How to hire VAs for Amazon sellers - a podcast by Michael Veazey

When it comes to hiring and processes, we need to know where to find capable staff, define their roles and make sure they have a process to follow.



At what point should you be looking to hire people?

Maybe at the $500k/year OR 30 SKUS mark. 



Project Manager



When do you need one?



A number of SKUs/complexity determines this. 



$500K/30 SKUs - need a project manager - too much for one person



So maybe hire a part-time project manager. 



What does a project manager need to do?



Don’t have to be an Amazon specialist.



Their job is like lean manufacturing: deal with bottlenecks and mistakes.



They make sure jobs are done and done correctly.



It’s better to order a “lean” expert or a “sigma-6 green belt”.



Out of 700 processes maybe 72-100 are Amazon specific.



Rest is things like:  How do you hire someone? What is the email sequence?



What is “sigma-6 ”?



It’s a ready-made control quality and system development process.

What is the difference between Quality Assurance (QA) and Quality Control (QC)?

A quality Assurance manager develops and maintains the processes. They do periodic audits of the system.



The Quality Control Inspector inspects and then reports on the staff’s use of the processes.



Your “C” level or CEO or COO will be QC inspector when it’s a really small company.



For slightly larger companies, the project manager typically plays the role of  Quality Control Inspector.



But once you get over 15-20 people, you’ll need to have a specific Control Control Inspector -they would be the Amazon experts in TOS/legal compliance when hiring and processes are in place.

How do you hire a part-time Project Manager?

There are numerous places - don’t look for an Amazon specialist; look for a project management specialist.



The PM (Project Manager) is there trying to locate the bottlenecks and mistakes for the QC inspector to give you feedback and then they implement the fixes when hiring and processes are involved.



In the online world, you need to make sure they are proficient in the practice of choice. E.g. familiar with sigma 6 -and proficient in the tools of choice.



onlinejobs.ph is good but they are tabbed out - not enough people to fill roles.



If they were any good, they’d already had a job.



Hiring a PM in-house is ideal.



GoHire () software does a bunch of things - it’s for North America.



Look in the real world!



Reed uses Gohire programme - it goes out to ZipRecruiter etc.



There are systems out there to spread it out for you.



The key is the actual HR process. Asking the right questions.



You’re the visionary, not the HR person.

Defining Roles in hiring and Processes 

Define the role - maybe it’s something you as the founder want to have a hand in.



Project managers need to be more problem-solving.

Broad recruiting Process:

Job Role



Job ad



Send it out



Interviews



Job offers/contract



Company email address

Onboarding Process after hiring

Initially, they hired someone but didn’t have an onboarding process.



It made issues down the line. You need to help them to succeed at the beginning.

ecomprocess itself

Started early 2018.



The company’s employees are “certified” by Amazon and the employees have to take tests that are certified by Amazon.  1 test is publicly available but access to another four tests i...

Further episodes of Amazing FBA Amazon and ECommerce Podcast, for Amazon Private Label Sellers, Shopify, Magento or Woocommerce business owners, and other e-commerce sellers and digital entrepreneurs.

Further podcasts by Michael Veazey

Website of Michael Veazey