Your business is growing and you now feel you are ready to bring someone into your team, as you can no longer do it alone. You don’t have the funds or the need for a full time employee. So you’re next best option is to look at hiring a Virtual Assistant.

What is a Virtual Assistant (VA)?

A VA is a business owner providing support services to other businesses in various areas such as administration, social media, graphics, newsletters, online content management, project management, ghost writing and more.

VAs vary from business to business on what services they provide. You can click here to see what services I provide.

Benefits of working with a VA

You can hire VAs on a project basis, for a set number of hours per week or month or on a retainer package.   This is something you can work out with your VA service you want to engage.

Where to start when hiring a VA

Before contacting VA businesses, my recommendation is to write a list of all the things you feel you need help with. You may find some of your identified tasks fall under the one area and others are more adhoc tasks (not a frequent requirement or a one off).

Once you have an idea the tasks you need help with, you can then contact a couple of VA businesses and talk to them about what you feel you need assistance with and then ask them what services they also offer.

If you have no idea what you need help with but know you need help, then don’t be afraid to ask a couple of businesses what types of services they offer. And, ask your friends, you may find they already work a VA service or can highly recommend several VA businesses to talk to.

Alternatively, you can register your details here and grab a copy of my free guide to help get you started.

How do I know which VA business to choose?

It’s important as a business owner that you have trust in your work being done for you in the manner you expect.  It is important that the VA you have working for you gives you confidence. Working with a VA is just like any working relationship, some personalities click really well and others not so well. Never look at fail relationship as a horrible nightmare you’ll never going back to. Look at it as a learning curve, identify what worked and what didn’t work and then bring the necessary measurements into place to ensure smooth sailing the next time. However, be open-minded and honest on why it failed.

Sometimes some of the simplest things can result in a failed working relationship such as; instructions or communication weren’t clear enough, deadlines weren’t specified, unreasonable expectations, failing to respond to emails from your VA (or visa versa), or simply you and your VA weren’t on the same wave length or like-minded.

What you need to do to ensure a success with your VA

Find the best system that works for you and your VA on communicating tasks, deadlines, information, and any other necessary instructions you need them to know.   There are many free tools available that can help improve your communication virtually. Check here to grab my suggested tools.

In my business, I work in various formats and style because my aim is to make my clients life as simple as possible, and therefore I like them to work in their preferred styles so it’s one less stress in their already hectic business life. But that doesn’t mean I won’t offer suggestion if I think it might help save them time and money.

Can I afford a VA

Yes, you can.  There are VAs across the globe working at various rates. It all comes down your business needs and wants, not necessarily cost.

If you would like to know more or have a chat about VA services, then please feel free to contact me.