Episode 96: Our Philippines Team - Hiring and Maintaining a Team of Rockstar VAs

"I loved my job when I worked as a VA for Mike and he really made me feel like I was part of the company even though I was here in the Philippines. So I guess what I'm trying to say is to have a Mia and to have a team like what we have in Cebu, you need to be a Mike." - Mia Pamisa, Philippines Team Manager, Terran

If you've been listening to our podcast for a while now you know that we run multiple brands simultaneously and it's no secret that a vital part of our growth and keeping things together is our Philippines team. I've been mentioning them on the podcast and we get asked a lot how we put together such a great team. If you're serious about developing a virtual team, this episode is for you.

During our trip to China, we went over to the Philippines to personally meet with our team there. This episode was recorded with me, my wife Michelle, our Director of Ecommerce Jacqueline, and the entire team in one room. It's refreshing to be able talk to them in person and not just on Skype.

We went around the room and introduced every single member of the team and what they do for us. We also talked about a bunch of other things including:

• How we started our team
• How we found Mia, our first VA, the one who made everything else possible
• Challenges of a content writer not based in the US but with a US audience, and how to conquer those challenges
• Training VAs on high-level tasks like Amazon PPC
• Managing graphics and photography with remote designers

I always joke that anyone who wants to build a remote team absolutely needs a Mia. She was our first hire and everything single hire was made possible because of her. She is sort of the rock in our team and finding her was a crucial part of our strategy. You can't have a Mia on Day 1 though. What you can do is get the best general VA you can find, build rapport and trust, and gradually train them. Invest a lot on training them -- it will pay off many times over.

If you don't have a VA helping you run your  business, I highly suggest you get one now. VAs significantly reduce the amount of time you spend on trivial tasks and save you the mental and physical energy you need to focus on business growth strategies and decision-making.

If you're unsure which tasks you can assign to a VA, we made a list of 25 things we outsource to our VAs and 7 things we do ourselves. Get it here for FREE!

Resources mentioned:

AsiaInspection Stamped.io Tactical.com ColorIt.com Onlinejobs.ph Digital Marketer Training

Thanks for tuning in this Monday and expect a fresh new episode on Thursday. Please leave us an honest review on iTunes and send comments/questions/suggestions our way at support@ecomcrew.com. Happy selling!