How I Hired A New Virtual Assistant - Step By Step

When you start your own business, you will be scrambling at all times to stay on top of things. Countless tasks require you to hit the nail on the head, many irons in the fire, emails, phone calls, etc. If you pride yourself on doing it all on your own, you’re mistaken.

To hire a virtual assistant is the best thing you can do for your business. It’ll give you the time to nurture your product or improve the service you provide.

Travis Mariziani, a successful entrepreneur, says he already has two virtual assistants, and he’s on his way to hire a new virtual assistant. In the video below, he discusses how to hire the perfect virtual assistant. 

Why hire a virtual assistant 2020? 

”If you want to grow as an entrepreneur, you’ve got to learn to delegate.” Richard Branson. 

Below are the best reasons to hire a virtual assistant in 2020. 

1- Take some tasks off your plate

Starting a business comes with obligations and duties. There are several time-consuming tasks you don’t need to do yourself. If you decide to handle everything on your own, you’ll drown and get your business to nowhere. When you hire a virtual assistant, you’ll have more time on your hands to work on your business’s core tasks. 

Some of the virtual assistant duties to handle are; data entry, transcription, video editing, phone calls. 

2- It doesn’t cost much

Because the minimum wages differ from one country to another, to hire a virtual assistant in the Philippines is inexpensive at all.

3- Easy and Accessible

Many websites are specialized in Virtual assistant hiring.

All you need to do is sign up and choose from the numerous talented applicants on the website. 

Travis states that onlinejobs.ph is his personal favorite.

4- More Flexible, more work done

After you hire a virtual assistant, discuss with them their working hours, there’s a difference in time zones; this can be a problem at first during the training phase; afterwards, you can hand them tasks at your night time, which is basically their morning time, they’ll work on it. By the time you’re awake, most of the work will be completed. 

After realizing how a virtual assistant can help your business, you’re certainly thrilled to know how to hire the perfect one right now. 

How to Hire a Virtual Assistant? 

Step1: Sign up to onlinejobs.ph and post the job

Follow the following steps; 

1. Sign up.
2. Click on the “post a job button,” fill in the title and description. 
3. Add the salary you’re willing to pay. One of the perks of hiring virtual assistants from the Philippines is that minimum wages there are low; hence, you’ll pay way less than what you’ll pay if you hire someone from here. 
4. Check the skills you want in the list. 
5. Click on the ”post job” button.
   

Travis gave some tips on how to write the description that’ll attract the right applicants:

• Mention whether you’re looking for a full-time or part-time employee. 
  

Keep this point clear not to waste your time or the applicants’.

• Mention some of the terms of working for you 
  

Posting a job is a two-way street. Mention the requirements of working for you like flexible working hours, flexible vacations, and payment according to the finished work.

• Add instructions for applying for the job.
  

Adding some simple instructions in the job post will enable you to filter out automatic replies. It'll help you distinguish between who took the time to read the instructions and therefore is serious about the job and who didn’t.

This will shorten the list of applicants you’ll have to contact and therefore speed and ease the process. 

The instructions can be as simple as: 

• To write a specific subject line in the application.
• To write a few lines about why they want the job.
• Add a small task: send a photo, ask them to come up with a description for it, or write about an article they wrote before.
  

Note: there’s a difference in time zones between where you live and the Philippines, so probably you won’t begin receiving messages before 24 hrs, that’s why you have to be patient.

 Step 2: Determine who to contact

Check to see who followed the instructions; The applicants who did, are good candidates for the job. You ought to contact them, the others who didn’t, simply delete their applications. 

Step 3: Contact the suitable applicants. 

How to find the right virtual assistant? Simply hand them a task that’s quite similar to the job they’ll be doing and see how they handle it.

Ask them to hand the task at a specific date, preferably before the day you’ll interview them in so that you’ll have the time to go through their replies.

Note: Some of the applicants will not do the task you handed over, so this will help you refilter out the applicants who aren’t serious about the job. 

Step 4: Interview

You now can only interview the ones who submitted the sample project. 

Decide on one day for all the interviews, to make things easier for you.

In the interview, be professional, tell them what you’ll need from them, what they’ll expect from you, and decide if you two get along. 

Step 5: Hand them the job.

Decide on who you found qualified for the job and start handing them the job.

To keep things organized when you hire a virtual assistant, have a workflow scheme, and some superior tasks in mind. 

How to find the right virtual assistant is easy and so worth it for your business. Just make sure you follow the past steps, and things shall go smoothly. 

Do you know any more tips on how to hire a virtual assistant you want to share with us? Leave them in the comments below!