Hey guys! I’m back to share my success stories on how I leverage my amazing Filipino start-up virtual assistant to help run my business Techlok Solutions, in addition to several other projects that I work on. So let’s dive into our second topic for this week.

Research, research, research! Research is so important when you’re starting a new company and it’s so time-consuming that it will drive you nuts. But, research is how I’ve really been able to harness the power of my VA. She does 95% of the work and leaves me to focus on the 5%.

Here’s our startup strategy:

I start by dictating on my phone what I need for the company and the skills that accompany that need. When it comes to onboarding, I’ve hired probably 50 people over the last 5-10 years of my life. How much time does it take to review multiple candidates and resumes? Realistically, you are going through dozens of candidates but only hiring one. So here is where my VA comes in.

“Hey, Kristina (VA), you know me well enough and what I look for in a qualified candidate. Here are the qualifications I am looking for:

• Can you find candidates with backgrounds that make sense for the job?
• Do the candidates look and feel professional?
• Go on their social media accounts, and see if they look fitting for the role.
• Check their backgrounds and experience based on my set qualifications.

I have her review the, let’s say, 50 resumes. She will choose the top 3 to 5 candidates on my behalf. I will review their vetted resumes and then have her conduct a preliminary interview that is recorded for me to watch at my convenience.

This is the method we use before moving forward with anyone and that way I am viewing just 3 candidates and not all 50. Build a specific parameter and give a specific direction. This process has worked so brilliantly for us and saved me approximately 50 hours over a two-month period.

Another example of research that VAs can most certainly do for you is finding vendors which follow the same template.

I say, “Okay, we need a new web design company.” The second you submit that you are interested in a service… BAM, You are bombarded with sales pitches. There are thousands of website designers and it takes time to review which ones fit our brand, just like for onboarding interviews.

I have my VA research the top website designers in our category and create a spreadsheet with all of their information for me to review. A streamlined spreadsheet allows me to briefly see their pricing model, experience level, and link to their site.

You can apply this concept to anything in your life to save you time: nannies, roofers, etc. Leverage your time, no matter what type of project you’re looking at.

I’ve got one more example on the docket. We are looking for a company to do our search engine optimization (SEO) and digital ads. This includes website specification, digital advertising management, Google ads, Facebook ads, and Amazon ads. Searchability is an extremely important part of our business for what we sell and getting the right company to market our product is imperative.

So, what I’ve found, especially if you look in the U.S., is that it’s easy to find a lot of companies but it’s really hard to find the right fitting company plus the right price for startups. I need to find the needles in the haystack of somebody, likely overseas, to cater to our smaller business and grow with us.

We’re interviewing companies in the Philippines and in Serbia. Not only can they do it at a fraction of the cost, and when I say a fraction, I am talking one-fifth the cost but they are hungry too. They’re willing to commit and they want a creative deal structure. That’s the needle in the haystack that we need but takes gobs of time to find.

Let your VA do the “dirty work” for you. VAs can literally help you find anything! Spend a half hour defining what you are looking for and walk them through it. And, just like that, they are on their way! That’s how you use a VA in your research to bring you those needles in the haystack to fit your business’s needs.