Working with a Virtual Assistant

In a past post on the new year, I mentioned that I hired a personal virtual assistant. A couple of you asked me for more details and I’ve talked with folks on the phone and they have mentioned it. So I thought I would put together a post on the why and how of this to give you more details about the process.

Here’s why: I hate administration. I am not a details person. Big vision, big ideas, seeing the whole picture? That’s me. But making it work…not me. I can if I want, but it’s really hard work to be detailed oriented and to even remember to pay bills. That’s why my wife handles our finances. I can tell you what’s on my schedule in regards to meetings, but not much else; I’m a people-oriented person and those things stick out to me. That’s just who I am.

I had read parts of Tim Ferris’ The Four Hour Work Week and saw a clip or two of him talking about outsourcing his administrative stuff to a virtual assistant in India for $5/hour. I thought, “Hey, that sounds like a great idea. I need to check that out.” So I did, and placed an ad on elance.com. Elance is a site where people who are freelancers bid on projects from folks who need projects done. I had used the site before for a logo, and had used the site to find someone to create executive summaries from big documents. I’ve had good success from the site. So I posted a project for a virtual assistant. And I waited for the bids to come in. Several did. Some were from overseas, but I really wanted someone who I could get during the day if necessary. The bids from Americans were higher than the overseas bid, but I chose a person from Michigan for the job. Her name is Erin.

Before I accepted her bid, I contacted her to make sure she was fine working for a pastor. I knew that I might ask her to do some “pastoral” oriented administrative stuff, and I needed to make sure she was comfortable with doing that. Her reply was that she was fine with it, and that she was a Methodist. So I accepted her bid and off we have gone.

I asked Erin to share a little something about what she does and why she is a virtual assistant. She said:

I could go on, and on, and on! Because I love it so much and benefits are numerous. Like you said in your last post your church is small and does not need a full or even part time administrator. Someone like me can step in on an as needed basis and stay out of the way when you don’t need me. No taxes, payroll, vacation, sick time, 401 k you just pay a small fee for services rendered.

When I started this business I tried selling this idea to my surrounding area. I live in a small town here in SW MI but I am within 20 minutes of South Bend, IN (Notre Dame), St. Joseph, MI (Lake MI), Kalamazoo (Western MI University) and so on…why wouldn’t everyone want this????? Well they didn’t. It was once that I explored the online world and “virtual assisting” that I started making a presence. I am assisting everyone from a business coach in Florida to a small bicycle touring company in Italy and I adore every one of my clients. I like that I can have a personal touch even though I may be several thousands of miles away from my client. When someone calls and says, “Erin my shower is leaking and I need it fixed” or “Erin I need 10 60 page documents printed and Fed Ex ASAP” I can make it happen and they didn’t have to take the time out of their busy schedules to get it done, that is what I am here for!

I live my life and proceed in my business with one rule always in mind, “Due unto others as which you would have done to you.” Taking care of peoples needs and getting satisfaction from it gives me pride that I never got from the 9-5 world.

So what does Erin do for me? She has organized all my personal and ministry expenses by category and month in a spreadsheet. I have a second email account set up so that when I get email receipts - which is where the majority of my expenses come from - a rule forwards them on to the second email and she will pick those up and put them in the spreadsheet. She acts as my assistant in scheduling. She also manages my calendar. Another thing she does is gives me a summary each week of three blogs I consider important reads. That way I don’t have to read all of their posts each day. She does that for me and I get a document each Friday with the summaries.

In addition, I will be sending her some of my sermons and she will transcribe them for me. Since I am preaching through part of my doctoral research, she will be giving me the foundation for my dissertation. Two weeks ago, I called her and asked if she did video work. She didn’t but was able to outsource the development of a video for a song I wanted to use in a sermon last week. As we speak now, she is doing some research for me from the Bible for my sermon this week. She is finding that really interesting. She’s reading passages from Genesis and 1 Samuel - 1 Kings to look at how the sin of Abram and David was passed down to their descendants.

Since I have offloaded things that I find either boring, am not good at, or that would just give me a little more time with people or in preparation, I’m more productive personally, and it has reduced some stress. It will also help me financially. For example, I spent WAAAYYYY more than I should have on books last year. I had no idea I spent as much as I did. Now that someone is providing that information for me, I’m better able to keep track of the budget. So what I may pay her will help me save money.

The best part is that she works when I need her, so I only pay her for hours worked.

You have to be able to let a person do things their own way. She might not do things the exact way I would do them, but that’s fine. It’s actually refreshing and stimulating creatively.

Would I recommend getting a virtual assistant? Yes, if you can find one you are comfortable with and does a good job. I would recommend Erin, but only if she can take your work without compromising mine :-D.

Outsourcing opens up a lot of avenues for you to accomplish more than you could on your own. Since I was a freelancer at one time in my life, and have been a contractor as well, it’s not that difficult for me to let go of that control. Some people can’t. But it does make you more productive in the long run.

The End and the Beginning

The past couple of weeks have come and gone. Actually, they flew by. I’ve not even gotten to really reply to email. Some of you have sent out Christmas wishes, and I’ve just not had a chance to get with you. Please forgive me.I wanted to wrap up 2007 and spec out a little of 2008 for you.

From the end of 2007:

1. I decided to hire a personal virtual assistant. I am not a detailed person - which really seems odd considering that I was a computer programmer and a good one at that. I am not administrative at all, and I need someone to help me with that kind of stuff. I read about virtual assistants in Tim Ferris’ book The 4 Hour Work Week. I tried a couple of places he recommended, and finally settled on a person in Michigan. Her name is Erin. She is quick, efficient, and good. She bid on my project at elance.com, and after making sure she was comfortable with helping a pastor I hired her. Some of you have really good assistants on staff. Our church can’t afford someone to do all that and it is worth me paying someone a few dollars per hour to take some of this work off me both personally and professionally. I would recommend her if you’re looking for someone.

2. Florida for Christmas just doesn’t feel like Christmas, especially since I live in Delaware now. I went to the in-laws for Christmas and central Florida at Christmas doesn’t feel like Christmas.

3. Having a bad knee really sucks. I’ve had a bad left knee since I was 19 - tore my ACL playing football in college. The original doc didn’t want to reconstruct things because, “You’re not going to be playing pro ball.” So with a torn ACL, my knee moved around some, messing with my meniscus and causing a good deal of arthritis. The new doc, 2 years ago, replaced my ACL with a cadaver tendon but has told me that I will have to have my knee replaced. So anyway, I’m in the airport last Wednesday coming home, and I miss a step, slip, and my bad knee gets completely bent backwards. Nothing popped, but it hurts to bend it much. I guess a trip to the doc is forthcoming.

4. I upgraded my MacBook to Leopard. Everything went fine except for my printer and how it operates with MS Office. It doesn’t. More and more, I lam earning to hate Microsoft, even though I’m Microsoft Certified. However, Leopard is a really nice upgrade.

5. Alabama beat Colorado in the Independence Bowl Sunday night! Roll Tide!

Plans for 2008

1. This is my last full semester of classwork for my doctoral work. I have a mini semester of work during May and June. After that, it’s all about the dissertation.

2. My reading list for this semester, in addition to my research class, is as follows:

Generation Me
The Future of Religion
A Geography of God: Exploring the Christian Journey
The Choice Principle: The Biblical Case for Legal Toleration
Consumed: How Markets Corrupt Children, Infantilize Adults, and Swallow Citizens Whole
People of the Dream: Multiracial Congregations in the United States
The Emerging Christian Way: Thoughts, Stories & Wisdom for a Faith of Transformation
Wide Open Spaces: Beyond Paint-by-Number Christianity

3. I have a great opportunity to go to Spain in February. I will be meeting with some of the strategy folks from my tribe’s Western Europe region to dialogue about how to impact the postmodernism, christendom mentality of Europe and how to deal with that mentality that is coming into the US. I am grateful for this opportunity.

4. I really want to recommend to you two books that I have been blogging through.

The first is The Big Idea. I had blogged through the theory part of it, and had gotten to the section on you can put together your own Big Idea. I’m not going to blog through that, but I HIGHLY recommend you picking that book up and reading it. Dave Ferguson, the author, reads this blog, so Dave, please understand, I love your book, otherwise, I wouldn’t have blogged on it…but I gotta move on!

The second is Lamin Sanneh’s book, Whose Religion in Christianity? The Gospel Beyond the West. This should be a foundational book for everyone in the West to read. I am just running out of time blogging on it as well, and I need to move on.

5. They say moving is a great way to clean out your house. Building bookcases and organizing your books by subject will allow you to clean out your books. I built two large bookcases out of poplar (very nice, I might add) yesterday because my books were spilling out all over the basement. My wife now has 150 books she is selling on amazon as used. Granted, about 20 are computer programming books…She’s sold 25 in the past 7 days. AND, my library is nicely organized.

6. Tim Keel has written a GREAT book on leadership. It’s called Intuitive Leadership. I read it on the plane to Florida and back. It is really a must read. I really wanted to blog through it as well, but time is just not going to allow it. I will probably post the transcript of the sermon I preached last week which used part of this book. Erin does transcription (see #1 under 2007 above).

I will have more to share about my focus during the early part of the year. I look forward to sharing that with you.

Introducing Talkshoe

I discovered a new talkcasting opportunity called Talkshoe. Talkshoe is a service that enables anyone to easily create, join, or listen to Live Interactive Discussions, Conversations, Podcasts and Audioblogs. It works just like a call-in talk show. And it is free.

Some of the features include:
• Full Host Control
• Mute voice
• Mute chat
• Start and stop recording
• See-who’s-talking indication
• Participant screen names and (optional) profiles
• Access via telephone, ShoePhone™, Skype, or VoIP
• Request-to-talk queuing
• Integrated text-chat room
• Up to 250 participants
• 1,000s more can listen in

With their software and an account, you can use your computer with a microphone and join the discussion for free.

Did I mention it was free?

I have created a channel and would like to have a discussion about missional topics in the near future. If you would like to be notified of future episodes, simply comment here or send me an email via the contact page at the top.

Hope to talk with you soon!

A Great Firefox Extension

I was messing around tonight and came across a great firefox extension called Better Gmail. This extension enhances Gmail in lots of different ways - like adding saved searches, attachment icons, label colors, keyboard macros, a filter assistant and right-click conversation previews. It also allows for the integration of your calendar and if you use google reader as your blog reader, that is integrated as well.

What I really like is the label colors. Beautiful…It also adds several gmail skins so you can change the look of the interface and allows html in the signatures, which is a must if you want to have creative email sigs.