The Beginner’s Guide to Hiring a Virtual Assistant
Deciding if your business needs to hire a virtual assistant can be a challenge. How much will it cost? What can a virtual assistant do for you? How can a virtual assistant help you in making your business grow? What should you consider before hiring a virtual assistant?
To help you answer all of these questions, here’s the beginner’s guide to hiring a virtual assistant.
Define the tasks
Before hiring a virtual assistant, you should first establish what specific tasks they would be doing. You’ll need to map out tasks that your business will be doing as a whole, assign each task to each staff member and then determine which tasks will be the responsibility of your virtual assistants. Mapping of tasks helps you determine what you would expect your virtual assistants to do for you.
Set a budget
After you have mapped the tasks, you should have a clear idea of how many virtual assistants you would need. This gives you an overview of how much it’s going to cost you to hire your staff. This keeps you on track of where a part of your business’ budget will go to and will help you know if your business can sustain it.
Consider virtual assistant companies
If you don’t have the time nor the resources to train and screen your virtual assistants, consider hiring from a reliable virtual assistant company. A reputable agency will provide you a pool of virtual assistants who meet all of your qualifications. From there, you can choose who to hire and who you think would fit in the best with your business. This saves you time, effort and money.
Conduct interviews
To better know the people you’re about to hire, it’s advisable to interview them. This establishes a good relationship and also sets expectations from both VA and business owner. During the interview, you can discuss different matters including availability, experience, and desired rates. This ensures that you’re on the same page in terms of how to run your business.
Consider different time zones
If you’re going to hire virtual assistants from overseas, one of the challenges you might face is the difference in time zones. Make sure that your VAs would be available to work during your desired hours. If the nature of their tasks would not require them to be available during the same hours as you operate, then this would not be an issue. You can discuss this with your VA so that they’ll have an idea what hours they would need to log in and if they are available whenever you need clarifications on the spot.
Start Small
Acknowledge the fact that your virtual assistant will not know all the aspects about how your business runs. Do not give all the tasks at the same time. It’s better to start with a small project so he/she can be familiar with your system. From there, you can increase their workload based on the experience and knowledge they have acquired. In time, your virtual assistant will evolve from doing small projects to becoming an integral part of your business’ success.
These are some of the things you need to consider when hiring a virtual assistant. Make sure to cover all the bases before deciding. Once you find the perfect VA, you can surely expect a positive turnaround for your business.
Next: 7 Practical Reasons Why You Need To Hire A Virtual Assistant
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