As a business startup owner, you’re engaging in all administrative roles, such as filling requests, responding to clients, marketing your firm, and conducting day-to-day operations.
Choosing to pursue entrepreneurship should give you time freedom. Ironically, doing everything by yourself sets you on the lower end of the time spectrum. Virtual assistants should be the first hires online business owners make when they take on the job involved in running their business, so they can emphasise expanding their business. The good news is you can easily outsource competent ones from an excellent outsourcing marketplace like The Lead Enquiry.
A virtual assistant is a professional who provides administrative, creative, or technical support from a remote location. Also known as a VA, virtual assistants work with clients via phone, email, text messaging, and other online communication tools.
Hiring a VA can offer many benefits for large and small businesses. Virtual assistants are usually more cost-effective than full-time staff because there’s no overhead for office space or equipment. VAs also provides the flexibility to scale up or down depending on business needs: you can add extra help during peak times without the need to commit long-term. Plus, they’re well-versed in digital technology, which makes them ideally suited for digital tasks such as website updates and social media management.
Things to Consider When Hiring Your First Virtual Assistant
What is a Virtual Assistant, and how can they help you?
If you are a busy business owner or entrepreneur, having a virtual assistant (VA) might answer your prayers. A VA is a remote worker who can provide administrative and other services virtually. For example, they can help with email management, customer service, bookkeeping, scheduling appointments and managing social media.
Having a virtual assistant means you can outsource some of your day-to-day tasks to have more time to focus on growing your business. A VA is an invaluable asset for entrepreneurs and small business owners who need help staying organised and on track but need more resources and time for in-house employees. Moreover, this service provides flexibility since VAs usually work hourly rather than on full-time employment contracts.
A virtual assistant is a remote employee that can handle all sorts of operations or processes scheduled for them, for example, responding to emails, answering via social media content, and inputting data, often in exchange for a fixed fee or a retainer with a set number of hours per month.
A VA can work as a freelance digital nomad practically anywhere in the world, servicing multiple clients, and may also offer services in areas such as copywriting, programming, or graphic design.
What can you hire a VA for?
A virtual assistant (VA) is an excellent asset to any business. It can save time, energy and money by taking on tasks that don’t require your presence or attention. As a result, VAs are becoming increasingly popular in today’s work landscape, as they provide an affordable way for businesses to outsource mundane tasks such as data entry and IT support.
VAs can help with a wide range of services, including managing your calendar and emails, creating presentations, conducting research for projects and handling customer service inquiries. They can also assist with social media management, content creation and online marketing campaigns. In addition, VAs can be used to organise events or travel arrangements and handle bookkeeping duties like invoicing or tracking expenses. With the right VA partner, there’s no limit to what they can do to help run your business easier!
When should you hire a VA?
When it comes to small businesses and entrepreneurs, hiring a virtual assistant can be a great way to optimise time, improve efficiency and get more work done in less time. But when is the best time to hire a virtual assistant? Knowing when to make the decision can often take time and effort.
Generally speaking, if you’re finding yourself with too many tasks that are taking away from your core business activities or feeling overwhelmed with all the work on your plate, it could be a sign that you need an extra hand. Hiring a virtual assistant means you don’t have to take on all these tasks yourself; instead, they can focus on operational processes such as managing emails and scheduling, freeing up your valuable time for the important stuff.
Where to Hire a Virtual Assistant
It’s straightforward to recruit an assistant through one’s job board. However, there is plenty of help available to keep you connected to the Assistant that best meets your needs and answers within your budget.
The Lead Enquiry
The Lead Enquiry connects businesses with freelancers and companies, facilitating the process of outsourcing a venture.
How to Hire a Virtual Assistant
Like any other employee, you’ll have to review them and inquire about their skill set, starting with working in your job description. Before drafting this, ensure that you have all the necessary onboarding resources.
Document your process before you outsource it
It’s more complex than just describing what you want and hoping they do it right over the telephone when you have a VA; getting work done precisely to your expectations is feasible when all previous Information is provided and guidelines are created for the VA.
Recording your screen and all of the actions you take during a simple routine, such as running a section of your store, is an efficient way to document the process. To aid in visualisation, use software like Loom to capture it. Ready to document? Use Miro to create a basic flowchart showing how you usually conduct the process before any mistakes happen. To aid in the organisation of resources, make a small checklist or resource hub in Google Drive.
You might find it simpler to train others on the respective steps of a process with this method of communication, allowing you to reframe your efforts in the process you must follow through your Virtual Assistant.
When dealing with customer service tasks — responding to inquiries, handling complaints, social media management, etc. — your VA will also engage directly with clients, business contacts, or vendors. In that case, consider any past encounters on these matters and make your scripts or prior answers to match the circumstances that arise.
Write a job description to attract a suitable VA
When you’re ready to seek a virtual assistant, you’ll want to compose a job description for obtaining a person with the skills and characteristics you want. Undertaking this can help you seek out the ideal match and assist you in distilling your needs in an organised fashion.
Be sure to include the following in advance: the size and distribution of your company, previous working history, your language preferences, a list of the tasks they’ll be performing, the required and nice-to-have skills, and the resources you will provide to them.
Hire and onboard your Virtual Assistant
You could post the open position for your virtual assistant role on a traditional job board, forum, or social network. Still, consider the advantages you get from a platform, particularly one that specialises in hiring these workers.
Search first for freelance service providers on an online freelance marketplace, such as The Lead Enquiry.
Before asking any potential employees to participate in a Zoom or Google Hangouts interview, consider interviewing them through the marketplace, regardless if they found you there. Look through their list of references, with past client testimonials and other signals that prove their past efficiency as virtual assistants.
Ease your VA into your company so you can learn where they excel and they can become familiar with your business. Some things can go wrong if you take on too much too quickly, relying on virtual assistants.
Protect your information and accounts
When you have been through the hiring process and selected your virtual Assistant, inform them about any communication methods you will use together and how to set them up for success. You must ensure they do not have access to your accounts or your business’s aspects.
Monitor their performance
While you want your relationship with your VA to operate efficiently, check in on them at regular intervals to see how they can reduce the amount of oversight they necessitate.
Your virtual Assistant may even discover a superior way to do the job than you specified. Then, after developing a standardised understanding of your business, they offer suggestions like a full-time employee.
As your virtual staff member acclimates himself to his new tasks, consider assigning him additional responsibilities or hiring an additional VA to manage other components of your business.
Conclusion
Businesses succeed not for the accumulation of profits but with the intent to be transferred to capable hands once the owner is no longer performing daily operations.
For many freelancers, handing over control can feel jarring at first. But outsourcing is critical for achieving work-life balance. Moreover, it takes more work to accomplish that endeavour with fewer resources.
Working with an assistant will allow you to prioritise the things vital to you, work on your business, spend quality time with family and friends, or rest.
The Lead Enquiry is an outsourcing marketplace that connects you to vetted BPO companies offshore. Let The Lead Enquiry become the bridge between you and your virtual assistant! Contact us to learn more!
