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How to Hiring a Virtual Assistant: Entrepreneur's Guide to Outsourcing

Apr 20, 2022

Hiring a Virtual Assistant is one of the first and most significant hiring decisions you could take as an Entrepreneur. If you do not are able to find someone in your team who you are able to delegate specific tasks to, you will continue to waste valuable time and energy on things that aren't contributing to the growth of your company.

Solopreneur vs Entrepreneur

One of the major distinctions in a "solopreneur" (someone with the status of being the only individual in the business) as well as a business owner/entrepreneur is that they work as a group. The business owner isn't able to do everything by themselves. They build systems and hire employees to handle things on their behalf. This is a necessary step to building a scalable business that grows even when they're not working.

Hiring a team member is crucial to making transition from being a solopreneur into a business owner and, in the words of Michael E. Gerber, author of the top-selling business book The E-Myth will say to shift from working on your company to working in your business. Having other people on your team helps to free up your time so you can focus on activities that will have the biggest influence on your business's earnings.

In this guide I'll take you through the steps of hiring a Virtual Assistant and provide some tips and tools that can help you control your virtual employees efficiently.

Jump to:

Once you hire the first Virtual Assistant, you can follow these same steps to determine additional tasks to delegate, create new roles in your business and recruit more staff members until you have only one position in your business which is the CEO position.

However, for the moment we'll tackle the hiring of your very first Virtual Assistant.

Benefits of hiring virtual staff

If you choose to hire just one Virtual Assistant, or you build an entire team of virtual employees, outsourcing remote team members can be a major factor in your productivity and the growth of your business.

Here are a few of the major benefits of hiring virtual assistants:

  There is no need for a physical office  

The location of your residence can affect the cost and where you live, renting an office can be expensive. The hiring of a virtual assistant allows you to start building your workforce while keeping expenses minimal. Except for the use of a handful of software programs for working with and managing your virtual employees, the primary cost of hiring virtual assistants is the amount you have to pay for their work.

  Virtual Assistants are inexpensive  

Virtual Assistants offer a low-cost alternative to regular employees. The majority of Virtual Assistants operate as independent contractors . Depending on where they live the hourly rates could be considerably cheaper than the amount a local worker would charge you. A Virtual Assistant in the Philippines is an instance, and usually costs less than half of what a Virtual Assistant is paying in North America costs for the similar tasks and duties.

  It's not restricted by the local expertise (hire one of the most talented)  

Not every entrepreneur has access to a local talent in the form of candidates who are qualified for the job. A Virtual Assistant can technically be employed from any place around the globe providing they're connected to the internet. The absence of having to recruit someone locally increases your number of applicants for particular job roles dramatically.

ConvertKit Remote Team

  Delegation helps prevent burnout  

The ability to delegate specific tasks and responsibility to others can be a significant step towards stopping burning out. There are, unfortunately, lots of business owners who feel they have to handle everything themselves, and that's the exact thing they do. This can lead to extremely prolonged work hours, inability to focus, feeling overwhelmed, as well as having less time for different aspects of their lives including activities, exercise, and the family.

  Spend longer in your zones of strength  

There is no way to be an expert of everything. Nor would you ever strive to be. Each and every job that is required to run your company (including those that you dislike or have a hard time with! ), there are other individuals who are experts in these tasks and actually enjoy the process. Employing people to help delegate work allows you to concentrate on the things you like and that you're proficient in.

  The focus is on high-value and earning tasks  

Finally, when you engage an assistant virtual You free up time to focus on activities which add impact to your business over the activities you delegated to the Virtual Assistant. In other words, you free up more time to concentrate on tasks which have an impact on your income.

"Your most valuable asset as a human (not solely a business owner) is time. The less you commit to more, the more you will be focused. If you are focused, the more the impact you will have in the amount of time available. For this reason alone, every person should employ at least one Virtual Assistant."
Matthew Turner Matthew Turner

The types of Virtual Assistants

One of the primary concerns you're likely to ask yourself as you contemplate employing a Virtual Assistant is: what will they provide for you?

There is almost everything.

Insofar as they possess the right training, skills and equipment, a Virtual Assistant can practically do everything which doesn't need their presence physically that, when you think about it could be quite a few things.

There exist different kinds of virtual Assistants. It's crucial to determine which Virtual Assistant is best suited to the job you want outsourcing.

  The General Virtual Assistant  

The most common kind of Virtual Assistant is known as a General Virtual Assistant (aka a General VA). General VAs are those who is able to handle the daily tasks and processes essential to run your business but not necessarily focussed on increasing it.

The duties you'd delegate to an General VA typically are more technical and repetitive, such as handling your travel or email schedules, scheduling meetings, data entry researching, scheduling your posts for social media and more.

  The Specialized Virtual Assistant  

A specialist virtual assistant is someone that has a very particular set of skills and is best at overseeing a very specific process in your business. They can be higher priced in comparison to General VAs since they have a specialized skill set and need only minimal education from you.

tasks like bookkeeping, customer service, editing video, and managing projects, for instance would be better handled by an experienced VA.

  Outsourcing tasks vs. results  

If you have the help of a General VA, it is best to contract out certain tasks and processes as well as give them training on how to do those tasks and process correctly.

With a Specialized VA, you should outsourcing specific outcomes. A specialist VA is more proficient than you (that's why you hire them!) for the jobs and procedures that comprise a part of their role. As you're trusting their expertise and knowledge in the specific tasks and processes, you should explain to them what you're doing but rather than what to do, but how to accomplish it.

An increase of Twitter followers by 10 percent per month, as an example, is one outcome. Importing blog content from Google Drive to WordPress, for instance, is an important project to complete. What is the difference?

What is the best way to become the CEO of your business

If you haven't hired an employee as soon as you started your company You'll likely be taking on the duties of many roles. In other words, you're wearing many different hats as a result of which your time is spread across various tasks and obligations.

If you want to be the CEO of your business and spend your time solely in the areas that a CEO should spend their time on You must assign specific tasks and responsibilities to employees.

The key is simple math.

If your goal is to generate over 100,000 dollars in revenue per year For instance, you can't expect to meet this objective through focusing your efforts on tasks that are worth $20 per hour. Unless you can work more than 5,000 hours during a twelve-month time frame (unlikely) then the numbers just doesn't add up. Your time should be spent on time on activities that have an hourly wage higher than.

One of the reasons why people are reluctant to hire help is because they view hiring others as a burden rather than an investment. If you've felt this way regarding hiring people, this practice should benefit you.

  Calculate your Target Hourly Cost  

Your Target Hourly Rate is the rate that your timeas CEO of your business, must be worth so that you can reach your goals for income.

To determine your target hourly rate, determine each month's (or annual) budget and multiply it by the amount of hours that you will be working during the time.

As an example: $250,000 (annual income target) multiplied by 2,000 (# of work hours) equals $125 an hour

"Personally, I hired way before I thought I was ready for an assistant, and encourage others to follow suit. The majority of individuals wait until they're in a certain revenue level, or have been in business a set time period. There's no "magic" time that hiring support makes sense in other circumstances than: If it allows you to be focused on the things is your best at, you aren't going into debt for it while the time you conserve allows you to focus on revenue-generating activities It's the right time to hire."
- Trivinia Barber

  Every single task within your business has an approximate dollar value  

As an entrepreneur your job to identify activities which add the greatest worth to your company. You should spend the majority of your time working on those tasks. Any tasks or activities that aren't in line with your Goal Hourly Rate must be assigned to someone else.

If you're not achieving your financial goals, I can almost guarantee that it's due to not spending sufficient time and energy on activities of high value.

  Low and high value jobs  

Tasks with low value must be completed to run your business but do not directly contribute to increasing revenue. The most common examples of low-value work are bookkeeping, customer support projects, graphic design, editing, etc.

The most valuable tasks directly contribute to increasing revenue. The most valuable tasks include marketing and lead generation and selling, as well as launching new products or services and creating strategic partnerships and .

One of the most effective ways to grow your income as an entrepreneur is delegating more low-value tasks to others and schedule your time with as many high-value jobs as is possible. Utilize the earnings you earn from tasks that are high value to cover the cost of outsourcing of tasks that are low value.

Which tasks and processes to outsource

Each business is armed with a lengthy list of tasks and processes which are essential to running that business. To help you decide which ones to outsource and which ones you should keep doing, start by categorizing these tasks and processes.

  Each task and every process that you conduct in your organization is part of one of four areas:  

1. Things you must do Tasks that are high-value you love that you're proficient at.

2. The tasks you should never do: low-value tasks that do not make the most utilization of your time regardless of whether you're proficient at them or love doing these tasks. (These are the toughest to delegate!)

3. Things you do not want to do: tasks that you don't like doing and that you think somebody else would.

4. You are unable to complete You don't have the required knowledge and abilities to perform correctly.

If you don't have it, make sure you downloaded the Outsourcing Worksheet. The table we included will help you to list and categorize your processes and the jobs you perform that you use in your organization.

"The jobs you dislike performing or cannot do ought to be on the most important list of tasks to delegate. The more difficult jobs to share with are those that you could do and be even like doing, but realistically, should not be performing them."
Nick Loper - Nick Loper

What is the best way to find a virtual Assistant

The hiring of virtual employees for specific positions on your team can be distinct from hiring for projects that are specific to.

If you contract freelancers for a certain project, that project has starting and end date. And since most freelancers have multiple clients, you won't necessarily be their primary client.

If you choose to hire a virtual Assistant, you are making an additional team person. While the work you delegate to them may alter in time, they'll continue to play a particular role in your group. However, that doesn't mean you won't come across them on an online freelancer site like Fiverr or Upwork. There are many virtual assistants looking for jobs on these websites that are able to meet your demands.

6 steps to hiring virtual Assistant

  Step 1: Write down the tasks you want to outsource  

Start by making a list of each task and tasks you're planning to assign to your virtual Assistant. In the event that these tasks are ones which you're already performing your own, you should create training materials (aka Standard Operating Procedures) for the tasks you're delegating. If you want to learn to write efficient Standard Operating Procedures, check out this guide.

If you're hiring an Specialized Virtual Assistant, document the outcomes you want the virtual assistant to produce in lieu of specific assignments or processes.

  Second step: Make an employment description  

After you've compiled the list of tasks you want to delegate, it's time prepare a description of the job of the position who will have responsibility for these duties.

Tasks that require specialized skills shouldn't be part of the description of a job for General Virtual Assistant. The tasks you delegate to the General Virtual Assistant must be performed at a similar skill level and hourly rate.

Your job description should contain:

  • The background information you have about your business (your industry, what you offer, and whom your clients/customers are)
  • Education, experience or skills needed
  • List of the duties and responsibilities
  • List of any apps or tools they'll be using

This is an illustration of an effectively written Virtual Assistant job description that was adapted from Shopify's guide to the hiring of an assistant virtual:

  Step 3: Create a job posting online  

If you've got your job description in place, your next step is to post it online and start accepting applicants. One option is to post your job description directly through Craigslist (post in the city/country that you'd like to recruit in). Another alternative is using an Virtual Assistant hiring service or directory.

Here are some other popular websites and directories you can utilize to search for Virtual Assistants:

"It's crucial to develop a thorough job descriptions so that expectations can be fulfilled from both sides. It is my practice to ask those I know first for referrals. A virtual assistant should have some references as well as examples of their job. Talking to them on the phone can be very beneficial in getting to know the person and determine if they are a great combination."
- Sue Canfield

  step 4: Review applications & schedule interviews  

Check the resumes that come through, and set up interviews with your top 5-10 candidates. It is recommended to conduct video interviews with the top applicants. A video interview is equivalent to interviewing someone in person. You'll be able to tell how much you enjoy someone and communicate well with them on a video conference. If someone isn't willing to conduct a video interview with you, this is untrue and shouldn't hire them.

In your interview with each candidate, don't just inquire about their job experience and skills. Ask them about their goals, their hobbies, how they feel about work and how they like being managed. You could even invite your potential candidate to take a the online personality test for free. This will help you to further understand their values as well as their strengths and the way they operate.

"We ask a very specific set of character questions that determine how an individual would be treated by another human being. We have "automatic disqualifiers" that remove individuals from our system immediately based on their answers. This prevents us from talking with someone who does not share our value system, not letting us get glitzy about their resume. This has saved us from many bad hires and makes our screening process go much faster."
- Trivinia Barber

  Step 5: Give your best candidates a test  

Before you decide to hire a specific candidate, give the top three candidates an assignment to complete in a way that they can test. Choose a assignment that's part of their regular responsibilities in the first place, and then observe the way they do in this task. Inquiring your candidates to finish a real task will aid in determining who most qualified candidate is.

  6. Give the best candidate a trial period  

Pick the ideal candidate for the job, begin them on the trial phase (30 days, 60 or 90 days, for example). A trial period gives the Virtual Assistant additional incentive to succeed for you, knowing that it could lead to a permanent role on your team. You should ask them to be able to sign a formal Service Agreement to avoid any issues at a later date.

Tips for managing your Virtual Assistant

Finding a virtual assistant to work for you is only the start. After you've brought someone on your team, part of your role as the leader is to maintain a positive, professional and beneficial partnership with your team.

  Evaluate performance  

Before all else You should evaluate the success of Your Virtual Assistant based on their performance. To do this, be sure to have clear expectations and/or Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) in place. If your employees are meeting their goals are you truly concerned about the number of break-room coffees they make throughout the day?

  Don't micromanage  

If you set clear expectations with your Virtual Assistant and examine them according to how well they meet those requirements, then there is no need to micromanage the virtual assistants. There are software programs that allow you to "spy" onto your Virtual Assistant's computer screen and monitor the amount of time they are working. These things are unnecessary when you trust and have clear expectations of your virtual Assistant. If you do not like the way you are managed the way that you manage your Virtual Assistant, you're probably doing something wrong.

  Schedule check-ins  

Make use of a communications tool like Slack, Google Workspace, Microsoft Teams and Slack to schedule quick check-ins with your Virtual Assistant. Maybe this is daily at the beginning or close to the day's work, or every second day and even every week. Do whatever works for both of you. Make certain that they understand what they're doing and that there isn't anything or anyone (including you!) that is hindering them from finishing the tasks they have throughout the day.

  Requires weekly reporting  

Each week, let your Virtual Assistant send you a summary of their activities this week. Give them a template to use for their reports. Here are a few questions that we suggest asking you to ask your virtual Assistant to answer in their weekly reports together with any particular KPIs or metrics they are responsible for tracking.

  • What were the tasks or projects the team accomplish?
  • How long did they devote to each job or project?
  • What are they still working on?
  • Do they encounter any problems or challenges?
  • Do they have feedback, questions or suggestions to share with you?
  • Do they require any further education?

  Establish a culture of feedback  

Create a culture with your Virtual Assistant (and anyone else you work with) that is based on trust and open communication. Let them share their ideas, ask questions, and offer regularly with feedback. By doing this, you will learn to be a better manager and leader. This will help to create friendships that are mutually beneficial with your team members. We at a.m. are huge fans of Kim Scott's book Radical Candor as a framework for giving and receiving feedback. going.

Best tools for outsourcing and managing virtual staff

Although the idea of hiring someone that you may never actually meet face-to-face may sound bizarre, with the appropriate equipment, it is possible to establish and maintain productive and enjoyable connections with your virtual employees.

The most important categories of software required to work effectively with Virtual Assistants and remote team members are communication projects, management of projects, sharing files and security (password security). Below are a few of our top tools in each of these categories below.

If you're interested in learning about more software and tools to help you run your business, check out our list of the .

  Communication Tools  

  Project Management Tools  

  File Sharing and Security  

Engage a Virtual Assistant to help you to help you focus on what matters most

If you're tired and overwhelmed in creating your own enterprise, then you're not on your own. Most entrepreneurs work long hours simply because they're not able use their time effectively and give their tasks to others efficiently. They suffer from what our colleague Chris Ducker, best-selling author of Virtual Freedom, calls "Superhero syndrome".

Many entrepreneurs believe they're able to handle everything by themselves. And because of this belief, it's precisely what they do. What they lack in efficiency they compensate for with the way they work, usually at the risk of burning out.

Your job as an entrepreneur isn't just about creating an income for yourself. That's what freelancing and self-employment are for. An entrepreneur is someone that develops systems and employs staff who manage their company for them.

Virtual Assistants may not be the only person that you add to your team as you grow your business, but they ought to be one of the initial. Hiring a Virtual Assistant helps make more time available for your time to concentrate on tasks which have greater influence on your life and business.

"One one of the ways we can do to avoid burning out is to become more effective delegators. In the beginning, it can be difficult giving up, but trust me when I say that once you let go of the steering wheel a little and you're ready to get an all-time driver sooner or later!"
- Chris Ducker

  The original blog was published in May of this year. It was revised in April 2022.