The Thousand Solutions Blog

How to hire a Virtual Assistant: An Entrepreneur's Guide to outsourcing

Apr 20, 2022

The search for a virtual assistant to assist you in your business is one of the most fundamental but crucial choices you'll make when you're an entrepreneur. If you do not have someone in your organization to give specific tasks to, you'll continue to consume your energy and time doing things that aren't contributing towards the development of your company.

Solopreneur vs Entrepreneur

One of the main differences in an "solopreneur" (someone that has an official status as sole proprietor of a business) sole owner of the business) and an entrepreneur/business owner is the fact that both work as a collective. Entrepreneurs don't need to take on all the responsibility. They design systems and hire individuals to take care of tasks on their behalf. This is a necessary step in building a business that is scalable that will continue to expand even when it's not operating.

A team member is an important step to make the transition from solopreneur into a business owner - or, as Michael E. Gerber, author of the top-selling publication for business "The E-Myth," suggests to make the shift from being a worker on the business, and then doing work as part of the business. It is important to add other people on your team will help decrease your workload, so that you are able to focus on jobs that will have the biggest effect on your business as well as the income you earn.

In this blog I'll take through the steps involved when hiring a virtual assistant along with providing specific tips and tools that will help in managing your virtual employees efficiently.

Jump to:

Once you hire one of your virtual assistants then you are able to follow similar steps to decide additional tasks to delegate, create new roles in your business, and hire more employees until you hold just one position in your company and that's the CEO.

In the meantime, we'll discuss the process of hiring your very first Virtual Assistant.

The benefits of employing virtual employees

If you opt to contract one Virtual Assistant or build an entire group of virtual workers outsourcing remote employees could play a significant role to your efficiency and growth of your business.

Here are some important benefits to employing virtual assistants

It doesn't require an office space

Depending on where you live the expense of leasing offices can be very expensive. Employing a virtual assistant enables the building of your workforce while keeping expenses low. Other than several software applications for working with your virtual team, the principal cost for hiring virtual assistants is the amount you must be able to pay for their service.

 Virtual Assistants aren't costly

Virtual Assistants are a cost-effective alternative to regular employees. Virtual Assistants typically work as freelancers and based on where they live, their hourly rates can be substantially lower than what a local employee would cost you. A virtual Assistant located in the Philippines as an example is typically half of what that a virtual Assistant working in North America costs for the same tasks and responsibilities.

There is no limit to the local talent (hire the best of the top)

There aren't all entrepreneurs who have access to a local collection of highly skilled applicants for the position. Virtual Assistants are able to technically work from anywhere in the world as long as they're connected to the internet. Not having to hire local workers increases the number of potential candidates for specific roles significantly.

ConvertKit Remote Team

Delegation helps prevent burnout

The ability to delegate specific tasks and duties of others can be a significant step towards the prevention of burning out. Unfortunately, there are many entrepreneurs who believe that they need to manage all things themselves. That is exactly what they end up doing. It leads to lengthy day-to-day work, an absence of energy, feeling overwhelmed with little time to attend to other aspects of their lives, such as hobbies such as exercise, family, or friends.

Be sure to spend more time with strengths

There is no way to be an expert of all things. It's not necessary to work to become. In every process and task that you must manage for your company (including the ones you don't enjoy or have a difficult time having a difficult time with! ) There are people who specialize in those things and enjoy working on them. Utilizing others to assist in delegating tasks allows you concentrate on the things you like and are good in.

The focus is on activities that generate revenue and are high-value.

Lastly, when you hire the services of a virtual Assistant and you are able to free up time to focus on activities which add value for your business as opposed to the tasks you assigned for the virtual Assistant. That is, you can free up time to focus on projects that directly impact on your earnings.

"Your most valuable resource of human capital (not only a business owner) is your TIME. When you don't commit as much time, the more focused you are. If you're more focused, the more impact you can have with your time. That's why everyone must have at minimum a virtual assistant."
Matthew Turner

The various types of virtual Assistants

One of the most important questions that you'll likely ask yourself in the event of hiring the services of a virtual Assistant is: what will they provide for you?

There's almost every thing.

If they've got the appropriate training, abilities and equipment, Virtual Assistants have the ability to practically do everything that doesn't need their physical presence, which, if you think about it, actually is quite a bit.

That being said, there several types of Virtual Assistants, and it's crucial to determine which kind of Virtual Assistant is best suited for your particular tasks you're planning to outsource.

The General Virtual Assistant

The most sought-after type of Virtual Assistant is known as an General Virtual Assistant (aka a General VA). The term "General VA" refers to someone who can take on the daily tasks and processes which are essential for the running of your business , however they are not focused on boosting it.

The jobs you'd assign to an General VA typically are technical and repetitive in nature for example, managing your emails or travel schedules, scheduling meetings, data entry, researching, scheduling your posts on social media, and on.

The Virtual Assistant Specialized

Specialist virtual assistants are someone that has a very particular set of skills and has the ability to oversee an extremely specific procedure within your company. The cost of specialist virtual assistants is generally greater when compared to General VAs because of the fact that they have specialization and only require very little instruction from you.

tasks like client support, bookkeeping, editing videos, or managing projects, such as, for example, are best suited for a Specialized VA.

Tasks that are outsourced. Results

If you're the capacity of a General VA, you should consider outsourcing specific tasks and processes for the purpose of providing the employees with instruction on how to complete those tasks and process correctly.

When you hire the services of a professional VA is best to hire a contract for certain outcomes. The Specialized VA will have more experience that you (that's why you select to work with them!) to complete the duties and procedures that are an element of their job. Because you're relying on their knowledge and expertise in the area of specifics, explain to them the things you're working on, but don't explain how to accomplish it.

A rise in Twitter followers by 10% per month is an instance, may be a result. Importing blog entries via Google Drive to WordPress, as an example, can be an arduous task to finish. Can you spot the distinctions?

How to become the business's chief executive

If you didn't hire a team at the time you began your venture, you're taking on many responsibilities. In other words, you're performing various tasks as because of this, your time will be split among various obligations and tasks.

In order to become the CEO of your business, and to spend your time exclusively doing the things that CEOs should do with their time doing, you will need to assign certain tasks and responsibilities to others.

It comes down to simple math.

If your goal is to earn more than 100,000 dollars in revenue per year, for instance that you cannot get there with the help of tasks that are worth just 20 dollars an hour. If you can work for 5,000 hours within a 12 month time frame (unlikely) it's a math problem that just isn't a good idea. You should focus your time on activities that have more hours of working.

One reason people are reluctant to hire employees stems from their perception of hiring employees as cost rather than as investing in the future. If you've ever been in the same situation when you hired someone, the following procedure should help you.

Find your Hourly Target Cost

The Target Hourly Rate (THR) represents the price that your work as chief executive officer of your firm, is required to be valued in order to meet your goals for income.

To calculate your target hourly rate, consider your month-to-month (or annual) earnings goal, and multiply it by the number of hours you'll be working during the duration.

For example: $250,000 (annual income amount) divided in 2 000 (the amount of hours worked) is $125/hour.

"Personally I made the decision to hire before I felt I was ready for an assistant. And I encouraged others to follow suit. Most people wait until having a set amount of revenue or they've been operating for a certain period of time. There isn't a "magic" moment in which hiring support makes sense, other than: If it will allow you to concentrate on what you are good at, and you aren't in debt and you are focused on revenue-generating activities Then it's now the time."
Trivinia Barber

Each and every task in your company is expected to be in dollars.

Your job as an entrepreneur is to pinpoint the tasks that add value to your company, and to spend the majority of your time on these tasks. Any tasks that aren't aligned to your objectives or falls below your Target Hourly Rate must be assigned to someone else.

If you're struggling to meet your financial goals, I'll pretty much guarantee the reason is that you're not spending enough time and effort on things that are of great value.

Low and high worth jobs

Low-value tasks are tasks that are required to be performed in order to operate the business but that don't directly increase revenue. Some examples of low-value jobs include bookkeeping, customer service assignments graphics design editing and many more.

Most valuable jobs directly impact revenue growth. Some examples of high-value jobs are leading generation and marketing sales, the introduction of brand new services or products and creating strategic alliances, as well as .

The best method to increase the amount you make being an entrepreneur by delegating lesser-valued tasks, and filling your calendar with as many high-value tasks as is possible. Profit from high-value tasks to fund the outsourcing of jobs which are of low value.

What are the best ways to select which tasks and processes are best outsourced

Each business is a hefty list of tasks and processes related to running the business. In order to help you determine which ones to outsource and which you should keep doing, start by categorizing the activities as well as the procedures.

HTML0Every task and process inside your organization falls within the following four categories:

1. You'll need tasks to accomplish: important tasks which you're passionate about and you're actually good at.

2. Things you should not do: tasks that don't merit your time and don't make the most efficient way to use your time, even if you're skilled at them or you enjoy working on them. (These are some of the most challenging tasks to offsource!)

3. Things that you don't like to complete: jobs which you're not a fan of or think other people will.

4. You are unable to complete assignments that require expertise and skills to finish.

If you're not already, make sure you downloaded the Outsourcing Worksheet. This table will allow you to record and categorize the tasks and processes that you use in your organization.

"The tasks you aren't comfortable doing or aren't able to do ought to be on the top of your list of things to delegate. The toughest jobs to delegate are ones that you might do and even enjoy doing In reality the reality is that you're not worth it."
Nick Loper

How can I find the most effective way to locate a virtual assistant

The hiring of virtual employees for specific posts on your team may be different from for specific assignments.

If you hire a freelancer for a specific assignment, that job has the start and expiration date. As most freelancers are working with several clients, you won't necessarily be their main client.

The person you choose to employ as a Virtual Assistant, you're employing an group member. Although the duties that you assign to them could alter in time, they'll still occupy a specific role in your group. This doesn't mean that they will not be placed on a freelancing site like Fiverr or Upwork. Virtual assistants are plentiful searching for jobs on these websites that will fulfill your specifications.

The steps required to employ an assistant online

 Step 1: Document the work you wish to assign

Create a list of the procedures and duties that you're planning to delegate to your virtual Assistant. If the tasks are ones which you're doing on your own, you should create training materials (aka Standard Operating Procedures) to cover the duties you're giving to your virtual assistant. For more information on how to create powerful Standard Operating Procedures, go through this tutorial.

If you're seeking the assistance of a specialist virtual assistant, document the results you'd like for them to get in exchange for specific assignments or procedures.

 The second step is to create the job description.

After you've compiled the list of tasks you want to delegate, it's time to create a description of the duties of the person who will take on those tasks.

The tasks that require specialization should not be included in the job description for the General Virtual Assistant. Tasks you assign to the General Virtual Assistant need to be of the same level of expertise and pay per hour.

The description of your job should include:

  • The background information you have regarding your company (your area of expertise, the goods you sell, and people you consider your customers or customers)
  • Experience, education or other experience are essential.
  • The complete list of tasks and the responsibilities
  • A listing of all the applications or other tools that they'll employ

Here's an example efficiently written Virtual Assistant job description that was adapted from Shopify's manual for the hiring of Virtual Assistants:

Step 3. Create a job posting on the internet

After you've got your job description ready then the next step is to publish it on the internet before you begin accepting applicants. One option is to post your job description directly to Craigslist (post in the location you'd like to employ in). A different option is using the Virtual Assistant hiring service or directory.

These are other well-known directories and websites you could utilize to find Virtual Assistants

"It's essential to create thorough job descriptions to ensure the expectations of both sides. I always ask people whom I have met for recommendations. Virtual assistants must be able to provide reference numbers as well as examples of the work they do. Interacting with them via the phone is a fantastic way to get to know the individual and see if they are a great candidate for the job."
Sue Canfield

4. Examine applications and schedule interviews

Check the applications that come in, and then schedule interviews with your top 5-10 applicants. It is recommended to conduct video interviews with applicants who are the most qualified. A video interview is an alternative to interviewing someone in person. It is possible to determine quick if you enjoy someone and you can chat via video chat. If the person is not willing to participate in a video chat with you, it's an indication that they're not keen and that you shouldn't engage the individual.

While interviewing candidates, don't just inquire about their experience in the field and abilities. Ask them questions about their goals, such as their interests, hobbies and where they work and how they would like to be dealt with. Perhaps you can ask your candidate to complete an personality test online at no cost. It will allow you to get a deeper understanding of their personality as well as their abilities and how they operate.

"We conduct a strict set of character tests to determine how someone is likely to behave with the other person. Additionally, we have "automatic disqualifiers" that remove individuals out of our system immediately based on the answers that they give. We are unable to speak to anyone who isn't a part of our core values without allowing us to get too fancy about their qualifications. This helps us avoid many poor hires, and helps the screening process significantly faster."
Trivinia Barber

5th Step: Take your top candidates by taking an exam

Prior to committing to hiring one candidate in particular, give the top three candidates an assignment to complete in a way that they can test. Pick a task which is part of their work at the beginning Then, take note of how they complete during this test. What you require candidates to finish an actual task can help you to identify who the best candidates.

6. The most appropriate candidate a test time

Pick the ideal person for the job, and start them off with a trial period (30 days 30 days, 60 or 90 days as an example). The trial period provides the Virtual Assistant additional incentive to be successful for you as it could lead to becoming an ongoing member in your group. You should ask them to complete the formal Service Agreement to avoid any issues in the future.

Strategies for managing your Virtual Assistant

The process of finding a virtual assistant who will serve as your assistant is just the first step. When you've appointed someone to your team, a part of your responsibility as a leader is to maintain a productive, professional and mutually beneficial relationship your employees.

Evaluate performance

Above all else the most important thing is to judge your performance made with your virtual Assistant by the efficiency. For that be sure that you have specific expectations or key performance indicators (KPIs) set. If your employees are performing up to the standards you expect are you truly concerned about how many coffee breaks they have in the course of their working day?

Don't micromanage

If you've set specific requirements for your virtual Assistant and later evaluate whether they are meeting the standards you set, there's no need to control the virtual assistants. Sure, there are applications that let you "spy" directly onto the screen of your virtual assistant from your monitor or computer to see how long they are doing their work. They're not necessary when you are confident and know the expectations from your virtual assistant. If you do not like being treated by the way you handle you Virtual Assistant You're likely not doing it right.

Schedule check-ins

Use a communication tool for communication, such as the Google Workspace, Microsoft Teams, and Slack to check-in quickly using your virtual assistant. It could be between the beginning and the conclusion of their day, or each day on a second or regularly. The choice is best for the two of you. Use this time to make certain that they are aware of the process they're using and they don't have anything or anyone (including you!) that is hindering them from completing their work during the entire day.

HTML1 Requires weekly reports

Each week, let your Virtual Assistant send you the summary of their work throughout the week. Give them a template to use for their weekly report. Below are some of the questions we recommend requiring to the Virtual Assistant to address in the weekly report and also any other metrics or KPIs that they're responsible to.

  • What were the tasks or projects they accomplish?
  • What was the amount of time that team members dedicate to each task or project?
  • What are they still working on?
  • Do they encounter issues or difficulties?
  • Can they provide any ideas, feedback, or suggestions to you?
  • Do they require any further education?

Set up an feedback system

Establish a culture of Virtual Assistant (and anyone else whom you interact with) of trust and clear dialogue. Inspire them to discuss their thoughts and ask questions about problems and offer regular feedback. It will help you improve as a leader and manager. This will help you create friendships that are positive for the members of your team. The team at a.m. are huge admirers from Kim Scott's work Radical Candor as an approach to providing and receiving feedback in order to bring you to a point.

Top software for outsourcing and managing virtual staff

While the concept of hiring someone who will never meet in person may appear odd, with appropriate equipment, it's possible to create and maintain happy and productive relationships to the virtual team.

The main categories of tools that are required for effective collaboration with virtual Assistants and remote team members includes communication tasks, management of projects, sharing files as well as security (password security). Below are a few of the top tools used to each below.

If you're interested in finding out about more software and instruments to assist with managing your business then you should check out our selection of .

Communications Tools

Project Management Tools

File Sharing and Security

Engage a Virtual Assistant to help you to help you focus on what is most important to you

If you're exhausted and overwhelmed by the progress of your business, you're not alone. The majority of entrepreneurs work for longer hours because they haven't discovered how to maximize their time and assign work successfully to their colleagues. They're experiencing what is described by our good friend Chris Ducker, best-selling author of Virtual Freedom describes as "Superhero Syndrome".

Many entrepreneurs think that they are able to do it all themselves, and because of that assumption, this is exactly what they do. Even though they're not as efficient, they compensate for by their dedication to work, which often comes with the danger of burning out.

If you're an entrepreneur, your job isn't only about making an income for yourself. This is what self-employment and freelancing are designed for. Entrepreneurs create strategies and hires employees for their business to manage their businesses.

A virtual assistant may not be the only one who you have in your group as you expand your business however they must be among the first. The hiring of a virtual assistant can free up more time for you to work on projects which have greater influence on your personal life as well as business.

"One one of the ways you can prevent exhaustion is to be more efficient delegaters. It's difficult at first to step away from the wheelbut trust me when I say after you've let go the steering wheel for a bit, you'll be looking to employ the best driver in your career in the near future!"
Chris Ducker

     The original blog was published in May 2018. The blog was updated on April 20, 2022.

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