The Science of Flipping - Episode 57 – Outsourcing | Real Estate Investing Podcast
Episode Date: January 13, 2015document.addEventListener("DOMContentLoaded", function () { podlovePlayer("#player-5eb5ab31c4c81", "https://thescienceofflipping.com/wp-json/podlove-web-player/short...code/post/663", "https://thescienceofflipping.com/wp-json/podlove-web-player/shortcode/config/default/theme/default"); }); <p> document.addEventListener("DOMContentLoaded", function () { podlovePlayer("#player-5eb5ab31c4cda", {"title":"Episode 57 u2013 Outsourcing | Real Estate Investing Podcast","subtitle":null,"summary":null,"duration":"","poster":null,"chapters":"","transcripts":"","audio":[{"url":"http://thescienceofflipping.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/01/podcast-57.mp3","mimeType":"audio/mpeg","title":"AUDIO/MPEG","size":0}]}, "https://thescienceofflipping.com/wp-json/podlove-web-player/shortcode/config/default/theme/default"); }); <br /> Justin Colby talks about the importance of outsourcing. What tasks he outsources, where to find the best virtual assistant, how much you should pay them, and how to make sure they do a good job.
Transcript
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Welcome to the Science of Flipping Podcast. I'm your host, Justin Colby.
Welcome, welcome, welcome everybody to the Science of Flipping Podcast. It is officially
2015. I am your host, Justin Colby, and I just want to bring in the new year with you guys.
It is January 1st.
I am psyched for this new year as it is going to be the best year we all have ever had.
So I am putting up this podcast on January 1st to say Happy New Year's to you all.
I hope you had an amazing holiday break, if you even took a break, because I know I barely took one.
I stayed working through the holidays because that's what you do as an entrepreneur,
but I did get to spend a lot of time with my family because that is the most important thing you can do so
first and foremost let me apologize my normal audio recorder was not working so
I've had to make do with what I've got so if this does not sound as good as it
usually does I apologize upfront and let's just keep it going. Nothing can slow us down this year.
No excuses.
So if this is your first time to the podcast, welcome.
This podcast is all about being able to provide you with systems and organization in your
business so that you don't feel like you're working 80 hours a week and you don't feel
like you just have a job and that you truly can call yourself an entrepreneur and own your real estate investing business from wholesaling to fix and flipping.
Each and every week we give you another episode to help you create those systems and implement those systems in your business. And so this year, 2015, is no different. If it is your first time, or maybe even
if it's not your first time, for 2015, we've changed it up slightly. I now have my best-selling
book on Amazon is now for free on our website, thescienceofflipping.com. This is a book that I wrote. It is currently selling
on Amazon for roughly $12 and I am now giving that book away for free as long as you go over
to the website thescienceofflipping.com and put in your information and download that book.
This is the book that many of our students
and many of our listeners who have purchased it
or have been given it
because they might be one of our students
has said that changed their mentality,
that each and every chapter gave them
at least one to three golden nuggets.
And so I put this book together for you
and I wanna give it away to you for free because it's a new year, and it's my gift to you.
So if this is your first time to the podcast, if this is your 50th time, we now have my best-selling book on Amazon at the website, thescienceofflipping.com.
Go in, register, and you will be able to have that book for free.
If you have been listening and you feel like this is awesome content and that I'm able to give you each and everything I got each and every week,
and you're interested in talking to me further about coaching or consulting or mentoring,
please email me at info at thescienceofflipping.com.
Info at thescienceofflipping.com, info at thescienceofflipping.com, and I personally
will reply to you and set up a call with you to see if it'd be a good fit.
So if you're interested in further mentoring and further coaching, email me at info at
thescienceofflipping.com, and we will go from there.
All right, well, let's get right into it.
Like I said, this podcast is all about creating
systems and organization. So start this year, I wanted to start out with one of the most important
things we've implemented in our business over the last several years, and that is outsourcing.
And what is outsourcing? And where do you outsource to? And how much does that cost? And
what are the activities
that you can outsource and I want to review all of that with you guys today here on January 1st.
I'm very excited. I get very excited over the holidays and it's a new year. So outsourcing,
what is outsourcing? Well, outsourcing is basically taking the duties that you would normally do or the activities that you would normally do in your day-to-day business and handing it off to someone else to do.
Now, some people would say, you know, that's just hiring someone, and you're right.
But there's a way to outsource with virtual assistants to handle some of the mundane stuff that is not revenue generating activities,
that is just mundane list building and social media posts.
And I'm going to go through a list with you of different things that a virtual assistant can do.
But this is what we would consider outsourcing.
Because they handle some of the stuff that really doesn't generate any money
for you. They're not revenue generating activities, but they need to get done. One of them being
building a list or even taking a list that was built and sorting the list to ascending or
descending order, scrubbing a list of buyers or scrubbing a list of sellers,
those things that is not your highest and best use of your time, those are the things
that you want to be outsourcing to a virtual assistant.
Now, the place that we go to most often to find virtual assistants is either elance.com, E-L-A-N-C-E.com, or odesk.com, O-D-E-S-K.com.
Those are the two sources that we have hired and we continue to hire from when needed.
They are great because they do all of the dirty work for you,
meaning they put their virtual assistants through rigorous tests to make sure that they qualify.
And by the time that you're ready to post a job application, these people have proven they are qualified for the job now a lot of these
individuals on Elance and Odesk come from the Philippines or India or Mexico
and some even come from the United States but most often I find the people
we hire traditionally come from either India and or the Philippines and that is
just fine so one of the things that you really need to focus on
after you put up your application
and people are replying is
you want to vet them out a little bit further.
So they're going to apply
and I would tell you to send them a pre-written email.
And in that email response,
make sure that you have a couple simple elementary questions,
such as, what's your favorite movie?
You know, what's your favorite color?
You know, when was the last time you went to McDonald's?
Something silly, something elementary, based on or because you want to see if they're paying
attention. And if the people don't reply to your email with the answers, they're obviously not
paying attention to detail. So it doesn't actually have to do about what the question is asking.
You're actually seeing if they can pay attention to detail. That is the easiest way to find that. And so once you get there then I would vet them out a little
bit further and set up a Skype call. If you don't know what Skype is, Google
Skype or a phone call where you can get on the line with them to hear how well
they speak English. Now again, the majority of
the virtual assistants come from the Philippines or India, so sometimes their English cannot be as
good as you would like it to be, especially because you're going to be communicating with them.
And there's nothing more frustrating than trying to communicate with someone and tell them the
task that they need to do or, you that needs to happen and they're not understanding you.
Or vice versa, you don't understand them when they're trying to explain something.
So once you do send that email and they reply to your question, it should be a pre-written
email.
That way everyone gets the same one and you can kind of start to vet through those emails to find the right person. Then you want to jump on a Skype call,
skype.com. It's an application that you can call people internationally for free. It's over the
computer. In fact, it's on your phone. You can download the application on your phone as well. And so then you want to go down
the path of having a conversation with them and vetting them out as any other employee, right?
And interviewing them to make sure that the right person for the job. Now, these virtual assistants
will cost you anywhere from, I've even seen it to the like $1.50 an hour range up to $5 an hour or $7 an hour now
obviously you know you want to keep it as cheap as possible that's the idea
there so I would stick between let's say two and five dollars an hour is the
range I would try to stick to three dollars an hour seems to be very very
common I do have a friend of mine who uses a virtual assistant and I think he pays
him like $1.25 an hour. So it is possible, but you get what you pay for. So I hesitate
to say just find the absolute cheapest virtual assistant because you do get what you pay for.
So again, go to Elance, go to Odesk, you will likely come in contact with a
bunch of people from the Philippines and or India, you will find those from Mexico and the United
States and start the vetting process. You post the job on there, they reply saying that they're
interested, you then reply with a pre-written email with pre-written questions to see if they're paying attention.
And if they pass what you're looking for, then you would set up a Skype call or a phone call with them to make sure that you guys are on the same page.
And you would set up an interview, a traditional interview, to see if they're the right fit.
Now, let's talk a little bit about, you know, what are these people
doing for you, right? And what are some of the tasks that you can have the virtual assistants
do? Well, in our business, the best way for you to be found online is putting out content, right?
Whether it's video content or written content, blog content. And so a lot of
times I'll have them write our blogs and or I'll have them post things on our social media. So
we're putting out content about real estate, about the market, about the economy. So people can find
us and they understand online we're out there, right? So if you write an article on a blog all about the, for example, Phoenix real estate market,
if someone goes in and Googles Phoenix real estate market,
you might be one of the first links that they can click on, right?
So I'm always trying to put out content.
So I always have them usually write a blog or put out content on my social media.
So I use that a lot.
One of the biggest things that I use is list building and or list scrubbing,
meaning I'm trying to actively have them build a list through posting ads on Craigslist to find buyers
and or if I have a big list of one thing or another, I'll send it to them to scrub
it for me so that I don't have to go in there and find duplicates or non deliverables. You know,
I can have them actually scrub that for me. And so I do a lot of kind of the list, dealing with
lists, building a list. Again, if I'm building a list of buyers, they can post
a Craigslist ad or back page ad, and they can create three or four accounts for you
so that you can put up multiple ads to build a list. Same time, I've purchased lists to find
sellers, and I'll send it to my virtual assistant to make sure that A, all of the addresses are
deliverable. And then I'll also make sure that they get scrubbed for duplicates or any of those
such things. So some of these mundane things, again, these are the things that need to be done
in your business, but they're not the highest and best use of your time. So you want to hire them out. Market research is another thing that I will have them do.
What's the market looking like? Where are the trends going? How many cash purchases?
How many FHA purchases? Market research in general, I will ask them to see how the market
is being done. Now again, that's very specific. So I would want to probably find someone who's used to looking at market research and what's happening.
One of the things that we do quite frequently is we'll wholesale deals that we're not flipping.
Okay. As I tell you, these are the systems and organization that you can either wholesale or
flip homes. And this is what we do every day.
And so when we find a home and we get it in contract,
my lead acquisition manager, he will send us the information,
send us the pictures, and send it over to our VA,
and our VA will put together a flyer to send out to our list.
So we'll be able to market that property to our list,
and they do it all for us, right?
They'll also put it on different platforms, right? They'll syndicate the posting. So they'll go to
Craigslist and other places and the Yahoo's and all the other websites to syndicate the deal,
right? So I don't have to go in there and do that. There's so many other things that
you could do on your day to day. But these are just, you know, five or six very important ones
that we currently are using them for, right? Online lead generation, right? Going out there
and trying to find and generate leads, again, whether they're
buyers or sellers, you can have them do all of that. You just need to be very specific on what
job posting you put up there. And that brings me to my next plan or my next idea here is you need
a defined plan. You need to have a very defined task that they need to do because you can't just give them a general, I want you to go out there and build a buyer's list.
You need to be very finite.
You need to be very granular with them.
In fact, one of the best ways to train a virtual assistant is to use video recordings.
So, you know, I have a Mac, so it comes with QuickTime, so I can just do that on my Mac.
The Mac already has QuickTime on it, so whatever I'm trying to teach my VA, I can video record it and send the video over to them so that they can continue to reference that video.
If you don't have a Mac, there's a recording service out called Camtasia.
I forget what it costs, but I don't think it's very
expensive at all. I think it's like $100. And it allows you to do the very same thing where you can
record videos, you can record audios, you can record your screen recordings. So again, Camtasia
or QuickTime is another great option. And we utilize that most effectively by simply, you know, whatever task I'm having them do,
instead of me calling them and saying, here's what I want you to do,
I actually record myself doing it so they know exactly how I'm doing it and what I'm looking for,
and they're able to replicate it.
And if they forget or they, you know, forget, I guess, how to do it the next
time they have to do it, they can go back and watch that recording and don't have to bother with me,
bother me with an email or a phone call. They just go back and watch that recording.
But the key there is you need to be defined in your plan and what you exactly want them to do
and then the tasks to do it.
You have to be very defined, very granular with them about what that looks like.
Now, I have a couple tips that I want to go over with you simply about how to start working with them.
First and foremost, you don't want to give them big old projects.
I would start very small at first to test out how well they listen to your
directions and or how well they do the given task. So start with small things first, small tasks
first, and see how well and see how quickly they get them done. And if they are doing very well
and very efficient, then obviously you can give them much larger tasks and bigger projects to work on.
I did tell you that the best way to train them and teach them is to record a video and send them
that video. That's the easiest way. Never assume they understand what you're trying to do or say.
Never assume that if you tell them to do XYZ that, Z, that they even understand what X, Y, Z is.
Again, most often these people are from out of the country.
So be very refined and defined in what you are trying to say to them.
Be very, very specific.
Don't give them too much freedom.
Don't let them just do it how they think they should do it.
You need to make sure that you
can find what they're doing and refine what they're doing. And you really want to get weekly
reports. You need to hold them accountable. If you give them too much freedom, then they'll do it
when they want. So for example, you need to put a time stamp on when the task is due. And all that stuff does get recorded
through Elance or Odesk. So it does make sure it gets done. So you have to be very specific with
these individuals. And then what I would lastly suggest is get these reports, weekly reports from
them on the tasks that were given, how long it took, how well it was done, can they take more on.
And lastly, guys, you have to be a little bit of patient.
You have to have a little patience with these guys, guys or gals.
Again, a lot of times it takes a little while for them to get used to what you're asking them to do and what systems you want them to implement.
And so, guys, have some patience.
Just like if you employed someone here in the United States
and they came to your office every day, you know, in the first two or three weeks,
they might not fully do the best job, but the longer they're around
and the more often you have them doing things, the better and better they're going to get.
And that's the same with virtual assistants.
So, again, weekly reports, being patient, giving them small tasks first and
helping them grow into a much larger role. Never assume they know exactly what you're saying or
want them to do. So make sure to be specific. All right, guys. Well, that is outsourcing and
that is a huge component of our business. And in 2015, I really urge you guys to really get to that level of not doing some of the mundane stuff.
Outsourcing the Craigslist ads, outsourcing the list building, outsourcing the list scrubbing,
outsourcing the blog content or outsourcing your social media content
or outsourcing your syndication of deals on different websites
or outsourcing your emailication of deals on different websites or outsourcing
your email blast on a wholesale deal.
All those things you can outsource and I really encourage you to do that for yourself this
year.
All right?
So that's what I got for today, guys.
Again, if you are interested in speaking to me further about consulting and coaching,
I'd be happy to set up a phone call. Email me at info
at thescienceofflipping.com and we'll take it from there. I wish you all a very blessed and
successful 2015. And I know you guys are going to hit your goals this year. And I truly do look
forward to seeing your success. See you on the next podcast, guys. I've been your host, Justin Colby.