More Clients More Fun Publishing

Kelly Meng  00:00

Why don’t you start us off by telling us a little bit about yourself?

Paul McManus  00:17

Sure. I have a company called more clients more fun. I started it back in 2015. So I’ve been running it for the past seven years. It’s an online marketing agency. And so all my clients are virtual. And I’ve always had contractors that I work with, both in the United States and abroad. Okay,

Kelly Meng  00:40

and how has that been? When you first started, what’s different about it now, now that we’ve worked together for over a year, right?

Paul McManus  00:49

So during that time, and in what I do, it’s very heavily a done for you service. And so it requires, a couple of things. 

One, I only have so many, so much bandwidth. And so I need to be very careful about what work I take on me. And it makes sure that I create systems and have team members that can take on everything else. So that’s first and foremost. During that time that I’ve been doing it, I’ve gone back and forth between hiring American contractors versus contractors from overseas. The key reason is, is obviously cost. And so in my experience, I’ve found that I can get a decent quality American contractor from anywhere from $20 to $30, an hour, and abroad, it can range from $6 to $12 an hour. So there’s a huge difference. At that rate, today with Zoom and the fact that I work from home, it really doesn’t matter where the person is located so long as they can work US-based hours. And so you know, it’s really the upside is that difference in pay, which is what I want to capture. I’ve had different experiences, I’ve had different experiences. And so the first time I tried to go abroad, I would consider it a failure. The Philippines is pretty popular for virtual assistants. And I think it’s 2018, I tried to hire some virtual assistants in the Philippines. And it just didn’t work out. For whatever reason, you know, but just even though it’s paying less, I felt that I was almost paying more in terms of having to micromanage them, and the errors and all this, all these different things. And so I was discouraged. And I ended up going back to hiring American-based contractors. And I thought that that was just necessary for the kind of work that I do. So what’s really been helpful, and it’s really opened up new possibilities for me, is that since you and I started working together, you inspired and motivated me that I could actually be successful in hiring quality contractors from abroad. And so I, you know, I took the leap of faith, again, in terms of trying it based on your confidence and what you showed me. And now I think it’s been a year since I did this. And I’ve been very, very happy. I have a number of contractors, both from the Philippines and also from Brazil. But the quality of work is essentially the same quality as an American contractor. And so that’s really the main goal is the quality of work. But the pay scale is significantly less interestingly, with American contractors, even though it’s 20 to $30 an hour, that’s always like, oh, you know, when I get my next raise when I get my next race, whereas with the people from abroad, you know, you know, the same thing might happen, but it’s the difference of okay, well going from six to seven, seven to eight, eight to nine, etc, which is very doable. And so, you know, right now, I feel very blessed to have this awesome team of people. We meet weekly on a zoom call, and you know, it’s just fun. So it really feels like a team even though we’re scattered across the globe. And right now I’m in a high-growth phase in my business. So as my business is growing,  you and I are working on further creating a system so that we can plug in more people with very little effort into the growing operations.

Kelly Meng  04:40

Absolutely. And I think it’s it’s, it feels so crazy that it’s been a year because it really doesn’t feel like a year.

Paul McManus  05:05

What was interesting is that we gave her a raise. And because, you know, it’s like, well, what can I get out of this is that I gave her a new title, which also included a higher level of responsibility. And what’s just been fascinating to watch is just the level of ownership, you know, it’s like, you know, she was always good, but, you know, she’s like, even that much more motivated and takes that much more ownership in terms of the work that she does. And so, you know, it’s been a really, really good experience, and I’m very confident going forward, that we’re going to be able to, you know, build out as many team members as you want, as we continue to grow. And, you know, unless there’s something very specialized or, you know, requires American based person, which for most things is not the case. You know, I’m looking, you know, business is very profitable. So, you know, what life is good.

Kelly Meng  05:57

Exactly. And you already went into this a little bit, but aside from the difference in pay scale, and the level of ownership that these VAs have taken upon themselves after a year of working with you, was there anything else that really surprised you about not only working with this new set of people from, the Philippines, Brazil, where have you but also working with me specifically?

Paul McManus  06:23

Yeah, and that’s a good question. Because I think that’s really one of the core values that you bring to the table. I’ve worked with different companies before. And if you Google virtual assistant, there’s a number of companies and so I’ve worked with a couple of different ones. But really, where it breaks down, at least in my past experiences that they can set you up with someone, but the onboarding process is difficult. So you know, someone has time available and hours to do, but the communication, the systems, all the things that go into taking someone from across the world, who does not understand your business, and getting them more, they’re empowered, and able to do everything efficiently. With quality, that was always the breakdown before. And so you’ve really been a game changer in that sense because you not only have helped me to hire the right people, but you also helped me build out the systems in the SOPs, the standard operating procedures, and you’ve really been hands on. So I’ve really not had to do a whole lot, you’ve, you’ve taken a lot of ownership of that, not just hiring process, but that onboarding process, and then ongoing quality control. So it’s made my life very, very easy, much easier, and much more enjoyable. So I’m really getting the maximum benefit out of having these team members, versus what I think I see a lot of people do is they hire someone, you know, hoping that they can take on all the work, but then the quality of the training, the whatever piece isn’t in place. And so then they get frustrated, and then they, you know, kind of bounce back and say, well, I’ll just do it myself. And then they get frustrated. And so, you know, you really bring that thing, which I don’t know other people do. You know, I was stopped not seeing on the marketplace. I think that’s invaluable. One more thing, just to the hiring process, as well as that. It’s interesting, right? Because there are different websites out there, and you can, you know, try to find someone and, and there’s, you know, how do you choose the right person. So, also my experience has been you really, even though they’re a contractor, you really have to set it up like a job interview. And so the process that’s worked for me that you’ve handled for me, which has been very helpful, is that you, you know, you and I determined what we’re looking for, you put out the ad, you collect 100 or so resumes as a result, you then sort through them and interview via zoom, three to five of them. You record it, and then you send me the file of the resume and your thoughts on each of them. And so what’s really cool about that is that I sit back, I don’t have to do anything other than talking to you about what I’m looking for. So really, it’s like this outsourced HR department, kind of and you have done all that for me. I get the videos, I watched these 5 to 10 15-minute interviews, and I see the resume. And each time you know, there’s always one, sometimes multiple people that I like, but I really get to you know, pick the person that I think would be the best fit. And so, in having that process, it’s made it where the quality of person that we get is that much better than then you would find otherwise because if you just you know just take anybody you know, chances are they’re not going to best fit in You don’t put them through a process, but just to have someone help with building that process in terms of the, you know, the hiring, and then onboarding, and then kind of even the ongoing management, if you will, of people. That’s been invaluable.

Kelly Meng  10:15

Absolutely. And to your point, it clears your schedule up in your mind up to do stuff that you’re actually supposed to be doing and good at doing. It shouldn’t be doing just the business.

Paul McManus  10:29

But that’s exactly it. That’s why my business is growing so fast because my mind is cleared up. Yeah. And I can focus on those things where I bring the most value. And I don’t have to worry about, you know, all the many, many, many, many, many, many, many tasks that are associated with the work that I do. But that’s exactly I mean, it’s, you know, it’s, if you’re, say, a business owner, and, you know, you have to think about what your time is worth. And I think, you know, in my case, it’s always been this struggle of, well, if I bring on a new client, that’s good, but then I think, oh, but there’s all this work that’s correlated with it, and I hate you know, I don’t like getting overwhelmed. And so there’s always this kind of push-pull reality. Whereas now, thanks to you, we built a system where I can do what I’m good at, which is to bring on new clients to do the limited skills, parts of the onboarding. And then everything else is taken care of. For me, which is you know, really is allowing me to grow my business faster than I had before.

Kelly Meng  11:32

Exactly. Well, thank you so much for saying all those kind words. I really look forward to not only working with you for a long, long, long time but also very excited about the future of more clients more fun and wealthy on taxes franchise, and everything that you are going to create because it’s always going to be awesome.