Hire Your First Virtual Assistant

When your business is fully booked and you are doing everything on your own - marketing, sales, product or service creation, client delivery, operations, and all the boring admin stuff - it can feel overwhelming and you might be looking for a new business growth strategy.

Most small business owners who reach this growth stage will start looking at hiring help, which is usually to hire a virtual assistant to help with administrative tasks, social media management, organic growth, lead generation, and answering phone calls.

An experienced virtual assistant may even be able to help small businesses with strategic growth - including marketing strategy, sales strategy, market expansion, and customer retention.

Many businesses ask other people in their networks if they know anyone who can help them. They'll hire the first person they talk to and they'll kind of just expect their new virtual assistant to know what to do from day one.

If this is you…approaching your first hire like that will be super frustrating for both parties, and can actually add to the overwhelm you initially felt before you hired help, so I don't recommend you do things that way.

Instead, I recommend you simplify your business first. Before you reach out to anyone in your network, before you meet with potential virtual assistants, before you hire anyone.

So, how do you simplify your business?

How to simplify your marketing activities

Start by taking a look at everything you're doing with your marketing strategy.

Write down each marketing activity you're doing. Then, ask yourself...

What's actually working to create paying clients and what isn't?

From there, make some decisions.

Keep the stuff that's working and let go of the rest.

Find ways to simplify the things that you'll keep doing.

This is your own company, so you get to make changes like this whenever you want.

How I simplified the podcast creation process in my business

As an example in my own business, publishing my podcast each week is part of my business growth plan.

I really enjoy creating podcast episodes for my audience to listen to and get results from, whether they decide to work with me in my paid programs or not.

My podcast helps online business owners (coaches, consultants, copywriters, graphic designers, and other experts) achieve work-life balance and grow their business in a way that allows them to maintain that balance. 

Most of my existing customers listen to my podcast, as well as potential customers.

It used to take me 4 hours to produce one podcast episode, and now most episodes take me under an hour to produce - from idea creation to audio recording to editing to publishing. And I was only able to accomplish that by finding ways to simplify the podcast creation process. 

The biggest thing I did to simplify the process for myself was stop writing complete transcripts for each podcast episode ahead of time.

Instead, I started creating outlines for each episode and I started trusting myself to record and just be myself. I got rid of all my perfectionist expectations of myself and I allowed myself to lean into my own unique teaching style.

It was a freeing experience that saved me about 3 hours per episode. 

You can find similar ways to simplify your marketing.

Write down each marketing activity you're doing. Then, ask yourself...

What's actually working to create paying clients and what isn't?

What will you stop doing?

What will you start doing?

What can you improve and simplify?

From there, make some decisions.

Keep the stuff that's working and let go of the rest.

How to simplify everything else you're doing in your business

After your marketing has been simplified, I recommend you take the same process you just went through and apply it to other areas of your business - like your sales process, your product or service, your client delivery, your operations, including all those boring admin things you do.

In each category of your business, write down the things you're currently doing and ask yourself these questions: 

1. What's actually working to create paying clients and what isn't?

2. What will you stop doing? 

3. What will you start doing? 

4. What can you improve and simplify?

Keep the stuff that's working and let go of the rest.

Prepare your business to hire help

After you've simplified your business as much as possible, then you can begin the process of preparing your business to hire a virtual assistant.

Start by writing down a list of tasks you want that person to do, which is essentially a casual job description.

Create one training video per task, if possible, and keep each video under 5 minutes.

Create a Google Doc with a list of all the documents, folders, and systems your virtual assistant will need access to. This list will be helpful in the early stages after you hire that person, the onboarding and training phase, and any future off boarding phase.

Decide how you and your virtual assistant will communicate and how often. My virtual assistant and I communicate on Slack, which she and I both check twice a day Monday through Friday.

I prefer communicating on one platform versus multiple platforms, because it keeps things simple.

Now you're ready to interview and hire your virtual assistant.

Interview and hire a virtual assistant

Entrepreneurs tend to ask other people in their networks if they know anyone who can help them, and having recommendations from trusted sources is a great resource, but it's not the only resource.

You could also post the position on job sites, or in online communities you're a part of, or on social media platforms.

There are so many options for companies today.

I recommend you interview at least 3 virtual assistant services or individual virtual assistants before making your decision. Make sure the one you decide to hire will match your company values, especially if they will be helping you sign new customers or directly interacting with your customer base.

The first 90 days of you and your virtual assistant working together should be considered the training period. Use this time to set expectations, answer questions, and develop a respectful relationship with each other.

Get support when you need it

When your business is fully booked and you are doing everything on your own - marketing, sales, product or service creation, client delivery, operations, and all the boring admin stuff - it can feel overwhelming, but it's also a huge sign of growth.

Take time to simplify your business and prepare to hire your first virtual assistant.

If you need any help simplifying your business, creating training materials for your new hire, communicating with them, or anything else that comes up in your CEO journey, I can help you.

I'm a Life and Business Coach, a woman with an MBA, and a business owner myself. I recently hired my first virtual assistant in my business and I absolutely love the process her and I went through to ensure a smooth transition.

I truly feel like my onboarding process set her up for success and set me up for relief…instead of overwhelm and frustration. I'd love to help you through this process too.

I invite you to learn more.