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So, you’ve made the decision to outsource some of your admin tasks, leaving you free to focus on growing your business – great! But how do you make sure that you get the most from your Virtual Assistant?

If this is the first time you’ve ever outsourced any work, you may need a little guidance to ensure you are getting your money’s worth and that the VA relationship works for both you and your assistant. 

I’ve been on both sides of the fence – I’m a VA who has a couple of VAs helping me run my business…meta, right?

1. Hire the right person

This one is a bit of a no-brainer but I am continually shocked by the amount of people I see online who have had terrible experiences with their Virtual Assistants – people getting ghosted by their VA, VAs making mistakes and VAs not actually being able to do what they said they could.

I’m not blaming the person who hired them for the VA’s incompetence BUT you can reduce the risk of this kind of thing happening by making sure you’re hiring the right person. Here are a few things to consider:

• Make sure that you know exactly what tasks you want to outsource before you start the hiring process. You can’t possibly know if someone is capable of doing a task if you don’t know what that task is!
• Do they have experience of the tasks/systems/tools that you want them to do/use? Do they have evidence of this?
• Do you know someone who has worked with them? Are you able to see testimonials etc?
• Cheapest isn’t always best! Whilst it might be tempting to go with the cheapest VA you can find in order to save money, this might not always be the best decision for your business. Make sure you’re hiring someone with adequate experience.
• Interview any potential VAs before hiring them. This will give you more of an idea of their personality, their strengths and weaknesses, and their capacity (if they can’t fit you in for a call for 3-4 weeks, they might struggle to fit your work in!)

2. Start things off the right way

There will be some prep you’ll want to do before you jump in and start working with your VA.

You need to make sure you know the answers to the following questions before starting work with your VA (although feel free to discuss some of them with your VA during the interview process to ensure you’re working in a way that suits you both):

• What tasks do you want them to do (Content Writing? Design? Admin? Research? Emails?)?
• How many hours per week/month do you need from them?
• How are you going to share documents and tools with them?
• How are you going to share passwords with them?
• How are you going to assign tasks to them?
• How will they track their time?
• How will you communicate on a regular basis?

If you jump in too quickly, you risk not having things set up ready for them. Ideally, once the contract is signed, you want them to start work so having everything ready for them before that point means that can get started immediately. If you’re just winging it, things can go pear-shaped and leave you with more work than you started with! 

3. Communication is key 

This seems obvious, but it really can’t be stressed enough. Communication is the most important part of a VA relationship and will ensure that tasks are completed correctly.

How you communicate with your VA is a decision for both of you to make together – there’s not much point in deciding to communicate via Slack when one of you never checks it!

There are so many options, from Slack and Voxer, to Whatsapp, email, and even an old-fashioned phone call! Whatever you choose, you both need to agree so that you know how to get hold of each other quickly if needed.

In addition to regular communications, it’s important to have a clear process for assigning tasks if you want to get the most from your Virtual Assistant. You need to assign tasks in a way that is clear, contains all relevant materials that your VA may need, and is somewhere that your VA will see. Having things written down will help to ensure that mistakes aren’t made and that everyone is on the same page, which is what you need.

That’s why I love Asana. Clients can assign a task to me, add a deadline, include a description, and add attachments all in one place. And the best thing is that when they do this in Asana, I receive an email to let me know it’s there.

The clearer you can be with what you want, the better. If you have examples or templates, make sure to share them with your VA. This can be a really great way of making sure your VA doesn’t spend ages on a simple task, only for you to have to redo it, or ask them to make 1000 changes, because they’ve misunderstood. It’s better to over-explain than be too vague and end up with wasted hours!

4. Be transparent

The more open and honest you can be with your VA, the better they can work with you. Think of them as a teammate, with a shared goal of success for your business.

Share with them your hopes and aims, let them be excited about being a part of your business, and helping it grow. For example, if they are monitoring your analytics and tracking your stats, tell them what you’re aiming for. That way they can take some ownership of helping you achieve those goals. It also makes the work you assign to them have more weight and meaning. Remember, they are business owners too, so your business goals will resonate with them.

5. Work with systems

You don’t want to be micromanaging your VA constantly, and if you’re both working in different timezones, you will need systems in place.

Make it easy for your VA to find exactly what work you want from them, and all of the information needed, in one place. As I already mentioned, we use Asana (and I’m OBSESSED with it!) I can delegate work to my VA easily, with plenty of notes, links, etc. and set tasks to be repeated regularly (such as queuing up social media). She knows where to find the tasks I need her to do, and how to let me know if there are any issues. Plus, when she’s done with the task, she just has to mark it as “completed” and I receive a notification that it’s all done (which keeps my inbox clutter-free!)

6. Don’t be afraid to delegate- it’s the whole point!

A lot of us are kinda control freaks – and that’s okay! But when it comes to having a Virtual Assistant, you have to learn to let go of some things and let them take over, otherwise, what’s the point?

There are so many little jobs that are taking up your time, but not utilising your skills and talents, and this is why your business isn’t able to grow. As long as you choose the right VA for you, and explain things well, there’s no reason that they shouldn’t be able to take over some of these tasks and allow you to work on growing your business (or even having a little bit of you-time!) 

It can be hard to delegate and release that control so start off small. Let go of the things that you hate doing the most, first. It’s easy to hand off tasks that you really don’t enjoy and you’ll be pleasantly surprised by how much of a relief it is to not have to do those tasks! Once you’ve experienced that sense of relief and freedom, you’ll be delegating things left, right and centre.

As you gain more time and freedom to focus on the things you love, you’ll be more willing to let go of the things you don’t love (but you know, are still essential for you to run a business) And, as you get to know your VA better, and you start to trust them more and more, there will be less hesitation in letting them take over things.

7. Remember that your VA is a business owner too

I know I don’t need to tell you this but…if you want to get the most from your Virtual Assistant, you have to treat them with respect!

You would be surprised how many business owners view VAs as “less than”, because they are “just assistants”! I actually once had someone say to me, on a discovery call, that they didn’t realise you could be a full-time VA because they thought it was just an entry-level role for people who haven’t got the skills to run a business of their own!!! The funny thing is, she was on a discovery call with me and thinking about hiring me…why would you want to hire someone who you thought was entry-level with no skills??

Anyway, back to the point – if you treat your VA like the valued part of your team/business that they are, they are much more likely to treat your business as their own. They will show it the same love, care, and dedication as they do their own business and that will shine through in the work that they do.

Having a VA can absolutely transform your business and your working life, and hopefully, this has helped you see how you can really get the most out of them!