How to Prepare Any Business to Hire a VA

So, you’ve had it with the admin vortex and the endless demands of your business tasks. You’ve held out for years, thinking that things will get better. But as more business came in and the operation grew, you’ve noticed that you’re falling behind terribly on certain essential things. It would help if you had a virtual assistant. Or maybe five, ten, however many to make all those essential tasks disappear. Hiring virtual assistant services is not so complicated that it will take weeks to finish. You need to know the basics so you’re in the right direction.

Hiring freelancers for individual tasks is one thing but hiring virtual assistants to fill specific roles on your team is entirely different. If you hire a freelancer, it’s best to give them a firm deadline by which they need to complete the work.

It’s different when you get a virtual assistant. They can perform many of the same administrative tasks as remote team members as in-house employees. So they will have a set role on your team even if the responsibilities you give them shift over time.

Readying Your Business for Virtual Assistants

You probably wear many hats if you didn’t immediately surround yourself with help after launching your business. In other words, your time and energy are spread thin because you are juggling various roles and responsibilities.

You need to outsource responsibilities and tasks to other people if you want to become the CEO of your biz and spend all your time doing CEO-level work. But, again, it’s just a matter of math.

For instance, if your annual revenue target is over $100,000, you won’t get very far if you spend your time doing work that only pays you $20 per hour. It doesn’t add up unless you work 5,000 hours a year, which is highly unlikely. So you should prioritize tasks that pay you more per hour.

One reason entrepreneurs are hesitant to bring on staff is that they see it as an expense rather than an investment. In addition, the idea that putting in 16-hour days is relaxed, fun, or sexy is widely held by those who have never tried to start their own business.

Refraining from calling this a “badge of honor” is essential. Initially, comparing yourself to successful entrepreneurs like Elon Musk and Steve Jobs is easy. However, for most of us, this pace of work is unsustainable after a few weeks.

How Do You Know That You Need VAs?

However, even for a new business, there are some scenarios where it would be beneficial to employ a virtual assistant.

  •       When it comes to a specific procedure within your company, you feel confident in your ability to train another person.
  •       You often dwell on the fact that you might accomplish more extraordinary things if you just had more time.
  •       You’ve made enough money or have some spare cash to invest in buying back your time.
  •       Customer service is just one example of a job that doesn’t come easily to you and drains your energy.

·       It would help if you had someone to work a few hours daily.

High-Value Tasks vs. Low-Value Tasks

The things you must do but would instead not do because they don’t directly contribute to your business’s bottom line are called low-value tasks. Low-value work includes administrative work, client service, project management, graphic design, editing, etc. High-value work is defined as work that directly impacts financial outcomes. High-value actions include marketing, lead generation, sales, new products/services, and forming strategic partnerships/joint ventures.

If you’re an entrepreneur looking to quickly increase your income, prioritizing the completion of high-value tasks over the completion of low-value ones is the best strategy. Outsourcing low-value work means reinvesting profits from higher-value projects into the business. Paying for virtual assistant services is never an unnecessary expense.

A Note on Hiring Virtual Assistants for the First Time

When hiring a virtual assistant online, it is essential to have a clear idea of what you need to do, the same way you would when hiring employees for any business.

Get specific about the duties you expect your virtual assistant to perform and the knowledge and abilities they should have. If you don’t have a crystal-clear idea of what you need and how you want your virtual assistant to contribute to your business, you might end up with someone overqualified for the position.

Suppose you’re looking to hire a virtual assistant. In that case, it’s crucial to have a system in place for how your business operates and to have documented the steps necessary to implement that system.

Once you’ve found the right person or virtual assistant services, you can confidently hand off the responsibilities to them, and they’ll have a reference to turn to whenever questions arise.

How Can Virtual Assistant Services Help Your Business?

You can hire virtual assistant services to do anything from sales to social media management, although administrative work is their specialty (if you give them clear guidelines and instructions).

In most cases, you should delegate the task to a virtual assistant if it is repetitive. To have your virtual assistant help you with a tedious task, you need to document the steps involved and show them to them.

You can probably get a virtual assistant to take on tasks or processes as long as they are within the capabilities of a reasonably intelligent and resourceful person following precise instructions.

Some examples of what they can help you with are:

  •       Providing support for customers includes responding to their messages and calls.
  •       Management of social media platforms includes content curation, comment response, and other community management duties.
  •       You handle most store duties, including taking orders, stocking merchandise, and promoting sales. You can easily find virtual assistants with extensive experience with Shopify and WooCommerce.
  •       Bookkeeping and data entry
  •       I was making cold calls to potential clients. For best results, train the VA beforehand; there should be stock answers and a general script at the VA’s disposal.
  • Some virtual assistants can also conduct personal errands, like arranging for dinner or buying flowers for Mother’s Day