In my previous blog post, I mentioned making a list of potential VAs that you’d like to interview.
Now you’re going to put that list into effect and start using it to make your notes when you start interviewing your potential VA. Now this is very crucial that you do this and speak to each and every one of the VAs you wish to interview to see what kind of connection you have together. It could be great right off the bat! – OR – it could be ‘This person is definitely not for me!
Here is a list of questions that will help you to make an informed decision on whether they will be good for you and your business. Ask their opinions on certain subjects so you can see what direction they are going in. You may decide that their way of thinking is not for you and go your separate ways.
Have you been doing this for very long?
Do you have a specialty market that you service?
Where is your home base? (time zones are important to know)
Do you have a certain set of hours that you work? Or are you flexible?
Do you work evenings and/or on the weekends?
Do you have a set premium for rush projects?
What do you consider a rush job?
What is your normal completion time on projects I will send you?
Are you a one-person company? Do you have an assistant or a safety net in case you are ill or your computer is down? Can I still be comfortable knowing that my work will still get done and without delays?
Do you have references from your clientele and is it ok to contact them?
As for contact, how quickly do you reply to emails or voicemails?
How often do you invoice your clients? (once per month and is it beginning – middle – or end of month?)
How would you expect to receive payment?
Do we need to sign an agreement? If yes, what kind of conditions do you have? Is there a specific time-frame that requires us to work together? I.e. a minimum of 1 or 3 months before we can end our association together?)
Do you have a preference as to how we will communicate? Whether by phone or by email etc.
What type of work that you do for your clientele gives you the most satisfaction and pleasure?
Would you charge me for time spent on emails or telephone calls?
When would you be available and what hours would you be able to work for me?
Do you invoice immediately or do you wait until the project is finished?
What software/computer programs do you use? Are you familiar with AWeber and other Autoresponders
Do you work with a confidentiality agreement?
Will you be sub-contracting my work to another third party?
Can you show me one of your contracts that are not completed yet (just to get an idea of how you work?)
What type of precautionarymeasures do you have in place should you require to contract my work out?
How do you charge? Do you sell time blocks? Or is time billed in 15 minute increments per assignment etc.)
You might be thinking that it’s a lot of questions – but just remember, it’s your right to ask all of these questions and then some! Besides being beneficial for yourself, it’s also good for the potential VA as well.
Remember, it’s a 2 way street, just as much as you are interviewing the VA and deciding to see if you can work amicably together, they also get to see where you are coming from and what you expect from them so they can make an informed decision as well whether or not to work for you. It’s not absolutely necessary to ask each and every question listed here. After a few questions, you may already start to get a feel if they are a fit or not. It’s up to you to ask as many or as few questions as you think you need to, in order to get a good idea of who they are and how they conduct business.
In addition, you are not forced to make a decision immediately on the spot once you have had your free consultation with the potential VA. Just inform them that you will let them know within 24 hours – or whatever is a good time-frame for you to interview all the potential Virtual Assistants.
Naturally, if you’re talking to someone with whom you have a good rapport with and you like their personality and whose qualifications are just what you need, then go ahead and hire them! Just don’t feel that you have to choose somebody immediately, this is your business after all.
Robyn here! I’ve had a passion for technology for as long as I can remember. I bring a variety of skills and experience to any business, which have been gained with over 25 years of experience as an administrative and IT professional. Learn more…
So you have finally realized that you definitely need some help in order to run your business as smoothly as possible – You’re getting more clientele, you’re finding that the tasks you used to love doing are too time-consuming, you’re staying much later at work or spending too much time at your computer at home trying to get things done. You missed a great family gathering the other day because you just had to get a few things done, and before you knew it, the whole evening was gone and you haven’t even begun to get yourself ready to go out – UGHH! This is not what you had in mind when you decided to start your own business!
Ok, now you are totally set on getting yourself a VA!
The first question you will probably be asking yourself is, how do I know which VA is right for me? Where do I even begin to look for a Virtual Assistant? Here are a few very helpful hints that will assist you in finding the kind of VA that you can count on and feel comfortable with.
To start your search for that ‘perfect VA’, ask the people around you that you are working with on line – perhaps your clientele, or a forum or chat room, or especially a business coach who knows their way around the web. Get some referrals and make yourself a list to keep notes so that once you contact them and have interviewed them, you can look over your list and decide yourself who would be best-suited to be your assistant for the kind of business that you are running. Most of the VA’s out there will offer a free consultation – so you can set up a time/interview with them and see what they’re all about. After speaking with each potential VA, you should have gathered enough information about her services and qualifications to see which one will be suitable for you and your business.
Another good place to check into VA’s is Virtual Assistant Forums – easy enough to do! Just Google Virtual Assistant Forums and you will get a whole list of forums that you can search. First start with a couple of the most popular forums and that will give you a good starting point.
VAnetworking.com – this site is a large forum that has plenty of Virtual Assistants. On one of the tabs, there’s a section where you can search by country – or for the USA you can search by state – OR – you can even post an RFP (request for proposal) which will be posted on the forum for all potential VA’s to see!
VirtualAssistantForums.com – here is another huge forum that has loads of VA’s on it. You can browse for distinct qualifications www.virtualassistantforums.com/directory/ – and you also have the option of posting an RPF here as well.
In addition, there are also some very popular outsourcing sites, such as Elance and oDesk. These are not the same as the forums we mentioned and maybe they should not be your first priority to look for a VA, especially for the newbies, BUT they can be helpful. You would have to put up your profile on the 2 websites and post the jobs that you need help with. You will be receiving bids from VA’s all over the world, giving you the opportunity to choose the ones that best suits your needs, dependent on their expertise and ratings.
Another place to check for VA’s is LINKEDIN. Just do a search for Virtual Assistant, adding any specific qualifications, i.e. Webinar – Infusionsoft – Autoresponders etc. There are plenty of choices out there.
The best part is that they will be categorized, pending how closely connected you are.
Robyn here! I’ve had a passion for technology for as long as I can remember. I bring a variety of skills and experience to any business, which have been gained with over 25 years of experience as an administrative and IT professional. Learn more…
Summer has hit and maybe you’re thinking I wish I could have a bit more “me-time”, taking the kids swimming, going for a walk , read a book or take that trip to see family/friends. Whatever it is that you want to do, remember that it’s possible. Remember you not only deserve a vacation but you need one! What’s the secret to more “me-time” AND your business not crumbling… the secret is… outsourcing to your VA.
Probably when you originally hired your Virtual Assistant, you were just so grateful to be able to assign a lot of the mundane tasks like doing your blog posts, updating your EXCEL Sheet, research etc. The more you work with your VA, the more you realize that you can trust them to do a lot of the tasks that you don’t have to concern yourself with and now you can start working on how to drum up more clients for your business
In fact, after working for a certain amount of time with your VA, you will come to see that you don’t have to be at your desk working all the time, constantly checking to make sure that everything is running smoothly, back-tracking on your work (or time) to make sure that a certain contract has been sent out to your client. Now, you are able to enjoy more time in the knowledge that things are being taken care of. Remember the plans you made with your family to take that long-awaited vacation just as soon as you could? Well, that time has finally come! This is what is now possible for you since you have a great VA working for you!
Having a great connection with your VA does take baby steps. You need to start off slowly. However, once your VA has earned your trust, the amount of tasks and projects that you can give to them are unlimited and again that means more ME-TIME!
Your virtual assistant can:
Pay your invoices through PayPal or whatever merchant service you use. You can even get them established with their own personal logins with permission to view only what they need to
Manage the payments to your affiliates
Do customer service duties
Write and send out emails to your database
Add new products to your shopping cart.
Create landing pages
Do your scheduling
Coordinate Webinars, Telesummits etc.
Represent you in social media, or blogs/forums
And the list goes on and on..
The Bottom Line
You see how simple it is to only work with a Virtual Assistant, you can proceed with whatever your plans are for your business and your vacation. So start making a list of those tasks/duties that you prefer to hand over to your VA. You will thank yourself for it!
Robyn here! I’ve had a passion for technology for as long as I can remember. I bring a variety of skills and experience to any business, which have been gained with over 25 years of experience as an administrative and IT professional. Learn more…
Let’s talk about one of my favorite topics and that’s list building, or more specifically why you need to list build. No matter your online presence – from blogging, social media, creating awesome video content or your own online store, if you have an online business you can definitely benefit from building your list.
What’s the big deal about having an email list? Well for one it gives you the opportunity to communicate directly to your audience. There’s no waiting for them to visit you on your blog or follow you on Instagram to see your content or offers. You get to go directly to them, well their inbox that is.
Even though blogging, video content and social media are awesome ways to reach your audience, email marketing in itself converts better than those other forms of marketing. That’s the biggest reason why you should concentrate your marketing efforts on list building. Your email list will help you earn a living from your online business. And it’s also a form of safety net. Let me explain what I mean.
I don’t like to concentrate on all the negatives that can happen; Facebook can decide to shut down your account, your great website can get hacked and other not so fun things… but the good news is that with an email list you have a way to recover, to reach out and to talk with your tribe and let them know what’s going on.
And… another great advantage is you have an opportunity to get to know your audience better. You end up building a relationship with them through your weekly or bi-weekly emails that you send to them (as well as through their comments to you). You start to build trust with your tribe. And we know that’s important because once you have gained trust, they are more likely to take you up on the different offers you sent them via email. And as long as you treat your email list/tribe well and share great content it’s sustainable. You can make offers for things they want and need over and over again.
I’ve seen list sizes of 500 build a 6-figure income in a year, I’ve seen all list sizes and all income sizes and all I can say is imagine what you can do or earn if you start building or growing your list now.
If you want to learn more about List Building and how it can help your business click here and let’s talk.
You’ll never find 2 businesses that are the same, nor will you find 2 people that are exactly the same for that matter either – So who’s to say ‘When ‘X’ happens, you should hire a Virtual Assistant’? You’ll have some people say you should hire a VA right away, regardless of whether you’re just starting your own business or not. And then you have the other side of the coin, where people will say you’re better off to wait until you’ve established yourself and made some money. In the end, it’s really all about what you think, your own individual preference. Eventually, you will come to realize by some little signs here and there, that, yes, it’s time I get some outside help.
You need to send out your Invoices – Although it’s very commendable to give your clients the absolute best possible service you can, sometimes you end up doing so at the expense of your business. You can’t run a business without receiving an income, and you can’t receive an income without sending out your invoices/statements etc. But you don’t really have the time! No worries! A VA will take care of all your accounting needs so that you can best use your time working with and building your clientele.
You’re drowning in emails – You find that your emails are increasing and you’re having to spend way too much time on reading and responding to all of the emails – You want to be able to reply yourself to all of them to give it a ‘personal’ touch, but it’s just taking too much time!
Hire a Virtual Assistant to reply to your emails or have them put an FAQ section on your site to save you some time. It’s taking you forever to finally be able to do one task – whether it’s setting up an opt-in page, list, follow-up autoresponders, etc. – You thought you could do this in no time, but it’s just taking so long. After a few hours, you become frustrated and realize that you didn’t get anything accomplished at all.
Want to see how you can tell if you should learn the tasks you need to know for your business – OR – if you should hire a VA?
Will I have to do this particular task very often? If yes, then it is worth it to learn to do the task yourself. If not, then it is better to outsource it.
Do you want to know how to do the task because you love your work and you can afford the time to do it? If yes, then absolutely learn it. If not, then outsource it.
You’re finding all these little mistakes you’re making, such as spelling typos, grammatical errors, which, ok, we have all made mistakes once in a while and it’s understandable to have a mistake or two when sending out to your mailing list for example. But you’re making these mistakes more and more often, and forgetting to include an attachment or a link. Now you know it’s time to get a VA working for you and let them do all the administrative duties for you.
Now you’re happy that your business is growing, BUT the very thing that you intended to enjoy when owning your own business (enjoying time with family and friends) is not happening! In fact, you are having the opposite affect! You have no social life. You are missing time with your family and friends. After a while, it seems you wake up, go to your desk, work all day, eat a meal here and there, go back to work, then go to bed. Time to hire A VA!
Although there are a lot of other telltale signs that tell you that you need to outsource and get yourself a VA, the above are the most common reasons. If you were lucky enough not to encounter any of these problems, then you should definitely do yourself a favour and prevent any future negative occurrences and consider hiring a VIRTUAL ASSISTANT to save you time and frustration. Let us help you to succeed!!
Robyn here! I’ve had a passion for technology for as long as I can remember. I bring a variety of skills and experience to any business, which have been gained with over 25 years of experience as an administrative and IT professional. Learn more…
