Virtual Assistant ... experiences?

I have a VA in Delhi who handles much of the administrative day to day. Found him on Upwork. Started with small tasks to get a feel for his personality and communication skills. Added more to his plate over time. A few things that have worked for me, YMMV:

• Pay for results, not for time. For example, if the task is to send emails, establish a per email rate instead of hourly rate. Let him suggest the rate and explain how he arrived at that number.
• Dedicate some percent of the month to hear VA's pain points and make his tasks easier. Sometimes, a piece of code can end up saving the VA time (and the business money).
• Try to find someone who is passionate about the market your business is in. I honestly got lucky with this. I target avid readers / authors and my VA loves to read.
• Give surprise bonuses on good months. Often, it is a small gesture to you but could mean a lot to them.

Overall, positive experience. This being my first VA, I just may have gotten lucky, though.

Hey Greg, I'm a fellow indiehacker that launched a managed VA service called Marti! We employ full-time VAs from the Philippines.

There's lots of untapped talent in the Philippines, and I think you'd be able to find a recently graduated English major or a Computer Science major that can work full-time for you at 80% less than what a US equivalent would do.

Definitely would love to see what kind of help you need. We're offering Indiehackers a free trial for 1 task you want outsourced -- from there we can quote an output-based rate. Try us out on: https://makisu.co/pages/sme