Online VA Team was founded in 2014 to serve a client base from single entrepreneurs to entire divisions of companies needing managed staffing solutions to reduce overhead and move existing local staff to where they perform best.
Online VA Team agents can do things like support inbound calls, schedule meetings and admin roles, help gather leads, post on social media sites for your business, and much more.
If you’re looking to scale your business and looking for a cost-effective outsourcing solution, then Online VA Team could be right for you. Online VA Team takes care of the busy work related to hiring and managing administrative staff so that you can focus on the bigger picture and move local staff to where they perform best. When I spoke with Online VA Team manager Greg Parker, he stressed their onboard matching process. They take care to match clients with teammates that have the right skills and experience to not only complete tasks to a high standard but are also fully checked on their previous work experience. They take agents from many Fortune 500 companies and pair them with growing businesses where they can excel.
Per my conversation with Greg:
“We really focus on dedicated staffing and we focus on building teams from 1 person all the way up to 50 person teams. We have floor managers that are constantly in contact with our clients to be sure their staff are on top of things and their organization is running smoothly.
So we scale support teams, admin offices, e-commerce stores, things like this so that our customers can focus on the bigger picture.
This not only helps with less stress, but also is a significant savings of time and money as we manage teammates, take care of payroll, insurance, taxes, and other HR duties completely inclusive of our services.”
How Online VA Team Works
They only hire college-educated assistants and put all their candidates through 3 rounds of interviews. The first two interviews are internal with their hiring team, and the last one is with you.
This gives you the chance to interview the assistant and get a feel for what the working relationship will be like before committing to working with them.
They will work across any time zones too, so regardless of where you are in the world they will accommodate your business hours.
Here’s a video explaining their services:
Online VA Team Services
With Online VA Team, you can hire virtual assistants that are trained and ready to handle tasks across a wide range of job roles. Basically, they can take any admin or customer service jobs that can be completed remotely off your hands.
To give you an idea of the kind of roles their VAs typically fill, they group their skill sets into the following categories:
If you have any tasks or requirements that you think may not be covered, you can book a free consultation with a member of their team to discuss your needs.
Online VA Team Plans and Pricing
Online VA Team currently has two plans. Their main plan is priced per dedicated assistant who can work up to 40 hours a week. They also offer a smaller plan for lighter tasks if you are just getting started which is 5 hours a week.
Their plans are as follows:
Entry Level Plan – $250 per month for 5 hours a week Monday to Friday.
Small Business Plan – $1,195 per month for full time dedicated staffing Monday to Friday.
As you can see, if you have enough work for a full-time assistant you’re paying less than half the hourly rate of a local part-time assistant which is a substantial savings. Their dedicated staffing solution is a great value proposition for businesses looking to scale cost effectively.
Remote CoWorker is a virtual assistant company specializing in providing virtual assistants at competitive rates to entrepreneurs and businesses of all sizes all over the world.
The company’s headquarters is located in Florida, U.S. All of their virtual staff work out of their offices in the Philippines, enabling them to offer very competitive hourly rates.
The company started operations in 2013 and is headed up by CEO Gidon Levy, and COO Sean Rivkin.
When I asked about the areas they specialize in, Sean told me:
“We have a vast experience working with the following industries: Real Estate Agents & Brokers, IT & Technology, Insurance, Healthcare, Public adjusters and businesses that are mainly those who are working on a commission sales structure and looking to build a team.”
He also went on to say that when someone signs up with them, they provide a period of free training to ensure a smooth onboarding process for clients.
How Remote CoWorker Works
If you’re interested in working with Remote CoWorker you can get started by reaching out to them to schedule a time for a call. You can reach them by email, live web chat, or phone via their site.
Once they’ve learned more about your business and your virtual assistant requirements, they’ll be able to provide you with a quote for an hourly rate.
After you’re signed up, you’ll be assigned an account manager as a point of communication, as well as a dedicated virtual assistant. Their VAs are managed with a ratio of 1 manager for every 10 agents, and you’ll work closely with each to get your new team members up to speed.
Remote CoWorker Services
Remote CoWorker split their services into two categories:
This is interesting because a lot of virtual assistant companies list bookkeeping as part of their general services, but few list it as a separate service to a general VA.
Bookkeeping requires some specific skills and qualifications, at least to perform the role at a high level. It’s reassuring to see they have some assistants that work as dedicated bookkeepers — if that’s what you’re looking for.
Under their virtual assistance category, you’ll find the usual wide range of business tasks that can be completed remotely. Some of the tasks they highlight on their site include:
At a similar price point and offering bilingual VAs (Spanish/English), take a look at Virtual Latinos.
There is no shortage of virtual assistant providers based in the Philippines to consider as alternatives to Remote CoWorker.
Virtual Coworker is a remote staffing agency specializing in long-term full-time and part-time positions. They are headquartered in the US and Australia and hire exclusively from the Philippines. They help recruit virtual assistants, social media managers, customer service specialists, web developers, and more. Unlike other recruitment agencies, the initial signup is free. Use code VAA to get 5% off your first month!
Online VA Team – Based out of the US, their VAs work remotely from the Philippines but will work across any time zone. Entry Level Plan – $250 per month for up to 5 hours a week Monday to Friday. Small Business Plan – $1,195 per agent per month for dedicated staffing Monday to Friday.
One company that operates a similar model is OkayRelax, which provides a dedicated assistant at $4 per task when you buy 25 tasks a month.
That said, Remote CoWorker’s starting rate is one of the most competitive.
Other options worth considering are My OutDesk, which operates on a similar agency model and specializes in the real estate industry, and OnlineJobs.ph if you don’t mind putting in a little more work upfront on your talent search.
Your Turn
Have you worked with Remote CoWorker? If so, please leave a review below to help others with their decision.
Wing Assistant is a virtual assistant company specializing in connecting businesses, startups, and execs with experienced, dedicated virtual assistants.
The company started operations in 2018 and is headed up by a business management team consisting of Karan Kanwar (CEO), Roland Polzin (CMO), Saideep Gupta (CTO), and Martin Gomez (COO).
The interesting thing about Wing Assistant – and something that separates them from other VA companies – is the broad scope of their services.
You can request everything from complex business tasks, such as online research or bookkeeping, to simple PA tasks like setting reminders or ordering stuff online for you.
Wing Assistant also uses a combination of human virtual assistants and “cutting-edge artificial intelligence” to fulfill requests.
This helps them respond to requests faster and is also what helps them deal with such a broad scope of tasks.
Wing Assistant markets their services to everyone from busy individuals, to teams in need of general assistance, to execs looking for an additional team member to fill a role.
Once you’ve signed up for a plan, you can literally send a voice note to your assistant via an app. You can make it more of a concierge or personal assistant service than a business relationship if that’s what you’re looking for.
How Wing Assistant Works
Once you’ve signed up with Wing, there is a team of assistants on-hand waiting to help with whatever your requests are.
There is a simple streamlined process in place as follows:
Ask for help – You can text, call, or contact Wing via various apps like Slack and Whatsapp with the task you need help with.
They get to work – Once the request is received, your assistant will get to work on it. They’ll keep you updated on their progress and you can contact them with additional information at any time.
Check the results – All that’s left to do is check your assistant has completed the task to your satisfaction!
Wing Assistant Services
There aren’t many tasks Wing Assistant will not take off your hands. In fact, they say “As long as it’s possible, we can do it.”
To give you a better idea of the most popular tasks Wing Assistant handles, they group their services into the following categories:
But as they said, there are no limits (within reason) to what their assistants can do for you. Whatever your tasks are, it’s worth reaching out and speaking with a member of their team to see if they can help.
On their site, Wing Assistant lists some interesting tasks they’re happy to take on, such as collecting rent from tenants and delivering a 6-pack of beer in a hurry!
Wing Assistant Plans and Pricing
Wing Assistant has 2 “unlimited” pricing plans. All of their plans have a fixed monthly fee, and for that fee, you get a set number of users and hours of access to your assistant.
Here is a complete list of their pricing plans at the time of publishing:
Part-Time – $699 per month for 4 hours/day access to assistants Based on your schedule and timezone.
Full-Time – $1099 per month for all-day access to assistants Based on your schedule and timezone.
If you don’t see a plan that meets your requirements, Wing Assistant’s sales staff are happy to discuss creating a custom plan.
Wing Assistant is a kind of cross between services like Magic and overseas virtual assistant providers.
Magic is an on-demand AI-powered concierge agent that can help perform basic tasks via text message. So, there is some overlap with the services Wing Assistant offers.
If you want to work with a dedicated assistant at a comparable hourly rate to what Wing Assistant is offering, I recommend checking out any of the top-rated Philippines-based VA companies.
YourDailyTask is a virtual assistant company based in Mumbai, India. The firm was established in 2008 and has grown to a team of 200+ virtual assistants serving over 6000 clients worldwide.
They’re open 24/7, and target a more business-oriented client base, as opposed to individuals and sole proprietors.
In this way, your VA can be an asset to your team in interacting with customers and helping answer their questions via live chat on your site, email, or even Twitter.
MBA Virtual Assistants are available for special projects like market research, competitor analysis and finance management.
How YourDailyTask Works
Whether you’re a small business or a large corporation, YourDailyTask makes it easy to scale from one virtual assistant to an entire virtual office in just three simple steps.
Your Daily Task Plans and Pricing
At YourDailyTask you can hire a dedicated virtual assistant for as low as $5.99. They also have part time and other small plans as per your needs.
The popular 40-hour a month plan is just $319.60, or $7.99 an hour, or you can also try out a trial 10 hours plan at $89.90.
All the small plans up to 40 hours are task-based and you will be only charged if you assign a task. The 80 and 160 hours plans don’t expire at the end of month; your hours rollover and you have up to 6 months to use them.
(Obviously try and delegate 700 hours worth of work to your dedicated assistant in month 6!)
YourDailyTask will also quote project-based work if your needs don’t justify an ongoing virtual assistant.
YourDailyTask is a well-established, affordable, and long-running Indian VA company, but they’re not the only game in town. If you’re shopping around, you might consider My Tasker as well, though their rates are slightly higher.
Your Turn
Have you worked with YourDailyTask? If so, please share a review of your experience below.
VA Talks is a professional virtual assistant provider in India with 24/7 support. The company was formed in 2015 by two veteran virtual assistants who decided to start their own firm.
Despite the inherent “new-ness” of the VA Talks company, the founding partners bring nearly a decade of business process outsourcing experience to the table and are growing a team to serve other entrepreneurs and small businesses around the world.
The goal of VA Talks is to help other companies get their most important tasks done. The team is working from the secure office in Kolkata, India.
Like other virtual assistant companies, they want to earn your trust so you have confidence in the experience and quality of VAs they provide. The target market for these services are for busy individuals, entrepreneurs, small businesses or large corporations interested in freeing up some time or getting access to skilled help for their day-to-day needs.
VA Talks Services
VA Talks virtual assistants can perform nearly any type of task you might think of online. Whether you require bookkeeping services, administrative tasks, web development, design or search engine optimization, skilled VAs are available to help you.
In addition, clients tap the VA Talks team to help design mobile apps, run marketing efforts, create presentations and proposals, and to do research.
When I spoke with one of the founders, CEO Sanjay (Sam) Gupta — no, not that Sanjay Gupta — he explained that they recruit team members with a variety of skills, but that, “Some of our most in demand VAs are proficient in WordPress, Joomla, Magento, Drupal, and many other web development platforms. Our Web team is our main focus but we do have virtual assistants capable of helping nearly any type of company or individual.”
VA Talks Founder Interview
VA Talks Pla
ns and Pricing
VA Talks pricing starts as low as $130 for 10 hours per month ($13/hour). The larger plan you buy, the lower the effective hourly rate, all the way down to less than $7 an hour for a full-time dedicated VA ($1100/month).
But don’t bite off more hours than you need just for the sake of saving money; unused hours don’t rollover month-to-month.
When I asked Sam what sets his team apart, he explained, “It’s fairly easy to find a workforce of VAs that are willing to work. But VA Talks goes the extra mile to find staff that will deliver quality work.”
He went on to share that all of the VAs on the team “are our friends who are hand-selected for our clients to service their needs. We work to provide not only the best quality labor in our industry but also customer experiences that will have you consistently coming back for more.”
As far as alternative choices, as you know, you have many virtual assistant companies in India to choose from. Among the top-rated is My Tasker, with a long track-record of success. Another company based out of India to check out is TaskVirtual.
Have you worked with VATalks? If so, please be sure to share a review of your experience below to help others with their decision.
Clear Desk is a US-based virtual assistant company that provides virtual assistants to entrepreneurs and small to medium-sized businesses all over the world.
The company is headquartered in California, US. Their assistants work remotely from locations based all over the world.
The company started operations about 4 years ago. ClearDesk is headquartered in San Diego, CA and it’s CEO is Jeff Amon.
Prior to founding ClearDesk, Jeff and his partners operated large businesses with high operational costs in the US. Those businesses came to a close as margins thinned and employee costs continued to rise.
It was only when they started a new company and outsourced a large portion of their operations overseas that they realized how much money they could save.
After several years of outsourcing to staff in countries like India, the Philippines, and Colombia, they decided to start ClearDesk.
Their mission is to share the business model they used to grow their businesses and help other business owners save on employee costs and overheads.
*Please note that this video was accurate at time of filming. ClearDesk has updated information since filming.
How ClearDesk Works
To get started working with ClearDesk you need to reach out and leave your contact details. A member of their team will ‘contact you within minutes’ – that’s pretty fast!
After a call to discuss your requirements, ClearDesk will find the best-suited assistant for you based on your business’ needs.
You will have a point of contact at ClearDesk’s offices in California should you need them. Otherwise, you can communicate directly with your virtual assistant and have them start working on your tasks.
ClearDesk allows you to use your own communication tools if you wish. Otherwise, they support Slack, video calls, and phone calls as ways of communication.
ClearDesk specializes in:
Customer Service
Sales/SDR
Exec Assistants
Ecommerce management (shopify, big commerce, amazon, etc)
ClearDesk’s virtual assistants can take on the general day-to-day business tasks most business owners are looking to outsource.
To give you an idea, they group their services into the following categories:
Admin Support
Customer Support
Project Management
Social Media Management
Sales & Lead Generation
Virtual Executive Assistant
ClearDesk also says they have assistants with experience working with start-ups, realtors, and sales organizations. It’s worth booking a call with their team to discuss your business and what you’re looking for in an assistant.
ClearDesk is happy to offer Virtual Assistant services in English, Spanish and French – in any time zone that you need them to work in – Great flexibility!
ClearDesk Plans and Pricing
Clear Desk currently has multiple pricing plans, and the option to create a custom plan to suit your requirements.
This positions Clear Desk at a lower price point than what you’d expect to pay for a US-based assistant, while higher than a competitive overseas rate.
ClearDesk’s pricing plans at the time of publishing was:
Full Time Assistant = $2,500 per month for 180 hrs per month ($13.88/hr)
6 month commitment = 10% discount, $2,250 per month ($12.50/hr)
12 month commitment = 22% discount, $1,950 per month ($10.83/hr)
Specialized Assistant – (engineering, software development, Facebook Media Management) = $3,500 – $4,500 per month for 180 hours/month (8 hours/day)
There are no other charges and no fixed contracts. You can pay for additional hours at a rate of $20/hr on all plans.
It’s worth noting that you can’t roll unused hours over at the end of the month. They do say their assistants are flexible in regard to business hours though, but that’s something you need to discuss upfront.
If you are specifically looking for a VA that is bilingual (Spanish/English), check out Virtual Latinos.
If you want to outsource overseas, we recommend checking out OnlineJobs.ph and OkayRelax. Their hourly rates are a lot more competitive ranging between $3-$12.
Your Turn
Have you worked with ClearDesk? If so, please share a quick review of your experience below to help others with their decision.
MyOutDesk is a virtual assistant provider with a reputation for providing white-glove, premium-quality virtual assistant services for small to medium-sized businesses, with a focus on administrative, inside sales, marketing & transaction coordination solutions. They also have an enterprise program for clients looking to onboard 10 or more.
They pride themselves on a stringent talent-matching process utilizing FBI-grade background, employment & experience screening in addition to DISC personality profiling.
Out of over 150 applications per day, only 2.2% are hired and endorsed to outsourcing clients.
VAA Exclusive: To claim that special $500 off your first-month offer, usemy referral link here.
Table of Contents
About MyOutDesk
MyOutDesk is named #1 for virtual assistant services by TechRadar. They are one of the longest-running virtual assistant services companies — serving 6,000+ clients with 600+ verified 5-star business reviews.
The company was founded in 2008 by a team of real estate industry veterans and originally specialized in real estate virtual assistant services. Today, they are the highest-rated virtual assistant provider for these industries: real estate, healthcare (including biotech), mortgage & lending, e-commerce, marketing, human resources, and even legal marijuana/cannabis.
While highly rated in the industries above, they remain the original, largest & most trusted VA staffing company for real estate, with clients including half of the top 10 ranked RealTrends™ teams in the country.
Unique to MyOutDesk, they boast a vast number of resources & knowledge bases:
Business growth & scaling resources
Proprietary remote work productivity tracking software
CEO mastermind discussions
professional development webinars & podcasts
Sales, marketing, leadership, and organizational strategy resources
MyOutDesk is headquartered in Sacramento, California, with overseas offices in the Philippines managing a staff of thousands of virtual assistants, who work from their home offices in Southeast Asia.
(Managing a team that size is a feat unto itself, remote or otherwise!)
MyOutDesk provides VOIP telephony, email, and a backup power supply to their VAs to ensure their staff meet client uptime and
MyOutDesk Virtual Services
MyOutDesk VAs are trained in a variety of real estate-specific jobs, including:
With the marketplace being quite crowded, I like how MyOutDesk staked its claim as the experts in the real estate niche.
But that’s not all they do.
MyOutDesk has diversified its services into:
mortgage and finance
healthcare
technology
customer service & support staffing
and more
According to company leadership, MyOutDesk is well-liked in the Philippines because of their pay scale, benefits, and managerial support. The company is also highly involved in overseas charity work, which helps them to attract and retain higher quality virtual assistants.
My Interview with the MyOutDesk Co-Founder and CEO
VAA Exclusive: To claim that special $500 off your first-month offer, usemy referral link here.
MyOutDesk Virtual Plans and Pricing
MyOutDesk offers 3 different plans for clients, with a year of virtual assistant services at a monthly rate of $1,788 (roughly $10.32 an hour).
These rates are higher than many otherFilipino virtual assistant companies, but MOD Virtual is confident their “virtual professional” vetting process, a long track record of success, unparalleled support, bundled proprietary tools for productivity, strategic resources, thousands of happy clients justify the premium pricing.
MyOutDesk Testimonial Video
MyOutDesk Alternatives
I initially found out about MyOutDesk from the VA I hired throughVirtual Staff Finder. She listed them as her former employer so I was excited to learn about yet another VA company.
MyOutDesk is primarily geared towards businesspeople looking for a “done for you” virtual assistant solution that carefully vets applicants before presenting them to you as interview candidates.
They stay involved with you and the VA as middle-man handling the HR load, including payroll and benefits, to let you focus as much as possible on your business, without a lot of administrative burdens.
This stands in contrast with “Do It Yourself” options such asOnlineJobs.ph, which functions more like a matching service than a full-service solutions provider. For businesses on a very lean budget, DIY may appear attractive due to lower advertised costs, but MyOutDesk is thriving even in the crowded marketplace, which indicates that there’s very much a need for managed virtual assistant services.
Your Turn
Have you worked with MyOutDesk? If so, please share a review of your experience below to help others with their decision.
Virtual Latinos is a US-based virtual assistant company operating out of San Diego. They started operations around the middle of 2018 and specialize in supplying virtual assistants from across the Latin American countries.
So, with experience finding and hiring from South American countries they decided to start Virtual Latinos to tap into this market and provide virtual assistants to entrepreneurs and businesses of all sizes.
How Virtual Latinos Works
They put their applicants through some strict testing to make sure they meet the high standards they’ve set and marketed to their clients.
About 5% of all applicants are accepted, less than 1% are hired” my contact told me, and they are currently supplying VAs from 20+ different Latin American countries.
Virtual Latinos point out that there are a number of reasons why working with one of their VA’s based in Latin America might be a great fit for your company, these are:
Similar Timezone – Depending on the country of the assistant you agree to work with there will be a few hours difference at most from you if you’re in the US.
US-Based Trainings & Certifications – Their assistants are put through US-based certifications and training courses to build on their skill sets.
Bilingual – If you deal with Spanish speaking customers or want to increase your reach in the Spanish speaking market their assistants are fully bilingual in English and Spanish.
Affordable – Virtual Latinos says their assistants are 40-75% less expensive than US-based assistants due to working from locations with a lower cost of living.
If you’re interested in the full details of their hiring process, checkout this Client Hiring Roadmap.
Virtual Latinos Founder Interview
I had the chance to sit down with Jaime to learn a bit more about his hiring processes and what it’s like to work with Virtual Latinos.
Virtual Latino’s Services
Virtual Latinos virtual assistants are trained and experienced in handling a wide range of tasks that can be completed remotely.
To give you an idea of the kind of tasks they commonly complete for their clients, they group their virtual assistant services into the following categories:
General Admin Assistants
Executive Assistants
General Digital Marketers
Customer Support
Sales & Customer Reps
Writers & Bloggers
Project & Operations Managers
Branding & Graphic Designers
Social Media Marketers
E-mail & Automation Experts
Web designers
Video editors
Legal Virtual Assistants
Healthcare Virtual Assistants
Real Estate Assistants
Many other roles
Who Virtual Latinos Helps
Virtual Latinos helps businesses of all sizes, from solopreneurs to small or medium businesses, as well as from a variety of industries. Below is a recap of their most popular types of companies they work with, but if your industry isn’t listed, they can probably still help you to find and hire a virtual assistant based on yours specific needs. Their community of pre-vetted assistants includes professionals with various educational and work experience backgrounds.
Virtual Latino’s Plans and Pricing
They do require a minimum of 20 hours per week to start as of Jan 2022. *Prices shown at time of publishing
Virtual Assistant Plans
If you want to leave the legwork of finding and vetting the best candidate to them, there are three virtual assistants and virtual professionals plans to choose from:
General, Entry Level
Mid Level
Expert Level
Their General Virtual Assistant plan is to hire a less experienced VA, while their Expert Virtual Assistants plan is to hire one of their more experienced VAs and remote professionals. Please note the rates below are starting rates, and can vary based on the candidate you choose
General, Entry Level Virtual Assistants and Virtual Professionals Plans
Part-time – starting at $800 per month ($10/hour, 80 hours/month)
Full-time Plan – starting at $1,600 per month ($10/hour, 160 hours/month)
Mid Level Virtual Assistant and Virtual Professionals Plans
Part-time Plan – starting at $1,040 per month ($13/hour, 80 hours/month)
Full-time Plan – starting at $2,080 per month ($13/hour, 160 hours/month)
Expert Virtual Assistant and Virtual Professionals Plans
Part-time – $1,440 per month ($18/hour, 80 hours/month)
Full-time Plan – $2,880 per month ($18/hour, 160 hours/month)
There are no additional costs or long-term commitments. Virtual Latinos also offer a performance guarantee. This means that if you’re not satisfied with your assistant for any reason, they will replace them for you.
My advice is to speak with a member of their team before choosing between the three plans. Explain in detail what tasks you’ll be asking of your assistant so you get off on the right foot.
The cost of an experienced assistant is almost double, so you need to be sure you’re getting value for your money.
Virtual Latinos Alternatives
Online VA Team – Based out of the US, their VAs work remotely from the Philippines but will work across any time zone. Entry Level Plan – $250 per month for up to 5 hours a week Monday to Friday. Small Business Plan – $1,195 per agent per month for dedicated staffing Monday to Friday.
One company that has great pricing is OkayRelax, which provides a dedicated assistant at $4 per task when you buy 25 tasks a month.
Uassist.me operates a similar business model as Virtual Latinos and have some great feedback from happy clients, so I recommend checking them out for a quote.
Their virtual assistants are also based in Central America, although their pricing is a little higher than Virtual Latinos.
Time Etc is a US and UK-based virtual assistant company that has been around since 2007. They’re one of the most popular VA companies too — having saved their clients more than 1,032,559 hours so far!
Important Note: This Time Etc review is geared toward those looking to hire an assistant. Click here to learn more about how to become a virtual assistant.
VAA Exclusive: Click here to claim your free $50 trial credit!
BOOK A FREE CONSULTATION CALL
Table of Contents
About Time Etc Virtual Assistants
The company is proud of the assistants they offer. Each one has to pass a very strict, 10-step selection process, and less than 1% of applicants are approved.
All of them are college-educated and have an average of 12 years of experience. These Time Etc assistants have worked for Facebook, Apple, IBM, AOL, and other major corporations.
Most Time Etc VAs serve customers from their home offices in either the US or UK — depending on your location.
A Celebrity Advisor
One interesting thing about Time Etc is that Sir Richard Branson’s former assistant, Penni Pike, is a special advisor. She served as the billionaire mogul’s assistant for three decades, and is probably as close to a celebrity as they come in the world of personal assistants.
Now, you’re not likely to score Penni as your VA when you sign up, but she has helped train and mentor the rest of the crew.
Customer and Assistant Feedback
Time Etc is known to look after their assistants and customers.
The company has earned a 4.9 out of 5 rating on Glassdoor from assistants, and a 4.92/5 customer rating here on Virtual Assistant Assistant.
The Hard Work Myth
Time Etc was founded by Barnaby Lashbrooke, with the intention of helping busy entrepreneurs and leaders achieve more. As you know, it’s not always about working harder, but more often about working smarter and pulling the right levers for big gains.
This is a cause Barnaby is particularly passionate about. In fact, he wrote a book on the topic called The Hard Work Myth.
Special Offer: If you sign up for Time Etc through this link, Barnaby will send you a free copy of The Hard Work Myth ($13.97 on Amazon) to say thanks.
Pretty sweet that Sir Richard even tweeted it out!
How Time Etc Works
When you sign up for Time Etc, you can expect to be assigned a dedicated assistant with whom you can begin to establish an ongoing relationship.
However, you can also build a team of multiple assistants, each with different skills, for no additional cost.
Time etc doesn’t use a one-size-fits-all approach and instead pride themselves on fully understanding the client’s requirements, challenges and personality before carefully matching them to a suitable assistant.
They put a lot of effort into this matching process because they believe that having an assistant that truly understands you and your business is the key to succeeding.
Time Etc Founder Interview
I had the chance to sit down with Barnaby to get the inside scoop on how the company works and who they best serve.
VAA Exclusive: Click here to claim your free $50 trial credit!
Time Etc Services
Time Etc virtual assistants can handle a wide variety of tasks you throw at them, including:
Help with your to-do list
Manage your diary/calendar
Book accommodation and travel
Find products and services
Check and respond to emails
Research
Social Media
Writing and blog posts
Sort your expenses
Chase late payments
Issue invoices
Transcribe audio
Edit and format documents
Data entry
Help with marketing
…and more
BOOK A FREE CONSULTATION CALL
Time Etc Plans and Pricing
Rates range from $36-33 hour, and you can sign-on with a dedicated virtual assistant for as little as $360 a month.
Naturally, the more time you need, the more attractive the rates become, and to the extent your VA is available, you can scale up or scale back your hours as needed at any given time.
The rates are a pretty good value when you consider they include:
a dedicated virtual assistant
the ability to add more assistants to your team with different skills
the ability to share your assistant with other people in your business
a built-in task-management system to help you keep track of everything
Like with most other virtual assistant companies, you don’t have any long-term obligation, contract, or overhead.
To help ease the fears of first-time outsourcers, Time Etc is offering a free $50 credit for Virtual Assistant Assistant visitors to test out their service risk-free (with no credit card required), and a 100% money back guarantee.
You won’t find that with a freelancer and definitely not with an in-house hire!
BOOK A FREE CONSULTATION CALL
Time Etc Alternatives
At these rates, Time Etc compares favorably to other premium assistant services.
*Specialist services are available for an additional charge.
In the US and Europe, the nearest competitor would be Wishup, ClearDesk, Prialto, or Boldly, which has a similar set-up if you’re interested in making a comparison, though at noticeably higher rates.
Your Turn
Have you worked with Time Etc? If so, please share a quick review of your experience below to help others with their decision.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is Time Etc?
Time Etc is a leading US and UK-based virtual assistant company established in 2007. Check out the full profile on Virtual Assistant Assistant to read reviews from real Time Etc customers.
Is Time Etc legit?
Yes, Time Etc is a legitimate provider of virtual assistant services. The company has a roster of more than 16,000 clients and has saved those clients more than 700,000 hours so far. Check out the full profile on Virtual Assistant Assistant to read reviews from real Time Etc customers.
How much does Time Etc cost?
Among US and UK-based virtual assistant companies, Time Etc is among the most affordable. Depending on how many hours of support you anticipate needing, you’ll find packages ranging from $21-26 an hour. Check out the full profile on VirtualAssistantAssistant.com for more information.
OnlineJobs.ph is a Filipino job board that caters exclusively to remote online work opportunities.
It was created in 2009 by Utah-based entrepreneur John Jonas as a way to connect the affordable Filipino workforce with business owners in North America and around the world.
Over the last decade, OnlineJobs.ph has become the leading platform to find qualified virtual assistants in the Philippines. At press time, the site has over 250,000 resumes in its database–a huge talent pool!
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About OnlineJobs
The beauty of OnlineJobs is in their powerful filtering system.
It’s basically a resume database, and you can filter by the date the listing was created, skills required, the level of skill (very important), and desired salary.
According to John and other hiring experts, the most important filters are:
resumes updated within the last month
strong English writing skills
The logic behind these selections is that the ones with older resumes will either already have jobs or they aren’t great candidates.
For the English skills, writing is a great indicator of overall understanding, comprehension, and communication skills.
If your virtual assistant has that baseline knowledge, you can train them in whatever you need done. John explained, “If they understand and write English well, that usually means they think well.”
How OnlineJobs.ph Works
The site is primarily geared toward finding a full-time or part-time virtual team member–either 40 or 20 hours per week.
You’ll find an incredible variety of skills and experience on OnlineJobs.
For example, you’ll find qualified (and if we’re being honest, not-so-qualified) workers for:
The salaries shown are monthly figures, and are usually negotiable. They’re shown in pesos, so you’ll have to do a quick conversion to get an idea of how much a particular VA will cost.
For example, 25,000 pesos is a little under $500 at today’s exchange rate. That isn’t an exceedingly low salary request for full-time work.
Video Overview with the Founder
OnlineJobs.ph Plans and Pricing
The way OnlineJobs.ph makes money is on a subscription-based pricing model.
The rates start at $69 a month to be able to contact the workers. You can do all the filtering and searching you want, but you can’t communicate with the workers until you pay.
(There’s a very limited free plan, where you can technically post jobs, but you won’t be able to see the applications or contact candidates.)
Unless you need to build a large team or are using OnlineJobs as a recruiter, it shouldn’t take you more than a month or maybe two at the most to find a suitable selection.
Heavy users may find value in the $99 a month Premium plan, which allows you to contact up to 500 workers per moth.
After you find your ideal virtual assistant, OnlineJobs is out of the picture. You’ll work with them–and pay them–directly, with no middlemen or markups on their salary.
Just like in the rest of the world, salaries vary based on skills and experience. Most workers request between $500 and $1000 a month for full-time work.
A Recent OnlineJobs Hiring Experience and Process
For instance, I posted a virtual assistant job recently and was inundated with responses overnight.
From more than 70 candidates, I picked my top 10 to send some trial tasks.
Five or six completed those and I picked my top 2 for a Skype video interview.
All done in less than a week.
OnlineJobs Recruiting Service
If sorting through those 70 applications sounds a little overwhelming, there is an alternative.
The company sources, screens, and finds you the best-fit candidate
Start working with your new VA
With this option, you give up a little bit of control, but you’ll undoubtedly save some time and have experienced recruiters in your corner.
ID Proof
OnlineJobs.ph profiles include a metric called ID Proof.
It’s not a measure of skill or reliability, but a 1-100 rating of to what degree the candidate is who they say they are.
Apparently it’s a common practice to create multiple profiles under fake personas to hedge your bets and theoretically give yourself a better chance of getting an application noticed.
In general, I’ve found the higher the ID Proof number, the more professional the candidate. It’s a measure of how seriously they’re staking their reputation online.
I wouldn’t immediately rule someone out who has a low score here, but choosing between two equally qualified candidates, I’d go with the one with the higher ID Proof.
Virtual Assistant Tracking Software: “TimeProof”
OnlineJobs has introduced a piece of software called TimeProof to track the working hours of your remote team members.
It’s completely free to use, and aims to provide a level of protection and verification for both workers and employers.
As the employer, you’ll get time sheets and screenshots of what your VA was working on during their shift.
OnlineJobs.ph Alternatives
Other sites have attempted to replicate the success and job-board business model of OnlineJobs, but none have gotten the same level of traction.
Still, there are a few companies that might be worth a look depending on your needs.
Virtual Coworker
Virtual Coworker is a remote staffing agency specializing in long-term full-time and part-time positions. They are headquartered in the US and Australia and hire exclusively from the Philippines. They help recruit virtual assistants, social media managers, customer service specialists, web developers, and more. Unlike other recruitment agencies, the initial signup is free. Use code VAA to get 5% off your first month!
FreeUp
FreeUp is a unique freelance marketplace that claims to only accept the “top 1%” of applicants. About 40% of its talent pool is from the Philippines.
FreeUp operates more like a match-making service, where they’ll introduce you to a candidate that matches your needs. You pay them through the platform on either an hourly or fixed-price basis.
Online VA Team
Online VA Team is a top virtual assistant company that can help leverage your organization by outsourcing your workforce and taking care of managing your teammates and HR needs. Based out of the US, their VAs work remotely from the Philippines but will work across any time zone. They only hire college-educated assistants and put all their candidates through 3 rounds of interviews – so you’re sure to find a good fit. Online VA Team specializes in building teams for small to medium size companies needing administrative and customer service positions filled at a substantial cost savings. Online VA Team Entry Level Plan – $250 per month for up to 5 hours a week Monday to Friday. Small Business Plan – $1,195 per agent per month for dedicated staffing Monday to Friday.
Virtual Staff Finder
The closest competitor to OnlineJobs’ recruitment service is Virtual Staff Finder. The service similarly priced ($495) and they’ll introduce you to 3 candidates that most closely fit your job description.
OkayRelax
If you don’t have the need for full-time support, you might consider OkayRelax. This is a task-based service that offers a dedicated VA starting at $100 a month.
I’ve been a customer for years and have my assistant integrated into several ongoing tasks and processes in my business.
Have you had any experience with finding a VA on OnlineJobs.ph? If so, please share it here and help others with their decision.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is OnlineJobs.ph?
OnlineJobs.ph is the largest remote jobs board and resume database in the Philippines. The site is geared toward Western business owners looking to hire dedicated full or part-time remote staff.
Is OnlineJobs.ph legit?
Yes, OnlineJobs.ph is a legitimate site to find remote workers in the Philippines. Check out Virtual Assistant Assistant to read reviews from real OnlineJobs customers.
How much does OnlineJobs.ph cost?
OnlineJobs.ph charges a monthly membership fee, starting at $69 a month, for employers to post jobs and communicate with candidates. After that, you’ll make your hire and pay your virtual worker directly. A typical rate for a full-time virtual assistant is $400-1000 a month, depending on their skills and experience.
The company started operations in 2013 and is headed up by CEO Gidon Levy, and COO Sean Rivkin.
20% Off on Full Time and Part Time Plans (80 & 160 Hours)
Over the last decade, OnlineJobs.ph has become the leading platform to find qualified virtual assistants in the Philippines. At press time, the site has over 250,000 resumes in its database–
