This week Gavin talks to Nathan Hirsch, the co-founder of FreeeUp, a marketplace connecting business owners with the top 1% of virtual assistants, and who has since gone on to found Outsource School, a specialist service that allows you, through the use of VA's to scale up your business.Nathan talks about his entrepreneurial journey, how he scaled FreeeUp from $5k annual turnover to over $12 million, the lessons he's learned about scaling, and his astounding plans for the future.Sign Up Here: https://bit.ly/biz-podKEY TAKEAWAYSNate's entrepreneurial journey began in college, when he took the innovative step of using the Amazon marketplace to buy and sell used textbooks to fellow students, thereby saving them many hundreds of dollars.Because hiring was an issue for his Amazon business, Nate found the world of Virtual Assistants, and through his newfound interest in this world, founded FreeeUp in order to solve the issues he discovered there.FreeeUp sought to simplify and refine the process of hiring VAs. Each candidate was asked to submit to a process in which they could be vetted professionally, with only the best applicants making it through. This created an elite database of VAs for potential customers.Nathan chose to launch FreeeUp as a barebones system, and built in the subsequent iterations by listening to feedback from its users on both sides.Marketing, and becoming a brand ambassador for his businesses, is something that Nate fell into by instinct, having no prior experience. By honing and refining your marketing skills, you give your business a huge advantage.As a business scales, the need to hire and delegate becomes far more pronounced. Nate learned this lesson at the beginning of his career, when his Amazon business suddenly became too much to handle.If a VA is adding value to your business, then pay them what they want. Ask them what they'd be happy with. You shouldn't try to undercut people, as it can be exploitative, plus if they see opportunities elsewhere, they'll be more likely to pursue them.Do whatever you can to retain talent. Onboarding and recruitment are costly, both financially and in terms of time. Make sure it's not wasted.BEST MOMENTS‘We were dependant on Amazon, and that got old really fast' ‘I wanted to build a VA army' ‘Everything was either automated or delegated' 'The first stage I went on, I bombed' ‘You're going to learn this lesson on your own' ‘Eventually it's going to explode' ‘Find people who are going to be happy with what you pay them and then reward them over time' VALUABLE RESOURCES The Business Mastermind Podcast Nathan Hirsch LInkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/nathanhirsch/To learn more about Outsource School go to www.bit.ly/outsourcebmpABOUT THE HOST Gavin Preston Gavin is an inspirational Speaker, Business Strategist, Business Growth Mentor, Trainer andhigh-performance Coach.  He works with Business Owners and Entrepreneurs and has a strong track record in creating creative strategies to accelerate the growth of their business. He has helped hundreds of SME business owners and leaders improve their performance and that of their business and a comparable number of executives and employees in blue-chip corporates over the last 20 years.Gavin's energetic, insightful and yet down to earth and practical talks, workshops and coaching is in demand with high growth business between £250,000 and £30 million revenue and with multi-national organisations at all levels from Board to frontlineManagers. He is an expert in Business Growth Strategies, Peak PerformanceMindset, Persuasion & Engagement, Marketing, Productivity, LeadershipDevelopment, Team Development & Motivation, Leading Change, StakeholderManagement, Personal Effectiveness and Behavioural Change. CONTACT METHODGavin Preston WebsiteGavin Preston LinkedInGavin Preston YouTubeGavin Preston FacebookGavin Preston Twitter Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.