#340 Hire a virtual assistant (for your existing day job) - a podcast by Michael Veazey

Hire a virtual assistant

(for your existing day job)

Preparing to Hire a virtual assistant

Measure before you Hire

Before you hire a virtual assistant, use an app like toggl.com to measure your time usage

Be realistic and ruthlessly honest!



Define outcomes!



Business as a whole

Next year

Next ¼

How this tasks feeds those goals - or whether it does actually not contribute to desired goals



Eliminate before you delegate!

If you wouldn’t be willing to pay someone $4 (£3.20) per hour to do a job, why are you doing it at all?

Before you hire a virtual assistant, ask: Does this task need doing?

If it does, can you make it more efficient?



Typical you can hire a virtual assistant to perform

Finances

Be VERY VERY  clear exactly what purpose accounts fulfil

Corporate tax return

Companies house

VAT quarterly UK

Management accounting

Gross profit for product

Management accounts.

Also clarify EXACTLY what records you need and what you DON’T need.

Typical tasks

Take receipts photo and upload then VA’s job is to assign to a Xero transaction - category and cost centre. But the feed uploads the transactions - about 40 a month - scan for duplicates

How many hours- 8 hours for 2 months’ worth - feels intuitive



Possible other tasks

Sales

Outbound calls - need training - good ROI with right person.

Inbound  calls. Again need training but good ROI with right person.



Emails

Inbound and outbound X a day

Customer service?

Sales enquiries - survey or email



Research

This is an EXCELLENT test task.



It will do little harm to the business if done badly (usually).



Done well, it should help you get to tasks you keep putting off that could grow the business.

Websites

Amendments for website - web developers will usually do a way quicker job that you unless you have web dev expertise.

Receivables

Chasing up late payers - another great way to get an ROI

Put together a “bundle” of tasks 

Scan the business for other outsourceable tasks to get to a bundle of 10 hours a week

Super-competent admin - head screwed on.



Where to hire a virtual assistant from

Freeeup.com

(Affiliate link)

Use American or Philippino - think about timezones

America (lower 48)  -8 to -5 hours behind UK

Philippines 7 hours ahead



Fiverr.com

Good for micro tasks - another good way to test potential hires.

Upwork

Good for hiring for specific projects.

I've found good Eastern Europeans here (Serbia, Romania for example)

Clarify what kind of virtual assistant you're needing to hire

Criteria

Personality type

Eg fast learner

Articulate

Able to manage upwards (esp in Philippines this is important)

(e.g., if you ask something dumb, they will question "Did you mean that?")

Skill sets

Experience

Selection

Review 

Look at CV/background

Ratings on Upwork/Fiverr

Interview

Get a feel for:





Quick on uptake

Level of spoken English

Ability to think on feet



Hire 3 people for a project or even a task- set Test tasks

Test 

Research is really great first task

Book keeping is okay if you give small amount and check

CRM - onboard and train first



QUICK ACTIONS YOU CAN TAKE NOW

Action 1 capture and clarify tasks

What needs doing?

Further episodes of Amazing FBA Amazon and ECommerce Podcast, for Amazon Private Label Sellers, Shopify, Magento or Woocommerce business owners, and other e-commerce sellers and digital entrepreneurs.

Further podcasts by Michael Veazey

Website of Michael Veazey