IconAssist

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

UPDATE: It appears IconAssist is out of business. Please consider one of these alternatives or see below. If you own this listing or this information is incorrect, contact me here.

IconAssist Services is an Indian-based virtual assistant company. The company is headed up by two individuals more than 10-years experience in the outsourcing industry and they have been in business since 2015.

Their head offices are in Coimbatore, India, and they also have a sales office in Bangalore. Being based in India they are able to offer competitive rates, and their assistants provide support across a wide range of industries.

About IconAssist

IconAssist is a professional virtual assistant company based in India. They provide virtual assistants and offer a wide range of skills to help you outsource some of those time-consuming tasks within your business.
Their company directive is to “bring excellence in everything that we do”. They say they have experience supporting businesses of all sizes and across a wide range of industries.

All of the assistants working for IconoAssist.com (not a typo; was IconAssist.com taken?) have been through multiple screening processes. They go through general general analytics tests, as well as written and spoken English tests to ensure the communication between client and assistant will be fluid.

When you sign up you will be assigned an assistant based on the skills and experience you need to complete your tasks. They don’t go into much detail about their assistants and pricing on their site, you need to contact them directly to discuss your individual requirements.

Services

IconAssist’s virtual assistants provide support for a wide range of tasks. They group their skillsets into six areas, and while this is not an exhaustive list of their services it gives you an idea of some areas they specialize in:

  • Administrative Services – Email management, calendar management, personal assistant duties.
  • Data Entry Services – OCR services, data extraction, data input.
  • Data Mining Services – Database building, LinkedIn contact searching, social media data mining, email list mining.
  • eCommerce Processing – Product data entry, image editing, storefront management, order processing, inventory management.
  • Remote IT and Server Support – Mail support, web hosting support, IT support.
  • SharePoint Admin Services – Installation of SharePoint collaboration and content, SharePoint support.

They company lists back-office operation for small and medium businesses, lead generation, eCommerce order management, and image editing as their areas of specialization.

How Icon Assist Works

This flow chart shows how the Icon Assist process works, starting with your project requirements and seeing the task through to completion.

Plans and Pricing

What’s frustrating is that IconAssist does not currently offer any publicly available monthly plans or packages, neither do they have any flat hourly rates set. I was surprised to not even see a ballpark range of pricing on their site, and when I asked their team how much it costs, all I got back was this not-helpful chart:

To get a quote and discuss how their assistants can help you and your business you need to contact them directly to obtain an individual quote.

IconAssist Alternatives

Among other VA companies in India, AskSunday and My Tasker offer similar services and may be worth a look.

When asked what separates them from their competitors, IconAssist say their, “transparent process, innovative and customer driven approach, well-aligned processes, people and infrastructure to provide everything that our clients need, and on time.”

With no shortage of highly rated virtual assistant companies based in India it makes sense to get quotes from more than one before making a decision.

Your Turn

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

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Contentmart

Posted by Mica Harvey / Content Writing Services

UPDATE: It appears Contentmart is out of business. Please consider one of these alternatives or see below. If you own this listing or this information is incorrect, contact me here.

Contentmart is a content-writing marketplace where you can connect with thousands of writers across the globe and order content for your blog or website. The company has been in operation since 2015, and their head office is based in India.

About Contentmart

Read Contentmart ReviewThe company was founded by Anton Rublevskyy in 2015, they have a team of more than 50 staff and offices in both Kiev, Ukraine, and Gurugram, India.

Their writers are freelance and work remotely from anywhere in the world. They have thousands of writers in their database to choose from when ordering content, and you can browse their profiles to find a writer that you think will match up well with what you’re looking for.

Services

Their writers will take on any type of content writing. When using content writing services it’s often not a case of the type of content you want, it’s the quality of the content that you need to consider when choosing a writer and a price. We all want the best possible value, but realistically the more you pay the higher quality the work you will receive back.

It usually takes a few orders to find someone that you connect well with and like their style of writing when using a new content platform. However, if you find a writer you’re happy with you can request them when you order more content and develop a working relationship.

When working with a writer Contentmart also assigns a dedicated account manager to oversee your order and help with any questions you may have. They also manage the writers on their side to ensure they are meeting deadlines and supporting them.

All their articles are checked for plagiarism to protect you from duplicate/copied content, and their writers have access to Grammarly to help them correct grammatical errors.

Plans and Pricing

Contentmart start with prices as low as $0.006 a word. As with most writing services however this is to hire less experienced writers and you have to expect to make some edits yourself when you receive the content.

If you want articles that require less editing you are better off using one of their more expensive plans. Here are the four pricing plans they have:

  • Standard – $0.006/word ($3 for 500 words)
  • Experienced – $0.01/word ($5 for 500 words)
  • Verified – $0.03/word ($15 for 500 words)
  • Hand Picked – $0.07/word ($35 for 500 words)

Contentmart Pricing

The difference between their least and most expensive options is huge. A 1,000-word article from their Standard plan will cost you just $6, while it will cost you $70 from their Hand Picked plan.

Virtual Assistant Assistant Special: Use coupon code AFFL10 for a free $10 credit!

Contentmart Alternatives

HireWriters is a similar service I’ve used in the past for one-off articles, and if you have ongoing content needs, you might consider Copywriter Today.

Your Turn

Have you ordered content from Contentmart? If so, please share a quick review of your experience below to help others with their decision.

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Habiliss

Posted by Mica Harvey / Virtual Assistant Companies

UPDATE: It looks like Habiliss may be shut down as of June 2018. They’ve “gone dark” and social media and have been unresponsive to customer requests. Please consider one of these alternatives or see below. If you own this listing or this information is incorrect, contact me here.

Habiliss (formerly Habilis or iHabilis) is a virtual assistant service and online lifestyle manager that offers to aid busy professionals and business owners. The company is based in Chennai, India, and primarily serves customers in the US and the UK.

Customers interact with their virtual assistance via telephone, Internet, and/or email. The service is capable of handling both your personal and business needs. Clients who have used the service have expressed their appreciation for its ease of use, timeliness of response and value. A free trial is available at their website.

Services

habiliss reviewThe site offers services for both business and personal clients. For entrepreneurs, a Habiliss virtual assistant can help produce quality presentations, discover new sales leads, and execute web research.

With an hourly plan, you can train your dedicated virtual assistant to track emails or work in your business in whatever ongoing basis you need. By outsourcing daily tasks you can free up valuable time for a relatively small price.

Habiliss Intro Video

Plans and Pricing

The dedicated assistance plans start at 40 hours a month for $350, which is $8.75 an hour with no additional overhead expenses or taxes to pay. An 80-hour a month half-time VA is $600, and a full time dedicated virtual assistant is only $1000 – a full time virtual employee for just $6.25 an hour!

habiliss pricing

For personal users, Habiliss offers a range of task-based plans. These are best suited for small one-time projects like ordering groceries, booking restaurant reservations or providing wake-up calls. Personal services can also assist with time management, perform online research, help with keeping appointments, and tracking important dates.

The task-based plans start at just $10 which covers your first 5 tasks. If you have a lot of small tasks to get done, you can realize some savings by buying a larger package. Habilis sells a 30-task plan for $50, or just $1.66 per task.

If you want to try out their services, a limited free trial is at Habiliss.com. Aside from your subscription plan, there are no start-up costs when signing up. To cancel using this virtual assistant service, simply call, email or unsubscribe utilizing the portal provided before the next billing cycle is initiated.

Habiliss Alternatives

Their task-based plans are comparable to Efficise and slightly more affordable than a US-based service like Fancy Hands, while their dedicated VA service is priced similarly to other outsourcing services like MyTasker.

Habiliss has received positive accolades from Good Morning America and the Wall Street Journal. Good Morning America found the company to have the fastest response times of the virtual assistant services they tested, which included Red Butler and AskSunday, but found the quality of the work a little lacking.

Have you worked with Habiliss? If so, please share your experience below!

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GhostBloggers

Posted by Mica Harvey / Content Writing Services

UPDATE: It appears GhostBloggers is out of business. Please see below for alternative content writing services.

GhostBloggers is a content marketplace where you can buy quality written content on any topic for your website, blog, ebooks, or whatever else you need material for.

The company was founded in 2010 and is based out of San Francisco, though their growing nework of more than 4000 writers works virtually throughout the country. They specialize in ghostwriting from US-based, native English-speaking writers.

About GhostBloggers

ghostbloggers reviewMost customers of Ghostbloggers.net are start-ups with blogs and content marketers with deadlines, a high volume of content needs, and no in-house writers on staff.

The company aims to make the content workflow easier for businesses by connecting them with writers that can deliver the highest quality of content possible.

As quality written content has become more and more important for SEO, it’s also become an important entry-point for new customers to discover your brand and help spread your message virally on social media.

GhostBloggers Intro Video

GhostBloggers Services

There are two primary services:

  1. The content marketplace.
  2. Writing on-demand.

With the content marketplace, you can search for unique, pre-written articles on the topics or keywords you need, buy them outright, and plug them immediately into your website or blog.

Because Ghostbloggers marketplace writers are invited to write about the topics they are personally interested in and passionate about, rather than having to research a topic that’s boring or foreign to them, the quality is presumably higher and has better “voice” than you might find at other content sources.

All articles are proofread before they hit the marketplace.

If you can’t find what you’re looking for amongst the pre-written content, you can submit an article request and have a qualified writer create your content from scratch.

Buyers can also elect to receive notifications of relevant new articles that are added to the collection that might fit their needs based on order history, keywords, and subject matter.

Plans and Pricing

The price of each article is based on the total word count, and the standard rate is $3.50 per 100 words. At that rate, a typical 550 word blog post costs $19.25.

Writers are free to adjust their prices higher or lower based on how long it took them to create each article and its presumed quality.

These rates a higher than you’ll find at some other writing services, but they’re not unreasonable for pre-proofread content written by native English speakers.

GhostBloggers Alternatives

There is certainly no shortage of options when it comes to finding outsourced content writing. If you have enough work to justify it, you might consider hiring a freelance writing virtual assistant on an ongoing basis.

Otherwise, you might take a look at Copywriter Today, HireWriters, Scripted, EpicWrite and others. Of those, I feel like only Scripted attempts to match the “premium” positioning of Ghostbloggers.

Have you purchased content from Ghostbloggers.net? What did you think? Please share a quick review of your experience below to help others with their decision.

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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 reviewVirtual 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-:

virtual helper 247 pricing

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.

virtual helper 247 special pricing

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.

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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

exicon assistant reviewThe 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).

exicon assistant pricing

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.

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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).

bpovia reviewCurrently 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.

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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:

  1. Test It – $49 ($6.10 / hour) – A one-time 8-hour bundle.
  2. Part-Time – $369 ($4.60 / hour) – Half-time 80 hours per month.
  3. 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.

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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.

virtual assistant staffing reviewBut 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.

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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

my secret staff reviewThese 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.

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