5 Essential Tips Before Hiring a Virtual Assistant

Your brand is flourishing and you are beginning to feel a bit overwhelmed with all that you have to do day-to-day to keep your business going. Maybe you’ve finally gotten to the point where you want to spend less time working and more time with your family.

You think it’s time to hire a Virtual Assistant. What’s a Virtual Assistant? A VA is usually a remote administrative assistant who can support multiple business needs.

Hiring a Virtual Assistant can free up your time to focus on the bigger picture, spend more time with family, or have more time to spend on hobbies you enjoy. Your VA can spend time doing your routine and time-consuming tasks, overall giving you more energy throughout your days.

Additionally, your VA can also be a second pair of eyes and ears. You will have the added benefit of someone working closely with you who can provide a second opinion or insight that you might not have thought of. 

So, let’s look at a few tips to take BEFORE for hiring a Virtual Assistant:

1) Figure out what you want to delegate.

First thing first, decide what you need help with. Start by paying attention to what you spend time on during the day or week. What are the routine, repetitive tasks that you can easily delegate to someone else?

• Do you need help with administrative tasks such as preparing a meeting agenda, managing your inbox, managing your calendar, or organizing digital files?
  
• Do you need help coordinating travel such as reserving flights and hotels, booking reservations, or setting up itineraries?
  
• Will the Virtual Assistant be empowered to support your business? Examples include creating processes or responding to leads and clients.

2) Determine your budget for the role.

1. When figuring out your numbers, think about how much you need to allocate to your hire weekly or monthly and also consider the following:

• What value will a Virtual Assistant bring to your business?

• How much time will you gain back if someone else takes over part of your workload? What will you use that time for?

• Look at industry standards for a fair hourly rate. Paying your VA well for quality work will incentivize them to stay with you.

• Think about the unique skillsets that they will bring into your business that maybe you lack. How will this impact your business?

3) Determine your type of hire.

Are you hiring an independent contractor, or would you rather hire an employee for part-time or full-time hours?

• Does the workload you decided to delegate more make sense for an independent contractor or an employee?

• Figure out if they will need to be available during specific time periods so that you can communicate with them. What time zones are acceptable to you for this reason?

• Does your budget work for an independent contractor for a few hours or an employee for part-time or full-time hours? You would not be responsible for the independent contractor’s benefits but you would be responsible for a full-time employee’s benefits, such as health care. Look into your state’s requirements.

• Sometimes, Virtual Assistants are specialists in a specific area, which means they may require less training than an employee.
  
• If you are going the employee route, people generally look for full-time employment when working remotely. It’s possible that hiring a part-time assistant may limit your candidates.

4) Write the job description.

It’s important to think about how the VA will be spending their time working for you and what qualifications or skills you may require.

• What experience do you want the Virtual Assistant to have? What traits are you looking for that would make this position successful? Keep in mind that some things (like attention to detail) are difficult to train.
   
• Regardless if you go the independent contractor or employee route, if the role is part-time, will the candidate be able to grow into a full-time role?
  
• What kind of training or if applicable, what benefits will you offer your hire?

(Want a free template? There is one in my Free 3 Day Email Course, Elements for Building Your Team!)

5) Use the hiring process as an opportunity to learn about the candidates.

Everyone can make a resumé or portfolio look impressive, but that doesn’t always mean they are the perfect candidate your specific needs.

• Include a sample task for the VA to do so you can see how they work. Think about a task that will require the applicants to demonstrate traits you’re looking for.
  
• Think about a task (or tasks) you do regularly. Ask them about their process to achieve a certain goal or finish a task. Is it similar to how you would approach the same task? Is their approach still accomplishing the same result?

The best part about hiring a Virtual Assistant is that you can completely tailor the job role to what you need for your unique business needs.

When you find and train the right person, your workload can feel easier, freeing you up to scale your business in new ways versus alone. Plus with your VA doing tasks that shouldn’t be on your radar at all (like researching or data entry), you’ll have more time and energy to give to your business, family, or personal growth!