Over the last few days I have felt like Im in a bit of a rut. I think its just mental exhaustion for the last year. I am still working a full time job and trying to get this business going. Oh, and that Amazon business. Little bit of disappointment have been there from not getting our calls to providers done, to everyone on our Fix it Today team seeming too busy with other things to get the actual work done. That being said, it is time to hire help. I should have done it weeks ago.
So I have long used labor from outside the US. Starting our Amazon business, we found a couple of virtual assistants from the Philippines who were amazing and helped our business grow. Oh, and they only cost $4/hr. Having paid outside help for the last 5-6 years, it was a natural thought to try using outside help for calling. I do want to note that I definitely researched what it would cost for a cold caller here in the US. It look like $18-20/hr. Also looked at an outsourced US based company and its looking like $25/hr. We are a lean little company just trying to get our feet under us. We are going to start with foreign help.
So today was a long day of interviews. We posted a job on onlinejobs.ph which in less than an hour had about 30 applicants. I go through them quickly and filter them. I read their application note then check their profile. I’m looking for people that have worked in call centers or done cold calling. While there were a ton of applicants, if phone work wasn’t their forte, I didn’t extend an interview. Setup about 13 interviews and man…these people are great. We will likely end up hiring 2 people full time. Our calls will only get to be more and more and need to be done faster and faster as Fix it Today grows.
I don’t feel like much happened on day 2 of Fix it Today. Still a brand new business that needs to grow and get our name out there. To do that we need to revamp our Facebook ads. Oh yeah, I hired someone from the Philippines to help me setup and optimize facebook ads. That MFM podcast where Jesse Pujji said we should be testing 7-9 new ad creatives a week got me thinking. I dont know wtf Im doing when it comes to ads. So, lets just hire someone with a lot more experience. Enter Raymond. Young guy but has 5-6 years of FB ad experience. Thats about 5-6 more years experience than me 😂 We will see how it goes. I figure his employee cost will hopefully be outweighed by the better CPC.
