Dubai, United Arab Emirates January 2023
Overlooking the city below, I was on the 140th story of the Burj Khalifa, the tallest building in the world, on a Tuesday evening. I was spending the evening with my business mentor, Caleb, and his wife. Unfortunately, they weren’t having the best time because his wife wore the wrong type of heels that weren’t meant for walking and her feet were hurting, so I walked around the outside to take in the view and get some good pictures.
Up high, I thought about how far away I was from my home in Phoenix, Arizona. The 40-story apartment complex I was staying at, with a view of the sea, looked like a tiny building way out in the distance. The city was lit with colors. You couldn’t help but feel like the king of the world when at this height!
Later, when we all could sit and relax, we had a 3-course dinner with drinks and had a great time. They live in Dubai, and this was my first visit, but I was immediately enamored with the city’s energy, architecture, and style.
At that very moment, I thought of how I had an entire operations team making sure everything was running smoothly with our school clients in California. I had built this team, and now with the help of a good operations manager, the team was building itself. This gave me the freedom to travel the world, make a healthy net profit, and work on other business ventures (like Net Profit King!).
There is a unique blend of virtual and in-person staff that works for my company and can also be applied to a dental practice. I already went over how to hire virtual sales assistants to make an extra $50k a year and here is how to put together the operations team, beginning with the key ingredient: the operations manager.
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- Put an Operations Manager Job Posting on Upwork.com
An operations manager’s main focus is to keep all of your systems running smoothly. You need to have phone support, up-to-date data, regular social media postings, email newsletters, staff, and much more. A good operations manager can do that, write SOPs, provide client support, call clients, talk to vendors on your behalf, keep your schedule organized, recruit talent, etc.
This isn’t a “virtual assistant” or even an “executive assistant” but instead a true “operations manager”.
First, go to Upwork.com and advertise your position. In the first paragraph, describe who you are and who you’re like to work with. Then discuss your mission and your focus, like how you want to help your clients lead better lives. Explain how important this role is for your company.
Then get into the responsibilities and cover letter requirements. I like to have them direct message me describing why they’d be a good fit for the position.
Offer 30–40 hours a week, working Pacific Standard Time hours (or whatever your time zone is), and list those exact hours (i.e. 9:00 a.m.–4:00 p.m. Monday–Friday). Offer $8-$13 an hour, which is a good amount in the Philippines and most of South America. Upwork takes a percentage on their end (about 10 percent) and you can always up the rate later.
2. Start Screening Candidates
Message candidates and ask them to meet you on Zoom. Set a time for about 15–20 minutes.
When you meet them look for:
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- Good lighting and video
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- Great English (verbally). Slight accents are ok, as long as the grammar and pronunciation are good
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- Energy and enthusiasm
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- Experience in operations (preferably in a leadership role)
See if you guys get along.
I Like to do TWO Zoom Screenings
Have someone on your team meet and interview them, to see if they’re a good fit. They can even ask the same questions because it helps to get outside perspectives.
3. The Trial Task
Pick an administrative task to test for competency. It should take about two hours and pay them for their time. We usually do a payroll organizing task with our instructors.
Give them the SOP, which stands for Standard Operating Procedure, and see how they follow it.
4. Reference Check
Ask for an email or phone number of a previous supervisor (not a colleague). Then send them an email and ask about the time they worked together, for how long, and how it went. Ask to rate their performance on a scale of 1–10 (and only hire 8s and above!).
5. Personality Test (optional)
You can use a variety of personality tests like Acumex, Culture Index, or even Myers- Briggs to see if your person is right for the job. You want somebody who is very detail oriented, likes people, and is also extroverted because they’ll be talking and later organizing a bunch of people. This is an outward-facing position.
If they succeed at every step, then offer them the job!
Pick a start date and time.
Write the SOPs (a future post will go over how to do this). Then at least if the person doesn’t work out (and the first ones usually don’t) you’ll have a built system for the next operations manager.
And here are our 3 most recent newsletters
• Five Steps to Get a Virtual Sales Assistants to Add an extra $50k in Revenue• Why We ONLY Work With Dentists• The Six Pillars of a “Net Profit-Focused” Business
Best,
Eric Horwitz,
(Follow me on Instagram, by clicking here)
If you’d like the help of my team and me to guide you through the process of bringing in virtual operations staff so your dental practice can bring in an extra $100k per year, book a call with us here to get started.