A successful business is what everyone strives for. Oftentimes, we neglect the negative circumstances for we have the idea that we can succeed. And seldom we associate a successful business by accomplishing every task on your own.
This is where we are wrong. Starting a business requires manpower, it requires division of labor and group effort. A business seldom collapses when it is not best managed, or when it is often in neglect. And do not worry, there is no need for you to hire a full time employee, what you can do is hire a Virtual Assistant, or an online freelancer.
Hiring a Virtual assistant increases your business productivity and efficiency by an exponential amount. To know more on why you need to a Virtual Assistant for your business you can read the full blog here (Anchor text for the Blog “here”).
Once you get the idea of why you need to hire a VA then you will need to know how to find the right one for you. And here are some tips that you can use to find that VA that you are looking for
- Prepare the job description
Preparing the job description is perhaps the most essential part of finding the right Virtual Assistant for your business. In order to find the correct VA you need to know what are the qualities that you are looking for. Look for the tasks that you can relinquish, or perhaps out of the level of your actual expertise.
This will help you organise your responsibilities, and confirm what are the other tasks you should entail. Prepare a detailed list of plans, and strategies. Let them know of what you want to complete and what you want to achieve.
- Know your budget
What you want to achieve on finding a VA is how much it would cost. There are pros and cons of hiring a new VA compared to a VA that has an overall experience of 12 years. This is where your budget decides.
Remember that getting a VA can be an investment if you hire the right one, however it is also important to consider that hiring a new VA is a bad decision, if they show extreme passion on expanding your business then that can be an excellent feat, and who knows your newly hired VA can be your way on making your business a success.
- Know your Virtual Assistant
This is perhaps subjective and at the same time crucial, but it is also helpful to undergo a screening test. Conduct an interview and get some sample works (if necessary), and let them ask questions for further necessary assessments.
It is also important to consider the time that they can commit. Most VAs are looking for another part time job, some are transitioning from one job to the other.
Make sure that they have the appropriate image or personality. They will be helping you with your business and will represent your company, thus you will need to ensure that they will not do anything that might disgrace you and your company. Some employers take their time to look for the VA’s social media profiles, previous employment and other online presence.
- Identify that task that can be distributed
This is pretty much related to the first point, this is for you to determine the type of VA that you will need to hire in a certain department of your business. This is extremely crucial in narrowing down on what is the department that is in need of attention that you can distribute. Just like in the first point, prepare a good job description.
- Look Online
If you got the preparation of your job description, got your budget finalized, and was able to identify the task that needs to be distributed then you will now need to explore hiring a VA. But now another question arises, “where should I look?”.
Now this will actually depend on how much time you can invest. There are agencies, job sites and other contractors that can give you some good recommendations.
Placing an advertisement through the job sites is also ideal, and would save you the trouble of looking for one, but you will need to undergo screening or filtering through applicants. With this you will need to ensure that they have done their research or if they are aware of the task that you are about to lend them.
If you are concerned that you lack time, then you may look for VA agencies that have already hired competent VAs. Agencies tasks are linking a VA that will connect them with the right clients.
- Make sure that your demand are realistic
Remember that your VA is a human being and is susceptible to mistakes, so make sure that the task that you are about to distribute is realistic. Be mindful of their needs and give them your expectations on what you want to see from the task that you gave them, and make sure that your expectation is aligned on the resources that you gave them.
- Lastly, hiring a virtual assistant is an investment
I understand that it may overwhelm you that you have a lot of these things to consider especially if you are just starting out with your business. But as we have stated, running a business is not a one-man department that you alone can handle. You will need to consider expanding your business to gain access for more resources, and to improve your lifestyle, hiring a Virtual Assistant will be helpful in these times and to know more on why you should hire one you may refer to the other blog provided in the intro.
Now hiring the right VA is like determining which side of the coin to call. Hiring the correct VA can provide you twice of what is your income and can expand your business ventures, whilst getting the wrong one might provide you with devastating setbacks. With these thoughts to ponder, make sure that you are hiring the correct Virtual assistant.