Nearly every small business owner has the same little nagging thought in the back of their mind: “Is it time for me to hire some help?”
If you could use the time you spend tinkering with the little things in your business on more important money-producing activities, then, yes! You should hire some help.
And when that tinkering consists of an overwhelming amount of time spent on recurring and laborious computer tasks, then it’s time to hire a Virtual Assistant.
There is nothing more satisfying than running your own business.
You’re doing what you love and you’re calling all the shots and no one is breathing over your shoulder reminding you that they own you.
But with all that satisfaction comes the realization that you may be spending more time managing your business then you are actually doing business.
Now, if you already have employees or a wonderful partner who joyfully handles all the backend work while you provide your services or products to your clients, then there is a small chance that you don’t need a Virtual Assistant.
But, if you can’t afford or don’t have enough work to bring on a part-time employees, and you don’t have a spouse or friend capable or willing to offer clerical assistance, then you should really consider hiring a Virtual Assistant.
For a few Benjamins or less, you can get your records in order, your social media maintained, your website current, your projects handled, and more! All while you blissfully carry out your passion.
But hiring a VA isn’t just about if you can finacially afford it. It can be an emotional investment, too.
Many of us have intense control issues and anxiety that makes it really hard for us to delegate tasks to anyone, in general. But especially anyone that we can not helicopter over.
We may not know exactly how we want something done, but we are certain when we see how we DON’T want something done.
This sense of loss of control can leave us on edge and unfocused all day until we can dissect the other persons work, piece by piece, to make sure that it is just right. What we are to obsessed to realize is, at this point, we could have just did it ourselves because we did not truly delegate that task.
But it doesn’t have to be that way!
The next time you perform a task you want to delegate, write down every single step you take. Then review the list for redundancies and any clarifications that might be needed. Once you are satisifed with the steps being an accurate description of how you want a task to be completed, pat yourself on the back. You just created a set of procedures. This will help ease your angst and will help your VA better meet your standards!
Pro Tip: Davis Virtual Support
Another cost of hiring a VA is that you have to give them your trust.
Even some of us VA’s have trust issues. If you see a solo VA who doesn’t have any associates under them, it may be because they may not want to extend their trust, and in turn, their clients trust, just yet.
And VA’s know how much trust you are extending when you give them your login information (even if you use a password secrecy software like LastPass) and provide them with all of your company’s data so we can perform the tasks you assign us.
It is a REALLY BIG DEAL and that trust must be built.
But building trust with your VA doesn’t start after hiring them.
It starts when something moves you to choose them out of all the thousands of other Virtual Assistants available. That first connection is where your trust begins and after a few back and forths, maybe a video/voice call (if they are not local) and going over details, you will have a contract from the VA you chose in front of you. And at that moment you need to make a decision.
Is this who I want as my VA?
And to make sure you have a solid answer to that question, you need to have a solid hiring process to back up that gut instinct.
When you hire a Virtual Assistant, it’s important that you take it as serious as hiring any other employee, if not even more seriously because Virtual Assistants aren’t employees.
They are Independent Contractors, which means they set their own rates and work on your tasks on their time. They don’t clock in when you tell them to and work until you tell them to stop. You give them a job to do with a reasonable deadline and a good VA will complete it before then. A great VA will even have a set up that allows you to routinely check in on their progress, like most clients would want to do.
I personally use a mix of Asana, Clockify and routine emails to keep clients updated on task progress and remaining service time.
So, how do you know that the VA you are interviewing is the one you want to hire to handle all your small businesses tasks?
By asking questions.
Asking all the questions.
Ask them everything you’d ask an employee and more. They may begin to sweat a little, but you need to know if they are capable of doing what you need them to do and if they are the one you want to do it!
You don’t have to get mean or condescending, but asking a lot of questions, and asking the right questions about what matters to you will help you feel out the VA and see if you want to even look at their contract.
Feeling confident and ready to bring on your first VA?
Your first step is to make a list of what you need them for!
You can request my Remote Administration Services brochure here to get an idea of tasks you can delegate!
Once you have your list of administrative tasks you need done, fire up your Google fingers and find your Virtual Assistant!
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Davis Virtual Support 