5 talents
Pre-vetted to interview
1 round
Interviews needed to hire
100%
Of candidates shortlisted hireable
“The talent that Remote Leverage has is much better than the competition. My experience was phenomenal.”
Brian Baslin
COO, Gotham Lighting Supply
A COO Working 12-Hour Days and a Virtual Assistant Who Stopped Showing Up
Gotham Lighting Supply is a Women-owned Business Enterprise that has distributed lighting and control solutions to the real estate, design, and construction trades for close to three decades, serving contractors and electricians across commercial, healthcare, hospitality, retail, and arena projects nationwide.
Brian Baslin runs operations. His day starts at six in the morning and ends at six at night, and the administrative load that comes with a distribution business of that reach was landing on him directly.
He had already tried to solve it. An earlier Virtual Assistant, hired through a low-cost staffing provider, held up for four months and then came apart:
The hiring process itself had been part of the problem. The provider put two or three candidates in front of him and expected a decision on the spot, with no option to see a second or third round. He described the outcome plainly: it was not a good outcome.
Solution:
Remote Leverage took the role definition, ran recruiting and vetting end-to-end, and returned five pre-vetted candidates, with the option of additional rounds and a fresh shortlist if the first group missed. Brian hired under a direct hire model, paying the assistant directly at a rate she set, with a flat placement fee and no recurring markup.
That structure was the part he kept coming back to. His read on why the first placement failed was not the individual. It was a model where an intermediary collects a monthly fee, pays the talent a fraction of it, and leaves the person doing the work with no stake in whether it goes well.
Key Highlights
Metric | Value |
|---|---|
Role placed | |
Candidates shortlisted by Remote Leverage | 5, pre-vetted |
Interview rounds needed | 1 |
Scope transferred | Calendar, email, reminders, report drafting |
Coverage | 9 to 5, inside a 6am to 6pm executive workday |
Talent location | Philippines |
Hiring model | Direct hire, flat placement fee, no recurring markup |
Previous arrangement | Failed at month 4 of 6 |
Time to shortlist | [TK \u2013 not stated in the interview] |
Streamlined Hiring, Start to Finish
Five candidates, with more rounds available if he wanted them. The contrast with his previous provider was the thing he named first: two or three names and a decision demanded immediately.
He did not end up needing the extra rounds, but having them changed the nature of the decision. “All five candidates were great.”
Brian drew a distinction most clients do not. In his experience, spoken English was roughly comparable across providers. Comprehension was not.
What he needed was someone who could take a task and understand how to execute it, including working fluently in the Microsoft Office suite that his own day runs on. He credited Remote Leverage’s screening with testing for that rather than stopping at fluency.
With skills already validated, the decision came down to energy and working style. The first candidate he interviewed was, in his description, the most enthusiastic and the most lively of the group, and he hired her.
Outcomes
5 of 5
Candidates presented considered hireable, streamlining hiring
9 to 5
Assistant coverage, freeing up COO’s time to focus on what matters
Overcoming the Disengaged Assistant Objection
Brian’s hesitation was not whether remote support could work in principle. He had already been burned, and he knew exactly where the previous arrangement broke.
His answer has two parts, and the first one is about structure. When the talent is paid directly at a rate she set herself, the incentive changes. “The VA is actually creating her own destiny.” Nobody is dictating her pay, and the work is what she is depending on.
The second part he puts on the employer: “It all depends on how you train your assistant. Your assistant is only as good as the tools that you give her. And if you give them the proper tools, they will succeed and they will help you succeed.”
On the broader hesitation about delegating at all, his case is about throughput rather than headcount. Hand a report to your assistant and review it while you work on something else, and two things get done in the time one used to take. “You’re not going to get stuck in the minutia of any specific task.”
Why Gotham Lighting Supply Chose Remote Leverage
Brian came in having learned the cost of the cheaper option. What made the difference:
“I wish I would have met Remote Leverage prior to me hiring somebody else.”
Brian Baslin, COO, Gotham Lighting Supply
Results Summary
Success Metric | Outcome |
|---|---|
Previous arrangement | Failed at month 4 of 6, through a low-cost provider |
Candidates shortlisted | 5, all pre-vetted |
Interview rounds needed | 1 |
Screening standard | Rigorous English fluency and software competence vetting |
Coverage | 9 to 5, inside a 6am to 6pm executive workday |
Recurring fees | None. Direct hire, flat placement fee |
Next step | Planning a second hire for another executive |
Would recommend | “Definitely” |
Gotham Lighting Supply had already tried the cheap version of this and watched it fail at month four. Remote Leverage delivered five pre-vetted candidates on a direct hire model where the assistant sets her own rate, and the COO hired from the first round. He is planning a second placement for another executive.
Related reading: case studies for Saber Tech Group and DoubleClose.com.
