We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Diego Aray. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Diego below.

Diego, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today One of our favorite things to brainstorm about with friends who’ve built something entrepreneurial is what they would do differently if they were to start over today. Surely, there are things you’ve learned that would allow you to do it over faster, more efficiently. We’d love to hear how you would go about setting things up if you were starting over today, knowing everything that you already know.

Well, if I had to start over but with the knowledge I have today, I would start with some changes that I have already done by now, one of them being paying more attention to networking. When we started back in 2019, we had the idea that having a great website and having social media up to date would be enough to attract clients, which of course was true and it is very important for every business to be on top of their online presence; turns out that even when that is a fact, business owners usually underestimate the power of networking and how knowing the right people in your industry even if they are not your clients, can bring you more opportunities.

From personal experience, I can say that lots of small business owners expect clients to come at them, which never happens unless you already have a reputation and your business is bigger; but when you are starting, you need to start knowing people, looking for customers yourself, and after a big effort, I can assure you that the fantasy of “clients knock my door asking for my services”, will become a reality. Today I am still amazed on how networking has helped my business as much (maybe even more) as spending money on digital marketing.

Diego, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?

Sure! My name is Diego Aray, I am one of the original founders of Beassist Group LLC. We started this business on July 31st 2019 (Today is our 3rd anniversary, at the date we are having this interview). It started with the idea of providing people the opportunity to work virtually with other companies anywhere in the world, as the situation in Venezuela (the country where I am from) forced people with excellent skills to work for very small salaries; at first we thought it would be an industry where you could only offer call center services, but then it evolved quickly into an industry where you could offer anything as long as it could be done virtually.

The issues we solve for our clients are mostly related to costs, as hiring someone from their own country would be more expensive than hiring someone from our team, and it would still have the same quality or the same results. We wanted to add the “personal” touch to it as looking at competitors we see they are very “corporate” in a sense that quality is left behind and the focus is just completing tasks; our services always come with the idea of helping that client’s business like if it was ours, and with that we always assure quality and a personal link between the client and us, which allows a better understanding of the goals and how each part can help the other to accomplish them, so you could say this is other issue we solve for our clients, the feeling of knowing who is helping them and that the virtual assistant they hire is a person whose job is not to only complete certain tasks, but to make sure our client is satisfied and their business is growing.

How’d you meet your business partner?

Oh this question is great, so we met at college because of a friend in comimon; and at that time we were sharing some subjects (as we are pursuing the same degree) but I think before that day we didn’t have any interaction. I remember I was already working as a Virtual Assistant but on small projects, but we didn’t talk to each other until the next year (2019), not because a particular reason, we just had different social groups.

So 2019 comes in and the idea of a Virtual Assistance business still wasn’t around. We started talking to each other but it wasn’t until June when the idea of a business came in, and for you that is reading this article, you have to understand that one doesn’t create a business with a person you started talking some time ago, you need a “click” with that person, something that matches and that to this day I don’t know what was it that made it so natural to work together and be successful at only months of starting.

Of course a business has highs and lows, and we weren’t the exception, I think the best thing out of this is that we formed a great friendship that was very independent of our business, we could count on each other on every kind of situation, it didn’t matter if it was a personal issue or a business issue. Trust became that high that sometimes we were just like brothers, didn’t matter how many disagreements we had, we always found the solution to it.

To this date since around February of this year, Anaís (my cofounder) is no longer working with us, but even though we parted ways, our friendship is still intact. The reason why I thought this question was great is because I think most people looking to start a business would like to do it with someone they already trust but they are afraid that any issues could damage their personal relation, or think that mixing up personal bonds with professional ones is not good; I started this business with someone who at that moment I didn’t really know, but ended up being just like a sister to me, and aside from any other benefit that your business could give you (knowledge, financial freedom, connections), making new friends is one of the best things a business can bring you. I know lots of business founders would like to avoid that kind of relationship on their businesses, but at least on my philosophy, I don’t work with robots, I work with people. Of course I would have liked to avoid the lows and only keep the highs, but if you asked me what would I have done differently in regards of having a cofounder or choosing another one, my answer would be to do exactly the same.

From behalf of all the team, thank you so much for these (nearly) 3 amazing years working together.

How do you keep your team’s morale high?

I think that falls on the category of team building, when your team is happy and you are near them, the results will automatically be great. Of course my industry relies a lot on being virtual, so seeing each other at a physical place is kind of difficult, so if you are on this industry you need to take advantage of any situation that comes across that would help you with knowing your teammates more, not like workers but like people.

I try to know my team as much as I can, connecting with them is very important, as their leader you can help with stress that may be built up from work, you can have a great time with your team outside of the office, and the most important part at least for me; I am someone that believes we learn a lot from our environment, from the people we know, the people we admire, and the people we care about, knowing your team can help you grow as a person and as a leader, and in this industry you end up knowing a lot of people, maybe some better than others, but a good advice would be that you have to avoid missing the great ones, as those are the ones that will give the most value to your personal growth.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.beassistgroup.com
• Instagram: @beassist_group