The Amazon VA Conundrum


[et_bloom_inline optin_id=optin_3]

Nathan from Freeeup is with us on the Amazon VA Conundrum, he started buying and selling books using Amazon and drop shipping. Nathan found a baby products niche while in his dorm-room. After getting swamped, he looked into hiring people and hasn’t looked back.

Growing Pains

  • Really have to be strict in the vetting process to avoid the Amazon VA conundrum and set expectations when bringing on a VA
  • Depends on where you are in your business as well
  • Typical areas for a VA include Customer Service, book-keeping and sourcing
  • Things that don’t lead to expansion or growth or scale are ripe for a VA
  • Repetitive tasks make sense to go to a VA
  • You work on the business and not in the business

How do you Hire?

  • Get away from your business for a day and come up with a list of how you’re spending your time
  • Where are you spending your time
  • prioritize it from easiest to hardest
  • Get the easy things off your plate first

Trust

  • Always an element of risk
  • Even if you hire your best friend they can still make a mistake
  • Look for someone who can care about your business
  • Focus on attitude and passion as well as skills
  • VA working on multiple Amazon accounts is a risk
  • Never give a VA your main Amazon account username and password
  • You can setup user access in Seller Central to limit things

Ways of working

  • How do you work with your VA
  • Some people like face-to-face, or video chat or just writing and email
  • Nathan prefers to work in the written word so that it’s there in black and white and the VA can refer back to it
  • All in chat or in text so it can be read again
  • In a 30 mins phone call a sentence might get lost and an issue can appear down the line
  • Identify what’s good for you as a business owner – VAs need to know how you want to work

Interview Process

  • The trip-up rounds
  • Danny doesn’t look at the fist CVs coming in the first round
  • His autoresponder send them the questions etc
  • On the 2nd or 3rd round Danny gets in touch
  • Making sure they are investing their own time – if they can’t fill out an application then will they be into your business
  • People can be really good at the application process and not so good on the job – dig deeper
  • Look for the passion and communication skills
  • Once you’re through the interview – the test is only just starting
  • Test them a little bit and know you can work with them

Treat people well

  • Show your VA respect
  • Give a path of education and learning to them to encourage them
  • Some people don’t realise how their tone is coming off
  • Nathan had this problem – he was losing VAs
  • He asked his mail VA to give him feedback on how he was performing
  • She told him that he was saying stuff that VAs are taking to heart but that wasn’t how he was meaning what he was saying
  • This feedback helped him go from 50% turnover in staff to 20%

Digging in

  • What part of the job is taking the most time
  • What are you struggling with
  • Get them to ask you questions and seek answers
  • Questioning shows that you do care and you’re trying to work it out

Hours

  • No minimum
  • Can do 8am to 9am just to help you get caught up
  • They will need to fill their hours and will look for other clients to fill their hours
  • You could hire two part-timers to fill full-time to give you a buffer

Wage

  • Low level $5-10/hour – Followers you have everything setup and processes clear
  • Mid-level $10-30/hour – specialists, Amazon listings, graphic design or book-keeping
  • Experts $20+ – can audit your business, execute high level game plans, project manage, supervise low-level workers
  • People hire the wrong level for the work needed and it doesn’t work
  • Get people at a rate they are happy with
  • Offer too low and you might get someone take the work but be looking for other work that pays what they want

Payment

  • Initial people that join the business early and help grow it – their pay rises as the business grows
  • Raises 6 months or every year
  • A Christmas bonus is okay
  • SOme people do the 13th month – Nathan doesn’t

Keep them engaged

  • People care about more than money
  • Want to be part of a community
  • Want to grow and feel they are contributing to the business
  • Keep them informed
  • Event a part-time graphic designer – tell them goals, how the company is doing, how their work impacted
  • Help them feel involved in the growth of the company

Contact

  • freeeup.com – go sign-up
  • Book a free meeting with Nathan

 

 

RELATED POSTS

Unlocking Click Bias Secrets Seller Sessions A9
Colin Raja Seller Sessions Podcast (1)
Shopping queries dataset Seller Sessions
Seller Sessions Podcast Elizabeth Greene
Multi objective ranking
seller sessions the complete guide to autocomplete on amazon
A9 Bot How To Get The Most Out Of Your Listing Optimisation (1)
1 2 3 98
databrill logo

Looking for a Better Agency?

Are you a 7 or 8-figure Amazon seller who is…

Databrill Logo

Looking for a Better Agency?

Are you a 7 or 8-figure Amazon seller who is…