Rocket Lawyer

Rocket Lawyer provides a range of legal services online at an affordable price and makes it easy for anyone to get access to qualified legal advice.

You can use their interface to produce legal documents to do things like registering your business or pick up the phone to an attorney in your state to discuss family law, personal injury claims, real estate laws, and so on.

About Rocket Lawyer

The company was founded by Charley Moore in 2008. Rocket Lawyer says, “We want to change things by making legal services affordable, simple, and available to more people than ever before.”

If you run a business there is a high chance you’ll need legal advice in some capacity. Whether it’s to do with registering your business, drawing up contracts for suppliers or staff, or just checking the legality of different things across different states.

How Rocket Lawyer Works

Rocket Lawyer makes it quick and easy to generate legal documents or have your questions answered online. They also have a database of licensed attorneys on call if you want to pick up the phone and discuss any legal matters.

One of their most common inquiries, for example, is from individuals wanting to register a business.

You can produce the legal paperwork through their website by simply selecting your state, the type of corporation you want to register, so; LLC, S-Corp, C-Corp, etc, then filling in your personal details, answering a few questions, and paying for the legal documents.

If you have a legal question you want to discuss in person with a Rocket Lawyer‘s network of on-call attorneys you can type out your question and send it to be answered, or pick up the phone and call an attorney in person.

Rocket Lawyer Services

Rocket Lawyer‘s network of on-call attorneys have skilled across all facets of law. Their services are not just limited to business inquiries, you can seek legal advice for personal issues like divorce or selling your home too.

To give you an idea, some of their most commonly requested topics for legal advice include:

  • Starting a business
  • Making contracts
  • Trademarks and patents
  • Buying or selling a property
  • Lending money
  • Divorce

As a rule of thumb, if there is anything you’re not 100% about the legality of, be it in your personal or business life, it’s worth shooting them a question.

It’s better to be safe than sorry.

Online legal services by Rocket Lawyer

Plans and Pricing

Rocket Lawyer‘s network of on-call attorneys offers a monthly membership plan for $39.99. Most of their services are free or discounted with their membership.

Non-members can pay a one-off fee for the following services:

  • Legal Document Creation – $39.99
  • Attorney Services – $9.99-$59.99 (Depending on the exact service)
  • Business Services – $99.99-$149.99 (Depending on the exact service)

For reference, I paid around $500 for a trademark application through Rocket Lawyer, not including the federal trademark application fee. (Ultimately the request was denied — ouch!)

As you can see from the pricing if you anticipate using Rocket Lawyer for anything more than a one-off task it makes sense to pay for a month’s membership at $39.99.

They also offer a 7-day free trial. You can cancel your membership during the free trial or any time after, so no reason not to give them a try if they offer the services you’re looking for.

Rocket Lawyer Alternatives

If you want to check out other companies offering a similar range of legal services, you can take a look at LegalZoom.

I couldn’t see that either of these offer a free trial like Rocket Lawyer however. This is a pretty big deal, especially when some of the services can be quite costly.

Your Turn

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

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The Best Virtual Assistant Services for Every Task

best virtual assistant services

I know you were hoping for a magic page with the one clear winner here, but unfortunately there is no easy answer to the question of which is the best virtual assistant company.

The truth is it depends on your specific needs, and everyone’s needs are slightly different. Because of that, I’ve done my best to break it down by category, but be sure to check the reviews for each.

The Best Virtual Assistant Services for Personal Tasks

Let’s say you want to dip your toes into the outsourcing waters before you jump completely in.

One way to do that is to start with a low cost service and try delegating some personal tasks, like restaurant reservations, flight check-ins, or some product research assignments.

Here are a few options you might consider.

Read Other Related Reading: Outsourcing vs. Insourcing

OkayRelax

Over the last few years I’ve really come to rely on OkayRelax.

Their 5-task plan matches Fancy Hands at the $30/month price point, but I’m on the $99.95 “Professional” plan that gives me access to the same assistant every time.

VA outsourcing

For that rate, I can delegate up to 25 30-minute tasks per month (the math works out to $8 an hour if I use ’em all). My dedicated assistant is a key part of several weekly routine processes, including formatting articles, updating my website, running reports, and more.

Our full OkayRelax review | Visit OkayRelax

Woodbows

WoodBows is one of the most reputed and reliable Virtual Assistant companies. They cater services for entrepreneurs/executives, small and medium businesses. Their high client retention and repetition rate speaks for their quality!

best virtual assistant

You will receive a dedicated Virtual Assistant who will have at least 10+ years of experience in the corresponding field. You will also receive a dedicated account manager with support. Their hourly rates range from $8.99 to $9.99 based on the plan you choose.

All the Virtual Assistants will have a phone number that you can personally connect with, similar to a personal assistant.

Our Full Woodbows Review | Visit Woodbows

TaskRabbit

And finally, for in-person help, TaskRabbit might be worth a look. They have a relationship with IKEA, which could help save your relationship!

Our full TaskRabbit review | Visit TaskRabbit

The Best Virtual Assistant Services for Small Business

While I tend to use the “Personal Assistant” options above for business tasks as well, there are lots of great VA options to support your small business endeavors. These are best-suited for ongoing relationships.

Here are a few of the top-rated choices.

ClearDesk

ClearDesk promises that you will love your Virtual Assistant! Packages start at $500 per month for 30 hours with a VA that has a minimum 3 years of experience – highly rated and reliable! Free consultation call and 7-day free trial!

virtual team

Our full ClearDesk review | Visit ClearDesk

Time Etc

If your budget allows, you might consider US and UK-based Time Etc. Time Etc virtual assistants work from their home offices and go through a rigorous vetting process before being added to the platform.

virtual assistant services

Rates go as low as $21 an hour and they’ve completed more than a million tasks since 2007.

One cool perk? Your unused hours rollover to the next month.

Our full Time Etc review | Visit Time Etc

Remote Coworker

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. Remote CoWorker pricing starts at $5.99 an hour and go up depending on the skill sets and experience you require from your assistant.

This is a very competitive starting rate, and comes with a full-time dedicated virtual assistant.

 

virtual professionals

Part-time support is also an option for an extra $1 an hour.

There are no long-term contracts, everything is month to month!

Our full Remote CoWorker review | Visit Remote CoWorker

MyTasker

A long-time favorite of Virtual Assistant Assistant visitors, MyTasker provides professional support for as little as $7.50 an hour from their office in India.

best virtual assistant company

You’ll be assigned a dedicated VA, but also have access to the rest of their team if a certain task is better suited to someone else’s expertise.

Our full My Tasker review | Visit My Tasker

UAssist.me

UAssist.me offers professional outsourcing close to home in El Salvador, Central America. The company has been a top-rated option here on Virtual Assistant Assistant for years, and maintains affordable pricing with several package options.

Get Virtual Assistance

Services include administrative support, customer service, digital marketing, real estate, and more.

Our full Uassist review | Visit Uassist

OnlineJobs.ph

No matter what you need done, you can find a virtual assistant for it on OnlineJobs. With more than a quarter million resumes, the leading job board in the Philippines has become a mainstay for affordable small business outsourcing.

It has a little bit of a needle-in-the-haystack / diamond-in-the-rough feeling to it, but I’ve found several excellent VAs through this site.

virtual professionals

How it works is you pay a nominal monthly membership fee, and then once you find your best-fit assistant, you pay them directly with no additional markup on their salary.

Our full OnlineJobs.ph review | Visit OnlineJobs.ph

FreeUp

FreeUp is a fast-growing freelance marketplace that supposedly only lets in “the top 1%” of freelancers.

The company started with a focus on e-commerce / Amazon seller support, but has expanded to a huge variety of virtual services.

Dedicated VAs

Aside from the promised talent curation, the biggest differentiating factor between FreeeUp and other marketplaces is the speed of execution. The site aims to connect you with a qualified candidate in less than 24 hours–and often even faster than that.

Our full FreeeUp review | Visit FreeeUp

The Best Virtual Assistant Services for Medium Businesses

As your business grows, your team will likely expand as well. And as my own operations have grown, so has my appetite to hire more expensive workers.

Like most entrepreneurs starting out, budget was my #1 concern. Now I’m a little more willing to pay extra for someone great at what they do. Are you in the same boat?

Of course any of the above “Small Business” options are fine choices too, but for your consideration I’ll share a few alternatives to check out.

Prialto

Prialto is a managed service. This means every assistant comes with ongoing support, from managers who ensure quality to proactive systems that guarantee success.  Services are managed from Portland, Oregon with “Productivity Assistants” (PAs) and additional management and support in Asia and Central America.

Prialto offers a level of service and support that is unmatched in the remote virtual assistant marketplace. All assistants are college educated, full-time employees of Prialto.

Pricing starts at $1200 per month, and includes up to 55 hours of dedicated support, plus backup assistance when your VA is unavailable.

Hire a VA

Our full Prialto review | Visit Prialto

BELAY

It’s not the cheapest service out there, but BELAY would argue that you shouldn’t bargain shop for a linchpin team member. They specialize in providing expert US-based remote executive assistants with world class support.

Clearly, the demand is there; the company hit the Inc. 5000 list 4-years in a row. (The list charts the fastest growing private companies in the country.)

Get Professional Virtual Assistance

BELAY Solutions specializes in virtual assistants, bookkeepers, and website maintenance services.

Mention VAA for exclusive offers!

Our full BELAY review | Visit BELAY

Boldly

Similarly priced, Boldly has built a fantastic reputation for smart VAs for American and European clients. And if you need a bilingual assistant, look no further.

Officially, Boldly doesn’t call itself a virtual assistant company, but rather a “subscription staffing” service. That said, they only hire VAs with a minimum of 7 years of executive assistant experience (most of them have 10 to 15 years under their belt).

Boldly Homepage

Most clients are founders and executives of large companies.

Our full Boldly review | Visit Boldly

Task Bullet

Task Bullet is an affordable service with assistants in the US and in the Philippines.

Their unique system of selling “buckets” of VA time (starting at just $6 an hour) make them an interesting option for both ongoing needs or one-off projects.

You’re not locked into any monthly subscriptions and have access to a team of VAs if you need some specialized skills.

Hire a Virtual Assistant

Our full Task Bullet review | Visit Task Bullet

The Best Virtual Assistant Services for Full-Time Dedicated Help

Ready to bring on a full-time hire? It’s an exciting time!

OnlineJobs.ph – If you’ve got a defined process to plug someone into, I think OnlineJobs is your best budget option. It’ll cost you just $69 to start (to post your job), and then you’ll hire your top candidate directly, with salaries ranging from $450 – $1000 per month for full-time help.

My Tasker – $1200 will buy a full-time staff member in India through MyTasker.

UAssist.me – With UAssist, you’ll pay slightly more than with the Asian companies, but I still think $1499 per month is a pretty sweet deal for a full-time worker.

The Best Virtual Assistant Services for One-Time Projects

This is where I started my whole outsourcing adventure. I needed a website built but didn’t know where to turn!

The options below are for broad, everything-under-the-sun freelancers, but please know there are specialty services (I’ll highlight a few below) that might be worth a look if you’re need of a specific skill or expertise.

Fiverr

Even today, I often start my outsourcing search on Fiverr. The reason is it’s such low risk. For $5-25 you can test out someone’s skills in writing, graphic design, data entry, transcription, formatting, or whatever else you need.

There’s no bidding process either; you just find the freelancer you like and click their “buy now” button.

fiverr homepage

Our full Fiverr review | Visit Fiverr

Use Per Wish – This unique on-demand virtual assistant service in India charges a flat rate of $10 an hour with no minimums or automatic monthly renewals. Tap into a team of professional VAs for almost any kind of remote work you need done.

Related: Upwork Alternatives: The Top 49 Sites Like Upwork to Find Freelancers

Related: Upwork vs. Fiverr: Which Platform has the Best Freelance Talent?

The Best Services for Outsourced Graphic Design Work

One of the core tenets of outsourcing is to let someone else do the work you’re not good at, and I’ve come to understand I’m just not a great designer!

However, graphic design can be tough to delegate because it’s so subjective and comes in so many different flavors. I’ll highlight a few of those different options here:

Penji – Penji delivers a 5-star customer experience and creating the best DAAS (design as a service) on the planet and offers their service to all non-profits in Camden, NJ for just $1. Pretty cool.

Design Pickle – Design Pickle pioneered the “unlimited” graphic design model and sells all-you-can-eat designs for a flat monthly fee. It’s perfect for companies that have a constant need for fresh images for blog posts, social media, or marketing material.

99designs – Why limit yourself to working with one designer when you could have dozens of creative brains competing for your business? At least that’s the pitch behind the popular crowdsourced logo and web design site 99designs.com.

Deluxe Logo Design – Or if you prefer to work one-on-one with a US-based designer for your logo, check out Deluxe for competitive packages.

PicMonkey – While not technically a graphic design service, this cool online tool is the one I find myself using most often to create custom images for social media.

The Virtual Content Writing Services

Content marketing is one of the most effective ways to drive traffic to your site, but let’s face it, creating all that content is time-consuming.

Here are some outsourced writing companies that can help.

Copywriter Today – Gabe Arnold’s Copywriter Today delivers “unlimited” articles from native English writers at a fixed (and affordable) monthly fee. This is perfect if you’re looking to step up your blogging game or if you need content on an ongoing basis for clients.

HireWriters – With different quality levels ranging from almost unintelligible to actually pretty good, HireWriters specializes in cheap copywriting made easy. These guys have written dozens of articles for me.

The Best Services for Remote Website Help

Zen WP – California-based Zen WP offers unlimited WordPress fixes for $79/mo. I’ve been a customer for quite a while and they’ve been essential in troubleshooting some issues with my sites.

The service was especially handy to have during a recent redesign and in migrating the site to SSL.

Access WP – Access WP operates similarly, but with an all US-based support staff. They’ll take care of any WordPress website maintenance and support issue that pops up.

The Best Virtual Call Answering Services

Here’s the dilemma for small business owners. You want the phone to ring and you want to treat every potential customer like the awesome person they are, but you don’t want to be tied to the phone all day — when will you get any work done?

That’s where these virtual answering services come in.

Ruby Receptionists – Make sure all your calls are answered professionally, with rates starting at $299 per month. (There’s a special discount for Virtual Assistant Assistant readers!)

Gabbyville – The popular virtual receptionist service gives you a 14-day free trial to test out their service.

The Best Online Bookkeeping Services

Hiring a bookkeeper is one of the first team-members many new entrepreneurs add. But that person doesn’t need to be in your office!

A number of virtual bookkeeping services have popped up to serve small businesses. Here are the best known and top-rated.

Bench – This popular tech-savvy remote bookkeeping service gives you a dedicated bookkeeping team and monthly financial statements to help you stay on top of your finances. Take advantage of their one-month free trial to see if it’s right for you.

Bean Ninjas – An online bookkeeping and accounting service that helps small and medium-sized businesses manage their books using the Xero accounting software.

The Best Options for Virtual Legal Support

If you have legal questions these days, you probably don’t need to open up the yellow pages to find a (high-priced) local attorney.

A number of online services provide off-the-shelf and customizable document preparation services with on-demand advice from real lawyers.

Rocket Lawyer – Probably the most affordable way to have a lawyer “on your team.”

Frequently Asked Questions

What are the best virtual assistant companies?

After collecting thousands of real customer reviews, our top-rated companies are Boldly, BELAY, Time Etc, VA Talks, My Tasker, and Uassist.ME.

How much do virtual assistant companies charge?

The price you pay for a virtual assistant service varies primarily based on location. US and Europe-based services are typically in the $25-40 an hour range, while overseas providers are more often in the $5-15 per hour range.

What is a virtual assistant company?

A virtual assistant company is a service business that provides remote support to companies and individuals. Your assistant might be around the corner or around the world; as long as the work doesn’t involve physical labor, they can get it done.

How do I choose the right virtual assistant company?

Consider the types of tasks you need done, the hours of service you anticipate needing, and any special skills your assistant should have. Then dive into the company profiles and reviews on Virtual Assistant Assistant to find the best fit.

Still Need Help Finding a Virtual Assistant Service?

Hopefully this list has given you a starting point to begin digging into the ratings and reviews and specialties of each service.

If you’re still unsure of where to start, try our survey tool and get free personalized recommendations in your inbox, generally within 30 minutes.

Or you can browse our full directory of virtual assistant companies here.

Looking for the lowest cost Virtual Assistants?

We have a list for you here.

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Pepper VA

Pepper VA is a virtual assistant company specializing in providing virtual assistants at competitive rates to small and medium-sized businesses all over the world.

The company is based in the Philippines, with offices in Manila and Davao City. Most of their virtual assistants work out of their Davao location, while their marketing, creative, and digital teams work out of the Manila location.

About Pepper VA

Pepper VA ReviewThe company started operations in 2009 and is headed up by Business Director Nikki Ilumin, and President Miguel Ramos.

For those wondering about the company name, it comes from the Marvel character, Pepper Potts, a supporting character to Ironman. Pepper VA say they used this name to symbolize their own loyal assistance to businesses around the world.

They have a mix of experienced virtual assistants, and younger VAs going through their in-house training program and cover a wide range of skills and job roles.

Pepper VA have well-equipped offices with up-to-date technology, IT staff in-house to handle any IT issues, and provide senior staff to manage their assistants.

How Pepper VA Works

Pepper VA have the streamlined 3-step process that a lot of VA companies follow:

  1. Talk with a member of their team to discuss what your requirements are from a virtual assistant and help them get to know your business better.
  2. They will find the best-suited VA for you and your business and set up a call so you can meet them and ask any questions you may have.
  3. When you’re happy with your VA you can start working with them. You can monitor their progress via Pepper VA’s online dashboard.

Services

Pepper VA’s assistants are trained to handle a wide range of tasks that can be completed remotely.

To give you a better idea, they group their core skillsets or job roles into the following categories:

  • Executive Admin – Online research, data entry, updating blogs/website, calendar management, and more.
  • Marketing Administration – Emails, article writing, graphics and web design, reporting and analysis, and more.
  • Customer Service – Handling customer inquiries, chat support, email follow-ups, and more.
  • Project Management – Developing project plans, managing timelines, scheduling tasks, and more.
  • Social Media – Updating social media feeds, engaging with influencers, writing posts, and more.
  • Bookkeeping Support – Logging expenses, raising invoices, running payroll, and more.
  • Writing and Editing – Article writing, newsletter emails, editing copy, and more.

Plans and Pricing

Pepper VA offer four different pricing options:

  • 20-Hour Plan – $297 per month ($14.85 per hour).
  • 40-Hour Plan – $557 per month ($13.90 per hour).
  • 80-Hour Plan – $750 per month ($9.40 per hour).
  • 160-Hour Plan – $1,200 per month ($7.50 per hour).

Pepper VA Pricing

All of their plans include a substitute virtual assistant in case of emergencies, back up broadband, and 24/7 IT support. That ensures you and your VA can work without interruption.

Pepper VA Alternatives

Before making a decision, if you want to get quotes from other virtual assistant companies based in the Philippines, I recommend starting with OnlineJobs.ph and Task Bullet.

OnlineJobs.ph operates on a different business model; it’s a subscription-based service to put you in contact with virtual assistants. Task Bullet has a similar business model and hourly rates as Pepper VA.

Your Turn

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

Read More

Outsource School

Outsource School is a hands-on platform that gives you access to top training courses and resources created by successful 8-figure entrepreneurs.

For a monthly or annual fee, you can access dozens of training courses. These courses outline all the processes and procedures any entrepreneur or business owner would need to hire virtual assistants.

About Outsource School

The company is relatively new, starting operations in January 2020. However, the founders, Nathan Hirsch and Connor Gillivan are no strangers to starting businesses.

Nathan and Connor have been working together for the past 10 years. In this time, they have started multiple successful companies.

Back in 2009, they started an eCommerce business together. Between 2015 and 2019, Nathan and Connor grew that business to more than $25 million in sales.

A large part of that growth was down to how they leveraged overseas virtual assistants. This led them to start FreeeUp.net, a freelance marketplace providing pre-vetted virtual assistants to businesses all over the world.

They sold FreeeUp (now called FreeUp, with one less “e”) to The HOTH in late 2019. After the sale, Nathan said he was getting a lot of questions about how they built their businesses.

So, he and Connor decided to start Outsource School to share all of the processes they used to grow their own businesses in a training format.

Their target customers are entrepreneurs and business owners in the online space. Nathan and Connor are based in Denver, Colorado. It’ll come as no surprise that their staff of VAs is based in the Philippines, India, and the U.S.

How Outsource School Works

If you want to see what’s behind the paywall at Outsource School, they offer a 14-day free trial.

This will give you a sneak peek at some of their courses and a feel for how their platform works. This will give you a sneak peek at some of their trainings and a feel for how their platform works. You even get a free 1-on-1 call with their rockstar team to answer any questions you have and see if Outsource School is the right fit for you!

When you’re ready to get your hands on all of their training materials, simply sign up for either a monthly or yearly payment plan.

You’ll then have access to everything Outsource School has to offer.

Outsource School Services

Members of Outsource School are able to do three things:

  1. Hire Rockstar Virtual Assistants Quickly by mastering their easy to implement unique hiring method.
  2. Avoid hiring mistakes with their hands-on support and community
  3. Save time with our Pre-made documents and cheat sheets.  While their trainings help you efficiently set up different roles and teams.
    As an additional bonus members can always access their growing libraries of SOPS plus their easy to use SOP making software SimplySOP.

There are four pillars to Outsource School’s training content:

  1. Hire Rockstar Virtual Assistants Quickly by mastering their easy to implement unique hiring method.
  2. Avoid hiring mistakes with their hands-on support and community
  3. Save time with our Pre-made documents and cheat sheets.  While their trainings help you efficiently set up different roles and teams.
As a bonus members can always access our growing libraries of SOPS plus our easy to use SOP making software SimplySOP.

Outsource School Plans and Pricing

Outsource has two payment options; you can either pay monthly or pay a one-off annual fee priced as follows:

  • Monthly – $97/mo
  • Yearly – $997/yr

If you pay a one-off fee for the whole year you will save $200. That’s a substantial saving, and certainly worth considering if you’re going to use their training on an ongoing basis.

Included in the price is access to all of their training and SOPs, access to a private community, you’ll get new training materials each month, and more.

They promise a hassle-free 30-day refund. Plus, 3% of all sales go to Teach for the Philippines, a non-profit organization that provides education to Filipino children in need.

Outsource School Alternatives

Alternatives to Outsource School are training platforms like Udemy and Coursera. You’ll find various training courses around hiring and managing VAs on these platforms.

Outsource School is unique in the way that it’s a platform dedicated to covering everything related to outsourcing and hiring virtual assistants.

The private community is also a valuable resource. You can ask questions as you progress through the training and interact with like-minded business owners.

Your Turn

Have you joined Outsource School? If so, please leave a review below to help others with their decision.

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PATLive

PATLive is a 24/7/365 live answering service, specializing in handling all types of inbound calls for thousands of businesses across the U.S. 

The company has been in business since 1990. They started out as a small hosted services company, later shifting their business model to a virtual live call answering service.

About PATLive

PATLive Review

PATLive started out as a small voice company, but gave such great customer service that people asked them to start taking their calls…so their live receptionists were born.

30 years later, PATLive is still providing exceptional service daily and has expanded their expertise across multiple industries including real estate, medical, legal, and various other professional services.

With enthusiasm, intelligence and a strong sense of responsibility – PATLive’s live receptionists bring the traits that make our customer service so great on every call. 

How PATLive Works

With the most powerful and flexible call handling technology in the industry, every PATLive service includes a fully customizable call experience. 

When you sign up for one of their plans a member of their team will call you to discuss your requirements and

nd call handling instructions you want their agents to use. Messages or leads will be submitted to you in real-time following every call (if you choose), so that you never miss a beat. 

It’s easy to get started with an on-demand team of over 150 U.S.-based PATLive virtual receptionists. In most cases, they can begin answering calls for your business in as little as 24 hours.

Plus, it’s free to try for 14 days.

PATLive Services

PATLive’s virtual receptionists save you time by performing just about anything you would do on an inbound call and can even integrate with your software to submit call information within the tools you’re already using. 

The core of PATLive’s service is to provide a range of virtual receptionist services. This means you can have a receptionist on the end of the line for your customers 24/7 at a much lower cost than hiring one in-house.

Some of the services their agents provide from the other end of the line include:

  • Message Taking
  • Appointment Scheduling
  • Order Processing
  • Call Screening and Call Transfers
  • Bilingual Answering (Spanish)
  • Event Registration
  • Lead Collection
  • And more…

PatLive Plans and Pricing

PATLive have five different pricing plans. Their smallest plan is for 75 minutes of call time a month that works out at $1.99 per minute. With their largest plan including 1,000 minutes and reducing the per minute cost to just $1.

A full list of their plans at the time of publishing is as follows:

  • Starter – $149 per month for 75 minutes ($1.99 per minute)
  • Standard – $269 per month for 200 minutes ($1.35 per minute)
  • Premium – $399 per month for 350 minutes ($1.15 per minute)
  • Pro – $629 per month for 600 minutes ($1.05 per minute)
  • Pro +  – $999 per month for 1,000 minutes ($1 per minute)

PATLive Pricing

The plan you choose is going to be largely decided by the number of minutes you anticipate needing each month. However, if you need more than one phone number you will have to opt for a larger plan.

You only pay for the time that an agent is connected to someone on the end of the line. If you go over your minutes, you’ll be charged for each minute at a rate similar to the rate of your plan.

PATLive offers a 14-day free trial for all their plans, so it makes sense to take advantage of this. If for any reason you’re not happy with the service just cancel before the 14 days end, otherwise you’ll be transferred to the paid account of your choice.

PATLive Alternatives

There are a few highly rated US-based virtual receptionist companies worth considering if you’re looking for some other options to compare services and pricing with.

Ruby Receptionists and Gabbyville both operate on a similar business model and offer free trials. PATLive’s rates are more competitive, so if budget is your driving force, I recommend giving their free trial a go.

Your Turn

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

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TextMaster

TextMaster is a professional translation, copywriting, and proofreading service for e-commerce professionals. The company was founded in 2011 by Belgium startup studio eFounders. TextMaster is a member of the Acolad Group since 2018.

The idea for TextMaster stemmed from seeing a real need in the market for a platform and technology based translation and content creation service. TextMaster’s head office is in Paris, but uses a global network of professional translators, copywriters and proofreaders.

Services

TextMaster ReviewProfessional translation, copywriting and proofreading are services that are often slow and expensive. Because of this, TextMaster created a global freelance workforce that is accessible 24/7 around the world and brings together professionals that offer professional translation, copywriting and proofreading services and adds a strong quality control component to it.

You’ll find more than thousands of pre-tested authors and translators on their easy-to-use platform, and can get content written, proofread or translated in 50 different languages and 300 language combinations.

How does it work?

Unlike freelance websites like Upwork, TextMaster can take away the pain of finding and managing the writers.

You don’t have to do any decision-making in terms of who to hire. Just submit your job and it gets done. If you want to choose your authors according to your style and preferences, TextMaster can set up a casting and let you select your favourite copywriters and translators by language to be used in all your projects.

The copywritings and translations are priced based on the length of the piece, the languages, the expertise needed and the quality desired. The price starts with $0.066 per word for copywriting for a standard (non-professional) level, and $0.146 for an enterprise (professional) level. You can pay as you go or buy a pre-paid bundle that gives you some free bonus credit.

Who is this for?

TextMaster is for anyone who needs content to be written, proofread or translated.

More than 10,000 companies of all sizes and domains turn to TextMaster for assistance with their international expansion, including leading European eCommerce websites, retails and global brands in various industries.

How much does it cost?

The rates for Standard level service, which can suit general website content and product descriptions, start at $0.066 per word, meaning you can get a 500 word article for $33.

An Enterprise level service starts at $0.146 cents per word and is intended for writings that require more research, blog posts, longer articles, marketing materials, or scripts. A 500 word Enterprise writing would be $73.

textmaster pricing

In addition, TextMaster allows you to add custom option for more specific needs:

  • Extra Proofreading for an additional 4.4 cents per word, where the work of the writer is controlled by TextMaster in-house quality people or trusted freelance Language Managers.
  • Expertise for additional 11 cents per word to get a high-level expert in the selected category. TextMaster has experts in over 60 categories to choose from.
  • Priority Order for faster turnaround time is an additional 4.4 cents per word. (Standard delivery varies based on the length of the writing and the content from less than 24 hours to a few days.)

For payments, you can choose pay-as-you-go option or go with one of the pre-paid bundles that gives some attractive free bonus credit. The Starter bundle starts with $399 and the largest goes up to $5,999. The pre-paid bundle can be used on any of the services offered.

It’s free to sign-up and create an account.

Who is doing the work?

You submit the job and based on the requirements it gets done by a writer who meets the criteria.

You can choose to work with different authors, for instance if you have large volumes of content that need to be written fast you can choose to have many authors work on various jobs at the same time.

After you spend some time on the platform and you start developing relationships with writers, you can add the best ones as your favourites (your TextMasters), and choose to work with them only on future tasks or writings that require consistency in tone and style. It’s up to you. All authors are pre-tested and rated by in-house quality team on a regular basis.

What sets TextMaster apart from the competition?

Here’s what differentiates the company from their competitors like HireWriters, or Copywriter Today:

  • Unlike most other platforms out there, TextMaster allows unlimited revisions and back-and-forth communication for no extra fee.
  • Better Quality Control: In-house quality control team proofreads first 10 jobs of every author and after that rates authors on an on-going basis; users can request QC on any job at any time.
  • Multilingual: They produce content in 50 different languages and translations in 300 language combinations.
  • Largest scope of services: In addition to writing, they also do proofreading and translations, so you can order proofreading on already written content, and translations to make the content available to a wider audience.
  • Cutting-edge technologies: 
    • MementoTM, the proprietary, real-time translation memory from TextMaster allows you to save up to 60% on your translation budgets. 
    • LexioTM, TextMaster’s interactive glossary, helps you ensure consistency of your content in all languages and throughout all channels. 
    • Post-EditorTM, the Intelligent Machine Translation technology created by TextMaster, uses the best of Artificial Intelligence and Human Expertise to get you quality content quickly by combining neural machine translation and human proofreading.

Have you tried TextMaster for content creation? If so, please leave a short about your experience below to help others with their decision.

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LEX Reception (Previously LexReception)

LEX Reception is a virtual receptionist service specializing in legal answering. They provide a range of virtual call answering services to law firms of all sizes across the US and Canada.

The company was founded in 2011. Their virtual receptionists work provide 24/7 phone coverage, 365 days a year with a robust, home-working model.

About LEX Reception

LEX Reception describes themselves as a “team of virtual receptionists dedicated to professionalism, warmth, and 24/7 availability for law firms and attorneys.”

They have a relatively small team compared to some of the call centers that offer similar services, but they cite their “close-knit team” as a benefit to forming stronger client relationships.

As a business owner, it’s time-consuming and distracting to take all your own business calls. And it’s super expensive to hire an in-house receptionist, who’ll only be available during business hours.

Using the services of a virtual receptionist provider like LEX Reception means you can have a receptionist available 24/7 and only pay for the minutes they’re on the phone. If you see the need for a receptionist or extra phone cover in your business, LEX Reception are waiting for your call.

How LEX Reception Works

After you sign up for one of LEX Reception’s monthly plans, your calls will be forwarded to their agents. You can either choose to cover the gaps in your existing phone coverage, or hand over complete responsibility to the team at LEX Reception.

They’ll answer your calls with a custom greeting and use scripts that you provide. They can also take messages, book appointments, make outbound calls and much more on your behalf. The LEX team fits into your business so seamlessly, the person on the other end will have no idea they’re talking with an outsourced receptionist.

You can track how many minutes you have left, your messages, call logs, and all the other relevant information via their online portal. You can also use their mobile app to manage your office on-the-go, with the ability to check messages, chat with your team, and access your business line to call clients. 

If you’re on the fence about whether you need a virtual receptionist, or if you have any questions about how LEX’s services work, get in touch! They’ll be happy to give you a demonstration and talk through your options to help you make the best decision for your business.

LEX Reception’s Services

LEX Reception’s services cover all communications between you and your customers via phone or web chat. They specialize in law firms and legal offices, but support other industries as well.

You can use their receptionists to screen calls and transfer important ones, act as customer support, follow up on leads, and perform legal intake or lead qualification.

LEX Reception can handle any tasks you would expect an in-house receptionist to handle. In fact, they would argue that they can handle more than a typical receptionist.

To give you an idea, here are some of the common responsibilities that LEX’s receptionists handle:

  • 24/7 call answering
  • Live call transfers
  • Appointment scheduling
  • Customer call-backs
  • Web chat management
  • CRM integration

LEX Reception’s Plans and Pricing

LEX Reception currently have multiple pricing plans based on the number of minutes you anticipate needing per month. Their rate per minute ranges from depending on the plan you opt for.

A list of their most popular pricing plans at the time of publishing is as follows:

  • Entry – $425 per month for 150 minutes (with additional minutes costing $2.75)
  • Best Value – $450 per month for 300 minutes (with additional minutes costing $2.25)
  • Standard – $775 per month for 500 minutes (with additional minutes costing $2.25)

(If you anticipate needing more minutes, check their website to see all plans, or ask about custom plans) 866-528-0506.

There is no setup fee for any of their plans, 300 minutes and above. You get free bi-lingual answering agents in Spanish, and access to your messages online.

Spam calls won’t use up your minutes either, as the first 30 calls under 30 seconds are free too.

If you’re interested to hear how their receptionists sound, you can fill out your details on their site to get a demo account number. When you call that number, a receptionist will answer as if doing so on behalf of your business. I thought that was pretty cool!

LEX Reception Alternatives

Ruby Receptionists and Gabbyville are two highly-rated alternative virtual receptionist companies based in the US to consider, but neither have the depth of experience or specialization with law practices and legal clients.

And they both start at higher price points for larger plans. If you’re a small business or solo attorney, you’ll get the most value from LEX Reception.

Ruby Receptionists Gabbyville DaVinci 1-888-GoAnswer
Customer Rating not rated not rated
Established 2003 2013 2006 2003
Minimum Monthly Cost $299 for 100 minutes $229 for 150 minutes $99 for 50 minutes $110 for 100 minutes
Price per Minute $2.99 $1.53 $2.00 $1.10
Set-Up Fee $99 $95 $75
Trial 14-Day Free Trial 14-Day Free Trial 30-Day Risk-Free
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Your Turn

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

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Intellect Outsource

Intellect Outsource is an India-based virtual assistant company specializing in providing assistants skilled in supporting eCommerce businesses of all sizes.

They have been in business for more than 10 years and are based in Thrissur, South India.

About Intellect Outsource

intellect outsource reviewThe company is headed up by their Managing Director, Shaju Devassy. Their target customers are eCommerce sellers in the US and the UK, although they work with clients all over the globe.

Intellect Outsource doesn’t offer general VA support like most virtual assistant businesses. They specialize in providing all the support services an ecommerce business needs to carry out their day-to-day operations.

This includes data entry, optimizing listings, product order management, ecommerce store designs, and more.

When you sign up with Intellect Outsource you are introduced to a dedicated virtual assistant you’ll be working with and will have a team manager as a point of contact.

They conduct internal meetings weekly to discuss how projects are going, and will provide feedback to you with suggestions on how they can help you make further improvements.

You can task your assistant to carry out work on your ecommerce business and will be billed for the hours they work.

Services

Intellect Outsource’s assistants are experienced with a wide range of tasks revolving around starting and running online ecommerce businesses.

Whether you’re looking for support launching a new online store or additional help managing the day-to-day running of your established business, their assistants are ready to help.

To give you an idea of the services they offer, here are some of the tasks they commonly help with:

  • Data Entry

  • eCommerce product data entry

  • Bulk product import

  • Catalog management

  • Market Place Product Management

  • Online store back office support

  • Web designing & Development

  • Online Store designing & Development and many more

Our team of online store ecommerce virtual assistants have experienced following ecommerce platforms

  • Magento 1 & 2
  • Shopify
  • Woocommerce
  • Volusion
  • Bigcommerce
  • MIVA Merchant
  • Netsuite
  • Handshake
  • ProStores
  • X cart
  • Yahoo stores
  • OpenCart

They are experienced in various market places like Amazon, eBay, Channel Advisor, Linnworks, Walmart, Etsy, bonanza, Houzz, and others.

Their assistants work 24/7, so you can sleep easy knowing their team are working on your store around the clock.

To discuss your individual requirements and find out how Intellect Outsource can help you and your ecommerce business you can book a free consultation through their website.

Plans and Pricing

Intellect Outsource has a very simple and competitive pricing structure. They charge $4 per hour.

(That’s super affordable, even for India.)

Intellect Outsource Alternatives

VA Talks and My Tasker are two of the most well-established virtual assistant companies based in India so I recommend contacting them for a quote and to see how they can help.

If you have an eCommerce business however, Intellect Outsource have a couple of advantages over these companies. They offer more competitive rates and specialize only in eCommerce.

(The freelance marketplace FreeeUp also began with a specialization in e-commerce so might be worth checking out as well.)

Your Turn

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

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Tweaky

Tweaky.io is a website support company offering “Tweaks” for website owners across the globe at affordable fixed prices.

The company is based in Oakland, California, with their teams of developers split across the US and India.

The company started operations at the beginning of 2018. However, the original owner didn’t have time to fully commit to the business, so it was bought by new owners in October of 2018.

About Tweaky

Tweaky ReviewThe two co-owners that took over Tweaky in October 2018 are Aneesh Seth and Devon Meadows. They both have a wide variety of experience in development, marketing, design, and online business.

Experiencing the pain point of needing to find skilled developers to help tweak and fix issues with their own sites, Aneesh and Devon saw an opportunity to buy Tweaky and grow the business to help other site owners.

They set out to provide a fixed price, quick, on-demand service, so you know exactly how much you’re paying up-front, and their developers can start working on your site right away communicating with you via web chat.

Their target customers are e-commerce site owners, SAAS businesses, and entrepreneurs. Devon said it’s a passion of his to help small business owners and side hustlers with their technical issues, so they can focus on the more important aspects of their business.

How Tweaky Works

There are 4 simple steps from making contact with Tweaky to having a developer working on your site as follows:

  • Step 1 – Fill out some details about the tweak you need to be done to your site via their web chat.
  • Step 2 – A member of their team will review what you’ve written and give you a quote for the work. There are set prices for tweaks that take up to 30 minutes, or between 30-60 minutes as you’ll see in the pricing section below.
  • Step 3 – If you’re happy with the quote you can pay right away and they’ll get started as soon as they have someone available.
  • Step 4 – The developer working on your site will keep you updated in the web chat and let you know when they’ve finished.

Services

Tweaky support all the large web platforms, such as WordPress, Shopify, Squarespace, WooCommerce, Leadpages, and more.

Their developers can make just about any tweak, change, or fix to your website that you can think of if you have an issue or something on your site you want to be changed, I’d have a word with a member of their team.

To give you an idea, some common website tweaks include:

  • Speed optimization
  • Mobile responsiveness
  • Updating your mixpanel and Mail Chimp
  • CSS changes
  • Redesigning the layout
  • Resolving error messages
  • Installing/updating plugins

Plans and Pricing

Tweaky offer three different pricing options.

  • Mini Tweak – $45 – This is for quick designs or development tasks that are estimated to take up to 30 minutes.
  • Regular Tweak – $75 – This is for a single task or a group of related tasks that are estimated to take up to 60 minutes.
  • Custom Tweak – $Custom – For extensive tweaks that will take more than 60 minutes a member of their team will provide you with a custom quote.

Tweaky Pricing

After detailing the tweak you want for your site you’ll fit into one of the three pricing options above. There are no contracts or extra costs from that point, you agree to the fixed price and wait for the work to be completed.

Tweaky Alternatives

For one-off website fixes, you could try Upwork or Fiverr for affordable options, but you’ll have to do the legwork yourself finding someone with the right skill set, and there’s the added risk of handing over a login to your site.

If you’re one of the 20% or so who has a WordPress site you could check out Zen WP. They have a good deal of positive feedback from customers and specialize in fixing and tweaking WordPress sites.

Your Turn

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

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QuickMonday

QuickMonday is a virtual assistant company specializing in providing dedicated virtual assistants to small and medium-sized companies across the globe.

The company is based in Kandy, Sri Lanka. All of their virtual assistants are also based in Sri Lanka, and work remotely from their homes.

About QuickMonday

The company started operations in 2013 and is headed up by founder and CEO Roshana Mallawaarachchi.

QuickMonday is based in Sri Lanka, as are their virtual assistants. They don’t train and manage their assistants in-house; their assistants are home-based across the country.

This contributes to QuickMonday having some of the most competitive hourly rates in the industry. Their plans start at just $5/hr for less experienced VAs, going up to $8/hr for their most experienced VAs.

They say they’re flexible with time zones, too. So, whether you’re in the U.S. or somewhere else in the world, they’ll find a VA willing to work to your business hours.

How QuickMonday Works

If you want to work with QuickMonday, all you have to do is select one of their monthly plans, and a member of their team will contact you.

They’ll then take you through the following steps:

1. Discuss your requirements

One of their success managers will reach out to you to discuss your requirements. They will then look within their team for the best-suited assistant.

2. Meet your assistant

Next, you’ll be introduced to the team member they’ve selected for you. This is your opportunity to ask them questions and determine if you think they’ll be a good fit.

3. Get started

Once you’re happy with your assistant, you can get started sending them tasks. QuickMonday has its own dashboard to facilitate communication and monitor how many hours you have and so on.

Services

QuickMonday’s assistants are willing to take on just about any job that can be completed remotely, and they certainly want to hear from you if you’re looking to outsource.

To give you a general idea of their most commonly requested services, QuickMonday group some of their assistant’s skill sets into the following categories:

  • Social media marketing
  • Website maintenance and e-commerce
  • Bookkeeping
  • Email management
  • Internet research
  • Travel planning
  • Real estate 

Something to keep in mind is typically when VA companies offer such a broad range of services, you’ll need to allow for some time to train your assistant.

This is something you should discuss with your account manager when signing up for a plan. You may find opting for a more experienced assistant works out less expensive in the long-term if they’re experienced handling the tasks you’re outsourcing. 

Plans and Pricing

QuickMonday offers very competitive rates starting at just $5 per hour.

They price their assistant based on the number of years’ experience they have. A complete list of plans at the time of publishing was as follows:

  • Entry (1-2 years’ experience) – $5/hr
  • Intermediate (2-4 years’ experience) – $6/hr
  • Professional (4-8 years’ experience) – $7/hr
  • Expert (8+ years’ experience) – $8/hr

There is a minimum requirement of 10 hours per month for Entry and Intermediate VAs, 20 hours for a Professional, and 40 hours per month for an Expert.

QuickMonday also states that you’re eligible for a discount of 10% when you hire an assistant for more than 20 hours per week.

There are no “hidden” or extra fees, all you pay is a flat hourly rate for your chosen level of experience. Each plan and assistant come with a 100% satisfaction guarantee for added reassurance.

QuickMonday Alternatives

If your budget is a priority, QuickMonday is among the most competitive hourly rates in the market.

There are some VA companies in the Philippines and India offering similar rates that are worth contacting for a quote, however.

For example, VA Talks’ assistants are in the $7-$15 range, and it’s possible to find workers in the $3-$8 range on OnlineJobs.ph. The small caveats being that Oninejobs.ph operates on a job board model, and you have to buy a large hourly package to hit a low rate with VA Talks.

Your Turn

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

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