When I went out on my own, I was committed to not having employees to worry about.
But I realized pretty quickly that I couldn't possibly do everything, and a guru-ess I had started to follow kept insisting everyone needs a VA -- a virtual assistant.
She stressed you needed to make decisions based on where you wanted to be.
So I asked around and started working with someone who I couldn't really afford to pay. I mean, I had no clients! What was I thinking?
And I should have known better -- I had been a successful corporate recruiter.
I now have a fantastic assistant.
And the guru-ess was right -- to a point -- you can't grow if you're doing everything yourself. You can't maximize your profitability if you're wasting time trying to learn something that doesn't leverage your strengths and won't directly bring you revenue.
But who do you hire? HOW do you hire the right person? And how do you know what you need?
Listen to this episode and discover:
- What to consider BEFORE you take action to bring on a VA
- How to figure out the sort of work a VA could, would, and should do for you
- Creative payment strategies (we're not talking about how to cheat people or not pay them what they're worth but to add an incentive to them while working with your business model and cash flow)
- The pros and cons of hiring a virtual assistant
- Tips to evaluate skills without hurting your business
- Strategies for managing your VA (or VAs because at some point you'll probably have more than one)
New Terms in This Episode
- VA
- Virtual Assistant
- 1099
- Independent contractor
Links and Resources
- Trello
- Basecamp
- Wunderlist
- VA Classroom
- SweetProcess.com
- IVAA / International Association of Virtual Assistants
- VA Classroom's directory of VAs