Virtual Freedom. Chris C. Ducker

in Polish communities in Chicago and New York. An early entrepreneur, Tom co-owned a clothing/record store when he was just sixteen years old. Though it didn’t bring in the big bucks, it did whet his appetite for business.

      His journey into digital entrepreneurship began when he started creating AdSense sites. It only took him a couple of weeks to figure out the basics of web design before he was up and running. That’s when the real work began.

      Tom quickly found himself swamped with the tasks involved in keeping such an operation afloat. Between keyword research, backlinking, and writing 500-word articles on random topics like train models and Christmas lights, Tom’s days quickly turned into a nonstop grind. His schedule was seriously threatening his sanity and causing him to resent his work. Unable to keep working at such a demanding pace, he realized LibeltySEO.com needed help.

       Why Virtual Staffing?

      While researching solutions for his productivity problem, Tom remembered a business forum that related the details of outsourcing and VA use. One participant in particular kept raving about his staff in the Philippines-how great they were to work with and how they were running his empire while he had all the time in the world. This piqued Tom’s interest. He realized that if he could reclaim even a fraction of his time, it would make a huge impact in the way his business functioned.

       Tom’s Hurdles

      When starting out, Tom had no idea what type of average salary a VA should receive. Though he remembers seriously low-balling offers to his potential VAs, he surprisingly still attracted some interest.

      His first few hires produced questionable work at best, but Tom was so tired and burnt out from doing everything himself that he was just happy to have someone—anyone—showing interest in collaborating with him. He figured he could always go back and edit their work.

      Tom hired three people during the first three months of his new venture and quickly realized that outsourcing can actually create more work if a business owner isn’t careful. In addition to his managerial position, Tom now had to edit and post all of the work his VAs did. And that’s when the next obstacle surfaced—turnover.

      As soon as a VA began working with Tom and producing content, it only took a couple weeks before he or she began missing deadlines or going completely AWOL. Not only was this pattern frustrating, but also the effort it took to replace the VAs was incredibly time consuming.

      The initial plan looked something like this: