Business in emigration: Russian assistants for US entrepreneurs

Entrepreneur Boris Goncharov founded his business abroad and was faced with the problem that most of the time is spent on routine processes, and not on creativity and business. Boris hired himself a remote assistant. From this, a new business was born - the concierge service “Thank you, Tanya!”, Which helps Russian entrepreneurs to find Russian-speaking assistants. How to correctly transfer secondary tasks to outsourcing, portal Biz360.ru told the founder of the service, Boris Goncharov.

Фото: Depositphotos

Dossier

Boris Goncharov, 33, Founder, Concierge Service “Thank you, Tanya!”. Education: incomplete higher (State University for the Humanities). He worked in the field of advertising - first as a designer, then as art director and creative director at various advertising agencies. From 2011 to 2014, he taught creativity and strategy in the courses “IKRA” (interactive communications in advertising); lectured at the HSE on the course of media communication, at Moscow State University and other universities. In 2014, he moved to the USA, where he opened an agency Mosetank. The concierge service “Thank you, Tanya!” Was founded in 2017 year together with partner Vladimir Kudinov.

Boris Goncharof Photo: biz360.ru

Running in circles

Four years ago, Boris Goncharov came to the United States to find investments here for his startup. The trip to Silicon Valley took several months, during which he studied the conditions for doing business in the United States. He liked what he saw, and Boris decided to develop his project in this country.

Gradually, other start-ups who wanted to launch their products with minimal time and money began to turn to him for help. When there were many such requests, Boris decided to engage in counseling more seriously. He opened the agency Mosetankwhose specialization is to help other start-ups in the formation of the so-called “minimally viable product” (MVP or Minimum Viable Product - a working prototype of a product with which to test demand before full-scale development - approx. edition). For several weeks the agency has been developing and bringing to the MVP market for its customers.

When working on Mosetank Boris Goncharov had to solve many tasks of varying degrees of importance and complexity every day - document management, finding clients, paying taxes, working with freelancers and much more. The volume of routine work grew every month. At some point, the entrepreneur realized that almost all of his time was spent on secondary tasks that did not bring any satisfaction.

“If you're tired at the end of the day, it doesn't mean you did a good job. There is no direct connection between effort and success. Time is often wasted on solving problems that are not worth it. And you need to learn to notice and control such things,” says Boris Goncharov.

Tired of the endless "running in a circle," Boris decided to delegate part of his work. For this, he began to hire through the service Freelancer and other similar platforms of specialists from Asian countries. He handed over to them voluminous and complex tasks that he himself did not want to undertake for a long time. Such delegation justified itself: it became somewhat easier to work. But the daily routine tasks did not disappear anywhere and still required a lot of time and effort. Then Boris decided to hire a permanent assistant.

He found his first assistant in Ukraine. The entrepreneur purposefully looked for a Russian-speaking assistant so that the information would not be “lost” in translation. The assistant's training took about two months. First, Boris taught him to use online tools to organize his work - GoogleDocs, Xero, Slack, Trello, Telegram, WordPress, YouTube and others. To do this, the entrepreneur recorded 5-minute videos with explanations of how to work with a particular service.

After some time, Boris and his assistant worked out a work schedule with repetitive tasks. And their decision has ceased to take away from the businessman precious time.

“If you delegate a task that needs to be performed once - this is a one-time saving of time. But if you pass a task that repeats periodically, then time is saved “on a regular basis”. Such processes need to be automated and passed to someone for execution. This is a much more serious investment in your own time. All that is needed for this is to set and explain a task once, ”says Boris.

Testing a business idea

Boris Goncharov spoke about his work experience with the remote assistant to Russian-speaking businessmen who also worked in the USA. In response, he began to receive requests from them to find them as assistants.

“In America, as a rule, they hire specialists focused on a particular direction. When an employer tries to “load” an employee with the wrong tasks for which he has been employed, a problem may arise. It is for such tasks that outsourcing is needed, ”explains Boris.

To solve each specific problem, you have to hire a specialist in a particular area. Freelance services on average cost from 30 to 60 dollars per hour. Such amounts are usually too heavy for startups. Therefore, the founder of the company has to solve many routine tasks, losing time and energy on this.

Photo: biz360.ru

After seeing the demand for Russian-speaking assistants, Boris, together with his partner Vladimir Kudinov, decided to search for assistants for other entrepreneurs on an ongoing basis. So the idea of ​​the concierge service “Thank you, Tanya!” Was born. For the training of assistants, Boris and Vladimir have compiled a training program and a system for testing the skills of applicants.

Familiar entrepreneurs, for whom they were looking for assistants, paid only for the services of assistants themselves - the companions did not take anything for their help. At the first free customers, they actually "run in" their service.

Boris and Vladimir asked each of their first clients how they set the tasks for the assistant, how they communicated with him, how much time the assistant needed to figure out the task. In order to work with an assistant as efficiently as possible, the founders of the “Thank you, Tanya!” Service taught their acquaintances how to set the right tasks. We also communicated with remote employees - they learned about the difficulties encountered in their work.

The “test” period lasted about two to three months. In July, 2017, the “Thank you, Tanya!” Service began its work in the “paid” mode. Registering a US business is fairly simple, so it does not take a lot of time and money. Boris and Sergey opened the company for the week, providing a minimum of documents for this.

Choosing a name for a new project, its founders thought about the most pleasant moment for the customer: getting the job done.

“When you open your mail or instant messenger and see that the task is done, you say “thank you.” This is the main point of pleasure. The name was chosen as simple as possible so that it did not need to be dictated for a long time,” this is how Boris Goncharov explains the name of the service – “Thank you, Tanya!”

Investments in the new project amounted to several thousand dollars. These were funds earned on other projects. "Investments" of time and effort, according to Boris, amounted to several months of hard work. They went to the formation of a knowledge base and training, as well as communication with the first clients and assistants. The project, existing only 4 of the month, has already paid off and brings profit to its creators.

How to look for and train assistants

Assistant candidates are sought through job search sites in Russia, Belarus, Ukraine and other CIS countries. In these countries, a concierge service can offer a level of remuneration that suits employees and allows the project “Thank you, Tanya!” To be profitable.

The system of training new employees is built so that in one or two weeks to give the assistant all the material and test his skills. The training program includes time management, work with instant messengers, information search and structuring, communications, business correspondence.

When the assistant starts working, the training does not stop. Supervisors contact the assistants and help them understand new tasks that they may not have been told at the training. They also help to create the optimal method of working on the tasks obtained.

To his clients, Boris Goncharov recommends making “bases” of the tasks solved by the assistant. They will allow, if necessary, as quickly as possible to train and introduce into the work process a new assistant. Well proven and video instructions. Unlike explanations via Skype or phone, they can be viewed the necessary number of times from any location.

“We understand perfectly well that being an assistant is not a job for life. My assistant left me for another job after several months of fruitful cooperation. But we recorded all the tasks on video and stored everything in the task board Trello. And the new assistants could connect and see what kind of tasks they were and how they were performed before. Thus, the change of employees is as painless as possible, ”explains Boris Goncharov.

Task Center

Assistants are usually graduates and university students. All of them speak English sufficiently to correspond with partners and customers. Some of them are fluent in English and can apply their skills in telephone communication.

Assistants take mainly on a full 8-hour working day. For the Russian-speaking it is, as it turned out, a more understandable format. The difference in time between the place of residence of the client (USA) and the assistant (Eastern Europe) is 10-12 hours, which implies working at night. But it does not scare potential assistants. It is convenient for many to work in the evening and at night.

Some assistants are engaged in the implementation of tasks received in the daytime. Customers do not always require the presence of an assistant online. They often have voluminous tasks that can take several days to complete. They are mainly related to the collection and structuring of information, the processing of contacts, and the search for leads. Clients send tasks and after the stipulated time receive the performed work.

Photo: biz360.ru

“For students, this is an opportunity to receive a competitive salary. In addition, the work as an assistant is, in fact, an express method of teaching the most important practical knowledge. If you work with an American company, the range of tasks to be performed will be broad, and the requirements for the quality of their performance will be high. After such an annual “training,” a person, in principle, can prepare to open his business, ”Boris Goncharov is convinced.

The assistant does not have to do all the tasks himself. For the solution of some of them he can hire a freelancer. For example, texts for posts can be ordered from a copywriter, and a photo for them to buy from a photographer.

“The startup team usually has just 3-5 people. And among them there is no separate editor, copywriter, SMM-box. And when a task suddenly appears, it is carried out by the first employee who gets it, leaving all his other affairs. An assistant is a kind of “task center”. He does or outsource the work that in small businesses and startups there is often just no one to do, ”says Boris.

The core of the “Thank you, Tanya!” Concierge service team is 4 people. The rest of the employees work on outsourcing and are involved in the execution of tasks as needed. Freelancers are programmers, Internet promotion specialists, copywriters and many others. Two supervisors supervising the work of assistants also work remotely.

Pitfalls

The main problem in the first months of the “Thank you, Tanya!” Service was the variety of ways to organize work with clients. The founders of the concierge service expected that their customers would use the same tools as themselves.

"We thought that the client would communicate with the assistant via the instant messenger, and set tasks through Trello or a similar application. It turned out that it is more convenient for some to communicate with their assistants via email. But this is not scary - we are finalizing the interaction procedure for different types of communications, ”says Boris Goncharov.

Misunderstanding between clients and assistants occurs infrequently. These cases are usually associated with the expectations of the client, which are somehow not justified. To track such moments quickly, the service manager is constantly in touch with both the client and the assistant.

If the assistant has received the task and does not know how to cope with it, he can always contact the service supervisor.

For the founders of the service, it was a surprise how important the human factor can play. In one of the cases, a strong and competent assistant could not find a common language with the client. Then the service trained and provided the client with a new assistant.

Adds problems and the "special attitude" of Russian-speaking entrepreneurs to work. They strive in all aspects to achieve the ideal result and are often afraid to transfer tasks to assistants. Many believe that no one can cope better with their own affairs.

Boris Goncharof Photo: biz360.ru

The founders of “Thank you, Tanya!” Are sure: most routine tasks do not require performing at the maximum level. Doing such work independently, a businessman can spend several days. And setting the task assistant takes only a few minutes.

“For example, you need to find 1000 leads. If the assistant does this, 200 will be substandard among them. But you just throw them out and get 800 leads, which you haven’t spent a minute looking for. At this moment you are doing what you are interested in, ”Boris gives an example.

Price issue

An assistant for two hours a day will cost the customer 400 dollars a month. But the most popular tariff among customers of the service is a full 8-hour working day. It is 800 dollars per month, or 5 dollars per hour. We are talking about an assistant who can correspond in English.

If an entrepreneur needs an assistant with spoken English full-time, it will cost him 1400 dollars a month. The average cost of services of American specialists, part of the work of which assistants can take on - from 20 to 60 dollars per hour of work.

Photo: biz360.ru

As the market survey has shown, similar English-language services offer much more tariffs, which are divided into hourly packages. The founders of the service plan to develop a more detailed tariff schedule in the coming months.

“We are not trying to occupy the niche of an accountant or a social network specialist. But we can save time and money by organizing routine processes. For example, if we are talking about SMM, then this is the placement of ready-made posts, monitoring comments, replies to messages and much more. Otherwise, all this work will be done by a specialist whose services cost 60 dollars per hour, ”says Boris.

What's next

The founders of “Thank you, Tanya!” Have not yet invested in advertising their service. All clients came to him "an acquaintance" and after publications in the media. There are only a few dozen paid customers. But this amount is enough to collect feedback and on its basis improve the service.

“We want to better understand customer needs and articulate the difficulties that need to be addressed. Soon enough, we are going to launch advertising in order to go to the expansion stage, ”says Boris Goncharov.

The market for remote foreign employees has existed in the United States for quite some time. It presents services similar to “Thank you, Tanya!”. For example, a considerable share of it is occupied by companies from the Philippines. But they are trying to sell the services of assistants primarily to entrepreneurs from Asia or with Asian roots. Also in this market work and large players - for example, Amazon. He developed an outsourcing system for small tasks, but it has a different specificity. Russian-speaking competitors in the US market has not yet appeared.

“We have chosen for ourselves the niche of Russian-speaking entrepreneurs abroad - or rather, it chose us itself. But we are going to expand it. We will soon try to target our advertising to English-speaking clients. To do this, we plan to hire American employees,” Boris Goncharov shares his plans.

Read also on ForumDaily:

Ours in the USA: how to accidentally get into Hollywood, become a costume designer and open a famous store

Russian wolf on Wall Street: how a Russian found out that he faces a multimillion-dollar fine, but was able to escape

How to create a successful startup and move to Silicon Valley: tips from an investor

As a waiter from New York lives in Moscow

Do you want more important and interesting news about life in the USA and immigration to America? — support us donate! Also subscribe to our page Facebook. Select the “Priority in display” option and read us first. Also, don't forget to subscribe to our РєР ° РЅР ° Р »РІ Telegram  and Instagram- there is a lot of interesting things there. And join thousands of readers ForumDaily New York — there you will find a lot of interesting and positive information about life in the metropolis.