Ep115 Transcript: Tips for hiring a Virtual Assistant – Quick Fix Friday

Are you looking to hire a virtual assistant or executive assistant and want some great tips? Listen in to Quick Fix Friday as I talk about some tips on how to hire a virtual assistant and some initial tips on how to get started working with them in the right way.

Hello Dreamers. Welcome to the Late Starters Club, giving you the inspiration mindset and tools you need to start something midlife and beyond. Remember, it’s never too late to follow your dreams.

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And now back to our regularly scheduled program.

In episode 113, I talked to Stephanie and Ethan Bull, who have a business called pro assisting, and they match executive assistants with people who need help in that arena. So that was a great segue into kind of diving into how to really work with an executive assistant and how to even find one.

So, Let’s talk about how to find one first. You could use a matching service like pro assisting, for example, and they specialize in higher end executive assistants. You could also use other types of matching services that are out there. I used one called the ops authority that helped me find someone who could help me with my ads business, but they also specialize in online business managers. So a service like that will really help you streamline your search and really help you do some of the interviewing or even match you with a really specialized person.

Another way to find someone would be to ask for referrals from people in your network who are also doing the same kinds of things as you. For example, if you are a speaker and are looking for someone who really can help you book more speaking engagements. There are people and assistants like that, and you may want to tap into your speaker buddies and find out if they are using someone.

If you are someone who is in the ads management business, maybe you could tap into other people doing the same thing and see if someone could help assist you with that.

Or if you are in a group with other online businesses and you need someone to do your images, for example, you can always ask for recommendations in that group. That can be a great way to find a specialized person.

Another way to find someone is just someone within your community. You might put out a call for people to apply for a special position in your company, and they can be a great resource because they’re already familiar with your business.

Another way to find someone is just through something like Upwork or Fiverr and that you can use to find people who have great recommendations and reviews on their profiles, and you can do some searching and filtering based on the skills you need.

Now that person is not going to be someone you know or be connected with in any way. So some of the ways to really test the compatibility of working together with that person are to do some initial tasks or initial small projects to see if they can complete those projects as directed. And that’s a good idea for any of these people, even if they are a referral or someone who has applied for a job.

If you’re doing something more part-time, you can give them some initial tasks and see how they do.

So here are some tips on getting off to a great start with your new virtual assistant.

One is of course, to give them that initial project and really touch base with them on how they did and give them some feedback and make sure that is where you need their work to be.

Number two is just not being afraid to give them feedback or ask them to redo a project if it isn’t right, because you want to make sure they are completing the work and understand the assignment from the start.

Tip number two is to record videos of you doing the task to make sure they can really see exactly how you do it and understand the process really well.

Tip number three is to have written out documented processes. Now, of course, a video is great, but having that written process can really make it easy and making sure that you are updating that process as things change.

Tip number four is to be really clear in your communications, you want to make sure they understand the priority of all your projects, when you need things done, and what the total scope of the project is .

Tip number five is to make sure you’re encouraging open communication from them. So if they are overloaded or not able to complete the project for some reason, they definitely come back to you quickly so that you have enough time to have a workaround or get that project done another way.

There are lots more nuances with working with virtual assistants and executive assistants, but this is a great list to get you started. And if you haven’t done so already, make sure you check out episode one 13 and check out Ethan and Stephanie’s book, the 29 hour workday.

Hope that was helpful, and make sure you grab the free guide Top Tools for Late Starters on the website at latestartersclub.com and let’s turn dreaming into doing.