A virtual assistant: is someone who provides various services to entrepreneurs or businesses from a remote location.
I have been a virtual assistant for over 11 years. There is a lot of benefits to hiring an assistant. They work on an as needed basis. You only pay for the time you use(at least that is how my team is.) You don’t pay for vacation time, benefits, equipment, office space or bathroom breaks …lol.
Something to consider when you are working with a VA(virtual assistant) is services are not on-demand. Usually fairly quickly and efficiently, but they are working for not only you but probably several other clients as well, so they have to manage their time to be a successful VA.
This to do:
- Make them a part of your team if you have one. If you don’t have others who work for you, then make sure they know how valuable it is when they can take the tasks you hate doing or don’t have time to do, and get them done.
- Give them a company email. Google Domains is great for this.
- Set boundaries. Let them know your hours and find out when theirs are as well. Share with them their decision-making power.
- Set expectations. Be VERY clear on what you expect from them. Make sure they know when you want tasks completed. If they aren’t aware of the due date, then they may put it behind other tasks on their list.
- Know that the first 4-6 weeks is a learning curve on both party’s account. Everyone works differently. You have to learn how to work with each other. It is not always a smooth transition, and give everyone grace as it is moving forward.
- Always be ready to answer questions. Every entrepreneur does things differently. Some just little things, some huge things. VA’s are not mind readers. But they must feel welcome to ask the questions so that they can produce quality work.
- Have regular meetings. OR be open to them. Maybe you won’t need them weekly. But at LEAST once per month. This keeps everyone on track. Things are less likely to slip between the cracks when you do this. Zoom is a great way to meet and have it feel personal.
- Keep the lines of communication open at all times. (We use Slack for our team and a few clients!)
- Be respectful of their time. If you plan a meeting with them, they have blocked that time off. So if you cancel last minute, especially repeatedly, that is not valuing their time.
- This one is VERY important….YOUR emergency is NOT your VA’s emergency, in most cases. We try to go above and beyond as often as possible, to prevent these. But again, we are not mind-readers. Urgent things come up. And we will do our best to accommodate for them. But it doesn’t ALWAYS work out that way.
What is your biggest concern when hiring a Virtual Assistant? Share in the comments! Also, join us in our Facebook group: She Grows Virtual, where we support female entrepreneurs and help them to grow online.