Hiring Virtual Assistant

One of the biggest mistakes a lot of entrepreneurs (whether they be online or offline) make is not delegating enough tasks. As an entrepreneur, your time is 100% money. You need to delegate certain tasks to qualified individuals so you can focus on what really matters.

In fact, one of my buddies has recently interviewed a well known entrepreneur who gave this exact advice: Success Tips From Millionaire Trader Tim Sykes*|*Richard Lorenzen

A virtual assistant is simply an online employee. Make sure they know what they're doing and can handle the tasks you need them to do. You may go through a few to find the right one, but they can be quite valuable to any entrepreneur if used in the correct fashion.

As a VA, I think it's a great investment!

But seriously, you can't do everything. Having a VA would definitely take the load off and will help you scale up your business.

As for criteria on what you should look for in a VA, you have to think of it like you're hiring an employee.

1)What tasks do you need to get done for your business? Think of the things that you don't want to do, don't have the time to do, or something you don't do very well and need help from someone who can do it better. List down these tasks, sort them according to those categories, and figure out what you want to prioritize. This will give you an idea of what kind of help you really need (VA? web developer? writer?) and how much work you'll be delegating to them.

2)What was it in your background that allowed your to do that job? This question will help you estimate the skill level (and cost) of the person you want to hire. Keep in mind that not everybody is an expert in everything and it's more cost effective to hire and train someone to specialize.

3) And what did you need to learn in order to do that job better and make it more suited for your business.
Every person you hire needs some sort of training. Even a very experienced VA, designer, writer, or programmer will ask for samples or guides so they have an idea of what from them. If you can prepare these materials before you start hiring the better. That way when you hire more employees, it's a resource you can reuse again and again.

Hope this helped. Feel free to PM me if you have any more questions =)

There are cheap VAs on Fiverr you can try. The going rate is 2 hours for $5. The great thing about using Fiverr is you get a clear idea regarding the quality of their work as well as their PRODUCTIVITY.

If you are thinking of outsourcing, you MUST weigh VA options based on PRODUCTIVITY. There are many VA companies that will try to get you to sign up for a MONTHLY PLAN. Don't fall for it. Pay for performance instead.

I am sure, if you hire the virtual assistant to help you, it is good. not bad for you. If you can complete the work, you will be profited.

The key to making the most out of hiring a virtual assistant is to conduct a thorough interview and a short paid trial test.

In the interview, ask questions that are relevant to the kind of tasks you want them to complete.

Likewise, the test should be something like what they would need to do on a typical day at work.

If a freelancer makes it through both these hurdles, they are probably qualified enough to work for you. The problem is that many qualified freelancers are not afraid to jump when better opportunities are provided. That is when it becomes important to pay them fair market value, and generally treat them well.

Depending on your needs, there are more and more options and alternatives. For VAs you can hire them hourly, weekly, full-time, or part-time, but there is also a growing number of options for per-project or per-tasks.

For example, I've used FancyHands for almost a year now and I couldn't be happier! It's very cheap and they do all the stuff that isn't worth my time anymore. Last I knew you can try it for free.

writeaway, I will keep this in mind. I am trying out Freelancer and oDesk, however, I'm having a hard time with oDesk, there may be a lot who are asking a low pay, but most have low quality of work. I will try Fiverr hopefully I'll be lucky with them.

Davidconstable, Yes, that's what I'm looking forward if I hire a VA. It'll be my first time so I have high expectations, that's why I'm thoroughly looking for the right person.

James, yes I agree, I'd rather pay high for quality work

I have personally used a Virtual Assistant to help me run my entire $500K+ business.

She was great and the best investment I ever made.

It's only when you can articulate the systems & processes and totally remove yourself from the business that you can actually begin to see what is working and not working.

From there you can focus on working on your business rather than in your business.

The company I used was Virtual Assistants | Worldwide101 Business Quality Support (no affiliate link, just an actual referral) ... Tell them I sent you and get the red carpet treatment!

Try it out .. if it doesn't work, it's you or your business that's not ready.

Great litmus test of where you're at in the life of your business.

Greg

Hello rafaela,

I hope things are going well with you and your family.

Yes, it is truly a good investment. I suggest you need to have plans in place first on how you can use use your future VA's.

You may need an online basecamp down the road especially if you have more than one VA where you can put your instructions there. That way you can monitor the progress of each project/task.

Anyway, you may PM me and it would be my very pleasure to help you.

Glad to help rafaela! To get your feet wet, I recommend outsourcing simple tasks. Something that can be done quickly, something that's easy to check for quality. That way you can easily figure out (and weed out) the qualifications you really need and a short list of people that know can do these tasks.

Hire someone on a task or a project basis to start, just to get you used to the idea of hiring someone. Prepare a service contract so everything is above board. It doesn't have to be very formal, just a clear agreement on what you want, what you expect to be delivered, and when you can expect it.

I know hiring a worker is a big step. It's good that your cautious and doing everything you can to prepare yourself.

I would check out odesk.

Indeed time is money. It's good that you have considered outsourcing. Getting the right VA is another learning curve by itself. For a start, look into your outsource readiness - have you established a daily routine (work flow), documented all the processes (checklist and videos are good)?

This is what I do before hiring VA

Short list interested people.
Give them small related tasks.
See the difference between the quality of all the work provided.
Choose the best VA.

Many people will be more than happy to go through completing the small tasks. I was reluctant whether they will agree to do it or not but 80% of the applicants were willing to do the test tasks.

Make sure you choose the best one among applicants.

Muchas Gracias everyone. I knew this forum would help me a lot and indeed it did. All of your advises helped a lot, atleast now I have knowledge on how this should would, I would definitely take all of your advises into note. As of the moment, I am testing my shortlisted applicants, as datingworld advised. Hopefully, I will find someone soon.

Never ever outsource something that you don't know how to do except if it is a skill like Graphic Design or Programming. It is better if you know it before you hire someone to do it. Having a VA team, it always sucks to have clients who don't have goals and expect you to build their business for them. We only do tasks but we don't decide how a business will go. It's the job of the employer to know that.

Hey! Ya I think assistants can be very helpful and useful. You'll be so busy with other stuff that you'll definitely not want to be dealing with all that extra BS that the assistant could take care of easily! Make sure you don't overwhelm yourself, that's the key factor here! If you do, you'll just end up losing business and then your eye ends up off the goal! You got it OP, keep it up, but as much as we want to do it all ourselves, sometimes we need just that one extra person

It is always best to have someone who will be able to cover you when you need to focus on other more important matters in your business. A highly qualified VA will be able to do certain tasks like administrative, email management, technical, web designs, writing, and other specialized tasks. You will have to qualify your VA depending on the tasks you need to accomplish.

The nice thing about hiring a VA is that you are actually cutting down the cost, because VAs are generally a lot more cheaper compared to real (face-to-face) assistants. Why? Most VAs are from overseas where the per hour salary is much cheaper.

However, there are still some drawbacks. First, you do not really know who you are dealing with. Unless someone you trust recommended the VA, everything will be on a trial and error basis.

Another thing about VAs is that they can leave you in the middle of the job, and you do not really have anything to hold this person. For this, try not to put all your eggs in one basket. You will have to hire multiple VAs, so you will always have a backup in case someone from your team disappears.

Finally, do not pay 100% upfront. In my own experience, I worked with a VA before for a technical job I did for a customer in Odesk. I only paid 50% of the agreed salary, which I think is just fair for the both of us. Upon completion of work, I paid her the other half, which I think she is happy with.

VAs are great! You will be making your life a lot easier when you decide to hire one because you will have someone to cover you while you are busy with something else. Just be mindful when selecting one.

Good Luck!

Everyone has pretty much covered all aspects of hiring a VA but I would like to add that asking what their internet speed is is also something you should DEFINITELY add to your list!

Fiverr has a great deal of VA's that you can trial for just 5$. If they do well most are willing to keep going on a more permanent basis so that's certainly a good place to start

Good luck,

-Ryan

There are only 24 hours in a day. Doing everything else limits what you can do by that 24 hours limitation. Hiring VAs allows you to get 48 or more hours of work done in one day. Well worth it if you want to scale up your business.

I would recommend doing everything yourself to get started. Once you are making decent recurring income then use that money to invest in a VA to do the tasks that you hate doing or are very weak at doing.

I agree, that is what I'm hoping to achieve with hiring VAs I've been jammed with work so I'm hoping that hiring a VA will cut it half or more. haha!


I was honestly gonna hire an assistant before this, but thanks to my friend who suggested a VA instead, I then decided to go with a virtual one, cost wise and everything else.

I guess that's the disadvantage right? that's why I'm looking for a credible one. Hoping that he/she will do a great job and not leave me hanging.

Here's another tip. Unless you are working with a specialist or you're using an outsourcing platform, NEVER PAY UPFRONT.

This is also very good technique use in Network marketing

i think this was good idea & good business.you can hire freelancing people for cheap price & then you will gets profit.

Well, it depends...

I'd never hire a Virtual Assistant just because I tend not to trust people over the Internet, until I meet them in person. Let's just say I've been scammed way too many times... I also prefer learning and doing everything on my own.

If I were you, I'd hire one of my own buddies to help me... And I would pay them more. But you will know who you are working with and if you can count on them...

~ Dave

I have never thought of it like that, I will look into this sometime when I get things all settled

Gracias! I will look into this.

I have never been scammed yet so I honestly can be on the same boat but I will really try not to get scammed by hiring the wrong applicant. I also want to try it, I have heard a lot of good things about it, so, I might as well give it a try. Thank you for the precautions though.

hey, i think its a good idea to get other people on board if you find someone trustworthy thats for sure, it really helps with the work load

In my opinion, if you are going to hire a web designer or developer then please I recommend you to read this article before starting interviews. You need to make sure few things about your web designer or developer before hiring one. 10 Questions to Ask Your Web Designer

The best advice I can give you is to watch how much time you invest. This is from experience.

It seems cool to have other people work for you but if you spend your entire day on email / Skype / creating tutorials for them and so on and after a few days, they simply don't get it, you'll end up earning less instead of more.

You want someone who can think for himself. Someone who will Google a problem and find the answer before mailing you. His or her skills does not matter that much, these can be learned.

Of course it is a good investment. If you do not know every work, you can hire VA. Everyone may not know all work web designer, graphic designer etc. I support your good idea

Muchas gracias everyone! I found a VA and she's awesome. I love her she's really good at what she does too.

Anyone I hire needs to have a 4.5 or higher rating, and must have prior experience and works samples doing the exact tasks that I am hiring for.

They must be proficient at English and have over 100 hours worked (i.e.: Odesk etc).

Also, in my job posting, I always include a goofy sentence or something that I instruct all applicants to include in the beginning of their applications.

This helps me determine whether they took the time to read my entire post and can follow simple instructions.

For example, something like: "I like the zesty zip, of Miracle Whip"

Having a VA is definitely a good idea, but make sure you know enough about the different processes of your business before outsourcing them. You don't wannna be taken for a ride after all.

Try different marketplace for hiring VA ,like odesk,freelancer,elance,guru etc

If in the future you need another VA I know a guy that you can definitely work with. Skilled, conscientious and honest. Here's a link to his website >> Rambo Ruiz

I have a team of 3 full time VA's and then others that i delegate projects to on a per need basis.

The one thing nobody really mentions is that finding the RIGHT VA can take time. It's the nature of the business - everyone will say they are qualified for A, B, and C but then when it comes time for delivery you may be disappointed.

You can avoid this by doing 2 things. Make sure you conduct an in-depth interview. Ask them questions that they should know about A, B or C. Ask them to provide samples of their work, and don't take no for an answer. If they can't provide you with samples of previous work - move on.

The second way is to make sure you spend the time to train your VA- most VA's are incredibly smart but you may do something differently then they do. So teach them the way you want them to do it. By showing them how you want your projects done/delivered, etc. (rather than just telling them) Both of you will be on the same page and you'll be happier with their output.

At the end of the day, your VA has got to be productive - otherwise what is the point?

If your starting of, then I don't think that this is a very good investment..

Start with some fundamentals..
1) Website
2) Blog
3) List
4) Sellable Products

Personally, at the beginning I wouldn't invest in this stuff

If you look in the Warriors For Hire section you will find some good service providers. The advantage of using the section here is that you can go through the feedback of other Warriors or ask those who have used such services for an opinion.

You will endup hiring cheap stuff from India/ Phillipines and buy frustrations. Atleast India is not very cheap ( if you need quality).. India can save 30-50%.. but if you need somebody working for $500-1500 a month... you will not actually grow. Better talk to some Indian partner who can open a centre for you and hire as per your need. This is just my advice.

Hi there I have read this thread and there is some very informative stuff. Thanyou everyone. I just wanted to suggest of you are going to get into hiring and using VAs there is a great book out called Virtual Frredom by Chris Ducker. It is about you and how to best outsource your work to the Philipines. Chris also has a podcast so if you have some time grab the book. I learnt a lot about myself and about how to get the best from your Virtual assistants

Coffeediva

It can be a good investment considering you get the right person!

Make sure you clearly tell them everything that needs to be done, and get them to use a screen recording software like team viewer for the first while to ensure they are not cheating you, before you trust them and let them work with minor interference from you..

rafaela, i highly recommend using a company that employs the VA's instead of hiring 1:1. this way you know the VA has been interviewed, trained, and is working with supervision. you should take a look at RemSource | Outsourced Administrative Support - they hire AMERICAN staff and all work out of baltimore, so they are ready to jump into your business and help with admin and bookkeeping.

Virtual Assistants are very good choice for startups and small business. Virtual assistants come ready made and you save your training cost. They are available at a reasonable cost, you can cut down your cost. They boost the productivity.

There are companies who don't have longtime contracts, have graduate assistants with prior experience and training. I strongly recommend you to try www.virtualsamaritans.com. They provide premium service at a reasonable cost.