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10 Ways To Choose The Right Virtual Assistant For Your Business

When deciding on How To Choose A Virtual Assistant, the background administrative processes and systems you use in your business are essential to its success. When you understand how important they are in your business, it makes sense that you’ll want to hire the right Virtual Assistant as outsourcing those tasks is the sensible way forward. You will need someone who’s specialised in those areas, if you want the partnership to run smoothly and get the most from it.

However, the person you hire is also going to be working closely with you, so it pays to choose the right Virtual Assistant for you, too. They’re also going to be creating and managing systems that are both fundamental, private and sensitive to your business – so how can you ensure you choose the right VA for your business and for you?

Here’s 10 tips to help you choose the right Virtual Assistant – one who will be of benefit to your business, but also someone who you’ll be happy to work alongside.

Tip #1: Decide on what you’re hiring a VA to do

Start by getting clear on the tasks and priorities you have, as well as the responsibilities and timescales you want a Virtual Assistant to take on. This will help you get clear on what tasks you’re going to outsource, as well as narrow down your potential selection of suitable Virtual Assistants.

Tip #2: Find a Virtual Assistant that has experience of your niche

This isn’t crucial, but it is a nice to have. Someone who knows your niche will also know the nuances of it, as well as any technical aspects and technology that may be involved.

Tip #3: The right Virtual Assistant for your business is one who can meet your needs

You do, however, want to hire a Virtual Assistant who has experience with the types of tasks you want them to fulfil. This will help ensure you can quickly get them established within your business and you will know they’re competent and able to fulfil the tasks to a high standard.

Tip #4: The same ethics and personality as you

You’re going to want a Virtual Assistant who not only cares about the job they’re doing. But also cares about your business. Often, this means they’ll need to have the same ethics and beliefs as you – and someone who feels (and acts) as enthusiastic about your success as you do.

Tip #5: Proactive or reactive?

When it comes to personality, there are two distinctly different types of Virtual Assistant role. The proactive Virtual Assistant and the reactive one.

You need to decide which type of Virtual Assistant you’re looking to hire. Do you want someone who’s going to take an active role in your business and come up with suggestions and ideas – or would you rather have someone who just completes the tasks you hand over, to the specifications you want?

Tip #6: Decide if location is a factor for you

This isn’t always a factor, when choosing the right Virtual Assistant for your business, but it will play a part in your decision. Do you need a native-speaker, someone in your own time zone or someone who’s going to be carrying out a lot of written content for you.

Tip #7: Get referrals and testimonials

It’s always better to get a VA that’s been recommended to you personally by someone. Having a strong track record is something you want a Virtual Assistant to have, so if you can’t get a personal recommendation, make sure you opt for a Virtual Assistant who has checkable client testimonials.

Tip #8: Have a face-to-face meeting

You don’t necessarily have to meet up in person. However, have a video call with your potential Virtual Assistant at least, so you can actually see them. It’s harder to hide reactions etc when you’re able to read their facial expressions!

Tip #9: Choose a VA that you actually get on with

The relationship you have with your Virtual Assistant is hopefully going to be a long term one. You’re going to be working closely together, so it’s important that you get along. If in doubt, take advantage of an extended trial period, to make sure you’re making the right choice.

Tip #10: Are they within your budget

Your budget shouldn’t be your overriding deciding factor. Many business owners will underestimate how much it costs to hire a VA, especially if they’ve never hired one before. You can always go cheaper if you need to – but bear in mind that you’re looking for the right VA for you, not the cheapest one you can find.

The person you hire is going to have to work closely with you. Therefore, you need to ensure you’re hiring a Virtual Assistant who is up for the task and someone you can work with.

By following these 10 tips you’ll know that you’ve narrowed down your selection and chosen the right Virtual Assistant for your business – and someone who’s right for you too!

If you’re ready to work with a Virtual Assistant who can help your business grow, support you whilst you are growing, and help you get more work done, why not get in touch? Head on over to our Contact page, where you can either send us a message or request a callback. Let’s talk, and see if Virtual Wizard is a good fit for you!

This article was originally published in virtualhand.co.uk

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Virtual Assistants: What They Do & How to Hire (2020 Update)

Blog / By virwiz_admin

Are you looking to hire a virtual assistant?

In this article, we will talk about everything you need to know about virtual assistants – what they do, how to hire, what tasks you can outsource to them, how much they cost, how to manage and more.

Or are you thinking of becoming a virtual assistant yourself? We’ve got that covered too!

What does a virtual assistant do?

A virtual assistant provides various services to entrepreneurs or businesses from a remote location. From digital marketing tasks, scheduling appointments and managing events to personal errands. You can make a virtual assistant do almost anything.

In this article we will talk about all the above topics in detail.

Here’s what we’ll cover. Use the links below to jump to the section of your choice.————————————————–

Let’s get started!

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What Is A Virtual Assistant?

A virtual assistant is a person who provides various services to entrepreneurs or businesses from a remote location.

There are a host of things that virtual assistants can do, including:

Social media management
Event management
Managing calendars, appointments and emails
Preparing reports
Personal tasks like booking hotels and restaurants
Simple digital marketing tasks

It’s a never ending list!

In fact (pardon the pun here) they can do virtually anything.

Think of them as what Jarvis is to Iron Man.

They’re not there in person – but they’re still a vital part of your business.

If you’re curious about all the different tasks they can do, we’ve outlined 98 tasks that you can outsource to VAs.

We’re not going to go over each of those here, but we’ll touch upon the main ones later.

But why do you need a VA in the first place?
— Go back to outline —

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Why You Need A Virtual Assistant – 3 Great Reasons

Virtual assistants are everywhere these days. More and more people are turning to them and it looks like they’re here to stay. Here’s why you should hire one yourself.

1. Better Use of Your Employees

Say a mid-level or senior-level employee had to choose between these two options:

Playing an active role in spearheading growth strategies
Preparing routine reports on a daily basis

What would they choose?

Chances are, they’d opt for option #1.

Why?

It’s more interesting and seems more important.

But that doesn’t mean you can neglect these mundane tasks like emails and finances. Your business would crumble without this boring repetitive work.

So how do you keep your in-house team happy but still get the mundane tasks done?

With virtual assistants.

They can take up most of these mundane tasks that can be done remotely.

The result?

A full-time employee (especially those you are more senior or talented) can stay focused on more pressing matters that need to be done in-person at your office.

2. Reduced Costs

One of the main reasons why entrepreneurs and businesses outsource work is that it costs less.

Saving Salary Cost

Instead of hiring a full-time employee for a small job, you could choose to outsource it to someone at an hourly rate.

Lower pay isn’t the only way you can save money with virtual professionals though.

Saving Training Cost

A business owner can also save a lot when it comes to training costs.

Usually, companies have to train their in-house team on tasks and duties after they’ve cleared the hiring process.

All this costs time and money – that most companies can’t afford.

With VAs though, small business owners can hire professionals who already experts in their field.

This way, a business owner doesn’t have to waste time and money training them – they can get started right away.

3. Saves Time

Another reason why small business owners turn to VAs is that it saves them a LOT of time.

We all know that time is money – especially in business.

For example, let’s say you are a small business with no HR team.

Your employees shouldn’t spend hours posting job advertisements, doing preliminary resume screening, organizing an interview process – all on a hiring process for someone at entry-level position.

Why not skip all this and get a professional to work on specific tasks instead?

With virtual assistants, this is what you’ll get:

You’ll have verified experts that you can hire in no time
They’re time savers as you don’t have to waste time training them
As they can stay focused only on tasks you’ve hired them for, they’ll get the work done quicker than someone juggling multiple demands

It’s a win-win for everyone involved.

This article was first published on https://biz30.timedoctor.com/what-does-a-virtual-assistant-do/