Thomas Parkinson and Creating Your Ideal Life with VAs for Amazon Arbitrage

Automation, scaling, technology. Business is about people. That's it. And we found amazing people@onlinejobs.ph, honestly.

Hey, it's chelain from onlinejobs.ph and today we're really excited to have Thomas Parkinson here from Fast Track fba. How are you doing, Thomas?

I'm great, thank you very much.

Awesome. And you are not coming to us from a conventional home, is that correct? Where are you right now?

No, right now I am. Fortunately, I'm very lucky because I am in Vietnam enjoying the remote lifestyle that I've developed. So I'm very happy to be here.

So great. Okay. So Thomas, tell us a little bit about your business, what you do and what you have to offer.

I run two businesses and the main one which I'll talk about is Fast Track fba. And this is a business whereby we generally help Amazon arbitrage sellers. At the moment it's in the uk, but we are looking to launch into America this year. And the way we do this is quite simply by providing arbitrage opportunities to buy low and resell on Amazon within the UK marketplace. And I do this myself personally, so I have a vested interest and I know exactly how to do it. And we help other Amazon sellers doing that through arbitrage leads and also through VAs.

So awesome. And how long have you been doing that?

So I've been selling on Amazon myself for three years and Fast Track FBA has now been running just over a year. So really happy with the way it's going and we've helped lots and lots of sellers.

So in some of your content, I remember hearing you say, I've always wanted to be remote. So how did this start? How did you. Do you even begin this journey?

Quick rundown of my history. Studied electronic engineering university. Came out of that, didn't want to do it at all. Went into bar management. And I think my first bar was like 120 people I had to manage or five bars we say, went through that for a number of years. Then I went into recruitment, which was like my day job. And then I had to move. I had a girlfriend at the time, long term. And we moved from Norwich in the UK through to London in the uk. And I thought this is an ideal opportunity to just not continue the work, the 9 to 5, to start doing my own business. You know, I wanted to try it and I thought I was young, it's a great opportunity. And you know what? I tried it. So my first business I started was a procurement company. I ran it for a year. I opened up like 30 hospitals. And what I realized was that I basically replaced my job with my own business. I was being paid less and I had worse benefits, worse working environment. I was like, what am I doing? This is when it turned around that I realized that some of the suppliers we were working with, I, I thought, hey, why don't I sell these products rather than B2B to the business, why don't sell them to consumer? And I looked at ebay and then I looked at Amazon and then I thought, oh my God, I could start doing this. And then I started my Amazon business. And that was. And that was me working in London. And I probably did that about two and a half years. Ironically remote. And then I broke up with my girlfriend. Six years, a real shame. And I was like, oh my God. But, you know, amical, very, you know, that was okay. And I was talking to my friend, and my friend is into, you know, outsourcing. He's done it for years. You know, he's been a VA himself. And he said to me, you know, oh man, you should just like go to Thailand or something. And I was like, what? I was like, oh my God. Like, I've been running this remote business because I wanted to have freedom. And I've been stuck in the world's. One of the most expensive cities in the world and I should just be sat on a beach in Thailand. And that day, that day I booked a ticket to go to Thailand in a month's time. And then for the next month I spent shutting everything down, selling everything. And I still remember to this day, literally, I flew out like three o' clock in the morning, packed my bag and I just left. And my plan was, it was to go, was to go for four weeks and then I ended up spending six months in Thailand. Then I went home quickly and then I came back and then I. And then I went to Vietnam. And I've been out here ever since. I still remember it to this day. I think it was like I said to come back after four weeks. I spoke to my sister. I called her up and was like, hey, Claire. Hey, Tom. How are you? I'm good. I'm just letting you know I'm not coming home. She's like, oh, okay. When are you coming home? I was like, no, no, I'm not. I'm staying out here. I love this. This is great. I'm living the life that I've wanted to live, but I didn't really know it. And it's been fantastic and I've really enjoyed it and Making the opportunity to work online has been amazing.

Oh, I've got so many questions. How did it feel that morning when you packed your bag and left for Thailand? What was going through your mind? Did you have any fears? Did you have any reservations? Were you just like, we're doing this?

Yeah, we are doing this. My sister has a great saying, jfdi, just do it.

And love the enthusiasm. Love it.

And I love it. And I love it. And I think, you know, and I say this to people in business. I say this to people who are, like, holding back. They're like, oh, I'm just no jfdi. Oh, I'm just no jfdi. Like, just do it. Stop worrying. Just do it. And it's. And for me, like, that day, you know, it's crunch day, it's in the morning, and I remember I was like, oh, my God, my life is going to change. Like, I'm going out to the other side of the world. I'd never been to Asia in my life. It's the first time I'd done it. And I was just like, you know what, Tom? What are you worrying about? Like, the worst that can happen is you can just book a plane ticket and come home. And I. And I remember it's a long old flight, and I landed in Bangkok and it was hot, and I was like, oh, my God, it's so hot. I'm so tired. But I loved it. I loved every minute of it. And, hey, I learned a lot about me, and I learned a lot about my business, and I've grown so much from it, and I've learned so much from it, and my experience has been amazing.

So I have this picture of you working remotely, and you are not in front of your computer 16 hours a day, depending on the day, right? Depending on the product launch schedule and whatever. So what do you do? What are the benefits of working remotely? What do you love about this lifestyle that you've created?

What do I love? I think, look, for me, working remotely is very much about it's opportunity. You, hey, you have one life, and you get to make that life whatever you want it to be. It's clay, and you sculpture it. And the ability to work remote is just the ability to live your life on your terms, how you want to. And the one thing I love about being remote is, hey, you know what? I'm feeling a bit like I've worked too much. I want to go to the beach. Okay, cool. Quick flight, two weeks down at the beach, not a problem. And I can do that and I can work at the beach. And then I'm like, hey, you know, I want to go skiing. Okay, quick flight there. Carry on. Don't get me wrong, I am not. I'm not like on the beach all the time. But when you want to do something like this, you can do it. And it's freedom. It's generally true freedom. And I love that. I love that ability to dictate your own life. And I'll put it back. You ask the question, what do you, you know, why not the 9 to 5 job? When I was a recruiter, when I was working nine to five, they told me, this is my only office job, by the way. They said to me, right, Tom, what you need to do is behind your computer, you need to have a picture. And on that. On that piece of paper, you know, a picture of that ideal house, the ideal car, the ideal holiday. And something else is going to motivate you. So every time you pick up that call, that phone and make a sales call, that is the reason why you're doing it. And I sat there after a year and a half, and I was just like, this is stupid. This is absolutely stupid. Just get on and go live over that side of the world. And that's all like, I'm starting my own business. I'm going to work remotely. I'm going to live the life on that beach and that picture and every single day if I want to. And, you know, I did it and you did it.

So where. Where did the gumption, where the courage come from? I think that's really easy to get stuck in the stereotype of kind of societal expectations and just say, you know what? I'm going to look at that picture every day, and maybe in 30 years, you know, that's what I'll actually have in my life. And yet you're running the hamster wheel over and over. So where do you get the umph to just go?

I would probably say one element of it was the fact that breaking up with my girlfriend was a big catalyst. I'm a big believer in kind of reducing down your ties to materialistic things, creating a minimalist lifestyle. And I say that it's not really minimalist. I've got quite a lot of stuff. But I come back to the point of you only get one life and you've just got to do it. You know, there are how many people out there probably be watching this right now, and maybe they're worrying about hiring a va. Maybe they're thinking, oh, I'm not Sure, if I should. And you know what? We've helped in Fast Track FBA so many clients with hiring their first VA and their mindset from before they've had that VA to the first time, you know, the day they wake up and the VA's already done half the work for them and they're like, oh, my God. And it's. It's your mind just change. You don't understand, you don't know what you don't know. And you've got to just do it. Because, hey, if it doesn't work, no problem, you come back. But if it works, wow. And I always sit there and I go, it's not so much like, how do I do it? I look, there are people doing this. There are people hiring VAs from onlinejobs.ph. there are people traveling the world, living the laptop lifestyle. It's not a question of, oh, I can't do it. It's like, I can how. Just the problems in my mind.

Yeah, yeah. So good. So just do it. Just go and figure it out. Figure out the how. So at some point you went from selling. Not just selling, because obviously that is. That's a big job, to teaching as well. So what made you create that transition? Where was that aha of you know what? I'm doing this so successfully. I want to bring other people into this. I want to include them in my success. How did that transition happen?

So for me, I've always been in, should we say managerial roles. I've always been in people. If I talk about bars, I'm always dealing with people. If I talk about recruitment, you're dealing with people. And when you're in an office, you're dealing with people. And I built this remote lifestyle. I built this freedom, and it was fantastic. But I still remember it to this day. I was in Thailand, and Thailand's a beautiful country and I loved it, but I still remember just feeling a bit lonely. I interesting enough, I'd started the Amazon business because I didn't want to have to deal with the hassle and I wanted the freedom. And now I got it, and now I was lonely. And interesting enough, no one in Thailand does what I do. So everyone does different types of Amazon selling, but not what I do. So for me, very much about saying, I just want to connect, I want to help people, I want to share my journey. But also as well, you know, the way I kind of pitch myself is, hey, look, I. I don't know all the answers. I'm not an expert. I just have a different opinion and I want to share it with you. And if you want to listen, fantastic. And I will support you in that journey. And one thing I love to do is I love to challenge people to think differently. So when they might have an idea, here's how other people don't. I said, hey, have you thought about doing it this way? And they're like, oh, I never thought about it that way. And hey, that's something that I love doing. And for me, Fast Track FBA is about helping other Amazon sellers and it's also about me connecting to the community and building that community. And, you know, working remotely, having a remote lifestyle can be lonely. And it's about building those connections, building that community. And for me, I get to every day in my business, so I love it.

That's incredible. Well, and education is so much more effective when it comes from that route of connection versus some kind of exterior mode or exterior motive of I'm trying to make money or I'm just trying to check these boxes. No, I really want to connect with these people. And I'm sure that your students, your clients, they feel that as well. I know that it's relayed very well in your videos. You come across very personable, you've got lots of great content and your interviews are so fun to watch. So you mentioned, and I discovered this as well, part of your business. As part of your business, you hire VAs for your clients or you offer that service, tell us how and why.

So to start off with the core business model was about providing arbitrage opportunities. So buy low, sell high on Amazon. And we'd probably done this for about a year and we'd done it really successful. We had really positive feedback from our customers. They really loved us. And then all of a sudden, a lot of customers just started coming back to us saying, hey, Tom, any chance you could loan me a va? Any chance you could give me a va? Any chance you could hire me a VA or train a va? And I was like, you know what? Yeah, like I could, but I don't really have the systems down that great and, you know, I'm worried about the quality, etc. Etc. And then it kind of just came around like, you know, you know what? Just do it, make it happen. You know, the community is asking you to do something. I've got a great opportunity here and people want me to do it. So I spent probably the best part of two, three months putting together a whole training plan, you know, obviously, whilst running two businesses at the same time. And we launched pretty much January 2020, so not, not long ago at all really, in kind of like beta. And we had great success, like really, really good success. And the whole, the whole fundamentals of it were that we didn't want to just hire VAs and put them through like an online training course and then say, yeah, cool, we'll spend a bit of time with them yet. You know what you're doing. Tick the box. Done. No, the whole fundamental of Fast Track FBA is about we add value to your business. That is it. If we are not adding value to your business, you won't come back. So these VAs have got to be top, they've got to be really delivering for you. And it's not only about the training we give them, it's about the aftercare we give, not only the VA afterwards to make sure they deliver, but also this is as much about training the clients on how to manage a va. This is the first time they've had a VA and there are so many problems they go through. But it's about supporting them and helping them grow their business. Because like I said, when you get that first va, your world changes and in so many positive ways, but sometimes challenges as well. And we want to help them overcome that and grow the business.

All right, and you've got some videos on your YouTube channel, which is Fast Track FBA, that go into quite a bit of detail on the recruiting process and the onboarding process. So could you give us, we'll direct our listeners to those videos if you're interested because there's a lot of great content there. But could you give us here, just a summary, a few bullet points on the things that you found to be most effective in your recruitment process.

So if I talk through the recruitment process, we do and what really works. So first things first, I learned this from being a recruiter, but also a manager. Recruitment is a two way process. I am looking to recruit someone, but also someone has to actively choose me. So that initial advert, that initial who we are, that first insight into who they see has to be professional. It has to be, be insightful into your business and it's got to be informative and hey, it's just got to work. So if you, if you make a really sloppy effort on it, it's not going to work. It's got to be a professional looking job app or job advert. So first things first, we do a great job advert, we talk about, you know, I kind of use a funnel thing, who the company is, what's the role they're going to be doing a little bit about us as a company and where they're going to be going and what's the opportunity for them. We want to sell the role for them and then we go. And interesting enough because we get so many applicants through online jobs. I think the last job we posted 190 applicants, which was like insane. And we were only looking to hire one person by the way. So we go through testing and we basically broke down the fundamentals of what we're looking to do. And again we're looking to find a product, find the same product on Amazon and then do some small calculations on it. And we want to know that process and we want to know how quick they can do it. So, so we test for those variables and that allows us to shortlist the candidates that we want and then from there we will then take them through to interview. And I do all the interviewing personally and the reason why I do that is, and I'd recommend this to anyone who's doing any interviewing is interviewing is a two way process. Again, you're hiring them, but they have to choose you, that is accept the job. So treat them with respect, treat them well. And also an interview isn't about, not about interrogating them at all. You know, interviewing is nerve wracking. It's a scary experience. And it's just for me, I just want to put them at ease. I just want to get to know them, that's it. And have a really relaxed interview, get to know them. I will be direct at times when I'm thinking, hey, I don't understand what you're saying or I don't understand your rationale behind doing something. But what I'm really trying to get to in the interview is what is their why, why do they want this job? Why do they want to work for me? And why did they make the decisions in the past? Because if I can see a good track record, if I can see this job is going to work for them, then I feel pretty confident they're going to work going forward. And interestingly enough, and then we'll move on. We go on to issuing contracts and we make sure it's all formalized. It's really important to set the tone from day one. And then we get them on boarded so they meet different parts of my team, they get the communication set up and then they go through the whole training process. And then even when we hand them off to clients, we will still very much be in communication with them, talking to them Checking up on them. You know, it's not just about doing the job, it's about well being as well. We want them to enjoy the work. We want them to, you know, value the work that they're doing. So they want to stay because, hey, we are investing in them. They are people. We're investing in them and they add value to our business. And as much as we talk about automation, scaling, technology, business is about people. That's it. And we found amazing people onlinejobs. Ph.

Honestly, love it. Love to hear it. One of the things that stuck out to me in your content was you say, if it's not a yes, it's a no. When you're weeding through. You mentioned you had 190 applicants, which is one of the beauties of working with onlinejobs.ph. but also, like you said, it can be a challenge. So can you talk to us a little bit about that? If it's not a yes, it's a no. And how you utilize that.

So I think when I'm interviewing, I kind of start off and I just say, you know, first of all, I introduce them, I give them a nice format. I just want to get to know them, who they are. I'll really dive into what they've done in the past. So I want to hear about their jobs that they've done and really why they've left. I want to kind of understand. I think the question is, is when I'm interviewing, I want to understand what's going on in the head. I want to understand that they're a rational person. They make rational decisions and they make logical decisions and, and they generally work hard and they do a good job. And the reason why I do that is because if I can understand who they are, then I can predict if they're going to work in my business and they're going to work well, or if they work my business and they want to leave, I'll probably be able to understand that beforehand. And for me, I'm just asking these questions. I'm really getting to know them. I'm really, really relaxed with it. But if there's something which doesn't make sense, like let's say, for example, it's a single mother with three kids and she said, oh, I quit the job because I want to, you know, I want to find another one, I'd be like, that doesn't make sense. You've got to provide. Why would you quit the job? So for me, if I have question marks, if I have problems, if there's something which doesn't sit right when I'm interviewing a candidate. Just say no. Like I. If the thing I say to people is like when you're interviewing, you walk away with a yes or a no. If it's a maybe, it's a no. And if it's a maybe and you haven't done your job, you need to keep asking enough questions that it either becomes yes or no. And if you still haven't got a yes, it's a no, because it's not a yes. That has worked well for me over time. So that kind of mantra, if it's not a yes, it's a no, works really well.

You're not just hiring VAS for your clients, you obviously have VAs who are working for you. Correct? How many and what do they do? And if there's anything you don't want to disclose, that's totally fine. We'd love to hear what they're doing for you specifically.

So I don't really keep track of how many VAs I have. It's not huge, but I don't really keep track because it's just a number. It doesn't really doesn't mean anything. So I think tom of my head, probably about 15 VAs. The only real number I really care about is how many directly report to me because I understand I can only manage between five and eight people. Any more than that, it just doesn't become effective. So I have two businesses, one Amazon business and Fast Track fba. So my Amazon business, I have three VA sourcing, I have one VA who does all my purchasing and he's got all my credit cards. And then I have another VA who was actually my first VA I ever hired. Still remember her really well. And interesting enough, she's from the Philippines, but she now lives in Hanoi. And I've met her many a times and she does kind of a bit about Amazon stock in the warehouse right through to sale and customer service. But also as well, she's kind of like the executive assistant. She oversees the other parts, she does payroll, she does a lot of other bits. And bobs really supports me in my business and even like clears down my emails, which I love because I don't have to do that every day. It's brilliant. So that's my Amazon business. I have someone who's just started part time doing kind of like content branding creation because I love doing it but I'm not an expert at it and just it's easier to get someone else to do it and it'll be Better quality and help people who are watching my channel. And then I've got my fast track FBA business and that we've got seven sourcing VAs and then we've got a team lead and they work as a fantastic team. And then interesting enough, when I was doing my interviewings, you know, I sometimes I have like 10, pretty much most Fridays I'll have between 7 and 10 hours of interviewing non stop, 30 minute sessions of interviewing non stop. I meet some really, really good, interesting people and really great people. And I met this one girl who really switched on, really smart and I was like, I want to hire you for an idea I've got. And so I basically hired her to start a new business we're looking at which is around bookkeeping, around, around Amazon seller central checks and invoice fetching. And you know, I come back to that point before your business is made up of the people in it. And I saw her and I met her and I spoke to her and I was like, I want to hire you. And I said to her, I said, look, do you want to take a risk with me? I've got this idea, I want to make it. You're going to do it. I'm not, but I'll give you the direction, I'll give you the customers, but you're going to do the work. And hey, in three months of time it might just fail, but it might work. Are you interested? And she's like, okay, yeah. And hence we started like the third business which is in beta at the moment.

Wow, that's incredible. So your business has evolved based on the type of VA that you've been able to find in there. Like that's so fun to that idea. I think that's so cool. So tell me about something that popped out to me was you said you have a team leader. I know when John is doing coaching he will say be careful. When you try to hire managers for your team out of the Philippines just because of cultural differences, sometimes it can be a little difficult to find a manager. So where did you find this team manager and how do you train them and how do you succeed with them?

So I probably say I'm quite fortunate in the fact that I've been a general manager in bars and I have trained managers before and trained people up management. So I have that experience now. Interesting enough, everyone I've promoted into management position has been done internally and I've promoted them up. Now don't get me wrong, I've met some very, very good VAs who I've actually placed with clients to be in management positions and also people who will move into management positions because of who they are. You know, the things I kind of look for are their track record of what they've done. Are they creative thinkers? Can they. Can they think about problems and solve them? We want. There's a lot. There's a lot of cultural differences between especially the United Kingdom and the Philippines. And I've traveled to the Philipp and being there met probably 50% of my team, which is fantastic. But I do understand that cultural differences. And a lot of the time they'll say like, yes, sir. And you'll be like, do you understand? They're like, yes, sir. And they don't even to the point where I've said, I'll make something up that doesn't make sense. And I'll ask them, does that make sense? And they're like, yes. And they're like, well, that's good, because I don't understand what it makes sense. I don't know how the hell you know. So interesting enough is about how do they get on with you? How do they rapport? Can they be honest with you? And a lot of it is about that. The boss and the worker. And I'm actually looking for someone who can have a decent conversation with you, someone who can. It's not about challenging you and really causing problems. It's about saying if there's something wrong, you need to know. And the way I kind of work it with my managers and my team leads is very much about they are there to support their teams. They are there to do the great work and to really support the teams that when things get wrong, that's when I step in, that's when I come in, speak to the team member and say, look, you're having a chat with me now. There's a problem here. But that's not before. My team lead has generally done everything they can to fix the problem before I step in and then things get serious. So I very much support them in that process. I very much want them to grow the teams, grow the businesses. And I say, hey, look, it's your team. You are the leader, you make it happen. And it's worked really well. We've had some really great feedback, really great success. And unfortunately we have had VAs leave. And I always think VAs when they leave, they're the most honest. We always do exit interviews and I do them personally. So the general consensus from everyone on the exit interviews is that it's a great environment to Work for. We have a really great team dynamic. And for me, it's not about so much pay. It's not about just the job. It's about creating a team. And everyone loves the team that we work for. And it's about creating a great work environment. You talk about it in the US it's about San Francisco. Great teams, motivated teams, people doing things that are really cool and they have fun at work. And hey, that's what you should be doing in your online job. You should make everyone really happy, make it a great environment to work in. And I hey, when I do the training with my team leads, I'm like, every single moment you get the opportunity to recognize something which is fantastic, celebrate success. You should be jumping on that like there is no tomorrow. And like in our slack channels, we are. We've got all the slack channels and any good bit of news, it's like, oh my God, everyone's liking it, everyone's hearts, you know, explosions. And it's really nice. And even for me, I jump on calls with, I have pretty much all team meetings on Mondays. I jump in with every team, just listen, share some positive news. And it creates a really great working environment. So our exit interviews are really important because they feed back to that and how we can improve. But also as well, it's creating that great environment and also enabling and encouraging. Your team leads your managers in your business to. To create that environment. And that comes from me, generally comes to me if I'm not the person creating a great company environment, if I'm not encouraging, if I'm not leading by example and I'm not encouraging other people to do it. That's my company culture. I set culture.

I don't know of any human, regardless of where they live, what their culture is, where they come from, who doesn't thrive under a positive culture like that? I mean, you wake up and want to. I can say that working for onlinejobs pH, I wake up and I want to work. I want to start typing, want to learn stories and share that with other people. And that's a huge part to John's management. So I would attribute it 99% of it. Also, I like to talk and type, so that helps. Yeah, that's the other 1%. The other 99% is working for John and his incredible team of the Filipino team members that we have. So will you tell us a little bit about the logistics of managing a remote team? Like what kind of software you use, what your favorite ways to communicate are, what your requirements for them are in terms of communication or expectations, you'll just share a little bit of that with us.

Yeah. So for me in my business and the training of the VAs, if we just talk about requirements, is when we're talking about doing deal software, deal sourcing. A lot of the time we're talking minimum specific of computers, we're talking minimum 4 gig ram, like an i3, generally like an i5 and then like 4 megabit a second. You know, because they're working online and because they're clicking, you're loading up Amazon web pages all the time. They need to be pretty responsive. You know, I've seen VAs like, oh my God, they've got like three screen setups. You know, it's like insane rigs. I'm like, I'm jealous of you. How dare you. So I'm like, wow, this is impressive because as part of my interview technique, I always say, look, whenever they finish, the final thing I get them to do is three things. Can I get a copy of your computer spec online? Can you go online and do a speed test and can you share me a copy of your working environment? You know, you'd be amazed. Sometimes I see people who are, they've got a laptop on their bed and that is their office. And I'm like, you can't work eight hours a day on a laptop on your bed. It's just not viable. So I want to see that not only that they're going to do the job, but also as well that they're set up to do it and they treat it well. So I kind of look at that now. Software wise, we use Google Sheets, we use Slack, Trello, Skype, which I don't really like. Zoom's much better. We do a lot of custom built software, which is obviously for our business. And I proceed. The one thing which I use personally for myself, which really helps out is calendar. I can drop links to people and they can book in my calendar, but that's pretty much it. It's nothing too fancy. And we pay all the free versions AP from Calendi and it works. Communication is great. We do projects, work on things together and it just works really easily.

Yeah. So Calendee is how we scheduled this meeting. Right. And I thought it was so cool because it accounted for the time. So different. You're 11 hours ahead of me right now and I just had to pick my time and when I wanted to meet and automatically it set up in your time zone. So I thought that was, that was a cool feature. I'm sure, it offers more than that, but yeah, thank you for sharing that. This has been incredible. This has been great. Is there anything else that you would like to share with our audience on business, on outsourcing, on living the remote life? Any other advice you'd like to give?

I'd probably say, look, two final things and I'll just go back to it. If you're watching this for onlinejobs pH, whenever you're hiring, when you have your interview, always remember it's a two way process. You, you are, while you are looking for someone to come work for you, it's as much about them working for you as it is, you know, you employing them. You know, I cannot, you know, say that enough. The amount of clients we've got, who are, who initially think, oh, I hire someone and they just leave them to it, like, no, no, this is your team. You need to invest in them, you need to really develop them. And if anything, it's harder remotely. You know, I say communicate, communicate, communicate, communicate. And when you think you've communicated enough, communicate a bit more because you haven't. And it's like non stop communication. And then the final thing I'd probably say, if anyone is kind of, you know, wary or thinking about remote work online travel, onlinejobs ph hiring their first va, just do it. Honestly, it will change your life.

I love it. I love it. Thank you so much for your time, for your interest site, for your wisdom and sharing your experience. That was Thomas Parkinson with Fast Track fba. You can find the link to his site in the information below. Go ahead and check it out if you are interested in learning more about Amazon FBA and also check out onlinejobs PH to find and hire your next or first virtual assistant.