Virtual Assistant Blog

XpertsPool

Posted by Mica Harvey / Content Writing Services, Dedicated Virtual Assistants, Graphic and Web Design Services, India Virtual Assistants, Virtual Assistant Companies

Xpertspool (a wordplay on experts pool) is a global outsourcing agency. They provide “Xperts” as they call their workforce to small and medium-sized businesses all over the world.

The company is headquartered in the US, and its Xperts are based across Nepal, India, and Bangladesh.

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About XpertsPool

The company started operations around three years ago and is currently managed by three co-founders.

They have a management team based in the US and Nepal, and most of their workers are based from their offices in Nepal, India, and Bangladesh.

This enables Xpertspool to offer competitive rates while providing English-speaking workers that are well-versed in the culture and practices of businesses around the world.

What struck me was how thorough they are with their screening and hiring process. Each candidate goes through a series of screen tests, skill assessments, and physical interviews before being hired.

They only hire workers with 5+ years’ experience in their field, and they say all of their managers have more than 7 years’ experience.

Xpertspool provides a wide range of services, from content writing to mobile app developers. When I asked them who their target customers are, a member of their team told me they target agencies, start-ups, and SAAS companies.

Looking at their services, I can see a lot of their services and skillsets are around programming and design rather than general VA services.

Xpertspool says they have a pool of more than 500 workers. So, whatever your own remote needs are, it’s worth making contact to see if they have an Xpert with the skills you’re looking for.

How Xpertspool Works

If you’re interested in working with Xpertspool, their onboarding process follows a few simple steps:

1. Tell them your requirements

It starts with a call with one of Xpertspool’s project managers. They’ll help you identify areas within your business their team can help with, as well getting a better understanding of the culture within your organization.

2. Their project managers find you the “perfect Xpert”

Your project manager will find the best-suited Xperts from their pool of 500+ workers based on their conversation with you. They’ll narrow it down and send you a couple of profiles to take a look at.

3. Onboarding takes place

Once you’ve selected an Xpert you want to work with, you can start communicating with them via Slack and their in-house system.

You’ll also be assigned a dedicated manager as a point of contact. If you’re not satisfied for any reason within the first 7 days you can request a refund or a new Xpert.

Services

Xpertspool only hires experienced Xperts that pass their screen and skill tests. They cover most tasks that can be completed remotely; such as web design, content writing, digital marketing, and so on.

To give you a better idea, they list some of their most in-demand Xperts as being in the following categories:

Android Xperts
Flutter Xperts
WordPress Xperts
React.js Xperts
LAMP Stack Xperts
Ruby on Rails Xperts
Python Xperts
React Native Xperts

Plans and Pricing

Xpertspool has a different hourly and monthly price for each of their services. There is a considerable saving if you opt for a monthly retainer, although it’s worth noting that their monthly plans are for 80 hours.

For example, you can hire a Python Developer for $30/hr, or pay a one-off fee of $1,250 for a month. They state that works out at $15.62/hr, which would mean you’re getting 80 hours of work.

That’s almost a 50% discount. If you have enough work to keep your Xpert busy that’s a very competitive rate.

Here is a complete list of their services at the time of publishing:

All plans come with a 7-day money-back guarantee.

Xpertspool Alternatives

If you’re looking for US-based workers, Toptal specializes in providing remote engineers and developers. They are more expensive, however, with prices starting at around $1,000 per week.

For companies offering similar rates, I recommend reaching out to virtual assistant companies in India, such as Ask Sunday and My Tasker.

Your Turn

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

Penji

Posted by Mica Harvey / Graphic and Web Design Services

Launched in late 2017, Penji is one of the newer, reliable monthly subscription graphic design companies to enter the space.

Their headquarters is in Camden, NJ. They hire staff in the Philippines as well as keeping some of their workforce close to home by hiring students from their local community.

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About Penji

The company was started by former agency owners who created a tool for themselves to use internally. Seeing the potential for a SAAS business they started Penji.

Penji says they are a community conscious company that focuses on three things:

Delivering a 5-star customer experience and creating the best DAAS (design as a service) on the planet.
Helping the local community by hiring residents and students from Camden, NJ.
Offering their service to all non-profits in Camden, NJ for just $1.

Three admirable company goals that separate them from their competitors, and a pretty smart marketing tactic for a company so new to the graphic design space.

When they started, they hired five students from the area. Today, they have over a hundred graphic designers and other staff from across the globe—the West Coast, Philadelphia, Europe, Central America, and Asia.

Their graphic designers undertake any graphic design work, and they list their areas of specialization as logo design, marketing materials, digital advertisements, web design, and app prototype designs.

They list their target customers as marketing teams, agencies, and startups that need help with their design creation.

This kind of subscription service provides value to any one persons or businesses looking for a cost-effective solution to ongoing graphic design needs.

Services

Penji’s graphic designers will take on any design tasks that can be completed remotely.

This typically includes:

Branding projects
Website logos and blog headers
T-shirt designs
Flyers and banners
App designs
Digital and print ads
Social media graphics
Books, eBooks, magazine covers and layouts

Their service is sold on a subscription basis. You pay a flat monthly fee, and in return you can submit unlimited jobs and revisions 1 or 2 at a time depending on the package.

Like all “unlimited” service packages there is a time restriction on the number of designs you can order. You can only have 1 or 2 jobs in the queue at any time as explained in the plans and pricing below.

Plans and Pricing – Penji

Penji has 3 different pricing plans:

Pro – $399 per month – 1 dedicated designer and Up to 2 users.
Team – $499 per month – 1 dedicated designer and Up to 5 users.
Agency – $899 per month – 2 dedicated designers and Up to 10 users.

Virtual Assistant Assistant Exclusive: Save 15% off your first month with code VIRTUAL15!

All plans include:

Unlimited design requests
Unlimited revisions
Unlimited stock photography
Website and app design
Dedicated design teams
15-day money back guarantee
No contracts and the ability to cancel at any time

The “unlimited” design requests are of course restricted to the number of designs their team can complete in a month.

They say their typical turnaround time is 24-48 hours to give you an idea of how many designs you can get for your subscription.

The 15-day money back guarantee and ability to cancel at any time gives you a nice peace of mind to try the service without making a huge commitment.

Who is Penji for?

As mentioned earlier, Penji primarily caters to agencies, marketers, and startups. Here’s how Penji helps their clients with their unlimited graphic design and revisions:

Agencies

Agencies benefit from Penji’s services by delegating to them their medial tasks such as landing pages or banner ads. This keeps them focused on creating strategies and takes the smaller jobs off their shoulders.

Marketing Companies

Marketers can get a steady supply of graphic design without having to hire additional staff. In times that these businesses get a heavy flow of work, they can get Penji’s services instead. Penji does the recruiting and vetting process so their clients won’t have to.

When the workload lightens, they won’t have to worry about trimming down their workforce. They can opt out of their subscription any time they no longer need Penji’s services.

Startups

Graphic design is crucial for startups. They have to create their branding and other visuals right the first time. This will help them stand out while having a great design foundation. Most startups have limited budgets, and Penji can help them get designs in a cost-effective way.

Bloggers

Bloggers and other individuals who need graphic design can use Penji’s services. They won’t have to use stock photos or graphics that can look the same as everyone else’s. They won’t have to worry about expensive designs as they can request them from Penji at their flat monthly rates.

Who Penji Isn’t For

Penji is suitable for companies or individuals that need at least 8 to 10 hours of design work. Otherwise, their service may not be for you. To make the subscription worth your money, you have to have a constant need for designs.

In addition, Penji has no phone support when communicating with their designers. You have to write a brief description of your design requests and these requests are made on their platform. It is also where you’ll be sending your messages to their designers.

Penji Alternatives

Flocksy and Design Pickle are two US-based graphic design companies that also operate on the monthly subscription model and have very similar pricing plans.

If you don’t anticipate having enough ongoing work to get value from a monthly plan I recommend checking out Upwork or Fiverr for one-off tasks.

Your Turn

Have you had some graphics designs from Penji? If so, please leave a short review below to help others with their decision.

Virtual Vocations

Posted by Mica Harvey / US Virtual Assistants, Virtual Employees

Virtual Vocations is an online platform connecting employers with remote workers from around the United States. The site aggregates thousands of job postings every week from job boards, social media streams, websites, blogs and other places on the net.

The company has been in business since 2007, and its headquarters is in Eugene, OR.

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About Virtual Vocations

The company is headed up by founder and current CEO, Laura Spawn, and her brother Adam Stevenson, CTO. Laura decided to create Virtual Vocations to solve the pain point she had of finding a good work-from-home position as a stay-at-home mom.

Instead of crawling the net looking everywhere for good opportunities, she wanted a job board that aggregated vetted, genuine work-from-home positions in one place.

So, she enlisted the help of her brother and created Virtual Vocations to do exactly that.

Browsing their job listings at the time of writing this I could see more than 21,000 jobs across more than 16,000 company profiles, with 40+ categories to narrow down your job search.

You can search by state, hours, education level, and more. Just looking at the job posting feed I could see new jobs coming in literally every few minutes, so I was either on their job board at peak time or they have a very active feed – which is great for you if you’re looking for a remote job.

How Virtual Vocations Works

To get started you need to sign up for either a free account, which has some restrictions on the number of jobs you can see and apply for, or a premium all-access account.

Then, when you see a job you want to apply for, you can click “Apply” and fill out the application for the position.

Services

Virtual Vocations is a job board, it’s not a recruitment agency. The main difference is that their staff are not heavily involved in helping make the connection between job-seeker and employer.

You can talk to their staff by email or by dropping them a message in a web chat box if you have an issue, but their platform is designed to operate automatically for the most part.

For job seekers, as a premium member, you have access to their entire database of jobs and will receive some free online courses to help you with your job search.

As an employer, you can sign up for an employer account and then pay a one-time company vetting fee in order to post remote jobs.

Plans and Pricing

Virtual Vocations have a free account option, but it comes with limitations on the number of jobs you can see and apply for. For full access to the job board you need to pay for a Premium account, which is priced as follows:

Monthly Fee – $15.99
3-Monthly Fee – $39.99
6-Monthly Fee – $59.99

They offer a money back guarantee, so if you’re not happy within 30 days for any reason you can request a refund.

Again, the site is free for employers.

Virtual Vocations Alternatives

Other popular job boards that operate on a similar business model as Virtual Vocations are FlexJobs and HireMyMom. FlexJobs is probably the largest work from home job site, and HireMyMom typically has a lot of PA, admin, and virtual assistant type roles. The latter may be more appropriate if you’re looking for part-time help.

Your Turn

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

Colorcinch

Posted by Philip Avent / Resources/Tools

Colorcinch is an online image editing tool that provides a wide range of tools and features that enables users to create professional-looking custom images.

This software focuses on simplifying the process of editing photos. It uses an intuitive interface and AI technology, making the process of creating custom images accessible to everyone.

The company has been in business since 2013, and their headquarters are in Seattle, WA.

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About Colorcinch

Colorcinch is headed up by Creative Director Peter Babiy. The company started out as Cartoonize in 2013, then went through a rebranding to Colorcinch in 2020.

Peter’s mission when creating Colorcinch was to, “build a creative environment for all, regardless of your background and experience.”

When using Colorcinch, it’s clear the team has put a lot of emphasis on making their tool user-friendly and accessible to everyone.

The interface is intuitive and easy to navigate. Although there are lots of features, the interface doesn’t feel cluttered and it’s easy to find specific editing options.

Colorcinch also uses AI technology to help with certain elements. It’s a great tool for anyone looking to edit their own images and save money hiring an editor or a graphic designer.

How Colorcinch Works

Getting started with Colorcinch couldn’t be any easier. In fact, you can start editing images on the Colorcinch site without signing up or creating an account.

If you want to test the software, you don’t even need your own images. There are more than 2.5 million stock images available for personal and commercial use.

The best way to figure out how to use Colorcinch is to start editing. All you have to do is simply select the option you need from the menus, and work on your image in the center of the screen.

If you get stuck or can’t find what you’re looking for, you can browse tutorials by clicking on the “settings” button.

Colorcinch Services

Colorcinch provides all the features and tools you’ll need to edit images up to a professional spec.

Some of the key features are:

Freehand drawing
Crop and resize
Straighten and rotate
Adjust exposure
Sharpen and blur
Text editor
Works offline
AI-powered Specialty Effects
And much more

Colorcinch Plans and Pricing

Colorcinch has free and paid plans. Most people will be able to do everything they need with the free plan, which is great.

The paid plan opens up access to all of their premium effects and features. This includes loads of graphics, higher resolution export options, and some other cool features.

The cost for the paid plan at the time of publishing is $3.99/mo if you pay annually, or $5.99/mo if you pay monthly.

Colorcinch Alternatives

There is no shortage of image editing software on the market. Some of the best alternatives to Colorcinch to try out are Canva, PicMonkey, and Pixlr.

All of these tools offer similar features, the main difference between them is their interfaces.

If you’re not able to do everything you need with Colorcinch, I recommend checking out one of these alternatives.

Your Turn

Have you used Colorcinch to edit any of your images? If so, please take a moment to leave a quick review to help others with their decision.

Webcenture

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

Webcenture is a virtual assistant company based in Mumbai, India. The company was established in 2010 and started out a website development and customer support agency.

They rebranded and changed their focus in 2016 to providing virtual assistant services to business owners of all sizes.

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About Webcenture

Webcenture have sales offices in the US and the UK, and their headquarters is located in Mumbai. They have a team of virtual assistants based in their headquarters, and also employ remote assistants that are home-based.

This has given them the reach to support most time zones and work with clients all over the globe. They also say they support multiple languages too.

Webcenture say they are “very selective” when it comes to hiring their VAs. There is a screening process where they only hire highly qualified candidates, and then they put them through a month of training before matching them with clients.

How it Works

When I spoke with the co-founder Vikas, he indicated that Webcenture’s target customers are start-ups, small business owners, entrepreneurs, executives, coaches and anyone else who is looking shed his or her workload and focus on bigger picture.

When you sign up for one of their plans you will be contacted by a project manager who will be your point of contact and oversee the working relationship between you and your assistant.

They then assign you a VA based on your requirements and you are free to communicate directly with your assistant.

Your assistant will produce daily reports on the tasks and workload that has been completed. These reports are checked by the project manager and passed on to you.

Services

Their virtual assistants are ready to handle just about any tasks that can be completed remotely.

To give you an idea, they summarized their services into the following areas:

Website development
Graphic design
SEO
Administrative tasks
Social media
Personal tasks
Customer support
Online research
Real estate

Plans and Pricing

Pricing for Webcenture’s assistants starts at $8.98/hr for their 20-hour plan. Their rates go as low as $4.98/hr for their 320-hour plan which makes their rates very competitive.

Their complete pricing list is as follows (accurate at press time):

Bronze Plan – $180 for 20 hours ($8.98/hr)
Silver Plan – $319 for 40 hours ($7.98/hr)
Golden Plan – $558 for 80 hours ($6.98/hr)
Platinum Plan – $957 for 160 hours ($5.98/hr) — A full-time hire for less than $1000 a month.
Diamond Plan – $1,594 for 320 hours ($4.98/hr) — Two full-time VAs.

VAA Exclusive: Use referral code VAAExclusive15 for 15% off your first purchase!

Webcenture can also build customized and project-based plans if you have some specific requirements. One of their project managers will be happy to discuss your requirements and how they can help.

Webcenture Alternatives

There are plenty of options when choosing a virtual assistant company based in India. VA Talks and My Tasker are two companies with a lot of positive feedback, so I recommend checking these out.

Webcenture say are always trying their best to offer more than their competitors. Their pricing is very competitive, and they provide backup VAs so it’s worth discussing your requirements with one of their managers.

Your Turn

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

Elite Virtual Assistants

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

Elite Virtual is a US-based virtual assistant company. They have been in operation for around two years, with a head office is based in Cleveland, Ohio, and virtual assistants working remotely all across the US.

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About Elite Virtual

The company was founded by Laura Licursi. Laura was a virtual assistant herself for 18 years before starting Elite Virtual, so it’s reassuring to know the company is run by someone who knows the industry well and knows what it’s like working on the virtual assistant side to truly understand what clients need and has created a unique plan to ensure a successful working relationship.

Why EVA is different

How it Works

Your first point of contact with Elite Virtual is to book a 30-minute consultation. This enables both parties to get a good understanding of what your needs are, how many hours you’re going to need a month, and what type of virtual assistant is best to fill that role.

They then start their unique pairing process with one of their virtual assistants best matched to your needs, and once chosen, the kick-off call is scheduled via Zoom to ensure a smooth start with your new VA. You’ll also be working closely with a relationship manager to help with any questions you have, issues, or other needs that may arise as you work with your virtual assistant.

EVA uses time-tracking software and sends weekly and monthly reports to help you see where your assistant’s time is being spent, along with a link to your time reporting so you can view the hours and tasks in real-time.

Services

When I asked Laura about their services, she said, “We have a very specialized and talented team of virtual assistants, with our core business serving attorneys, small business owners and busy professionals with legal, executive and digital marketing assistants.”

Based on those comments it looks like small to medium sized businesses looking for support running their day-to-day tasks, or business owners not ready to take on full-time employees can benefit from EVA’s virtual assistants.

You can book a free discovery call with a representative at Elite Virtual to discuss your requirements before signing up. This is a good opportunity to get a feel for the company, see if they can help with the exact tasks you want to outsource, and ask any questions you may have.

Plans and Pricing

EVA has 4 different hourly packages available, as well as a fixed rate per hour if you use their assistants for project-based needs ($47/hour).

Starter – 10 hrs/month for $420.
Entrepreneur – 20 hrs/month for $800.
Small Biz – 40 hrs/month for $1520.
Pro Package – 80 hrs/month for $2880.

FAs you increase the hours in your package there is a $2/hour discount. Elite Virtual Assistants does offer their packages as a rollover plan so you never lose time, and this gives you the ability to purchase a higher amount of hours to receive the discounted rates.

Elite Virtual Alternatives

Boldly and Time Etc are two of the longest establish and highest rated US-based virtual assistant companies that are worth checking out. Boldly has a noticeably higher hourly rate, while Time Etc operates with similar pricing plans.

Your Turn

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

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.

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About FixRunner

FixRunner.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.

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!

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About Remote Team Solutions

Remote 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:

Discuss your requirements in a consultation call with a member of Remote Team Solutions’ team.
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.
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.

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.

Task 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.

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.

She 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.”

Table of Contents

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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