You’re convinced that a Virtual Assistant is a great idea. You realise that you need one and you want to start working together immediately. But how do you go about finding the right virtual assistant? How do you even know what you should be looking for?
Well, there are a lot of ways to find the right Virtual Assistant for you. But first you should probably think about the things you need them to do and how confident you are about hiring online. Here are just a couple of things to consider when looking at hiring a Virtual Assistant.
Don’t be afraid to think globally.
You don’t need to have a virtual assistant who is located geographically nearby. Of course, if you need to deliver physical items to or from them then location will matter, but that’s probably going to be fairly rare.
If you want to be able to communicate with your VA in real time (via Skype, chat or telephone) then you need to be in a compatible time zone, but that isn’t as difficult as you might think.
For example:
- At 8am EST in Australia it is 3pm PDT (Los Angeles) and 6pm EDT (Boston)
- At 5pm EST in Australia it is 8am BST (London); 3pm CST (Beijing); 9am CEST (Berlin) and 12.30pm IST (New Delhi)
What types of tasks are you going to need done?
Find a VA who has experience in the areas you will be using them for. If the majority of the work you will be passing to a Virtual Assistant involves customer service – then find a VA with customer service experience. If you really only want help setting up documents and spreadsheet – then find a VA with experience using the software you use. And don’t forget – there’s no rule that says you have to just use one VA. You may find it suits you better to use different people for different areas – and if you currently have a VA, they will probably be able to recommend someone else, or coordinate the search for the perfect person.
How often are you going to need help?
I’m not suggesting that you need to be sure exactly how much time you need a VA for each week. But if you would like to grow the number of tasks your VA handles over time – it’s a good idea to let a potential VA know, just in case their time is mostly booked up already.
These are just a few of the issues to consider when hiring a Virtual Assistant, but they are among the most important. The main thing to remember is that a Virtual Assistant is a professional and if you have concerns about how best to use their time – ask them. Between you both, you can come up with an arrangement that saves you not only time and aggravation, but also saves you money.
Finding the right virtual assistant isn’t difficult – but if it doesn’t work out the first time, don’t be afraid to tray again. If you’d like some more tips on finding the right virtual assistant for you, check out some of the other posts in the Working With A Virtual Assistant or What Is A Virtual Assistant categories.
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