How To Hire A Virtual Assistant

Engaging the services of a virtual assistant (VA) is probably the most intelligent decision that a busy entrepreneur, freelancer, or small business owner can ever make. When things stack up on your to-do list, it is easy to think you can finally do it all yourself and end up in a burnout with all missed emails and no space to plan larger scale growth.

So how do you about hiring a virtual assistant? where do you seek? What then should you delegate? And how can you be sure that the individual you bring is one that is reliable and competent? You learn all the steps needed, step by step, including real-world examples, and you could be all set to hire a VA and be on your way.

Virtual Assistant: What Is It?

A virtual assistant is a self-employed worker who provides either administrative, technical or creative services on a remote basis.

Administrative VAs work on inboxes, schedules, bookings and data entry.
Technical VAs may configure CRMs, automate some tasks by using Zapier, or have your website on WordPress.
Creative VAs have the ability to create social media post, create basic graphics in Canva or even ghost write blog drafts.

Example: Emma is a freelance coach who brought someone to run her email funnel, a VA helped her in a month with a 30% boost in engagement of her subscribers as there was no message left without an answer.

What Is the Point in Hiring a Virtual Assistant?

Make time available to high-value work. You are supposed to be thinking and making a sale, and not working with spreadsheets.
Expand without over staffing. Include 10-20 hours of assistance rather than a full time pay.
Agility and Just in time support. Hire more people before the product to be launched and drop in off months.
Increase work and health. The reduction of the admin results in more white-space in your calendar to do deep work (or have a nice weekend).

Mini case study:
John was a marketing consultant, who was drowning in scheduling and invoicing. Having hired a VA to work 10 hours/week, he regained evenings and even managed to get two new customers within three months.

Action 1: Determine What to Delegate Tasks

The first step is to determine tasks to delegate. Time audit before going in search of candidates. Record everything you do during 3–5 working days (you can use some simple sheet or Toggl). Then highlight activities which are:

Consumes time (e.g. 5+ hours/week)
Routine (e.g., weekly contribution to the social media)
Administrative (e.g, data entry)
In areas other than in your core expertise e.g., simple bookkeeping.

Examples on How to Offload Common Examples:

Inbox and calendar: prioritizing, answering to frequently asked questions, making calls to the calendar
Ticket reservation: air tickets, hotels, visas, preparation of the program
Data entry: filling in Changeable Recorders Management, Google Sheets
Content support: formatting of posts in blogs, copy-editing on a basic level
Social media: the preparation of Posts/ Stories calendars, planning through Buffer
Book keeping: reconciliation of receipts, invoicing
Investigation: research, rival researching process, image source

Example inventory:
I take 7 hours per week to handle client intake calls, 4 hours with email follow up, and 3 hours to format the blog drafts. When that is listed you know precisely what 14 hours you can dump.

Step 2: Make Decision on Budget and Commitment

The VA rates depend and differ with region, expertise, and specialization:

Level – Rate (U.S Dollar/hour)
Entry level (e.g. Philippines) – 5-15
Mid-level (2–4 years of experience) – 15-30
Niche (marketing, bookkeeping) – 30-75+

Questions to Be Answered:

How many hours: 5, 10 or 20+/week?
Time: one-shot, 3-month trial or permanent?
Freelancer vs agency: freelancer services are flexible; an agency helps with recruitment, charge, and replacements.

Hint: At first, make a 10/hour week trial during a month. Scale up as soon as you achieve your targets in ROI.

You Will Find Your VA at Step 3

Freelance Marketplaces:

Upwork = large talent supply + without the need to install time tracking
Fiverr = project-based freelance (e.g. your email manager for 50 dollars)
Freelancer.com

Virtual Assistant Agencies:

Time Etc, Belay, MyOutDesk and Magic
Pro: pre-visited helpers, guarantee of replacements
Con: more expense (an agency fee and a VA rate)

Single-Purpose Job Boards:

OnlineJobs.ph – perfect with the fulltime Philippines based VAs
We Work Remotely, Remote.co

Your Own Network:

Post a query in LinkedIn, ask the entrepreneur groups in Facebook, or utilize Slack groups in the industry.

Place of posting example:
I need such a VA who has the skills in working with emails to help me attend to my coaching emails (5–10 hrs/week). English has to be fluent, with experience using ConvertKit, and willing to work 9 am–12 pm EST.

Step 4: Create a Clear as Crystal Job Description

The wrong candidates are screened out by a clear brief. You should have the following in job description:

What is your business and a one line summary of who you are
Duties and tasks (bulleted)
Required competencies/tools (e.g. Gmail, Asana, QuickBooks)
Time zone + consistent schedule, hours and availability
Price bracket
Instructions of how to apply (e.g. “Put the word orchestrate in your subject line”)

Sample Snippet:

Job: Virtual Assistant (8–12 hrs/week)

Tasks:

Conduct communications with clients through emails and organize group chats using Zoom
Design and publish weekly blogs on WordPress
Post and plan social media in Buffer

Requirements:

Prior VA experience (2+ years)
Experience of using Google Workspace, Canva
High quality writing in English

To apply:
Please send in your resume and put “orchestrate” on the subject line.

Step 5: Screening and Candidate Interviews

Initial Screening:

Check applications spell-checking including grammar, instructions adherence.
Erase generic responses that did not hit your keyword.

Narrow 3–5 Finalists:

Check reviews, portfolios and testimonials given by previous clients.

Interview or Test Task:

Interview questions:

Give me an experience of when you automatized something.
What do you do when several deadlines clash?
Which is your tool set in terms of task management?

Paid test task (2 hours): optional
E.g. Format this blog post to WordPress (add in headings, images, meta description).

Scenario interview:
You come across that Candidate A is automating the tagging of the newsletter with Zapier, which fits in yours. B candidate is more graphically-skillful than you could imagine. Both take to test tasks; you pay them both 20 dollars on a two-hour job.

Step 6: Hire and Set Expectations

After you select your VA:

Conclusion of an Agreement

Terms of work, confidentiality/ND, terms of payment.

Provide Secure Access

Share the log in information using LastPass or 1Password.
Limit the permissions (e.g., do not always provide the user with the role of “Admin” on WordPress but rather the role of the “Editor”).

Offer Training Material

Make a video recording of the process in 5 to 10 minutes.
Make up a basic SOP (step-by-step checklist).

Since establishing communication cadence is already taken care of, there is now a bigger picture to consider.

Open meetings through Zoom on a weekly 15-minute basis.
Daily reports by Slack, or email.

Onboarding example:
“Welcome aboard! This is what we do in terms of social media posting ▶️ tap on this Loom video. I have sent the folder of our brand assets through the Google Drive.”

Step 7: Keep Talking and Grow

Weekly Touchpoints:

15–30 mins meetings: to discuss progress and impediments.

Project Management:

Due date and the priorities boards in Trello, Asana, ClickUp, or Notion.

Channel Preference:

Slack to ask some quick questions, email to summarize things.

Feedback Tip:

Apply the principle of the model of SBI: Situation, Behavior, Impact.
In the phone conversation of yesterday (Situation) where you failed to send the draft (Behavior), our client felt ignored (Impact). How about 24-hour turnaround on editing the next time round?

Basic Traps and the Way Out

Error	Correction
Recruitment without specific tasks list	Audit your list of tasks; go small
Micromanagement	Define the ends as opposed to the means
Doubling up on a single VA	Engaging experts in difficult work
No emergency plan in place	Use a condensed back-up list or a contact agency number
No routine feedbacks	Set weekly meetings

Final Thoughts

Outsourcing a virtual assistant is not only a shift of mundane work, but it is akin to investing on the limited resource that is time. The right VA will give you time to be innovative, develop contacts, and have a better working life balance.