Chasing Financial Freedom
Chasing Financial Freedom
Ep 296 | 5 Secrets to Skyrocket Business Growth and Reclaim Your Valuable Time
Could hiring a virtual assistant transform your business and give you back the precious time you've been craving? Join us on this enlightening episode of the Chasing Financial Freedom podcast as we chat with Pam Butera, a seasoned realtor and owner of the Greater Philly Cyberbackers franchise. Pam reveals her journey from the traditional administrative model to the world of virtual assistants (VAs), detailing how this switch boosted her efficiency and led to significant business growth. She shares compelling stories, including how a VA helped a roofing franchise thrive. She discusses the cultural values in the Philippines that contribute to the exceptional dedication and work ethic of Filipino VAs.
Unlock the secrets of making virtual communication seamless and cost-effective with insights from Pam. Discover why VAs from the Philippines are a game-changer for businesses, with options for part-time and full-time assistance that won't break the bank. Pam guides us through the hiring process, from pre-vetting to contract terms, and highlights how a well-managed VA can handle many tasks, freeing you to focus on core business activities. Tune in to learn how you, too, can harness the power of VAs to transform your business and reclaim your time.
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Hey guys, ryan DeMint from Chasing Financial Freedom podcast. Hope you guys are having a great day. Today on the podcast we have Pam Butera and she's a realtor at Keller Williams Sorry. Realtor and owner of the franchise Greater Philly Cyber Backers. Pam, welcome to the show.
Speaker 2:Thanks, ryan, happy to be here.
Speaker 1:Thanks for coming on. Hope you had a good long weekend.
Speaker 2:Oh very much. It's like instantly fall though.
Speaker 1:Is it?
Speaker 2:Oh gosh, yeah, it's like overnight it happens Starts earlier and earlier every year.
Speaker 1:What's the temperature supposed to be like there?
Speaker 2:Right now it's only like 68, 70, but it's the wind. The wind is our challenge. The wind is about 20 miles an hour, so that's what's making it feel too cold for me.
Speaker 1:And are you a native East Coast person? I?
Speaker 2:am, yes, born and raised in the Philly area.
Speaker 1:Yes, you can always go south for the winter right.
Speaker 2:Oh yes, I've been thinking about that a lot more these days, no doubt Well cool.
Speaker 1:Before we get into what you're doing, can you tell the listeners a little bit about yourself?
Speaker 2:Yes, I've been a realtor all my life and I've always had a team. And when I say I've had a team, I've always had an administrative assistant, sometimes more than one. I've had up to three, and about five years ago I was introduced to the virtual admin concept and I really embraced the idea, so much so that I bought the local Greater Philly Cyberbacker franchise, and so now I'm working to build up our business with clients in the five-county Philadelphia area and we work in all industries. Clients in the five-county Philadelphia area and we work in all industries. Our admins are not exclusive to real estate, which is how I started and was introduced to them. We have a client that is an architect. We have one that owns a bar actually. We have one that owns a roofing franchise. We have a doctor. The wellness industry is really starting to catch on. Our admin can help them on a lot of different levels. So that's a little bit about me.
Speaker 1:So are these assistants only going to be so? You just said that you're only going to focus on assistants or helping people within the Philly area. It's not nationwide, so you're limited to that area.
Speaker 2:Oh, that's a good question. No, I am not limited to that area. It's a good question. No, I am not limited to that area. It's a franchise. Anyone that's looking to get an admin in the greater Philly area, the five county area, would work through me. However, we have franchises all throughout the country and you don't have to sign up with a franchise. We can help you anywhere in the US is the bottom line.
Speaker 1:Okay, and are these? Are you guys calling them virtual assistants, or are they actually true on-site assistants?
Speaker 2:No, they're all virtual. All of our VAs are physically located in the Philippines. And the reason that we have such a? On a weekly basis we get over 10,000 job applicants from the Filipinos because they get to work from home. And it's such a draw because, if anyone's familiar with the Filipino culture, family is a high priority for them and a lot of times they are multi-generations living in under one household. So by being able to work from home, this allows them to obviously tend to the family's needs. And then we also have a higher pay grade, purposely to attract real talent, because we also know that here in America we have high standards and one of them being their English and their grammar. So even though we get over 10,000 job applicants per week, we hire less than 2% because our standards are so strict.
Speaker 2:And we keep having that draw for more and more Filipinos because not only do we have a higher pay grade, we also offer health benefits, which apparently in the Philippines it's very hard to get health insurance. We also have a profit sharing plan which can help them with their retirement savings. It can help them to buy a car. So it's not just you get a paycheck, there's a lot of other advantages. And then the community that CyberBanker has built there is pretty amazing. We have over 3,000 VAs that work throughout. We have clients throughout the US, so there's a large community in the Philippines, which is also a real advantage to you as a client, because they all talk and help each other to grow and learn so that you, as a client, have a really well-educated and a very efficient admin at your service.
Speaker 1:If someone's listening to this episode, where would they not? Where? When would they? What would be the ideal time for them to actually execute and say I need a VA?
Speaker 2:So one of the things that we say on a regular basis is a VA helps you leverage your time and grow your business. For example, this weekend I was communicating back and forth with one of our clients business. For example, this weekend I was communicating back and forth with one of her clients. He's he owns a roof max franchise and his business has exploded because of his VA, has been able to set more appointments, keep track of things much better for him and he says Pam, the best thing is I have more time now because she has stepped in, because he's on the road all the time.
Speaker 2:So I don't even know how he was juggling his business to start and he's quadrupled his business and his VA has only been working with him. I want to say he started with us in March, so what's that? Five, six months, and so his business is exploding and which is causing him to buy more territories because he feels he can. Now, because he has the leverage that he always wanted for his business to grow like it is, he's going to buy another territory and ultimately, he's going to be able to retire earlier. I think it's a great scenario. Earlier, I think it's a great scenario.
Speaker 1:So it sounds like these VAs have multiple skills. It's not just admin skills.
Speaker 2:Sounds like that he's using somebody that has the ability to do cold calls? Yes, and I'm really glad you brought that up. And so when we meet with a new client, we design their job description, which usually has 10 to 12 items on it, and then, based on what their job description says, is how we decide who to match them with. We want to match them with the appropriate virtual admin. And when I say that CyberBanker has designed their own personality assessment so that we understand if you're someone that is an analytical and likes numbers, you're most likely not going to be an expressive and want to make cold calls and answer the phone and interact with the public. You are someone that's going to probably be in the accounting field potentially. Like I said, one of our doctors uses our VA for their billing system to help them with that. We match the VA's personality to the job description and we find there's much greater success on both ends.
Speaker 1:So if I'm a business owner, I'm stretched on time. I want to grow my business. How do I best start and look at this option as using a VA to help me expand my business.
Speaker 2:That's a great question. So a lot of our clients have never had an assistant before. So we do training for their VA. They have 10 business days of training based on their job description, again for whatever their needs are, and then myself and my own VA can do additional training for them. We also have a SOP, a standard operating procedures manual, to give them a template to help them get started, because we understand one of the biggest hurdles in someone hiring a VA is the training. So we get that. So we've got their back in the sense of how much training that we do for them.
Speaker 2:And then I'm going to go back to the community, the VA community, because what we believe is when you give a test to your VA, the VA then needs to figure out on their own how they're going to accomplish that. We don't believe that you should be the one training your VA. Maybe I should qualify that all the time right. For example, I wanted to get a new website, look upon herself to go onto YouTube, to go into her community, her VA community and learn how to create a website. And now I have a new website and I'm thrilled with it.
Speaker 1:I guess this might be a little crazy question, but I need to ask if you've not had a VA before. Where do you step in into this place? And what I'm asking that is I have a VA that does all my post-production on my podcast and helps with my social media. I'm probably going to get another VA that will help out with some operational items, which we could talk about that after the episode, but there are some people that are very hesitant and they might be a little gun shy because of the cost. How can you help a potential client get over those hurdles?
Speaker 2:take the time upfront to form a relationship. And when I say that, I think one of the biggest challenges that people that aren't familiar with VA is they don't understand the virtual idea. And even though they're halfway across the world, they're still people right, they still need direction, they still want your feedback. And one of the things about the Filipino culture, if you're familiar with it, is they are the most loyal and dedicated and hardworking, one of the most loyal and dedicated and hardworking cultures. So when you gain their trust and when they get on board with your mission, the sky's the limit. There's nothing that they wouldn't do for you, which is the experience that I have had and that's caused me to buy the franchise, because I could not believe how these people, who have personally, physically never met me, just would work tirelessly to help me and my business to grow and succeed succeed. And now to your point about the cost of a VA is a fraction of the cost of an in-person admin, so typically the cost isn't one of their hurdles.
Speaker 2:In my experience, their hurdle is the whole virtual idea. Like how do I talk to them? And I'm like they have cell phones. Their phone works just as easy as if it was someone that's sitting next to you. We do a lot of zoom calls, and they actually let the audience know that our vas have us, that we provide them with a cell phone and a zoom account. They also we provide them with an email account too, and everybody chooses which way they're going to communicate with their VA. Some of them will use WhatsApp, some will use Facebook Messenger. I'm email or I pick up the phone, or I text, which is how I communicate with all my clients. So to me it's no different, and with technology today, that text goes through instantly.
Speaker 2:And my VA responds to me instantly, so there isn't any delay there at all. But you bring up a really great point. I actually thought that the VA idea would have taken off more so, with a lot of people working from home and working virtually. But it's interesting, a lot of people still struggle and would need someone in person.
Speaker 1:It's tough to adjust to. For sure I've had one for four years now and it was tough. It is, but once you get a cadence down on how to communicate and setting them up for success, it works very well. I have to go back to it because I know I had the question and I want to get it out there and I'm not trying to pigeonhole you into it. Typically, range-wise, what do people look at to invest in their first VA? As in dollars?
Speaker 2:Oh, money, yeah, okay. So our VAs can work part-time, which would be $1,000 a month, okay, and full-time is $1,500 a month and there's a one-time setup fee of $750. So for full-time, it's not even 20 grand a year.
Speaker 1:So that's great and you get somebody that has skills and then do you guys pre-vet them so you'll interview them and go through the whole process and then allow your client to then interview and then say yes or no.
Speaker 2:going onto your Zoom, call each of the candidates. You're sent their resume, their personality assessment and a video that they have filmed so you have a taste of each candidate prior to your rapid fire interview with them and then you do your interview. Each interview is about 15 minutes. You can call them back if you have more questions. If you decide none of those candidates work for you, we'll start over and find new candidates for you until we can find the perfect match for you.
Speaker 1:Is there any type of contract?
Speaker 2:that is required. Yes, so we have either a six-month or a one-year contract.
Speaker 1:Okay, because I was thinking, like you brought up website design. Yes, that would be a short-term thing, so is there an option for that, if someone wants to get something?
Speaker 2:done short-term. Can they come to you guys? That would be on a case-by-case basis and I'll tell you the reason why is because our VAs like the stability of knowing that they have a somewhat long-term job rather than just project-based, and then after a month they don't have to go find another client. We find that you get better talent when you do it that way, because there's more job security and personally, what's happened with me and many of our clients. So then okay, so they did that website. Then once the client realizes how much the efficiency and the capability of the VA, then they have all these other projects that they can assign to them.
Speaker 1:Would you say most of the VAs have multiple skill sets Did you say most of the VAs have multiple skill sets.
Speaker 2:Yes, the other thing I should let our audience know is more than 50% of our VAs are college educated, because that is something that parents instill upon their children is to get an education. Then you can decide go do what you want to do and, like I said in the early part of the podcast, because our pay grade is so much higher, that's why we attract the talent that we do.
Speaker 1:I don't remember being that high in the Philippines, but that's nice. I like that. I've got one that was a nursing student, went back to nursing school, finished and decided that she wasn't going to become a nurse and now she's a virtual assistant. I don't know, we all do that. We've all done something crazy like that in life. From a real estate perspective since I'm in that space also how would you say a VA has changed your business?
Speaker 2:Oh my gosh, my to-do list is not this long every day anymore. My to-do list gets checked off every day now. It's amazing, and it took me a little while to realize that I can give her everything. I was still trying to accomplish some of these tasks, which is silly, because the highest and best use of my time is selling. I'm not a very good admin. I'll try and figure something out. I'm like, why am I doing this? She's so much better at this. This is what she excels at. So what I love is anything that I think of she can accomplish. Our marketing plan is on point, because she keeps me on track with it right, like the beginning of the year. I'm sure you do the same. You have your marketing plan on how you're going to stay in touch with your clients and you can easily get derailed from that and get doing things, and she doesn't allow that to happen, which is pretty awesome.
Speaker 1:That's great that she manages that way. That makes life so much easier. So how long have you had the actual franchise?
Speaker 2:I'm in my third year.
Speaker 1:So I'm guessing you had a VA a little bit longer than that.
Speaker 2:I have. I've had a VA for five years.
Speaker 1:With that being said, what would you say from the start of getting your first VA? Is this the same VA for five years that you've had?
Speaker 2:No, it's not the same one.
Speaker 1:Okay, yeah. So from the very first time that you got a VA to now, what would be three nuggets you could share with the listeners that you would say has been life-changing by having a VA?
Speaker 2:Like I said earlier, you want to establish a really great relationship with your VA so that they've got your back, and I think in the beginning it'll be somewhat cumbersome because you're going to have to take more time to train them. I would advise training them on Zoom. What I learned quickly when I did that on Zoom was she records every one of our calls and that's how we got the standard operating procedures manual which is now up to 63 pages, right, and I never had one as thorough as this.
Speaker 2:She has graphics in there so we can give it to anybody and it's a Google Doc and they can edit it. So I recommend doing your trainings and having your conversations over Zoom if you feel it's something that you want to have transcribed, and then if I would try to picture them like in your environment, don't think of them as, oh God, they're so far away in the Philippines, because that never crosses my mind. She's there for me from nine to five, takes a lunch break. She's just as if she was sitting next to me.
Speaker 1:She's working nine to five your time, so that's in the wee hours of the morning in the Philippines.
Speaker 2:Yes, and she's always there and available. So that's why I say just put that out of your head, because you're not even going to realize once you start working together, because she's going to respond to every single email. She can respond to your texts there.
Speaker 1:And we have men too no-transcript you down and I would probably not. Probably. I know from experience that is. That is a problem for all business owners. You get in the weeds and you should actually not be in the weeds. You should be working on the business, not in the business, and that's a problem. We're getting close to the bottom of the hour, but I wanted to ask a couple other questions. So one from the standpoint of using a VA. Would you say, if someone's a little bit gun shy, what would be the best steps for them to do to understand the process, because I talk to people all the time they're like how can you use a VA? It's very simple you have a conversation, you go through it. Some people are very hesitant in that. What would your words of advice be on that?
Speaker 2:On occasion, we'll do promotions and give to give them a taste of what it's like to have a VA, because I do know the hesitancy that is there. You can certainly I'll tell you one of the things that I have done is, if I'm doing a presentation, a lot of times I'll have my VA with me. On the presentation she sells herself and once you see her and see her in action, it's a no-brainer. So I would encourage someone and they can absolutely reach out to me, I don't care where they are, I'll help them, because I just believe in this so much that once they have the same experience that I'm having, I know that they'll be hooked on it like I am. Because the one thing that, the one thing I should share too, is once the VA gets to understand your business. It takes about four to eight weeks for them to really get in their groove. Once they understand your business and understand how you like to run it, then they start offering ideas on how to improve it, and that's when I really was sold.
Speaker 2:I was like, oh my gosh, I never even thought about it. I'm on LinkedIn like I've never been on LinkedIn. It's amazing. I can't even believe how many conversations I have on LinkedIn and what a phenomenal vehicle that is on a professional level to communicate with other professionals. That's all her doing. Most of her videos she comes up with the topics. She also made my life so easy and was the one that told me about the CapCut app that has the teleprompter with your script, so you look like a professional. I never knew about this and we set an appointment every week. Right, and I don't miss it, and that's when we'll film a bunch of videos. And now she's got content. Do my social media promotion. That all wasn't happening on my own.
Speaker 1:It's game-changing, for sure. It's totally game-changing, it for sure is. And then, if somebody wants to reach out to you, where's the best place they can connect with you and discuss VAs?
Speaker 2:My cell, which is 215-205-8130. Or, if you like email, it's Pam at the Butera Group, which is spelled T-A-E-B-U-T-E-R-A groupcom.
Speaker 1:Do you guys have a? Do you have a website for the VA stuff and?
Speaker 2:that's virtual leverage solutions with an S dot com.
Speaker 1:Okay, I will put all that in the show notes so people can reach out to you. Thank you for coming on. I love what you're doing. It's a great thing because it's game changing once you find a VA that you can work with, because he or she can change your life and help you grow your business.
Speaker 2:Yes, yeah, it's changing lives on both ends it is yeah. Thank you for having me.
Speaker 1:You're more than welcome.
Speaker 2:Fun, appreciate it.
