There are so many virtual assistants out there ready to take on some of your work. They have different kinds of skill sets, hourly rates and experience levels. Finding good help isn’t hard, but you might be asking how do I find it?
Knowing what you are looking for is the first step in hiring the right person for the job. Here are a few questions to ask yourself to discover what type of person your business needs.
What qualities are important to you?
Time-management is a very important skill when it comes to a VA. This is a remote position and as such you need someone who is capable of working on their own, someone you can rely on to meet deadlines and make your business more consistent.
Resourcefulness is also very important, the more your VA can add to your business the better. A resourceful person can bring new ideas and solutions to the table, solving problems you didn’t even think you were hiring them to solve. Creative people can help you grow in ways, not even they imagined.
How important is it that your VA is able to ask for clarification? Having good communication skills is a must for me. Your VA probably won’t know how everything about your business, even if they have a lot of experience. Being able to ask for clarification and admit to mistakes is important for creating a good relationship, it avoids unnecessary problems within your business and ensures that you can trust them as part of your team.
Taking responsibility for their work is another key factor for me. When you first hire a VA, depending on the type you are hiring, you might need to train and support them as they learn what they need to do in order for your business to work as it should. But after that, they need to take responsibility for their work and know their role inside your business. You can’t be looking over every single thing they do because you can’t trust them, that would only create more work for you when the goal is the exact opposite.
What skills do they need to have?
If you are considering hiring people from other parts of the world the first skill that is at the top of the list is English proficiency. The percentage of people around the world who speak English as a second language is higher than you think. Not having a location requirement opens up a lot of options for you to choose from, just remember to check this skill.
Writing Skills. If you need your VA to write blog posts, emails, documents, provide customer service, content creation or anything else that requires them to write for you or in your name, this is a very important skill to check. Everything that is written in your business’s name helps to create your business’s image so you want to make sure that any writing is of the best quality possible and is written to sound like you.
Tech skills are in high demand. Do you use any specific systems or software? Do you need them to know PowerPoint, WordPress, Photoshop, Social media management? Determining the skills you need based on the tasks you are looking to outsource will help you create the profile you are looking for, which makes it much easier to identify it when you see someone who is a great fit.
Do you need help with customer service? If you want your VA to deal with your clients you should also check their communication skills, presentation, sale skills and email writing. If you want them to also call your clients or answer your phone, you will want to see if that is a skill that they possess and what type of equipment they own to do that.
How do you want to communicate?
If you like to communicate by phone you have to keep in mind that international calls might not be an option on a daily basis. There are solutions to that, apps like Whatsapp will always you to call through the internet as if you are making a normal phone call, but you need to make sure you check if they are willing to communicate in that manner.
Video. There are some awesome tools like Zoom that will allow you to have video calls. It is a great way for you to have a face to face conversation with your future (or current) VA, even if they are far away. But it might also not be the most practical on a daily basis.
On the other hand, there are ways to have asynchronous communication. That is great if you are working with people in different timezones, and even if you are not, finding time for meetings when everyone is available is always a pain. That being said, chats are a great way to communicate on a daily basis that allows you to be constantly in communication with your VA.
Email is a huge communication tool in the business world and has been for quite a while. However, it isn’t the greatest thing for back and forth conversations where you need dynamic responses. Having more than one communication tool can be a great way to keep things where they belong and you can always choose which one is more appropriated for the situation. When you are looking for help make sure you ask what types of communication they will be comfortable using and see if you can find common ground.
How much experience do you want them to have?
General VAs are the most common type of VA. They can help you with many things in your business, they are resourceful and reliable but will need you to train them on the specific tasks you want them to do inside your business. Usually, a general VA will be less expensive since they have a less specialized set of skills. It is a great place to start if you have many different tasks to delegate and need to free up time.
Skilled. You might want to look for a more skilled person that you won’t need to give much training to. Those tend to be more expensive since they have more experience and knowledge. This can be a great option if you want to easily delegate right away without having to worry too much about training.
If you are looking for someone with more knowledge than you, then you should probably go with an expert. An expert is someone who knows a lot, usually about a specific thing. They are capable of getting the results you want that you don’t necessarily know how to get. This might be a VA for accounting, video/audio editing, marketing or any other thing that requires specific knowledge you might not have.
Being part of the team
Do they want to be a member of a team? When you are looking for a VA you need to think about if you want them to be part of your team long-term. You might just want to hire someone for a specific project and that’s okay, but if you are going to invest in training and integrating this person in your business you are better off with someone who really wants to be part of a team and help your business grow.
Team members who have proactive thinking are a great asset to your business. They will bring forward ideas and solutions, and help prevent problems from turning into crises. Having a team that cares about your business and is on the lookout for opportunities for your business to grow and will speak up about it greatly increases the success of your company.
Make sure they are willing to speak up about ways to do things differently or how they can add more value to your business. Two brains (or more) think better than one. Being open to two way feedback is the best way to increase effectiveness inside your business, having team members who want to give you their insights and ideas is how you create a strong team.
Do you need more help to make sure you hire the right VA? This workshop will provide you with the tools you need to understand the type of person you are looking to hire, how to find the right applicants, and how to go through the whole application, interview and hiring process.
Click here to attend the “How to Hire the Right VA” workshop.
