Documenting my journey: Outsourcing & Staffing Company

[Nayan Naik]

Its been a while since I have posted in the Fastlane forum, a lot of changes have happened over the years. Got married, blessed with a beautiful baby girl, paid off mortgage debt, launched a outsourcing and staffing solution providing high caliber Virtual Assistants.
Starting this thread to :

• Document my journey to $1mil in revenue by end of 2022
• want someone on my thread here to hold me accountable to it.
• Get insights and advice from this great community to

I will try to post 1-2 times a week (Saturday & Wednesdays hopefully)

Currently State:

• Been in Outsourcing business for close to 1.5 years
• USP: We help business coaches/consultants find, train, onboard and manage high caliber domain trained virtual assistants based on their custom requirements. So they can focus on revenue generating activities. We also provide a lifetime guarantee on replacing the VA's within 48hrs if they quit
• ~Lower 6 figure revenue
• Team of 5 people and 200+ contractors bench
• ~15 Appointments per week and 1-2 deal closes a week
• Marketing Channels: Outbound Outreach ; Facebook Ads
• Target Audience : Business Coaches and Consultant
• The Facebook channel is not working out, Negative ROI. Only outbound outreach seems to be working

What's working well:

• Generated demand despite of competition
• Great team motivated, they believe in my vision
• Clear customer avatar and product market fit
• Generating a good buzz in the target market
• My drive to succeed no matter what
• Have a office with a strength of 200+ contractors ready to be deployed

Pain points

• Not enough quality appointments
• Current sales conversion rate r
• Average time to sign agreement
• Limiting belief (sometimes I doubt myself,
• Need a high ticket offer that I can offer rather than an hourly VA
• Churn rate is high client leaves every & unpaid invoices by clients

Goals for Q2 and Rest of the year

1. Get at least 25 appointments a week
2. Close 5 deals a week (In progress)
3. Get at least 5 partnership deals to get other peoples audience (in progress)
4. Upsell at least 3 clients a month into our software solution (1/3 complete)
5. Automate & Optimize fulfillment process (completed)

Goals for the rest of the year:

1. Build a premium offer of atleast 8k+ ticket size to sell to our clients (tbd)
2. Partner with corporates, influencers, masterclasses to provide Virtual Assistant in BULK
3. Get to $1M+ in revenue by end of 2022
4. Quit my day job by Q3
5. Setup base and offer bonus/employee benefits

Vision: Impact a Billion Lives- serve atleast 100,000 coaches/consultants with 100,000 virtual assistants helping save $$ for businesses and offer a higher quality of life to our virtual assistant employees

@Black_Dragon43 ; @Speed112 ; @Woosah

Regards,
Nayan

 

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[adambowers1]

Its been a while since I have posted in the Fastlane forum, a lot of changes have happened over the years. Got married, blessed with a beautiful baby girl, paid off mortgage debt, launched a outsourcing and staffing solution providing high caliber Virtual Assistants.
Starting this thread to :

• Document my journey to $1mil in revenue by end of 2022
• want someone on my thread here to hold me accountable to it.
• Get insights and advice from this great community to

I will try to post 1-2 times a week (Saturday & Wednesdays hopefully)

Currently State:

• Been in Outsourcing business for close to 1.5 years
• USP: We help business coaches/consultants find, train, onboard and manage high caliber domain trained virtual assistants based on their custom requirements. So they can focus on revenue generating activities. We also provide a lifetime guarantee on replacing the VA's within 48hrs if they quit
• ~Lower 6 figure revenue
• Team of 5 people and 200+ contractors bench
• ~15 Appointments per week and 1-2 deal closes a week
• Marketing Channels: Outbound Outreach ; Facebook Ads
• Target Audience : Business Coaches and Consultant
• The Facebook channel is not working out, Negative ROI. Only outbound outreach seems to be working

What's working well:

• Generated demand despite of competition
• Great team motivated, they believe in my vision
• Clear customer avatar and product market fit
• Generating a good buzz in the target market
• My drive to succeed no matter what
• Have a office with a strength of 200+ contractors ready to be deployed

Pain points

• Not enough quality appointments
• Current sales conversion rate r
• Average time to sign agreement
• Limiting belief (sometimes I doubt myself,
• Need a high ticket offer that I can offer rather than an hourly VA
• Churn rate is high client leaves every & unpaid invoices by clients

Goals for Q2 and Rest of the year

1. Get at least 25 appointments a week
2. Close 5 deals a week (In progress)
3. Get at least 5 partnership deals to get other peoples audience (in progress)
4. Upsell at least 3 clients a month into our software solution (1/3 complete)
5. Automate & Optimize fulfillment process (completed)

Goals for the rest of the year:

1. Build a premium offer of atleast 8k+ ticket size to sell to our clients (tbd)
2. Partner with corporates, influencers, masterclasses to provide Virtual Assistant in BULK
3. Get to $1M+ in revenue by end of 2022
4. Quit my day job by Q3
5. Setup base and offer bonus/employee benefits

Vision: Impact a Billion Lives- serve atleast 100,000 coaches/consultants with 100,000 virtual assistants helping save $$ for businesses and offer a higher quality of life to our virtual assistant employees

@Black_Dragon43 ; @Speed112 ; @Woosah

Regards,
Nayan

You seem very determined to achieve your goals and I'm sure that will lead you to success. I am in the trucking/freight industry and looking to buy own semi-truck soon. When the time comes, it would be cool to hire one of your VA's as a dispatch service if that could be done. Either way, best of luck to you in your entrepreneurial journey!

 

[Nayan Naik]

You seem very determined to achieve your goals and I'm sure that will lead you to success. I am in the trucking/freight industry and looking to buy own semi-truck soon. When the time comes, it would be cool to hire one of your VA's as a dispatch service if that could be done. Either way, best of luck to you in your entrepreneurial journey!

Definitely Adam! All the best to you. I sure hope we can partner together in the future

 

[adambowers1]

Definitely Adam! All the best to you. I sure hope we can partner together in the future

Thank you! I'll do my best to update the forum as I go. Right now, I am new to the industry and just getting experience at a job, but no doubt in my mind I will accomplish what I set out to do (starting a trucking company).

The beauty I see in your VA's is the potential for versatility and different functions. Of course, I'm not telling you how to run your business, just thinking aloud!

 

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[Nayan Naik]

@Black_Dragon43 ; @Speed112 ; @Woosah - Thank you for your feedback on the Marketing underground Mafia group. Absolute gold! I have put together a rough outline of the pointers and will be following up with an Action plan & Follow-up question for each

FB Ads negative ROI
- FB ads usually has lower conversion with coaches. Use it for just building the brand
- Direct message will get most result often
- Build credibility first with Business coaches

Automation:
- Build automations so your VA's on respond they don't spend time sending manual connections
- NN Response: Yes we have automation for LinkedIn outreach but for FB and Instagram is manual .. For LinkedIn automation we use Expandi ... For prospecting we use sales navigator in LinkedIn and FB is not automated ... My team manually send friend request
- Lead gen and all need to happen in autopilot
- Get a pro copywriter and see outreach campaign - that will make biggest difference. NN: Nayan to share the outreach scripts

Painpoints :
- Why is client leaving early why ? Whats making them leave, Ask them what they dont like - The VA's provide... Expectation is differences
- Or with delivery services and get rid of it - better training for VA's ... Setting clear expectation ... Through onboarding process
- Lot of coaches have no clue on how to manage a VA ... Lead magnet - Do you have them ? How they should manage ? That can be useful

Unpaid invoices:
- Hourly business model: Why hourly?
- Setup subscription - rarely a problem
- Pricing based on Task?

High Quality Offer
- Packages, higher ticket... Includes Education ... How you get most out of the VA
- Implement the training - both education and VA business
- Training and education company
- 8k may be too large, you have to justify the cost

Limiting Belief :
- Why, don't be too hard on yourself :Be happy with your achievement .. followup comments
- take action
- get clear on limiting thoughts


Length of sales cycle:
- more information: need more information : NN: currently its at
- More conversation rate:
Have a clear script and a framework ; Have a main goal defined & also have secondary goal defined ... Followup question (
Its going to be key... Conversion rate is too small , should be able to convert 1 of 22 people we spreak with
Why: They dont have the money then people who dont have money
Have enough time who spend

Less closes:
Your sales script not strong enough - they are ... First thing to ask : Why are they there? Just kick them out if they.. Curious at what they are the best sales people are have the best script .... Small open chit chat -> investigation is to get permisssion to ask the questions (Series of questions: Why are they there, investigate problem that VA can help solve; Seriouness of problem - make aware of more potential problems ... what would change if a VA would can solve X problem..)-> Then introduce offer, would you like to hear : Advantages and interms of needs
Every call have a sales goal- the goal for this call is understand their current state and how our VA's help
Objection - how about we second call if they dont followup goal .... Can we get back from


Quality Leads:
build funnel, attract the right folks
Have a survey if they have a top of the funnel
Questions about prolems to narrow them down
Scale Outreach ->
Media Appearences -> Booking on podcasts ...
Write content that coaches read
Position yourselves as authority
Inbound leads will be easier appointment
Look for center of influence ... Strike deals with them
Training buisness or Certification for coaches -> Pitch VA services to them

 

[Nayan Naik]

@Black_Dragon43 ; @Speed112 ; @Woosah - Thank you for your feedback on the Marketing underground Mafia group. Absolute gold! I have put together a rough outline of the pointers and will be following up with an Action plan & Follow-up question for each

FB Ads negative ROI
- FB ads usually has lower conversion with coaches. Use it for just building the brand
- Direct message will get most result often
- Build credibility first with Business coaches

Automation:
- Build automations so your VA's on respond they don't spend time sending manual connections
- NN Response: Yes we have automation for LinkedIn outreach but for FB and Instagram is manual .. For LinkedIn automation we use Expandi ... For prospecting we use sales navigator in LinkedIn and FB is not automated ... My team manually send friend request
- Lead gen and all need to happen in autopilot
- Get a pro copywriter and see outreach campaign - that will make biggest difference. NN: Nayan to share the outreach scripts

Painpoints :
- Why is client leaving early why ? Whats making them leave, Ask them what they dont like - The VA's provide... Expectation is differences
- Or with delivery services and get rid of it - better training for VA's ... Setting clear expectation ... Through onboarding process
- Lot of coaches have no clue on how to manage a VA ... Lead magnet - Do you have them ? How they should manage ? That can be useful

Unpaid invoices:
- Hourly business model: Why hourly?
- Setup subscription - rarely a problem
- Pricing based on Task?

High Quality Offer
- Packages, higher ticket... Includes Education ... How you get most out of the VA
- Implement the training - both education and VA business
- Training and education company
- 8k may be too large, you have to justify the cost

Limiting Belief :
- Why, don't be too hard on yourself :Be happy with your achievement .. followup comments
- take action
- get clear on limiting thoughts


Length of sales cycle:
- more information: need more information : NN: currently its at
- More conversation rate:
Have a clear script and a framework ; Have a main goal defined & also have secondary goal defined ... Followup question (
Its going to be key... Conversion rate is too small , should be able to convert 1 of 22 people we spreak with
Why: They dont have the money then people who dont have money
Have enough time who spend

Less closes:
Your sales script not strong enough - they are ... First thing to ask : Why are they there? Just kick them out if they.. Curious at what they are the best sales people are have the best script .... Small open chit chat -> investigation is to get permisssion to ask the questions (Series of questions: Why are they there, investigate problem that VA can help solve; Seriouness of problem - make aware of more potential problems ... what would change if a VA would can solve X problem..)-> Then introduce offer, would you like to hear : Advantages and interms of needs
Every call have a sales goal- the goal for this call is understand their current state and how our VA's help
Objection - how about we second call if they dont followup goal .... Can we get back from


Quality Leads:
build funnel, attract the right folks
Have a survey if they have a top of the funnel
Questions about prolems to narrow them down
Scale Outreach ->
Media Appearences -> Booking on podcasts ...
Write content that coaches read
Position yourselves as authority
Inbound leads will be easier appointment
Look for center of influence ... Strike deals with them
Training business or Certification for coaches -> Pitch VA services to them

As promised following up on action items from yesterday

• Not enough quality appointments
• Current sales conversion rate
• Average time to sign agreement
• Limiting belief (sometimes I doubt myself)
• Need a high ticket offer that I can offer rather than an hourly VA
• Churn rate is high client leaves every & unpaid invoices by clients

Action Items on pain point feedback:

• Not enough quality appointments

Automation Outbound:
Feedback: LinkedIn automation in place (using expandi) .

NN: Setup a Facebook automation by Friday end of week​

Feedback: Share outbound outreach script and have an experienced copywriter review it

NN: here are current scripts used for : Airtable | Everyone's app platform​

Feedback: Setup survey scripts that eliminates

NN: I am afraid with that our volume will go down , because today the outbound guys just go to the inbox and message them. Especially for people who are posting about they needing VAs. I will apply​

Feedback: Do media appearances to get better inbound lead. Will be easier to convert

NN: I am already executing on this and is part of the upcoming activities. Will be posting updates on this.​

• Current sales conversion rate

Feedback: Structure your feedback and follow and qualify them

NN: Attached updated sales script​

Pricing: have a monthly pricing SaaS

NN: this is something we are working towards. by end of this week will have something together​

• Average time to sign agreement

Feedback: What is the average time taken to sign?

NN: usually from the time taken for a prospect from the time he says yes on the sales call and signing the agreement is usually 3 weeks. We just have a one call sales cycle, the team then keeps chasing and following up​

NN: i have also changed the script to setup a followup call on the date they promised they will sign​

• Need a high ticket offer that I can offer rather than an hourly VA

Feedback: Usually an 8k offer is justified for sales and marketing. You guys think of adding a media component to integrate to increase and justify Value

NN: I agree, we have a media component on how the business coaches can establish their authority. Will have to refine it​

NN: I was also thinking of a yearly package for a specific setup of function. We have a DFY content creation service that I am targeting to have a yearly package. Please see the video package created, see my VSL here: MYVA- Marketing Activities .. I see there is initial interest for this.​

​

• Churn rate is high client leaves every & unpaid invoices by clients

Feedback: Find out why they are leaving; Is it an expectation setting problem or a VA expertise problem​

NN: Out of the folks that have left, mostly its a client expectation problem especially for the appointment setter VA's that we provide. I think we over promised, for example we promised the client we will set 5 appointments a week, and the VA was not able to deliver wither because the clients didn't have an asset/offer/profile that resonated with the client. Then in some instance it was also the VA not being proactive and getting things setup if they didn't receive traction from the client ... There are avenues on both side to improve​

​

@Black_Dragon43 @Speed112 @Woosah​

 

[Speed112]

Churn rate is high client leaves every & unpaid invoices by clients

Lots of progress here. Great job.

This point in particular is a big concern to me from reading your setup so far. Retaining customers is a lot cheaper than acquiring new ones, and it's also very important due to LTV and referral considerations. This is the highest priority hole to plug imo.

I suggest finding a qualified team manager to do the onboarding, have them figure out what the needs and current situation of the client are before you set any expectations and delegate a VA to them. Pay them more and incentivize retention as their priority.

Mismatch of expectations is the #1 killer of any relationship. Be very clear about where the bar is and then overdeliver! Underdelivering is unacceptable. If you promise 5 appointments, get them 8. If you think you can only get 5, promise 3.

Look for the baseline and aim for that so that the mean is higher, even if your value proposition is weaker up-front. The long-term benefits greatly outweigh the small loss in closerate, due to the retention/acquisition dynamic.

 

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[Nayan Naik]

Lots of progress here. Great job.

This point in particular is a big concern to me from reading your setup so far. Retaining customers is a lot cheaper than acquiring new ones, and it's also very important due to LTV and referral considerations. This is the highest priority hole to plug imo.

I suggest finding a qualified team manager to do the onboarding, have them figure out what the needs and current situation of the client are before you set any expectations and delegate a VA to them. Pay them more and incentivize retention as their priority.

Mismatch of expectations is the #1 killer of any relationship. Be very clear about where the bar is and then overdeliver! Underdelivering is unacceptable. If you promise 5 appointments, get them 8. If you think you can only get 5, promise 3.

Look for the baseline and aim for that so that the mean is higher, even if your value proposition is weaker up-front. The long-term benefits greatly outweigh the small loss in closerate, due to the retention/acquisition dynamic.

Agreed - Yes I do have an account manager. But I feel the expectation setting is not happening correctly. I am reviewing and plugging this process

 

[Nayan Naik]

This week - We have been able to do the following towards the quaterly goals I have setout to achive:


Goals for Q2 and Rest of the year

1. Get at least 25 appointments a week
2. Close 5 deals a week (In progress)
3. Get at least 5 partnership deals to get other peoples audience (in progress)
4. Upsell at least 3 clients a month into our software solution (1/3 complete)
5. Automate & Optimize Hiring fulfillment process (completed) - Have an automated and care framework to hire the right candidate but we need

Pain points

• Not enough quality appointments -
  • We are trying to setup a partnership to get other people's audience. Will keep you posted on how things are going. Not much traction yet, we have one podcast interview scheduled so far to get inbound leads
  • We have started creating Video everyday and repurposing the blog content everyday
• Current sales conversion rate - Have enforced a
  • Enforced a sales framework - that the team is following
  • Have enforced CRM updates to better manage leads
  • Will be asking the team to apply more qualifying filters
• Average time to sign agreement
  • Slight improvement last week
• Limiting belief (sometimes I doubt myself,
  • Failing is not an option - will keep pushing through
• Need a high ticket offer that I can offer rather than an hourly VA
  • I think I have something - I will share landing page here for feedback
• Churn rate is high client leaves every & unpaid invoices by clients
  • Key Root cause: expectation is not correct. My account manager set very vague expectations
  • Had to train them

 

[AppMan]

Team of 5 people and 200+ contractors bench

So how is your relationship with the contractors ? do you pay them when they are idle or you just have their word to join you when you find them a work ?
also are the 5 people paid employees or not ?

 

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[Nayan Naik]

Our Quarterly Goals are being accomplished but I feel finding a VA for single business coach the marketing and sales effort put in is exhausting - We need to find a better way to have organic growth:

I am thinking about building partnership with Influencers/Marketers/FB group owners who sell to Business Coaches. And we become their VA outsourcing partners that they can add to their course to increase their course ticket size while we get sales on auto pilot ... so WIN - WIN ... Thoughts?

Any strategies partnerships/templates that have worked in the past please feel free to share

@Black_Dragon43 @Speed112 @Woosah

 

[Woosah]

Partnerships are always a great idea for promotion - especially with what you're doing. There are tons of FB groups out there that you can collab with, and coaching is hot right now, so you'll find plenty of marketers/influences as well.

 

[Nayan Naik]

Partnerships are always a great idea for promotion - especially with what you're doing. There are tons of FB groups out there that you can collab with, and coaching is hot right now, so you'll find plenty of marketers/influences as well.

Thank You!!!

Any good outreach template/strategy I can use to go to pitch to the influencers/FB group Admins or course creators to help form a strategic partnership?

FYI - we sold our first 2 premium courses to our existing clients!! Just need to figure out how we approach prospect with this premium deal. Any insights is highly appreciated

@Black_Dragon43 @Speed112 @Woosah

Regards,
Nayan

 

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[Nayan Naik]

[Update] On my goals for Q2

Goals for Q2 and Rest of the year

1. Get at least 25 appointments a week - Not totally accomplished but we get to 15-20 appointments a week
2. Close 5 deals a week (In progress) - Not Totally accomplished but closing 3 deals a week
3. Get at least 5 partnership deals to get other peoples audience - Got 3 of them
4. Upsell at least 3 clients a month into our software solution (3/3 complete)
5. Automate & Optimize fulfillment process (completed)

Goals for the rest of the year:

1. Build a premium offer of atleast 8k+ ticket size to sell to our clients - Created Offer, validated it , we need to build a system around it
2. Partner with corporates, influencers, masterclasses to provide Virtual Assistant in BULK - Not able to do it in bulk as theis requires a personalized relationship building
3. Get to $1M+ in revenue by end of 2022 - Currently at 6 figures, Fingers crossed we will get there by EOY
4. Quit my day job by Q3 - With the premium offering I am hoping to make this happen in the next 3 months
5. Setup base and offer bonus/employee benefits - This seems a bit of a far fetched for this year, but we never know!

@Black_Dragon43 @Speed112 @Woosah

 

[Woosah]

Thank You!!!

Any good outreach template/strategy I can use to go to pitch to the influencers/FB group Admins or course creators to help form a strategic partnership?

FYI - we sold our first 2 premium courses to our existing clients!! Just need to figure out how we approach prospect with this premium deal. Any insights is highly appreciated

@Black_Dragon43 @Speed112 @Woosah

Regards,
Nayan

Congrats on the traction with the premium course!

I wouldn't recommend any templates for this purpose just like I wouldn't recommend a template for forming any business partnership - it needs to be personal.

In terms of strategy, my approach in situations like this has always been direct and honest (in the sense that I don't beat around the bush with what I'm offering and what I want). Much of what I have to suggest might be no-brainers for you, given the success you've achieved thus far. So you may just take them as some timely reminders.

1. First things first is to make sure you're reaching out to the right influencer/admin - make sure their audience fits your customer profile. For example, I don't think you want to spend your time trying to collab with a group admin whose audience is all coaches who don't have any clients yet.

2. Second, I would spend some time studying what they do so your approach isn't COMPLETELY cold. For example, you can check out their content - if the influencer has written a book, you might want to look into it and make a comment about it in your initial conversation to build rapport.

3. Third, be direct and respect their time. You wouldn't like it if someone approached you with a huge 50-page proposal, and you also wouldn't like it if someone was jumping the gun with a one-sided pitch. So be direct and propose what you have in mind in a way that benefits them. If they're interested, you can give them more information or invite them on a call to discuss how things would work.

With all that said, I'm sure @Black-dragon will chime in with his own expertise on Monday's live.

Keep up the great work!

 

[Nayan Naik]

Quick update on my premium offering - we were able to come up with a offer that appealed to our existing customer base. We have 4 YES. Now I just need to figure out how can we pitch this to a cold audience and make it happen

 

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[Nayan Naik]

Quick update on my premium offering - we were able to come up with a offer that appealed to our existing customer base. We have 4 YES. Now I just need to figure out how can we pitch this to a cold audience and make it happen

So far we have been making steady progress :
Achievements so far:
1) close to 8 appointments a day
2) selling high ticket offers
3) setup ads that are generating 2 leads a day with 1 appointment a day
4) delivery and hiring system setup for scale
5) sales team currently closing lower ticket deals 1 a week

Opportunities to improve
1) need to close at least 2 HT offers a week
2) train the new closers to get better at sales.
3) existing team need to upskill and break the plateau
4) sales volume have been at 2 a week for a few months , the up sell needs to get better
5) need to hit $100k in MRR = 12 sales a month with 2 closers - 6 closes each

Wish me luck