Finding a VA is not as hard as you might think. One thing you want to do is avoid huge VA companies that pay their VAs pennies while taking dollars from you. Instead, find an independent VA who either works alone or has a team who works under them. If you can find someone in your own country, or who speaks your language, that’s much better. To find the right VA, do the following.

* List the Tasks – It’s important to make a list of all the tasks that you need the VA to do. The VA you hire will need to know what’s involved, and you can’t hire someone until you can make a list of all the things you need them to do. You may discover you need more than one VA if your list comprises a lot of different business areas.

* Write a Request for Proposal – Using the task list, write an RfP. An RfP lists all the things you want the VA to do, as well as the compensation range and other expectations you will have of the VA. Remember not to expect too much in different business areas of your VA; most VAs specialize in one or two areas.

* Elance.com – Post your list on Elance.com, and put a budget. Sign up for a paid account and restrict the bids to people with paid accounts. Check their references, check their work history, and do not pick the lowest bid. You can even restrict bidding by country.

* Vanetworking.com – This is a great place to pay to post your completed request for proposal. They have high quality paying members who are serious about building their VA business. You’ll likely get some very good bids from proactive virtual assistants if you post your RfP there.

* Your Groups and Organizations – If you are part of any group or organization, you can post your needs for a VA there. They will likely have plenty of recommendations and even recommend their own VA for you.

* Social Media – You can post your RfP on Facebook, LinkedIn and other social media, and you’ll get applicants as well as recommendations from others about who to hire.

* Colleagues and Contacts – Send notification to your circle of influence, mentioning what you need done and that you want to hire a VA. They’ll then recommend people to you, or send out the notice to their circle too.

* WAHM.com – On WAHM.com there is a VA message board where you can post your RfP. There are many good VAs who frequent that message board who will answer your RfP, but there also questionable people.

If you’re careful, know what you want and stay proactive with your VA, you’ll end up having a great experience, improve your business, and make more money.

Before you hire a VA, look at some of the common mistakes made when doing so. By understanding the common mistakes you can ensure that your VA experience will be successful instead of stressful.

1. Not Understanding What Work You Need Completed

Before even placing an advertisement for a VA, you need to write down the types of work you need to outsource. Remember at first to only write down things that do not directly earn money. You should keep doing the core work that you are known for, and let the VA do the supportive tasks.

2. Not Reviewing Their Work Regularly

Once you do hire someone, it’s important to review their work on a regular basis so that you are assured that it’s up to your level. Plus, it will give you peace of mind to know that the work is indeed really done.

3. Not Providing Feedback

Be sure to provide your VA regular feedback. The best way to do it is to first tell them what they did well, and then tell them where they can improve, and leave it with something else good. This will help your VA tremendously.

4. Not Having a System in Place

It’s imperative that you have a system in place to help you assign tasks, and for your VA to receive them without having to deal with email. A good system to use is Basecamp.com, and some people really love Teamwork.com too.

5. Failing to Set Expectations

It’s important to let your VA know what you expect from them from day one. Establishing the right boundaries and the right expectations will go far in helping you and your new VA work well together. For example, if you prefer the VA to just do the tasks you give him or her and no more, say so. If you want them to make suggestions, let them know.

6. Not Realizing That You Get What You Pay For

There is a movement out there, as you’re likely aware, to hire VAs for next to nothing and well below minimum wage of most industrialized countries. This is a very bad practice to get involved with as the work will not be as good as if you hired someone who is experienced and an expert in their field, who charges professional rates.

7. Not Giving the VA Time to Acclimate

Many VAs can get up and running pretty fast, but every new contract takes time to get to understand and mesh with the rhythm of the new arrangement. Don’t give up too fast. Give it 60 to 90 days to ensure you’ve given it all that you can to make it work.

8. Not Letting Them Do Their Work Their Way

Micromanaging is the worst thing you can do. If you contract with a social media VA who is an expert in their field, don’t tell them how to do the work. Instead, tell them what your expectations are and what the deliverables will be. What work will be “turned in” to you at the end? What reports will be shown to demonstrate the success of the work completed?

9. Treating the VA Like an Employee

A VA is not an employee and you cannot call on them in the same way you would if you had a secretary in the front office to do your bidding at any moment. You’ll need to work within their system too. They may have a 48-hour time limit for work deadlines, or they might require you to give them all their work for the week by a certain date and schedule phone calls. And yes, they’re going to charge you for every phone call, and every moment they work on your business. Be prepared for that.

10. Not Giving Clear Instructions and Deadlines

When you give work to your VA, it should include very clear instructions along with a strict deadline. They should know what they need to deliver to you and when. They should not have to ask a hundred questions about each assignment. You should try to answer everything up front. But, do be available for questions so your VA can work efficiently.

If you can avoid these common mistakes when hiring a virtual assistant, you will be that much more likely to enjoy working with your VA and he or she will enjoy working with you.

Contracting with a virtual assistant is an important way for a small business to deal with their non-money making tasks. VAs usually do administrative and technical tasks that either you can’t do or don’t have time to do, or that are not your main source of income. Here are ten reasons why you could need a VA for your business.

1. Your Workload Is Too High

If you find yourself working day in and day out, you need to find someone to help you. Remember why you started your own business? You started it because you wanted freedom. Now you probably feel chained to your desk. You’re starting to experience success but it’s starting to take over your life.

2. You Put Off Important Admin Tasks

You’re so busy doing billable work that important admin tasks such as customer service and bookkeeping are put off until it’s so overwhelming you don’t even want to do it. This is dangerous because you cannot know how well your business is doing without doing the books and admin tasks.

3. You Are Spending Too Much Time on Non-Money Making Tasks

You’re keeping up with the administrative work, but you are spending more than 10 hours a week doing it. These hours could be spent doing tasks that make you money instead. If you can earn $140 an hour, why are you doing tasks that could be done for $20 to $50 an hour?

4. You Are Stressed Out

You find your business a drudge and you’re no longer having fun. You catch yourself looking at want ads and fantasizing about not having so much responsibility. Your health is suffering and you don’t have time to exercise or eat right.

5. You’re Working More than 40 Hours a Week

As a business owner, you knew you’d have to work long hours in the beginning. However, if you’re working more than 40 hours a week, you need to find someone to help you. Figure out how many hours of your work is billable versus non-billable. The non-billable amount is how much help you need from a VA.

6. You Don’t Want to Train People

Hiring an employee comes with training but hiring a VA doesn’t. You hire one or more VAs who have experience and specialize in the things that you don’t know how to do. You’ll gain their expertise once you hire them.

7. You Don’t Want an Employee

Hiring an employee comes with a lot of paperwork and government regulation. When you bring on a contractor they do their job without training, use their own tools, and meet your deadlines in their own time.

8. You Don’t Know How to Do Something

If you need work done that you really don’t know how to do, and it will take you more time due to having to learn it, you’re better off having someone else who is an expert do it for you. They’ll do it a lot faster than you can, and during the time you are wasting time trying to learn, you could be earning money.

9. Your Business Is Growing

You’re building your business and it’s growing fast and steady. Each week you have more work to do than last week. You’re getting to the point of overflow. Contracting with a VA will help you manage the growth easier.

10. You Realize Others Can Do the Tasks

Once you realize that others can do the task that you’re struggling doing, both in skill level and the time you have to work on it, you’ll be able to let go and let someone else help you.

Virtual assistants can screen your emails, respond to some of them, send you only the ones that you need to respond to personally, schedule and confirm appointments, book travel, make calls for you, conduct research, fill out reports, create invoices, post invoice payments, and manage projects for you that other contractors are working on.

Working with a VA can free up your time to focus on the things that make you the most money instead of the unbillable admin work, giving you more time to focus on taking on more billable work.

When you work with a VA it’s essential to treat it like a very important business deal and not casually. You wouldn’t work with most people without the most important document that you can have in the business world: a contract. Many people make the mistake of not getting a contract first because they feel like it’s a lot of work. But, it will be a lot more work if you don’t get a contract.

Here’s what a contract involves:

1. Write Down the Offer – Write down in a list every last thing that is being offered by both sides of the agreement.

2. Spell Out Terms – Express how much money will exchange hands and how it will happen, such as the monthly fee and how it will be paid, such as through PayPal.

3. List Contact Information – Be sure to list main and alternate contact information such as business name and address work phone and business phone number, as well as pertinent email addresses.

4. State Expectations – Be sure to list all the expectations and responsibilities of each business involved. For example, the VA must get the work done by xyz date, after being given the work by xyz date by the business owner.

5. Mention Consequences – It’s always a good idea to mention the consequences of not following the contract, such as whether or not both agree to arbitration and which country, state, city and county laws will be enforced.

6. Sign the Contract – Use something like HelloSign.com to sign the documents to make them legally binding. It’s very important to get the contracts signed in a legally binding manner.

These things are important because:

* Without a Contract You Have No Legal Standing – It is true that sometimes a judge will enforce a handshake and emails if you have enough compelling evidence to back up your claims, but a signed contract is iron clad.

* It Solidifies the Business Relationships – It’s good to keep your professional and business life as separate as possible, and the best way to do that is through a contract. You’ll likely become close to your VA over time but the contract will help keep you both on the right path.

Contracts do not have to be complicated but they do need to be very specific and include every eventuality that you can consider within the contract. Include prices, extras, and more. The more you put, the better.

When deciding whether or not to become a VA, it can be helpful to know what skills and tasks are in demand right now. This list will change as time moves forward, but it can give you a good idea about what is in demand right this moment.

* Infusionsoft Experts – This is a marketing and sales automation software that combines CRM, email marketing, lead capture and e-commerce all in one. It’s very in-depth software that requires a lot of understanding and knowledge about client sales cycles and product cycles. You can get training on this software from their “Official Infusionsoft University”.

Links:
Infusionsoft – http://www.infusionsoft.com/
Official Infusionsoft University – http://university.infusionsoft.com/

* Bookkeeping Experts – In most cases this is more of a local service, but if you have had certain training and licensing like EA training, you can do books for anyone in any state. This is a much sought-out service and if you truly understand independent contractors and small virtual businesses, you’ll be swamped with clients if you offer this service.

Link to EA training – http://irsexams.com/

* Ontraport Experts – This system promises to allow a small business to run like a huge business from one dashboard. The features are endless but it handles CRM, marketing, payments, partners, automation, publishing, and more. You choose what you want it to do. They offer training of their own too. You can become certified through their training system so that you can offer this to your clients.

Links:
Ontraport – https://ontraport.com/
Training system – https://ontraport.com/partners-get-certified/

* Social Media Marketing – A social media marketing assistant can do a lot of things for a client. This includes keeping their social media profiles updated, writing, crafting, and creating (or managing those who do) and updating social media posts for different clients. There are a lot of tools available to help you automate these things for your client, for example Hootsuite.

Link to Hootsuite – http://www.hootsuite.com/

* Pay-Per-Click Marketing – Experts are needed badly in the PPC space. A PPC expert would help organize, plan and implement a pay-per-click advertising campaign for a variety of clients. You would either do it all or manage a team who helps implement what you plan. And yes, you can get certified at the Online Marketing Institute in PPC.

Link to PPC training – http://www.onlinemarketinginstitute.org/course-certifications/paid-search-certification/

* Online Marketing Manager – Being a manager is a little move up, and if you have the chops you can do it. As a marketing manager, you’ll plan and organize systems so that your client’s team or your team can implement the plan. Of course, you can get certified as an online marketing manager too.

Link to training – http://www.pamivey.com/services/online-marketing/

* Google Analytics Expert – Some businesses need people who know how to set up Google Analytics, and understand how to make goals and set up everything in an expert way. You can learn how to use it through various training programs and then become a Google Analytics Certified Partner.

Link to becoming a partner – http://www.google.com/analytics/partners/listing/service

* Events Expert – An events expert is good at planning either online events or offline events (or both if you want). Usually you’ll need experience using webinar software like Adobe Connect or GoToMeeting. There are many others, but you should find one that you like and become a true expert using it, and then promote that service.

Links:
Adobe Connect – http://www.adobe.com/products/adobeconnect.html
GoToMeeting – http://www.gotomeeting.com/

These are many VA tasks and project requests that you will be asked to do that you do not offer. It’s up to you whether or not you want to offer it. Be careful about moving outside of your niche but, if your ideal clients are asking for something, you should highly consider offering it.

A day in the life of a virtual assistant varies with each VA and their niche. A VA can have a very flexible schedule if they have set it up that way. But for the most part, a VA will do the same things each day based upon their business. Some examples of what a VA might do are below.

Depends on Their Niche

In truth, what a VA does all day will greatly depend on their niche. Some VAs keep track of their work by using a system like FreshBooks.com to track time, and some bill by project. Some do administrative work and others do other types of projects like event planning. How a VA structures his or her day is dependent upon how they set up their own business. Some of the things a VA can do each day are:

* Take incoming calls
* Update websites
* Update social media
* Research
* Reply to email
* Data entry
* Book travel
* Write content
* Manage others

As you see, what a VA does each day is diverse. But, as guidance on what a VA does all day you might just consider a specific niche like “administrative.”

The VA might get up in the morning and take care of his or her family before sending them off to school. Then once the bus comes, they might get a cup of coffee and go settle in front of the desktop computer to check email for an hour or so, then move on to checking social media for 30 minutes or so. After that, the VA may look at the calendar to see what’s on the schedule for today.

Then, the VA will work on each client, usually in blocks of time devoted to one client at a time instead of trying to switch back and forth between clients. After each client he or she may take a break and get lunch, or go for a walk, or to the gym or for a swim. Whatever they want to do is based on their schedule.

At 3:30 PM the children may come home, so the VA stops work and devotes their time to the children, and perhaps cooks dinner, does laundry and other household duties. Some VAs then go back to work when their partner is home. Other VAs run their business during business hours from 8 to 5 and hires someone to help with their kids. It’s up to the VA how he or she chooses to run their own business.

Works on Their Own Schedule

A VA gets to choose their schedule, based on deadlines that are set with their clients. They might work 8 hours straight or they might work 4 hours; it’s up to them and how they want to run their business. Which brings up the point of how you choose your niche. The answer is to choose a niche that will accommodate your needs in terms of time and how you want to work.