Who wants a personal assistant for $500?
Hey peeps,
Here's the basic rundown:
There are tons of graduates nowadays who struggle to find work. Not just because of the pandemic, but because most jobs require experience, and the few internships that do exist are quickly taken up, leaving the vast majority of graduates out of work. This is an especially big problem in developing countries like India. Now, I know this idea isn't new, but seeing how students are really struggling during this period I thought why not? Why not create a personal assistant agency that provides graduates with the opportunity to learn by working in small start-ups and indie hackers? All whilst getting paid more than the average graduate that enters the workforce ($500 currency leverage).
Since most start-ups are swamped with work and are often tight on cash, hiring a graduate that can elevate the workload and let's face it, $500 for a fulltime PA is a pretty good deal. What are the caveats you may ask? Well, you'd need to give them training, and they'd be working for you remotely.
Additionally, I'll be your friendly neighbourhood liaison, taking care of the hiring process once I know your requirements, making sure that the candidate ticks off all the boxes. I'll also help in training and provide any additional help that the client or the graduate needs.
What do I need from you guys? Your advice and opinions:
- What other incentives could I provide clients?
- I know there'll be a few legal things I'll need to deal with so any advice/help
would be greatly appreciated. - Where do you think I would have the most trouble? What should I watch out
for? - Any tips on how I could easily gain clients would amazing.
- From a clients perspective, what would you want to know? What concerns
you? - Finally, would anyone like to be my first client? :)
I have a full time assistant in India and she works 40 hours a week. She has 5+ years experience at American Express and now works from home because of her new baby. She charges $300 per month.
That’s a valid point but you have to bear in mind that you’ll ALWAYS be able to find cheaper labour. However, that doesn’t mean I can’t get clients. The simple fact is that $500 is pretty low for a full time anything in America, a dishwasher probably makes more. The average PA agency normally charges upwards of $1000 and from a clients perspective it’s still a bargain.
In addition, it’s not that I can’t charge less but it’s that I actually want to give graduates more money and a chance to have a decent start in life, no matter what background they’re from - $300 even in rupees is just getting by.
I have seen many similar offers at the same price.
You can definitely charge more but you would need to provide a much better than average VA, which is probably something people are looking for, not just cheaper but reliable, if you just provide a similar service to the other already established you'll have a hard time. This is easier to say than to do it. Most promise it and fail to deliver with consistency.
Personally, if I will need an assistant I would not want any intermediate if not in the first phases. Like a work agency.
Gotcha. That's super useful advice! Thank you!
How did you discover / hire your assistant?
Hi @johncb
I started with 3 assistants on Upwork, and tried them each for 2 weeks. Then chose the one I had the best experience with. They start at about $250 / month, but the person I work with has experience as an customer service professional at American Express in India and she wanted to work from home because of her baby.
The one thing more expensive for startup than money is time, wasting time hiring, training and especially people who don't work out...
It's way better when you package work as a service, and manage it and take responsibility for it... So solve one specific thing, but you make it work, if you person doesn't you need to fix that, both for delivering and financially.
Culture is a very good point, I forgot about that one.
In terms of service, I agree with you. That’s why I was thinking of first talking to the client, figure out their exact requirements and then start looking for the right graduate. Once I do this a couple of times, I’ll get a better understanding of which specific services to offer.
@Krishna I think it's an interesting offer. What I would be concerned with is good internet access and a good laptop for the VA. I'm wondering how they would be able to afford this.
I think even more interesting would be if the assistants would work a bit like a team, such that sickness/holiday of one assistant would allow the work to continue.
Thanks to Jio internet access in India as improved tremendously and usually most graduates do already have a laptop nowadays. However, if they don't, I'm sure I can set aside some money and buy one on EMI. This would also help for cashflow purposes.
Sick days and holidays are something I need to figure out. I'm thinking I could negotiate this in the T&C's with the client in this regard.
Good point though. I'll be sure to look into it. Cheers!
Great. When I would hire a VA, I want the agreement to be fair. That means I am willing to pay enough such that the graduates can live from the money.
And that includes their costs for a laptop/internet.
That's exactly the kind of client that I'm looking for! Let me know if you ever need a VA.
Remember, startups (and indiehackers) hardly would have the kind of time to train / mentor somebody.
Here are some concerns from the client's perspective:
It would be good if the graduate had a specialization (something in which they have an interest and at least some amount of knowledge - SEO, beginner level programming).
These are all very good points!
In regards to points 2, 4, and 5, I was going to vet the graduates thoroughly to make sure that they tick off all the boxes of work ethic, reliably, and motivation. I'll also provide further work incentives like financial compensation and etc.
Points 1 and 6, I'll keep checking in with the client to make sure that they're happy with the service and get feedback. I'm also considering an OKR system to keep track of work progress.
But in regards to your initial and final points about start-ups/indie hackers not having the time to train VA's and offering specialization are something I'll have to consider in more depth.
Thank you so much for engaging with this post, your comments made me see some blindspots in my idea!
You're welcome Krishna! Good luck!
If you are just offering another VA matching service, it will likely be difficult because of all the competition. Not impossible, but difficult.
One way to differentiate would be to pretrain VA's for specific skills. For example, you could focus on SEO content writing, lead generation, SEO audits, etc. After the VAs complete the training, you could promote it as vetted and trained VAs in a particular service. The best part is that it would be much easier to find customers because you'd know exactly who would purchase that particular skill and you could target them more effectively.
I think many young companies struggle with how to specifically manage and delegate to VAs. If the workers were already trained to do a particular task and came with a effective system to do a particular task, it would add a lot of value.
There could be a big opportunity if you were able to help non-technical companies, who've probably never even thought of hiring a VA. For example, "Hire a $500 per month VA to help your plumbing company get testimonials for online review sites"
With the low price and a specific use case, you could stand out from all the other match-making firms.
These are great ideas! I'll definitely look into this. Cheers mate!
That’s a pretty sweet deal for the top 1-2% of people or for early stage companies. For corporate assistance, the main issue with bigger companies is you would get in legal trouble pretty easily. Are you thinking this as more of an “internship marketplace for executive assistants” or an “uber for personal assistants”?
I’m aware of the legal issues - still figuring that part out.
Initially, I’m looking at it as a bespoke full time PA service where I first understand the clients needs and then go about looking for a graduate that meets those needs. I plan on approaching clients directly in the beginning - say I approach a 100 clients a few are bound to be interested.