When it comes time to hire a virtual assistant
So, you’re ready to step up your business.
Woohoo!! You’ve reached the point of no return - you need help so you don’t go insane. You’re ready to shift from a solopreneur to a business owner with a team! It’s time to hire someone. The most cost-effective first employee for a solopreneur moving up: the Virtual Assistant.
Question:
Ok, but can you afford a virtual assistant?
Answer:
YES YES YES!
Now you may be saying, “Wait a minute! I’ve tried VA’s and they don’t work.” And I'm here to say...you just haven't found the RIGHT VA yet!
if you've got a biz that's your full time, hustle hard, make-it-work life support....you're gonna need a sidekick. Take it from someone who's been an assistant to a few badass women entrepreneurs, the task help, brainstorming power, and all-around just having someone to bounce ideas off of help can be priceless.
The right VA may or may not be someone for $20 a month (but I would say probably not). Regardless of where you find your VA, they need the right training to become the right employee for you. So, how do you hire the right VA for your business? I have three quick tips for you:
1
Determine What Tasks to Delegate
Start with the basics. What tasks do you hate doing (we’ve all got a few!)? What tasks take up the most time? What admin tasks can you remove from your plate? If it’s hard to let go of doing it all, start small. Here are a few ideas for virtual assistant services to get those brain muscles moving:
Schedule meetings
Edit content
Schedule out social media posts
Market Research
Cleanup email inbox
Messaging leads
2
Know Where to Look for the Perfect Virtual Assistant
Once you’ve established what tasks need/can be delegated, focus on hiring a virtual assistant that meets the criteria. You may even consider creating a job description for the perfect remote assistant if you’re in need of super-specific work. Here are a few places to start looking:
3
Develop an SOP for All Virtual Assistant Tasks
Your VA will not know what to do in your business if you don’t properly explain it to them. This usually requires some form of training and you don’t want to be wasting time training everyone all the time. So, developing an SOP now can save you tons of time and efficiency later. The clearer your SOP, the better they will do their job. Some VA SOP examples could include...
How to schedule out social media posts
How to schedule client meetings
How to respond to emails on your behalf
Speaking of responding to emails, one question I get a lot is… “Clients let you answer their emails?”
The short answer? Y-E-P! It is possible for your VA to write an email that sounds like you wrote it...It’s like unicorn magic. You can have your assistant respond on your behalf, and if nothing else, they can PREP the email for you to respond.
Here are a few potential ways your VA can take care of your email correspondence:
Let them sign the email from themselves
Ex: “Tiffany Hoeft
Executive Assistant or Chief of Staff (probably different titles for different clients)
(Insert biz name) If their client/customer/connection knows me, I will add a personal comment and won’t always put the full signature.
If they don’t know your VA, draft an email that starts…
Hi ______,
I hope you’re having a great day! CLIENT NAME asked me to connect with/reach out to you about….INSERT REASON FOR EMAIL.
Another email option to try…
CLIENT NAME is so excited/can’t wait to work with you.
This is where that pesky SOP comes into play. You can create an entire guide with email template responses ready for any VA that steps into the role. Click this link to learn more about how to write an SOP that works!
If you need a virtual assistant or executive assistant to help with your business, reach out to me for business assistance, and let’s talk about what you want to get off your plate today.
