Kathy Dobson's Blog Mass Outsource Mastermind Module 3

Mass Outsource Mastermind Module 3

Time to summarize Module 3 in Tyrone Shum’s Mass Outsource Mastermind. As you’ve probably guessed by now, I am a bit behind in the weekly course study. But, that’s the great thing about these courses. You can move at your own pace. The material belongs to you to use whenever you are ready.

The reason I am behind is that I have been actively searching, interviewing and placing candidates of my own. In fact, in my next post I am going to outline some of the experiences I have had….believe me, you don’t want to miss that one!

Module 3 starts with “Where to find the best virtual staff to suit your business,” to screening and hiring virtual staff; hiring for technical and customer service/admin roles; hiring for sales, marketing, accounts and finance roles; what virtual staff you should hire first; what you can expect if your staff is not right; and finally guidelines for managing virtual staff.

This is probably the most important module to get right. If you get this right, you’re off and running….get it wrong…and you go back to “start.”

What Tyrone does in the first part of this module is actually outline for you through video how to use Online Jobs. You learn why it is important to find someone who has at least 1-3 years experience, why to avoid college graduates who might not know how to operate in the business world yet and make sure they have a relevant university degree.

In my own experience, I have found the majority to have IT degrees or Computer Science degrees…that’s what you are after.

Tyrone also offers another solution for those that want the process done for them. He uses C.S.V.A.S….Contact Services Virtual Solutions for finding some virtual staff and speaks highly of the owner Rochelle Martinez. If you are interested in such service, contact her at:

contactservices.vasolutions@yahoo.com.

I have not used her for many reasons…I want the first hand experience myself. It may be something I would consider in the future, but not at this point.

It’s important to know which virtual staff to hire first and in Module 3 tutorial 7 Tyrone explains from his own personal experience and from the experience of others why he recommends hiring a Virtual Assistant first to take care of all the administrative tasks such as customer service, checking email and handling data entry tasks.

These are the most repetitive tasks and outsourcing these will free up your time and energy to use in the more productive and creative areas of your business.

You, as the entrepreneur cannot be tied up with these menial tasks. They will steal your energy and time.

On the other hand, if your business has different requirements such as hiring a programmer to manage your websites or hiring someone to do the techie side of things then this is the first hire you should place. You really need to know your own business and what the needs of your business are.

Tyrone shares his personal experiences with you in regards to his own hiring of a VA. He stresses how important it is to hire one person at a time so that you can train them properly. You need to be aware of certain things like:

how they work
how they are able to respond to all the work that you need
how long it takes for them to complete their work
and will they be able to learn things quickly

The most important thing to understand is that you must spend some time training them. Invest your time and energy into getting your staff trained in the way you want things done. It may cost you in the beginning, but the rewards on the back end are priceless.

The process of placing your first VA can take a month or more. You must search, interview, test and hire. The first month should always be designated as a trial month. Tyrone usually starts them out at $250 US and reviews them after a month. This leave room to give a raise to the right person.

Start them too high and you are hard pressed to raise them or give them bonuses. But, please don’t try and cheat them either.

One thing I’ve learned about this outsourcing business and that is that every situation is different but there are a few things that need to be adhered to by all your outsourced workers. The first thing Tyrone stresses is that you must have your Project Management System in place so that your newly hired Independent contractors have a place to be accountable for their work.

This must be done on a daily basis. Here is what Tyrone has to say about this subject:

“The first thing I want to talk about is how to keep them accountable and also make sure that they are completing the work on time. With the project management system Projects2.us, you have the capability to allow them to send in their Daily Accountability sheet.

So as long as you’ve set your Virtual Staff up in the system, and also made sure that they’ve been assigned for the Daily Accountability and training modules, they should be able to review all that and know how to do it.

Obviously, if they haven’t been able to submit anything, you might want to follow up with them for the first time and make sure that they are submitting. But, the most important thing is that they have to be submitting the Daily Accountability daily.

If they are not doing that, obviously that’s the first sign that they’re not completing the work and also not committed to work within your own business.

That’s just a requirement that I make sure that I tell them. If they don’t complete that, then unfortunately, I have to fire them and terminate the relationship and that’s as simple as that. Because if they are disciplined and they follow your rules, then I’ll know that this type of person that’s working for my business is going to be able to complete all the work on time.”

As you can see, Tyrone doesn’t mess around. But, you must be firm and set the rules from the get go. It allows you to see right off who is going to follow direction and who isn’t. Don’t waste any time. Those that cannot follow these simple directions are most likely never going to be an asset to your business. Move on.

That’s it for module 3….

Hope some or all of you are getting the outsourcing bug from following along as I outline Mass Outsource Mastermind. Outsourcing truly is your ticket to freedom.

Back soon…

Kathy *

Good stuff:

Interested in a membership site? Check out this awesome article by Robert Plank:

Twelve Can’t Miss Rules of Highly Effective Membership Site

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This entry was posted on Monday, June 21st, 2010 at 12:13 pm and is filed under General, Internet Marketing, Outsourcing. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

14 Responses to “Mass Outsource Mastermind Module 3”

Maddi Murtaza on June 21st, 2010 at 9:29 pm

Hey Kathy,

Great insightful post. As you already know I’ve been outsourcing for a few months now and before that I worked a long time with freelancers. Got burned more times than I got results so finally switched to Outsourcing full time employees. It hasn’t been easy but I can see things getting better and my time and money that i’ve invested in my people paying off in the long run.

I must also admit anyone reading this comment, Tyrone’s outsourcing videos helped me a lot and the same points have been highlighted in the Interview Kathy did with him so its highly recommended.

I also wanted to know about the project management software projects2.us is it free and have you some experience with it?
I’d like to get a better management solution for my time as at the moment, we are all over the place lol.

Thanks for a great read Kathy.

Maddi M
.-= Maddi Murtaza´s last blog ..Happy Father’s Day =-.

[Reply]
Kathy Dobson Reply:
June 27th, 2010 at 2:26 am
Hi Maddi,
I agree, Tyrone’s videos are awesome. As for the Project Management System…once you belong to Tyrone’s course you get lifetime access to the course and to the Project Management System. There is a learning curve there for sure but it is an important element for successful outsourcing.
Kathy

[Reply]
Sally Neill
Twitter: sallyneill
on June 25th, 2010 at 9:36 pm

Hi Kathy

Thanks for sharing so much information with us.

You know I am watching this very carefully as I would love to outsource many tasks of my business.

Like you said we really should not be doing the “menial” tasks and should be concentrating our efforts elsewhere.

But with it being so tough to find good outsourcing staff, it’s a catch 22 right now.

Sally
.-= Sally Neill´s last blog ..Is Social Media FAB or a FAD? =-.

[Reply]
Kathy Dobson Reply:
June 27th, 2010 at 2:23 am
Hi Sally…Nice to see you here I have some great outsourcing stories to tell already…you are so right that it can be tough. It takes a lot of work upfront…there is not doubt about it. But the backend rewards are worth it!
Kathy

[Reply]
Mandy Allen on June 27th, 2010 at 8:43 pm

Hi Kathy, great summary of the training, thanks for sharing. I was interested to read the comment about how much to pay. I do believe we get what we pay for and if we are looking for something cheap we get exactly that!

Enjoy the journey.

Mandy
.-= Mandy Allen´s last blog ..When did you last feel good =-.

[Reply]
Barry Wells
Twitter: barry_wells
on June 28th, 2010 at 1:19 pm

Hi Kathy, thanks for the excellent advice.

I’m not ready to outsource as yet as i’m trying to do everything myself and learn the ins and outs of it all first.

Having said that i am thinking of getting some articles wrote for my latest product. My concerns are: A, cost B, language. By that i mean using broken english.

Can you recommend anyone for articles?

Thanks Kathy, catch up soon,

Regards, Barry
.-= Barry Wells´s last blog ..Is This The Age of Disposable Computers =-.

[Reply]
Dawn Kay on July 1st, 2010 at 9:48 pm

Hi Kathy

Were do you find the time to learn, interview and train up all these outsourcers, there just isn’t enough hours in the day (lol).

Thank you for helping me to find my outsourcer. It’s a little scary when you’re doing it for the first time and by having you there to guide me through the process,it made my task a whole lot easier.

Take care

Dawn Kay

[Reply]
Kathy Dobson Reply:
July 2nd, 2010 at 4:32 pm
Hi Dawn, I will admit that these chores are very time consuming…especially in the beginning. But, I also believe that it will get easier as my eye and ear gets more sharper through more experience. At least that’s the way I’ve planned it lol! Thanks for coming by Dawn. I always enjoy seeing you here.
Kathy

[Reply]
Simon Croft on July 9th, 2010 at 1:13 pm

Hi Kathy,

Thanks for a great post, some really good information there.

I would eventually love to outsource most things (in fact everything). However, I think it is also important to get to know your business first and the direction you want to take it before hiring VA’s. I think without direction, you could end up outsourcing in the wrong areas and wasting money instead of making it.

Regards

Simon

[Reply]
Kathy Dobson Reply:
July 9th, 2010 at 2:14 pm
Hi Simon….how right you are! We must have a solid grip on the direction we want to go before looking for outsourcers to complete your needed tasks.
Wasting money is never a good idea Thanks for stopping by!
Kathy

[Reply]
Glyn Lafferty on July 9th, 2010 at 8:10 pm

Hey Kathy,

Outsourcing is great in so many way when it comes to business but if done wrong can cost alot of money. Tyrone sounds like a guy that doesn’t mess around.

I just found your blog from a post at Sally Neill’s blog you where in her top 3 best blogs.

Great stuff

[Reply]
Kathy Dobson Reply:
July 12th, 2010 at 6:25 pm
Hi Glyn…how right you are about outsourcing can cost money…we must be very careful that we have chosen right and if not we must be quick to change things up. I believe it is Jeff Mills who states “hire fast and fire fast.”
Thanks for stopping by Glyn….Kathy

[Reply]
Maria on August 1st, 2010 at 12:11 am

Hello Kathy,

I am new on internet marketing & I want this to work for me because I dream of having my own business all my life. So to catch up, I started outsourcing & hiring my brother in Philippines for $200 full time to do all stuff from keyword research, creating content, building the site and seo. But, it seems that he couldn’t follow simple directions. I noticed he is good only for software installation and being my brother, I felt pity to tell him that I am not satisfied because to pay $200, although this is little compared to paying $2000 full time, it is still a lot of money for person who has no job. I am just a stay at home mum but I don’t have that much time to sit on the computer for many hours.

I then changed my strategy of hiring him part time instead but only for building websites. And, hire additional 4 part timers: 1 part timer to do writing articles for the site, 1 part timer to do keyword research & SEO, 1 part timer to do the the free ebooks for optin & autoresponders and 1 part timer to do CPA projects.

All these part timers have bachelor degrees. So, I hope with the new strategy, I will not waste money & time.

Thanks for expressing on this blog.

[Reply]
Kathy Dobson Reply:
August 1st, 2010 at 11:36 am
Hi Maria…thanks for the information. It is valuable to hear others experiences of what works and what doesn’t. Although most of the guru’s will tell you that you should hire full time…I am more in agreement with your findings. That hiring people to address certain aspects of your business…all part-time till you have a whole is the way to go.
Experience alone will tell I guess…:)
Kathy

[Reply]