We all got into business to do more of what we love, own our time, and maximize our freedom. But what happens when your business has you pinned down at your desk 50, 60, 70, or more hours per week? Well, it’s time to hire help and get back to what you love.
In this episode, we talk to Nicole Bandes, founder of Virtual A Team, about the difference between a VA and an OBM, what you can expect to pay for each, how to find the right person for you, and red flags to watch out for. If you’re tired of feeling overwhelmed and like you’re wearing all the hats in your business, then this episode is for you!
After losing her 17 y/o son, Nicole Bandes discovered her purpose: encourage others to make time for what matters most. In 2017, Nicole founded Virtual A Team, a virtual services agency helping overwhelmed coaches who want to define success by the wealth of their lives, not the size of their bank accounts. Nicole now walks the walk working under 20 hours a week and also hosts Coach’s Copilot: Your Online Business Manager podcast.
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Rai Cornell 0:02
Welcome to Season Two of the SOAR podcast, the place for creative entrepreneurs who want to build healthier, happier, more profitable, self employed businesses. I’m your host, Rai Hyde Cornell, business mentor at Chiron Consulting and CEO and senior copywriter at Cornell content marketing, get ready to soar.
Welcome to the soar podcast. On our episode today, we have Nicole Bandes. Nicole, tell our listeners about your business and what it is that you do.
Nicole Bandes 0:42
I thank you so much for having me on. I’m so happy to be here today. My company is Virtual A Team and we are a little bit of a unique agency. And we’re not a marketing agency, or you know, that type of thing, what we are is an online business manager and virtual services agency. So we offer our clients the, the ability to take all of those things off of their plate, without having to manage the team that’s doing it all. One of the biggest challenges that we’ve always found with our clients is that they want to delegate, but they don’t know how to find and hire and train and manage all of the people that are on the team that they want to build. So we do it all for them. And make sure that they have time for what matters most and the things that only they can do in their business.
Rai Cornell 1:38
There’s so much that you just said that I want to dig into so I’m trying to decide where to start. But let’s start at that last point that you made, which is that you are trying to help people free up time for what matters most. That to me really speaks to the the why, why hire help? And what are the signal flags that someone is ready for something like this? Because not only are we talking about you, on the surface, we’re talking about adding an additional cost in your business of bringing in help. But that’s an oversimplification of what it really does to your business dynamic. Tell me about that. Like, when do you know that someone is ready for your services?
Nicole Bandes 2:28
You know, this is a, it’s an interesting question, because everybody wants that, that benchmark. Like well, when I get this many clients or when I’ve reached this size revenue, and my, my answer to that question is a little bit different in that you’re ready when you become overwhelmed with what you’re doing. When it’s no longer a hobby, you actually have a legitimate business, and you are looking at saying I don’t want to do all the things, I don’t want to have to do all the things. And if this is not what I got into business for, I didn’t get into business so that I could work 90 or 120 hours a week, when I only have 167 hours a week, I want to do something a little bit more strategic. And that’s when you’re ready. It’s when you feel that overwhelm pressing down on you like, I can’t do this, I that’s when you’re really ready. It’s it’s not the number of clients you have or the, the amount of revenue you have. It’s, it’s that internal feeling of needing and wanting more and knowing that you don’t have the capacity to do it anymore.
Rai Cornell 3:44
Yeah, yeah, I completely agree with you. And I think back to when I hired my first VA, and I was in that exact situation that you’re describing where I was so overwhelmed, because there were things like invoicing and bookkeeping and just little task management things and, you know, finding images for the blogs I was writing for my clients and all of these little things that I was so behind on all of the little details, that I couldn’t do the things that were actually billable to my clients. And so I hit a ceiling on how much I could earn, because of how much time I had in the day, which at that time, I think I was putting like 12 to 14 hours a day into my business and nobody should be doing that. And so, when you’re looking at that sort of equation of the finances, the revenue, the number of clients, the how many hours you have in the day, oftentimes I tell my mentees, you’re gonna have to hire someone before you’re financially ready. Because it’s only after you have that help that you will be freed up to bring in more clients or do more work that generates more revenue to cover the cost of that person. Is that kind of the order of operations that you tend to find with your clients as well?
Nicole Bandes 5:08
Yeah, I mean, definitely, we don’t want somebody to go into debt to work with us, you know by, by no means is that the ideal situation, but there are going to be times when you can dramatically increase your revenue by outsourcing some of the things that are not income generating, so that you can spend more time on those income generating tasks. If you can look at your day and say, my gosh, if I didn’t have to do the bookkeeping, if I didn’t have to do the research for all of this stuff. If I didn’t have to do that, and I didn’t have to do this other thing over there, I could spend more time working directly with my clients or bringing in more clients, having those client conversations, then that is absolutely 100% a legitimate place to be, even if the revenue isn’t quite there, you have the system and the process and the concepts in place to bring in more revenue if you can free up more of your time.
Rai Cornell 6:07
Yeah, and, you know, you mentioned research, I was like, Oh, I completely forgot about the research side of things and how much time that takes, especially when you’re a writer or a social media manager, and you’re doing market research. What are some of the things that often surprise your clients that they can delegate to you and your team? Because I feel like, especially for those of us who have never hired someone in our businesses before, we tend to have this kind of control freak, like, nobody can do it like I do it. I’m the only one who knows how to do this. It’s all in my head. I don’t have anything documented anywhere. So where would I even begin to get someone helping me in the business? What are some of the things that you help your clients with? That they may not even realize that they were able to ask for help on those things?
Nicole Bandes 6:59
Yeah, this is a great question. And it gets a little bit into the conversation around different levels of services that you can hire out for. Virtual A team, we do a lot of business management for our clients, which means they don’t necessarily have to come to us with the specific processes in place, they don’t have to already know what to take off their plate. A lot of times when you’re hiring a virtual assistant, you’re going to want to know exactly how something should be done in order to hand it to them. You’re going to want to know what you want to hand to them, because they’re not going to be the person that’s going to say, oh, wait, well, let’s take a big holistic picture of your business and figure out what we can take off your plate for you. Instead, they’re going to be, hey, give me some work and I’ll get it done for you, tell me how to do it. But with Virtual A team, I think one of the things that our clients are most surprised at is that they don’t have to have that list already set up. They don’t have to have the standard operating procedures already set up. We can do all of those things for them, we can go in and evaluate all of the different things that are going on. And while we’re definitely not strategists, by any means, we’re not going to you know, do an entire audit of your business and say, well, here’s how you can scale, we’re certainly going to be able to help figure out what processes can be taken off of your plate so that it does free you up for more time.
Rai Cornell 8:32
So you bring up the difference between a VA and an OBM. So what just someone who’s kind of shopping around for help, need to know about those options. How does someone know? Okay, I’m ready for a VA like I was back in the day. I mean, I don’t think I was really ready for an OBM. And I’m trying to think of why I feel that way. It’s probably because I I was very loosey-goosey. I mean, I had projects all over the place, I was very just go with the flow. And I didn’t have any structure or funnels or systems or anything like that. Is that kind of what you find? Or is there something else that people can use to figure out if they’re ready for VA help or OBM help?
Nicole Bandes 9:17
You know, a VA is going to be more of that individual when you really do know specifically what you want to take off your plate. And it’s, it’s an individual project or task, and you can hand off this and you can hand off that. An OBM really is going to help you when you’re in that sort of loosey goosey stage they’re gonna, you know, they and you can say, oh my gosh, I don’t want to be an associate or Z stage anymore. I want to have some structure in my business. I want to have somebody that’s going to create the processes and the systems. I want to have somebody that’s going to be able to manage the projects, not just the tasks. That’s one of the big differences, you know, let’s just take social media, for example, you can have a social media manager, or you can have a social media VA, a VA is going to handle the posting for all of the content that you’ve created, they might create the graphics for you. But if you want somebody that’s going to kind of take the big picture and look at it and say, Okay, we’re going to have this person, do the graphics and this person, get the posting done. And then we’re going to have this review done at the end of the month to see how everything’s done, you need to take it up a level, a VA generally is not going to, that being said, there are gems out there, and they can be found, but they are a rarity, to be able to find the VA, who can do more of the project management. So when you want to hand off an entire project, a lot of our clients, they know they need to be on social media, or they know they need a website redesign, but they don’t know where to start with that. They’re like, I wouldn’t even know what questions to ask, that’s when a great OBM can really step in for you. And manage that project and the the entire kind of all of the moving parts. I equated a lot to the VA being like the burger flipper at a McDonald’s or a Burger King. And the OBM is more like the franchise owner who’s coordinating different locations and managing doing all the hiring, you know, and figuring out all of the moving parts and all of the steps involved.
Rai Cornell 11:37
I’m sure for some people listening to this, they’re going, Oh my God, that sounds amazing. Like, I could just let someone into the door of my business. And then they can take over and see what needs done and see what steps need to happen, in what order and then delegate those tasks. That seems like a dream come true. But what does that look like in practice? Like, what are we talking about in terms of cost? And I know, whenever we’re looking at hiring someone, there’s going to be a wide range of hourly rates versus package rates versus retainer rates. But what can someone expect to pay for a VA compared to an OBM?
Nicole Bandes 12:20
Yeah, that’s a great question. And yes, there are a lot of variables involved here, VAs, the, you know, they’re traditionally on an hourly rate, not on a package or retainer rate. And they can be you know, all over the world, you can get very inexpensive VAs from the Philippines for you know, $10 an hour, or you can get US-based VAs for you know, $20 an hour kind of range. The difference being Filipino, you know, they might have different customs and traditions that are working on different hours. You know, they might not understand or grasp the English language, quite they, they can speak fluent English, but they are still certain phrases or, you know, nuances, nuances to the English language that they’re not going to pick up or, you know, just quirky phrases that we might say, you know, grab the, you know, grab the dog by the years, and they’re like, what the heck does that mean? You know, so so there are some challenges with working at that lower expense. But there’s a lot of huge benefits as well. So you know, you can get some amazingly talented people for a significantly reduced cost. And it’s about knowing what your needs and specifications are. When you get up to the OBM level, you’re more traditionally looking at somebody that’s going to be US based, or in the same country that you are, if you’re not US based. In North America, if you happen to be in Canada, you know, that kind of thing. And they’re going to have a little bit more of that overall holistic business sense, they’re generally going to work more on a retainer package. So they’re gonna say, you know, here’s, here’s the number of hours that you get in a given month. And I’m not really tracking those specifically but this is kind of a general range. And here’s what we can usually accomplish within that range. And generally, you’re going to be looking at on an hourly rate somewhere between 50 and 75 an hour for an OBM. So you know, it’s definitely higher than what you would pay for a VA but they come with a much broader skill sense that that is not always easy to find in a VA level individual.
Rai Cornell 14:49
Absolutely. I think this goes back to what you were saying at the beginning of when do you know if you’re ready to hire, and it’s probably when you’re feeling overwhelmed and bogged down in the management of your business, and you’re working so much in your business, that you’re not working on your business. And things that are kind of categorized as working on your business, that includes your marketing, getting new clients, getting better clients, raising your rates, all of that business development stuff that is, in my opinion, one of the most exciting things about being self-employed, because then you really have full control over what your life looks like and how you’re spending your time and how you’re spending your days. So it gives you more of that freedom. Whereas when you hire a VA, and don’t get me wrong, we have some amazing VAs on the Cornell team. But you have to really spell out, okay, this is what I need, here’s some instructions, here’s, you know, reach me, between these hours in these hours, if you have any questions, or if you have trouble logging in from overseas, that’s something that we often bump into a lot where our viewers need to use a VPN to tell their internet signal that they’re actually based in the US so that they can get access to certain platforms that we need them to access. And it takes a lot of time and energy to manage a team member like that. So I don’t want people to get scared off by that jump in price, you know, we’re talking about 10$ to $20 per hour for VAs all the way up to 50$ to $75 an hour for OBMs. But the amount of stress and management in really being responsible for someone else that really goes down when you’re working with an OBM, which frees you up to do those things that you initially got into business to do in the first place.
Nicole Bandes 16:41
Right. And, you know, I’m a firm believer that most businesses that fail within that first five years, which is sort of that that point that they say, you know, five years, and most businesses have failed. A lot of that’s not necessarily because they couldn’t get to a point where they were successful, it’s because they were so overwhelmed with like, oh, man, I am a great massage therapist, or I am a great social media person. But when it comes to business, that’s not my area of expertise, I don’t know how to run a business, I don’t know how to manage a business. And I don’t want to do all of those things but I still want to have my own business. But an online business manager can solve a lot of those headaches for you, and still allow you to have that freedom in your life. I generally work less than 20 hours a week, because that’s what I want to do. And I was, you know, I travel, I have a trip coming up. I don’t know when this is going to air, but I’ll be on the road for 70 days this summer. You know, and and I’ll probably be working, you know, less than five hours a week during that period of time, you know, so I do still check in periodically. But frankly, I’m in an RV in national parks. And a lot of times I don’t have any access to internet. So it’s sort of a self imposed, you know, downtime. But businesses, I think they fail, because they get so wrapped up in all of the things that they have to do to build and grow their business that are not in their zone of expertise that are not in their zone of genius. And they really don’t want to have to be doing those things. I think bookkeeping, if I had to do bookkeeping all the time, in my own business, I’d be like, you know what, let me go find a job somewhere.
Rai Cornell 18:36
Yes, exactly. And I think that’s when people start to fall out of love with their businesses, because yes, the thing that they got excited about and started their business to do, they’re no longer doing that, because they have to do all the running of the business and checking all the boxes and making the IRS happy. And all of those things that really we did not get into business to do that. And that’s where having support really can be a game changer in terms of your quality of life, as well as your earning potential, your quality of the work that you’re putting out. There’s just so many factors that are involved. So we’re going to take a super short commercial break and we’ll be right back.
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We are back with Nicole Bandes. So Nicole, now I will be totally honest with our listeners. I have had some bad experiences with hiring VAs and OEMs in the past and actually VAs for the most part I’ve been pretty solid with I’ve had some really great VAs, I can’t really remember any super negative experiences hiring a VA. But I did have real one really bad experience hiring an OBM. I was at that point that you’re describing where I had a VA in my business, I had a couple of contract writers, I had a designer, I had a small team and I was still overwhelmed. I was drowning I was, you know, it’s taking me forever to do sales calls and proposals and do the copywriting and do the marketing and do all the delegation, all the things. And I met this woman who, that’s exactly what she did. She did OBM services. And she goes, Okay, this is what I would suggest for you, I’m going to come in, we’re going to get you set up in what was it she wanted to do like click up or something like that was the project management tool. And we had been using Asana, and there were all these things that she was going to do. And it was going to cost me like $3,500 a month or something like that. And after three and a half months, none of it was done, none of it. And so I turned to one of my VAs and I was like, look, I am at my wit’s end, I am drowning, can you please get us set up and click up? She had it done in two weeks. And so, you know, I look back on that, with still a little bit of bitterness, you can probably hear my voice. But at the same time, it was really a learning experience for me, because I realized there are unfortunately, people out there who promise things and then don’t deliver. So I’m sure you’ve run into this as well. And you’re protecting your clients from that. So what are your tips for looking out for red flags? Like what are the things that you suggest someone look for? Or ask when they’re trying to find a VAR OBM to help them in their business?
Nicole Bandes 22:25
Yeah, this is a fabulous question. Because one of the reasons that I created some of the benefits that virtual A/ team has is to overcome some of these, I mean, we guarantee that you’re going to be happy with your team and you know that all of the boxes are going to get checked in and I stand I mean, this is my business and I stand behind it. So you know, we we have overcome a lot of those challenges like the ghosting vas, you know what happens when they just disappear, you know, and all of those things, but some of the things that you can do. One is to hire to start the hiring process way before you think you’re going to need it. Because then you’re hiring slow. The worst thing that you can do is be in that place where you’re like, overwhelmed, and you just need to hire somebody three days ago, because somebody’s gonna come along, and they’re gonna say, hey, I can help you with that. And you’re gonna be like, okay, great, let me hire you. And you’ve done no due diligence with this individual whatsoever, you’re just taking them as being the holy grail that they can do what it is that they’re saying. So hire well, before you think you’re going to need it. Make sure that you’re really super clear about what it is that you’re looking to accomplish. In that you want to know, here’s the tasks that I’m going to have outlined. And if it’s more of the OBM, where you’re like I don’t know yet, then be specific about that have something of a job description in your head. Ideally, you’ll have it written down, but come on, we’re busy people’s it’s not always all overwhelming listing thing, right? You know, but if you can have that concept, then you know what you’re looking for in that. And one of the biggest things that that I teach is delegate don’t abdicate. One of the biggest mistakes that we make when we get into business and we’re starting to hire people is we think, oh my gosh, okay, they can do this. Now I’m gone. Like, if I assign a project, I have regular check ins with that individual I check in, even if they’re not responding to me so that I can pick up on those red flags early in the process. And I can either there’s an old saying hire slow fire fast. So as soon as you start seeing those red flags, you want to be aware of them before something is like three months into the project. You know, and you can look at that and really make sure that they are being onboarded properly. You You’re you’re teaching them the things about your business that are prioritized for you not for them, that they have those clear expectations, they understand, you know, your values, your mission, all of that good stuff. And you’re staying on top of it to make sure that the deliverables are executed in the way that you expect them to be executed. So often, we bring on a new client, and they’re like, Okay, here you go, they puke everything on us. And then they leave us to clean up the mess. And when we have questions, they’re not responding. Because they’re busy, they’ve moved on to something else. And I’m not saying this is the case for you, or the situation that you were in, but it’s one of the biggest challenges that we see is that they’re like, I just need to get that off my plate. And now I’m going to totally focus on something else and forget that that even existed, because I think somebody else is handling it. But just like when you start a new job, and any other company, if they just throw you to the wolves you’re like, I don’t even know where the bathroom is, let alone how am I supposed to find these files and this and that the other. So make sure that you are really clear about that job, that you take the time to do the reviews and the due diligence before you hire. And I mean, you can use assessments and tools and look at their reviews, because most of the time, if you’re hiring a VA or an OPM, they’re going to be an independent contractor, not an employee. So look at their previous reviews of how they’re working with other clients. Obviously, reviews, they’re only going to show you the best ones, though. So take all of that with a grain of salt. But you know, look for those individuals that have the don’t hire somebody simply because they are really super outgoing and friendly on the conversation. You don’t need a best friend, you need somebody that’s going to do a great job in your business. And sometimes that person is not the one that comes across the best in the interview. So those are some things you know, that you can kind of look for and pay attention to. And hopefully that helps to alleviate some of those challenges.
Rai Cornell 27:16
I think those are great points. And I’ll just add to that saying, you know, where I was in my business at the time, when I hired the woman who I ended up not being very happy with, I was desperate, I was drowning, and I was just in a please somebody helped me sort of situation. And so I didn’t do my due diligence, I think, later on, I learned that I was like her second or third client. And she didn’t really have that much experience, she had a lot of promises. And she talked really well. But she didn’t have the experience under her belt that I needed. And so I love that you say hire slow and fire fast, because that’s really something that we’ve implemented over the years on both the Cornell and Chiron sides, where we give our new team members a trial period. And sometimes that’s one month, sometimes it’s two months, depending on how active they’re going to be in the business. So for example, VAs think we pretty much have them doing stuff every day. So they get a one month period, whereas loggers, we go through content creation cycles. So they need about two months to really have enough time to do enough projects for us to evaluate them properly. And that just sets the expectation that, hey, we’re going to do this on a trial basis. And it’s not because we don’t trust you. But we want to see if everybody enjoys working together. Maybe you’re the one who actually wants to fire me, who knows, let’s find out and let’s not commit to six months or a year to start with, let’s just do a trial. And then if at the end of that we enjoy working together and we want to continue, then we can renew for six months or 12 months or something to that effect. But with all of that, the other piece is making sure that you are leaving that door open for questions. I think one of the biggest red flags I’ve learned about is when I have a team member start and they start the role. And then I never hear from them. They don’t ask questions. They don’t say, Hey, I can’t get into this document. Or hey, by the way, do you prefer this type of we know spelling? Or do you want to use contractions? I’m thinking about copy editors right now, because we’re bringing on new copy editor. And so I’m like, does this client prefer contractions? Or do they want to be more formal? When I don’t hear any questions from the person that worries me? And so whether you’re going out to get a VA or OBM role, and you’re like, oh, I don’t want to ask questions, because I don’t want the clients to think that I don’t know what I’m doing. And you want to kind of put up this tough front. You have to keep those lines of communication open. Because just like you said, even if you’re starting a regular traditional job, I don’t even know where the bathroom is. Where’s the break room like? Just do people take one, is that noon or one or what goes on here? Whenever I feel like it, right, you have to learn the new environment that you’re in. And so having someone come in to your business that can be a very, we create our businesses as extensions of ourselves. And it can be a very intimate thing to work with someone on this level when you are your business, your businesses, you it’s your brainchild, how do you suggest that someone go about finding that person who, maybe you don’t have to be best friends, but you are going to actually enjoy working together for 10 to 40 hours per week, depending on the role?
Nicole Bandes 30:41
Yeah, yeah, I’m going to answer that question. But first, I want to kind of go back to the asking questions. And say, it’s not enough to tell them it’s okay to ask me questions. You have to really because especially with certain cultures like Filipino VAs, it is not in their culture to ask questions. So rather than just saying, ask me anything that you need to ask me, you have to go to them and say, what questions do you have? Do you have any questions? Because they’ll say no, what questions do you have opens that door so that they actually start to ask questions, and then reward them and encourage them to when they are asking those questions. Because initially, they’re going to be really shy about it. Like I, you know, I felt sorry about that. And then you’ll be like, No, oh, my gosh, thank you so much for asking that question. I can’t believe I forgot to share that information with you. We, we don’t know what’s in our own heads, we have to get them to pull it out of us by asking those questions. Yep. So this is a really big issue here to work on is how you incentivize and encourage them to ask those questions. Excellent. Okay. Yes. So how do we find the individuals, there are some great resources out there, I love using LinkedIn, you can post jobs on LinkedIn, and get tons and tons of applications through that process. One of the things that I develop that’s kind of proprietary here at Virtual A team is I actually have a scoring system. So rather than going through and weighing all of these applications, all of these resumes that all look different, and you’re comparing an apple to an orange to a peanut, I have a scoring system so that they fill out an application, and it automatically scores them, for me. And so it takes me out of that and saying, Oh, this was pretty, it’s on purple paper. Suppose my favorite color, you know, so come up with something that gives you a way to evaluate everybody equally, if it’s, here’s the skills that I know that I want them to have. And so if it mentions that on the resume, they get one point for that skill, and they get two points for that skill. LinkedIn is a great place, there’s tons of groups on Facebook for VAs that you can post job requests in. But don’t free to reach out to people in your own email list. Frankly, you can send out a request that says, hey, I’m looking for somebody and give a very clear job description. If you know somebody who’s looking for some part time work, especially if you’re willing to do a little bit of training with them. They don’t need to be like a high level quality expert. You can, you know, send that out to your email list and see who in your circle, know somebody, it doesn’t have to be them on the email list, but just who they know, is a great way to to get some referrals as well.
Rai Cornell 33:59
That’s a great idea. And that’s also another option is to ask your colleagues, if you’re a designer, and you often work with a writer, and you guys collaborate, ask that writer if he or she knows anybody who does VA or OBM services. Ask your fellow designers ask your friends who are also freelancing, we tend to kind of find each other and stick together when we are in this self employed world. Ask them because oftentimes, I find that the hardest part of hiring is vetting that person and knowing if you can trust them and form a good relationship with them. And if someone comes pre recommended, like recently hiring for an executive assistant role, and my friend Emma actually recommended someone to me, and she knows me so well, that she knows, okay, this person is going to be a great match for race personality, or, Oh, I don’t think these two would actually get a Long. And so it kind of takes that heart out of it for you if you can get a good referral. And I also love your scoring mechanism, I don’t do something nearly that quantified and technical, but I do. And I’ll just tell you guys, because if you go to the Cornell website and you try to apply for any of our jobs, you’re gonna see this question on the application. But we do is, I have a question at the very bottom of the application that says, What does it say? What is the final cherry on top? And in parentheses, it says, hint, look at our website. And what I’m looking for is someone who’s detail oriented, someone who’s proactive and someone who can go see if they can find the answers to their questions before they come to me for everything, because I don’t mind if someone asks me questions, but I also don’t want them to ask me questions that are right there in the training materials that I’ve given them, or right there, you know, in front of them, like, go try to find the answer first yourself, and then if you can’t find it, then come to me. And to answer this question, all someone has to go do is go to the Cornell website, and do Ctrl F, and type in Cherry to look for that phrasing on our website. And they will find it. And so when I look at applications, I just started that last question. And I go, Okay, did they get it? Right? Did they get it? Right? If so, they’re gonna stay in the pile? If not, sorry, I’m gonna filter you out. Because you didn’t try to find the answer. And it’s very easy to find so.
Nicole Bandes 36:30
We actually have that we do that too. And our answer is right in the application, or the the job description. So all they had to do is read the job description, and that has the information. And you would be shocked how many people don’t read those job descriptions. Right. So it is that basic filtering process that will dramatically I mean, when I, when I put out a listing for a VA, I easily get in two days, 150 applications. And I don’t want to go through 150 applications. So that narrows it down usually to about 30. Because that many people don’t read the entire application so.
Rai Cornell 37:08
Yep, yep. And I’ve heard the exact same, I’ve backed those ratios. That sounds about right for us as well. Yeah. It’s really interesting. So if someone is ready to get started either working with a VA or in OBM, where can they go to learn more about you? And find out if you guys might be a good fit?
Nicole Bandes 37:33
Yeah, so you can actually, hopefully, you can still hear me because I paused there.
It yeah, it froze for a second. Let’s redo that.
Okay, perfect.
Rai Cornell 37:37
Cool. So. So where can people go to check you out? If they want to learn more about your services, and maybe find out if you might be a right fit to help them run their business?
Nicole Bandes 37:54
Yeah, thanks so much for having me on. I’m glad I’ve gotten to answer some of these questions. The best place to catch me is virtualateam.com. All of our socials are there. You can actually take a quiz that will tell you how ready are you for Virtual A team. So that’s a free it takes about two three minutes. Pop in and take a couple of quick questions, answer a couple quick questions, and you’ll know whether or not you really are truly ready for your own virtual a team and you can book a call with us to find out if you’re ready to get that scheduled.
Rai Cornell 38:27
Awesome. Thank you so much for being here. Nicole, this is great. Thank you.
Hey, Rai here again, thanks for listening. If you’ve liked this episode, please subscribe and rate us in your favorite podcasting platform. Want to be a guest on the show or know someone who has an amazing story of entrepreneurship? Apply on our website at chironconsulting.us/podcast