading everything he was writing and have been studying his work very closely.
But I wanted to know more, so of course, I Invited him on the podcast!
Our guest today has been on the show before, but I had to have her back because there was so much we needed to talk about!
Miriam Schulman is the founder and chief inspiration officer of the top ranked Inspiration Place Podcast.
She inspires art lovers to reconnect with creativity, learn new skills and techniques and profit from their art.
Even if you aren’t an artist, you’ll love this episode.
This is probably the most common question I am asked.
First of all, there’s no ONE place. I normally hire from Online Jobs, which is based in the Philippines, but the truth is, if you google “Where to Hire a VA in the Philippines”, so many choices will pop up, and for the most part, one is as good as the other. That’s because unless you want to use an agency (which I don’t recommend), these sites are simply data bases of people looking for work. They haven’t been screened much, except maybe to verify identity, and range of skill level in any given specialty is vast.
What’s far more important is HOW you hire, not WHERE you hire.
We follow a very structured process:
✔️ Job posting with very specific detail about who we are looking for, who we are, and the skills required.
✔️ Very specific instructions about what to do next
✔️ This process alone will disqualify the majority of the applicants, who don’t read the directions
✔️ Those who have not been disqualified will receive a link to an external job application on a Google Form
✔️ Their responses on the Google Form will automatically disqualify many of the applicants.
✔️ Remaining applicants will be invited to complete a very brief test task
✔️ Based on this test task, only a few candidates wll remain
✔️ These candidates will complete an “interview” on a Google Form
✔️ The candidates remaining will be invited to a Skype interview
✔️ If more than one candidate does well during the interviews, they are invited to a trial week.
✔️ The person who best performs is offered a position.
This seems like a lot, but this entire system is templated, and mostly automated, until the applicant gets to the interview process.
I share this system in my program, Front Row CEO. All templates, forms, scripts and checklists are included, to make for a truly “plug and play” experience.
So, as you see, it’s not really about WHERE you hire as much as HOW you hire.
We’ve found very good VAs at Online Jobs so that’s where we usually post.
If you are looking for a freelancer, I love Upwork and Fiverr, because you each person is rated on their previous work by previous clients. You can see how many jobs they’ve completed, their success rate, and their overall rating. Clients also leave written reviews. In this post, I shared some of my favorite freelancers from those sites.
Earlier I mentioned that when hiring a VA in the Philippines, I discourage hiring from an agency...why is this?
Because typically, you will NOT be matched with one person. You will submit work through a portal, and they hand it off to whomever is available. This makes it difficult, if not impossible, to establish rapor with a VA, which is, in my opinion, the best part of working with a virtual assistant. Also, continuity and consistency inevitably suffer when so many different hands are working in your business.
If you prefer to hire only in the USA/UK, there are wonderful independent virtual assistants! Typically the difference comes down to a big difference in rates (and time zones), which I discuss here.
Some of my favorite USA based VAs are, Gr8Collaboration VA, RocketGirl Solutions, Most Stellar Virtual and Assistants.
Have you hired a virtual assistant or freelancer before? What has been your experience? I’d love to know. Post in the comments below.
This post comes from Bench, America’s largest bookkeeper for small businesses. If you’re looking to get professional bookkeeping support for loan applications or tax season they can help you get started—you’ll also get a special discount with my referral link!
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The US government passed a new stimulus bills in the final days of 2020. If you run a small business, that’s good news: You may be eligible for additional funding. On top of that, the bill has expanded how you can spend existing loans, and made new tax deductions available.
In case you don’t feel like reading through all 5,000 pages of the new stimulus package, here’s everything you need to know.
Didn’t apply for a PPP loan in 2020? You can apply for your first round of funding in 2021.
Got a PPP loan in 2020? You can apply for a second round in 2021. In some cases, you an also increase the amount of your first round retroactively.
In order to qualify for a second round of PPP funding, you’ll need to prove a financial loss for your business in 2020. That means showing, for any quarter of 2020, that you suffered at least a 25% reduction in gross receipts compared to the same quarter in 2019.
Whether you’re applying for your first PPP loan or your second, your loan will have the same, original terms.
That means your second PPP loan follows the same forgiveness guidelines as the first. To qualify, you’ll need to spend at least 60% of the loan amount on payroll, and the rest on eligible expenses.
(Good news, though: The eligible expenses have been expanded. More on that shortly.)
If your PPP loan is not forgiven, you’ll have to pay it back with an interest rate of 1% over five years. The first payments are deferred until 10 months after the term of the loan ends, or when you have your loans forgiven—whichever comes first.
You need to meet the following requirements to apply for your first PPP loan in 2021:
Your business was operating before February 15, 2020
Your business is still open and operating
You have less than 500 employees
If your business has multiple locations, you employ no more than 500 people at each location
You need to meet the following requirements to apply for your second PPP loan in 2021:
You have used all of your first PPP loan amount on eligible expenses
Your business was operating before February 15, 2020
Your business is still open and operating
You have no more than 300 employees
If your business has multiple locations, you employ no more than 300 people at each location
You can prove a 25% or greater reduction in gross revenue compared to 2019
For the first round of PPP in 2020, the eligible expenses for the loan included payroll, rent, and utilities.
The new stimulus package adds the following eligible expenses. This applies to all PPP loans, past and present:
Operations costs. Including HR, accounting, and small business bookkeeping, and any software or SaaS tools.
Property damage costs. Including any damage caused by public disturbances in 2020 that aren’t covered by your insurance.
Supplier costs. Any purchase of goods essential to operations made prior to receiving your PPP loan.
Worker protection costs. Including any personal protection equipment or property improvements made to comply with COVID regulations. This applies from March 1, 2020 onwards.
Many small business owners were approved for PPP loans in 2020, but were uncomfortable keeping the full amount they were approved for. In those cases, the business owners only opted to take a portion of the loan, or returned some of it.
If this situation applies to you, you can apply to receive the difference to meet the full amount. For instance, if you qualified for a $30,000 loan in 2020, but only took $20,000, you can apply now to take the remaining $10,000.
You are not eligible for a loan increase if the SBA has already remitted forgiveness payments for you for the original loan amount. In that case, however, you can still apply for the second PPP loan.
Also, to qualify for an increase, the lender must have reported, prior to Dec. 27, 2020, that you did not take the full loan amount.
The new stimulus introduces an additional $20 billion to relaunch the Economic Injury Disaster Loan (EIDL) program. This allows small businesses to apply for up to $10,000 in grant money. The funding is made available to businesses in low-income communities.
If your business received an EIDL advance last year, but didn’t qualify for the full $10,000, you can apply to receive the difference this year.
If you received an EIDL loan, but didn’t get an advance because the program ran out of money, you can now apply for the entire $10,000 grant.
As part of the CARES act, these loans were promised to be distributed in three days in less. Under the new program, they will be disbursed in 21 days or less.
In 2020, many small businesses learned they would not be forgiven the full amount of their PPP because they got an EIDL advance grant.
Any amount these businesses took as an EIDL grant equally reduced their eligibility for PPP forgiveness. For instance, if you borrowed $20,000 with PPP, and got an EIDL grant of $7,000, you could only apply to have $13,000 of your PPP forgiven.
That’s changed. Now, receiving an EIDL grant will not reduce your forgiveness amount.
To receive either your first or second round of PPP funding, you’ll need to apply through an SBA-approved lending institution. To get started, check out this list of PPP lenders by state.
As your business navigates 2021, organized bookkeeping is a must. You’ll need up-to-date, accurate financial statements and records to qualify for PPP or EIDL.
For this, I recommend Bench, the online bookkeeping service for small businesses. It’s the service I use in my own business. In 2020, Bench helped hundreds of small businesses keep their doors open by aiding them in compliance and reporting, and connecting them with lenders.
Plus, if you’re behind on your bookkeeping, they can get you caught up—so you’re able to apply for funding ASAP.
A virtual assistant is a person who works remotely in your business. This means that they could be on another floor in your office building, down the street, or across the globe.
I know virtual assistants who charge $100 per hour, and virtual assistants who charge $4 an hour.
Typically, as you might expect, the more specialized a person’s skills, the more you will pay. Also, if you are hiring in the western part of the world, where the cost of living is high, you can expect to pay more. If you hire from somewhere like the Philippines, South America, or India, you can expect to pay less.
There are lots of misconceptions about these rate differences.
Misconception #1:
Paying someone less than $10 per hour is unethical.
False. If you hire someone in the Philippines, for example, understand that the cost of living there is much less than in the USA. The infographic below shows just how different the cost of living is:
For the small business person who can’t afford to pay $25+ per hour, especially at the start, this is a perfect solution.
But the key to success for the business owner and the VA, and what we teach in our program The Front Row CEO, is that it’s important to 1) guarantee hours/use a salary model 2) include bonuses or profit-sharing opportunities.
The salary model: After a trial period of a week to one month, paid hourly, it’s a good idea to start paying your virtual assistant on a “salary model”. (It’s not *really* a salary, as your VA in the Philippines is not recognized as an employee of your company. They are technically freelancers. But you basically pay them the same amount each week.) This will go a long way in instilling confidence and trust for both of you. For the VA, this security will almost guarantee that they will stay with you for years, rather than just weeks or months. The mindset here is that the CEO is more concerned with the work getting done, rather than policing the clock.
Bonuses and profit sharing: As your business grows, everyone grows. When you and your team have success from a product launch, for example, consider rewarding everyone with a cash bonus. Setting goals, with cash rewards, is also a wonderful way to keep morale high. For the VA, this creates a true sense of ownership in your business.
Misconception #2
“The pay is less, but the quality of work is not as good”
False! You can expect to find highly skilled, fluent-in-english, hard-working, dedicated, professional VA’s in the Philippines and all across the world. If you’ve ever hired a virtual assistant and ended up disappointed, there’s a good chance that 1) your hiring process was not set up to screen out those who were unqualified 2) your onboarding process didn’t include the components necessary to set him/her up for success or 3) when he/she started working for you, there were no systems and processes in place, or, those systems weren’t clear.
A common pricing model for the Philippines would be to start at $5 per hour for a trial week, or a trial month, paid hourly.
Once hired, if a full time position, the salary would be $200 per week, or $800 per month.
If part time, $100 per week, or $400 per month.
You can read more about why I recommend a salary model over hourly, here.
If you are hiring in the United States, you can find a general virtual assistant for $25-40 per hour. For 40 hours per week, you should expect to pay $1000 per week, or $4000 month.
The cost of living in the Philippines is much less than in the US. Small business owners can leverage the exchange rate to create a win-win for VA and CEO. If you offer a salary model, and supplement that with generous performance bonuses, holiday bonuses, and profit-sharing, it can be life-changing. The idea is to hire an assistant who will be with you for years, not weeks or months. This is someone who will grow with you, and together, you will grow your business. Over time, the idea is that your VA can be paid the equivalent of a VA anywhere in the world, because your business will have scaled to a level that makes it possible.
