FixRunner

Posted by Mica Harvey / Technical Assistants

Fixrunner is a company offering WordPress support, maintenance plans, and e-learning materials to help you learn more about managing and protecting your WordPress site.

The company is based in Israel, the Philippines, and the US. Their head office is in their Israel location, and their agents work remotely across the globe.

About FixRunner

fixrunner reviewFixRunner.com was founded in 2013 by Sam Mulaim and the company operates in three locations; Israel, Serbia, and the US. Their agents work remotely all over the world from their homes and shared office spaces.

Their target customers are anyone from solopreneurs to large business owners. If you own or manage a WordPress website, FixRunner offers a range of affordable support options that can help you manage your site.

Fix Runner Intro Video

Services

There are endless possible problems a WordPress site owner can run into. Fix Runner offers complete support for your site, from minor CSS changes, bug fixes, on-going support, just about anything you can possibly need.

Website downtime is almost certainly going to be damaging for your business. Having a support team available 24/7 can prove invaluable. FixRunner offer several different packages, making it easy for you to have that peace of mind that your site is secure and running smoothly.

As well as offering support and bug fixes, FixRunner also offer training and advice through their WP College. You get access to a large number of videos, articles, and other training tools in their WP College when you sign up for one of their monthly plans.

Plans and Pricing

FixRunner.com has four packages; WP College, Basic, Premium, and Advanced.

These packages are as follows:

Basic – $69 per month – This package includes all the WP College materials, 1 hour of support, 24/7 security, site backups, WordPress theme and plugin updates, and daily Up Time monitoring.

Premium – $99 per month This package includes all the services included in the Basic package, along with an extra hour of support time, hosting services, phone/chat support, and speed optimization.

Advanced – $179 per month This package includes all the services included in the Premium package, along with 2 additional hours of support, on-page SEO, 2 hours of custom design work, 2 hours of custom programming work, online shop support, and mobile theme support.

Like WP Curve, they have a 3-month minimum on all their plans.

FixRunner.com also offers One-Time and single job fix support. You can request a free quote for any work via a form on their website.

FixRunner Alternatives

In addition to WP Curve mentioned above, you might consider Zen WP (I’m in the middle of a trial with them), which currently doesn’t have the 3-month minimum requirement. For one-off fixes and not a subscription model, check WP Fix It.

And if you have a need for more in-depth IT support for an upcoming project, check out TopTal.

When I asked FixRunner what sets them apart from their competitors they said, “Fixrunner has a WP College that helps and trains people who are new to WordPress. It provides video guides and tutorials for installation support.” Certainly something worth considering if you like to learn and empower yourself with skills to make site fixes yourself.

Your Turn

Have you worked with Fix Runner? If so, please leave a review below to help others with their decision.

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Remote Team Solutions

Posted by Mica Harvey / Dedicated Virtual Assistants, Virtual Assistant Companies

Remote Team Solutions is a virtual assistant company based in La Laguna, Mexico. They specialize in providing full-time virtual assistants to businesses of all sizes.

The company has been in operation since 2014, and all of their assistants work out of their La Laguna offices.

BOOK A FREE CONSULTATION CALL NOW!

About Remote Team Solutions

Remote Team Solutions ReviewRemote Team Solutions says their focus is “building great teams for great companies”.

They offer a complete staffing solution, from screening candidates to training them and handling all the employee-related costs. All you do is choose the candidates you want to work with and then work directly with them to get your tasks completed.

They don’t operate on hourly plans like a lot of other VA companies. Instead, Remote Team Solutions provides full-time staff working 45-hours a week.

Therefore, they are more suited to individuals and businesses looking to grow their teams with full-time team members rather than handling ad-hoc tasks.

They say they chose to locate their staff in La Laguna because it’s “one of the most conducive places to have a remote team.” Being just outside the US border, they are able to work to your business hours if you’re in the US.

They also add that their staff are fluent in English and familiar with the culture in the US. Theoretically that should make it a more seamless process introducing staff to your business.

How Remote Team Solutions Works

Here’s the 3-step client onboarding process for Remote Team Solutions:

  1. Discuss your requirements in a consultation call with a member of Remote Team Solutions’ team.
  2. They will get back to you with a number of suitable candidates for you to approve. You’ll have the chance to video interview the candidates in person, or you can just trust their judgment.
  3. Once you’ve settled on the team members you want to work with, Remote Team Solutions will handle everything else. They set the employees up in their offices, and manage and train them on an ongoing basis. You can start communicating with them directly as soon as they’re ready.

Per my contact, Pedro, “Something we focus on a lot is employee turnover rate as we know how much it costs our clients to train a new hire. We don’t want our clients to have to be changing of staff, so we pay our staff above average.”

Remote Team Solutions Services

Remote Team Solutions offers:

  • administrative support staff / secretaries
  • project management
  • product managers
  • engineering
  • finance
  • accounting
  • IT
  • digital marketing
  • analysts
  • and more

They operate by discussing what your needs and requirements are, then finding the staff members to fill those roles.

Let them know the role(s) you have in mind and they’ll go out and find the best-fit candidates for it.

Remote Team Solutions Plans and Pricing

Remote Team Solutions do not provide any fixed pricing plans at this time, since the rates will vary based on the role you’re hiring for. Just like anywhere else, engineers tend to earn more than secretaries.

When I asked them to give me an idea of how much I’d expect to pay, they said “between $1,350 to $2,200 per month.” This is for a full-time assistant working 45 hours per week, which works out to an equivalent rate of $9-13 an hour.

The company explains that clients typically notice a 60% cost savings vs. hiring in-house.

BOOK A FREE CONSULTATION CALL NOW!

Remote Team Solutions Alternatives

If you like the idea of near-sourcing to Latin America, there are a couple options to consider. The first is Uassist.ME out of El Salvador. They have a few different monthly packages to choose from, which could be beneficial if you don’t quite have the need for full-time support yet.

Another interesting option is iWorker, which offers a similar recruiting service and remote workers in Venezuela and throughout South America. Under their model, you only pay for the hours your assistant works.

However, Remote Team Solutions seems to target a higher-end client and focus on higher-skilled hires. It’s similar to outsourcing companies like Virtual Employee in India, but much closer to home geographically and culturally.

Your Turn

Have you worked with Remote Team Solutions? If so, please leave a short review below to help others with their decision.

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TaskArmy

Posted by Mica Harvey / Freelance Virtual Assistants, Project-Based Virtual Assistants

 

TaskArmy is a task-oriented outsourcing marketplace that got its start in 2010. The company was founded by Aymeric Gaurat-Apelli and is based out of Sydney, Australia. Frustrated with the crowds and race-to-the-bottom price wars on Upwork, and the inherent inflexibility of Fiverr (everything must be $5), Gaurat-Apelli set out to create a new outsourcing platform.

taskarmy reviewTask Army is like Fiverr, in that people post what kinds of jobs they’ll do for you, but the price can be whatever they set.

In a few quick searches I found:

  • ebook covers for $7
  • logo design for $79
  • a 500-word article on the topic of your choice for $32.

Shop around, because I’m sure the quality and feedback for each provider varies along with the price point.

For virtual assistants, I found a range of offerings, from $5 an hour to $17 an hour.  There were also some providers listing month-long virtual assistant jobs at $500-600/month.  I thought the selection was pretty weak, and then I learned that TaskArmy manually screens each provider so only the best and brightest have access to the platform.

In this sense, they’re similar to Staff.com in trying to create a more exclusive talent marketplace and create a point of differentiation between themselves and oDesk and other freelancing sites.

FreeeUp Upwork Fiverr OnlineJobs
Established 2015 1999 2010 2008
Location Worldwide, w/ concentration in USA and Philippines Worldwide Worldwide Philippines
Customer Rating
Size of Talent Pool Thousands 12 million 830,000 250,000
Hourly Rate $5-75+ $3-100+ $3-100+ $3-20+
Platform Fee 15% 5-20% 20% + processing fee $69 a month
Worker Tracking
(optional)
Pre-Screened Freelancers
(w/ Fiverr Pro)
Best For Quick hires, e-commerce One-off projects Smaller jobs Affordable full-time help
Learn More Learn More Learn More Learn More

While you can find some providers focusing on longer-term work, the majority of listings are for smaller tasks as opposed to project-based work.

What’s the difference? Writing an article is a task; building a website is a project.

With TaskArmy, you can’t post your own task you want to get done. Instead, you’ll search the listings to find someone with the task-offering and skills you’re looking for. This is intentional, to prevent freelancers from bidding their prices down in an unsustainable race to the bottom.

So in the end, you might pay more than you would on some other sites, but in theory you’re dealing with a generally higher caliber worker and you’re spending less time trying to find them.

To encourage orders, Task Army has set-up a risk-free guarantee. Basically if you’re not happy with the results your freelancer has provided, you don’t have to pay. Can’t argue with that.

Have you tried TaskArmy? If so, please share your experience below and help others with their decision.

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NS Virtual Services

Posted by Mica Harvey / US Virtual Assistants, Virtual Assistant Companies

NS Virtual Services provides virtual business services to entrepreneurs and businesses ranging from general admin and customer service, to social media and web development. I like the tagline of “Getting You Ahead Without The Overhead!”

The company was founded in 2008 by Natalie Szabo, who serves as the business and project manager. Natalie steers the ship from Quebec, Canada, and oversees current team members in Canada and the USA.

ns virtual services reviewShe explains that their ideal clients are entrepreneurs and business executives, who are willing to work on long-term ongoing projects. “Due to the varied skill-sets of each team member,” she adds, “We are able to serve various niches.”

How it Works

NS Virtual Services doesn’t limit themselves to any particular specialization.

“We partner with our clients to ensure that we match the perfect assistant to their project, not just who’s next available,” Natalie explains. “If we don’t have what the client is looking for, then we will find that special person, screening and vetting them in advance.”

Services

Since each team member comes with different skill-sets, NS Virtual Services can cover the following services:

  • General admin
  • customer service
  • data entry
  • translation
  • transcription
  • bookkeeping
  • social media management
  • website management
  • online business management
  • affiliate management

There are several multi-VA teams out there, but Natalie explains what sets them apart is their personalized service from start to finish. With a hands-on approach, she ensures that her clients and team are completely satisfied, making any adjustments necessary.

Clients can choose to work with their assigned VA directly, or have their VA manage several team members depending on the various tasks required.

Plans and Pricing

The company has different packages available, and the engagement is often customized for each client. Here are some ballpark numbers for reference, in USD:

  • Hourly blocks, from 5 hours per month (minimum) to 60+ hours per month,
    starting at $250
  • Social media management packages, $397 – $997
  • Consulting Package, $299
  • Setup Package, $650
  • Analysis Package, $749
  • Affiliate Management programs, $645-1195
  • Premade Social Media Kits, $47 to $197

I think it will come down to your comfort level and budget. For instance, you can certainly get data entry and transcription done for less, but there’s always the question of what’s going to be lost in translation and how much time you’ll have to spend cleaning up the results after the fact.

NS Virtual Services Alternatives

For similar US- and Canada-based support, there are lots of choices. Both Virtual Assist USA and Longer Days come to mind for their similar team-based approach. Natalie herself is an “alumni” of top-rated Boldly.

Your Turn

Have you worked with NS Virtual Services? If so, please be sure to leave a quick review of your experience below to help others with their decision.

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Vidchops

Posted by Mica Harvey / Video Editing Services

Vidchops is a US-based company specializing in video editing. They operate on a subscription-based model, offering video editing tasks for a flat monthly fee.

The company was founded in 2016 and their headquarters is based in Atascadero, California. Their team of video editors are based in the US, India, and the Philippines.

About Vidchops

The company was founded by current CEO Augie Johnson. Augie started Vidchops to help video content creators spend more time on recording and releasing videos and less time editing.

Most of their clients are YouTubers and vloggers. But whatever your business is, if you have video you need editing, they’re happy to do this for you. They have a bank of royalty-free stock audio and video to help enhance your videos too.

How Vidchops Works

Vidchops have a streamlined 3-step process that takes you from your raw video file to a finished product.

  1. Register for an account and sign up with the pricing plan that best fits your needs. (Get $200 off your first month through our referral link!)
  2. Vidchops uses Dropbox to send and receive files. Set up an account if you don’t have one, and then you’re set to start uploading your raw video files.
  3. Access your dashboard and fill out all the necessary information about what you want done to your videos. You can track the progress of the editing and will be notified when your videos are finished and ready to be picked up from Dropbox.

Services

Vidchops specialize in video editing. This means they can edit just about any type of video for whatever reason you want. They can cut bits out, add snippets, add stock video and audio, and work with you to create the video you want.

To give you an idea of the most commonly requested video types/formats, they group their services into the following categories:

  • YouTube Videos
  • Instagram Videos
  • Beauty Videos
  • Online Courses

Plans and Pricing

Vidchops currently have three different pricing plans. They offer two monthly flat-rate plans if you have ongoing video editing tasks you need to be completed or a one-off fee for a single edit.

A complete list of their plans at the time of publishing is:

  1. Single Chops – $119 one-off fee for 1 edit.
  2. Weekly Chops – $295 per month for 4 edits.
  3. Unlimited Chops – $595 per month for unlimited edits.

Virtual Assistant Assistant Special: Get $200 off your first month through our referral link!

Both of their monthly plans give you access to a dedicated account manager and guaranteed 48-hour turnaround time.

This means if you opt for their Unlimited Chops plan, you’re able to receive around 15 videos a month at worst. That works out at about $40 per video edited, which is a competitive rate.

Vidchops Alternatives

An alternative service worth considering is Video Husky, which offers a similar monthly video editing service. If you don’t have an ongoing need for video editing, you can often find affordable help on Fiverr.

It may also worth checking out any of the highly-rated virtual assistant companies. With a pool of virtual assistants, many have video editors available on staff.

Your Turn

Have you worked with Vidchops? If so, please share a quick review of your experience below to help others with their decision.

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Access WP

Posted by Mica Harvey / Technical Assistants

Access WP is a WordPress support company. They offer monthly plans so you can rest easy knowing their team is on hand should your WordPress site run into any problems.

They ensure all your plugins are up-to-date, your site is secure, your daily backups are working, and are available to handle unlimited small jobs, ranging from CSS style changes to fixing bugs.

VAA Exclusive Offer! Mention VAASSIST for 20% off your first month of services

About AccessWP

Access WP is one of the newer WP companies at the time of writing this, starting operations in 2017. The founder of the company is Anthony Tran and their headquarters are located in Southern California, with their support team also being US-based.

Their target customers are businesses and entrepreneurs with WordPress sites, but struggling to find the time or lacking the technical knowledge to keep up the maintenance on their sites.

Access WP Services

They offer such a long list of services, it’s easier to say that they are willing to tackle any WordPress related task. Even if you can’t find the specific task you want to be completed in their list of services, just send them an email with all the details and a member of their team will get back to you with an estimate on how long it will take.

Anthony told me, “Most of the common WordPress problems our clients face can be fixed within 30 minutes.”

When you first sign up they will ask for the login details to your site, test the connection between themselves and your site, then you can start submitting tasks right away.

How Access WP Works – Interview with the Founder

Virtual Assistant Assistant exclusive: Use this link for 20% off your first month of service!

Access WP Plans and Pricing

Access WP offer three different monthly plans, each plan is valid for one WordPress site.

  • Standard – $99/month – This plan includes unlimited* small jobs, 24/7 email support, and uptime monitoring.
  • Premiere – $149/month – This plan includes all the services in the Standard plan, along with WordPress updates, plugin updates, backups and restore, malware virus removal, and security protection.
  • VIP – $199/month – This plan includes all the services in the Premiere plan, along with the ability to submit 3 jobs at a time and web hosting.

Virtual Assistant Assistant exclusive: Use this link for 20% off your first month of service!

*Their unlimited jobs service is restricted to submitting one job at a time. Access WP say they will usually complete a job within a couple of hours, so you can expect to submit and resolve 4-5 jobs per business hours on any given day.

If you don’t have that much work, don’t sweat it. This service is more like an outsourced IT department to help you troubleshoot issues as they arise.

All their plans come with a 30-day money back guarantee. So, if you’re not satisfied for any reason you can contact one of their customer support reps and ask for a refund.

Access WP Alternatives

A couple other WordPress support and maintenance companies worth checking out are Work Hero, WP Fix It and Zen WP.

If you have just the odd job that needs fixing and don’t want to commit to a monthly plan, WP Fix It give you the option to fix any WordPress related task for a flat fee of $39.

Zen WP offers both monthly support plans and one-off jobs. Their starter plan is slightly less expensive than Access WP and similarly has no ongoing commitment.

Your Turn

Have you worked with Access WP? If so, please leave a review below to help others with their decision.

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DesignContest

Posted by Mica Harvey / Graphic and Web Design Services

DesignContest is a crowdsourcing design marketplace that gives you the opportunity to set a “contest” for any kind of graphic design work. Freelance designers from all over the world will then submit entries for you to select a winner.

The company began operations way back 2003 and has its headquartered in Las Vegas, U.S. They’ve completed more than 13,000 contests to date, and have more than 260,000 professional designers using their platform.

In September 2020, the company released a ‘speed and services’ 2.0 upgrade with enhanced user experience, the option to hire any of its professionals 1-on-1, and they have strengthened their guarantees on design delivery and client satisfaction.

About DesignContest

designcontest reviewAs with any crowdsourcing platform, Design Contest’s role is to help you connect with a large pool of freelancers. With something as subjective as design, this theoretically gives you the best chance of finding the one who can create something you love.

Again, you can now also hire any design 1-on-1.

If you’re not a native English speaker you can toggle their platform through German, French, Spanish, and Russian which is a nice touch.

How DesignContest Works

1. Create a Contest

You can get started by creating a contest for the type of design work you want to be created. The new 2.0 update makes this a breeze and the user experience is excellent. There are some boxes to fill out helping you to submit as much detail as needed for a brief for the designers.

2. Set a Prize Amount

Next, you need to set a prize amount for the work.

You can choose from their recommended prices, or set the price of your choosing (DesignContest have minimum bid amounts).

Keep in mind that the higher the prize, the higher quality designers, and more entries your contest will attract.

3. Receive and Review Entries

DesignContest says you’ll start receiving entries within hours of posting your contest. As entries are coming in, you can comment and score each entry. This will help you narrow down the entries to the ones you’re most interested in.

4. Choose Your Winner

Once you’ve settled on the best design and want to go forward with it, you can select it as the winner. The designer will then prepare all the source files and send them to you. The nice part for designers, which gets them to compete more easily, is that DesignContest awards second and third prize amounts.

DesignContest Services

You can post a contest for any kind of graphic design work. From logos and blog graphics to flyers, t-shirt designs, and mobile app design.

Design Contest has 35 design-related categories to choose from when submitting a contest. If you don’t see a category that describes your task, you can just post it under the generic “Graphic Design” category.

With a pool of more than 260,000 freelance designers hungry for work, I think it’s fair to say you’ll receive some entries for your contest.

Plans and Pricing

On DesignContest, you the ability to set your own budget for your design tasks. They do, however, have minimums.

To give you an idea of where DesignContest sits compared to other crowdsourcing marketplaces, here are some of their minimum starting prices for commonly requested tasks:

  • Logo design – $295
  • Infographic design – $195
  • Website design – $595
  • T-Shirt design – $195
  • Landing page design – $295

If you set your price at their lowest bracket, they say you can expect at least 50 entries. That should give you enough concepts to choose from and pick your favorite.

DesignContest offers a 100% money-back guarantee. You can request your money back at any stage of the contest if for any reason you’re not satisfied with their service.

DesignContest Alternatives

While DesignContest is certainly a pioneer in this model of outsourcing graphic design projects, companies like 99Designs and DesignCrowd seem to have grown faster. (For example, 99designs surpassed 1 million designers on their platform several years ago.)

Pricing is similar across crowdsourcing platforms, so it may come down to which site gives you the best vibes and if they have any current promotions. Naturally, the more you can afford to pay, the better talent you’ll attract to your contest.

Fiverr Penji 99designs Design Pickle Looka
Customer Rating
Established 2010 2016 2008 2015 2016
Minimum Cost $5 $399 per month $299 $399 per month $20
Type of Service A la carte design Unlimited Graphic Design Crowdsourced design Unlimited design AI logo design
Best for Fast, cheap designs On-going design needs Higher profile work Ongoing design needs Affordable DIY
Notes 15-day money back guarantee. 100% money-back guarantee 14-day money back trial; 30% off first month w/ code VA30 Don't pay until you love your logo
Learn more Learn More Learn More Learn More Learn More Learn More

If you’re working on a tight budget, it might be worth looking on Fiverr for a designer you want to work with. You’ll find more affordable options, but it probably goes without saying–you often get what you pay for with graphics.

Your Turn

Have you worked with DesignContest? If so, please leave a review below to help others with their decision.

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Kitedish

Posted by Mica Harvey / Task-Based Virtual Assistants, Technical Assistants

UPDATE: Kitedish is still active on Upwork, but as of 2020, their standalone website is gone.

Kitedish is a WordPress support company providing support to clients who need help operating their WordPress sites.

The company was formed in 2014 by a team of WordPress developers. They initially offered support through the Upwork platform, but empowered by the growth of the WP platform and of companies like WP Curve, they set out to build their own service and standalone brand.

About Kitedish

kitedish reviewThe co-founders of the company and are Christian S. as CEO, Benj B. as COO, and Jules Moleta as Executive Assistant.

(Mysteriously, Jules is the only one with a surname.)

Kitedish has grown to employ 28 full-time WordPress developers located all round the globe, at such locations as South Africa, Central America, Eastern Europe, the Philippines and Australia.

Services

The company’s directive is straightforward: they provide on-demand support and fixes for WordPress sites. They give their clients peace of mind that their sites are backed up regularly, the security is tight, and everything is running smoothly.

By hiring the services of Kitedish you have access to world-class WordPress developers. Knowing their site is being taken care of gives business owners more time to focus on what’s important to keep their business growing.

Even seemingly small tasks can be time consuming to fix if you’re not experienced with WordPress; I’ve learned this first-hand! In addition to their maintenance and security functions, Kitedish provides a subscription service to cover any requested change or tweak to your site, no matter how big or small. Signing up to a monthly plan means you have someone on-hand at all times to fix any issues.

Kitedish has exclusive information and content for clients. This covers a range of WordPress topics, as well as tips on increasing traffic and conversion rates.

When asked about their areas of specialization, Kitedish simply say that anything WordPress is where they specialize. Whether it’s a Woocommerce site, a large membership site, or just a blog, if your site runs on WordPress, they can help. 

Plans and Pricing

Kitedish currently has four monthly membership plans:

  • $24 for the Basic plan
  • $69 for the Starter plan
  • $95 for the Standard plan
  • $199 for the Pro plan

All their plans offer proactive WordPress upgrades, theme upgrades, plugin upgrades, detailed notes for every task, secure daily off-site backups, 24 hour email and chat support, and a monthly security scan.

kitedish pricing

The major difference between the plans are the amount of credits. Each credit is equal to half hour of work. The plans come with 16, 24 and 56 credits for the Basic, Starter and Standard plans respectively.

That means for the starter plan, you can submit task requests for up to 8 hours worth of work in exchange for your $69 subscription. Pretty cheap for competent technical help!

Your unused credits carryover each month, and if you find yourself with too many credits you can pause your subscription at any time. This makes for a flexible system that works to the advantage of the clients when monitored.

The Basic plan works as a pay-as-you-go scheme. You purchase credits at a $6 per hour rate as and when you need them. That rate almost seems too-good-to-be-true for qualified technical website support, even at cheap overseas labor rates, right?

Kitedish is currently offering your first month at only $0.99.

Kitedish Alternatives

The most prominent Kitedish competitor is Zen WP, which offers “unlimited” WordPress support and small jobs for $79 per month. However, they also have a 3-month minimum and no equivalent to the “Basic” plan where you can buy credits on-demand. 

For one-off WordPress jobs I normally head to Upwork or, more recently, Codeable.

Your Turn

Have you worked with Kitedish? If so, please leave a review of your experience below to help others with their decision.

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Life of Automation

Posted by Mica Harvey / Virtual Assistant Companies

Life of Automation is a virtual assistant company providing dedicated virtual assistants to companies of all sizes across the globe.

The company is based in California, the U.S., and their virtual assistants work remotely from all over the world.

About Life of Automation

LifeofAutomation ReviewsThe company started operations in March 2019 and is headed up by founder and president Nick Medz.

Although headquartered in the U.S., Life of Automation uses virtual assistants around the world, including the Philippines. This enables them to offer competitive pricing as most of their assistants are in countries with a lower average wage than the U.S.

When you sign up, you’re assigned an account manager and a dedicated full-time assistant. They say their assistants are experienced handling any business tasks that can be completed remotely.

When I asked what sets them apart from their competitors, my contact told me, “Life of Automation prides itself as the only automation business catering to all types of business and industry.”

How Life of Automation Works

If you’re interested in working with Life of Automation, you can get started by contacting them to book a meeting with one of their account managers.

From there, there are 4 steps involved in their onboarding process:

1. Complete a Questionnaire

Their account manager will give you a questionnaire to fill out. This helps them better understand your business and what you require from one of their virtual assistants.

2. Meeting To Discuss Your Details

After reviewing your questionnaire, your account manager will contact you to discuss your answers.

3. Selecting a Virtual Assistant

With all the information from the questionnaire and your meeting, Life of Automation will have enough information to find the best-suited VA from their pool of talent.

4. Start Working With Your New VA

You’ll be introduced to your new VA and you can start communicating directly with them from this point onward. You’ll also have a point of contact 24/7 should you run into any problems.

Life of Automation Services

Life of Automation says their assistants are trained in a wide range of business skills and are able to complete any remote tasks.

To give you a better idea of the areas they specialize in, they group some of their services as follows:

  • Automation – Helping you automate processes and create better systems.
  • Administration – General admin duties; booking travel arrangements, scheduling meetings, taking calls, etc.
  • Marketing – Managing social media, creating marketing campaigns, performing outreach.
  • Sales – Creating sales funnels, cold calling, writing sales copy.
  • Copywriting – Writing blog content, email copy, sales letters, social media posts.
  • Web/Graphic Design – Creating logos, branding, blog images, website design tweaks.

Life of Automation Plans and Pricing

Life of Automation currently has 4 different pricing plans. Each plan gives you access to a full-time dedicated assistant for a month, with the pricing set to reflect the skills and experience of the VA.

The main package they market is called Singularity Assistant, which includes:

  • one Administrative Assistant
  • one account manager
  • access to all of Life of Automation’s services for a single monthly price of $750 / month.

Other plans available at the time of publishing are:

  • Administrative Assistant – $750/mo
  • Executive Assistant – $1,500/mo
  • Specialized Assistant – $2,500/mo

LifeofAutomation Pricing

The main difference between the Specialized Assistant and their other plans is that a Specialized Assistant has one core skill they specialize in.

If you’re looking to fulfill a specific role within your business while having a VA to help with other tasks – this might be the plan for you.

Life of Automation says they have assistants skilled in a wide range of skills. I recommend contacting them to see what VAs they have available.

Life of Automation Alternatives

If you’re looking for alternative companies offering similar services and rates, I recommend checking out VA companies based in the Philippines.

OnlineJobs.ph and FreeUp are a couple well-rated options, with OnlineJobs.ph being more focused on full-time assistants.

Your Turn

Have you worked with Life of Automation? If so, please leave a review below to help others with their decision.

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Stuff (formerly Delegate)

Posted by Mica Harvey / US Virtual Assistants, Virtual Assistant Companies

Stuff is a Boston-based technology company that has developed an on-demand concierge service powered by a combination of humans and AI technology.

Their goal is to complete tasks for you with the same or better quality as you could do yourself, and to make the process as seamless as possible.

The company was founded in 2017 and spent the first few years of life branded as “Delegate”. In August 2020, the service relaunched as simply “Stuff”.

About Stuff Personal Assistant

stuff personal assistant app reviewThe company was founded by Ohad Elhelo and Ori Cohen. They the app to provide a “Chief of Stuff,” which is essentially an on-demand personal assistant.

When you sign up you have access to their team and can start sending requests and tasks right away. They are able to complete just about any task for you that you’d ask of a personal assistant.

One of their taglines reads, “The average person spends an hour each day on menial personal tasks. Don’t be the average person.”

Could you use Stuff’s personal assistant service to free up more of your time?

Stuff is powered by (currently Boston-based) humans who know how to get the job done right, while using technology to get the job done fast. They operate on a flat monthly of just $50 for unlimited tasks, which is very competitive.

How the Stuff App Works

All of your communications go through their app which is available for iOS and Android. You can either speak or type your request, and a member of their team will get on it. (Email works too, if you prefer.)

You can submit unlimited requests. In my conversation with a Stuff rep back in the Delegate days, he mentioned the only real restriction is to make your requests “reasonable.”

What’s reasonable? He said anything you’d expect to spend up to an hour or two on yourself.

If you have several of those types of requests per month, you can begin to see how this service will pay for itself in time savings many times over.

Stuff is largely an anonymous team-based service, meaning you won’t necessarily deal with the same assistant every time, or even know who’s helping you.

Want to test it out? You can get started for half off your first month — just $25.

GetStuff Services

To give you an idea of the kinds of services they expect from their customers, some examples they list on their marketing information includes:

  • Making travel bookings
  • Finding last minute tickets for a sports game
  • Recommending gifts for a special event
  • Requesting quotes for local services
  • Booking a table at a restaurant
  • Online shopping research

As you can see from the above, Stuff doesn’t handle the kinds of business tasks you’d hand over to a virtual assistant. Rather, they provide more of a personal assistant service.

Plans and Pricing

Stuff currently has one flat rate monthly pricing plan of $50. For this you get unlimited tasks, there are no additional fees, and you can cancel at any time.

Most other services in the virtual personal assistant space charge based on your expected use. Fancy Hands, for example, which may be the most similar service, charges $75 a month for up to 15 20-minute tasks.

Stuff Alternatives

Magic offers a very similar service, but at $35 per hour, you’re going to run up a higher bill as soon as you use 2 hours’ worth of their service.

There are some bespoke concierge services that also provide a similar service. One you might consider checking out is One Concierge, which has plans starting at $250 per month. (You also get some interesting perks and discounts with companies they’re affiliated with.)

If you could use help with both business and personal tasks, or see the benefit of a dedicated assistant, take a look at OkayRelax.

Your Turn

Have you used Stuff and/or Delegate to help with any tasks? If so, please leave a review below to help others with their decision.

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