Hiring a virtual assistant is one of the first and most important hires you can ever make as an entrepreneur. If you’re starting as an entrepreneur, having someone on your team who can take care of certain tasks so that you can focus on what matters will help you grow your business faster.
In this blog post, we will discuss how to find the right virtual assistant for your business and what you should expect from them. We will also provide a list of resources to help you get started.
How to Hire a Virtual Assistant for Your Business: The Ultimate Guide
Before you hire anyone, you must decide what kind of work they will do for you.
Will they help you manage your social media accounts?
Or will they take care of your email marketing campaigns?
Once you know exactly what you want them to do, you can search for the right person to fill that role.
Before you hire anyone, you should know what they do best, so you can delegate those tasks to them. You will also save a lot of time and effort if you hire someone who knows how to handle certain tasks rather than having to learn new skills every day.
Solopreneur vs Entrepreneur
A team is one of the key distinctions between a solopreneur and an entrepreneur. Entrepreneurs do not do everything themselves. Instead, they create systems and hire people to help them. These are necessary steps to scaling a business.
It is critical to hire a team when moving from running a business alone to being a business owner. Having other people on the team helps free up time so you can focus on activities that have the biggest impact on your business and earnings.
What is a Virtual Assistant?
Virtual assistant jobs are fairly well-known and highly coveted remote work.
A virtual assistant (VA) is an online employee who works remotely via email, chat, phone, video conference, or social media. They may work part-time or full-time, depending on your needs. VAs typically perform administrative tasks such as data entry, scheduling, bookkeeping, customer service, marketing, research, writing, proofreading, graphic design, website management, etc.
Virtual assistants are usually self-employed and work remotely. Remotely working allows virtual assistants to work from anywhere worldwide, as long as they have a computer and an internet connection.
If you’re feeling overwhelmed and think a virtual assistant could take some of the load off your plate, we can help. Contact us today for a free consultation, and let us show you how easy it is to get started with Rocket VAs.
Whether you hire a single virtual assistant or build an entire virtual team, outsourcing to a remote team member can significantly impact your productivity and the growth of your business.
Benefits of Hiring Virtual Assistants
You don’t need an actual office.
Depending on where you live, renting office space can be quite costly. Hiring a Virtual Assistant enables you to start building a team while keeping your expenses down. Except for some software tools for communicating with your virtual employees, the primary cost of having a virtual assistant is the amount you pay them each hour.
VAs are an affordable alternative to paying full-time employees.
Virtual assistants are not cheap. Virtual assistants are an affordable alternative to paying full-time employees.
Most virtual assistants work as independent contractors, and depending on where they live, their per hour rate may be significantly lower than what a local employee would charge you.
For instance, a virtual assistant in the Philippines typically costs around half of what a virtual assistant in North America charges for the same tasks and duties.
Hire The Top of the TOP
You’re not limited to local talent. Not every business owner can access a local pool of qualified candidates for any position. A virtual assistant can technically work from anywhere around the globe as long as they have a reliable internet connection.
Having to hire someone remotely increases your number of potential applicants significantly.
Prevent Burnout
Delegating specific duties and responsibilities to others is an important step toward preventing burnout.
However, many entrepreneurs believe they must do everything themselves, which ends up being exactly what they end up accomplishing. This leads to very long work days, lack of focus, overwhelming feelings, and insufficient time for other aspects of their lives such as exercise, hobbies, and family.
Spend more time in areas where you excel.
You cannot be an expert on everything, and no one expects you to be.
For every job and process that needs to get done, others specialize in those tasks.
Hiring people to do things you hate or aren’t great at allows you to spend more time focusing on what you love and are good at.
Focus on high-quality and income-generating activities.
Finally, when you hire a virtual assistant, you free up more time to focus on activities that add significantly more value to the business than the ones you’ve delegated to your virtual assistant. In other words, when you hire a VA, you save more money to spend on activities that directly increase your income.
Time is precious and a limited commodity. The greater your focus, the more impact you make with the allotted time. For this reason alone, everyone should hire at least one virtual assistant.
Hire a virtual helper to focus on the things that matter most. Once your first virtual assistant is hired, you can follow these steps to identify even more work to outsource, create new roles in the company, and hire more employees until you eventually occupy only the role of CEO.
What Can Virtual Assistants Do?
One of the main things you should ask yourself before hiring someone to work for you remotely is what they can do for you. The answer is almost everything.
As long as your virtual assistant has the right training, skills, and tools, they can technically do anything that doesn’t require their physical presence, such as taking care of customer service calls, scheduling appointments, managing social media accounts, and much more.
That being said, it is important to understand what kind of virtual assistant best suits your needs.
The General VA
The General Virtual Assistant is the most common type of virtual assistant. They are people who help businesses run themselves, freeing up business owners to focus on what they do best – to grow the company.
Tasks delegated to a general virtual assistant include email management, travel planning, appointment scheduling, data entry, research and writing, social media posting, and so on.
The Specialized Virtual Assistants
A Specialised Virtual Assistant is skilled in a particular area of work and is better suited for handling a certain task within your company. They tend to be much more expensive than general virtual assistants because they already have a specialized skill set and will require little additional training from you.
Examples include Customer Service, Bookkeeping, Video Editing, Project Management, etc.
How To Find a Virtual Assistant for Your Business
Now that you know what a virtual assistant is and what they can do, it’s time to find the right one for your business. Here are some tips:
- Define your needs: Be specific in defining what tasks you need help or assistance
- Do your research: Check out different virtual assistant websites and read reviews.
- Ask for recommendations: Ask your friends, family, and business colleagues if they know of any good virtual assistants.
- Interview candidates: Once you’ve found a few potential candidates, set up interviews to see if they fit your business well.
What to Expect from Your Virtual Assistant
Once you’ve found the perfect virtual assistant for your business, it’s time to set some expectations. Here are a few things to keep in mind:
- They are not mind-readers: Be specific about what tasks you need help with. The more specific you are, the better results you will get.
- Virtual assistants are people, not robots. Virtual assistants are people who work remotely. They need to take regular breaks and time off like any other employee.
- They are not perfect: Virtual assistants make mistakes like anyone else. The key is to find someone willing to learn from their mistakes and always improve.
Where To Hire a Virtual Assistant
Here are some resources to help you find the perfect virtual assistant for your business:
- Upwork: This website is a great place to find virtual assistants. You can post a job listing and receive applications from candidates worldwide.
- Fiverr: This website is another great option for finding virtual assistants. You can browse through different freelancers and see their ratings before hiring anyone.
- Virtual Assistant Finder: This website is a directory of virtual assistants where you can search by location, skills, and more.
If you’re looking for a virtual assistant, or are curious about the benefits of hiring one, don’t hesitate to contact Rocket VAs. We offer a wide range of services and can help you find the perfect VA to suit your needs. With our 100% managed service, we take all the hassle out of finding and managing your remote team, so you can focus on what you do best- running your business.
Do you have any questions about hiring a virtual assistant?
