Outsourcing & Distributed Teams – “What to do in the Downturn”

Jodea Pearl Abalos
April 13, 2020

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In this episode, I am joined by Helium10’s Barcus Patty, former FreeeUp head honcho Nathan Hirsch, UrTasker’s Omer Riaz and Glad Freimann from VAA Philippines. We chat VA’s and distributed teams in the current climate. How to optimise your workforce, care for them and thrive post virus. Stay home, be safe – Don’t forget to share this post with our community..

A bit of a background

Barcus Patty from Helium 10 as product manager, he has worked in the Amazon space and is in South Alabama doing remote work.
Glad Freimann head of VA Academy Philippines. He has been in the Amazon space since 2015.
UrTasker’s Omer Riaz has also been in the Amazon space since 2015.
Nathan Hirsch, has scaled FreeeUp for 4 years and has now been acquired, he now started a new venture: OutsourceSchool.com and creating cool software to go with it.

How do we optimise in this crisis

It is easy when you have success but it is when things go crazy that you see who the real entrepreneurs are.
Come up with creative solutions for your virtual assistant situations.
E-commerce is the future! Scope the future for your business.
Take care of your team in this downturn.
Look at both sides — your assistants and your business.
Train your people, invest on your people during this time.
This is the time to get A-players! VAs who were previously not available are now available.
Write out what you expect them to do and communicate this when you are interviewing people.

Create Loyalty

Know your VA’s work culture.
Make sure you lay everything our in front of them.
Some people are using this time to get VAs for a dollar and a half.
- This is a strategy that will work for the short term.
- You have to see it from your VAs’ side.
The situation in some countries are tough.
- Not all options exist for your VAs.
Show your VAs that they are important.

What is happening now?

Companies are cutting off work.
Countries are on crisis and your team needs your help.
There are businesses not doing well but this is the time to show your sincerity and respect to your team members.
This is the great time to test out your ideas!
- Get VAs to work on it.
Depending on where you are at, keep your people with you.
Talk to your team – ask them what they need help with.

What you can do with VAs at this time

Continue working on your content.
Do not lose your audience. Build a community to start.
Have your VAs start calling people or emailing your audience telling them you are still here.
Create relationship with your audience and market while waiting to get out.
Go back to empowering! Ask your VA their thoughts and what can be done better.
Go back and write down things you hate to do, write them down and have people do it for you.

SOP Structures

Nathan is creating an SOP software.
- People forget the WHY and the long term gain of the SOP for the business.
Make sure that at the bottom of the list include WHAT NOT TO DO.
- Make sure it is all in one part so that people don’t miss this.
Have a conversation with your VAs and ask them if they understand what they need to do.
The SOPs need to be written by the VAs.
SOPs should not be purely written down ONLY. Make sure to have a video or audio available.
Have them write down the details, do screen grab and so on.
- This can also be a test. You will be able to gauge attention to details, comprehension and so on.
When it comes to processes, take the process that your VA or agency may have, take that process and give it to someone — if they can follow that then it means that process is good.
SOPs also work as part of the training and curation.
- If the SOPs are existing, your new people can come in and update it.
Make your people take ownership.Empower them to add to your SOPs.

Some notes

Other people do things differently.
Their performance is down to your training and your communication.
Allow your team to be at your level.
Grow by “not” micromanaging.
- You need to let others work on your tasks that you love to do because there are other things you need to grow.
How you hire someone else to manage the others?
- Make sure you have the SOPs created.
- Have the team create your SOP repository.
  - There is a different SOP for your team leaders.

How to Hire or Grow Leaders

Hire people from within.
- Give them the confidence and let them know that you allow them to make mistakes or that mistakes are not fatal.
Build their confidence.
There will be people who will shine.
- Let this person communicate more and it regulates the whole team.
Set the tone for the leader’s role.
Talk to your team, make your VAs– feel at home. Communicate with them and make them feel connected.

Carrot and Stick?

Not everyone is not motivated by money.
- Some people work for their families and so on.
Meet up and build relationships with your VAs.
Provide benefits and resources.
Put programs in place.
- Workplace upgrade
- Healthcare

When to delegate things?

Don’t do things for more than 90 days — make sure you are delegating things.
Can someone else do it for you?
Are there things you should be focusing on that are vital to the growth of your business?
Is there something only you can do? Focus on that.

Things for small business

Building a team takes a lot of planning.
Network with as many people as you can!
- You will learn a lot and grow more.
Don’t make massive changes but strategize.
Think about things you have placed in the back burner and work on it.
Diversify your business, strategize and grow your business.
- Rethink your business strategy.
Tools you can learn and use at this time:
- Trello
- Chanty
Keep communicating! Ask your people what they need, it could be simple stuff like maybe they need a microphone.

Connect with our guests:

Email Barcus Patty: Barcus.p@helium10.com
Glad Freimann: vaaphilippines.com
Omer Riaz: www.UrTasker.com
Nathan Hirsch: www.outsourceschool.com

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SellerSessions LIVE — Tickets SOLD OUT!

Send Danny an email to get on the wait list: Danny@SellerSessions.com

About SellerSessions 2020

Our venue this year: The David Game Keynote Theatre, with tiered seating.
This year we are supporting a charity and a portion of the proceeds will be given to Tomy’s pioneering studies for prevention of babies born asleep: https://www.tommys.org/
We will give away 5 FREE tickets for single-parent Amazon sellers. If you know anyone please get in touch to get the details.
Confirmed speakers and more to come:
- Brandon Young
- Dr Yev Marusenko
- Destaney Wishon
- Zack Franklin
- Nadine Schöpper
- Liran Hirschkorn
- Ivelin Demirov
- Dr Ellis Whitehead
- Paul Harvey
- And yours truly, Danny McMillan. I will be hosting the show and speaking on a topic.