It can be difficult to know where to begin when looking to hire a VA (Virtual Assistant). Hiring people in person is hard enough, but to do so via electronic means where you don’t get to meet them and get a feel for them is even more difficult.

There is a massive variety in VA’s available to you. They vary in price, quality, the services they provide – pretty much every sector of their job. So it is important that you assess what they can bring to your business efforts, and equally important that you have a clear idea of what it is that you want them doing before you look to hire them.

It is difficult enough to find the right VA to do the job you want, never mind if you aren’t sure what that job is!

Tips for Choosing a VA

So when you are looking make sure that, at the very least, you follow these tips on choosing a Virtual Assistant.

What role do you see your VA fulfilling?

Will it be data entry? Email responding? Article writing? or Website promotion? The skills required for various jobs are very different and it is important that you know what you want the VA to be doing so you can match up their skills to the job you envisage for them. A VA might be very good at data entry but it doesn’t mean they can write a top class article!

What is their turn around time?

If filling roles was as simple as finding someone with quality life would be a lot easier. Unfortunately it is also essential that you find someone who can turn around the work in the time-frame that you want, and someone who appreciates that deadlines are there for a reason. Make sure they are on the same page re time-frames and what guarantees they offer for deadline hitting.

Budget

No matter how much we might wish it were otherwise, budgets really do control our lives. We need to make sure that any business venture keeps within budget if we are to make a profit, and selecting a VA is no different.

You need to know how much each job you want a VA doing is worth to you, and if their doing it makes financial sense. Therefore it is important to know what your budget is, and if the person you are hoping to hire as a VA can be hired for within your budget.

Quality of work

In business quality matters, and so to should it when you are hiring a VA. Insist that you see examples of previous work. There can be problems to this, many VA roles don’t have a specific end product to review, but you should look for something to assess wherever possible.

Referees

You should also be ensuring that you have some references and testimonials for anyone that you are considering hiring as a Virtual Assistant. Ask them for contact details, don’t just rely on a paragraph that the VA insists is from a previous client. Use Google to search for mentions of the VA, ask on forums etc.

Hiring a VA can be difficult, but to many it is essential to a business plan – and for good reason, VA’s can add huge value to any business. Just make sure that you are considering all these points when you are choosing a Virtual Assistants and you won’t go far wrong.

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