Entrepreneurs need to become experts in their industries in order to survive the ocean of startups developing across the globe. By establishing yourself as a leader in your field of interest, you can attract loyal customers and build trust in your product or service. Your expertise differentiates you from competitors, and ultimately is the secret sauce to your business venture.
For this reason, The Founder Institute has gathered our expansive network of global entrepreneurs to share valuable insights into each of their specific industries. In this installment of Ask an Expert, Founder & CEO of Zirtual, Maren Kate Donovan, shares her thoughts on how outsourcing will change the way we scout and hire talent.
Zirtual connects busy people with quality, long-term virtual assistants. Core duties include administrative, research, and travel support for clients. Zirtual Assistants (ZA) will coordinate your schedule, conduct preliminary market research and manage your travel plans.
Most entrepreneurs have great talents but many times they think they can do it all. That can really stall the growth of the business. By outsourcing the day to day back-office tasks, the business owner has more time to focus on generating income. Laura Lee Sparks left her job as a law firm manager to launch her own business, she knew from the beginning that there were certain tasks she didn't want to handle. Within months of launching her business and outsourcing certain tasks, she was able to generate revenues that reached six figures. The report was originally delivered by Nancy Mann Jackson in an Entrepreneur article titled "How to Build a Better Business with Outsourcing."
Why Outsourcing? What attracted you to launch a business in this industry?
MKD: I’ve always felt that my energy should be spent on more effective tasks, and everything else should be delegated. So outsourcing is something that I have long been passionate about. I started researching virtual assistants in college. My first assistant was based in the Philippines, and immediately had a huge positive impact on my productivity. The impact was so apparent that people started coming to me, asking if I could help find them an assistant of their own, and this is where I saw an opportunity.
Like a lot of great stories... it started in Vegas. Zirtual was birthed during a late night brainstorming sesh in 24-hour cafe on the Las Vegas strip."
I performed market research and discovered the size of the market was a lot bigger than I expected, which was great potential to launch a business. Through my findings, some of the problems I came across in outsourcing to individuals overseas was no guarantees of skill/ability, turnaround issues, and possible communication setbacks. That realization is what led to the next stepping stone for Zirtual: college educated, US-based assistants. It all kind of came together from there.
Do you believe outsourcing will change the way businesses hire in-house employees? Why or why not?
MKD: Usually dedicated assistants are considered a luxury reserved only for high level executives at companies. However, with more trusted outlets like Zirtual providing qualified talent, it can be offered as an extremely relevant and unique perk to all staff members. A virtual assistant can be of great value to an employee at any level that simply wants to get ahead. It’s hard to put a price on the ability to delegate all of the daily tasks that stop you from focusing on your talents and skills. Scheduling and managing meetings, communicating reminders between departments, helping you clear your inbox, planning office lunches, performing due diligence on a project and conducting research are just some of the administrative duties a ZA can help with.
What are some tips for starting a business in the Outsourcing Industry?
MKD: One of the biggest challenges or mistakes we see companies make is not immediately setting up or encouraging some sort of community culture with their staff. Our ZA's have wine nights together (through Google hangouts) and form online groups where they chat and exchange tips and advice. Many of them even get together with other local ZA's for co-working days. You want to make sure that your employees never feel isolated and have constant access to a colleague for support when they need it.
What are some challenges you face in the Outsourcing Industry?
MKD: Very early on we made the decision to hire all of our ZA's as employees of our company vs independent contractors. 90% of our ZA's are women and our aim is to create meaningful work and career paths for our assistants. We provide full-time employees with growth incentives, full benefits, and 401k packages. We realize that the EE model is not possible for every company who is part of the collaborative/share economy, but we know exploitation and low wages are amongst the common challenges faced by its workforce.
How do you ensure the quality of Zirtuals for clientele? Also, how do you manage your talent of 400+ employees?
MKD: All of our ZA's are hired, vetted and trained by us. They have very diverse backgrounds, degrees, and are generally super passionate about creating the best possible experience for their clients. We provide dedicated assistants (you work 1:1 with your ZA) whom are matched to our clients based on their specific needs. Also, we only bring on the best and brightest, we've been known for our rather challenging application process. We hire at a rate of 3% of all applicants who apply, because we understand having an assistant requires a great deal of trust. In addition, we provide personal training through our custom built learning program.
What resources would you recommend entrepreneurs in the Outsourcing Industry to utilize? (eg: blogs, books, publications)
MKD: Figure out what your company culture is, than be sure to hire for that, this is especially important with remote teams. Hire for traits, train for skills. Utilize job boards, blogs, social media to find the right talent. Decide whether you want to hire within specific areas to work remotely (so they can get together easily once in a while) or truly anywhere (your country, or worldwide). Also, a few of my favorite reads are the 80/20 principle, Tribal Leadership and Scaling Up, by Vern Harnish.
Interested in hiring a virtual assistant, visit Zirtual's official website for more details.
