You can listen to today’s show here.
Join me on The Morning Show. It can be brilliant, it can be lame. What do you expect from a show in the morning? Talk about politics, life, news, or whatever. On today’s show, let’s talk about virtual assistants.
The show runs from 8:30 am to 9 am. You can call 646-716-8227 to join me. Or, you can join me in the chat room.
You can listen to today’s show live here.
Join Shaine Mata on The Morning Show. It can be brilliant, it can be lame. What do you expect from a show in the morning? Talk about politics, life, news, or whatever. Today, let’s talk politics. The Texas primary is coming up. Who do you think will come out ahead?
I will be broadcasting from the mobile studio. Call me on the mobile from 8:30 am to 9 am CST at 956-205-0706 to join me on the show. I’ll conference call you in. Sorry, no chat room today.
Listen to the show here.
Join Shaine Mata on The Morning Show. It can be brilliant, it can be lame. What do you expect from a show in the morning? Talk about politics, life, news, or whatever. Today: How can social media help your business?
If you are providing retail computer services to the general public, you need to keep a couple of things in mind, the price floor and the price ceiling. By price floor, I mean that you have to keep in mind that you have to make money. You can’t give away your services. You have to make a living after all. By price ceiling, I mean that you have to keep in mind that your total for service and parts cannot cost anywhere near what it would cost to replace the computer altogether.
I’ve known about this problem for some time, but today it came up. So, I am taking the opportunity to write about it here. The computer is a somewhat recent eMachine model. The computer would not start. First, you check the obvious, check the plug and power cord. If those are OK, then check the power supply. Recently, I bought a power supply tester at Office Depot, which came in handy. That tested out OK. I tried a known working power supply on the computer without success. This tells me that it’s likely a fried motherboard.
I looked up the price of the replacement motherboard. eMachines does not sell it anymore. Vendors who do carry it have it priced at $269 + SH. So, we’re looking at about $300 to replace the mobo, not including service charge. So, you already have an hour diagnosing and parts shopping put into it. If the client goes ahead with the replacement, you are looking at another hour or two of service. Now, you are approaching the cost of simply replacing the computer. Most basic systems these days are good enough for the average home user. We’re not talking high-end computers.
So, what is the solution?
The best that I’ve come up with is that the client should hold on to their old computer, buy a new one, and transplant spare parts. Anything else can be put on ebay to subsidize the cost of the new computer. Toss the carcass. It’s inelegant, but effective. When it comes to the average home computers, you can only get up to about $200 comfortably before the client starts to eyeball a new PC. This does not mean that you should not provide tech services to the public. It simply means that you need to be mindful of the total cost to the client.
So, how will you make money? Well, there is the diagnosis. Then there is the hard-drive transplant and parts salvage. And, you may even be hired for a computer setup. So, don’t be afraid to suggest replacing the computer altogether if the cost of repairing is too high. A client is willing to spend a little more on a new machine than fixing up the old beater. The same thing happens with cars. Once you overhaul the engine, you might as well keep the car; you’ll never sell it for what you’ve put into it. Rather than drive an old jalopy that runs, many people prefer to replace the car altogether even if it costs more.
I have decided to raise my commitment to my virtual assistant from 10 hours per month to 20 hours per month. Through GetFriday.com, that means $200 out of pocket each month. I believe that I may be able to drive up enough business to cover the added cost. My original purpose for hiring a VA has changed.
In a flash of inspiration, it occurred to me what the best use of my VA’s time would be. Originally, my intent was to have her remind me of birthdays and help me keep track of business transactions. After interviewing her, I learned that she is very skilled with computers, including programming in C++, which I can’t do. On the downside, accounting is a whole other discipline from programming. I guess having her make double entries and print monthly and quarterly reports is a bit much to ask for a non-accounting major. On the upside, she is PERFECT for helping me post content on my websites. Aside from accounting chores, one major time sink for me is posting content. If I can create or find content for her to post, I can save myself hours per week. One example of this is finding local video on YouTube and posting it on RGV-Life.com. I can find the videos and send links for her to post.
You’re probably thinking, “How lazy can you get?” It’s not laziness. I can only post so many videos and press releases sent to me because I have limited time. This way I can maintain a good level of content creation without spending time posting it. Unlike this blog, other sites don’t lend themselves to mobile posting. I can blog anywhere on Earth with GSM coverage. However, I can’t find video, do embeds, upload pics, copy and paste press releases, or other tasks that require me to be sitting in front of a computer. Unfortunately, Ning is not mobile-friendly. The more time I spend waiting for pages to load, copying and pasting, and tagging, the less time there is for creating. In a world where content is king, I should be out creating, not waiting. For accounting, maybe a local bookkeeper can do the trick.
I’ve been meaning to try this feature, but never got around to it until today. You can shop Amazon using Jott. You won’t get results immediately; you still have to wait for your voice message to be transcribed and processed. The benefit to this type of shopping, just like leaving yourself reminders, is that you can get the idea off your mind and then pick up where you left off later when you have the time. Many times when we have an idea, it’s not the best time to actually carry it out. So it is with shopping Amazon through Jott. Your shopping idea gets started while you are busy and is waiting for you when you are free. I tried it, and it could prove to be handy.
You can miss out on making the best use of your virtual assistant if you don’t take the time to get to know him or her. Just like in college, it is probably best to ask your VA what their major was in college. This gives you an idea of their mindset and where they would be more effective. I recently did the same with my own Va. It turns out that she is a graduate of a computer major. She can program and is knowledgeable in software. This changes my approach a little. Obviously, I won’t be assigning difficult Accounting tasks. However, she will probably be very useful in technology-related tasks. Arbitrage?
Of course, over time, it would be best to learn as much about your VA, especially if he or she is your only “employee”. In my experience, there is nothing more demotivating than working for somebody who doesn’t truly know you or care to know you. A friend once told me that it doesn’t matter how nice you are to your employees. The fact that you are the boss automatically make you an asshole. I tend to agree. All I propose is that you be mindful of what degree of an asshole you are. So, get to know your VA so that you are a better judge of what and how you should assign things. I don’t expect knowledge of debits, credits, general ledgers, and accounts from a computer major. Similarly, I don’t expect knowledge of loops, conditionals, switches, modules, or local and global variables from an Accounting major. As they say, a poor carpenter blames his tools.
A while back, I wrote about my decision to take on a Virtual Assistant for a fixed monthly fee. Previously, I was paying a $10 retainer fee to GetFriday.com to have a VA available for the occasional odd job. Now, I’ve raised my subscription to $120/month for 10 hours of service. I’ll have to figure out how to best use those hours through the month.
When I wrote this, I was not expecting the responses I received on the topic. I’ve had comments from several companies that offer VA services. Some of them seem intriguing. Here is a list of those who have commented thus far:
I’ve also had visits from people who are making it work in the U.S. as VAs.
One thing that has caught my attention regarding VAs in the U.S. vs VAs in foreign countries is the idea that domestic VAs cost more on an hourly basis, but generally charge less per task because it takes them less time to perform it. World Office Support writes that foreign VAs generally take longer to perform a task than their American counterparts. It’s a penny wise, pound foolish argument. They may well have a point; but it is difficult for me to test given that American VAs earn more than I do on an hourly basis. I think we are probably talking about different markets. American VAs are targeting people with more money than time. Foreign VAs seem to be targeting those of us with little of both. I’ve got the pennies, not the pounds.
A good example of the situation has to do with shampoo. Unilever tried selling shampoo in India just like they do in other countries. For some reason, their product was not moving. However, they did notice that travel-size shampoo was selling much better. Why? Well, you do get a better deal by buying shampoo in larger quantities, but often you only have enough money for small quantities, even with the added cost. So, the market could afford shampoo in travel-size containers much better than the standard size containers.
In the end, what you should get out of this is that comes down to arbitrage. One has to be able to buy and sell the same product at a difference in price in order to make a profit. The product in my case is time. At my current rate, there is parity between what I earn at my day job and what GetFriday earns. However, there is a price differential between what I earn in my computer business and what GetFriday earns. It is better for me to use the VA for business-related tasks than personal tasks. It pays for itself, in a way. If I were to move up one tier of monthly service, then it would actually be feasible to give my VA personal assignments as well. I could not do the same with an American VA. I’d operate at a loss whether it’s 1 minute or 60. At this point, I am short on time and money. I need to leverage both. I know I won’t be successful if I am paying my VA more than I earn on an hourly basis. Doing business at a loss is both penny and pound foolish. Maybe once I’m rich I’ll be able to hire an American VA; but not now.
When you hire somebody, they don’t know everything about your business. I’ve had to train new employees in the past. I’ve shown them almost every aspect of the business that they will deal with from day to day. Heck, I even showed them how to do their own payroll. So, whenever you hire somebody, you accept that there will be a certain amount of training and ground rules to establish. The same holds for hiring a virtual assistant. Some groundwork is needed.
Thus far, I have sent my VA my client information. I have sent her jobs I’ve done and how much I got paid. I’ve sent her information about new leads. Just today, I finished creating my price list of services. Theoretically, all I have to do now is submit the number of hours worked and job descriptions for each client so that she can create invoices. I don’t expect things to work “according to plan” on the first try. There will be a few trial and error attempts, just like with an on-site employee. For now, we are setting up a system that she will use to do what I need done. We will refine the system as we go along.
In time, I expect that we will both work efficiently together. We are still getting to know each other, as much as it is possible to do so long-distance. Once we have a system established, I think Sahnaz will be a powerhouse for me. What is even better is that I will figure out what works and what doesn’t so that I can use that knowledge to train the next VA should Sahnaz decide to move on in her career. This is as much training for me as it is for her.
If you think you need a virtual assistant, you should consider GetFriday.com as well. I’ll keep you posted on how this business experiment works for me.
There comes a time in every computer’s life when it seems to struggle with some of the tasks that were once a breeze. We all know that it’s the constant creep of software updates that makes your once kick-ass computer into a lame-ass computer. Computer guys like me are not immune to this. I have two computers at home that I are not performing like they once did. I have a Compaq PC and a Mac G4 Quicksilver.
The PC needs more memory. It has been plugging along since we bought it with 512 MB of RAM. I did an online check on memory prices. I can upgrade it to 2 GB, maximum; so, I bought two memory sticks from Memory.com, which is one town over, for $26 each. That’s a great bargain and will give the computer a new lease on life. I’ll also save on shipping by stopping by their store on a lunch break. Overall, it’s still a decent PC, except that it takes longer to do things. I know the memory upgrade will improve the performance.
The Mac is another issue. I bought the Mac Quicksilver G4 for $300 or so. Given that it is my first Mac, I had no basis for comparison on its performance. When I got it, it definitely beat the old PC laptop I was using. In general, I still like using the Mac. The downside is that there is a HUGE price gap between what I paid for this computer and getting a new one, or so I thought. I found out that I can get a Mac Mini for $599. That sets a ceiling for my upgrade. The lowest-priced Mini runs at 1.83 GHz. To gain similar performance from my Mac G4, I found the Sonnet Encore/ST G4 1.8 GHz Processor upgrade. This will set me back $267. This is almost half the price of getting a new one. It’s a good deal, in my opinion. In addition, after reading the specs, I have learned that it auto configures without the need to mess with jumpers. Earlier, I was looking at maybe just doubling the performance from 733 MHz to 1.5 GHz. But given the $8 difference I’ll go with the 1.8 GHz.
I’m new to the whole Mac thing, so I don’t know what adding a dual 1.6 GHz processor card would do for the performance of my computer. I do know that there is a $100+ dollar difference, which takes the upgrade near the point where I should just get a new Mac Mini. I’m satisfied doubling the processor speed. I’ll look around for articles comparing the difference between single processors and dual processors on a Mac. I’d appreciate feedback from other geeks who know about these things.
I have been using Twitter to send tasks to my Vitalist inbox for a few days. I got an email asking me to test out Vitalist Tools, which currently only has Twitter. Today, I saw that Vitalist has announced it on their blog. The setup is easy. Simply add your Twitter user name and your Vitalist API key. The only thing I did wrong was that I did not activate my Vitalist API key. Make sure to turn yours on before you link your Vitalist to Twitter.
You may be thinking, why bother? Doesn’t Vitalist have a WAP interface? Can’t you simply email your tasks to Vitalist? The answer to both is Yes. However, Twitter serves as a more convenient entry method for me. On most days, I have Twitter turned on throughout the day on my computer or on my mobile phone. Therefore, it is easy to simply send a reminder via direct message on Google Talk or to send a reply SMS from my phone. Making an entry via Twitter is less disruptive of my workflow. I don’t have to stop what I am doing to pull up an email client or web browser. I will, however, grant you one thing. Twitter has its issues with dropping messages or not being consistently available. That is damn irritating. On the upside, Vitalist gives you other options to make your entries whenever Twitter is down. Once Twitter is more reliable, this mashup should prove to be the perfect GTD app.
Yesterday, I contacted my Virtual Assistant, Sahnaz, with a list of important dates. These are birthdays of various people in my family. She is to call me a week in advance to remind me of the upcoming birthday and suggest a gift. Upon my approval, she will then proceed to shop for each member within a given price range.
I kept the first assignment simple and long-term as India recently lost Internet service due to a cable break somewhere in Egypt. I got an email from GetFriday.com, where Sahnaz works, informing me of the Internet interruption. I still have more hours to go for assignments this month. I’ll be assigninig business-related tasks mostly.
Shaine 