How to Prepare to Hire Your First Virtual Assistant

Are you ready to hire a virtual assistant for your business? Maybe you have been toying around with the thought for a long time or perhaps it’s a new idea to help up level your business in the new year but you don’t know where to start.

Don’t worry, I’ve got you covered! I am going to take you through some key questions you should ask yourself before starting your search.

What do you need help with?

Make of list of the tasks that you have a hard time keeping up with. Maybe it’s social media or sending out monthly emails to your subscriber base. Add all the tasks that take you a lot of time and must be done but don’t bring you in additional income (i.e. online research/invoicing/email reporting). Definitely don’t forget to list the tasks that don’t light you up!

Are any of your tasks time specific?

Since VA’s can be anywhere in the world, it’s important to figure out if you would like them to be in your time zone based on what you will be outsourcing to them. For example, if you have time sensitive tasks then I would recommend hiring someone within your time zone so you don’t have time delays in your communication which could lead to task completion delays.

What programs do you use in your business?

Are there certain programs your future VA needs to be familiar with or are there programs you would like to be using but you don’t have experience with them? Your VA can manage those programs for you. For example, if you are an interior designer and know you want to start marketing on Pinterest, you may not know anything about Pinterest but this could be your future VA’s specialty. Win! Win!

What’s Your Budget?

It is important to know what you are willing to spend to get the tasks on your list off your plate. Every VA structures their business a bit different but the most common cost structures you will see are a certain amount of hours of assistance per month at an hourly rate or a monthly service package based on your assistant needs.

Of note, service packages tend to be more cost efficient than hourly rates because you are paying to have X,Y, and Z services completed for you not by the amount of time it takes to complete those services which could vary by month.

Make sure to put together a list of questions for your VA interviews

It’s important to interview a couple VA’s to make sure you find the right fit for your business and your personality. Remember they are going to be handling parts of your business and possibly confidential information about your business so it’s important to hire someone you’re comfortable with and look forward to working with.

“I don’t know what questions to ask!”

Don’t worry, I put together a Virtual Assistant Interview Cheat Sheet with all the questions you need to get started. Subscribe to my mailing to grab you download now!

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Warmly,

Meredith Raber