"If you are doing your passion, your business will be a hobby that you will not be tired of doing."
Pavel Stepanov Tweet
Meet Pavel Stepanov – CEO of the premier subscription-based virtual assistant company, Virtudesk, Inc. They provide highly trained and qualified virtual assistants for small and medium-sized businesses. Helping companies scale their operations by leveraging global talent and technology.
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Table of Contents
Thank you for joining us today. Please introduce yourself to our readers. They want to know you, some of the background story to bring some context to your interview.
Pavel Stepanov: I am Pavel Stepanov, the Founder, and CEO of Virtudesk. I was born in Siberia. In Ulan-Ude, Russia. I emigrated to the United States in 1997. Moving to America was the logical step because of the desire for a better life and better opportunities. America seemed to be the land of entrepreneurship, free enterprise, and where if you really want it, you can make it. The only thing that is needed is your desire to succeed and hard work.
For 3 years, I practiced real estate at a 100% commission brokerage. At the time, I was working 12-16 hour days with no real break. I was doing everything from Marketing, setting appointments, outbound calling, meeting with clients, going to showings, etc. I then decided to hire my first virtual assistant in order to help me set more appointments. The results were dramatic. My virtual assistant was responsible for doing outbound calling and setting up appointments. I could barely keep up, and after hiring her, I spent a lot of my time going to appointments. My sales that year tripled! No joke. I started to realize the value of virtual assistants and the power of delegating. After those 3 years, I started my own brokerage Nexus Realty in 2015. As I brought on more brokers, I realized they had the same problem – time. Just like I did. I discovered they needed virtual assistants as much as I did, and they started asking me about it. That’s when the idea of Virtudesk came on. I realized most of the agents around me desperately needed help, so I started Virtudesk to assist Nexus, and saw how I could expand past my brokerage due to this common pain point that all agents and entrepreneurs face.
You are a successful entrepreneur, so we’d like your view point, do you believe entrepreneurs are born or made? Explain.
Pavel Stepanov: For me, entrepreneurs are made. The moment that you decide to follow this track, you learn essential skills in starting and managing a business along the way. You meet great people whom you can learn from. You master tactics in scaling and growing your business which can’t be done in just a blink of an eye. There may be people who are born with a silver spoon on their mouths such as inheriting their family’s business, but it doesn’t mean they are already entrepreneurs. You become an entrepreneur when you pursue your business endeavor with the desire to help people through your products or services.
If you were asked to describe yourself as an entrepreneur in a few words, what would you say?
Pavel Stepanov: I’m a no-nonsense guy. I don’t like spending a lot of time analyzing something, talking about it, or “mulling” something over. I like to make quick decisions and get stuff done. I like to move fast.
Tell us about what your company does and how did it change over the years?
Pavel Stepanov: Virtudesk is a virtual assistant company and we help entrepreneurs scale and automate their businesses through virtual assistants and technology. We offer highly-trained virtual assistants based in the Philippines, specializing in services such as real estate prospecting, marketing, administrative work, customer service, and transaction coordination.
We help real estate agents, entrepreneurs, and small-to-medium-sized business owners scale their businesses by teaching them how to delegate certain parts of their business to virtual assistants so they can focus on the 20% of their business that produces 80% of the results. We primarily serve the real estate industry in the United States and Canada right now but are currently expanding into other industries such as Finance, Retail, Healthcare, Insurance, and others.
Aside from providing highly-trained virtual assistants, we also offer cybersecurity insurance and cost-effective rates. All our VAs undergo FBI grade background checks for your security and we provide access to our time tracking app where our clients can monitor their VA’s productivity. We also have Virtudesk coaches that will support your VAs to accomplish the tasks assigned to them.
Our company is rapidly growing over the years. Ever since the start of the company in 2016, we have been able to double our growth. Virtudesk was included in this year’s Inc. 5000’s fastest-growing company in the US ranking #1068, which is a great achievement for us. Of course, with bigger achievements, comes bigger, and more ambitious goals. For the next 12 months, we want to double our yearly income and sign-up rate. By 2022, we want to achieve 100+ sign-ups a month.
Besides that, we want to connect with other industry influencers and establish short-term and long-term partnerships. This will help us achieve our initial goal of more sign-ups while simultaneously connecting us to networks in different industries.
Thank you for all that. Now for the main focus of this interview. With close to 11.000 new businesses registered daily in the US, what must an entrepreneur assume when starting a business?
Pavel Stepanov: Starting your own business requires you to be financially and mentally prepared. You need money to fund your business and you need to equip yourself with basic knowledge on handling it. Taking risks and committing mistakes are inevitable so you must have a strong will to stand against challenges and continue moving forward. Consider what are your hobbies and skills. Check and ask yourself where you are good at and from there will be the beginning. If you are doing your passion, your business will be a hobby that you will not be tired of doing.
Did you make any wrong assumptions before starting a business that you ended up paying dearly for?
Pavel Stepanov: I have made a lot of wrong assumptions. Mistakes are inevitable. I realized I made mistakes very often, even daily. However, it was paramount to my learning and perfecting our systems and how we operate and present ourselves. One of the top mistakes I made starting out was not hiring the right people. They may have been qualified on paper, but I didn’t assess whether or not they were a good fit for the company.
I didn’t make sure that the people I hired always had the best interest of the company in mind. I ended up finding out that when you hire people who also don’t think similarly to you, it can be harder to take on new projects together. In the end, you have no choice but to fire them so your company can move on and stop wasting any more, including time and money. I realized this is very important in the early stages of a company. You have to bring on hard-working people who have a vision for your company as well.
If you could go back in time to when you first started your business, what advice would you give yourself and why? Explain
Pavel Stepanov: I wish I knew how to hire slow and fire fast. Especially in the beginning of Virtudesk, I was too fast to hire and slow to fire. I onboarded people quickly, because I needed help, but didn’t take the proper time to truly evaluate their skills, their intentions for the company, and their background. More importantly, I didn’t take the time on whether or not they would be a good fit for the job or with the company. I believe this is paramount to a successful working relationship and the employee’s success as well. You can hire 100 qualified people, but if they don’t think similarly to you on where to take the business or they don’t get along with the teams already on staff, then progress can be slowed, and less will get done to benefit the company overall and in the long-term.
Even firing slowly was a problem I had to overcome. Hiring someone can be scary, as you are taking the leap to trust them with part of your company. That’s why in the beginning it was hard for me to fire, as you do invest in them and put faith in them that they will do well. When you let someone go, you’re letting them and yourself down, at least that’s how it felt in the beginning.
Other hiring struggles I’ve encountered are just hiring friends, or people I am in close network with. Again, hiring was fast and easy – even fun and exciting. However, there have been times when they proved they didn’t cut the cake, and it took a long time before I had to let them go.
What is the worst advice you received regarding running a business and what lesson would you like others to learn from your experience?
Pavel Stepanov: Unfortunately, I didn’t have anyone in particular who I could look to for guidance, or who made the move for my business more manageable, so I haven’t experienced this. It was a difficult transition where I had to figure a lot of things out. However, having a positive mindset, networking with others, asking questions wherever I could, and working really hard helped me to make the transition more manageable. This is because mindset is everything in life. No matter what kind of hardship you are going through, if you have the right attitude, it will help you stay focused, problem-solve, and get through the painful situation. Plus, thinking long-term of what I wanted and making a plan to achieve it really helped me. When you think long-term and you identify what you want out of a situation, the steps to get there become more clear, and it stops being a quick fix solution or endeavor.
In your opinion, how has COVID-19 changed what entrepreneurs should assume before starting a business? What hasn’t changed?
Pavel Stepanov: Aspiring entrepreneurs tend to see building a sustainable business, set long-term goals, and seek a business that can stand even in the midst of a crisis such as Covid-19. They realized that adaptability is a must if you are an entrepreneur. What hasn’t changed is their endeavor to start seeking ways on how to future-proof their business, their optimism, and their hard work.
What is a common myth about entrepreneurship that aspiring entrepreneurs and would-be business owners believe in? What advice would you give them?
Pavel Stepanov: You have to have the skill to do something before you actually start executing. This is a huge myth. Many entrepreneurs I’ve seen are so worried about gaining the knowledge or skill themselves before they execute a plan or idea of theirs. However, that can really slow you down and consequently put you behind your competitors.
My advice is to not let this mindset or attitude slow you down or hold you back. Learning is great and necessary as an entrepreneur, but don’t get so perfectionist about it. Hire people that are more skilled than you in areas you need in order to grow and move your business forward. This will always put you ahead of the competition. Always remember, entrepreneurship requires interdependence, not independence. It requires a team.
What traits, qualities, and assumptions do you believe are most important to have before starting a business?
Pavel Stepanov: Execution trumps overthinking. Don’t worry about perfection and don’t overanalyze your next move. I see many entrepreneurs get scared to act when it comes to making important decisions to move their business forward. They are afraid of making mistakes. However, they have to understand that making mistakes is not only inevitable but essential to learn and grow and advance the business. It will never be the right time, you will never be ready or prepared to start your business or take on a new project or initiative. Just do it.
How can aspiring leaders prepare themselves for the future challenges of entrepreneurship? Are there any books, websites, or even movies to learn from?
Pavel Stepanov: Yes. I recommend these three books as they share valuable insights when it comes to marketing, customer service, scaling businesses, and how to achieve that work-life balance as they plan to start their business.
“Thank You, Economy” by Gary Vee talks about the importance of nurturing a good relationship with your customers if you want to grow your business. Building strong relationships with your customers leads to providing good customer service. I have learned a lot from it, such as giving importance to customers’ experiences and how to manage them.
Another book from Gary Vee is “Jab Jab Jab Right Hook”. He uses the analogy “Jab, Jab, Jab” when you sell your service and “Right Hook” when you land on leads. This illustrates how marketing is done and how patience is important to land that right hook for your business.
Lastly is the “4-Hour Work Week” by Tim Ferriss. All of us want to have a work-life balance but we are bombarded with a lot of tasks to be done, which makes this impossible for us. However, Tim Ferriss explains that this is possible because he cites ways on how we can free up our time and location. This way, we can enjoy our life and convert our revenue to 3-10 times more without even waiting for our retirement to do it.”
You have shared quite a bit of your wisdom and our readers thank you for your generosity but would also love to know: If you could choose any job other than being an entrepreneur, what would it be?
Pavel Stepanov: I love being my own boss, so this would be pretty hard. I was a real estate agent for a long time and loved the entrepreneurial aspect of it. I wouldn’t mind going back to being a full-time real estate agent. Even being a full-time investor is something I can see myself doing. I’m already investing a lot now. However, being employed by someone else or a company wouldn’t work for me, so I can’t give an honest answer there.
Thank you so much for your time, I believe I speak for all of our readers when I say that this has been incredibly insightful. We do have one more question: If you could add anyone to Mount Rushmore, but not a politician, who would it be; why?
Pavel Stepanov: I’m not really sure, but if I had to pick someone from business, probably Gary Vaynerchuk. I’m a huge fan, and he has changed the business world in how it approaches its use and attitude towards social media and digital marketing more broadly.
Jed Morley, VIP Contributor to ValiantCEO and the host of this interview would like to thank Pavel Stepanov for taking the time to do this interview and share his knowledge and experience with our readers.
If you would like to get in touch with Pavel Stepanov or his company, you can do it through his – Linkedin Page
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