[00:00:00] Welcome back to the Energize with Bram podcast, specifically made for you fellow entrepreneurs, business owners that are here to create an impact. Change the course of history because we've got a great product or service that you put out there, and obviously we're generous people. As we're building a business that thrives.
We always are looking for ways to give back, so your change makers, welcome back to the show. Today is very special. The reason why I'm saying this is not because I tend to say that every time it is actually because this person is someone so dear to me. That it's such a pleasure to be able to share her experience, expertise, and kind heart with you guys here on this show.
I wanna welcome my wife, my soulmate, my beautiful, Andrea Lagrou, welcome to the show.
Oh, thank you so much for [00:01:00] that beautiful welcome. And it's absolutely pleasure to be here. I'm very excited that we can be doing this together.
So it's something different. Yeah. Very different.
Different, yes. Look, obviously we're sharing our lives together. We've done it professionally speaking, we've done it personally speaking, we've got our family that we built together and, it's probably a good idea for us to start with the point that some people comment on, which is, how can you guys work together?
And we love it.
And we love it.
So we get that question quite a lot. a lot of, men are saying, I couldn't work with my wife. A lot of women are saying I couldn't work with my husband. We probably kill each other at the end of the day.
But, we've done it from the day go and it always worked with us. I remember the day you asked me to come and work with you, and I thought, well, this could be the maker or breaker. And clearly it was a maker. So yeah, here we are 11 years later.
it definitely was a maker.
very soon after your belly was, getting really big and a baby popped [00:02:00] out.
So anyway, Yes.
So this is really an interesting podcast. Let's just get straight into it. now that people know who you are, at least, how our relationship is, I wanna go straight into the value add for our audience.
Business owners, entrepreneurs, they're sometimes putting a lot of hard yards in. They work long hours, take big risks, put their savings into something that they believe in and that they wanna scale and grow. From what you've seen these business owner and entrepreneurs do, what do you see that is happening out there right now?
That's a great question, and, a lot of business owners are getting burnt out. They're getting really tired. They're doing way too much. So in the businesses, as a past business owner myself, we tend to juggle too many hats. there is a reason why we started the business.
And the reason, generally, it's either passion, excitement, or we just want to have the flexibility. We want to make more money. There's different reasons why business people [00:03:00] start a business, right? But as time goes on, what I've found is that we move away from that core reason why we actually started the business in the first place. Because there's just too much to do, and very often we don't actually even think about these things when we enter into a business. We might have a singular vision.
Mm-hmm.
This is what I want to do, this is the reason why I'm gonna start a business. But looking at the whole picture as actually what is going on and what it takes to run a successful business, it's a very often a misperception or a mis conception.
Absolutely. We just got off another podcast with Brad Janssen, formerly the managing director of Quattro. We were talking exactly about that, like how. A lot of people that have never set up a business, never taking the punt, never backed themself, and doing something that is basically stepping into the [00:04:00] unknown and turning nothing into something. Yeah. Sometimes also losing it, right? It's not always as rosy, but people romanticize the idea of entrepreneurship.
Until you find yourself in the woods, you're wearing all the hats, you're juggling all these different things. Suddenly you have to be an expert in everything, which very rarely we ever are. And then putting in more time, more effort, more equity, which then goes sometimes at the expense of family relationships, hobbies, and so on. I think it's important that you've been on both sides of the fence. You've been an employee and you are again. You've also run your own business and businesses. I'd like to understand particularly as it relates to that burnout that risk of burnout, that excessive putting time in.
What would be some of the advice you can give people from your experience and your knowledge so that these business owners and [00:05:00] entrepreneurs can actually start working smarter.
That's a great question. I think the number one thing is to be clear. Be really clear as to why, if you haven't started a business, why are you going into business?
And if you do have a business, why is it that you started the business in the first place?
Mm-hmm.
As I said, was it from the passion? Are you still very passionate about what you are doing?
Mm-hmm.
Or did you just want to buy time? Did, the time and did you just want to buy yourself? Because a lot of business owners just buy themselves another job, right?
So, to prevent the burnt out, I think it's really, really important to be clear on what your passion is, why you're doing it, and anything else that doesn't feed that picture, if you can delegate, delegate those tasks. To somebody else who [00:06:00] knows how to do those tasks. So, as I said before, as business owners, we wear too many hats. But you are not equally good at all of those tasks across the business, right?
As a trades person, for example, they might be really good on tools, but they might not be as good in an admin area, or they might not be as good in a marketing area. In fact, I met somebody very recently who is just great on tools. Absolutely build a beautiful, thriving business on being on tools.
Mm-hmm.
But there is no marketing. And as the business grows, you need that. You need the marketing, you need the administration, you need the finance part of it. You need all of these other areas.
It's like in a relationship, if you don't put the love into it, something eventually will suffer. When you get to this point where you're doing way too much, juggling too many heads, something has to give. You won't have the capacity within yourself to do everything for a hundred percent equally.
You'll be very [00:07:00] good at one thing, but something else will suffer along the way.
And I like how you said that it starts with clarity. You started the business with a vision. It started the business with a purpose. You had certain goals that you were working towards. You mentioned it earlier: people will start a business out of passion, because they want more flexibility, they want more money, they want more time to do things they enjoy and look after their family and have fun times and be able to travel. But the sad reality is that many of the business owners that suddenly found themselves in the woods have lost sight of this thing that it all started off with and suddenly wear all the hats, spend way too much time and a lot of the other stuff has suffered.
That's a really strong point here. So the other thing that I heard you say, which is an interesting one, is the example of a tradie. If a tradie is really good at something, but equally, if somebody is more [00:08:00] white collar and graduated as an accountant.
We're all subject matter experts. We've been trained and programmed to be good at one thing, but then suddenly we find ourselves into a business that requires marketing. As you said, it requires cash management, which very few of us, apart from the accountant, really have been taught how to do. So that's sometimes a bottleneck.
We've then also got a lot of admin to do. There's hiring a team, managing a team, firing a team, motivating a team, creating systems and processes, And I think the challenge that some of these people get stuck in, and I'd like to hear your thoughts on this, is that they just think, oh, let me just do it all because I'm the person that's gotta do it, or I haven't got the money to pay someone else to do it, or I'm better at it and I don't trust other people to be equally looking after the way I would do it at the right quality standards and [00:09:00] suddenly they become a jack of all trades.
What is your perception in that regard?
A hundred percent. That's exactly what happens, especially in small businesses with small teams, very often that's exactly what happens, and this is why the business owners get burnt out or they will miss something along the way.
They will miss a step. When you first start and have that dream, that big dream that you have created in your mind... maybe at the beginning you can do all of that.
Maybe.
You know, some people do.
However, it's not sustainable.
It's not sustainable and you won't be, as I said this before, you won't put the attention that each of the section needs to the same capacity to what it needs to be looked at.
Yep. If you were to apply that and make that more practical, what should a business owner do then? And what should they, in your words, delegate?
So. The high [00:10:00] priority tasks are the tasks that they love doing that gets them out of the bed every day, gets them passionate and excited.
They've got the vision, they've got a dream, and they know exactly why they're doing what they're doing. So the tasks they are really good at.
A trade person, lawyer, accountant, whatever their passion is, whatever their drive is, whatever makes their heart sing.
Those are the tasks they keep. The other lower priority tasks. Those are the tasks that they should delegate. For example, administration, mail management, a little bit of a marketing, there could be a research. You know, a lower priority task that whatever business they're in.
And they don't necessarily want to do or like to do, but it's just taking the time away from what they are passionate about and really want to do. So they want to buy the time back. That's what we are talking about for the business owners, is buying the time to focus on what they're best at and then everything else to delegate.
It's interesting how we're having this conversation [00:11:00] now and how you are so big on the passion and what people are good at. This is where this beautiful dynamic between you and me, where you are very, very passion driven and very feeling based. Yes. And I have that too, but I also can be very logical and factual and return on investment type of guy.
Yeah.
What we didn't talk about yet is the tasks that are of high value in terms of money. If a business owner can generate a lot more money by working on the business, for example, if they have a team of five tradesmen or five accountants or whatever they employ and they can sell into, and they're very good at selling the vision and the mission and the value their business can bring to another party, their best activities that the business owner should keep going engaged in is selling that and working on the business so that they can make more money and keep growing the business.
So there is passion, what they're really [00:12:00] good at, but also the thing that they know that if they do that, it'll make 'em a lot of money.
And this is not just about the value of money, but it's about what money can do for them, their families, all the staff that they are already having or will be hiring in the future and the community. Because money allows you to give back. And so money creates opportunities for people.
So if we have all of these things in the equation, I'd be very interested now to hear from you, what do you see that some of the smarter small business owners are doing in that space of delegation?
Particularly, some of them might be very wary and saying, Hey, hiring staff, it's costly. Secondly could be, well, what if I train him up and then they go, which is like the typical scare. A third one is, what if they don't perform and I then have to redo it?
Like, there's all these mental blocks. Yes. The BS stories. Yes. Self-limiting beliefs. [00:13:00] Yes. That a business owner could have. What would you say to these people?
Yeah, very good. So there are a number of things that business owners can do in this situation. Number one, I would recommend to hire a business coach or somebody who is independent and non emotionally involved in their business, that can give them a good overview to see where things need more attention. And what exactly is it that they can do themselves, and what exactly is it that they can delegate to somebody else. I think that's really important. It's to have that clear vision.
Are you saying that if people are too involved in their business, it's becoming difficult to have that clarity?
Is that what you're saying?
Yeah, absolutely. when you are in a certain situation, you tend to be involved in it and can't see what's happening like a third person. Third person is generally able to have a look at, From outside in. That you might not currently [00:14:00] see what's going on. Right. So hiring a business coach will be one recommendation. Number two. Staff that you can delegate to. But staff can really a bit challenging at times, finding the right staff.
Then you've got staff management, hiring, firing, looking after the staff. Plus it's quite costly as well.
Or there is a third option that I would recommend. It's to hire a virtual assistant. So there are those options available now where you can hire a virtual assistant that can help you with those tasks.
Whether it is to focus more on building the business, being in front of customers which, makes you more money, what you were explaining before.
So all of those extra tasks, virtual assistance can help you with.
So to put that into context, a bookkeeper, average wage normally onshore in Australia would be, let's just make it easy.
$60,000 a year, right? A [00:15:00] marketer, $80,000 a year. What does that look like if you consider the idea of a virtual assistant?
That's a great question, Bram. it's a very, very cost effective way to have a staff member. If you cannot go full-time staff member here in Australia, which I completely understand, a lot of small businesses, it's just not in their budget.
Do consider to have a staff member offshore.
Mm-hmm.
And a very cost effective way. You are looking at anywhere from, you know $ 13, $14 an hour, up to $22, $23 an hour. It's all situational, obviously, depending on the task that they're doing, it's a very cost effective way. So you're looking at about $1,900 a month plus GST.
So again, put that in context of an annual year. What's that salary roughly then?
About $22,000- $23,000 a year.
22. So in the context of say 60 grand, it's almost a third, it's complete. Correct.
You can have two to three virtual assistants [00:16:00] helping you to do the tasks.
Wow.
For the cost of one here.
Now imagine everybody listening to this. If you're a business owner, you're scaling, you're growing, but you want to do it in a measured way, in a calculated way, in a controlled way, then just the mere ability that you could have three people full-time working for you, helping you with anything you need.
Imagine the amount of time it gives you back. As an owner, how it also can help any of your leadership team members to buy back their time to focus on more pressing, important high value matters instead, and the work gets done.
Many years ago I introduced the idea of the leaky bucket. And the leaky bucket means any organization will have a leaky bucket. Money drips away. Time drips away. Opportunities drip away. Let's just say that a tradies business. Plumber, electrician, air conditioning people, tilers, roofers, whatever.
They've got [00:17:00] a team. They got inquiries coming in. Then they have quotes that they generate and their system is full of quotes. But you and I know that unless you follow up on the quotes, some of them go cold turkey and many of them will buy elsewhere. Where the customer service is there, the follow up is there, people feel comfortable. They like the fact that people are professional, keep talking to them until they make a decision. But so many business people are too busy to do the follow up. So that sales follow up, the customer service follow up calls, that's a great opportunity to deploy a VA, isn't it?
Absolutely a hundred percent. There are VAs in different countries, and they will do the follow up, they'll do the sales calls, they will pick up the phone and they will talk to your clients.
There are agencies out there that will have, for example, VAs in the Philippines, but also have VAs in South Africa .
You can choose [00:18:00] it depending on the task that you are looking at as a business owner, but absolutely all of those tasks can be delegated to somebody else.
As a business owner, you might think nobody can do better than I can. Well, let me tell you there are people that can do it and can help you get that time back. Then as a business owner, you can focus on growth or whatever is it that you want to focus on. Yeah. So yes, absolutely, the VAs can do that as well.
The VAs can do it better, faster, cheaper.
Oh, and
more creatively.
Absolutely.
I definitely believe that and understand the value of that. We talked about sales and I remember you mentioning a few days ago how you sat down with this couple, husband and wife started a business both working together.
Lucky me did. Yeah. And, how this business owner was sometimes with a young family still up at 2:30 in the morning doing his paperwork.
That's right.
Lucky enough, these people saw that was an opportunity for them to do something better. And they obviously engaged the VA since then.
But if people [00:19:00] listening or watching are catching themselves doing paperwork in the middle of the night when you're supposed to be in bed and rest and recover so that you build your energy for the next day, well, something clearly isn't working for them and it's probably time to revisit what they're doing.
Yeah, absolutely. That's just one out of many business owners that I see and I talk to, and it's at the detriment of something or someone. So it's either your staff management is suffering or your financial stuff might be suffering or you might be really good at making money, but spending countless hours at work, you don't get to see your family, your children, go to basketball, or football matches that your children are playing, you are missing out on something. So hiring a VA, it's a very, very, very good way of getting that time back. That way you can focus on what you want to focus on.
Absolutely.
Yeah. But yes, business owners get burned out [00:20:00] because you can't just do all of it yourself.
Yeah. A practical application, I see is when clients say, their payment cycles. So from the time they ask for payment and when they get paid, if that starts being blown up from, say, the usual 14 days to 30 days to 45- 50 days, it tells me there's a leaky bucket. Good VAs can chase it up and make sure that there's actually cash in the bank within more reasonable timeframes, which then improves the cash position of the business. Ultimately, I think the worst thing is to have to keep chasing money as a business owner because it's draining. It's not fun to do. And if you see that you've got more overheads than what's actually in the bank, it's a signpost that says, Hey, time for a change. Do something about this.
'cause you can. That's the good news.
So we talked about cash management, sales follow up, what about marketing? What can be done in that space?
Great [00:21:00] question as well. There are specific virtual assistants, they've got marketing backgrounds and they can definitely access the marketing.
So you need to get your logo created, you need to get your website created, you need Facebook posts, do any of the LinkedIn follow up.
All of those jobs can be done by virtual assistants.
Or is it just something very simple, which can be probably done by an admin person. But if it's a more specific marketing role, then yes, there is a marketing specialist.
These are people with marketing degrees from university. And they're able to do all that marketing. For marketing, you're looking at $1,900 a month plus GST.
You just read my mind. I was just about to ask what does that roughly cost?
$1,900 bucks.
It's about $1,900 plus GST. So it's a no-brainer to have a marketing person offshore. Absolutely. They are very dedicated and they do the job well.
Hey, this is really interesting now. So we touched on general admin and scheduling. For [00:22:00] example, if you have somebody that schedules people, manages their diary, even manages their inboxes. If you're bombarded as a business owner and you're getting 200 messages a day, that is just a time waster for you to handle. A VA can do that for you, juggle all those emails, filter out what's worth your attention, and get all the other stuff done so that you don't have to do it. I love this idea of Dan Martel's book, Buy Back Your Time. I know that you got me onto that book as a result of a conversation you had.
I love the idea, the system that is outlined in it, how you train a VA, how they help you manage your diary. But like you said, there's marketing people. They can create funnels, they can create ads, they can run all the social media posts at a fraction of the cost.
Sometimes people here at this point in time, get a bit itchy. When you say, hang on, this is taking jobs away from Australians. What's your view on that?
Yeah, so that's a great question and a very good point as well. And yes, sometimes I have people asking that, and the [00:23:00] answer is it's actually not. It's actually not. How is that? It's not taking them away at all.
Because as a business owner, if you don't have the budget to spend 60, 70,000 a year and plus for a staff member, you probably won't hire a staff member.
So, keep doing it yourself and wearing all the hats.
Exactly. And you just keep doing it yourself, and you just keep being buried into whatever. If you already have a team, they're doing so many tasks that are lower priority tasks. Just hire a VA. You just wouldn't go and hire another $60,000 - $70,000 person yourself. But these other staff, you know, they're getting snowballed with all these tasks.
Unproductive stuff. Really
Absolutely. Yeah. So one or two. Like all of the tasks that we already listed: managing your calendar, looking at your emails, looking at funnel, looking at LinkedIn, looking at Facebook, Facebook ads and things like that. All of that [00:24:00] can be done by somebody that you pay only $20,000 - $30,000.
Maximum 30 grand. Yeah. So that's an interesting one.
Just a moment ago you started talking about these different countries. I find that interesting because initially I would think that hey, Different countries, like for example, Philippines and South Africa, different time zones, might be the reason. But I've learned from talking to you that that's not the main reason why you would hover between, those two countries for a VA.
That's right. the main reason is, depending on a task that you would like to get done. What I mean is that the virtual assistants over in Philippines, they are very good at following processes. And very good at what you ask them to do. That's exactly what they will do.
So they are excellent at that. On the contrary, they're not very Proactive. Just thinking out of the square and coming up with different ideas, they're very much people pleasers. They don't want to make mistakes. [00:25:00] So they will just do what you ask them to do and how you ask them to do it. And they will do it a hundred percent. They are very good workers. When we look at, for example, staffing from South Africa.
On the other hand, they will try different things, they will suggest different things. They are more proactive than the people from Philippines.
Is it almost like the classical hunter-gatherers versus nurturers? Nurturers more in Philippines, hunter-gatherers more in South Africa?
Yes. Yeah, definitely.
For everyone who has done my Communication Mastery course, you know how much I love DISC as a personality methodology or a behavioral trait type model. Whenever I heard Andrea talk about this, it means basically that the culture of Philippines is more in line with high S, which is steady based, process, systems, steps. Which means: if you know what your steps are and you have processes and systems, all you need to do is share them with them and they will follow them to the t.
They will do 'em [00:26:00] well. They won't make lots of mistakes at all because they're very quality oriented as well. Which means that's what you get. Now, if you're a financial planner where there's a lot of compliance and rigorous processes that need to be adhered to, many of the financial planners already are outsourcing many of their tedious work to VAs in Philippines.
We all know that even the big companies have outsourced call centers over to Philippines. In fact, my internet provider here has a tech support team in Philippines, right? So it's not just that they can't necessarily afford the local rates, they just feel that, well, we can be smarter with the allocation and employ two or three people for the same amount of money and then put our Australian staff onto more specialized, higher level, high value activities instead.
So that's good. Let's now go to the hunter-gatherers you mentioned in, South Africa. Your go-getters, as you said, the more proactive ones. Would it be fair [00:27:00] to say that sales related activities: following up, converting, quoting, talking to clients in a proactive manner, making them suggestions, being solution driven would be better outsourced to somewhere like South Africa?
Absolutely, definitely. Yes, because of their nature. They are a bit more creative and like I said before, all of those tasks will definitely be better of in South Africa. And when we are talking in terms of cost, it's only just a fraction more to what you will pay somebody in the Philippines.
Instead of paying $18 an hour, you might be paying $22 an hour or $23 an hour plus GST. It's a very, very cost effective way.
Like hiring a sales person here, for example. Just think about it, how much is it costing you where you can have somebody in South Africa who will follow up those sales calls. They will do, those tasks.
For less than $30,000 a year.
$30,000 a year full time.
Guys, I hope you really see the profound opportunity in [00:28:00] this. For less than $30,000, you would have somebody constantly following through on quotes, optimizing conversions.
So if right now you check out and you see that as a plumber, as an electrician, as another tradesperson where you just keep getting calls in and you, you go on site, you do quotes. If you're now only converting two out of 10, a person on the phone can convert that to a much higher rate and go to the four, the fives, the six, and even the sevens out of 10.
That is a lot more money in your pocket as a business. If you have the leaky bucket, one or two outta 10 shows me that there's so much leakage in your business. You're paying for ads, social media, you're stitching advertising on your vans, you're maintaining your vans, you're paying your staff - all to generate more inquiries.
Isn't it a good idea to convert more inquiries into dollars in the bank?
Yes, of course. It's a no brainer. I really like that point you made. I [00:29:00] appreciate that.
Yeah.
Let's step back for a moment, 'cause one of the things that I often hear as soon as you mention the investment associated with VAs is that some people say, but hang on, you can get 'em even for five bucks or six bucks an hour if you go on Fiverr or freelancer.com.
What is your insights into that and why would you potentially guard people against going that way?
That's a brilliant question, Bram. I always say you get what you pay for.
The reality is yes, you can get 'em for much cheaper than what you would do when you go through an agency. The main difference is that you go to them directly. Which means that number one, they're working from home where they're very often juggling cooking, washing, cleaning, looking after babies as well as doing your business.
Or they job share, which means they are not fully dedicated, but they're sharing your services with another organization.
Yeah.
[00:30:00] The productivity is just not there. Number two, which is really important also, is that the internet connection might not be as good, and also they don't have the protection.
Security, you mean?
Sorry, the security. Yeah, the security protection to protect your data or whatever you sharing with your VA. How do you know that your data is not being leaked somewhere on a black market or they're not sharing that information with their friends or family?
Right.
Yep.
That's a very important point. I spoke to somebody not so long ago. They said that her VA was holding a baby, holding her phone and doing that kind of stuff, you know? So it's highly, highly unprofessional and yes, the, the productivity, it's not there then.
You get what you pay for. So going direct exposes you to a lot of unproductivity on one side, but also risks associated with data leakage and potentially even abuse of data. Yes. I think we gotta remind ourselves in a country like Australia, as business [00:31:00] owners and entrepreneurs and senior leaders, we are responsible for protecting our customers.
And so if we cut corners by not taking the security aspect as significant as it should be, we are liable. We can actually be court martialed. We can get a fine. We can potentially even be put in jail depending on the gravity of the leakage.
And so obviously if somebody is just paying for their own internet, has their own laptop, has their own phone systems, very often they won't necessarily invest in all the anti-fraud systems to protect Your customer's sensitive data, right? Absolutely.
And you don't actually know what they're doing, how much time are they spending on your business? So you might be paying them, $7, $8 an hour, or $5, $6 an hour, whatever it is directly. You don't really know what they are like, how much time are they actually spending for you, working for you, working on your task.
Versus on the [00:32:00] other hand, you can go through an agency where the agency looks after everything. So they're looking after the hiring of the VA, they're managing the staff. When you doing it yourself directly, you've gotta manage them. So if something doesn't work out you've gotta go through that whole process of I need to fire him.
I always say, if you actually are looking at getting a VA directly, you also want to get yourself a lawyer, right?
Why a lawyer as well? Because,
There is a lot of legalities that go with hiring and having a staff member, right? Yeah. So obviously, you've gotta look at not only hiring, but, and also time off. You've gotta pay them holidays, super. You've gotta pay them so many things so you need to know as a business owner what exactly those things are that you need to pay them and how to go about it.
Which means more work and time from you as a business owner if you go direct. The idea of getting a VA is to free yourself up and buy [00:33:00] back more time.
Yeah. And look, so when you do go through agency, the agency looks after hiring the person, looking after the staff. You give them the work but ultimately they are looked after on the ground, through the agency.
Mm-hmm.
If anything goes pear shaped, if you're not happy with them or whatever the case might be, and you no longer want to engage with 'em, it's the agency that deals then with the firing of the staff as well. They just look after everything.
They also do the checks to make sure that they've got a police clearance. They do reference checks.
The agency would treat it as if you were hiring the staff over here in Australia, but they are offshore.
Yep. An agency has their own offices, which means people have to clock in and out. They're being supervised, which means they won't have their crying baby on their arms and put a load of washing in or do the dishes.
And the agency, it's a professional
environment.
Absolutely. And the agency will have the, software in place to protect you. For example, if you are [00:34:00] sharing your CRM system with your virtual assistants, you want to make sure that only whatever you want them to see gets seen and not everything.
this is a very, very important point that I think, people don't think about it. When they see the dollar sign they think, oh, but it's only going to cost me $5 per hour instead of $13, $14 an hour. But that's the difference.
Cutting corners is expensive.
Oh, absolutely.
You get what you pay for. So it's worth spending a little bit more with a professional managed agency that has the facilities, but also the infrastructure. What I hear you say is they invest in both the hardware, the laptops, the phones, and whatever that is secure. They also make sure that the software and all the passwords are managed well so that there's no leakage. If it's not done, hackers can easily hack into your system.
And so again, a good agency, will have those protection mechanisms in place through hardware and software and not being able [00:35:00] to take the data outside of their premises. So I think that's a really important one because people don't know until somebody explains it to 'em.
Like what they're exposing themselves to when they go cheap.
Exactly.
And what value they get when they pay the agency. A good one, a reliable one. To do the right thing.
Exactly, in fact, I've been talking to somebody recently who has got four VAs. Two directly and two through the agency.
When I was discussing, what's the main difference for you as a business owner and what would you do differently? Well, the person said to me, next time I will have all of them through the agency.
Yeah.
Because there is just extra headaches that you don't really need to have.
More time, more headaches, more worries.
Absolutely. More risk.
Yes. So the more the whole idea, it's to buy back your time. Not to get those headaches that you currently are having. Just offload 'em to somebody else so you don't actually have to worry about 'em. So you don't want to worry. And you don't want to think about: [00:36:00] is my VA working today or are they, half the time that I'm paying them, looking after children or cooking a meal for the family? That's a reality out there.
Yeah. And let's be honest, as a business owner, if you already have a team locally around you, the last thing you want is another direct report to manage.
Right. The idea is, as an assistant, these assistants will be managed by someone, and that's part of the deal. So using an analogy, a good agency will not only be like the recruiter that places the candidate in the right job, they also will manage performance, manage that person over time. Again, making sure that you have more time to work on the stuff that matters.
If people were to put a checklist together, of how can I set myself up for success and have a high likelihood of finding the right VA, what are some things that you would have on that checklist that people can measure themselves against?
Very good question. Number one would [00:37:00] be clarity. The good thing is that. what happens when you become clear that you would like to get yourself a virtual assistant?
Normally the agency, spends quite a lot of time with you upfront to articulate what tasks need to be, or you would like to delegate to the virtual assistant. Have the clarity of what task you would like to delegate to the virtual assistants. Okay.
Secondly, the cost as well. what is it that you are comfortable paying?
That way we know exactly where to go, or, the agency knows where to go and how to find that person.
Mm-hmm.
thirdly would be... shifting the focus on how is it actually helping the business owner [00:38:00] to get the most out of the VA and what they actually want or the leadership team, they're working with.
So that's taking it back to clarity again. Just having that whole picture, how would that look that's very important, to have and understand.
Beautiful. Summarizing everything, so what, what I heard so far that is really important that people really look out for is one is that ideally speaking, they want clarity in terms of what was initially your dream.
What is it that you really enjoy doing that gives you energy? What is it that drains your energy? What is it that you're really good at? What is it that you're not really good at, what is it that gets you paid really well and what isn't? Whatever was the first thing is really aligning with your strengths and you should have more time for, or create more time for, 'cause it plays to your strengths, your passion, and your pay ability, your earning potential, everything else.
Clarity on those things is what could be allocated to a va.
Correct.
The [00:39:00] other thing I heard you say is be very wary of going direct because there's all these risks and un-productivity that go with it by cutting corners.
The third thing is, a good agency will not only find your people, they actually will also manage your people and equip your people with the tools, with the software, the hardware and security settings. They will provide all that.
I also heard you say that it's important that they think about, well, do I want somebody who's really good at systems and process and quality assurance, which is more Philippines. If, for example, a country like South Africa is in the picture, then those people could be more sales related, follow up, creative and proactive, deal making, potentially converting.
I heard you also say that if you do it well, you could get two or three people for it, helping not only you as a business owner, but also your senior leadership team to focus on more important matters instead.
That's right.
[00:40:00] Anything else we need to add in that summary?
Yes, the timing. The earlier conversation, you actually did ask about the time zones. The great thing with the Philippines also, they are working on Australian time zone. Obviously it changes slightly with the daylight savings. It gets a little bit confusing for everybody.
don't get it.
Even for myself, even for myself. But normally they work from 8:30 - 9:00 o'clock to five o'clock. So you've got 'em for seven and a half hours right now. When it comes to South Africa, it's slightly bit different because of the time zone difference, they work overnight.
you mean their time overnight, daytime,
so they're working daytime of our time, but they're working overnight in South Africa. But it's perfectly fine. They're used to doing it. It's no difference than a nurse doing at night shift here. And they're sleeping during the day. Yes.
Great value so far. Now obviously you're very knowledgeable in this space because it's part of what you do these days. Yes. Tell us a little bit more about the business that you work for and what that model looks like should [00:41:00] people consider it and want to talk to you about it more.
So I work for a company called Add-On Workforce, with the head office in Gold Coast. We've got two people, myself and Ben here in Adelaide that are looking after businesses here.
When as a business owner, you decide that you would like to hire a virtual assistant for yourself, we sit down with you, map out what that looks like, what type of tasks, what you would like to have delegated, and we help you with that.
Very often, Bram, what happens is that the business owner say, yeah, but I'm okay. I'm doing it all by myself and I'm perfectly fine. They don't actually know, or they go, well, I wouldn't actually have full-time tasks to give to someone. It's not until we sit down and we actually start mapping this out how this looks like, they go, oh yeah, I can delegate that and I can delegate that.
You know, we were talking to somebody the other day. We were saying to this business owner, these are the tasks that the new virtual assistant can [00:42:00] take for you.
So, Finally, I'll be able to get to the core of the business and do what I actually love doing.
Finally I'll be able to do all of that. he was really amazed how much, the virtual assistant can do and can help him out.
So mapping out, that's what we help you to do. Once we have the clarity on what to delegate, then we find out what type of person you would like to get, what qualities they should have , are we looking in Philippines or we are looking in South Africa. Just being really, really clear what backgrounds they need to have so we can go and find you the best staff for your business.
You guys do the whole selection process.
So there are three steps to the selection process. We'll go and look for the staff. We'll get the staff for you.
The first interview happens over in Philippines.
The second interview happens with our Gold Coast team.
And on the third interview, you are brought in as the business owner and have the final say, whether you like the person or not. Or should we continue with the interview process and selection [00:43:00] process further out? So you got the final say.
So there is a very small fee of only a thousand dollars for the process. Australian dollars plus gst. And that covers, the computer, the software. I will talk about the software in a moment. So the two softwares that we use, plus the hiring process, so the selection and hiring process, it's a very, very small fee of thousand dollars plus GST of Australian dollars.
Now we talk about security. In our agency we use two softwares. First it's called Practice Protect, which protects you as a business owner from, you know, the negligence, the fraud, and all of that. And the second, software that we use, it's a time doctor and it's a productivity management software.
That speaks straight away to my brain as an ROI type of guy.
Yes, absolutely. Productivity. Absolutely. Productivity's very important and throughout the conversation we have discussed when they're sitting in our offices. We've got a large office over in the Philippines, where we've got management [00:44:00] on the ground where they manage the staff for you.
So as a agency, we look after 'em really, really well. They get lunches, they get Christmas lunches as well. They've got a lot of different activities during their year. So they're really valued and once theyare with us six months, they also get their medical paid for as well.
Okay.
They love these jobs. When they're working for, an Australian architect, lawyer or accountant, they're really valued. They are very proud of them and do them really well.
Yeah, because it's a big opportunity for them. They get probably better paid and better perks, as you mentioned than many of the other things that they would do locally.
Absolutely. And it's a huge opportunity for them. As I mentioned before, they are very family oriented people and they're very proud people, so they are very proud that are able to actually work for Australian organization .
We even know of one of those Filipino VAs of a friend of ours that, eventually migrated and he was highly valued. He learned a lot along the way. Yes. And [00:45:00] now he actually works in a western country.
That's correct. that's exactly what happened. And look, they do stick around as well providing that, it's a good match, which obviously through the agency, through our agency, we do the most absolutely best that we give you the best person that we possibly can find for the tasks you require or would like to delegate.
Yep.
You know, they stick with you for a long time. I hear stories and we know the stories. They've been with you for years to come. You train them and, you provide a training to them, and they just do what they have to do.
So you've become a matchmaker?
Yeah. Yeah.
That's great. I personally love the model. I like the fact that you guys have that duality between the two different cultural background, so that you, from a psychological makeup or from a personality traits, can really choose between the two. You can compose your dream team locally with Australian talent, plus then these overseas people from Philippines or South Africa. And therefore, really leverage the strength of it all because it's always ultimately about [00:46:00] assembling the dream team and ensure that you've got the right bums on the right seats.
And if certain tasks are too mundane, too time consuming, too repetitive, too boring, a VA can step in, save the day. It's at a fraction of the cost and they can become an inherent part of your system.
One final thing that I wanna say, I really love how Add-On Workforce has that ethical employment perspective, that team building aspect, valuing people, doing the right thing by them, which means as a business in Australia, you're doing the right thing by your employees overseas.
So I think it's an important one. You're not cutting corners just to save a buck. Ultimately we all know that when we try to save a buck, we actually end up paying double or more. There's data breaches, cyber crime, abuse, all this stuff that you expose yourself to and you don't want to go there.
You don't wanna have the lawyer, as you said, in addition to your VA. Just let an agency take care of that for you instead.
Is there any final words of advice or recommendation [00:47:00] that you would like to give business owners, entrepreneurs or senior leaders when they're considering virtual assistants?
Absolutely. My piece of advice would be to do your research.
Mm-hmm.
And ask questions there is a lot of misconception out there, and a lot of people did get burned by virtual assistants, but generally that happens when they go directly. When they go directly, things don't work out for reasons I've mentioned throughout our conversation.
So, absolutely. Do your research, ask questions and be bold to take that step. You know, asking for help. It's a great thing. Yeah. So just ask for help.
See where it takes you.
where it takes,
I certainly see the value in it.
You're gonna lose really, sorry, Bram, but yeah.
There is nothing to lose, but everything to gain.
Yeah. To your point, I just did another podcast with Brad Janssen, who, people might also see in another episode. He admitted that by going direct it took him seven VAs, six of them didn't turn out [00:48:00] well. Imagine the time of selecting them, talking to them, qualifying them, training them, and then finding out that it didn't work out very soon after six of them before you finally found the right one.
Imagine again, the idea was to save you time, not take more time.
That's right.
Get some professionals involved to manage the process for you.
That's right.
it's been a pleasure as always. Thank you for sharing generously.
If people want to reach you where can they find you?
So they can find me, on, either LinkedIn directly on my mobile or my, email which you're going to share the information with them as well?
Absolutely.
So, no, it's been really, really good and I'm happy to answer any questions. It's a non obligation. I'm always happy to go and have a coffee or a lunch. It's absolutely an obligation, meeting to just find out a bit more about how we can assist the business owners. I feel very passionate about this Because I've been there, I've been there to be a business owner, and I know exactly what it is like to wear all of those hat where you don't have to.
And I feel [00:49:00] very passionate about the fact that, there is a light at the end of the tunnel and we can assist.
So,
It's a two-way street. when I entered this business, just to give you a quick overview. I was very excited because I feel very passionate about people here, but I feel very passionate about people from overseas as well. So it's a win-win situation. You get what you want and they get what they want.
It's a win-win for everyone involved. On that note, we're gonna close. Thank you so much.
Thank you everybody for watching. Get the book by Dan Martel called Buy Back Your Time. It's a great book. It actually gives you a system on how to train your VA.
Anytime you have a question for Andrea about how to make this work, you've heard, she's got a world of insights and expertise to share.
Always a pleasure tuning in with the Energize with Bram show!
Look forward to seeing you next time. Have a wonderful day. Cheers.
Thank you. Bye.
