Hiring a VA can be a seriously exciting step for exhausted business owners. Think about it- you’ve worked day and night to grow this amazing business. You’ve passed up on vacations, holidays and so much more all so that you can fully commit to seeing your business flourish.
Now you’ve created a brand- a living, breathing accomplishment! It’s time for you to take the load off of your shoulders and enjoy the fruits of your labor. The logical next step here is to hire a virtual assistant to help you handle some of the day to day operations so that you can enjoy a little bit more freedom in your work/ life balance and maybe even focus on some revenue generating activities.
Most people immediately jump to sites like Upwork.com to find their dream virtual assistant. Sometimes this works out, but sometimes business owners in a rush to hire a rock star virtual assistant can sour the relationship and miss out on a good opportunity with an amazing VA if they don’t do a bit of work on the front end.
Before hiring a Virtual Assistant, you should check out these following tips to ensure that you’re ready to maximize your amazing virtual assistant when you hire them.
1. Evaluate your needs. Not your WANTS but your true NEEDS in your business.
Sometimes business owners eagerly hire a VA (virtual assistant) so that they can come up for air in their business. In the effort to relieve the day to day pressure of owning and operating a business or brand, business owners quickly fall into the trap of throwing anything and everything at virtual assistants. Yes, your VA may be a rockstar, but this is not the best way to leverage their super powers. Evaluate what NEEDS to get done in order to see your business succeed and what you WANT to see done in a perfect world. For example, you may NEED your VA to handle your calendar, but WANT them to manage personal errands. Prioritize your needs first and then circle back to your wants once those needs are being met and only if your VA has the bandwidth to handle those wants. Keep in mind that some VA’s operate solely on a business level and may not be in the business of personal assisting. If this is something that is important to you, ask your VA’s up front if personal assisting is part of their suite of services.
2. Be transparent about what systems your business currently does and does not have in place.
Does your business have systems in place that your VA can easily step into within their new role? Or do you have a mix of a little bit of everything to keep your business running day to day? There are no wrong answers to these questions (depending on which VA you ask), but it’s important to be completely honest when asking yourself this question prior to hiring a VA. If you have a system in place, then that is an amazing place for a VA to start and shine. This is also a great place to start if you want the VA to implement new changes in your current system for efficiency or profitability. If you don’t have a system in place, be very transparent about that with your VA. To really benefit you, you’ll need to openly discuss with your VA the pain points of why you don’t have a system. Discuss if you’d like to have a system and how you see your VA fitting into that transition- do you want the VA to create that system or do you want to work with the VA to outsource the creation of a system to a project manager? Throwing anyone into an environment of chaos without a system is simply setting them up for failure or for things to fall through the cracks in the future. Avoid that by truly asking yourself these questions about systems and processes in your business.
3. Be prepared for consistent and open communication.
Are you prepared to communicate clearly and regularly? If the answer is no, then you do not need to hire a VA. Communication is vital in any situation, but especially so with your VA. A virtual assistant can be great at many things, but we have yet to run into one that was a savant mind reader. Clearly communicate your expectations to your VA with each task. Many business owners expect VA’s to magically interpret the vision in their heads...without sharing that vision with their VA. This is a recipe for disaster! Be prepared to consistently and clearly communicate with your VA to really see the benefit of their talents. Over time, once both parties learn each other’s work style or systems/ processes, less communication will be needed, but up front in the initial stages of the working relationship this is a must! If you feel as though you can’t commit to this as a business owner, don’t jump to hire a VA quite yet.
Take Root,
Jessica Criss
Founder | Sprout Virtual Assistance Group, LLC
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