How To Hire A Virtual Assistant

View the “How to Hire a Virtual Assistant” video here.

While coaching my clients on time management, I find a lot of my clients are bogged down with detail tasks instead of working at a higher level in their career or business. So I decided to put together this “How to Hire a Virtual Assistant” article and video to help them learn how to pass these tasks to a virtual assistant (VA) so they were free to work on more important things.

How Does a Virtual Assistant Help?

A VA helps by

Taking over your simple, detail tasks
Organizing your work
Giving you someone to delegate to
Freeing up your time

What Tasks Can a Virtual Assistant Do?

The list is nearly endless, but here are some tasks that are commonly assigned to virtual assistants.

Data entry
Bookkeeping
Scheduling
Travel arrangements
Research
Email management
Social media management

What Kind of Virtual Assistant Do I Need?

All virtual assistants aren’t the same. They have a wide range of skill sets. Here are some examples:

Executive Assistant – works like an executive assistant to an executive
General Office Manager/Staff – office type tasks
Marketing – assists with marketing tasks, advertising, social media
Writing – provides writing services for press releases, social media, blogging, customer letters
SEO – helps you with search engine optimization

Benefits of Multiple Virtual Assistants

Instead of hiring one full time virtual assistant, consider these benefits of hiring 2-3 part time VAs:

Different skill sets – while some skills overlap, hiring multiple VAs can give you access to additional skills
Emergency backups – if you rely on one VA for everything, your work grinds to a halt if they are ill or leave. If you have 2-3 VA’s, you can redistribute the work if one is unavailable.

Finding Tasks For Virtual Assistants

How do you find possible tasks for virtual assistants?

Monitor your own tasks and ask “could someone else be doing this?
Tag tasks that could be done by VA’s within your task management system
Create a list of potential tasks or search your tags
Consider some good “test” tasks for your new VA’s

Overseas Vs Local VA’s

Overseas can work from anywhere, so you can higher people local to your area or elsewhere in the world or a combination of both. Here are a few pros and cons of each type. Of course, these are generalizations and you may find exceptions to these.

Local

Higher rates
English/local language is their first language
Available to talk or make calls during your local business hours
May use more initiative

Overseas

Lower rates
English tends to be second language
Different time zones
Tend to just do what they are told – somewhat less initiative

Individuals Vs Team

You can hire either individual VAs or a team of VAs to work on your project. Here are some factors for each:

Individuals

You only deal with one person
Only one person’s skills
Usually less expensive

Team

Might have a different person on each task
Can tap additional skill sets
Tend to cost more
Only one company to pay

Where to find local VA’s

Post on local job sites
Craigslist
Networking at local business groups

Where to Access Overseas VA’s

Fiverr
- Good for one-off tasks – communication limited
Reddit Forums
- www.reddit.com/r/Forhire
Upwork – high fees
People For Hire

I do not recommend Freelancer.com as many freelancers report difficulty getting paid through the site.

VA Task Sites

These sites let you purchase a block of hours or tasks:

MyTasker – $120 for 10 hours ($12/hr)
Fancy Hands (US based) – starting at $30/month for 5 requests up to 20 minutes each ($6 per request or about $18/hr)
UAssistMe.co – starts at $269/mo for 20 hours (about $27/hour)
TimeEtc (US/UK) – $78/month for 3 hours work ($26/hour)

Hourly Rates Are Not Sole Criteria

A $3/hr virtual assistant who bills 20 hours on the task is more expensive than a $20/hr VA who bills 2 hours ($60 vs $40). Use tasks where you know how long they should take and use these as test tasks to make sure your VA is efficient and billing properly.

Testing Virtual Assistants

When I first hire VAs, I test them to make sure they are right for me. Here is my process.

Have a list of test tasks available
Assign similar tasks to multiple VA’s
See which VA’s
- Are most responsive
- Give best output for the price
  (quality and quantity)

Virtual Assistant Communication Tips

It is key to communicate tasks clearly and followup. Here are some techniques I use:

Clear instructions, checklists, video how-to’s
Regular check-in (check after first 1-2 hours of work)
Use video and screenshots when you delegate
A good task management system is key because you can see at a glance how your team is doing

Fire Virtual Assistants Quickly

When they don’t work out, stop sending them tasks and reassign the tasks to the others you’ve tested. End their contract quickly so they can’t bill any more hours and change any password accesses they have immediately.