Virtual Assistants (VA) are knowledge work samurais of today. They enable you to navigate through your day without wasting time to repetitive and manual tasks. You can focus on your strengths and outsource your weaknesses. Ultimately, virtual assistants allow a new person grow inside you. Be productive, not busy. Learn how Mikko Ikola changed his life with Virtual Assistants. How to get started? I've found 90% of my talent from Elance. Register here: https://www.elance.com/?rid=2C060

1. Hire Knowledge Work Samurais: Virtual Assistants
Entrepreneur and biohacker
@MikkoIkola

2. 1) Why Virtual Assistants?
2) My personal examples
3) Different services

3. I’m an entrepreneur = Lots of work and prioritising
How do I juggle through my day?
!
!

4. “Focus on
being productive
instead of busy”
!
Tim Ferriss
4 hour work week

5. “The less you do the more
you (enable others to)
accomplish”
!
Andy Stanley

6. “By changing the way
you do routine things
you allow a new
person to grow
inside you”
!
Paulo Coelho

7. “A compassionate
samurai follows through
whether it feels good or
not; average people do
what they feel like
doing”
!
Brian Klemmer

8. Virtual Assistants Are My Samurais
VAs are part of my working habits.
!
They expand what I’m able to accomplish.
!

9. Web research Design Proofreading
Video editing (!)
Getting quotes Brainstorming (!)
What do I outsource?

10. My two permanent samurais
Satu
15 USD / h
Agnes
5 USD / h
- Tasks that can be
completed in English
- Lives in Philippines
!
Finnish language tasks
Pays my PDF invoices
Lives in Finland

11. Why do I trust Agnes and Satu?
Satu
15 USD / h
Agnes
5 USD / h
- Tasks that can be
completed in English
- Lives in Indonesia
!
Finnish language tasks
Pays my PDF invoices
Lives in Finland
They deliver

12. For everything else, I find the best VA
Sougato
3d print models
Tina
Graphic illustration
Examples of VAs I have
worked with during last 2 years
Goran
Web research
Elizabeth
English grammar
Olga
Russian translations

13. My personal
examples

14. Case: Book design
I was responsible to compile
“Recipe Booklet” for Ambronite
product., roughly 50 pages.
!
Text content of the booklet was
ready. I required somebody to
design the layout and get
proper ingredient images.
!
Time saved: 50 h
Price: $119 USD

15. Online banking outsourced
I hate logging into my online bank to pay PDF invoices I get over email.
!
Satu takes care of my bills. I forward my PDFs to her. We have a shared
bank account where I’ve put a moderate amount of money.
!
Time saved: 5 min per invoice - Price: $1 per invoice

16. Case: Contacting startups in Moscow
I had to contact Moscow-based tech startups and companies. I hired a Russian-
speaking VA to get the details below from 100 companies. It was a great base
to start reaching out to people through my own network in Moscow.
!
Time saved: ~50 h - VA price: $89 USD

17. Case: Find relevant health authors
I wanted to reach out to major health authors and bloggers online. I asked
Agnes to perform online research.
!
Time saved: ~8 h - VA price: $40 USD

18. Case: food catering quote
How to organise food catering for 65 people in a foreign country you’ve
never been to, and don’t speak the local language? My business contact had
this problem.
!
I asked my Finnish VA Satu to organise the whole thing for him. Satu called
8 restaurants to get quotes and made a recommendation.
!
Time saved: 6 hours
Price: 40 USD

19. Case: food catering quote
By the way, Restaurant Perho won this bid.

20. Case: Translation and subtitles
I had to create English subtitles for video recording of Jari Sarasvuo’s
speech at Quantified Self & Biohacking event. Satu, my Finnish VA, first
transcribed the Finnish speech, and then translated it to English.
!
Time saved: 15 h
Price: 100 USD

21. Case: Brainstorming outsourced
I was creating an organic drinkable meal product and looking for a name
for the product. I outsourced brainstorming to get suggestions. One
suggestion stood out: “Ambrosia” is a nectar of gods in Greek mythology,
which helped to acquire immortality. Sounds like our organic drinkable
meal.
!
We made a small twist and the name of the product became Ambronite.
!
Time saved: 10-100 h
Cost: 50 USD

22. Different services
Elance Zirtual Fiverr
Odesk Taskrabbit
99designs

23. www.elance.com
I have found 90% of the talent from Elance

24. Zirtual

25. fiverr.com

26. Merging
digital
and
physical
world

27. Merging
digital
and
physical
world

28. Outsourcing logo design

30. Chosen

31. Tim Ferriss

32. Do you speak Finnish?
!
Join to learn more about VA
services and to share your
experiences on FB page
“4 tunnin työviikko”
!
https://www.facebook.com/groups/
4tunnintyoviikko/

33. How to get started?
!
Try out Elance, that’s where I find
90% of the talent I need. Setting
up an task takes 5 min.
!
After one hour, you have multiple VA offers you can
choose from. You don’t pay until you select one.
!
http://elance.com/
!
!

34. Thank youMikko Ikola
Entrepreneur and biohacker
!
+358 50 4117282
ikola iki.fi
!
Interested in hearing this
keynote live?
!
Hire Mikko.
@MikkoIkola