Hiring a virtual assistant – which is an independent contractor who works remotely – can help you tremendously in your business, even if it’s brand new. Real estate entrepreneur Jerry Norton of Flipping Mastery attests to this.

According to Jerry, most new real estate investors mistakenly think they have to do everything themselves – especially in the beginning. While this may be true to a certain extent, you should automate, delegate and outsource as many lower-level tasks as you can, as early as you can.

On being more efficient

But before you hire a VA, you have to buy into the concept of working smarter, not harder. You must believe your time is valuable. The best way to successfully do this is by:

1. Focusing on doing high-value activities.
2. Outsourcing all lower-level activities.

Jerry shares that he started achieving success when he adopted a new mindset on time, work and money. He used to believe that he had to work really hard to be successful; but while hard work is a good principle, it has nothing to do with money.

The only relationship that work has with money is the relationship we attach to it.

Changing how you value your time

Jerry says he instead focuses on a “The less I work, the more I make” mindset. If that statement sounds foreign to you, then you need to work on creating a new relationship with time, work and money.

You can achieve this by evaluating everything you do in your business, then asking yourself: “Is this task worth $1,000 per hour?” If the answer is no, then ask: “How can I get someone else to do it?”

Tip: When it comes to flipping houses, there are several lower-level activities that you can and should outsource to a VA. Here are a list of tasks they can do.

Jerry says he employs VAs in all his businesses and shares a few tips on how to successfully hire and manage them.

Tip #1: Choose tasks that don’t need decision-making

For example, when using a VA to pull comps (i.e. properties used for comparison in real estate appraisal), train the VA on the criteria for searching/generating relevant comps. You then decide which comps to use since it requires an understanding of your market.

Here’s another: you negotiate the price with the seller but then your VA fills out the contract, since filling out a contract doesn’t require any decision-making skills.

Over time, train your VA to be more skilled and take on higher-level tasks.

Tip #2: Provide step-by-step directions

The more specific and clear your directions are about your task, the more successful your VA will be.

Jerry, for instance, employs Roger – a VA from Lebanon – to edit his YouTube videos. With every video-editing task, Jerry gives detailed instructions of what and how he wants Roger to carry out.

Tip #3: Track how long tasks take

Before outsourcing work to a VA, perform the task yourself and time how long it takes as a benchmark.

Note: Just don’t expect your VA to produce at the same speed right away as they learn your tasks and processes.

Tip #4: Provide feedback

Providing remote assistance from home is a dream job. Jerry guarantees that VAs want to please you. So with every task, provide positive and negative feedback so that:

• They know if their work is meeting your expectations.
• They can improve.

Jerry suggests that if a task isn’t performed satisfactorily, ask your VA the following: “Did I not explain clearly what I wanted, or did you not understand what I wanted?”

More often than not, it’s probably your fault for not being clear and specific, or that you didn’t give your VA enough training.

Tip #5: Don’t put your VA on the phone if they have a thick accent

This is precisely why Jerry hires VAs from the Philippines. They learn English as a second language and most of them hardly have an accent at all.

Jerry added that in his training business, he has three VAs from the Philippines who handle all his phone-based customer service calls. He swears you’d never guess they’re from overseas.

Bear in mind that the tips outlined here should apply to other types of businesses as well.

Here’s Jerry Norton’s complete video:

Outsource your tasks to high performers

Once you’ve decided to delegate tasks to a VA, do it with Remote Workmate. Unlike freelancing services where you do everything yourself, we handle all the heavy lifting for you, including processes like recruitment and payroll.

In fact, you can choose from our pool of notable candidates right away. Simply visit our Hotlist at: https://remoteworkmate.com/hotlist

You can browse a wide range of profiles on our Hotlist page. Once you find a qualified VA, simply fill out the form at the bottom of the page, and we’ll get in touch with you ASAP.