My Virtual Assistant Fixed My Roof Flooding Disaster
As I spent sometime reflecting over the holiday season and reviewing all my journals from 2019, I had a bit of a chuckle around a couple times throughout the year where my virtual assistant (VA) really saved my bacon.
In the past I have talked about the many ways that my VA assisted me with calendar management, support tickets, travel planning and online orders but these three cases show how my VA made a world of difference in assisting me with critical projects.
Roof Flooding Mayhem
I remember being on our third day touring Sri Lanka and getting a call from my dad letting us know that our roof in the kitchen had flooded, resulting in major water damage to the main floor. Being thousands of miles away and not able to do much my VA took full control of the situation.
He immediately got in touch with the insurance company, booked the assessment, coordinated all the vendors, helped file all the paperwork for the claim and followed up to ensure that the job was completed correctly, including the final payment. In addition to that, we did an amazing job coordinating with the tenants in the house to make sure they were taken care during the entire process. I would lie if I said I totally was at ease during the process, however my VA made a mountain of difference taking the lead (as if he was on the ground in Canada) to help manage the process from start to finish.
Over the years when it came to little things around the house that needed repairs or fixes my VA stepped in, saving me countless hours and money including:
Researching repair technicians when our laundry system, fridge and furnace went down (including getting all the quotes, payments and negotiations);
Coordinating all the calendars between my wife and I to have them to the house to complete the repairs;
Working to ensure that all the payment, invoicing and filing was done once the work was completed
Birthday Planning Hero
We all want to look like a hero when planning special birthdays for our loved ones. The timing of my wife’s 30th birthday landed right in the middle of a couple major deadlines at work, limiting my time available to plan and organize an epic day for us to celebrate with family and friends.
Following our Monday morning check-in with my VA I had him pull together a list of three catering companies (including food trucks) and come up with some creative ideas to develop a theme for the party. After a couple days he had short-listed and secured a food truck, pulled together a list of quotes for adult bouncy castles (yap those are a thing), sent all the requirements to the bakery for the cake and built the invitations for the party and managed the invite list (and maybe even helped me select her birthday gift).
Within a number of days my VA single-handily planned an epic birthday celebration for my wife and saved the day.
Remote Winter Tire Change
While I recognize this case might only be applicable to a smaller subset of the general population, for those who have had to get their winter tires changed know how much a pain it is each year. From booking the reservation, waiting in line and then waiting again for close to an hour to get the job completed, as you wander around twiddling your thumbs, is a giant waste of time.
In this case my VA did some online research and found a small business that would come to your house and do the the tire change right in the comfort on your garage. After sourcing the vendor and getting one additional quote I had the technician over our house, switch the tires out and get paid by the time I got home from work that next day. BAM. Now I can head back out into the -28C weather with a little more ease!
These are just a handful of cases on why we started up Despacho, to help people liberate from the day-to-day tasks and stay focused on the things and people that matter the most.
And the best part its only $250/month to get started for a part-time dedicated resource @ despacho.io. Feel free to message me if you have any questions about the process.