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You absolutely should be prioritizing things you can off-set remotely and save money doing so. This goes for the following specific jobs:
1. Virtual assistant
2. Bookkeeper
3. Lower level marketing tasks
4. Student hires
When hiring a virtual assistant, you will need to be clear on your deliverables and have awareness of the assistant’s cultural background. For example, if you hire a virtual assistant or programmer from India or South East Asia they will generally take your instructions verbatim.
In other words, those cultures tend to follow a more hierarchy culture. This was proven in one of Maxim Gladwell’s books, “Outliers”. I have first-hand experience how that can impact a business in a negative way, and this is particularly important to understand if you’re a boot strapped early-stage company.
In my experience, you should spend money in the most effective way as you scale. I recommend hiring developers from eastern Europe for the following reasons:
They cost less than North American developers
They will provide their opinions and why
Quality of product is high
Easier communication lines and time-zones
Utilizing a virtual bookkeeper or one closely associated with your accountant will go a long way in saving time, money and efficiency. Again, the more strategic alliances you can keep within one circle the better.
The following formula should always be used to weigh out lower-level marketing tasks :
Time v. Effectiveness v. Cost v. Bandwidth of team = Increased profitability
What this means is- do you need to be spending time on your social media, or be focused on key clients? Both components are important, but one can easily be outsourced in a predictable, scalable, and cost-effective way (social media), while the latter needs in-person time and relationship building.
Fiverr should be your best friend. Identify your best contractors within specific genres (i.e. website fixes, automation, videos, etc.), and use those contractors on multiple projects if they provide a great product. Once you have built trust, set deals with them outside the platform. This is a classic business practice with trusted hosts on Airbnb. Who wants to pay for the middleman if you don’t have to, right?
Are you looking for quality book-keepers or virtual assistants? A top remote contractor, or student database? We have a selected database we can refer you to. Please contact us here if you’re interested.
Angus Burke
CEO of Company Finder