You’re busy, you have a business to run, clients to serve, and a life to live. But what about the little things you don’t have time for? The tasks that pile up take away your productivity and limit your ability to focus on the important tasks that will allow your digital business to grow faster.

That’s where a virtual assistant comes in, as it can help you take care of those repetitive tasks so you can focus on what’s important. From social media management to customer service, a virtual assistant can do it all. Check out this 10-step guide on how to hire a virtual assistant for your business today.

Why & How to hire a virtual assistant?

Hiring a virtual assistant can provide significant benefits for any online business. Not only will it free up valuable time, but it can also help grow your business.

For starters, virtual assistants can take care of repetitive tasks that would otherwise take away from productivity and limit your ability to focus on the important tasks that move the business forward. By delegating those mundane tasks like entering data or responding to customer emails, you could spend more time coming up with strategies to increase revenue and market share. This leads to faster growth of your business, as well as greater productivity and satisfaction from accomplishing more in less time.

There are also benefits of hiring a virtual assistant such as cost savings Virtual assistants typically charge much lower rates than full-time employees, this is because they can be hired on a part-time or project basis, as well as hired in countries where the average salary is much lower than yours. This differentiates them from full-time employees and helps companies save considerably on overhead while still doing quality work.

A virtual assistant can also bring a new perspective to your company’s operations, providing ideas and insights that may have been previously overlooked. They may be familiar with different trends in the sector or with new technologies that could help streamline company processes. Their experience can add value beyond simply completing tasks; They could help boost your business in ways you wouldn’t have thought of before hiring them.

Finally, having a virtual assistant handle customer service ensures a level of consistency that might otherwise be missing if customer service is handled by multiple people or just yourself as the owner or manager of the online business. When customers receive personalized attention from a virtual assistant over time, they begin to feel valued and are more likely to become loyal customers who return for more products or services in the future.

In short, hiring a virtual assistant can be an invaluable asset for any online business looking to save costs, improve productivity, and increase customer satisfaction levels, which will result in faster growth of the company’s bottom line.

You may also like: 

• What Does A Virtual Assistant Do? The Complete Guide
• Virtual Assistant for Startups and SMEs

What roles do virtual assistants typically perform?

The great thing about virtual assistants is that they can perform a wide range of tasks, depending on their skills. These are some of the functions that virtual assistants typically perform:

Social media management

Virtual assistants can help take care of all the social media tasks, from creating posts and managing campaigns to responding to comments and messages. This allows business owners more time to focus on other areas of their business.

Data entry

A virtual assistant is ideal for data entry tasks, such as entering customer information, updating contact lists, or adding new products to an online store. This leaves the business owner with more time to focus on higher-level tasks.

Customer Support

By having a virtual assistant designated for customer service, businesses can provide a consistent, high-quality experience to their customers. Virtual assistants can answer questions, resolve complaints, and handle returns promptly.

Email management

Virtual assistants can help manage email inboxes by sorting and responding to emails, setting up filters and automation, or unsubscribing from unwanted mailing lists. This way, you could have more time to focus on the important tasks that require your attention.

Investigation

Virtual assistants can research business-related topics like industry trends or customer reviews. This helps keep companies up to date and gives them a better understanding of their market. You can also ask them to compile lists of potential clients and contact them or list the best affiliate programs and request participation in them.

Content creation

Virtual assistants can create content for websites, blogs, or social media accounts. This could include writing blog posts, creating graphics for social media posts, or gathering content from other sources.

These are just some of the roles a virtual assistant can take on when working with an online business. With the right skills and experience, they can become an invaluable asset to any business, allowing owners more time to focus on growth and overall productivity.

To go further: 5 Types Of Virtual Assistants | Eassistantvs

How to hire a virtual assistant

Now that we’ve looked at why it might be a great idea to hire a virtual assistant and some of the typical roles you might hire for, let’s look at how to hire a virtual assistant one step by step.

Step 1: Decide what your digital virtual assistant will do

A virtual assistant can be found to perform almost any task, big or small. Virtual assistants can do things like data entry and accounting or more complicated tasks like social media management and research. The most important thing is to determine exactly what you want a virtual assistant to do before you begin your search, this will make it much easier to find the right person for the job.

Virtual assistants typically present themselves as general virtual assistants or specialized virtual assistants. If you need help staying organized, a general virtual assistant is ideal. On the other hand, if you need help with a specific issue, you might want to hire a specialized personal assistant.

Not sure what kind of assistance you need? Take note of everything you do and the time it takes you to complete tasks for an entire week (or even a month, if your daily tasks are very different). From there, determine which activities do not need your expertise and can be handled by someone else, in this case, a virtual assistant.

You may also like:

• 4 Free Virtual Assistant Course
• Why Hire A Virtual Assistant

Step 2: Calculate your budget

Even if you have many perfect tasks to delegate to a virtual assistant, hiring one to do everything at once could be quite expensive. To start, focus on just a few tasks, such as the most tedious ones or those that are most difficult for you.

The number of tasks you can assign to a virtual assistant corresponds to its cost. The prices of a virtual assistant’s services depend on several elements, such as the type of service, years of experience, and where it is hired. Consequently, rates can range between €2 and €40 per hour.

Try to put a monetary value on each activity you need to determine the maximum amount you can pay an agency.  Keep in mind that you will have to pay more for higher quality. However, you can often save money by hiring a virtual assistant who is just starting but has relevant experience.

Also, if you are the person doing these low-level tasks, think about how much your time is worth if you spend it on other tasks like selling. For example, if you know you can generate €100 an hour working in sales, but you have to spend 5 hours a week answering basic customer service emails, hiring a virtual assistant for less than €100 an hour ( most perform this task for between €3 and €10 per hour) your business will benefit.

Step 3: Create a training program

The amount of time required to train a virtual assistant on a task varies depending on the complexity of the skill. In either case, you’ll need to create an onboarding system to help your virtual assistant understand how to work according to your rules and processes. Types of training materials may include documents with written instructions and screenshots, or videos showing the procedure. If your original virtual assistant leaves, having this training program already in place makes it easier for a new employee to take over the workload.

Step 4: Find a virtual assistant

Now, let’s get to the main point: where to find a virtual assistant. You have three main options:

• Freelance platforms
• A virtual assistant agency
• A job site

Using freelance platforms and job portals when searching for candidates has many advantages. One of the biggest advantages is payment protection, although the interview process can be more restrictive. With an agency, you may not have as much control over who you are matched with and the price may be higher, but this can also be seen as a positive as it removes some of the burden of finding the right candidate yourself.

Step 5: Write a job advertisement

When searching for something, it is important to be specific about what you want and how you want it. If you use an agency, you may have to request certain services. However, if you are looking for someone to hire yourself, you will need to write a job advertisement.

By including questions in your ad, you ensure that candidates have read and fully understood it. This will save you time by weeding out unqualified candidates before you have to review their applications. Additionally, it clearly states the nature of the work required, as well as the desired skills or qualifications, so that qualified individuals can easily apply for the vacant position.

Lastly, it is important to include how many hours you need the virtual assistant to work each week or month. Virtual assistants who are already working for other business owners or have other commitments will want to make sure they can make time for your work.

Step 6: Interview candidates

If you want to hire a virtual assistant, be sure to conduct an interview first. This interview may consist of asking questions to candidates online through platforms such as Skype or Zoom. Just keep in mind that there may be limitations on how much you can communicate with someone before officially hiring them if you go through freelance platforms.

Step 7: Create a short test

10 minutes is the ideal time for a test to help you evaluate potential candidates. If it’s too long, they may feel like you’re asking them for free work. The goal of the test is to be able to methodically review skill sets, attention, and whether they can receive instructions correctly. And, of course, make sure the questions are related to the tasks that the selected candidate will perform if he is hired.

If you’re looking for a general virtual assistant, testing is probably the way to go. But if you need someone with more specific skills, it’s best to ask for samples of previous work. For example, if the virtual assistant is going to manage your social media accounts, take a look at the profiles they already manage.

Step 8: Set a trial period

Before signing a long-term contract with a virtual assistant, it is a good idea to do a trial. This way, you can decide if it is right for your company without having to commit to anything. One week should be enough, but depending on the nature of your business, you may need up to 30 or even 60 days. Not only does this allow you to see if you will work well together in the future, but it also gives both parties the option to discontinue services after the trial is over if necessary.

If you want to try a virtual assistant before fully committing, it is best to do it through an agency. You can usually work with a VA for only a few tasks and, if it doesn’t work well, switch to someone else right away. On the other hand, if you use a freelancing platform or career site, starting from scratch may be your only option, unless you already have some reserve candidates in mind.

Step 9: Set Reasonable Expectations

Realistic expectations are essential after hiring a virtual assistant. They will need time to get used to your working style and may make some mistakes while learning. That said, once you’ve had some time to adjust, you should start to see improvements in both quality and speed until the work reaches (or gets very close to) perfection.

Hiring an inexperienced VA can help save money, but keep in mind that this means tasks may take longer and not meet the same standards as those performed by more expensive professionals. In this case, you must manage your expectations from the beginning.

However, over time, it is reasonable to expect your virtual assistant to work with minimal guidance. If the work you receive is still insufficient, do not feel the need to renew the contract.

Step 10: Adapt the approach

If you’re a small business owner who’s constantly hiring and firing virtual assistants, it might be time to take a step back and evaluate your process. Think about the instructions you give: are they clear? Are they specific? Do they define what you want, how you want it, and in what period? If not, even the best virtual assistant will feel lost.

After the initial week, in which you will communicate frequently through messages and perhaps the occasional video call, you can tone it down. If you don’t have anything specific to say, you don’t need to schedule a call. Just be sure to give feedback after every project your virtual assistant completes. A simple “thank you” will suffice if everything goes well.

Keep in mind the deadlines you set; If they are too short, your virtual assistant may lag and do a poor job. If this happens, the virtual assistant could leave to find a less demanding boss. “For example, when John learned how to hire a virtual assistant, he saw a 30% increase in productivity.”

You may also like: How To Prospect In Real Estate

You may also like: Top 10 Virtual Assistant Tasks List

You may also like: How To Start A Virtual Assistant Business

You may also like: Top-Rated Virtual Assistant Websites That Will Transform

You may also like: How to Become a Virtual Assistant: The Complete Guide

Final thoughts

Hiring a virtual assistant can help your business. By outsourcing tasks to a virtual assistant, you can save time and money while freeing up space in your schedule to focus on more important things. Additionally, setting reasonable expectations and adapting your approach will help ensure that both you and your virtual assistant are happy with the working arrangement. In short, by following the 10 steps described above, you will be able to find the perfect virtual assistant for your company. Good luck!

FAQ

Q1: What’s the first thing I should do when trying to hire a virtual assistant?
A1: Start by figuring out exactly what tasks you need help with. Once you have a clear idea, you can begin looking for virtual assistants who have the right skills. Research potential candidates on various job platforms, then set up interviews to see if they’re a good fit for your business.

Q2: Why should I learn how to hire a virtual assistant?
A2: Knowing how to hire a virtual assistant is crucial because it helps you delegate tasks efficiently, freeing up your time to focus on what matters. A great virtual assistant can boost your productivity and streamline your day-to-day operations.

Q3: Where can I get tips on hiring a virtual assistant?
A3: There are plenty of resources online where you can learn how to hire a virtual assistant. Check out business blogs, LinkedIn, and websites dedicated to virtual assistant services. They often offer practical tips and step-by-step guides to help you through the process.

Q4: What should I avoid when hiring a virtual assistant?
A4: When hiring a virtual assistant, avoid the mistake of not being clear about the tasks you want them to do. Always check their references and past work to ensure they’re reliable. Clear communication of your expectations and goals from the start is essential to avoid misunderstandings later on.