Hiring a Virtual Assistant — And Why It’s Easier Than You Think

Successful business owners are hiring virtual assistants to do the things they don’t want to be doing or are a waste of time because an assistant for $3-$5 per hour can help you to not be doing all the boring things.

Business owners are doing this so they can find their freedom and do the things that they are really good at. Great leaders don’t waste time doing things unless they are really, really good at them. Pay other people to do the boring things that you don’t like doing that you’re probably not even that good at doing.

If you’re a business owner who has been thinking about getting a virtual assistant there’s no better time than now to do so! With more and more people looking for work, hiring a virtual assistant has become easier than ever.

What kind of tasks can you give to a virtual assistant?

The answer is almost anything, especially anything that is repetitive or algorithmic. So what do I mean by that? If you find yourself doing something and it’s the same thing every single time, for instance, maybe every time you write a blog post, you have to do certain formatting. That’s something that can be given to a virtual assistant. Maybe it’s emailing new clients.

There’s nothing wrong with hiring a virtual assistant to do the things you don’t want to do. One important thing is when you post your job, make your applicants jump through hoops. What I mean by this is first off, have a title that’s interesting and enticing that makes people want to click on your job post, but then once they get in there and read it, you should have them jump through a few hoops so they can apply for your job.

First, I ask them who our top competitors are in order to figure out how smart they are, and how much they understand our brand. And if they say competitors that I don’t consider, like they’re in a completely different market, then I know maybe they don’t fully understand, but if they give me good reasons why there are competitors, then I might reevaluate them. Then of the people that do a good job on the sample project, I interview them and I just break down how this usually works.

Is it smart to make candidates jump through hoops?

Usually, if I post a job on online jobs, I’ll get about a hundred applicants. Of those, a hundred people, I’d say only about 70 people follow the instructions. Then I send them a sample project to 30 people, and then maybe only six or seven people actually do the sample project. And then out of those sample projects, maybe like two or three are actually really good. And the reason I do this is that I can take a hundred applicants and figure out who’s hungry for the job, and actually wants to do it and who’s smart enough to do it. The sample project early on is because in my opinion, if you’re not hungry enough for this job to do a 20 to 30-minute sample project, then you’re probably not a good fit. And of course, after I interview all the different people, it’s time to hire them.

Talk about what kind of tasks they’re gonna be doing

I recommend, whenever possible, getting a full-time employee. I have not had great success with part-time employees, but if you can, you’ll only need them part-time. Mention some of the perks like they can work whenever they want. They can work as much as they want and have a flexible vacations with time off when needed. Talk about all the different benefits of working together. You don’t want to talk about what you want from them.

What about a personality test?

There’s the Myers Briggs personality test, the big five personality test, the Igram personality test, the strengths finder personality test, and a ton more. But those first four are probably the ones that I would most likely be to get as my virtual assistant.

Your virtual assistant Is Waiting For You

So it’s time to start asking yourself these really important questions:?are you ready to hire a virtual assistant?

• What tasks should you hand over to your VA?
• How many hours should your VA work every week?
• Where should I start looking for my VA?

These are all exciting questions to have

If you’d like assistance with hiring your own VA contact us and we’ll be happy to answer all of your questions regarding hiring and managing Virtual Assistants