Running a business is hard work. You have a lot on your plate, being the marketer, the accountant, the manager of your own business. It can be overwhelming to attend to all of these. As a result, you may fall behind, unable to figure out what to do and where to focus on. This is where benefits of virtual assistant come into play.
Why hire a virtual assistant? Virtual assistants help you to free up your time for core money-making activities and give you the flexibility that most business owners want.
What is a virtual assistant?
A virtual assistant provides professional administrative, technical, or creative assistance to clients from a remote location. The benefits of virtual assistant are especially in demand by entrepreneurs and online businesses that need help but do not want to spend the money on office space for staff.
The first step in hiring a virtual assistant is to identify the tasks you will delegate. To hire a suitable virtual assistant for you and your business, you need to know which type of virtual assistant will best fit your needs. These are some of the most in-demand VAs in the job market:
Administrative Virtual Assistant
Also known as General VAs, Administrative Vas help you take care of administrative or clerical duties. Sample tasks are file and record management answering calls and emails, and basic customer support. They usually handle the daily operations to help owners and entrepreneurs focus more on the core aspects of running a business.
Specialist Virtual Assistant
Some tasks need specializations, and this is where business owners look for Specialist VAs. These VAs can help you grow your business exponentially through marketing strategies such as brand management, content writing, graphic design, website development and social media management. They can also work on different remote jobs virtual assistant
eCommerce Virtual Assistant
eCommerce VAs are knowledgeable in online selling platforms such as Amazon, Shopify, eBay, and Etsy. eCommerce VA can help you manage your online business efficiently and effectively through creating product listings and addressing shipping concerns to order fulfillment.
Telehealth Virtual Assistant
Telehealth VAs have adequate knowledge of healthcare-related responsibilities. If you are running a clinic or a diagnostic laboratory, Telehealth VAs can help streamline processes such as verifying patient insurance information and digitizing health history forms.
Information Technology Virtual Assistant
When it comes to the technical side of your business such as websites, apps, and internal and external software, IT VAs are the ones to hire. Information Technology VAs can also help create mail systems, maintain data security and backups, handle the setup and management of servers and domains, and handle and resolve IT support concerns.
What are the benefits of virtual assistant?
Before anything else, it is important to assess your business and determine whether it is time to outsource work to a virtual assistant and which aspects of your business operations can be outsourced.
If you are working far longer hours than what you would like and you have a lot of workloads that cause detriment to your business, or you spend far too much time on menial tasks, you should definitely see the benefits of hiring a virtual assistant. While outsourcing specific admin or specialist tasks may seem like an added expense, delegating work you don’t really need to do yourself can be the key to your business’ success.
Outsourcing helps you focus on essential business matters. As an entrepreneur, you have your finger in every aspect of your business. To avoid being overwhelmed by too much workload, you must learn to delegate so you can focus on critical business functions, specifically those that only you can do. For tasks that you are not particularly well-versed in, you can always outsource this to a virtual assistant who has the skills and knowledge necessary to complete the virtual assistant jobs.
When you outsource, you reduce labor expenses by converting labor costs to variable costs. In this way, you can reallocate your funds to other important business expenses. You also don’t need to spend a substantial amount of money on equipment since most VA have their own personal equipment.
What Factors Do I Need to Consider When Hiring A Virtual Assistant?
Once you are determined to hire somebody, how do you select the right person for the job? How do you choose among candidates who have similar skills and experiences? What should you look for when hiring someone for a remote position?
1. Track Record
During the hiring process, do background checks. Previous performance feedback reflects the potential candidate’s work ethic and performance. Choosing the right person for the job saves you the hassle of starting over again. Remember that you will be entrusting private company or personal data with your VA, so hiring someone trustworthy is very important.
2. Leadership Abilities
Being a business owner, you will always have a lot on your plate and it will not be possible for you to delegate task to your VA every time so it is important to hire someone who has great leadership skills.
3. Time Management Skills
For certain tasks that are time-sensitive and crucial, it is best to hire someone who knows how to manage deadlines and prioritize workload in order to deliver positive and timely results without compromising quality.
4. Attention to Details
This is an important factor when hiring. VAs who pay attention to detail are often easy to teach and commit fewer errors because they aim to provide high quality output.
5. Communication Skills
Communication is a big part of a virtual assistant’s job. They need to communicate well on your behalf (for example when they contact clients or make travel arrangements), but they should also be able to touch base with their remote team quickly and effectively.
How Do I Hire and Manage a Virtual Assistant?
Before you start the hiring process, it is important to know how to hire a VA. Taking the right steps will ensure you find someone who is ideal for your business.
1. Decide What Tasks You Want to Outsource
There are benefits of virtual assistant for just about any task. You need to know what you want your virtual assistant to do from the start. Otherwise, it will be impossible to find the right person. If you only need help staying organized, a general virtual assistant will be able to best meet your needs. However, if you need support in a particular area, you need to hire a specialized VA.
2. Assess Your Budget
To determine how many tasks you can afford to assign, you’ll need to know how much the benefits of virtual assistant will cost. This depends on a multiple of factors such as type of services, the VA’s years of experience, and VA’s location. You’ll need to pay more for higher quality. An alternative is to hire a virtual assistant who is just starting out but choose a candidate who has relevant experience to what you are going to outsource.
3. Create a Training Program
Training could take a few minutes or several hours depending on the task. Whatever the case, you will need to design a program for onboarding. This will help the VA complete work to your standard. Training can be in the form of a video showing the procedure or a document wherein you outline steps for the VA to follow.
4. Find a Virtual Assistant
There are three main options where to find a virtual assistant. These are job site, freelance platforms or a virtual assistant agency. Job sites and freelance platforms give you access to a wide pool of candidates to choose from. An added advantage of freelance platforms over job sites is payment protection, although the interviewing process can be more restrictive. With an direct marketing agency, you’ll likely have less control over the VA you are assigned with. Others prefer this, as it removes some of the effort of finding the right candidate by yourself.
5. Create a Job Post
Expressing what you want and how you want it is a critical part of your search. The perfect job post will clearly explain what work you need along with any skills or qualifications the VA should have. It is also a good idea to throw in some questions as this will allow you to easily check if respondents have read the entire job post. Finally, it’s important to include how many hours you need the VA to work per week or per month.
6. Interview Candidates
If you’re hiring a virtual assistant through a job site or freelance platform, you should interview candidates. The interview could consist of asking candidates a few simple questions over a phone call or video chat.
7. Prepare a Short Test
To assess candidates, you should create a test related to the work you are going to outsource which VAs can complete in a reasonable amount of time. The test should allow you to judge ability to follow instructions, relevant skills and attention to detail. Tests tend to be appropriate for general virtual assistants. For specialist VAs, it may be better to see samples of past work.
8. Perform a Trial Run
Before committing to a long-term contract, it is a good idea to hire a virtual assistant for a short trial period. A trial run will give you both the chance to see if you’ll work well together in the long term. A week could be enough, or you may need as much as 30 or 60 days depending on the work you want to outsource.
9. Set Reasonable Expectations
After you hire a virtual assistant, it is important to have realistic expectations. There will be a learning curve at the start while the VA adapts to your working style. As time goes on, though, you should expect to see improvements until the work you are receiving is near perfect. If you hire a VA with little or no experience, expect tasks to take longer and quality to be lower so you may need to lower your expectations. After a certain amount of time, it is reasonable to expect your VA to work with minimal guidance and to provide a better output.
10. Adjust Your Approach
First, consider the instructions you are providing. You need to be as specific as possible on what you want, how you want it done, and the timeframe you need it done. Next, assess how you are communicating. For the first week, you may need to check in often. After this, you can tone it down. Make sure you give feedback every time the VA delivers work. Finally, think about the deadlines you are setting. You must set realistic and reasonable deadlines for your VA to keep up or else this could result to poor-quality work. Adjustments should be made on both sides for your relationship to last.
CONCLUSION
To succeed in finding the right benefits of virtual assistant for you means you must be attentive to every stage of the hiring process. You need to be clear about what you are looking for and assess candidates through the steps we have listed above. Then, you must create an atmosphere where your virtual assistant can thrive through your support and guidance. Do this and surely, your virtual assistant will become a valuable member of your team, helping your brand grow and succeed.
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