How To Avoid Mistakes When Hiring A Virtual Assistant

How To Avoid Mistakes When Hiring A Virtual Assistant

It’s a big decision when you take on a virtual assistant for the first time but, if you choose carefully, it’s the first step towards dramatically reducing your work hours and it has a positive knock on effect on the rest of your life.

Working with a Virtual Assistant isn’t as simple as pressing an “easy" key and hanging up the phone. For many people, hiring, delegating, and managing are entirely new set of skills which need to be learned and mastered.

Here are a few pointers to help you to avoid mistakes when hiring a VA:

Do Your Prep

We always suggest to new clients that they keep a notepad next to them for a week so they can document their various daily and weekly activities.  At the end of the week it is then easy to analyse which tasks you feel comfortable delegating and which tasks you would rather keep a handle on yourself. 

Next, we recommend a detailed instruction sheet should be communicated  on how a new VA who is not yet familiar with the specifics of your business, would accomplish those tasks.

Finally a detailed job description should be written to outline your level of expectation.  This is also an opportunity for you to let your personality show and your new VA will not come up against any nasty shocks!

Although  initially unrewarding, this prep-work will pave the way for an honest and open working relationship and will help to avoid any misunderstandings later on.

You Get What You Pay For

When compared to hiring someone full time and in-house—or working extra hours to do the work yourself—most people totally “get it” that hiring a virtual assistant is the most cost-effective option. Whilst the attractive costs of hiring a virtual assistant are very real, it’s easy to get caught up in cost savings and try to penny-pinch.

There is a lot of truth in the saying “pay peanuts, you’ll get monkeys” You absolutely get what you pay for. A low quote from India may look attractive, but do consider that maybe the applicant didn’t really understand the requirements laid out in your Job Description and that they will not necessarily have your professional work ethics – for example, ask yourself whether your clients will be happy liaising with them on a regular basis over the phone?  You may be better off at the end of the day hiring a local Virtual Assistant with several years’ corporate in-house experience who has been working for themselves for longer than a couple of years as they are more likely to be (a) well-versed in how to operate professionally with skills learned at top level and (b) confident that self-employment works for them (and they are not going to throw in the towel when things get tough).

Selecting the cheapest option is often a recipe for disaster, particularly when your VA is going to be liaising with hard-won clients.  This can be short-sighted as will inevitably result in higher costs in the long run.

Dealing With A Human Being

Don’t under-estimate the time it takes to successfully bring a new team member up to speed – a Virtual Assistant will need to be trained in your systems and processes, and will naturally take some time to become fully conversant with every aspect of your business. Even highly skilled in-house staff and consultants need some time before their productivity reaches full capacity – its called being human!

Multi-Tasking VAs

In reality, we wouldn’t expect to hire just one person in-house to be a Web-Developer, Content-Writer Graphic-Designer, Bookkeeper, Appointment-Scheduler, SEO-Master, Customer-Service Professional etc., so why would you expect all these skills from a virtual assistant?

As with any professional, virtual assistants have specific areas of work where they utilise specific skills – decide which of these areas is going to save you the most time and add the most value to your business, and search for the right VA based on those criteria.

Hire people to do what they’re good at, and you’ll see better results.

Trust

The other reason most often cited for hiring virtual assistants is saving time. It is therefore surprising that many people undermine their time gains by micromanaging their virtual assistants.

There is an understandable fear in working with someone far away. For example, how will you know how much time they are really devoting to your business and not someone else's?  Remember that it does take time to build a successful relationship and that trust is important and needs to be earned.  It is very worthwhile spending a little longer at the beginning of the relationship to communicate with your VA by e-mail, phone and in person if you can.  Without this communication, your VA will be “left guessing” which is not a good of time for you or your assistant.

Most VAs worth their salt utilise online time-tracking systems such as myhours.com where tasks can be itemised and reports produced to show clients exactly where the time is being concentrated.  You can review this together at the end of the first month’s work to ensure you are receiving the best possible results for your business.

However, the easiest way to ascertain whether your virtual assistant is working to your advantage is to simply keep an eye on the results.  Ask yourself, "are you getting more web visitors"? "have your clients commented on how helpful your VA has been"? "do you have more time to concentrate on your core business as a result of delegating"?

If you can answer "yes" to these questions, you have found the right person for you.

Do you have any recommendations you can share about working with virtual assistants? If so, we’d love to hear them in the comments section !

Does Your Business Need A Virtual Assistant?

Here are a few warning signals to let you know that a Virtual PA might be able to enhance your daily productivity:

• You've lost a business opportunity because you missed a client deadline
• You don’t have a business development plan because your client or prospect database is out of date
• You’d like to take on more projects but never seem to have sufficient time
• You work nights and weekends to keep up with routine administrative tasks
• You spend too much time on routine work you don't like doing which takes you away  from other more client-focused and creative tasks.

Five steps to help you hire a Virtual PA

How to clarify the regular tasks you really don’t like doing

Starting on a Monday, log all your activities. On the following Friday, review the list and extract the activities you need to do yourself, the rest you can delegate to a VA. For example: uploading your weekly pre-written tweets, physically posting your weekly blog, following up on invoices and writing your newsletter. All perfect projects to give to a VA.

Find A Virtual PA

Search Google by entering "find a VA or virtual assistant." You can usually tell a lot from a Virtual PA’s website, i.e., is it a company who only answers the telephone? Does the website look professional and give you a good overall impression? Do the website images look professional (or a little hand-made)? Is there any reference to the VA’s background? Do they have testimonials from other clients?

Make That Call

Contact your shortlisted candidates to ascertain their compatibility to your business and assess their professionalism.   You will also be able to tell a lot by how they speak and how confidently they answer your questions. Ask yourself whether you would be happy for them to be having a conversation with your clients on your behalf.

Ask to arrange a mutually convenient time for a telephone interview.  

Interview Questions For A Virtual PA

1. Do you have experience in handling A, B C and D (list those tasks you need help with and ask for details of other tasks they carry out which may also be of benefit to you)
2. What are your hours (times, days) of operation?
   (don't be put off if the VA doesn't work weekends - everyone needs a break)!
3. Do you have the time availability in your schedule to support me on an ongoing basis?  If not do you have some time in the short term when you could manage my project?
4. How quickly will you get back to me when I email or call you? 
5. Do you have a team to support you? If yes, will I be working directly with you, or will I work with other members of your team? (Be careful here, you don't want to end up with someone else who is possibly not as qualified or you may need to go through the whole process again).
6. What services do you provide (and what services don't you provide)?
7. Can you give me some examples of how you work with clients? (Understandably there will be client confidentiality so don't expect the VA to reel off specific names).
8. How long have you been in business? (Again, be careful here - someone who is just starting out may need that break but ...how resilient are they?  They may not last)!
9. Do you work on a full time or part time basis?
10. What are your fees? Do you bill hourly, by project or on a retainer basis? (Some VAs will give you a discount if you commit to a minimum number of hours per month - worth asking).

Last but not least:  Ask which software the VA uses, what virus protection and firewalls are in place and whether data protection is covered.

Ask to see the Virtual Pas terms and conditions.  If they’re professional and used to working on a freelance basis they will already have these in place and will ask you to sign them. At a minimum these should include a start date, details of when payment needs to be made, the agreed rate and a mutually agreed notice period.

If you have any tips about hiring a good Virtual Assistant, we would love to hear your comments

Cindy Jalovaara is a freelance virtual business assistant at Virtually247.   She helps businesses save time and adds value to their websites, blogs and social media accounts by ensuring these online marketing platforms are updated on a regular basis. For questions or comments, please contact her via cjvirtualpa.com  

Which Social Media Tasks Should You Delegate To A Virtual Assistant Part 2

By CJVirtualPA

If you don’t enjoy certain admin tasks, the likelihood is you will probably not be that good at them

For most people these are the activities you dread, like itemising your travel receipts and submitting your expenses.  By hanging on to tasks like this, you are holding yourself back and wasting time which could otherwise be spent on generating revenue for your business. The sooner you delegate them, the better.

Even if you are good are certain tasks, you can still delegate them. Tasks such as posting to Twitter or Facebook may be delaying you and preventing you from completing more high profile work you know deep down will benefit your business.

On the other hand, if you love certain tasks, but you aren’t particularly good at them, you need to ask yourself whether or not you could become competent with the right training.  If you’re prepared to put in the effort and have the time to do the training, get good at these tasks, otherwise delegate them!

If you don’t think about taking on a Virtual Assistant because you think you can’t afford one, remember that “resources always follow vision.”  Also, to be an effective leader you have to be good at delegation.

Here are some more examples of just some tasks you can start to delegate to a VA to save you time in your busy day:

Cleaning up email address books of duplicates

Often, due to device syncing problems, you might end up with several versions of the same contact. Your VA can easily trawl through them to ensure the details are amalgamated and therefore easily uploaded to your newsletter program.

Sorting through Linked In digests

We all know that LinkedIn can be a great tool to help you to connect with like-minded people to get ahead in business.  In order for you to participate in conversations you want to participate in your VA can identify these for you.

Regular Research

Tell your VA which products you want to promote this month and ask him or her to carry out some online research and to draft a blog to be linked to your website and other social media profiles.

Calendar Appointments

It can take many phonecalls and emails to finally confirm an appointment, particularly if more than two people are involved. Ask your Virtual PA to take the headache away and advise you of the date and time when all parties have confirmed they can make the meeting. 

Spice up your Tweets

Your VA can take photos of products or items which can enhance your Pinterest pages and Tweets. If he or she uses Hoot Suite too your posts can be pre-programmed, a double whammy time-saver for both of you!

Online Grocery Shopping

Once your VA gets to know you and how you like to live, he or she can even organise your online grocery shopping via companies like Ocado

Check back soon for more time-saving tips from Virtual Assistant CJ VirtualPA

5 Tasks To Delegate To A Virtual Assistant

1.  Email 

We all know how much time is wasted trawling through email.  Allow your Executive Assistant to screen your email and prioritise customer enquiries ensuring you are drawn to the most important ones. Set up an Admin email account for your VA to manage as well as a personal email account using your business domain so that your PA can answer in your company name.

2.  Calendar 

You don't need to be wasting time managing your calendar appointments.  Let your VA manage your calendar and schedules. If you have a good PA, that person will be adept at managing the back-and-forth calls and emails required to set up and confirm appointments. If you use Google calendar, it can sync directly to your iPhone.

3.  Invoicing 

Timely invoicing is crucial to any smart business to ensure cash flow doesn't become an issue. Your Virtual Assistant can prepare, send, track, record and receive your business invoices. H/she can even pay your invoices via online banking if you have already developed a long-term trusting relationship.

4.  Expenses  

Expense reports can be a business professional's least favourite task. By allowing your VA to organise your expenses and receipts, you will immediately lose the stress they can cause and end up with a neat spreadsheet showing each item, totals and summaries, set out in date order. To simply share receipt images, use Dropbox, a great invention for sharing documents.

5.  Travel  

Maybe because the word itself is appealing, in our 

experience most people are reluctant to release control of travel arranging. Take a tip and record how much time you waste looking at flights and hotels (even without getting distracted and ending up on other more appealing sites) to secure the right deal at the right price.  You may be surprised!  When delegating, ask your Virtual Assistant to have a look at TripIt a free tool which can sync your travel itinerary to your mobile device.

Don't Be Afraid To Delegate To Your VA

You will save time which can be better spent working on your business. 

If you want more time for yourself and / or your business, it’s time you relinquished your administrative tasks to a virtual assistant.
Hesitancy to release control of your tasks in itself is a sign that you need some help. In many cases, a VA can perform your administrative tasks more quickly, professionally and more effectively than you can because these are jobs a good Virtual PA does every day and your Assistant will instinctively know where or which contacts to go to for the fastest and best results.

Delegate - You will save time which can be better spent working on your business.

Check back soon to read our next blog on "Which Social Media Tasks Should You Delegate To A Virtual Assistant - Part 2"

Which Social Media Tasks Should You Delegate To A Virtual Assistant

CJ Virtual PA
06-02-2014

Part One

In a recent online survey 460 small business owners, 63% admitted they spend between one and hours on social media each week. The remaining people spend even more time, with some spending as many as 21 hours a week just on their social media management!
It doesn’t take much to work out that’s around half a working week – we wonder how on earth they are getting anything else done to create revenue! 

If you're not careful, the majority of time spent on social media can be totally unproductive and should be delegated to a Virtual Assistant for them to manage the promotion and scheduling, leaving you free to focus on what you’re good at, i.e., the client-facing role in your business.

If you've been on Facebook for a while, you'll know that due to all it’s various options it can be difficult not to get sidetracked.  However, social media, if used in a  productive way, can do amazing things for your online business marketing.

Letting Go

If  you have already made the decision to delegate your social media to a Virtual PA, you are to be congratulated! 

As an owner of a business built on hard work, blood, sweat and and sometimes tears, we understand only too well that it is not easy letting go, but by delegating you will save yourself a lot of valuable time which can be so much better spent on increasing revenue.



Once you have made your decision to "let go", you’ll need to give your VA access to your social media accounts and share your login details with them. You will also need to make them administrators of your social profiles. 

Social Media Marketing Model

Firstly, you need to evaluate which networks you will focus on, based of course on your business. For example a clothes manufacturer might use Pinterest to portray their colourful images, whereas service-based businesses like corporate coaches might be better off utilising Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn to network in their areas of expertise. 

Some businesses fail in their social media efforts because it just is not possible to build an online presence overnight. You need to create a social media marketing strategy which summarises your goals, recurring tasks and the different achievements you're aiming for.

Social Media Tasks for Your Virtual Assistant to Manage

It’s really important to give your VA an overview of how you have managed your social media to date. This will allow him or her to understand your thought processes as you will want to ensure consistency when your Virtual PA is posting / blogging etc., on your behalf.

Drafting Content  

Your followers expect you to provide them with valuable information, which is why they chose to follow you in the first place.  This is where links and quotes come in as they are extremely popular on LinkedIn and Facebook.

Sourcing quotes, images and links to share across your social media platforms can be time consuming. This is where your Virtual Assistant can really add value by devising a document on a weekly basis, containing draft posts for your approval. As soon as you've authorised them, your Virtual PA can schedule them via HootSuite to be posted when you want them to go to get the best readership for your business.

Increasing your Network

Ask your VA to follow / friend / connect with new people based on your specific criteria. 
Liaison is crucial when it comes to social media, and sharing and commenting on content which is not your own is really important if you want to increase your network. Be careful not to link back to your own website too frequently or your followers may "unfollow" you if they think you’re just trying to directly promote your business / products / services. 



There are lots of ways to encourage social interaction online - here are just a few tasks which can be undertaken by your Virtual PA:

1. Share a content-relevant article or link relating to your industry
2. Add a video from Youtube and comment on it
3. You could even post an online survey to encourage a reaction from your followers
4. “Like” others' pages and interact with the larger names within your particular line of business
5. Post inspirational and amusing images and quotes

Finally, don’t forget to thank your new followers and liaise with those who have re-tweeted your posts and replies.

Check back soon to read the second part of "Which Social Media Tasks Should You Delegate To A Virtual Assistant"

5 Ways To Enhance Your Tweets

By CJ Virtual PA

When using Twitter, its important to make sure your content is interesting enough to encourage online discussions.  Here are 5 ways to increase engagement on your social posts:

1. Tell Your Followers A Story

People can tell a sales pitch a mile away and will, for that reason ignore them, but people really cannot resist reading an interesting story. Always include a relevant image which will spark imagination - graphics are a great way to capture attention. It is also important to include a call to action with a link the reader can click on for more information.

2. Communicate What Your Stance Is

Once you know who your audience is, it’s important to let them know your point of view. Without a clear and consistent voice, it becomes difficult for potential followers to discern what your interests and areas of expertise are (and whether or not following you will be beneficial for them).

 3.  Use Descriptive Words & Upper Case

The words you choose to use when posting to Twitter posts can have a significant effect.  Tweets with links which contain verbs tend to have a higher click-through rate than those that don’t.  Another interesting fact is that using Capital Letters works better when it comes to hashtag descriptions.

 4.  Use Quotes In Your Posts

Many people have limited time and rightly should be choosy about which web-based content they decide to spend time reading. By using a compelling quote to summarise content is a great way to gain interest. It’s an opportunity for your followers to click through to your content for more detail.  

5. Re-Share Previous Posts

Use scheduling tools like Buffer or HootSuite to re-share your previous social media posts. As only a small percentage of your followers are going to see your posts each time you add something new, it’s worth posting them out again to gain maximum readership and interest.

Five Examples Of How A Virtual Assistant Can Save You Time

Five Examples Of How A Virtual Assistant Can Save You Time
Author: CJ Virtual PA

Deciding which tasks to delegate to a Virtual PA, VA or Virtual Assistant can take a while to establish.

Most virtual assistants are self employed and work from home focusing on administrative tasks similar to those of an executive assistant in a corporate office.

As the number of virtual assistants increases, their area of expertise is growing - it is therefore much easier to find someone who fits your needs than say it was five years ago when Virtual Assistants were only just beginning to get their names out there in the UK.

Entrepreneurs tend to use virtual assistants for everything from making client calls to sending out marketing material to prospective clients. It's important to build trust, just as you would with a permanent assistant as a good VA will be become a member of your team - he or she works virtually, saving you the overhead of office space, recruitment costs and expensive health / life insurance.  

1. Online Research
You can easily delegate Internet research to a Virtual PA. Requests could include searching for information on corporate websites, exploring new products and vetting potential employees or business contacts. It is important to give clear instructions, as well as user names and passwords so your assistant can get access to speciality search tools or paid websites. You can ask your VA to research blog topics and to find out what the current trends are before you delegate your Twitterfeed, blog, newsletter or website updates.

2. Database entries  From new business cards picked up at networking events to updated information for existing contacts, keeping databases current is vital if you want to become an expert marketeer.

Be specific about your needs and make sure your Virtual Assistant is aware of your expectations. Proper follow up is crucial for business owners if they want to market themselves efficiently. You can even scan business cards to your VA who will enter them into your database.

3. PowerPoint Presentations

Creating PowerPoint presentations from raw data and flipcharts or summarising research findings in a Word document can be a huge timesaver and can help you to prepare for those important meetings Your VA can return the data  to you in an electronic format which is easily shared later on.

4. Managing email
To save you time on a daily basis, your Virtual Assistant can filter your most important e-mails and respond to the rest on your behalf, ensuring nothing gets missed.  E-mail management is simple to administer remotely, but if your assistant is new to your business, you may need to provide guidance on how to select key e-mails and don't forget to ask your PA to ensure you are kept in the loop!

5. Social tasks
Virtual assistants are worth their weight in gold when it comes to drafting correspondence, writing cards or sending thank you notes.  This type of task can become a real bugbear for business executives but a good Virtual Assistant will take care of it all seamlessly.

At the end of the day it is all about creating a level of trust with your VA, Virtual PA, or Virtual Assistant and being prepared to just “let go” - a must for anyone who wants to grow and expand their business. No-one got rich by "doing it all themselves!"