What task can you give to your Virtual Assistant?

How are you from the last time you read my blog?

If you are new, welcome to my blog!

So, you have spoken with a virtual assistant or need to hire one and do not know where to start in implementing which or such task to your virtual assistant.

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I recommend starting out small with a task that is somewhat not hard to do. When I came across some clients who first came to me, they were not sure how to give me access to their information and were at times confused how I could do the task with not being there physically or a phone call away to help solve their problems.

There are options to show your VA what to do on your virtual task.

My personal favorite in instructing a virtual assistant and you can’t go wrong is doing this in a video if you have the time. If not, you can have a step-by-step PDF or Word document guide on how you like things to be done in a specific way.

Please note that because business is mostly online based and your virtual assistant might not get it the right way (or your way on the first attempt), it’s always best to start on a trial basis.

An example was when I got my first task as a virtual assistant, A client wanted me to send out emails for them on their behalf. That client was a bit wary of trusting me with their password.

What I had suggested was creating a temporary password for me to access. If you are not comfortable with that method, you can go as far as creating a new email and giving that virtual assistant access to do your task. This does pose the issue for informing all your clients of the new email address that is being used.

What I have recommended from working with my clients is using the LastPass vault, it manages your passwords and you are felt more secure as in some cases when the password is shared you do not have to even know the password.

However, when you have moved on from that step, how do you go about tracking the progress of your work you have assigned your virtual assistant is up to what you agreed on. You can have a look at my previous blog with Tools I recommend.

Want to be updated about your virtual task?

I normally use a project-based platform by the name of Asana for both my personal and my business tasks. This is an easier tool to keep track of the progress and this is if your virtual assistant uses this project based tool or any at all. If he or she does, then the VA can grant you access to their email of the task being done at each stage and how long it will take to complete. This, again, is if the VA has this in place and has agreed to this when the contract was signed.

When you have done a trial and you feel comfortable about hiring your virtual assistant full time or part time, and you have passed doing the video tutorial for the task to be done, you can outline a job description on what you expect from the task.

What to look out for when you hire your Virtual Assistant?

Most virtual assistants mainly do a consultation before agreeing to a task, which, in most cases, is not free. So it’s best to have this information in place to outline what it is you need to be done and if the VA will be the right fit for your business.

Another option you can use when you have hired your virtual assistant to do your task is allowing the VA access to such information that you may use on a day-to-day basis in your business.

If you use any social media platforms and you know it’s time-consuming to provide such passwords for each of the VAs, you can grant access to your VA via Dropbox, Google Drive, LastPass or any other platform similar to this that you will be using.

So now that you feel confident in delegating a particular task to your virtual assistant, please make sure that you have read over the contract between your virtual assistant and you now have a detailed description of the task in place to be completed successfully. Also, make sure before a consultation that you do have questions in place to ask your virtual assistant.

After the consultation and you have way passed the confidential stage of hiring and you have met your ideal VA, here are some things to look out for before signing a contract.

Now, that I have hired my first Virtual Assistant now what?

Confidentiality plays a big role on the online platform, so make sure any and all tasks are kept confidential. Secondly, you do not dictate your pay base on thinking that you have hired a virtual assistant as an employee; they are an independent contractor (that is why the contract is there). In most cases, this will be outlined in the contract that the VA provides to clarify what a VA means.

You both will need to agree on how you will pay the virtual assistant, either if it’s full or partial payment upfront or 50 percent upfront and the other half after completion.

Finally, if the VA offers to price for hourly and or packages, either both or only packages unless the VA has stated otherwise. This is another requirement that you must understand and be clear on hiring before hand.

Most of my suggestions are what I have experienced for myself and or was educated on by other virtual assistants before me. You can, however, tailor your tasks base on what the VA has agreed to do.

You will know what task to assign your VA once you have worked with that VA and you are comfortable with the end result of the work that was produced. The funny thing is that, most times, when you hire a VA and you are so pleased with the work, even the task that the VA does not do, you are happy for him or her to learn to do, but this is if your VA has the temperament to learn to do so or can recommend someone for you.

Your VA, in most cases, can find the additional support for you if he or she is unable to do so. But please check to see that what you need is something your VA can offer. If not, he or she can research this information for you.

It was nice of you to stop by.

Until then, happy hiring, and best wishes with your business.

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Photo Credit: Haute Stock

Are you afraid of hiring a Virtual Assistant?

8 / 6 / 16 5 / 5 / 18

How are you from the last time you read my blog?

If you are new, welcome to my blog!

Yes, I am talking to you. You have managed to leave the corporate job that you were in, or maybe you have reached a time in your life when you want to do things on your own, on your own time and be the boss of your own business.

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Is your business, taking you away from the tasks that you love doing?

Stop! Do you really think you can do all of this on your own? Yes, you can but some part of your life will be suffering. Yes, it could be the kids’ game, the husband waiting for you to stop paying more attention to the new business than him, and even you who might have forgotten to take a bath (Yes, I said it).

I was in your shoes; I was working for my clients and trying to build a name for myself. I have learnt—yes, you can build a business on your own, but I soon realized that I cannot do it entirely on my own no matter how hard I try to dedicate 12-14 hours of my day. Some part of my life will be affected.

How a Virtual Assistant will help you today!

Do you know that a virtual assistant can help you? Do you even know what a virtual assistant is? A virtual assistant can provide the additional support that a business needs from everything from administrative support to social media presence.

I will speak on three ways you can hire a Virtual Assistant, whether it’s from a freelancing platform, a job board or A virtual assistant having their own website. With each platform that you choose, they do offer payment from all major payment sites such as Paypal.

Business owners can choose from a vast majority of virtual assistants that specialize in certain areas. You do not need to worry anymore or be panicked because a virtual assistant can provide the minimum technical and administrative support for your business.

What you should know about A Virtual Assistant.

When I first started out, a general virtual assistant starting rate can start from $25-$30 per hour while a specialized VA can start from as much as $75-$100 per hour. Now I am not talking about those third party sites that offer rates that are smaller than those VAs who have established themselves by creating a website or name for themselves.

You have options to choose from, to work with a VA!

There are many ways to hire out for assistance. This can be depending on your budget and which platform you are comfortable with. I started out with Fiverr, which is a freelancing website that starts at $5. There are other freelancing websites that you can hire out from, but you have to join this platform in order to hire these freelancers.

A second option is joining a reputable job board that facilitates different types of virtual assistants. I really liked VAnetworking because this site provided free resources as well as great benefits to start your business. You have to join such a platform in order to hire your first VA and post your specific tasks. Did I also mention that it’s also free to join and post your request when finding the perfect VA for your business?

The last method that you can use is hiring directly from a virtual assistant website. Some key factors to look out for when hiring is to see from other past clients, through their testimonials on the VA site. If none is provided, then a sure way is to ask the virtual assistant to provide a client that has worked with him or her and has no problem in providing a positive feedback.

Another factor is when hiring a virtual assistant through a website, more than likely, a VA will have a contract in place for you to sign and what is expected and how long the task will take to be completed.

Remember, hiring a virtual assistant is the easy part of the process. In most cases, the fear is not knowing what this virtual assistant can do for your business and not being educated enough in this industry. On the next post, I will talk some more on what tasks can be used to start off with when hiring a virtual assistant.

It was nice of you to stop by.

Until then, happy hiring, and best wishes with your business.

Don’t forget to check the sidebar and footer of this website for awesome resources!

Photo Credit:Haute Stock

Here’s a quick way to manage your 24 hours

8 / 5 / 16 6 / 15 / 18

How are you from the last time you read my blog?

If you are new, welcome to my blog!

◊This post contains affiliate links and I will be compensated if you make a purchase after clicking on my links.◊

So I am a Virtual Assistant and before I was working on a freelancing platform. I was planning on the side to get my business out there and create my website.

How are you managing your 24 hours?

I was doing everything. I was scheduling posts for my social media pages, I was showing up in groups for my ideal clients, and I was even writing my blogs, in addition to also doing clients’ work on a freelancing platform.

OMG, I was heading for a burnout and as a trained Guidance Counsellor who should know better, I knew I should not be doing this because this was going to impact the growth of my business. This was heading towards impacting my clients negatively and them not getting the best services from me.

So I slowed down and with the experience, I learned from some of my clients who were leading busy lives and needed to schedule their time more wisely, I literally stopped and follow suit.

We are each given 24 hours in a day, and how we use it determines if we will be wise with our time or let things we spend most of our time with dictate to us.

Why you MUST invest in a planner or project based platform.

Don’t forget to check the sidebar and footer of this website for awesome resources!

I strongly recommend that if we are online business owners, that you invest in a cloud planner or project management based software to manage your tasks. No disrespect to those book planners. My favorite is Asana and because it saves tasks automatically.

I also like using Passion planner for my planning as well; it can be used from your computer or be printed if you so desire. I also think if you like to use a physical planner to schedule your days, this comes in handy too. I will talk some more on what I mean by this.

I mentioned earlier that I was trying to do everything myself; this does not eliminate hiring out help, but this blog also helps with managing your time as well on a daily basis.

I started out using sticky notes before I was even aware of an online planner. Each day I would dedicate to doing a single task; it does not have to be the same time, but I will do mine on various times depending on what the day is like. You can time yourself if you don’t mind mentally doing it on your own.

I will show you how to theme your days for the week.

Each day, I schedule a specific task. So let’s say for Monday, I will dedicate 2-4 hours on scheduling my content. This means that I will use a scheduling platform for the day to schedule my tasks for the week, or for the month. You can time yourself using a platform such as Toggl or using your phone or a reminder that you have on your computer.

For Tuesday, I focus on my business. This can entail hiring out for additional help or keeping track of what needs to be done, such as keeping track of my VA, doing my website or it depends on what you need to be done, which will be a focus for your business.

For Wednesday, remember I said in earlier posts that I signed up for every webinar that I could think of; luckily for me, most of them fell on a Wednesday or Thursday, or sometimes on a Saturday. If I had no webinar on those days, I did courses that I thought would benefit my personal growth and my business. I did courses on Udemy and Alison and when I had signed up for these individuals’ webinars, some also offered courses that I did take.

For Friday, I focused on creating my content. This is the time I did research on what my ideal clients were talking about and I saved them in a spreadsheet for future blog posts. I even used Canva for creating images that would be great to go along with my content.

On Saturday, I had another day for a task. Yes, I know this was funny. This was the day that I used to insert new stuff into my scheduling platform. This was the easy part because this did not take much effort on focusing on my tasks for each day. You might not need this day because as each time your progress is achieved, you can tick it off or even add in what needs to be done. You don’t have to wait for Saturday to do this.

I rest on Sunday. You do not necessarily have to set your days specific to what I choose; you can even start on Sunday and choose the days that suit you best to manage your time.

But, remember, as a business owner, you have the same 24 hours as everyone else. Use your time wisely and don’t do everything yourself; there is a difference between being self-employed when you do everything, and being a business owner.

It was nice of you to stop by.

Until then, happy hiring, and best wishes with your business.

Don’t forget to check the sidebar and footer of this website for awesome resources!

Photo Credit: Haute Stock