hire knowledge work samurais: virtual assistants

Hire Knowledge Work Samurais: Virtual Assistants

Entrepreneur and biohacker @MikkoIkola

1) Why Virtual Assistants? 2) My personal examples

3) Different services

I’m an entrepreneur = Lots of work and prioritising

How do I juggle through my day? !

!

“Focus on being productive instead of busy” !

Tim Ferriss 4 hour work week

“The less you do the more you (enable others to) accomplish” !

Andy Stanley

“By changing the way you do routine things you allow a new person to grow inside you” !

Paulo Coelho

“A compassionate samurai follows through whether it feels good or not; average people do what they feel like doing” !

Brian Klemmer

Virtual Assistants Are My Samurais

VAs are part of my working habits. !

They expand what I’m able to accomplish. !

Web research Design Proofreading

Video editing (!)

Getting quotes Brainstorming (!)

What do I outsource?

My two permanent samurais

Satu 15 USD / h

Agnes 5 USD / h

- Tasks that can be completed in English

- Lives in Philippines !

Finnish language tasks Pays my PDF invoices Lives in Finland

Why do I trust Agnes and Satu?

Satu 15 USD / h

Agnes 5 USD / h

- Tasks that can be completed in English

- Lives in Indonesia !

Finnish language tasks Pays my PDF invoices Lives in Finland

They deliver

For everything else, I find the best VA

Sougato 3d print models

Tina Graphic illustration

Examples of VAs I have worked with during last 2 years

Goran Web research

Elizabeth English grammar

Olga Russian translations

My personal examples

Case: Book design

I was responsible to compile “Recipe Booklet” for Ambronite product., roughly 50 pages. !Text content of the booklet was ready. I required somebody to design the layout and get proper ingredient images. !Time saved: 50 h Price: $119 USD

Online banking outsourcedI hate logging into my online bank to pay PDF invoices I get over email. !Satu takes care of my bills. I forward my PDFs to her. We have a shared bank account where I’ve put a moderate amount of money. !Time saved: 5 min per invoice - Price: $1 per invoice

Case: Contacting startups in MoscowI had to contact Moscow-based tech startups and companies. I hired a Russian-speaking VA to get the details below from 100 companies. It was a great base to start reaching out to people through my own network in Moscow. !Time saved: ~50 h - VA price: $89 USD

Case: Find relevant health authorsI wanted to reach out to major health authors and bloggers online. I asked Agnes to perform online research. !Time saved: ~8 h - VA price: $40 USD

Case: food catering quoteHow to organise food catering for 65 people in a foreign country you’ve never been to, and don’t speak the local language? My business contact had this problem. !I asked my Finnish VA Satu to organise the whole thing for him. Satu called 8 restaurants to get quotes and made a recommendation. !Time saved: 6 hours Price: 40 USD

Case: food catering quoteBy the way, Restaurant Perho won this bid.

Case: Translation and subtitlesI had to create English subtitles for video recording of Jari Sarasvuo’s speech at Quantified Self & Biohacking event. Satu, my Finnish VA, first transcribed the Finnish speech, and then translated it to English. !Time saved: 15 h Price: 100 USD

Case: Brainstorming outsourcedI was creating an organic drinkable meal product and looking for a name for the product. I outsourced brainstorming to get suggestions. One suggestion stood out: “Ambrosia” is a nectar of gods in Greek mythology, which helped to acquire immortality. Sounds like our organic drinkable meal. !We made a small twist and the name of the product became Ambronite. !Time saved: 10-100 h Cost: 50 USD

Different services

Elance Zirtual Fiverr Odesk Taskrabbit

99designs

www.elance.com

I have found 90% of the talent from Elance

Zirtual

fiverr.com

Merging digital and physical world

Merging digital and physical world

Outsourcing logo design

Chosen

Tim Ferriss

Do you speak Finnish? !

Join to learn more about VA services and to share your experiences on FB page “4 tunnin työviikko” !https://www.facebook.com/groups/

4tunnintyoviikko/

How to get started? !

Try out Elance, that’s where I find 90% of the talent I need. Setting up an task takes 5 min. !After one hour, you have multiple VA offers you can choose from. You don’t pay until you select one. !

http://elance.com/ !

!

Thank youMikko Ikola Entrepreneur and biohacker !+358 50 4117282 ikola iki.fi !Interested in hearing this keynote live? !Hire Mikko.

@MikkoIkola