There are many reasons for hiring a VA. You want to grow your business, offer bigger services, launch that course, travel the world, spend time with your family, take a bath but there just doesn’t seem to be enough time to do the daily tasks let alone the ones that nurture you or your business. So how do you leverage your time, grow your business and still have time to do the things you love? Create space for yourself with the help of a Virtual Assistant.

Why you need a Virtual Assistant

Firstly, don’t wait until you are so snowed under with work and ideas to hire a Virtual Assistant. You should be hiring one sooner rather than later.

It may be cliché but there does come a time when you need to be working ON your business and NOT in it. Without the space to put your ideas into action, your business will not grow and that is not why you started this. Don’t play small. You are here to do great things. Having a Virtual Assistant to take the repetitive tasks off your plate such as social media graphics, email campaigns, sending Contracts etc. allows you the time to start working on income generating activities such as creating your course or your book or whatever your next big step is.

Not used to managing people? Hiring a Virtual Assistant is a great first step in learning the skills to manage a team. This is great for further down the line when you hire multiple people into your business. Working with a Virtual Assistant will teach you how to give clear instructions and constructive feedback.

What tasks can you delegate to your VA?

This really is a whole blog post in itself, but I will give you the short version. A Virtual Assistant is still a person and as such, each one of us will have a different set of skills. Just as you do not know everything, you cannot expect your Virtual Assistant to know it all either. If they have some of the skills you require but not all of them, give them the chance to learn. Sharing knowledge is such a powerful gift.

Some examples of tasks to delegate to your Virtual Assistant:

• Arrange meetings
• Research
• Proofread
• Create and schedule social media graphics
• Blog post writing
• E-Book creation

The list really could be endless and it all depends on what skills your Virtual Assistant currently has and what you are willing to help them learn.

So how do you choose the right VA for you?

Have a chat with your potential new Virtual Assistant, find out what skills they have, what programs they have worked with, what are they good at doing and read their reviews! The most important things to assess when choosing your Virtual Assistant is that you feel you can trust them, that you like them and that they have some of the skills you require for your business.

Here are a few things you can do to help you find your match:

1. Create a list of questions to ask your Virtual Assistant.

Asking questions is how you get answers. Here are a few examples:

• How would you handle a situation when you may not know how to complete a task?
• What is your favourite task to do?
• When you have a lot of work on, how do you prioritise which tasks to do first?
• Be sure to include questions specific to your needs from a Virtual Assistant.

2. Try to arrange a video call.

Talking to a person and seeing their face will give you a good idea whether or not you can communicate effectively with each other and could potentially work well together.

3. Start small.

Think you have found your ideal candidate? Why not start out with a small package. That way, you will be able to see if they have what you need/want and if they don’t, it won’t be too uncomfortable if you have to tell them that it didn’t work out.

 2. Be clear!

Communication is VITAL when it comes to working with your Virtual Assistant. At the beginning of your working relationship, you need to establish such things as:

• How will you be communicating with each other? I like Trello, Google Drive and Email.
• What exactly does each task require?
• When do you expect the task to be completed by?
• Provide effective feedback. The good stuff as well as the bad.

You already know how to run your business just the way you like it.

Why not record your screen and your process as you work through a task? You only need to do it once, send the recording to your Virtual Assistant, ask them to write out the procedure and then they can do the task, just the way you like it. I love using Screencast-O-Matic for all my recordings.

Remember that it will take some time to get used to working with your new Virtual Assistant but once you establish that relationship, your Virtual Assistant will become a valuable member of your team. There’s no stopping you now!

If you would like to learn an invaluable set of skills to support you in growing your dream team, click here and let me know that you would like more information on my new group program Outsourcing Queen!

And for those of you who are ready to see what my team of tech ninja VAs can do you for, find out more by clicking here.