Great Assistant finds, trains, and matches you up with a US-based virtual assistant to help handle some of your day-to-day business tasks.
The program was founded in December 2015, their head office is located in Alberta, Canada, while their assistants work remotely from North America and Canada.
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About Great Assistant
The Great Assistant program is run by Tim Francis, founder of the Profit Factory. The Profit Factory have a range of services for full-time entrepreneurs who are seeking to work smarter in their businesses using tools like 80/20, Scrum, Systems, and Kobe.
In 2015, Tim started Great Assistant to help match up entrepreneurs with dedicated US-based virtual assistants. He identified three ‘‘major pitfalls’’ entrepreneurs often fall into when hiring and working with virtual assistants:
- hiring the wrong assistants
- poor or non-existent on-board training
- poor or non-existent delegation
Great Assistant aims to address those issues head on.
For example, the company has a vigilant vetting process for both clients and assistants to ensure they are making the best match based on an informed decision.
They know finding a great hire isn’t as simple as typing your requirements into a web form. To find the best matched assistant they ask clients to complete 4 hours or so of work, as well as taking part in 4 hours of meetings.
Services
There is a one-off Match fee (currently $3500) payable when you first sign up for an assistant. This fee covers all the costs incurred in finding and vetting your assistant, namely:
- Advertising
- Screening
- Work-testing
- Kolbe-matching
- Interviewing
- Basic training
Once they have found you an assistant and you start your working relationship there is a monthly fee which covers:
- Ongoing training
- Access to ongoing tutorials and new tools
- Private mastermind access
You can chat with Tim twice a week too as part of the membership fee.
The interview process is your chance to highlight all the skills, tools, apps, and areas you need your assistant to be proficient in.
Plans and Pricing
There is a one-time match fee of $3,500. This covers all the fees included in finding and preparing a virtual assistant as covered above.
The hourly rate of their assistants is $15-20/hour, but this is to be confirmed on an individual basis. After you make the hire, you’ll pay your assistant directly.
There is also an ongoing $95/month membership fee to cover the ongoing costs of training your assistant. This fee also allows you access to all the training materials, the support team at Profit Factory, and gives you some one-on-one time with Tim.
You can cancel the membership fee at any time if you feel although you’re not getting enough value from the training and services it unlocks.
Their assistants come with a 90-day guarantee. If you’re unhappy after 90 days and don’t think the working relationship is working out, Great Assistant will find you a new assistant.
Great Assistant Alternatives
For a dedicated US-based assistant without the multi-thousand dollar upfront recruiting fee, you might consider Time Etc or Boldly. The hourly rates are slightly higher than Great Assistant’s, but they also promise a similarly rigorous recruiting process.
Your Turn
Have you hired an assistant from Great Assistant? If so, please leave a short review below to help others with their decision.
I have worked with Great Assistant for the past decade. Over that time, I have hire 4 staff. I cannot say enough good things about the people that Great Assistant matched me with. 3 were great and 1 was exceptional, a unicorn. She ended up going back to work with her husband and 4Xing their family business after working a year with me. If you are crystal clear in the traits and skills that you need, I am confident that Great Assistant can find you the right person.
Great Assistant has been a life saver for me. I tried hiring an assistant on my own, with little success. I picked the wrong tasks to delegate, and ended up spending more time training than what I got in return.
Working with GA was amazing. They helped me choose the right tasks to delegate so that my new assistant could take the right things off my plate right away.
They also gave me some great tools to use (like 360 delegation) that help me to pass off one time tasks. Highly recommended
I tried the Great Assistant after being referred by someone who did have success with them.
The reality is if you don’t have very simple work (almost to the point that well-trained computer could do it), the assistants that these people find you won’t be of any use.
The training is all front end, once you have an assistant you get basically no support, mostly just a good luck.
The folks you get are mostly work from home moms with young kids. They are routinely distracted and interrupted.
I wouldn’t recommend them unless you have very simple work that a trained computer could do — really just receptionist type work. And if your work is that simple, you don’t need an expensive program.