1. Have you considered Upwork? They also handle taxation.
2. The Indian English literacy rate seems to be fine, though the quality is typically far below what I can do myself for basic tasks. I've heard similarly with Eastern Europeans, though I don't have firsthand experience. Is there a noticeable difference with the quality of work from Filipino hires with equal pay? Excellent point on preferring Filipinos to aid their economic development btw, I'd like to see more of Southeast Asia's culture on the global stage.
3. Are you able to handle VAs while protecting your anon identity?
1. My understanding was that Upwork is mainly used for people to complete short term projects and not full time workers. That being said, I mainly use onlinejobs because that's what most successful Amazon sellers do and I have no reason to stray away from what works.
Taxation also isn't a concern because the VAs are technically independent contractors and ICs in the Philippines are required to handle their own taxes.
2. I think the biggest impact on their performance is how you train them. In the context of sourcing items for arbitrage, the process is very simple and it becomes more about the VA's ability to analyze the items they find. If you're able to instruct them on what you want and what to look out for, they'll do good work - I haven't noticed a very large disparity on my end.
Many sellers will also incentivize their VAs by paying them bonuses, such as 10% of the profits from all items they find. I'm not quite at this level yet so I just throw out a couple of $50 bonuses to my VAs here and there which keeps them motivated.
3. I would say it's possible, but not convenient.
One roadblock to this is that you have to give your VAs limited access to your Amazon Seller Central account, which requires you to use your real name (or maybe just the name on your business entity, not completely sure on this). Only way to take the name off your storefront is if your business entity is an actual corporation (can't be single member LLC - not sure what else can be done as this is not my expertise).
Another thing that makes it awkward is that Filipinos are very social people and like to get to know their coworkers / bosses. I imagine you could find some people who wouldn't mind working for an anon but I can't say that just anyone would be on board.
I ultimately decided to not be anon with my VAs and it's been a positive experience so far - they're very kind people and I do my best to accommodate them when necessary. I realize there is a potential for this to bite me in the ass later but the return I've gotten on them so far has accelerated the growth of my business.
Good post.
1. Have you considered Upwork? They also handle taxation.
2. The Indian English literacy rate seems to be fine, though the quality is typically far below what I can do myself for basic tasks. I've heard similarly with Eastern Europeans, though I don't have firsthand experience. Is there a noticeable difference with the quality of work from Filipino hires with equal pay? Excellent point on preferring Filipinos to aid their economic development btw, I'd like to see more of Southeast Asia's culture on the global stage.
3. Are you able to handle VAs while protecting your anon identity?
Cheers.
1. My understanding was that Upwork is mainly used for people to complete short term projects and not full time workers. That being said, I mainly use onlinejobs because that's what most successful Amazon sellers do and I have no reason to stray away from what works.
Taxation also isn't a concern because the VAs are technically independent contractors and ICs in the Philippines are required to handle their own taxes.
2. I think the biggest impact on their performance is how you train them. In the context of sourcing items for arbitrage, the process is very simple and it becomes more about the VA's ability to analyze the items they find. If you're able to instruct them on what you want and what to look out for, they'll do good work - I haven't noticed a very large disparity on my end.
Many sellers will also incentivize their VAs by paying them bonuses, such as 10% of the profits from all items they find. I'm not quite at this level yet so I just throw out a couple of $50 bonuses to my VAs here and there which keeps them motivated.
3. I would say it's possible, but not convenient.
One roadblock to this is that you have to give your VAs limited access to your Amazon Seller Central account, which requires you to use your real name (or maybe just the name on your business entity, not completely sure on this). Only way to take the name off your storefront is if your business entity is an actual corporation (can't be single member LLC - not sure what else can be done as this is not my expertise).
Another thing that makes it awkward is that Filipinos are very social people and like to get to know their coworkers / bosses. I imagine you could find some people who wouldn't mind working for an anon but I can't say that just anyone would be on board.
I ultimately decided to not be anon with my VAs and it's been a positive experience so far - they're very kind people and I do my best to accommodate them when necessary. I realize there is a potential for this to bite me in the ass later but the return I've gotten on them so far has accelerated the growth of my business.