When it comes to business management, there are a lot of different tasks that need to be taken care of for everything to run smoothly. From customer service and bookkeeping to social media and website maintenance, it can be difficult for business owners to do it all themselves. 

That’s where virtual assistants come in. Virtual assistants are professionals who offer their services remotely, and they can help take some of the burden off of business owners so they can focus on more important things. 

If you’re thinking about hiring a virtual assistant, there are a few things you should do first. That’s why we’re here today, we will be discussing five essential things you must do before hiring a virtual assistant!

Know Your Needs

The first thing you need to do is to figure out your business needs. What tasks do you need help with? Do you need someone to answer customer service inquiries or take care of bookkeeping? Once you know what tasks you need help with, you can start looking into different VA services and types to see what would be a good fit for your needs. 

You’ll also need to figure out how much involvement you need from your VA on a weekly basis; how many hours you expect them to work over the course of a week, what days and times you need them to be available, etc. This will help you determine what type of VA you need to hire; part-time, full-time, or even just a one-off project basis. 

Write a Clear Job Description

After you’ve determined your business needs and the different types of VAs that are out there, you’ll want to draft a clear job description. This is important because it will help you weed out candidates who are not a good fit for the position. When writing the job description, be sure to include what skills are required and what the duties of the position will be. 

Also, it might be a good idea to throw in a surprise in the job description. Most people apply to jobs without thoroughly looking into the job description. So, throwing an extra question or a sentence in there that’s not really relevant to the rest of the paragraph, then seeing who responds to it would be a decent way to sift through the hundreds of applicants you’ll get. 

It would be smart to also list the amount of money you’re expecting to pay to your VA upfront. Clear communication is extremely important when outsourcing tasks or dealing with a VA in general, it makes the job way easier for both parties.

Gear Up for Interview Time!

Now that you have a clear job description, it’s time to start interviewing your candidates! This is where you’ll really get to know the person you might be working with and see if they’re a good fit for the position. 

Be sure to ask questions about their experience, their availability, and their rates. You’ll also want to ask them about the job description and what they think their duties would be. 

One thing you need to remember when doing interviews is to keep it relevant but light, it isn’t an interrogation and you don’t have to be aggressive with your line of questioning. The interviewing process is good to learn about them as an employee and as a person. 

Keep an eye on how passionate they are for the job, how much of a fit they’ll be for your and your business, and things like that.

Que The 80’s Training Montage

After you’ve found the perfect candidate, it’s time to start training them and making SOPs (standard operating procedures). This is important because it will help your VA hit the ground running and be productive from day one. 

It’s also a good idea to have SOPs in place just in case you end up losing your VA or having to replace them. You wouldn’t want the new VA to start from scratch as it may cost you time and money till they pick up on what they need to do and the optimal way of doing it. 

Go For a Test Run

You did your interview, you got your perfect candidate, it’s time for a test run! Delegate (link to outsourcing vs delegating article) a couple of tasks to them and see how they do and give them some feedback along the way. After the trial period is over, if you’re happy with their work then it’s time to make things official by signing a contract. 

Bonus! Communicate Clearly

One crucial thing when running a business in general and when working with VAs or outsourcing, in particular, is how important it is to communicate clearly. This cannot be stressed enough, if you’re unclear about what you need or want done it’ll either cost you more time and money as they do trial and error to see what works or in a worst-case scenario, they might just give up on working with you altogether. 

So, before anything else, take the time to sit down and map out what you need and want from your VA, make a list of tasks that you need help with, and things you want to delegate, and put it all down in an email or document so both parties are on the same page from day one. And go the extra mile and keep doing it! Don’t stop at just emails or messages, have meetings or calls, and record short videos giving your vision for the task. 

Nobody, including your VA, can read your mind. The clearer you communicate what you need from them or how you want the work to be done, the better it is for all parties. Everyone is happy when the communication is clear!

And that’s it! Those are the five things you must do (and an extra thing to keep in mind) before hiring a virtual assistant. Virtual assistants can be a great asset to your business, but only if you take the necessary steps beforehand. 

What Happens Now?

There are many Virtual Assistant companies out there, but not all of them are created equal, and you need to make sure that you take the best pick, it is your business on the line after all.

Saving time and optimizing processes, can put you ahead of most of your competitors. That’s why people outsource to VAs. We can help make the process of getting your own VA a lot easier than it may seem to you now.

We can help with that, our goal has always been to set up systems and processes that turn your vision into a reality all through the use of virtual assistants. You need someone to take care of all that grunt work you need to do? Cold calling or prospecting for new clients? Do your market research for you? Handle customers? A VA can help with all this and a lot more!

We understand that your business may have specific needs so something as general as “hiring a VA” without any in-depth info can be a major investment and you need to know that you can count on us. So, how about we talk a little to make sure we understand your needs and can serve you with the right fit?

And hey, our VAs come with a Free Forever guarantee, if your VA quits or leaves we just plug someone in with no trouble to you. We even compensate you for any trouble it may have caused. There’s quite literally, nothing to lose.

So, reach out, and let’s talk about how we can best serve you.

Don’t be a stranger!