Top 10 Disruptive Virtual Assistant Companies to Watch

www.insightssuccess.com

VOL.02 | ISSUE 27

1

Top

Changing Culture

Corporate Culture and its Shift Post-pandemic Crisis

Finding the Right Fit

Disruptive

irtual Assistant Companies to Watch

How to Find the Right Virtual Assistant for Your Business

Virtudesk Pavel Stepanov Founder

Empowering Businesses with Expert VA Solutions

www.insightssuccess.com

VOL.02 | ISSUE 13

1

Top

Changing Culture

Corporate Culture and its Shift Post-pandemic Crisis

Finding the Right Fit

Disruptive

irtual Assistant Companies to Watch

How to Find the Right Virtual Assistant for Your Business

Virtudesk Pavel Stepanov Founder

Empowering Businesses with Expert VA Solutions

Transforming Businesses with Virtual Assistance

W

e have known ourselves as the most adaptable species on the planet.

Improving our habitat and evolving with our ever-changing needs have helped us survive in the most unfavorable times too!

Referring to the best survival instincts of the human species, Charles Darwin once said, "It is not the strongest of the species that survives, nor the most intelligent; it is the one, most adaptable to change."

The ability to adapt in the most uncertain times has been one of our resilient fortes. Be it transforming society with food storage, introducing barter, or relishing our homes with natural embodiments.

Emerging as a social community from an agrarian one, we crossed paths with multiple discoveries and technological advancements.

The benefits of our social fabric riding its integrated and unified approach have always been appreciated by

business gurus. Establishing a company in a competitive industry is like turning a giant wheel. Individually it seems scary, but the only anchor to such a crisis is becoming assistive and coherent with like-minded organizations.

Adapting to the rising technological innovations, corporations are scouting for companies that can take up the delegated task, implement its subjective expertise into the workflow, and deliver assigned work while facilitating a hassle-free experience. Rising to the demand of time of hybrid and work-from-anywhere module are the virtual assistance companies with an all-time creative edge. These companies can sail your boat, whether you are an individual, a group, a startup, or a giant umbrella of multiple business establishments.

Adapting to the modern way of work and equipped with tech-savvy human resources, such companies are looking for AI and ML learnings while customizing services and delivering the end client needs.

Appreciating such virtual assistance marvels is our new Edition, "Top 10 Disruptive Virtual Assistant Companies

to Watch." With a commitment to educating the business community about virtual disruptors, we have Virtudesk on the cover of this issue.

While flipping through the pages, please go through the articles written by our editorial team.

I hope you have a happy read!

- Bhushan Bhad

08 Cover Story

VIRTUDESK Empowering Businesses with Expert VA Solutions

Articles 22 Changing Culture Corporate Culture and its Shift Post-pandemic Crisis.

34 Finding the Right Fit How to Find the Right Virtual Assistant for Your Business

Contents Phoenix Virtual Solutions

16

Virtual Staff Hiring for Healthcare and Management Companies

24

Shore Agents

Delivering Specialized Offshore Staf ng Solutions for the Real Estate Industry

Virtual Assistant Staf ng Agency (VASA)

30

Hiring Talents for Business Clients

36

CxO

By Shlomit Hacohen

Wishup A Reliable Virtual Assistant Firm

40

Editor-in-Chief Pooja Bansal Senior Editor Anish Miller Managing Editor Aditya Umale Assisting Editors Bhushan, Vishal Visualiser David King Art & Design Head Rohil Shinganapurkar Co-designer Paul Belin Art & Design Assistant Mrunalinee Deshmukh Business Development Manager Sherin Rodricks Marketing Manager Joseph D'souza Business Development Executives Kelly, David Sales Executives Mark, Alice Technical Head Jacob Smile Assistant Technical Head Amar Sawant Technical Consultants Prachi, Rajeshwari Digital Marketing Manager Alina Sege Assistant Digital Marketing Manager Renuka Kulkarni SME-SMO Executives Gemson Research Analyst Eric Smith Circulation Manager Tanaji sales@insightssuccess.com

February, 2022 Corporate Ofce Insights Success Media Tech LLC 555 Metro Place North, Suite 100, Dublin, OH 43017, United States Phone - (614)-859-2600 Email: info@insightssuccess.com For Subscription: www.insightssuccess.com

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Company Name

Featuring

Brief

BELAY belaysolutions.com

Tricia Sciortino CEO

BELAY was established in 2010 and since then, the company has won countless awards for its culture and employee satisfaction.

Cloudstaff cloudstaff.com

Lloyd Ernst CEO

Cloudstaff outsourcing is backed by a team of industry specialists with real-world experience who will help you get the results you want.

CrewBloom crewbloom.com

Kate Ringcodan Co-Founder

CrewBloom empowers startups and Fortune 500 companies to scale with the talent they need.

Phoenix Virtual Solutions phoenixvirtualstaff.com

Meryl Sollano Chua Social Media and Marketing Specialist

Phoenix Virtual Solutions is a US-based company with its Business Process Operations staff based in the Philippines.

Prialto prialto.com

Eric Taussig CEO

Prialto exists to positively amplify people, from every member who uses its service to every person who delivers it.

ShoreAgents shoreagents.com

Stephen Atcheler CEO

ShoreAgents is the offshore staffing solution dedicated to the real estate industry. The company provides what one might call Real Estate Virtual Assistants.

The Virtual Savvy thevirtualsavvy.com

Abbey Ashley Founder

The Virtual Savvy helps aspiring virtual assistants launch and grow their own business from scratch.

Virtual Assistant Staffing Agency vastaffing.agency

Brady Morgan CEO

Virtual Assistant Staffing Agency was created so that business owners, who don't have time to waste, can easily work on their business rather than in their business.

Virtudesk myvirtudesk.com

Pavel Stepanov Founder

Virtudesk was founded in 2016 as a virtual assistant company.

It offers highly trained virtual assistants based in the Philippines, specializing in services such as real estate prospecting, marketing, administrative work, customer service, and transaction coordination.

Wishup wishup.co

Neelesh Rangwani Co-Founder and CMO

Wishup is India’s first platform for remote employees, i.e., skilled virtual assistants. It aims to bridge the gap between the demand and supply for trained remote assistants by small businesses and entrepreneurs.

Cover Story

Empowering Businesses with Expert VA Solutions

We provide virtual assistant services in a variety of specialties, including marketing, prospecting, customer service, transaction coordination, and administrative work.

Pavel Stepanov Founder Virtudesk

Top 10 Disruptive Virtual Assistant Companies to Watch

I

ndividuals who’ve freshly set out on their entrepreneurship journey, usually must wear different hats throughout the day – a supervisor, manager, HR assistant, or even the administrator. With so many things to manage from the to-do list, one may not be productive all day since they are continuously switching their concentration from one activity to the other.

Usually, entrepreneurs don’t want to waste their energy and time on the less important things that do not contribute to the growth of business. Rather, they look to utilize the valuable time in the tasks that are super productive.

This evident bottleneck has fueled the need for virtual assistance service, becoming a key factor in management of the work. Hiring a virtual assistant can most certainly help in managing responsibilities so that growing entrepreneurs can concentrate on more important tasks.

Virtual assistants are known for their versatility and can contribute to the success of your business. With the advancement in technology, the demand for this virtual assistance has increased drastically.

Looking at this demand, Virtudesk, a software solution provider company, started its endeavor. The company specializes in recruiting, training, and managing virtual assistants with its cutting-edge software solution.

Setting Benchmarks Virtudesk was founded in 2016 as a virtual assistant company. It offers highly trained virtual assistants based in the Philippines, specializing in services such as real estate prospecting, marketing, administrative work, customer service, and transaction coordination.

Virtudesk helps real estate agents, entrepreneurs and small-to-medium sized business owners scale their businesses by teaching them how to delegate certain parts of their business to virtual assistants, so they can focus on the 20% of their business that produces 80% of the results.

The company primarily serves the real estate industry right now but is currently expanding into other industries such as Finance, Retail, Healthcare, Insurance, and others.

Virtudesk’s USP is three-fold. What separates it from its competitors is that it offers flexible hiring packages. One can hire a virtual assistant from Virtudesk for full time, part time, or time block.

All Time Block means that a person can hire one of the virtual assistants for special projects – for 20, 40, 60, and 80 hours ‘time blocks’. Virtudesk’s pricing structure also allows its clients to pay on a month-to-month basis, which allows greater flexibility in the hiring process.

Many of its competitors actually don’t do this, and many only offer full time. It can be difficult for other companies to sustain this kind of product and revenue model, as profit margins decrease with lower hourly work per client.

However, it has been a great methodology for the clients to test out the service first. Many of Virtudesk’s new clients transition to full-time after starting with Time Block or parttime, as it’s less scary for them when they immediately try it for the first time.

The Virtudesk Academy The virtual assistants of Virtudesk are highly trained unlike any company in the industry. Before it even begins the rigorous training, there is a strict screening process.

Applicants are selected only if they have Business Process Outsourcing Experience or experience working at larger US based companies.

Once they enter the training program, they are taught by experienced trainers and coaches on the tasks they are

expected to perform with their future clients. The company conducts online classes and online discussions, then takes a final exam of everything they learned, including a separate English proficiency exam, and they have access to an abundance of support and learning resources.

For this program, there is an online school, called ‘Virtudesk Academy’, which houses online courses, lectures, and materials for virtual assistants to access during and after training for continuous education and professional development. Even when one of company’s virtual assistants starts working with their client, they have a ‘coach’ that will help the virtual assistant and the client work successfully together, by providing resources and additional training.

Ensuring Security with Timedly While working with Virtudesk, clients are ensured optimum security. Not only does it give all the virtual assistants FBIgrade background checks, but it also offers clients a VA time-tracking software, called Timedly.

A Virtudesk product, Timedly tracks when a client’s virtual assistant logs in and logs out, and tracks total hours worked for the day. It takes a screenshot every two minutes in order to hold the VA accountable to their work, and honesty.

Additionally, unlike hiring a virtual assistant from the Philippines directly, Virtudesk has cyber security insurance that will mitigate loss against data breaches or stolen information.

For every sale they can close from an appointment, company’s VA schedules can be attributed towards ROI. Second, by determining how much their time is worth, clients can take note of how many hours each week they save by hiring a virtual assistant and delegating the work.

People tend to forget how time is just as valuable as the money they make, and that is another experienced award of delegation and hiring a virtual assistant.

Inspiring Leadership Pavel Stepanov is the Founder of Virtudesk. He established Virtudesk in 2016, because he saw that virtual assistants are an integral part of small businesses. Prior to creating Virtudesk, Pavel was selling real estate full time and operated a real estate brokerage. He saw how much time was spent on tasks that do not generate revenue directly, but still must be done in order to run a successful business.

He first hired a virtual assistant in the Philippines to help him with prospecting and admin tasks and focused only on work that directly generated income. He saw not only amazing growth of the business, but also better quality of life as he was finally able to get out of the daily hamster wheel grind and spend more time with his family. After all, time is the only commodity that is available equally to everybody and one cannot buy more of it.

Why Virtudesk?

Virtudesk provides virtual assistant services in a variety of specialties, including marketing, prospecting, customer service, transaction coordination, and administrative work.

The value that clients can gain from Virtudesk and hiring virtual assistants, is operational efficiency in their business and overall business growth.

By delegating tedious, repetitive, and non-essential tasks, clients can have the time back to refocus on new projects and activities that help grow their business. By hiring one or more virtual assistants, they can scale. The company advises its clients that they can experience returns on investment in two ways. The first is if they hire a virtual assistant for reaching out to qualified leads and scheduling appointments.

We offer highly trained virtual assistants based in the Philippines, specializing in services such as real estate prospecting, marketing, administrative work, customer service, and transaction coordination.

What separates us from our competitors is that we offer flexible hiring packages.

Virtudesk started out with only a couple of virtual assistants and a dream to make the world a better place for busy professionals and now the company is proud to be at the forefront of the industry, providing jobs for hundreds of employees.

Pavel strongly believes that virtual assistants are becoming more involved in the day-to-day operations of small and medium sized enterprises and is becoming a driving force for business owners. He is looking forward to expanding the company and doubling the output for this year and providing more jobs to aspiring virtual assistants.

“At Virtudesk, hiring a virtual assistant is not like hiring elsewhere, because of the relationship that clients can develop while working with their VAs. Hiring a Virtudesk VA is like adding to the company family, you are gaining an asset who will only have you and the company’s best interests in mind. Plus, they are extremely fun to work with, and who doesn’t love that!” Pavel expressed.

Broadening Horizons with Technology Looking at the past, it is visible that only big companies used to be able to outsource labor to other countries. This was for Fortune 500 companies and those who could afford expensive technology in call centers in other countries. This is no longer the case. Now, with the flexibility and easily available technology, any small business owner or a solopreneur can outsource their tasks. Anybody with a smartphone and internet can run their business and hire people across the globe to run a business, assist and ultimately scale.

This is truly fascinating because it broadens the horizon and makes the world smaller and workforce available literally at fingertips. There will be more and more adoption of work-from-home model and also the use of virtual

assistants. The industry is growing and with high-speed broadband, easy-to-access technology allow people in other countries to be able to work as virtual assistants and business owners to truly leverage their time.

Overcoming Adversities One of the major challenges Virtudesk faced during the pandemic was getting a lot of cancellations. Pavel acted on it as soon as possible by talking to the clients and explained the importance of maintaining their VAs during the pandemic. Usually, when a crisis happens, the first response of a business owner falls to laying off employees. They do this without even realizing the consequences. Their first reaction is to cut, cut, and cut. They believe that if they cut the expenses of the business, then they will stay afloat. But in reality, if any business owner lays off employees, he/she may cut their business as well.

Everyone understands cutting the fat off the business, but don’t cut the muscle which pertains to their virtual assistants. Pavel believes that the people of Virtudesk are major assets to the company and treats them like family.

Appreciation of Excellence I’ll rate Virtudesk 5/5. My experience with Virtudesk was fantastic. I like your follow-ups and consistency is very refreshing and it makes me feel very confident in hiring Virtudesk.

– Rick Garza, Bright and Early Productions

We hired a VA because we needed help on recruiting for agents and I am very satisfied with my Virtual Assistant.

The experience with Virtudesk is really good and I am really really happy.

– Misti Bruton, AVO Realty

The value our clients can gain from Virtudesk and hiring virtual assistants is operational efficiency in their business and overall business growth.

When COVID-19 pandemic hit the world, Virtudesk did not lay off a single employee and made sure that all employees had jobs and income to support their families during these unprecedented times.

Bequeathing Keys to Excellence When asked for his advice to the budding entrepreneurs on venturing into the virtual assistance business, Pavel advises, “Treat the employees with respect and dignity. These people are not robots, and they have feelings, they have their fears, and they also have their shortcomings. Learn to understand and feel the people you work with. You can choose to be a boss or to be a leader. Build the relationship as an inspiring leader, so that people show up to work for you every day not because they need a paycheck, but because they want to work WITH you.”

“Reward when it’s due – but be fair. Make sure you have established a set of rules equally applicable to everybody.

That way it is fair, and nobody can accuse you of favoritism or bias,” he added.

What Lies on the Next Page?

Ever since the start of the company, every year, team Virtudesk has been able to double the growth from the previous year. Of course, with bigger achievements, come bigger, and more ambitious goals. Pavel believes that growth should be bold and sets higher goals for 2022. The

corporate team has already started working to implement strategies and setting the playbook for achieving the goals for 2022. “There is a lot in production now, and it will be revealed in due time,” adds Pavel.

Besides that, the management wants to connect with other industry influencers and establish short-term or long-term partnerships. This will help the company achieve its initial goal of more sign-ups while simultaneously connecting it to networks in different industries, which will lead to the next goal.

Fully expanding and establishing Virtudesk’s presence in other industries is a must for its team in the next 12 months.

For the last four years, the company has largely served the real estate industry. However, Pavel thinks that his company can gain a much larger market share through advertising and by exploration of new channels that can get them into other industries.

& & 20 The

Most

BUSINESSWOMEN

to Watch, 2020

kimberly Khoury

Paving her Way in Sustainability Development

Top 10 Disrup ve Virtual Assistant Companies to Watch

Phoenix Virtual

Solutions

H

Virtual Staff Hiring for Healthcare and Management Companies

iring includes talent acquisition, finding the right skills, screening and testing, or interviewing.

Once all the requirements are met, the onboarding process starts. The recruiter or organization hiring candidates need to have a sharp observer mindset for all this.

If you want to scale and streamline your business process and operations, outsourcing is the way to do it. We pride ourselves on HIPAA-compliant Filipino bi-lingual virtual assistants and patient care specialists who are wellequipped to handle day-to-day back-office operations for clients in the healthcare space.

With the rise of digital transformation, the recruiting process and work have also gone digital. Candidates from all over the globe attend interviews and even work virtually.

Every business has different requirements for every role they are hiring for.

Phoenix Virtual Solutions is deeply rooted in the US healthcare industry with 75 years of combined successful experiences. So, you can be assured of service on par with US professional working standards.

Many outsourcing companies do offshore staffing for their clients, but only a few give out the best candidates to work with. Healthcare and management are the industries where hiring an employee with relevant knowledge are of utmost importance. Phoenix Virtual Solutions is one such company that has the expertise of staffing for healthcare providers and management companies. Their team has 75 years of combined experience in the United States healthcare industry, ensuring that the virtual staff they hire has the right skills and knowledge as per requirements.

We had a conversation with the team of Phoenix Virtual Solutions to know more about their process and journey until now.

Following are the highlights of the interview: Please brief our audience about Phoenix Virtual Solutions, its USPs, and its position as a reliable virtual assistant firm.

Phoenix Virtual Solutions is a US-based company with our Business Process Operations staff based in the Philippines.

We provide offshore staffing services and solutions for clients who require outsourced back-office operations. Our field of specialization in the business is focused on outfitting professionals in the healthcare industry with virtual staff support centered around healthcare providers, medical facilities, and other management companies.

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Shed some light on your offerings and how they impact the industry and your clients?

Back-office operations and processes are tedious tasks and are the backbone of any business. Phoenix aims to unburden our clients from these by offering quality outsourced end-to-end virtual staffing solutions. This gives busy healthcare executives and professionals more room to maneuver and concentrate on other areas that require their undivided attention knowing all these tasks are squared away.

Our service brand allows you to streamline and optimize your business productivity with our multichannel support and engagement services.

We can fill most of the back-office support positions such as:

Ÿ Front office phone support for patient inquiries, scheduling, reminder calls Ÿ Benefits investigation, coverage eligibility, preauthorization Ÿ Data entry and medical records management Ÿ Patient coordination duties Ÿ Medical billing, claims follow-up and collection Ÿ Bookkeeping and accounting We help you make the right choices and decisions to get you ahead with a power team of HIPAA-certified offshore

February 2022 | 16

Meryl Sollano Chua Social Media and Marke ng Specialist, Phoenix Virtual Solu ons

Our brand of service allows you to streamline and optimize your business productivity with our multichannel support and engagement services.

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February 2022 | 17

virtual staff who service healthcare professionals in the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, and Australia.

After partnering with us, our clients enjoy up to 60% savings on back-office labor costs and optimum productivity. Such results are backed up with productivity matrices that are tracked and evaluated to ensure we maintain a level of client transparency, confidence, and satisfaction. Being an offshore company, we understand how our clients need to have a clear picture of the resources they need from us to achieve their project goals successfully.

Please brief us about Meryl, her journey in the industry, and how she has contributed to Phoenix Virtual Solutions success.

Meryl started as an Executive Assistant to the Vice President and moved to be a social media and marketing specialist. She has successfully maintained customer relations across all our social media accounts as well as live inquiries from the website. As part of our marketing team, she is responsible for creating engaging layouts and publishing content to push our digital marketing and grow our audience. Meryl has done excellent work in building brand awareness for Phoenix, which boosts our client sales.

She understands our target audience for each social channel and has built meaningful customer connections by encouraging our audience to engage with our brand.

Being an experienced leader, share your opinion on how modern technologies have impacted the industry and how Phoenix Virtual Solutions is riding the technology wave?

Here at Phoenix, we implement a specific remote work structure, both for our in-house employees and several hundreds of outsourced staff. Earlier, telecommuting, remote staffing, and offshoring were not even a possibility, and businesses would have balked at this entire concept.

But the emergence of specialized software tools and applications, as well as fiber optic internet connectivity, has changed traditional business operations and practices.

If you are in a regulated industry with compliance requirements, such as HIPAA for healthcare, the right cloud solution can satisfy these security standards. Ring Central has done all that for Phoenix.

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Here at Phoenix, we implement a specific remote work structure, both for our in-house employees and several hundreds of outsourced staff.

What challenges did you face, and how did you drive the company to sustain operations while ensuring the safety of your employees at the same time?

The pandemic has been a major roadblock for many companies over the past two years, with brick-and-mortar businesses being forced to scale down their workforce due to safety protocol restrictions. Many businesses closed shops and offices have sent their employees home to work virtually. This was a big moment for companies offering virtual staffing solutions to step up to the plate.

Phoenix has been fortunate to survive this challenging period without having to sacrifice our staff and resources.

Remote working has been the new pandemic normal, and while this was a sudden shift for many employers and staff, this was our time to shine and show clients the benefits and rewards of offshoring and outsourcing.

What would be your advice to budding entrepreneurs who aspire to venture into the industry?

Entrepreneurs looking to get their feet wet during these uncertain times need to be realistic with their expectations.

Learning the ropes will take a while, but wise entrepreneurs always take calculated risks. The new generation of entrepreneurs is open to every possibility and pushes the boundaries of traditional business models and practices.

Dreaming and building are two different things. Remember to focus on your business journey and never measure your success against someone else's.

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How do you envision scaling Phoenix Virtual Solutions operations and offerings in 2022 and beyond?

Phoenix is looking forward to better times ahead as the world settles into a possible endemic and hopefully returns some normalcy into the business sector. We hope to maintain the same level of trust and integrity from our clients as we venture towards the new normal of a virtual reality world. The future holds many promising goals for us as we hope to open more doors to the global market and offer more specialized virtual staff support services.

smooth with no hiccups. Just recently, there were some work ethic concerns with one of the members of my data entry team. You, along with Phoenix, handled the situation in a very professional manner and kept me up to date on the appropriate courses of action that were taken.

Again, thank you for all of the support!”

- Juan Vega, Los Angeles based Genetic Testing Company.

Productivity, performance, and innovation are where we have set our eyes on this year. While we are still in our growth stage, this is the perfect time to slowly but surely come out of our comfort zone to explore new business strategies in this digital age. There is so much more out there for the taking and we intend to be make the most of what we have to achieve our mission and vision.

A few testimonials The technical know-how, responsiveness, and professionalism of the staff are excellent. The person I worked with is very friendly and easy to deal with despite the challenge of communicating across time zones. I represent a growing non-profit organization in California, USA, and we got a lot of bang for our buck. We have a lot of future projects, and Phoenix Virtual Solutions is our goto guy now from this point forward. We cannot say enough good things about this wonderful company.

Ike Quiaoit SJFM "It has been a pleasure working with Phoenix these past few months. I greatly appreciates all the input and assistance you have provided, we transitioned from a previous agency to Phoenix in early 2021, and the transition was extremely

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February 2022 | 19

CORPORATE

its Shift & POST-

Culture

PANDEMIC CRISIS

T

here is no denying it: the Covid-19 pandemic has significantly affected how people work. In contrast to the immediate past, today's corporations are divided between those that have invested heavily inflexible schedules, telecommuting policies, and other remote working arrangements and those that still treat workers as though they would all be present at one central location if a major regional crisis occur. Some departments or teams may operate with maximum flexibility even within the same company. In contrast, others are still required to maintain more traditional structures regarding work hours, location of work, and so forth.

This article looks at some of these changes and how you might adjust your corporate culture in this new environment.

Accelerated adoption of digital tools There's been a revolution in office design for the past several decades toward shared spaces and open workspaces.

This revolution has accelerated as exponential technologies—from digital tools to enterprise social networks—have further enabled the power of collaborative work.

Some companies and industries, particularly IT, have been more willing than others to allow remote work. Still, increased acceptance has also opened doors for abuse, whereby individuals take advantage of the flexibility of a remote arrangement and detach themselves from their

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colleagues. The result can be higher turnover and decreased productivity.

Reconnecting people Research shows that employees look forward to most returning to the workplace. Finding these meaningful connections can be difficult while at work, especially in offices where people are physically and emotionally disconnected from each other.

This is why we're so passionate about Reconnecting with Your People. Connection is the human power source that revs the engine of human performance. It is not easy because it requires you to focus on what matters most in the end. How your organization reconnects with employees applies when a community suffers an emergency or natural disaster, when a security threat disrupts a company's operations, or when efficient operation depends upon longdistance dispersal of people and operations.

To avoid negative impacts on employee health, productivity, and overall wellbeing, employers must establish a stronger connection between their employees and the workplace.

Remote Culture and New Hires With more and more remote cultures, companies today adapt to the new normal. The economy has shifted to one that favors remote work. Whether it is because of cost

February 2022 | 22

Changing Culture savings or flexibility, companies are starting to hire employees with great talent who are experienced in working remotely. And a remote job is not just limited to traditional roles; within the 3C's– Customer Service, Content Marketing and Creative, companies can hire workers for their projects which can be done at home.

Expanded Data Collection Organizations faced challenges from the start when it came to tracking their remote workers — and now, that may be an understatement. Before the pandemic, people were increasingly using nontraditional monitoring tools (such as GPS) for field employees—things like video cameras in forklifts and even biometric data collection—but that HR trend will be accelerated by new monitoring of remote workers and the collection of employee health and safety data.

impacting performance in the workplace. Knowing this, progressive companies are taking advantage of top-tier employers as willing partners in talent sharing by creating relocation opportunities for employees and reaching out early to establish a collaborative environment.

Culture change is difficult, but it delivers many benefits.

The speed and magnitude of recent cultural changes have challenged us all. Still, it has also been a catalyst for cultural changes that will make us more intelligent and adaptable as we move into the next stage of our history. As an organizational leader, suppose you can understand why culture change is a good thing and apply this understanding to your organization's efforts toward change. In that case, you will accelerate its progress toward meeting its goals in an accelerated time

Contingent worker expansion The number of workers employed under contingent work arrangements has continued to increase due to growing workforce uncertainties, high unemployment rates, and regulatory constraints. Contracting organizations are expected to expand their use of contingent workers to improve flexibility in workforce management. In contrast, they expect other organizations to begin introducing new job models they have experienced during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Expanded employer role During the current economic crisis, many workers are experiencing employment instability. This rise in employee turnover, especially where experienced employees leave the organization, can cause an increase in workload and process adjustments. For organizations that already offer psychological counseling or other similar programs to help support employees, this situation is a tremendous opportunity to expand upon their employer role by adopting innovative mental health programs.

The emergence of new employers With the fall of the COVID-19 pandemic, many employers have had to fall back on less-favorable staffing models.

With new technologies making virtual communication increasingly accessible to their staff, more and more companies are finding that benefit packages can be restructured to encourage their employees' growth without

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February 2022 | 23

Stephen Atcheler CEO ShoreAgents

About the Author Stephen Atcheler, the CEO has an extensive history in the Real Estate space from the time he was 18. He fell in love with the game, the money, and the business aspect of the industry. He has had experience in all facets, so his contribution is the knowledge to help customers feel secure that they have partnered with a company that knows them and their business.

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February 2022 | 24

Top 10 Disrup ve Virtual Assistant Companies to Watch

Delivering Specialized Offshore Staffing Solutions for the Real Estate Industry

O

utsourcing now-a-days has become a crucial and valuable option for business owners. For every successful business, consistency in employee quality, rate, and service delivery is extremely important.

However, hiring a permanent employee and providing the benefits is quite difficult to certain companies. This is where outsourcing comes into the equation.

Outsourcing provides a great option – through which one can assemble a team of experts operating remotely and provide value to their own business as well as their customers. You may occasionally require more human resources for a project, but only on a temporary basis.

One of the leading names among companies that offer exemplary outsourcing services is ShoreAgents, which provides specialized offshore staffing solutions for the real estate industry.

In the following interview, Stephen Atcheler, the CEO of ShoreAgents, sheds light on the inception of his company, its services, and the future aspects of real estate sector.

Please brief our audience about ShoreAgents, its USPs, and how it is currently positioned as a leading player in delivering virtual assistance solutions for the real estate agency.

ShoreAgents has been created over time and was never ever going to be a business in its own right. However, I could not ignore the opportunity to solve a bigger problem in the industry. I myself was the typical customer that I dealt with on a daily basis.

I was the agency owner that had the struggles of the constant increase in costs to do business, the challenges of finding loyal and talented staff with the desire to be the biggest we could possibly be. Mostly, all vision and enthusiasm with little business know how, but the willingness to try and fail, until I could make it work.

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That is exactly the journey I went down personally with my agency Reval Estate Agents until I found the offshore staff in the Philippines and learnt to develop modern efficient systems to make it run. That is the problem most agencies still face.

So, ShoreAgents was born in Jan 2019, and we now have over 120 staff and are growing at a rapid rate. ShoreAgents has turned into a seven-figure business in just two years, and within a total of five years the way we are tracking, we will be a 15 million annual revenue business.

The uniqueness about ShoreAgents is that we really know Real Estate from every single angle, so we are not just a property management support company or Real Estate Sales but also, we cater to software companies, real estate marketing, property development, and more. We have enough experience in knowledge to deliver to the entire Real Estate Sector which makes our capacity to grow as large as our thirst and let me tell you we are thirsty!

Shed some light on your offerings and how are these making an impact on the industry and your customers?

Initially, our offerings have been targeted towards customers that were in a similar space to the business that I used to run. The typical Real Estate Agency selling and meaning homes. So, we offered property management support and sales support. What we have worked out through that, ‘all businesses are almost exactly the same, and what they think they need is usually not what they actually need.’

Let's face it, most of the tasks people hire offshore for are low ends and repetitive or specific skills like graphic design or web development. What people need is good people and a system to run them not so much, someone who has the specific experience that the client thinks they may need. We have developed a recruitment system that is second to none with education around building systems that teach our February 2022 | 25

We help customers get to a point where they become our ideal customers and then we work with them. However, if you just want it all done for you, we are not the right fit as we will not put our name to your work. It is your business, and you must take the responsibility to drive it. We are here to support your Philippines operations not run it for you.

Soon as we got super clear with that, we started attracting far better clients that start to grow rapidly and we get to grow with their journey which is a great feeling.

The type of customers we have and some stories about how we have helped are amazing.

Success: BoxBrownie a now leading Real Estate Photo editing company could not deliver the customer service they needed, so we worked together and built a 20-person 24×7 customer service team which has allowed them to grow to exponential heights.

Success: Gallery Group is a Property Development company that started with a Property Management support person and two contract administrators. They have now tripled in size and have an extensive team of drafters, construction admins, graphic designers, and accountants amount their team of 27.

Success: UrbanX is a newer hybrid agency model that does the work for their partners in the space of support to keep them productive, they started with one and at this point, five months later have just hired their sixth person and I see this client going to the moon.

Think of it this way, if you are an: • Agency: We can take care of your back office, bookkeeping, and marketing.

• Top Agent: We can hire you an EA to keep you on track and keep the paperwork away from you, so you can list and sell, that's it.

• Real Estate Photographer: A full-time team member can do all your edits whilst you are shooting • Real Estate Videographer: Our multimedia expert can stitch all your content together whilst you are filming amazing content • Real Estate Software: We have amazing developers that can work on your platform, technical support operators to

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,,

clients to fish for themselves. There are other companies out there trying to do the work specifically and build the staff and manage them for you, however, in my experience that is a disaster.

,,

We help customers get to a point where they become our ideal customers and then we work with them.

help assist your customers, and onboarding specialists.

• Property Developers: We can provide you with contract administrators, drafters and so much more There really is not much that we cannot help with. If it is done over a computer or the phone, it can be done as long as you have the vision and the ability to implement it.

Being an experienced leader, share your opinion on the impact of the adoption of modern technologies on the outsourcing industry and what more could be expected in the future?

The adoption of technology in the Real Estate Space is typically behind other industries and is only catching up.

One of the positive things the Pandemic did was that it sped up the adoption of tech, particularly where it comes to running remote teams and communication online.

At ShoreAgents, we do not fear tech like most offshore providers as they think that tech will replace people which in some areas, they are right. We see it more as a positive as tech can help run the people creating more efficient systems with automation and low-cost labour running them.

One of the pieces of Tech that have changed our business and can be recommended to others is a productivity tool called ClickUp. This in itself with the proper set-up can help any business operate offshore smoothly and with complete ease.

In the future, tech will not only assist our partners with their offshore journey but also, we plan to implement it across our business, making it easier for people to learn how to outsource successfully and deliver them a smooth hiring process completely online. We are very excited about this, so watch this space.

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Considering the current pandemic, what initial challenges did you face and how did you drive ShoreAgents to sustain operations while ensuring the safety of your employees at the same time?

The Pandemic hit the Philippines hard, and I remember the sad day where the office was closed, and we sent hundreds of staff home with a computer under their arm. You must understand the Philippines is not Australia or the USA. Life here is very different and this is a third world company so that in fact was a challenge. The infrastructure here does not support work from home and our business halved overnight and it has taken us over a year to get back to where we were.

The safety of our employees is and will always be the priority. However, if we did not keep the customers, they would no longer be our employees, so we had to think about how we can keep them financially secure and that meant getting back to the office as quickly as possible. We were and are ahead of the curve in that aspect as we were the first BPO to have vaccines rolled out across the company right from our office.

Our office is the safest place to actually be when you look outside the office where rules are not being followed. We have created a theme where it is more fun to be working from the office that has bucked the trend. We will soon be 100% all back in the office and back to our visions of providing 1,000 new jobs in 5 years for Filipinos.

What would be your advice to budding entrepreneurs who aspire to venture into the virtual assistance solutions space?

Really, my advice would be I hope you are resilient as this is not an easy business. The key to the business is the people as the client acquisition is actually quite simple if you know what you are doing because you are selling high value at low cost. However, if you do not have a system to get the right people, you will have massive staff turnover and client turnover if the quality doesn't match expectations.

We have learnt all of these lessons the hard way! This is my second attempt at a real estate virtual assistant business and last time I did things all around the wrong way and it ended up into a disaster.

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Exhibiting Excellence The support from Stephen and the team has been absolutely sensational. Outsourcing really allowed me to streamline what I do, particularly with my back office out of things which takes a lot of time off me and allows me to focus on the role that I need.

– Jason Gard, Accredited Real Estate Negotiator

The whole outsourcing process at ShoreAgents has been amazing – starting from recruitment to processing, onboarding, HR, and everything in between.

– Tash Poole, BoxBrownie

How do you envision scaling ShoreAgents' operations and offerings in 2022 and beyond?

We have learnt that the best people are the people that are fresh grads that are hungry to develop their career and a sponge when it comes to learning. We have a goal to put on 25 new starters every month and for us to be able to do this, we need to amplify our recruitment system and that's what we have done.

I have watched the founder of the Mcdonald's movie maybe 50 times and feel like we are on the third version of the speedy system right now like the Mac brothers delivered. A system of efficiency is what will get us to our goal so, it is our primary focus and will continue to develop.

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Top 10 Disrup ve Virtual Assistant Companies to Watch

Virtual Assistant Staffing Agency (VASA):

Hiring Talents for Business Clients

I

“

t doesn't make sense to hire smart people and then tell them what to do; we hire smart people so they can tell us what to do.” - Steve Jobs, Co-founder, Apple.

The way of doing jobs or work has been changed over the years. Ages ago people used to do the same work every day and go home but now it is more like doing some extra than others with the talent and vision. To hire such a talented candidate, the employer must have sharp eyes and requirements of business clients.

Every business client has different requirements for every role they are hiring for and finding a perfect candidate who fulfils the requirement is a tough task. Virtual Assistant Staffing Agency (VASA) helps their business clients to load off the work and find talented candidates as per the requirement to do the work for them. They hire people to work in the administrative, creative, and technical departments of their clients.

They have hundreds of applicants available with them.

From that they choose the candidate as per client requirements, even the agency takes the test of English proficiency and a virtual interview, once all the requirements meet the final placement call is conducted that helps the candidate to get onboard.

Recently we had a conversation with the CEO of Virtual Assistant Staffing Agency or VASA, Brady Morgan.

Asked a few questions about his journey and how his agency work.

Following are the questions with answers to know more: Please brief our audience about Virtual Assistant Staffing Agency (VASA), its USPs, and how it is currently positioned as a reliable virtual assistant firm.

Our company name is Virtual Assistant Staffing Agency or VASA, and we specialize in supplying virtual assistants for

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small businesses that wish to scale and operate at a higher level, and business owners who feel overwhelmed with the surplus of workload and overall lack of time in managing their business.

By supplying Filipino virtual assistants, we empower troubled and hopeful business owners to strategically place their companies at an advantage for a fraction of the cost of a traditional employee.

What separates us from other staffing platforms such as Fiverr and Upwork is that we vet the employees ourselves, so we can better identify which virtual assistant would work best with you and your company. The 3 things we look at include English proficiency, skills, and character.

Our hiring process ensures that our clients are taken care of from start to finish. We're committed to staffing companies long-term, so we see to it that compatibility is a qualification that must be met before placing a virtual assistant.

Lastly, we practice what we preach. Our team consists of myself, my partner, and a team of virtual assistants who have grown and progressed very far from when they first started working for us.

Shed some light on your offerings and how they impact the industry and your clients?

While we identify ourselves within the recruiting/staffing industry, the beauty of our business model is there's practically no limit to which industry we can cater to.

Although the most common ones include marketing & advertising, retail, and real estate.

Since we primarily outsource from the Philippines, we're able to present a unique opportunity to our clients to have the manpower of an entire team for the same cost as a

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Brady Morgan CEO Virtual Assistant Staffing Agency (VASA)

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single in-house employee. For only $5 an hour per virtual assistant, you'll have a highly skilled VA who can accomplish the same work of any regular employee.

As an added protection and peace of mind for our clients, we ask the virtual assistants the rate that they want before placing them. So, you guarantee that their hourly rate is consensual, and it is a request they find a reasonable exchange for their work.

Tell us about your journey in the industry and how they have contributed to Virtual Assistant Staffing Agency (VASA) success.

Going back exactly one year from today, I found it very difficult to manage my time - my duties and responsibilities were all over the place. Having a newborn, dealing with the pandemic lifestyle, and keeping the safety of my family in mind were at the top of the list. On top of all that, I also had a business to run.

Needless to say, it was pretty overwhelming being in my shoes. But I didn't let it faze me, I instead embraced the challenge and the opportunity to learn and grow. I have a business that specializes in aiding time-constrained business owners, all I had to do is practice what we preach. And it was at that point that the trust I had for my business was reformed.

Our progress as a company wasn't the smoothest, and some days were definitely harder than others. But at the end of the day, all we really needed was the right frame of mind to be disciplined enough to follow through, be consistent with our development, and believe in what we do. My team and I 100% believe in the service that we offer not only because we practice it on a daily basis, but also because we've seen the potential for utilizing virtual assistants for businesses, and the benefits it brings to both business owners and the Filipino community.

Being an experienced leader, share your opinion on how the adoption of modern technologies has impacted the industry and how is your company riding the technology wave?

As a remote company and heavy promoters of virtual teams, we heavily rely on technology. This isn't necessarily a bad thing, as it is in fact quite the opposite. Innovation is practically constant where technology is concerned, therefore flexibility is a must. In this industry, you could say that we're constantly outside of our comfort zone, and

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because of this, you could also say that there's growth for us every day.

Considering the current pandemic, what initial challenges did you face and how did you drive the company to sustain operations while ensuring the safety of your employees at the same time?

The pandemic was a challenge and a learning opportunity, not just for myself as a business owner, but for the entire team.

As a remote company, we weren't directly impacted by the effect of the pandemic or the lockdown, but we had to implement a lot of changes on our systems and operations to keep up with the drastic changes that were happening around us. Our business model was meant to be flexible and sustainable, and it proved itself even when things got tough everywhere else.

That said, it wasn't easy getting clients. People weren't generally fond of spending money, and understandably so because of the lockdown. Then we realized that we didn't need to try hard at all, for all we needed to do was remain committed to our purpose, which is to help businesses grow, save time, and increase profits by supplying them with Filipino virtual assistants.

How do you envision scaling your organization's operations and offerings in 2022 and beyond?

Staffing entire virtual teams and departments would be a good place to start, especially for start-up companies.

Operating at the initial stages of business, having highly skilled employees for a fraction of the cost of a traditional one is a huge competitive edge. Not only will they be given the opportunity to operate at a high level, but they also get to save money doing it.

The endgame for VASA is to be associated with Filipino outsourcing. When people think of virtual assistants, outsourcing, or scaling, Virtual Assistant Staffing Agency immediately comes to mind.

Not all positions can be catered by a remote employee, but we believe that there will always be room for a virtual assistant to scale your business.

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How to

Find the Right VirtualAssistant

V

for Your

BUSINESS

irtual assistants (VA), sometimes called remote assistants, are now an integral part of a modern business setup. With so much happening at any given time in our all-connected world, the right virtual assistant can make a tremendous difference locally, nationally, and even internationally.

You will benefit greatly from hiring a virtual assistant (VA) as a business owner. Virtual assistants can help your business grow by helping you with your most important tasks, such as managing contacts and connecting people.

This article will help you the steps to hire the right VA for your business. For those who are unsure about what a VA can do for you, we will provide a comprehensive list of the tasks that can be accomplished with the help of a virtual assistant.

Finding the Right Candidate When outsourcing tasks to a remote assistant, there are some questions that you should ask yourself to find the right person for your needs. Finding the right candidate is exactly what separates great virtual assistants from those who are only good enough. When you choose the right VA, you'll be able to free up time that was once eaten up by administrative work. This will lead to increased productivity, more sales, and a good ROI on your investment in a virtual assistant.

While a virtual assistant (VA) will save you time and

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money, it is not a decision that should be made quickly, but rather after careful and diligent research to ensure you are hiring the right individual.

Know the Tasks You Need to Outsource When you hire a virtual assistant (VA) and want to outsource a task, there are things you need to clarify first.

The more basic and specific your requirements, the more likely you are to get the results you want. And it will be easier for the virtual assistant to get started on their task right away. You can check out our list of common questions that cover most scenarios and give better direction after you have an idea of what you need to get done.

Conduct Comprehensive Interviews If you are the hiring manager of a company that is thriving to grow its business, you might want to step up your efforts to hire the right candidates. One of the most important tips to find and hire the right person is to conduct a comprehensive interview. You do not only focus on what is written on their CV and what they advertise about themselves. This can totally backfire. In addition to this, contact them through Skype or ask them over the phone for interview sessions. This will give you enough time to know if this candidate really fits in with your work culture.

Moreover, solving problems together to discuss challenges and finding suitable solutions with the candidate will simplify the process, especially when it comes to an eventual hiring decision.

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Finding the Right Fit

Do a Background Check Of course, you are looking for experience and a skill set that matches your needs. However, a great way to see what your new VA is like as an employee is to do a background check. This is important to determine the applicant's legitimacy and look into his or her past performance as an employee. It's also a good idea to ask the previous employers for their opinions on the candidate; you might end up getting some great insights that you never thought of.

You can find out about their performance reviews or if they have ever been involved in any disciplinary matters.

Understanding someone's past will give you confidence in knowing you have the right person on your team.

Maintain Clear Communication Because virtual assistants work remotely, their physical presence is not a given. So, it is important to choose a virtual assistant who always maintains complete transparency in communication. After all, you'll never be able to get up from your desk and walk over to ask your virtual assistant a question directly. This means that you'll need to make sure that your virtual assistant will always maintain complete transparency in communication.

Clear communication may sound like an obvious premise, but this advantage is often overlooked when the excitement of hiring a virtual assistant gets the better of you. It's your job to make sure that you are clear in what you want them to do and how you would like them to act.

In Conclusion Nowadays, virtual assistants are a great asset to all companies, big or small. In some ways, selecting a VA can be more challenging than selecting a new employee, as they're not physically in the office with you. Plus, you must weigh who's better: an in-house employee or an outsourced one. However, if you're not careful enough with the person you choose to become your Virtual Assistant, they can destroy all the hard work you did. With these tips on how to pick the right Virtual Assistant for your business, you won't go wrong.

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By Shlomit Hacohen

www.insightssuccess.com

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Women in

Tech Managment

Yield High-level Results

M

argaret Thatcher once said, "In politics, if you want anything, ask a man; if you want anything done, ask a woman." This was said back in the 1960s, and today, even with all the progress that has been made, women are still a minority in the technology workforce.

According to a recent Tech Nation report that examined diversity in UK tech companies, women make up just 19% of the tech workforce, and 77% of director roles in the tech industry were occupied by men. Similarly, in the United States, 47% of the workforce is made up of women; however, only 25% hold computing roles.

It is surprising that women today are not taking more leadership roles in the tech industry, which begs the question – why? The overall corporate benefit of having women in senior tech positions has proven to promote employee welfare, boost creativity, and yield higher ROI.

Women Supporting Employees as Managers In a recent report by Leanin.org and Mckinsey, women managers, compared to their male counterparts, are doing more to support employees, which includes helping them maintain a work-life balance, prioritize assignments, and check in regularly.

In fact, one woman was quoted in the report saying, "I feel so much responsibility for my team's well-being. There is no line between the workday and the after-work day. We're really underestimating the impact this is having on people personally and emotionally. I'm taking care of everybody. I will regularly have conversations with my team, 'How are you feeling? What do you need? Can I remove barriers?"

This could be why The Harris Poll study proves that half of US employees would rather work for women-led companies and 71% of employees felt inspired by woman managers believing that they can also rise to a leadership position.

About the Author Shlomit is a seasoned marketer with over 20 years of experience in developing marke ng strategies, launching products, and building brand awareness. Prior to joining Arbe, Shlomit was CMO and execu ve marketer in organiza ons such as DEEP, Collabrium, Viaccess Orca, Comverse, and Check Point. Shlomit graduated with an MBA from the Technion Ins tu on.

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The rules were written more than 100 years ago for and by men and are no longer working in today's modern “workplace," said Shelley Zalis, CEO, The Female Quotient. "This research shows that more than half of Americans prefer to work with female-led companies, illustrating that leadership norms are changing to help create cultures of care."

The Untapped Recruitment Opportunity I've been in high-tech for over 20 years, growing from Junior to Senior Marketing positions, observing the important roles women played in the different organizations I worked for and worked with and how they impacted the company's leadership.

One of the greatest challenges for tech companies and for Arbe is recruiting. If an organization is successful in attracting women, it doubles its potential talent pool. I believe that one of the more successful methods to engage potential female candidates and position the company at the forefront of this recruiting space is to show women in leadership positions.

When potential employees see there are women in management, it makes it easier for them to choose to join the organization and see the potential to grow and evolve in it.

comes naturally, which then translates into my job – whether it understands a customer, a colleague, or an investor.

Driving Results Diverse management teams show better performance in all studies conducted from start-ups to Fortune 500 companies.

In Credit Suisse's 2021 'Gender 3000' report, they found that companies with a strong female senior management representation resulted in a 'diversity premium,' which equals higher returns and lower volatility. Credit Suisse's head of global ESG research Eugène Klerk, stated that "the higher the female representation across the companies we cover, the better share price returns we have observed since 2010."

While we have the data to show the benefit of women-led companies, what is still lacking is women filling more senior roles in the tech industry as VCs, senior managers, and entrepreneurs. With the major technology boom that the world is experiencing, let's see how many more women take the helm, making Thatcher's remarks all that more true.

Gender Diversity Leads to Creative Diversity Having a balanced management team of both men and women brings diversity in creativity and point of view.

While men may have a similar view to each other, women can often bring a unique perspective to a situation or problem.

In fact, as the Chief Marketing Officer at Arbe, I often need to understand the different perspectives of the market, which involves putting myself in the mind of the customer.

What are their pain points? What keeps them up at night?

Being able to get inside the mind of the customer so that we can better market to their needs is a huge advantage that I am uniquely able to do. When you juggle the multiple tasks of being a professional, mother, friend, and wife – understanding the perspective of the individuals around you

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Top 10 Disruptive Virtual Assistant Companies to Watch

A Reliable Virtual Assistant Firm

T

he present era is blessed with new emerging technologies. Hence with the advancement in technology, the business sector also has radically expanded and turned towards virtual assistance to improve customer services with innovative solutions.

Virtual assistants are famed for their versatility, and they contribute to the success of your business by making your job simpler.

Therefore, the demand for this virtual assistance has increased substantially. Looking at this soaring demand, Wishup, India's first platform for remote employees, started its endeavour. with the purpose to bridge the gap between demand and supply.

Wishup contributes through its virtual assistant services and provides remote workers through a tech-enabled marketplace.

Wishup connects well-trained remote workers with businesses globally. Its services include admin, project management, e-com assistance, and other recurring work.

In an exclusive interview, Neelesh Rangwani, Co-Founder and CMO sheds light on the company's journey and his vision for the company's future.

Please brief our audience about Wishup, its USPs, and how it is are currently positioned as a reliable virtual assistant firm.

Neelesh Rangwani Co-Founder & CMO

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Wishup is India's first platform for remote employees, i.e., skilled virtual assistants. It aims to bridge the gap between the demand and supply for trained remote assistants by small businesses and entrepreneurs.

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About the leader Its USP lies in providing highly efficient remote assistance to global businesses for a fraction of the cost they would incur on employing full-time employees. Further, with the employees training in more than 50+ tasks, they are ready to perform their duties from day one, without any onboarding/training period.

An entrepreneur by heart, Neelesh Rangwani always loves to ques on the tradi onal way of doing things.

During his IIT days, he experimented with using online communica on channels to connect businesses and customers with a premium concierge service.

That Wishup has seen the demand for its services grow significantly since its launch in 2015 is testimony enough of its reliability as a virtual assistant firm. Adding to our credibility is that most of the clients from the initial days are still with us and have grown with us.

Within a few months of launch, he no ced an upward trend among entrepreneurs and small businesses to use his services for handling their rou ne and recurring tasks. As the demand for these services grew, he focused more on them and explored new markets.

Shed some light on your offerings and how they impact the industry and your clients?

Small businesses and entrepreneurs usually struggle with the limited time and resources they must grow their businesses. Most of their day is spent handling mundane tasks such as scheduling appointments, answering emails, managing their social media accounts, bookkeeping, etc.

Wishup helps them manage all this and more through its virtual assistant services. That saves them both time and energy, which they can better utilize in networking, developing their business, connecting with clients, spending quality time with their family, etc.

Wishup offers virtual executives and personal assistants who can take care of all their regular tasks. It also has highly trained virtual assistants in social media management, bookkeeping, project management, and even content writing.

Due to this, our clients can focus on growing their business and enjoy a better work-life balance than before.

Being an experienced leader, share your opinion on how the adoption of modern technologies has impacted the industry and how is Wishup riding the technology wave?

That eventually led to the launch of Wishup, a company that focused on connec ng well-trained remote workers with businesses globally.

Neelesh's analy cal mind, marke ng experiences from his earlier days and a keen understanding of the customer's requirements have been instrumental in the growth of success of Wishup. His desire to provide very high customer sa sfac on levels and exceed clients' expecta ons is what mo vates the en re team of Wishup.

working day and were in constant communication with our clients during those days.

Today if any industry, be it the BPO or local services industry, wants to survive and remain competitive, it needs to ensure that it keeps making a substantial investment in technology. Technology helps businesses scale up their operations easily to meet growing customer demands and ensure a consistent performance level.

At Wishup, we have a well-experienced back-end team constantly researching new ways and tools to ensure that our work processes are faster and there is no downtime. We keep making investments in technology, to help widen the scope and reach of our services.

Wishup has always been at the forefront when it comes to adopting new technology. Due to our reliance and belief in technology from the first day, we started operations and has paid off during the lockdowns imposed due to the pandemic. I am proud to say that we did not lose a single

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Wishup is India's first platform for remote employees.

counselling/sounding board to help people get through the pandemic.

We also set up a group communication channel for all employees on Slack to dispense verified medical advice and tips on boosting their immunity and keeping themselves safe from the coronavirus.

What would be your advice to budding entrepreneurs who aspire to venture into the industry?

Spend time and money on training your employees for long-term results. Just as with every business, there are no shortcuts when it comes to succeeding in this industry.

Make sure that you invest in technology from day one itself, as that will help you scale up or down your business as required.

How do you envision scaling your organization's operations and offerings in 2022 and beyond?

Considering the current pandemic, what initial challenges did you face, and how did you drive the company to sustain operations while ensuring the safety of your employees at the same time?

We aim to diversify into more specialist services such as virtual assistants for lawyers, CPAs, etc. among others. We also plan to build a content creation platform for clients, wherein they can get all forms of content created, be it blogs, social media posts, e-books, videos, etc. within specified timelines.

Wishup was very lucky in this regard. We had already adopted the fully remote working model way back in 2017, so when lockdowns were imposed due to the pandemic, we were not affected by it. We were better prepared to continue our operations and keep meeting clients' requirements as compared to other companies.

We set up an internal team within Wishup, which was regularly in touch with all team members to assist them with any health-related or personal issues. In addition, team members within a city were encouraged to reach out to each other (online, of course) and serve as a

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Exhibiting Excellence “Working with Wishup has been a great experience. The team is very professional and responsive.

We are a real estate brokerage in NJ and have been using Wishup employees to train and onboard our agents, research and add new products, and marke ng on social media."

"The team at Wishup are well-trained, knowledgeable, and self-learners. They take pride in providing the best service and finding the best fit for your organiza on. Even though our mee ngs are virtual, it feels like they are a part of our organiza on and well connected with everyone in the office. Highly recommended." Ÿ Purnima Talwar, Broker-Owner, Realty One Group Central

"We are happy to confirm we will be giving more work to Wishup one the coming months. A special men on must be made of Biju Balan, who works with us and has had a tremendous posi ve impact on our business." Ÿ Anthony Willsher, Chief Underwri ng Officer, XS Global

"Shay is the reason my business is taking off! He is the kindest, most dedicated support I've ever had- detail-oriented, flexible with a wide range of skills. I tried other virtual assistant companies, and no one came close to the level of service and dedica on I have experienced from Shay and WishUp." Ÿ Lydia Dolch, Founder & CEO, Open the Lid

"Very pleased to have found WishUp! Unlike the previous virtual assistant company we hired, WishUp offers top-notch training to their team members and set my agency up with two qualified assistants now suppor ng us on a myriad of ac vi es, from social media to copywri ng to design, to research, and administra ve support. And they show up every day with posi vity and proac veness. Thank you, our WishUp team!" Ÿ S.S., CEO, Los Angeles-based marke ng agency, SKC-PR

"I am a small business owner in Chicago, IL (USA), with a team of seven people, all working remotely. I learned about the Virtual Assistant (VA) concept from a client I was mee ng with every week who had a VA joining our mee ngs. I researched the best VA companies, and that led me to Wishup. Wishup has been excellent to work with.

Wishup's customer service is superior, with fast and helpful responses to my outreaches. The Wishup VA's all have strong social and emo onal skills and strong basic business skills, such as working in Word, Excel, Powerpoint plus cloud-based so ware systems for accoun ng, project management, mekeeping, and CRM." “We are a cohesive team, and we currently have two Wishup VA's who have done a beau ful job integra ng into our company culture and taking leadership of important administra ve, finance, sales, and marke ng responsibili es. Mee ng Wishup this past year has been one of the surprising and sa sfying experiences for our company during the otherwise challenging me of the pandemic. We have referred Wishup to several of our friends who are also small business owners.” Ÿ John Davidoff, Founder, and Chief Mission-Driver MA, Transforma onal Leadership &

Coaching, Davidoff Mission-Driven Business Strategy

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