Virtual Assistant Blog

Virtual Helper 24/7

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

UPDATE: As of 2020, it appears Virtual Helper 24/7 is offline. Please see below for alternatives.

Virtual Helper 24/7 is a professional virtual assistant company headquartered in Australia with virtual offices in Hong Kong and Taguig City in the Philippines. The company was founded in 2012 and has since grown to employ hundreds of virtual assistants.

As you can tell from their slick conversion-optimized website, these guys are professional marketers at the very least.

About Virtual Helper 24/7

Virtual Helper 247 is a rapidly growing business that focuses on offering virtual assistant services to small and medium businesses, including both online and “brick and mortar” operations. With clients drawn from across the globe, the company serves the needs of businesses in a variety of industries.

Some of the industries targeted by the company include ecommerce, real estate companies, medical practitioners, legal experts, fashion and design and education related institutions.

The Staff

The staff at Virtual Helper 24/7 is mainly comprised of professional college graduates drawn from different fields as well as a 3-tier management team that oversees the operations at the overseas offices to ensure that everything is running smoothly. Many employees have experience in virtual assistance and BPO work in the past and the CEO explained they have a rigorous recruitment process to bring on high caliber candidates.

Virtual Helper 24/7 Intro Video

Who do you think they’re targeting with this video?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_IYJNDJxy9U

Services

Virtual Helper 24/7 offers a wide range of professional business services including:

Website design and development
Graphics design
Social marketing
Video creation
Social account creation
Content creation and article writing
Internet marketing
Data entry
Video creation and video marketing

These are a sampling of the services offered, but in general, anything that can be done remotely is on the table and they may be able to put together a custom service package to meet your specific needs.

The company always aims to match clients with a virtual assistant specialized and trained in the area you need the most support in.

Plans and Pricing

Virtual Helper 247 offers you three main pricing options. They are as follows-:

1VA + 1 Manager – in this option, you have access to one virtual assistant and one manager and 80 hours of work per month covering between one and two skill levels. This option is available for $397 per month.

2VA’s + 1 Manager – this is the second option which features 160 hours of work per month covering between 2 – 4 skill levels. With this plan, you will have access to two virtual assistants with one manager and it is available from $696 per month.

3VA’s + 2 Managers – with this option, you will have access to three virtual assistants and two managers. It’s worth 240 hours of work per month and you have access to all the skill set available in the company. The subscription for this particular package is $997 per month.

However, they seem to run special discount offers fairly frequently. At press time, I found this one offering 160 hours of support from 3 different VAs for only $297 per month.

That amounts to just $1.85 per hour, which seems too good to be true, even in the Philippines. I mean, they’ve still got to pay for equipment, office space, and 3 tiers of management, right?

I’m not sure how they’re getting this done and still making money because the weird thing is the messaging says to “lock in” this rate today. (It would make much more sense as an introductory rate.)

I haven’t yet had a chance to test Virtual Helper 24/7 out myself … though at these prices I guess I’d be dumb not to! I’ll be sure to report back a full review when I do.

Virtual Helper 24/7 Alternatives

If you are searching for the services of a virtual assistant company and you are not comfortable dealing with Virtual Helper 247 for one reason or the other, you have a number of options in the Philippines to consider.

The top-rated options at the moment include the Virtual Staff Finder recruiting service, the OnlineJobs.ph jobs board, and more traditional set-ups like Task Bullet.

Have you had any experience with Virtual Helper 24/7? Kindly share a brief review of your experience to help other people make decision their decision.

Exicon Assistant

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

UPDATE: As of mid-2020, it appears Exicon is offline. Please see below for alternatives.

Exicon Assistant is a virtual assistant company based in Mumbai, India. They provide virtual assistant services to businesses of all sizes and specialize in graphic design and creating brand videos.

The company started operations in July 2018. They are a subsidiary of Exicon Group, a marketing solutions company that has been in business since 2000.

About Exicon Assistant

The company is run by Prakash Bind and Abhishek Ghosh who are also managing directors of Exicon Group, the parent company to Exicon Assistant.

All of their virtual assistants are based in-house at their offices in Mumbai, India. They also have other offices in other locations across India, and in London, UK.

Their target customers are entrepreneurs, startups, and small to medium size businesses looking to outsource some of their day-to-day tasks.

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

They then assign the best-suited virtual assistant and you’ll coordinate directly with them, as well as having an operations manager as a point of contact if you run into any issues.

Being based in India they are able to offer very competitive rates, even when comparing them to their competitors.

Services

Exicon Assistant virtual assistants will handle any business-related tasks that can be completed remotely.

To give you an idea of the types of tasks the commonly handle they highlight their areas of specialization as graphic design, brand films and videos, and group their services as follows:

Coding and Web Solutions – Anything from open source customization to backend support and coding changes to your website.
Graphic Design – Their assistants specialize in creating everything from logos and blog graphics to complete branding campaigns.
Digital Marketing – PPC campaigns, social media marketing, digital marketing tasks.
Films and Audio – Their assistants are skilled in producing all kinds of TV and radio jingles, commercials, animations, and even short films.
Market Research – Questionnaire design, market segmentation, customer surveys, and other research-driven tasks.
Content Development – Article writing, blog content, outreach, sales copy, and any other form of written content.

Plans and Pricing

Exicon Assistant currently has four different pricing plans. Their rates are very competitive starting at $8.99 per hour for their 10-hour plan and going as low as $5.99 per hour for a full-time assistant.

A complete list of their pricing plans are as follows:

Trial Plan – $89.90 per month for 10 hours ($8.99 per hour).
Basic Plan – $319.60 per month for 40 hours ($7.99 per hour).
Intermediate Plan – $519.20 per month for 80 hours ($6.99 per hour).
Advanced Plan – $958.40 per month for 160 hours ($5.99 per hour).

The pricing is very attractive on all these plans, and to be able to get started for less than $100 is a strong value proposition.

All of their plans include a free consultation, a dedicated virtual assistant, a backup assistant, operations manager, and most importantly any unused hours roll over to the following month.

Exicon Assistant Alternatives

There is no shortage of virtual assistant companies based in India to choose from. If you feel more comfortable using a tried and tested company, My Tasker and Ask Sunday are two well-established companies with a good deal of customer feedback to read through.

	Task Virtual	Wing Assistant	Tasks Expert	eLuminous
Customer Rating
Established	2016	2018	2017	2002
Hourly Rate	$3.12-$6 *incl. discount	$6.878.75	$4.50-$9.50	$7.00
Minimum Package	Pay as you go for $15	$699 for 80 hours	$95 for 10 hours	$140 for 20 hours
Dedicated Assistant
Best For	Small and Medium size businesses	Small & Medium Business Owners, IT Services, Marketing Agencies, SaaS	Business Owners Entrepreneurs Professionals	Development Real Estate E-Commerce Marketing
Team Access
Free Trial		*For limited range of services
Special Offer	50% off first month	N/A	10 hours free w/ code VAA10	20% off first month (mention VAA)
	Learn More	Learn More	Learn More	Learn More

*Well, it’s a $1.

Exicon Assistant had only been operating for a couple of months at the time of this initial write-up so they’re a bit of an unknown.

They do offer very competitive rates however, especially if you’re looking for a full-time assistant. It’s worth contacting them for a consultation and giving them a trial.

Your Turn

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

BPOVIA

Posted by Mica Harvey / Virtual Assistant Companies

UPDATE: It appears BPOVIA out of business. Please consider one of these alternatives.

Among the growing standouts in the outsourcing industry is BPOVIA. The company was established in 2007 and has seen rapid growth since then. In addition to their growth, they have picked up several awards along the way.

They were chosen as the 2008 Red Herring Global 100 Best Companies and the Red Herring Asia 100 Best Companies. In addition, they won the 2009 and 2010 Global Outsourcing 100 Award as determined by the IAOP (International Association of Outsourcing Professionals).

Currently BPOVIA serves over 10,000 customers globally. They support these customers from four offices: Chicago, IL in the United States, Sydney, Australia, West Yorkshire, United Kingdom and Nanging, China.

Their customer list represents both major corporations and self-employed entrepreneurs. Among their most notable customers are Microsoft, Kraft, MTV, Accenture, Sherwood Outdoor, Matrix Partners (China) and the United Nations. Alex Vieux, the Publisher of Red Herring, is also a customer.

One of the reasons for their success is that they offer a diverse number of plans. For as little as $100, a client can purchase ten hours of service. The plans increase from this point and feature options such as forty hours for four hundred dollars a month.

BPOVIA offers a high end full time plan. For $1,199 per month a client receives eight hours per day for five days a week. This offers a customer a significant savings over hiring an employee, yet provides the customer with a diverse set of skills they would unlikely be able to find in one individual.

Like many of its competitors BPOVIA offers an introductory offer. They typically offer the first ten hours without charge; however, this promotion is not automatic and may not be available at some times. In addition, most of BPOVIA’s clients employ them on a month to month basis, making cancellation easy if it becomes required. The company also allows customers to easily switch between service levels and carry over unused hours of service to the next month.

While BPOVIA offers a diverse group of services, approximately one-third of its customers utilize their website design services. Among its other popular services are online marketing and SEO, WordPress and blogs, social media sites, business planning, financial services and data entry. Because of their strong presence in China, many clients use BPOVIA as a stepping stone toward Chinese business development. In addition, the company will also perform personal tasks for its customers.

BPOVIA offers its clients, large or small, the fiscal and operational benefits of outsourcing. It brings a unique international approach to the growing area of virtual assistants. This approach has been embraced by thousands of customers worldwide, demonstrating the growing need for such a service.

If you have any experience working with BPOVIA, positive or negative, please share it below.

Pinoy for Hire

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

UPDATE: Pinoy for Hire may no longer be in operation. Please see below for alternatives.

Pinoy for Hire is a Filipino virtual assistant company. Their head offices are located in Novi, Michigan, with their virtual assistants based in their offices in Bicol, Philippines. (Pinoy means someone of Filipino origin or descent.)

The company was founded in June, 2016, and is a subsidiary of Panda CashBack LLC. They also operate under the name of Top SEO Virtual Assistants across their social media platforms.

About Pinoy for Hire

Mohammed Khonizi is the founder of Pinoy for Hire and started the company in June, 2016.

When you sign up with Pinoy for Hire a member of their Human Resources team will discuss your requirements and then find the most suitable assistant to work with you.

You’re given the option to interview the assistant yourself. This is always an important step when selecting a VA to work with as you can personally check they have experience with the tools and type of work you will be sending them.

The assistant then works out of their offices in the Philippines. You also keep in touch with the team member who had the initial meeting with you to help resolve any issues that may arise.

Services

Pinoy for Hire’s virtual assistants are ready to handle a wide range of tasks, they group some of their general services as the following:

Lead generation
Data entry and research
CRM management
Bookkeeping
Social media management
Administrative support

They are brief in the areas they list as within their skillset. As with most virtual assistant companies they are ready and willing to take on just about any online work.

The list their area of specialization as search engine optimization. If SEO is your main focus then I suggest talking through your SEO goals with a member of their team to see what they can offer you.

Plans and Pricing

Pinoy for Hire has three different pricing plans as follows:

Test It – $49 ($6.10 / hour) – A one-time 8-hour bundle.
Part-Time – $369 ($4.60 / hour) – Half-time 80 hours per month.
Full-Time – $599 ($3.70 / hour) – Full-time 160 hours per month.

Full-time support for $600 a month for an office-based assistant is crazy cheap, even for the Philippines.

All their plans include a college educated, fluent English speaking virtual assistant. They provide continued on-site training, and there is additional support staff as a point of contact.

Your assistant works within business hours in the Philippines time zone with the Test It and Part-Time plans, or within your own time zone if needed when you sign up for a Full-Time plan.

They are also willing to discuss custom plans if none of the above meets your requirements. Just contact them to see what you can work out.

Pinoy for Hire Alternatives

There is an abundance of virtual assistant companies in the Philippines. The price is usually the attraction when outsourcing to the Philippines, and Pinoy for Hire definitely has some very competitive hourly rates.

TaskBullet operates on a similar business model but lets you buy “buckets” of hours without any expectation or requirement of automatic monthly renewals. Or if you want to cast a wider net with your assistant search, check out OnlineJobs.ph to access the country’s largest virtual job board specializing in finding full-time VAs.

Your Turn

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

Virtual Assistant Staffing

Posted by Mica Harvey / Virtual Assistant Companies, Virtual Employees

Update: It appears Virtual Assistant Staffing is out of business. Please see our full list of virtual assistant companies for well-rated alternatives.

Virtual Assistant Staffing is a unique virtual assistant company based out of Seattle. However, don’t expect to see an office of VAs down the street from Amazon – it’s a highly decentralized operation; a loose network of home-based freelancers from all corners of the world.

The company was founded in 2010 by Michael Hellickson, and specializes in a stringent recruiting process to make sure each client is assigned the perfect virtual assistant. And if you’re not happy with the choice, they even have a 100% money-back guarantee.

But I’ll admit I was kind of turned off by their website so I submitted a quick query to see what would happen. In less than 12 hours I had a response from the founder to set up a call to learn more about the business.

Virtual Assistant Staffing is for people looking for ongoing business support, but aren’t sure where to turn. These guys take the time to get a deep understanding of your needs and expectations in a virtual assistant, including an in-depth job description and phone interview.

Then, they put the word out about your job to their massive global talent network. Michael explained the recruiters will go through over 100 resumes in certain cases, pre-screen them all and do multiple interviews and tests to narrow down the applicant pool.

The ultimate goal is to find the right person for the job, because long-term relationships are beneficial for all parties involved. And while long-term is definitely the aim, there is no long-term contract or minimum time commitment.

The total cost for this expert recruiting service? Zero. They’ve done everything they can to make the virtual hiring process as risk-free as possible.

Once they’ve found your VA, Virtual Assistant Staffing handles all the payroll and HR requirements and you just pay them biweekly as you would any other contract business service. The company uses the popular Time Doctor tracking software so you can keep tabs on your remote staff.

The company will fill positions ranging from 2.5 hours a week all the way up to full-time, and offers the first week free as an incentive to try out the service.

On an ongoing basis, you can expect to pay around $7 an hour for a low-end VA, all the way up to $40 for someone with advanced technical skills. And while it is entirely dependent on the skills you’re looking for, the average probably centers on the $10-11 per hour range. Generally the more hours you need, the lower the rate you can get.

Virtual Assistant Staffing has filled nearly every kind of position imaginable, from general VAs and telemarketers, to web developers and designers. In terms of business model, the closest competitor is Virtual Coworker, but where VAS is global, they operate only out of the Philippines.

The company has earned the endorsement of financial speaker and author Robert Allen, as well as a host of other clients. Have you worked with Virtual Assistant Staffing? If so, please share a quick review of your experience below and help others with their decision.

Secret Staff

Posted by Mica Harvey / Virtual Assistant Companies

UPDATE: It appears Secret Staff is out of business. Please consider one of these alternatives.

My Secret Staff is a virtual assistant and outsourcing company with offices in Chicago. The company was founded in 2009 has been growing at a healthy rate since then.

What sets Secret Staff apart from some of the other virtual assistant companies is they offer a number of more specialized tasks included in your monthly subscription.

Services

These higher-value tasks include search engine optimization (SEO), web development, social media marketing, accounting, and website maintenance. All of this is on top of the general business, administrative, and personal tasks your Secret Staff VA would be doing.

The benefit of this arrangement is you get specialized expertise in the area you need, for a low fixed cost. The downside is you may not have that one go-to dedicated resource, but instead a small team of virtual employees.

Plans and Pricing

My Secret Staff currently offers four levels of service, ranging from 10 hours a month at $135 ($13.50 an hour) to 80 hours a month at $695 (8.69 an hour). At the time of this writing, there is no full-time plan available.

These rates are a little higher than some of the competition, but that is to be expected given the more advanced tasks their virtual assistants perform. If you’re looking for straight virtual assistance without the extras, Secret Staff is probably not the best choice. But if you think you might have a need for some of their specialized work down the road, it could be a worthwhile investment.

Secret Staff Intro Video

I emailed My Secret Staff for additional information and have yet to receive a reply 6 days later. (I used the “Proposal in 48 Hours” form on their site.) I would consider that lack of response a big red flag against them.

I also tried their live-chat feature, but it was either un-staffed (didn’t say anything about being offline) or severely understaffed; I gave up after 15 minutes. A week later I tried their live chat again and was connected with Khay, who didn’t really impress me with professionalism. Here are some excerpts from our conversion:

secretstaff: This is Khay how may I help you?
you: Hi good afternoon Khay. I’m researching some different virtual assistant companies for a website project. Where are you located?
secretstaff: we have our office located in chicago IL
you: and your overseas location?
secretstaff: just that
secretstaff: we work virtually
you: ok interesting, everyone is just working from home then?
secretstaff: not really
secretstaff: some are working in the office

OK, not super informative or particularly helpful. I probably should have clarified the question.

you: do you know if secretstaff has an affiliate program for referring new customers?
secretstaff: I don’t know anything about th
secretstaff: that*

Which is understandable, except there was no offer to find out and let me know.

secretstaff: do you have plans of getting our services?

(Because you’re wasting my time.)

you: sent in a contact form last week but got no response
secretstaff: what for?

Does it matter? Geez.

I don’t expect to do business with My Secret Staff anytime soon. If anyone else has had experience with this company — positive or negative — please share it here.

Virtual Assistant Freedom

Posted by Mica Harvey / Philippines Virtual Assistants, Virtual Assistant Companies, Virtual Employees

UPDATE: It appears Virtual Assistant Freedom is out of business. Please consider one of these alternatives.

Virtual Assistant Freedom is a virtual assistant company with presence in the Philippines and in India. According to the copyright date, the company was founded in 2010. However, the domain was registered in 2011. Virtual Assistant Freedom maintains a US sales office in Florida.

I really got a kick out of the Virtual Assistant Freedom website. If you haven’t seen it, you owe it to yourself to check it out. Notice how most of their images feature, well, “well-endowed” women? Can sex sell in outsourcing? Well I guess you can’t fault them for trying.

Some other funny parts of their website included this random color bar on the side, which appears to have zero functionality as far as I can tell. At the bottom of some pages you will find no fewer than six Facebook share icons, most of which don’t link to Facebook.

Virtual Assistant Freedom offers the standard virtual assistant services, ranging from data entry and transcription, up to copywriting and SEO. Technical jobs like programming are not offered. The prices range from $5.75 per hour to $9.75 per hour depending on what level of skill you require.

You can buy blocks of time in 10 hour weekly increments, but there are price breaks for hiring a full-time employee. The rates are kind of middle of the road for an overseas VA.

When I contacted the company for additional information using the contact form on their site, I did not get a response.

But I would steer clear of this company, and here’s why. They appear to be using fake testimonials.

Take Andrea, for example. You can find her review of “Virtual Assistant Services” here – she never once mentions “Virtual Assistant Freedom.” While Andrea is a paid actor, what’s even worse is you can find her offering up the exact same testimonial (YouTube video has since been deleted) for YourDailyTask, another virtual assistant company!

I’ve done a little homework and as far as I can tell, these two companies are not owned by the same people. Take a look at the other testimonials too, and decide for yourself if they sound real or fake.

Did you know you can get people to record fake video testimonials for you on Fiverr with any script you provide?

Domain registration info:

Fiverr fake testimonial feedback by website owner:

With so many less-deceptive options out there, there’s no reason to take a gamble on these guys for your virtual employee needs. Take a look at all the alternatives in India or the Philippines and make an informed decision. Or contact me if you have any questions.

Have you worked with Virtual Assistant Freedom? If so, please share a quick review of your experience below.

Designer Task

Posted by Mica Harvey / Graphic and Web Design Services

UPDATE: It appears Designer Task is out of business. Please consider one of these alternatives or see below.

DesignerTask.com is a graphic design company with a team of designers all over the globe ready to fulfill single or on-going graphic design requests. The company headquarters are in Miami, FL.

The company started up in the spring of 2016, so they are a relative newcomer to this industry.

About DesignerTask

The company handles one-time design orders such as a logo’s, ebook covers, or design work on an image. They are also happy to handle larger, on-going projects such as designing all the branding for a new company or handling the design work on a website.

The company’s head office is in Miami, FL. They hire their virtual graphic designers all over the world. The company is run by a digital agency called Scale. Their target customers are entrepreneurs or business owners that either lack the necessary design skills to do their own work or just don’t have the time.

Services

You can submit any graphic design task you can think of. Some of their more common requests include:

Ebook covers
Blog post headers
Flyers and posters
Social media graphics
T-shirt designs
Letter heads
And more

There is a 4-part process in place when placing an order.

First, you chose the type of plan you want to sign up for depending on the number of design tasks you will be ordering. Then you submit your request through their website and the jobs will be picked up by their available graphic designers.

Your design is delivered back to you as per the timeframe on your pricing plan. You have the opportunity to check the work and respond with any comments or revisions direct to the designer who completed the work.

When you are happy you click “approve”, then you can submit the next task if you have one.

Plans and Pricing

DesignerTask have three different pricing plans. None of their plans tie you in with contracts so you can cancel at any time, and all their work comes with a 7-day money back guarantee.

Their plans are as follows:

Single Task – This is costed at $29 per task. You have unlimited revisions and a 24-hour turnaround on your order.

Starter – This package costs $249 per month and allows you to make unlimited task requests. You can only have one task open at any time though, and there is a 24-hour turnaround. So, worst case scenario would be one task completed per day.

Premium – This package costs $379 per month. The main difference when compared to the Starter package being you’re able to two tasks open at the same time. You can stack tasks ahead of time however, this ensures you keep a steady flow of work in progress.

Looking at these monthly packages on a daily rate they work out at around $8 and $12 a day respectively. Being able to request two design tasks per 24 hours with the Premium package means you’re paying $6 per task, per day.

DesignerTask Alternatives

For ongoing design work, the two competitors that come to mind are Design Pickle and Undullify. Design Pickle is similarly priced, while Undullify is the more affordable of the “subscription model” options. (Though you won’t necessarily be assigned a dedicated designer on their lower price tier.)

For one-off design tasks, there’s always Fiverr if you can find a solid provider. Otherwise, the crowdsourcing marketplaces like 99designs or DesignCrowd might be worth a look if you’re in need of really high impact, highly visible design.

Your Turn

DesignerTask is one of the newest design companies in the graphic design space. Have you worked with them? If so, please leave a review below to help others with their decision.

Outsource2Africa

Posted by Mica Harvey / Content Writing Services, Virtual Assistant Companies

UPDATE: It appears Outsource2Africa is out of business. Please consider one of these alternatives or see below.

Outsource2Africa is an outsourcing company in Kenya, Africa. They have been in business since January 2013 and provide virtual assistants based in Africa.

They specialize in services such as transcription, online research, data mining, data entry, OCR cleanup and various other day-to-day tasks a business would look to outsource.

About Outsource2Africa

The company was founded by Catherine Muriuki, who serves as CEO. While three years isn’t a long time for a company to be operating, it’s long enough to establish them as a serious and trustworthy player in the African market.

Africa as a continent is growing rapidly when it comes to innovation and technology. It’s still cost effective to outsource tasks, while you can expect highly skilled virtual assistants if the company do their part and find them for you.

When asked what their areas of specialization were, Outsource 2 Africa listed online research, data mining, data entry, transcription, OCR cleanup, and more. This gives the impression they handle more of the administration type tasks rather than specific skill sets such as graphic design, or WordPress support.

For any tasks outside of what they mentioned, I’d recommend contacting them and explaining your exact requirements to see where their skills match up.

Services

The company supplies virtual assistants trained in a wide range of areas to meet the requirements of their clients. Some of the services they advertise are as follows:

Transcription (this seems to be their primary focus)
Data entry
Online research
SEO and writing services
Index scanning

As with most virtual assistant companies communication is a major factor. By providing as much information as possible about your requirements, you can evaluate how well the company is able to match you with a virtual assistant.

Plans and Pricing

Outsource2africa does not offer any set pricing plans and only provides quotes upon request.

This is unusual for a virtual assistant company, but gives you the opportunity to open dialogue with them and request a custom quote for the work you want to outsource.

For transcription, I reached out and asked about their rates and they provided the following information:

If you need 24 hours turnaround time – $1/min or $60/ audio hour
2-3 business days turnaround time (48- 72 hours) – $0.92/min or $55/AH
4-5 business days (96-120 hours) – $0.83/min or $50/AH
No rush: over 5 business days – $0.75/min or $45/AH

They do offer a short free trial where you can have the first 4 minutes of an audio file transcribed. This is a good way to test their services and see how promptly they turn your work around, even if it’s a bit tedious to reduce a podcast (for example) to only the first few minutes to upload into their trial system.

Outsource2Africa Alternatives

The virtual assistant market in Africa is still growing. Pixels-VA is the only other company I’m aware of at the moment, though you’ll be able to find transcription and admin support services worldwide.

One of the best-known transcription services is Rev.com ($1 per audio minute), and as far as other virtual assistant companies go, you might consider TaskBullet or Uassist.ME.

Your Turn

Have you worked with Outsource2Africa? If so please leave a review below to help others with their decision.

Replace Myself

Posted by Mica Harvey / Virtual Assistant Resources

UPDATE: Replace Myself is now a dead site and has transferred to OnlineJobs.ph. Please check our their page here.

Replace Myself is an online resource dedicated to simplifying matters for Internet businesses to help them reach their fullest potential. A company with a unique offer to overworked business owners, Replace Myself may be the answer some have been searching for.

About Replace Myself

The founders of Replace Myself, John and Dan, work together with a dedicated team of Filipino virtual assistants and virtual employees.

(John is also the guy behind the popular jobs board, OnlineJobs.ph.)

They developed their company because they themselves were suffering from more work than the two of them could realistically handle. They then attempted to outsource work to others but were stumped with trying to find reliable, dedicated people.

After trying working with individuals in both India and the U.S., John and Dan found that Filipinos were a committed, diligent, and talented people group. They delivered satisfactory and high quality results every time, completing projects and allowing John and Dan’s company to run smoothly. From this experience, the two created ReplaceMyself.com to help others enjoy the benefits of outsourcing.

Services

Replace Myself primarily offers outsourcing training that teaches businesses how to search for and find the right Filipinos to work for them.

The course teaches customers where and where not to search for virtual assistants, what to pay, how to pay, how to communicate, how to hire qualified individuals, and things to avoid.

They also give important tips on how to best outsource business, as well as what to do during business downtime. All this is available to anyone who visits the website. The free training tools are detailed and valuable for business owners who want to free up more of their time, but Replace Myself makes money through their paid membership program.

Plans and Pricing

Membership costs $97 a month (or $997 a year), and subscribers receive exclusive advice on tools to use, tax issues, two full days of seminars, access to an effective project management system, keyword training, and additional tips and tricks. In addition, members will receive Replace Myself’s training modules to give their Filipino employees once hired.

This saves time and effort a business owner would otherwise have to personally invest in training new workers. Essentially, ReplaceMyself.com shows the Internet business owner how to successfully outsource business, taking him through every step of the way and covering all possible scenarios.

Membership includes free access to OnlineJobs.ph (regularly $69/mo on its own).

Replace Myself allows Internet businesses to successfully outsource work in three simple steps. ReplaceMyself.com will teach the business owner how to:

Hire reliable workers.
Give your VA(s) comprehensive training so they can get started.
Follow up with Filipinos and assign more work.

The end goal is literally to “replace yourself” with an efficient, low cost virtual assistant overseas.

I’ve heard from some members the promises of $250 a month for a full time worker may not be realistic anymore, but around $400 can still net a qualified and productive virtual employee. Some members swear by the value provided in Replace Myself’s ongoing membership, while others recommend canceling right after they find their VAs. It really depends on your comfort level with managing employees from a long distance.

Your Turn

If you’ve had any experience with Replace Myself, please share it below.

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