Blog Post

HOW TO FIND THE BEST VIRTUAL ASSISTANTS AND OUTSOURCED WORKERS

Eric Evenstad • May 18, 2017

Over the years, I've hired countless people from around the world to do just about anything you can think of for my business. I've outsourced web design work, list building, market research, graphic design, writing, SEO, sales calls, video work, and social media management. You name it, I've probably outsourced it as some point.

One thing I've learned through all of this is that there is not a one-size-fits-all strategy for finding quality outsourced workers. In fact, I've used more than a dozen different outsourcing websites over the last few years. Some have been great, others have been complete crap.

For the sake of this article, I'm going to focus on the good ones. I'm going to tell you about the top 3 websites that I regularly use (plus a bonus website) to find high quality outsourced workers. Each of these websites is different and they all serve a unique purpose.

Below, I'll tell you what each one of these websites does best and how you can find top talent for as little as $2-$3 per hour. I've also included a few short videos with some Pro Tips to get you started.

If you enjoy this post and want to learn the exact process that we use to find, interview, hire, train, and manage all of our outsourced workers, make sure you sign up for our Free Resources area , where you can download our Outsourcing Cheat Sheet, "7 Proven Steps to Hiring, Training & Succeeding With A Virtual Staff".

Fiverr.com - The best website for outsourcing quick and easy tasks

Fiverr.com is the best place to go for quick, one-time tasks. I've hired people on Fiverr for logo design, ebook design, market research, SEO, video work, and much more.

This is typically the first place I'll look if I need:

  • Graphic design work (logos, flyers, business cards, social media images, infographics, etc).
  • Photo or video editing
  • Keyword research for SEO
  • Simple video creation (Intro & outro videos, explainer videos, whiteboard videos, etc.)
  • Market research or list building
  • Simple website edits
That's just me. There's thousands of other tasks that you can find on Fiverr, so it's worth poking around the site.

Here's the really cool part. Just about everything on the site is $5. Crazy, right!?

But, there is a catch. Actually there are two catches:

  1. It's possible that you'll get what you pay for. Let's face it, $5 is dirt cheap. And with prices that low, you may receive some shoddy work at some point. I've personally never had that happen to me, but I know it's a possibility each time I hire somebody for $5. Below, you'll see a few simple steps that I follow to increase my odds of finding a rockstar person.
  2. There are upsells. For example that logo that I had designed actually ended up costing me $15 because I opted to pay for an extra round of revisions and I also wanted the designer to send me all of the different file formats. Even with the upcharge, $15 for a high quality logo is pretty good deal in my mind. Note: Fiverr recently started allowing people to set higher price tags for their services. In my mind this isn't a terrible thing because it should attract more skilled workers. Plus you can always set a search filter to only show $5 tasks.

To increase your odds of hiring a rockstar person on Fiverr, be sure to follow a few simple steps:
  1. Search for the task that you're looking to hire for. This will bring up a list of people that you can hire.
  2. Hover your mouse over all of the top candidates. When you do this, you'll see a rating for each person. I try to hire people that have 100+ five star reviews. The more five star reviews the better.
  3. Narrow it down to 2 or 3 top candidates. Click on each of their profiles and you should be able to find examples of their work as well as reviews from their past customers. Use common sense here and pick the person that seems like the best fit.
In the video below, I walk you through this process and show you around the site so that you can see my process in action.

Pro Tip:
If you want to make a friend's birthday extra special, I'd recommend searching for "Happy Birthday singing". You can pay $5 to have somebody sing a personalized happy birthday message. This year, I will be forking over the money to have Captain Black Beard sing my brother happy birthday as a pirate.

Upwork.com - The best website for outsourcing complicated, one-time tasks

When I first started outsourcing, there were two big outsourcing websites, Elance and Odesk. Odesk was my outsourcing site of choice. Then, a few years back, those two companies merged and became Upwork.com. Upwork took the best of both companies and became an outsourcing powerhouse.

If you're looking to make things as easy as possible on yourself, this is a great place to start. With Upwork, you can find and hire your ideal job candidates, you can pay your worker directly through the website (no need to set up PayPal or anything), and you can even monitor your worker's computer screen to make sure they are focused on your tasks.

In my early days, I used Upwork to hire all of my outsourced workers, however, these days, I use Upwork primarily for more complicated, one-time tasks.

This is typically the first place I'll look if I need:

  • Professional, high quality graphic design
  • Website work
  • Software development or programming
  • Copywriting
  • Sales consultants
  • List building or in-depth market research
  • SEO services
Besides the ease of use, the great thing about Upwork is that you can hire people from anywhere in the world (including the US). When you are searching for qualified candidates, Upwork gives you the ability to specify which country or countries you'd prefer to hire from and what price you're looking to pay.

The one thing that I don't love about Upwork is that you never stop paying them as long as your outsourced worker is with you. This is because every payment you send your worker goes through Upwork and they take a percentage. For this reason, I don't like using Upwork to hire people that I will be with me for an extended period of time.

Onlinejobs.ph - The best website to find full-time outsourced workers or virtual assistants

If you need to hire somebody to do a task or a job on an ongoing basis, this is the place to look. I use Onlinejobs.ph to hire all of my part-time and full-time workers and it has never failed me. You can find extremely talented people that will gladly work for $2 - $5 per hour.

There are a couple of reasons why I love Onlinejobs.ph

  1. Everybody that you can hire is from the Philippines. This is a good thing because Filipinos (people from the Philippines) are generally very well educated and they speak excellent English. From my experience Filipinos are also very detailed oriented, hardworking, and trustworthy. Plus the dollar goes a long ways there so you can find highly skilled workers for just a few dollars an hour.
  2. You only pay Onlinejobs.ph while you're searching for a job candidate. Once you hire somebody, you no longer have to pay Onlinejob.ph. This may not seem like a big deal, but it actually is. Most other outsourcing websites require you to pay your outsourced worker through them, and then the outsourcing website takes a cut of every payment. I don't know about you, but if I'm hiring somebody for the long haul, I want all of my money going directly to them for the work they do. No middle man needed!
Hiring somebody to do those ongoing tasks in your business is how you're really going to free up your time to work on growth activities. So make a list of the tasks that you do every day or every week. Then compile those tasks into similar categories. For example put admin related tasks together, marketing related tasks together, and so on.

Once you have a category that has enough work for a part-time or full-time worker, go to onlinjobs.ph and start searching for people that will fit your needs.

To increase your odds of hiring a rockstar person on onlinejobs.ph, be sure to follow a few simple steps:
  1. Post a detailed job description that describes the skills and mindset that you are looking for. Follow the same process that you would to hire somebody that would be working in your office.
  2. Once you post your job, people will begin to apply on their own. To get the best applicants though, I recommend searching the website for the most talented people. Then send them a personal invitation to apply for your job.
  3. Once you have a pool of qualified applicants, give them a test project related to the job that you are hiring for. The test project should have clear instruction and take no longer than 10-15 minutes to complete. This will weed out anybody that isn't serious about the job.
  4. Next, send the remaining applicants a written questionnaire to get a better feel for their skills and past work experiences. Pro Tip: I always throw a strange request into the instructions to test their attention to detail and ability to follow instructions. As an example, you could say, "please put two periods at the end of your response to question #1".
  5. From there, you will want to take a look at each remaining applicant's onlinejobs.ph profile. There, you will be able to read reviews from past employers and you should be able to see examples of their work. You'll also want to make sure that the info in their profiles matches the info they gave you in their written questionnaire.
  6. The last step is the live interview. This can be done through a video call or live chat (Skype and Google have great options for both). The goal of the live interview is to get a feel for each applicant's personality. You'll ideally be working with this person for years to come, so you want to make sure there is a good culture fit. Use this time to ask them about their hobbies, family, motivations, goals, etc.
If you want to learn more about my process for hiring the best people on onlinejobs.ph, sign up for our Free Resources. There, you can download my Free Cheat Sheet, "7 Proven Steps to Hiring, Training, and Succeeding With A Virtual Staff".

TaskRabbit.com - The best website for outsourcing personal tasks and chores

I do my best to only promote websites, tools, resources, and strategies that I've personally used, but I decided to make an exception here because I believe TaskRabbit will be a great resource for some of my readers.

Here's the scoop -- TaskRabbit is a website that matches you with vetted people in your geographical that you can hire to take care of your personal chores and errands. You can hire people to go grocery shopping for you, clean your house, mount a TV, assemble IKEA furniture, pick up dry cleaning, and much more.

This can be a life saver for an entrepreneur as it will free up time for you to focus on your business or your mental health.

Take a look at their website and see if there is anything in your personal life that you'd like to outsource.

Getting Started With Outsourcing

When it comes to outsourcing, you just have to get started. Post a task on one of these great outsourcing websites and just hire somebody. You'll probably make mistakes along the way, but it'll get easier and easier as you go.

Before long, you'll get the hang of it and you'll wonder why you didn't start earlier.

Outsourcing truly is one of the best ways to grow a business on a budget.

To help you get started and find quick success with outsourcing, we've put together a free cheat sheet called, "7 Proven Steps to Hiring, Training & Succeeding With A Virtual Staff". In this cheat sheet, we walk you through the exact same process that we use to find, interview, hire, train, and manage all of our outsourced workers. To get the guide and become an outsourcing master, sign up for our Free Resources area. There you will get access to the Outsourcing Cheat Sheet plus all of our free resources for entrepreneurs that want to grow their business on a budget.

Do you have a favorite outsourcing website that we didn't cover? Leave a comment below and tell us about it!


FREE RESOURCES FROM BOOTSTRAP BIZ GROWTH


BECOME A SUPER PRODUCER

Learn how to outsource the tasks you hate, focus on what matters, and reclaim your time.
LEARN MORE
Share by: