Tips to Find and Hire a Virtual Assistant

Hiring a virtual assistant is one of the best things you can do for your business. You can’t do it all, and that’s Okay. But don’t worry because a virtual assistant is a solution. So, first things first. What or who is a Virtual Assistant? A VA is an assistant who works remotely to help you with your business tasks. They are not employees, they are freelancers who run their businesses. There are many economical benefits like you don’t need a physical office, you don’t need to pay employee benefits, and you don’t need to pay taxes for them.

Virtual assistants can help make your job easier, save you time and money, and take some of the load off your shoulders so that you can focus on what’s most important: running your business well.

Have a clear idea of what you need your virtual assistant to do.

The first step toward finding a virtual assistant is to have a clear idea of what you need them to do. To make this easier, break down your tasks into categories such as:

• Administrative: answering emails and phone calls, scheduling meetings and appointments, filing documents, taking notes in meetings or conferences.
• Marketing: writing articles or blogs on relevant topics (this might require some research)
• Content creation: blog posts/newsletters/eBooks/reviews etc., including images or videos if required.

Virtual Assistants are not employees, they are freelancers who run their business

Before you hire a virtual assistant, it’s important to understand that they are not employees. Virtual Assistants are independent contractors who run their businesses.

If you’re looking to hire a VA as part of your small business (for example, if you’re an attorney and need help with filing or research), the best way to make sure they are properly classified as an independent contractor is to make sure they take care of all their taxes, expenses, and insurance. This can be done by having them set up their own LLC so that any work done for you is considered part of their company rather than yours directly.

However, having set up their own LLC is NOT mandatory.

Identify the schedule your virtual assistant will work.

Once you’ve identified your ideal candidate, the next step is to get a sense of their schedule. Many VAs sell hourly packages which means they will be available for work for a specific amount of time. For example, if you buy 10 hours of their time, per week, you should know they are going to be available two hours per day to perform any task you need to be done. There are many tools to keep track of their time, like ORA and HARVEST.

Another important thing to take into account about virtual assistants is that not every one of them sells hourly packages. You may find specialized VAs who sell service packages and, in that case, there would be no reason to track their time, only the project development and delivery date. Anyway, it is always a good option to set weekly meetings to keep track of the project and make changes if necessary.

Make sure you have a way for your virtual assistant to access what they need.

You will want to make sure that you don’t accidentally lock your VA out of the files they need when they are working on them. This could happen if you use a program like Google Drive and upload files to it but use a password or other security measure on those files. If this happens, then the only person with access will be the person who uploaded them — and that’s not likely to be your VA! Not only does it create an unnecessary hurdle for them in completing their tasks (they’d have to wait until you’re back online), but it also makes it more likely that something important could get lost because no one else has access.

If you outsource your email and calendar management, your VA would need access to it. Virtual assistants use tools and apps to keep your data secured, for example, LASTPASS, DASHLANE, or 1PASSWORD. These are password managers and apps that work as vaults keeping every password secured which is ideal when you outsource tasks like online purchases and your VA needs to use your credit card.

Use an interview process to find the best person for the job.

You should also use an interview process to find the best person for the job. You might be tempted to run right into your first interview, but remember: the whole point of hiring a virtual assistant is to get more done in less time. So, take some time before meeting with anyone, and make sure you’re prepared with questions that will help you determine if they’re a good fit for your business. Here are some questions you can ask during interviews:

• What services do you offer and what is out of scope?
• Can we discuss availability?
• What skills do you have? Are any of them particularly useful for my project?
• How would others describe your personality and work ethic?
• Describe yourself in three words.

Ask for a portfolio of previous work.

• What is a portfolio?

A portfolio is a collection of information that demonstrates your skills and experience. In the case of virtual assistants, it will usually include examples of various tasks they’ve completed for clients.

• What should be included in a portfolio?

Virtual Assistants would need to showcase relevant work that’s unique to you. As an example, if you’re looking for a freelance writer, then you need to see samples of writing samples in addition to any other relevant information (such as previous jobs). They should always include references from past employers and colleagues who know them well enough to vouch for their abilities. If you are looking for virtual assistants to help you with posts on your social media, then try to find previous clients’ testimonials they may have published on their social media as well. LinkedIn is a very serious and ideal place to find virtual assistants, and see if they have comments or references posted on their profiles. Many of them already write and post articles on LinkedIn to showcase their writing skills.

Test their skills before hiring them full-time.

The best way to find out if someone is a good fit for your team is to test their skills before hiring them full-time. However, this isn’t always possible (or practical). If you’re hiring a virtual assistant on an ongoing basis or they’ll be working with you on a limited project, it can be difficult to know how well they’ll work with your team until after they’ve started working.

So, what do you do? Here are some ideas:

• Test their skills before hiring them part-time. This might mean bringing on board for one hour per week at first, then increasing the amount of time as needed and as the relationship develops without risking losing anyone’s attention span with long hours at the beginning of their employment.
• Hire them on a trial basis so that both parties have time to assess whether there are any red flags or problems before committing long-term relationships together. This also gives everyone involved time off from each other in case things don’t work out well!

However, virtual assistants will not work for free. You should ask first if they agree to your terms. If you already found references, articles written by them, good comments, and testimonials on their social media, then this won’t be necessary.

Determine which website tools are needed

Depending on what kind of business you have or services you provide, some website tools are more important than others:

• Customer relationship management (CRM) software — A CRM is used to track leads and opportunities through each stage of the sales funnel so that salespeople can follow up at opportune times when they have something new to offer their prospects. This could be anything from emails or phone calls to set up meetings at events or trade shows.
• Project management software — This type of platform helps teams coordinate work efforts across departments so that everyone knows what their responsibilities are without having to constantly ask for updates about them every day before leaving work for the day (which wastes time). They also help keep clients happy by providing visibility into how far along projects are moving forward toward completion dates outlined in contracts signed between parties involved in these agreements — or even better yet: estimates are given from those who’ve done similar work before!

Wrapping up

This is an exciting time to be hiring a virtual assistant. Many tools can help you find the right person for your business, and there are also many great resources out there that can teach you how to get the most out of working with one. Now that you know what it takes to find and hire a VA, go ahead and start searching!