Today we’d like to introduce you to Rasheed Hamid.
Hi Rasheed, please kick things off for us with an introduction to yourself and your story.
I spent almost 25 years running and managing fine dining and casual fine dining restaurants throughout the country. At one point, my career took me to the Twelve Hotel in both Centennial Park and Atlantic Station, at that time they were called Room and Lobby. In addition, I have worked at multiple Four Seasons Hotels, 5-star steak-houses, and at the time, the number one Italian restaurant in Chicago. After a near-death experience, I decided to leave the hospitality industry and spend some time traveling the world. I lived on the Caribbean island of Anguilla for over a year, as well as Thailand, Bali, and Morocco. In 2019, I traveled to 39 countries while trying to figure out what was next for me.
On my journeys, I met ‘digital nomads’ and virtual assistants along the way. People who had opted for a minimalist lifestyle based on wanderlust and self-preservation. I became obsessed with understanding the mindset of a person who chose to live out of a bookbag or a single suitcase, working from cafes, beaches, and hostels. I wondered if I had what it took to abandon my tenured career and branch out on my own. In the spring of 2019, I took on my first virtual assistant client, and Extra Hands was born. The name derived from my many years spent running the front of the house in restaurants and hearing my chefs scream “hands!” from the kitchen. “Hands” is the universal call from kitchen to kitchen that signals servers, food runners, bussers, and even managers like myself that, Chef needs our help. My goal was to create a company that offered the expeditious and seamless help that I had provided to chefs all those many years, to start-up businesses, entrepreneurs, solo-prenuers, and even scaling and established businesses in need of a little help. In January of 2020, I had acquired four separate clients that utilized my services. Email and calendar maintenance, content creation, and keeping meeting minutes. But in March, the world closed. I feared that all of my clients would soon run out of money. That their clients would cease employment and the well would run dry. I feared returning to restaurants, whether as a manager or a tipped employee. I swore to myself that I would never return, but no one had planned for what was to come.
As industries began to close their physical doors one by one, my phone began to ring. Every week I had a new inquirer. Someone who had once worked closely with their administrative or executive assistant was now working from home, and their support person had been laid off, leaving owners, as well as employees, scrambling for extra hands. By April, I hired my first two contract employees. Today our company has grown to over 30 virtual assistants on call, a dozen specialists ranging from web development to human resources, and clients from Africa to Italy and New York to Houston. We are approaching a relaunch. A rebirth. We will be slowly rolling out our new brand, including a new logo, a new website, a new social media community manager with fresh, current, and relevant blogs and videos about the current state of digital transformation. In January, we added new services including CRM implementation, SEO, and keyword research, and our biggest addition is Legislative Services offered by a team of virtual assistants skilled in public policy administration. Later this year, we will launch Extra DEVS, a virtual assistant service offering the expertise of skilled software developers specializing in programming, animations, and Cloud engineering, and all of it will be offered remotely.
Alright, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
For the first two years, I thought I understood my business. I thought I understood SEO, website development, social media, and content creation. The beauty of my company is that I get to work with people who are experts in their field and who can pull me to the side and say, “your website is horrible, you should let me look at that for you”. I’m a firm believer in “you don’t know what you don’t know, but when you know better, you do better.” I’ve taken a lot of my earnings from 2021 and sank them into the development and growth of this business. Surrounding myself with individuals who are experts in their field but who are also interested in a symbiotic relationship has been the goal the past six months. If my website is horrible, fix it, and then work with me to help others. If my social media is trash, teach me, then let me introduce you to this client that I have who also needs your services. As I sharpen the tools in my toolbox, I’m also adding individuals to the team that will keep me from making the same mistakes twice, all while assisting others in need – the goal is to Get Your Gears Moving, My mom used to say, “you can’t pour from an empty vessel” – I needed to get my house in order if I wanted to continue to help others and be taken seriously at the same time.
Can you tell our readers more about what you do and what you think sets you apart from others?
There are many remote employment and virtual assistant agencies, and more will come. I can confidently say that I’ve done the research and I understand what sets me apart. My life in hospitality trained me to anticipate the needs of others, that rarely is the answer no, to go over and above expectations, and to wow guests at every possible moment. That philosophy still lives in me. I call it “white-glove concierge service” or simply VIP. Every one of my clients meets me first. My personality, my passion, my attention to detail, my love for what I do – and then they meet my business. We go through steps that other agencies would think are overkill, unnecessary, or time-consuming before matching you with a virtual assistant. To me, it’s simply quality control. People have options and they can take their money anywhere. They come to me because I become invested in the success of their business. This isn’t just a staffing agency, people bring their business here to grow.
We’d love to hear about any fond memories you have from when you were growing up?
I have a very vivid childhood memory of playing in the snow with mom back in Washington D.C. She would say, “you don’t remember that, you were too little”, but I do. I remember wearing my puffy onesie with the sewn-in mittens and the crocheted hat with the ball on the top. I can remember my mother spinning me around in circles, holding me by my wrists, my body parallel to the snow, laughing so hard I could barely keep my eyes open, but when I did, I’d catch her laugh. Finally, winded and out of breath, she’d let me go. I was never afraid, though I should have been. Falling through the sky to an uncertain ground beneath me. I knew early on she would never let anything bad happen to me. Then I’d fall through the snow like an anvil through a cloud and she would pounce in after me. I remember it like it was yesterday.
Pricing:
- Starter – for the start-up or launching entrepreneur, prices start at $900 every two weeks.
- Premium – for businesses experiencing scale and growth – prices start at $1200 every two weeks
- PremiumPro – for established businesses that need skilled project management based virtual assistants – prices start at $1500 every two weeks
Contact Info:
- Email:www.extrahandsvas.com
- Website: tinyurl.com/adminvatoday
- Instagram: @extrahandsvas
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/extrahandsva/
