10 Essential Tips in Hiring a VA

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When you’ve finally decided to cut the chatter and start hiring Filipino virtual assistants, there are a lot of things to take note of. Remember, you’re dealing with a lot of things here besides distance and possible communication barriers.

Don’t fret though. In this article, I’ll give you some tips in hiring a virtual assistant. I’ll also add in a little bit of action points for you to nurture your relationship with your VA – something  that’s important for your Internet business at the end of the day.

Check it out:

1. Search for the right person

Now, I’m not saying that you scour onlinejobs.com or Odesk for Mr. Right. Chances are, he’s already hired by a top Internet businessman or you can’t afford his rates. Here’s the thing: Take as many candidates as you can, set a trial of two to three months and do what you must for your business to move forward.

It’s not really about finding the absolute best virtual assistant, it’s really about training your people to be really good. You can’t expect them to be out right and do everything!

2. Get a team, not a person

Speaking of which, you can’t expect just one virtual assistant to handle everything. From WordPress installation to SEO link building, everyone knows a little bit of each in the world of digital marketing outsourcing – it’s really all just a matter of assigning each person a segment of special tasks that they’re better with than others.

After, say, a few months when you’ve done all the trial work and you’re certain you’ve got a team that complements your needs as an Internet businessman – get someone who rose above the noise and turn him into a project manager. So you don’t have to fuss about everyone’s reports.

3. Make them feel involved

There’s nothing better than that feeling of belonging – maybe accountability and ownership, but in the outsourcing world, they’re pretty much connected. Make your Filipino virtual assistant feel like he’s part of your success. This should push him to better his skills and at the same time, serves as a virtual tap on his shoulder for a job well done.

4. Give them recurring tasks

Recurring tasks serve one main purpose: to keep your virtual assistant busy and involved. At some point, virtual assistants that specialize in a niche task (like web development or digital design), will have a hard time keeping themselves busy, especially after a launch. So keep them busy.

For web designer virtual assistants, give them some infographics and Facebook visuals to work on while they wait for that next big launch. For web developers, have them study app development and iFrame design for, say, your Facebook pages.

There’s loads of stuff to do, and giving these to your virtual assistants means that you get to keep them on your pay roll – which leads to them feeling pretty lucky.

5. Get to know the culture

Culture encompasses a lot of things from religious beliefs to national and special holidays. For the Filipino virtual assistant, getting to know their culture is a pleasure! The best you could do, when everything’s going as well as you’d hope for them to be, is pay them a visit in their archipelago home.

Getting to know their culture also means getting to know (and pay respect) to their holidays. While some may be down-right arbitrary, others are religion-based. The Philippines, being a very religious state, would have a few religious feasts and celebrations every month, so be ready to at least give them a day off.

6. Train them well

Training your virtual assistants helps the both of you in many ways. For you, you gain the assurance that the type of work or task at hand won’t get messed up. For the virtual assistant, he gets to increase his knowledgebase.

Training your virtual assistants well can range from giving them training material they can consume, to having daily calls and meetings about a certain Internet marketing concept. This also sends the message that you care for their professional growth which breeds trust – a vital factor in the growth of your Internet business.

7. Set reasonable expectations

This works in any setting – when you’re setting expectations, always make sure that these are achievable and measurable. This is so you can gauge your virtual assistant’s progress and, in the long run, the growth of your business.

Here’s a good example:

You give your virtual assistant some link building tasks and expect him to create, say, 30 links back to your website for, say at least 2 weeks. That’s pretty easy. You may want to push him a little, it depends, really. So long as you set clear expectations.

8. Treat them right

Don’t intentionally miss replying to their questions. Don’t call them anything demeaning or racist. Don’t make them feel inferior. The whole point of this is making them feel that they’re people too – which they are. At the end of the day, you not only create a relationship of camaraderie with your team, you get to save yourself from entering the outsourcing black list of doom too.

Besides, hate and anger are double-edged swords – you’re bound to get hurt (if not your business) too.

      9. Communicate with them daily

This could be best done at the start of the day, at least, for the Philippine virtual assitants’ side of the world. Let them know that you’re there by asking for updates from their tasks and work and give them updates from your side. This allows you both to be informed about the what’s ups and FYIs.

This also sends the impression that they are vital to the growth of the business – making them feel that you depend on them to get your business working allows

9. Use the right tools

In every team, there’s an arsenal of tools that complement their efficiency. For instance, communicating with your team requires a handy VoIP system like Skype or GotoMeeting. In terms of file transfers or sharing, Egnyte and 4Shared work pretty well.

At the end of the day, when you give your team the tools they need – a hammer for nails – this should lessen their burdens and you can expect your Internet business to grow at a much quicker pace.

That about wraps it up for the 10 essential tips you need to know when hiring a virtual assistant. Let me know what you think in the comments section.

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