Your business has had a great growth period and you’re busier than ever. It’s time to bring in some help to not only regain your sanity but to keep the business moving forward in revenue and growth. Let’s look at the top 10 questions I hear about Hiring a VA for your business.
- What kind of VA do I need for my business?
- What do I give my VA to start?
- Will it take more work to train someone than just do it myself?
- How do I know if I’m ready to hire a VA?
- Where do I find my ideal VA?
- What do I give my VA to start?
- How can a VA help my business?
- How much is a virtual assistant?
- What skills does a virtual assistant need?
- What is a tech virtual assistant?
Table of Contents
What kind of VA do I need for my business?
It depends on what kind of tasks you find are eating up your time. Virtual Assistants (VA) are well versed in a number of different tasks from the business administration side of an organization, to implementing the technical details of websites, funnels etc. Typically a VA will be specialized in one set of skills or another (a Business VA vs a Technical VA), but there are some VAs out there that can assist with both.
What do I give my VA to start?
The first task that I’d assign over to a VA would be for customer care. This allows you to know your customers are taken care of first and also puts a bit of a gap between you and them (in a good way). It also takes you out of your inbox, and into your virutal office to complete the tasks you specialize in (and want to do).
Here’s a great scenario brought up by one of my mentors.
Let’s say you have a customer with a declined credit card, but as they are part of your email sequence to nurture and potentially get further sales from them, you send them an email about a new offering. Not only is this spammy and a bit icky but sets a bad tone in your customers’ perspective. Having someone currently be taking guided care with this customer, while they receive additional offers and communicationo from you, shoulders that relationship.
Will it take more work to train someone than just do it myself?
Potentially if you don’t have the right tools in place to hire, train, and handoff work to your new assistant. This is where the joy of systems come in and utilizing standard operating procedures. Having your business written out with the steps needed to complete the task, allows you to give over a chunk of work to your team knowing that it will be completed how you want it done, the consistency remains constant and no steps are missing from team member to team member.
How do I know if I’m ready for hiring a VA?
A couple of items need to be looked at here when hiring a VA – revenue, mindset, efficiency, and the volume of tasks that need to be completed.
First, you need to have the volume of business to support bringing someone on. I state this as different from being busy or overworked. If you’re finding yourself constantly busy, first you need to see what systems and tools can you put in place for the business that will help. For instance, if you’re spending a couple of hours on the phone each week booking and rescheduling clients, it would be time to look at getting an online booking tool for your clients and this will free up the hours you’re spending on the phone with them.
Secondly, what’s your revenue like? Are you at a place in the business that will support the model of someone coming in to help? If so, it’s then time to look at how many hours are really needed, based on the tasks you want to get off your plate and have someone else complete.
Thirdly, your mindset. This is a tough one I think for all business owners when they start handing over tasks. You need to be in a place (or be working with a coach) to learn how to delegate and hand off a bit of control to someone else. For most business owners, their businesses are like another child. You’ve invested the time, energy, tears, and I’m sure you’ve cleaned up some dirty business diapers on the way. Letting someone else come in and help is often a shift that you’ll need to do if you want your business growth to succeed and realize the life of freedom of an entrepreneur.
Where do I find my ideal VA?
Another one that will depend on where you live, your payroll processes, and/or what your preferences are. For me, I prefer to be hiring a VA within Canada as it’s easier for payroll, taxes and I also like to invest in my fellow Canadians. However, this being said there is a multitude of virtual assistants globally that are wonderful at their jobs.
In terms of locating your ideal VA, there are a number of VA websites you can reference. Head to google and look for virutal assistant organizations for the country you’re wanting to hire from. Facebook groups are another great source of finding a VA such as Virtual Assistant Savvy.
The best source I’ve found though is really through referrals. Going through a trusted source helps with not only the screening process of hiring but also the confidence of knowing this person has successfully completed various tasks and jobs without any issues. If you’re looking for a VA referral, contact the Certified OBM website and they can help you with your questions!
How can a VA help my business?
Similar to the first question of what kind of VA do I need, virtual assistants can help with a range of tasks. I love this chart which outlines the differences between an OBM and a VA and how it outlines how a VA can help and what they do.
“Business owners hire Virtual Assistants to do the various tasks and projects that they need to be completed in their business. Most will hire in the very early stages of their business (help setup websites, shopping carts, etc) and will also need the ongoing support of VAs long term as the business grows. The focus of the Virtual Assistant is on ‘doing’ – they are hired to perform specific tasks (i.e.: customer service, shopping cart maintenance, etc) or complete specific projects (i.e.: set up a new member area or blog) and are the ones actually doing the work. “ Certified OBM
How much is a virtual assistant?
It depends on the skillsets you need, the experience of the VA, and where they are located. Typically VAs in Canada and the USA will charge more than other countries such as the Philippines.
When hiring a VA, what skills do they need?
Self-starter and good communication are my top two. A VA is responsible for their own tasks to ensure the projects are day-to-day operations tasks are delivered on time and fully completed. Tieing into this self-starter mode is communication. Even in the best laid standard operating procedures (SOPs), likely there will be questions to confirm if the change or task needs to be reviewed by a project manager or client. Some of these tasks can be automated, however, even with automation, it’s important to not take the human out of the equation. This applies to all tasks on the team.
Other skills to have will vary based on the type of virtual assistant that is needed for the organization. As virtual assistants (in a contractor role) typically work for 5-10 clients, it’s important that the prioritization of tasks, time management, and professionalism are included as their soft skills.
What is a tech virtual assistant?
A tech (or technical) virtual assistant is a person that has the skillsets to help out an organization with more of the process, systems, or actual technology tasks of the business. For example, a tech VA could be to manage your website, complete backups, implement the sales funnels, and lead pages. They also may be more on the graphics side of the skills, including creating graphics for social media, scheduling various posts and emails, or creating PDFs for the business.
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