It’s been a while since I’ve written about VA’s (Virtual Assistants) and I feel called to write about this topic again. My hope with this post is that you can take some actionable tips to get started in working with VA’s.
What is a VA?
Quick overview… VA stands for virtual assistant. These are folks you can hire that become an extension of your team. They can also help with personal things outside of work as well. I like to think of VA’s as mercenaries.
Back when I had employees I paid our team despite the workload we had on any given day. Back when I had employees I would try and justify a light workload by giving some of our team members tasks that were outside of their comfort zone.
The biggest benefit of working with VA’s is that you can hire them for a specific (specialized) task and pay them just for the amount of time needed to complete the given task.
Discovering What to Outsource
This is often the hardest part in taking the leap in working with VA’s. Recently, I gave a talk on how to hire your first VA and one of the questions was about the types of work you can outsource to VA’s. Literally it’s limitless. So, I like to coach people to hire for your weaknesses, so that those weaknesses become strengths by bringing in a mercenary.
Take some time away from the office or anywhere where you work well to get the creative juices flowing. Whether you’re a pen to paper type person or digital type, create a couple columns.
On one side write “Tasks I enjoy” on the other column write “Tasks I dislike”.
It can be really hard to actually realize the type of tasks and work you do throughout the day. If you get stuck, like most people, and can’t think of everything you do then download this handy “Time Audit” worksheet and use it everyday for at least a week (bonus points if you do it for 2 weeks).
Once you write this on paper, a google doc or even if it’s just in your head; you literally have the tasks you can outsource right in front of you. Start with that and eventually you’ll build off of it.
Where to Find VA’s
My preferred source for finding VA’s is FreeeUp. Use this specific link to sign-up for a special gift from FreeeUp.
While there are tons of resources for finding VA’s, I prefer FreeeUp for a lot of reasons but mostly because:
1. They are a smaller agency so you literally can talk with the owner if you need advice. You won’t get that with too many corporations these days and I don’t know about you, but I’m not a fan of support tickets and waiting on hold when you call 1-800 #’s.
2. Pre-Vetted & VA Matching: They will provide you with 2-3 VA’s to choose from within a few days based on your job description. This is so helpful because some sites will give you over 100 applicants and it can be so hard to sift through everyone.
How to Communicate / Give & Organize Tasks
First things first, before you fully commit to hiring a VA, be sure to give your new hire a small project. Small projects will lead to big projects. Give them a pretty simple task to check their response time, communication style, quality of work and if they meet your deadline and stayed within your time range.
Make sure to include the following:
Time limit: Say something along the lines of “please do not spend more than “x” hours on this. Contact me if you need more time before proceeding”. Point here is that you don’t want to give a task that should take an hour then get hit with a 5 hour bill.
Instructions: Be as clear as you can. Even better if you have screenshots / video’s to help explain what needs to be done. Pretend you’re speaking to someone that has no idea what it is you’re asking for. Dumb it down, as I say.
Due Date: Just like with employees on a project, set clear expectations on when you expect something to be completed by.
Finally, trello boards! I love trello. If you haven’t heard of trello, then check out this link. Trello can be tricky when you’re first learning it mostly because there are so many ways you can customize your trello boards to fit your needs. But, just know this, it’s a basic workflow from idea columns, admin columns to working on and completed columns. You can categorize your different projects each on a different board.
VA’s know trello boards very well. I usually ask them to set-up the boards. It’s mostly so that I know they are organizing our work, I can look at it if I need to (often I work out of the boards too though), and if/when you add more VA’s to your team it’ll be a good central place for everyone to have access to project details and communicate.
Next Steps
What are you waiting for?! Hiring a VA is not like hiring an employee. You can literally post a job to FreeeUp by clicking this link today and have 2-3 candidates sent to you in the next couple days.
If you liked what you read and want to learn more then you can check out my book here.
If you’re in the Swag industry and really want to adopt this model into your business to “free up” your time then be sure to check out my workshop at Expo in January. You can click here to sign up for my personal list just for my VA workshop at Expo. I’ll probably only send out one email closer to December with the details of the workshop.
As always feel free to hit me up to chat more. You can reach me at Sam@SwagWorx.com.
Swag On,
Sam AKA SwagSam
Sam Kabert is the creative director of SwagWorx and the creator and co-host of the podcast “WhatUp Silicon Valley!” A risk taker who embraces permanent beta, Sam is leading the transformation of his family-run office supplies business into a promotional products powerhouse. Sam can be reached at Sam@SwagWorx.com