You have made the decision that you want to hire a VA to help with your small business! YAY! You are so excited to finally get some help with back of office tasks and get your social media looking great. You’re feeling good about building a team and the future! Now where to begin?
Luckily, hiring a VA isn’t hard at all but there are some things you can do to prepare yourself and your company for this new transition. Having a plan and getting things prepared can make a huge difference for your first experience with a VA and their experience with you. After all, if you find someone you would love to hire and you are coming off as disorganized and not well thought through they might run for the hills. This could leave you discouraged and will absolutely add to the timeline of hiring.
Here are a few things you can do to prepare you and your business for a smooth hiring of a VA:
-Figure out what you want them to do. I’m sure you have a very long list of things that need to get done but you need to decide what are things you are willing to delegate. A lot of businesses owners and CEOs have a hard time with this. Mainly because they’ve done things themselves for so long or because they are perfectionist and want them done a certain way. This will also help when looking over candidate resumes to see who you would like to speak with. If you know what they will be working on you can find candidates that specialize in that area or at least have experience with those tasks.
-Develop a list of directions. How do you want things done? Do you have a project management software they will be using to help them or are things done manually? This will make training go by quickly and smoothly. They will be able to refer back to the list and it’s in writing so not much should be lost in translation. Also, if things happen to not work out with the first VA you have this list to use to train the next person in this role.
-Figure out your budget. Do some research around this. There are many things you want to consider here. Will the VA be working full time, part time, project base, on call? Are you looking for someone with an extensive background and experience or someone just starting out? Explore the rates for the tasks you wish to have covered and see what the industry is paying. Finally, take a full picture of your budget and see what you can afford.
-Contract and Communication. Most VA should have a contract for you to sign but if you have things in your business you wish to keep confidential and protected it is best to come with your own contract. It’s also important that early on you decide how best to communicate with the VA. Is email going to be the best way for them to send important items that need approval with a deadline or will they be lost in a sea of ever flowing messages? It’s best to make sure they have a contact number for you in case they have a last minute change in your schedule or something urgent.
-Hire a VA like you would hire a regular in office assistant. Make sure the interview is done over zoom so you can get a good idea of the person. The interview can start off less formal at the beginning, ask questions about them and get to know them as a person, what their schedule is like and so forth. You will be working closely with this person so the working relationship needs to be just as good as the tasks being completed. Think of this new VA as a team player and hire them with that mentality.
These are just a few ways to help make hiring a VA a smooth and enjoyable transition for your company.
