Supahands Offers Multilingual Virtual Assistants For Clients In Asia

Southeast Asia is the second-largest outsourcing destination in the world, but a new company called Supahands wants to help locals by bringing virtual assistants to the region. Based in Malaysia and Singapore, the startup plans to expand to Hong Kong, Taiwan, Bangkok, and Australia.

Co-founder Mark Koh first thought of launching a virtual assistant startup for Asia in 2010, but decided the market wasn’t ready at that point. Born in Malaysia, but raised and educated in Australia, Koh instead founded a Melbourne-based company called Global Virtual Support that hires Southeast Asia-based employees to handle customer service requests for medium-sized companies.

Last year, however, Koh decided that it was the right time to revisit his original idea. Based in Malaysia, Supahands launched in December. The startup, which is bootstrapped, says it currently has 500 active users.

One of the main things that has enabled Supahands to launch is the rapid increase of smartphone use in Southeast Asia. Most of the startup’s clients use mobile phones to enter tasks, get matched with a virtual assistant, and check on the progress of projects, says co-founder Andrew Tan.

Though 60% of requests are in English, Supahands caters to local customers with assistants who speak Mandarin, Cantonese, Tamil, and Malay, among other languages and dialects.

The startup currently has six full-time assistants, called “agents,” based in an office in Kuala Lumpur, but as the service scales up within Malaysia and Singapore, Supahands plans to train part-time employees who will work from home.

Some clients hire an assistant for a one-time program, like vetting cleaning services, but these turn into recurring tasks, says Tan. For example, a property owner who lives abroad and hires a cleaning team might ask Supahands’ agents to make sure that they show up at the right times. One of the biggest tasks Supahands has handled so far was planning a honeymoon.

Supahands’ chief competitors include freelancing sites like Odesk and Freelancer.com. Tan argues that Supahands makes hiring a virtual assistant easier by training and working closely with its assistants so clients don’t have to interview them.

All communication is done through Supahands’ online dashboard, instead of directly between clients and assistants, which Tan says helps with quality control.

He adds that Supahands’ biggest rival is actually the self-sufficiency of potential clients.

“In Southeast Asia, most locals have the mentality that they want to do everything by themselves, so our challenge is to help them see that they can outsource these tasks and save time for something more valuable,” says Tan.

New vs. Current Clients – Which Are More Important?

If you’re a freelance designer serving a target market that seems to be shrinking or not providing you with quite enough business, maybe it’s time to change up your client base. This can be done in a number of different ways, but usually involves making a decision about whether to seek out new clients, or upsell and strengthen your relationships with the clients you already have. We go over the pros and cons of each strategy, so that you can determine which is right for you.

In the meantime do check out some of these freelancer-client relationship posts previously published:

Market Health

Design in general has been both a buyer’s and a seller’s market for the past decade or so. More individuals and small businesses are in the market for professional design. At the same time, there are more working designers out there than ever before. This means that opportunities are aplenty for just about every designer who zooms in on a niche.

If you’re looking to narrow down your client base, which you should always be doing, a wise approach is to assess your current clients and determine whether or not they represent exactly the market niche you want to serve.

Read Also: Handle These 9 Client Types Like A Pro

If not, it’s time to fire those clients and find new ones. No matter what your niche is, there are plenty of potential clients out there.

Focusing Outward

Focusing on acquiring new clients requires more time and effort, in terms of marketing and reaching out. But it can result in a more lucrative freelance career. Not just because you can raise your prices with ease as you accrue experience, but also because you’re constantly exposing yourself to new people to work for, who also bring with them new possible opportunities.

Read Also: Freelancers: How To Raise Your Rates

Say you do some work for a brand new client that’s really nothing special. But that client happens to be closely associated with another influential person in your niche that you’ve been dying to be introduced to for a while, but who has eluded you thus far.

Well, impress client A enough and scoring an introduction to potential client B will be a breeze.

Shrinking Budgets

Sometimes, clients cut back on the number of design services they accept due to financial reasons. In this situation, it’s helpful to seek out new clients, rather than simply hoping your current clients pick up steam again.

This way, you’re not left hanging if one of your important sources of income suddenly dries up, which I’ve seen happen to a lot of designers. The moment you catch a whiff of things heading south, dust off your business cards and find some new business.

Read Also: Get More Clients: How To Harness The Power Of Testimonials

However, do keep in mind that the best clients are always the ones you form real relationships with. If you’re not doing your best to provide value and create a raving fan in each new client, then there’s no point in seeking out new business.

You’ll get stuck with one-offs and clients who don’t really care about you. They see you as merely a commodity – an Adobe technician for hire – which is the absolute worst place for a designer to be. Commodities can’t negotiate or make a good impression, and they always must take whatever work or compensation is offered.

Read Also: Freelancers: Learning When To Say No To Clients

Getting Referrals

Your existing clients should not be left out in the cold, however. You can make them feel appreciated by providing them with extra value. This will incentivize them to give you more work, or refer you to others.

Read Also: Entrepreneurs & Freelancers – Add More Value Or Find Another Job

You already have relationships with your existing clients, so it’s a lot easier to ask for referrals. Yet, many designers have a very hard time doing so – they’re afraid their client will say no, or that it will be an imposition. This could not be further from the truth.

Yes, you may get the occasional odd client who will balk at referring you to others, but this is usually a sign that it’s time to cut ties with that client. Remember, asking for referrals is a completely normal part of the freelance process. Any client who refuses to do this small service for you, after you’ve just provided them and their business with so much value, is the one with the problem – not you.

In Conclusion

So, to conclude, choosing between your new clients and your existing clients is a matter of personal preference and what makes sense for you. It all depends on your individual situation and the relationships you have with your clients. However, it’s wise to always maintain a watchful eye for new opportunities, so you won’t fall victim to any sudden, nasty surprises.

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Why Alienating Potential Clients Can Be A Good Thing

Does your client roster read like the advertising section of a newspaper? Do plumbers, veterinarians, landscapers, dentists – any and every type of small business who needs design services come to you? This could be because you’re the only game in town – not everyone lives in a major metropolis – or because you haven’t learned the art of alienating clients that don’t suit you.

Attempting to please everyone is said to be the fastest route to mediocrity. In fact, it’s the fastest route to outright failure. We’re going to look at why this is so, and how to go about streamlining your business to provide maximum value to the clients who are most worth it.

Recommended Reading: How To Create Your Ideal Client Profiles

Too Much Hassle

You should happily alienate certain types of clients. You can’t please everybody, after all. Some clients can be more trouble than they’re worth. We’ve all had clients like these. They’re demanding, yet tight-fisted about payment; they want plenty of options, but they don’t value you enough as a freelancer to compensate you fairly. They ask for services you don’t feel comfortable providing or which would require an excessive amount of time and resources to get.

To top it all off, they see almost no value in your work as a designer – maybe their spouse or colleague told them they needed a website or rebranding and they just went along with it. What are you doing serving clients like this? It’s a hassle that’s not worth it in any way, shape, or form.

Read Also: 11 Signs Of Problematic Clients You’ll Meet In Freelancing

Project Not A Good Fit

Some design projects are just not worth the trouble of taking on. Whether they’re simply boring to you, or they won’t contribute meaningfully to a strong portfolio, there are many reasons to turn down certain projects, even if the client is pleasant.

I can’t tell you how many times I’ve referred a perfectly good client to another designer friend of mine, simply because I didn’t think I was capable of providing the best value to them. If you don’t appear greedy for business – any business – these clients will usually take notice of that, and when a colleague of theirs comes along whom you are a better fit for, they’ll call you first.

Read Also: 15 Project Types You Will Face In Freelancing

Who To Alienate

So, what types of clients should you alienate? Choosing who to focus on is a highly personal exercise. You can start by creating a list of the most common traits of your 5 best clients. What did you most love about working with these people? What about the projects was most interesting to you?

When you’re done, you will have a reference sheet of the single type of niche client to zero in on. Anyone who doesn’t embody, at least 80% of, what’s on that list should be referred to a designer friend of yours who is more suitable.

Read Also: 5 Common Types Of Bosses (And How To Deal With Them)

Can’t Afford To Ignore?

Focusing on a particular type of niche client can be scary for some freelancers who aren’t as secure financially as they’d like to be. We’ve all done things “for the money” that weren’t necessarily fulfilling or career-building, and that’s okay in the short term.

However, if you consistently find yourself taking on work you don’t enjoy, just to pay the bills, that’s usually a sign that something is wrong. Either you’re not exposing yourself to the right type of clients who will pay more for your work, or you’re off the mark with your pricing and service offerings. Either way, you’re not providing the correct amount of value to the clients you’re serving.

Read Also: Designers – Why Flat Rates Can Raise Your Value

Conclusion

No designer can be everywhere at all times, nor can they be everything to all people. There’s no single, solitary designer who can provide the perfect solution to a generic pool of clients, nor should there be. If you want to be memorable in your clients’ minds, you have to first find the type of clients who are most likely to remember you – the ones who most value your contribution – and ignore the rest who don’t fit.

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