This guest post is written by Teresa Morrow of Key Business Partners.
Hiring a virtual assistant is an important decision that is often looked over as just another thing to do. However, before you acquire a VA or administrative assistant, the importance of determining your business goals will help you align correctly with the right virtual assistant. It is a smart move to take the time to write down your 3 top immediate (next 30 days) short term (2-3 months) and semi long term goals (3-6 months). Note: that your goals may change abit, however, the importance of writing them down along with hiring a virtual assistant will still hold significance.
Here are some questions to help you effectively and accurately complete the task of determining your goals.
- What is the main goal for your business?
With answering this question, you need to think about what you are in business for—coaching, writing, speaking? If so, you will probably wish for someone else to handle the behind the scenes items for you. Your efforts need to be placed with your clients and not having to deal with setting up your teleconference room or downloading the files.
- What do I want to be in charge of doing?
This is probably one of the biggest questions that should be answered in conjunction with your goals. One of your goals may be to create a offline presence while maintaining your online presence. You can’t be everywhere all the time. So you may wish to have your business set up where you handle the offline part while your virtual assistant oversees your online presence.
- What does the business structure look like?
At first, you may only want it to be just you. However, at some time you will need to access what it is costing you and your business by having you do all the work. You may find out by hiring someone even for a few hours each month, you free up your time to focus on money making activities.
So before you start researching virtual assistants you will want to have your goals completed and secured in your mind. Having your business intentions solidified will in turn this will make the process of hiring a virtual assistant run smoother. By completing this task, you decrease significantly the ongoing chase to hire the virtual assistant match for you and your business.
Teresa Morrow is on Board of Advisors with The WECAI NetworkTM and Editor at Large at WE Magazine for WomenTM. She has over 15 years working with various industries to include property management, landscape architecture and financial planning firms in executive administrative positions. In 2007, Teresa started Key Business Partners, a virtual assistance & online promotional company for coaches, speakers and writers. She cares about her clients and is available for 20 minute free consultation. You can contact her via email at keybusinesspartners@verizon.net or visit her website at KeyBusinessPartners.com.
 |
|||||
If you liked this article, please... |
|||||
 |
Subscribe Via Email |  |
Subscribe Via RSS |  |
Add to Technorati |
Interesting… but you know what I’d really like to see? An article on what to do once you’ve decided to hire a VA.
I mean, I’d love to. But how do I tell her what to do? How do I train her to handle my affairs? What can a VA do for me to ease my workload?
James Chartrand - Men with Pens’s last blog post..Are Entrepreneurs Control Freaks?
Great information. Thanks. What a wonderful guest author.
James,
Thank you for your response to my article. I will be doing a series of articles here addressing your questions so please stay tuned. For now I will add this. First, write a list of those tasks that you would rather have someone else handle for you. Next, do some research online and you can ask your friends who they may recommend as a virtual assistant. Then you can have a list of virtual assistants to contact and start narrowing the “field”. Also, most virtual assistants work on an hourly basis, so you can choose to do a “trial run” with a virtual assistant for one task and see if the business relationship fits, and then you can move forward.
I hope that helps I bit more in your quest to hire a virtual assistant.
Also, as far as the type of tasks a virtual assistant can do for you…well, that can be a loaded question…some virtual assistants specialize in bookkeeping, others in marketing, some in website design and some in online promotion. It depends first on your needs for your business. And then as I said, do some research.
Thank you again for your response to my article.
Sincerely,
Teresa Morrow
Thanks Melissa for your kind words. I am glad you enjoyed the article. I will be writing some more articles, so I hope you stay tuned.
Sincerely,
Teresa
Hi,
Great, helpful post. I, too, was wondering how to handle a VA. What if one would become a VA for a while and learn that side of it also? Just a thought.
Nancy’s last blog post..Checklists for Your Business
Hi Teresa,
I would also like to know more about VA’s like James mentioned - especially your suggestions on the best places to find one and what kind of investment is involved.
JoLynn Braley’s last blog post..Shrimp Scampi Pasta - One of My Favorite 6WBMO Dishes
Great Article and that’s coming from a Virtual Assistant.
A good client- VA relationship begins when the client is first clear about the tasks that he would like to outsource. An different scenario appears when the client begins to feel secure in the skills of the VA and starts to outsource even more tasks than intentioned, but that comes later.
In addition to having goals outlined, clients should also work out the time needed (often they can consult with the potential VA about this) and their budget for outsourcing. Most are pleasantly surprised to find out that having a professional VA cost less than they think.
James and JoLynn you can find a few answers to your questions in my ebook Work Successfully With A Virtual Assistant on my website. Its free for the asking. I am currently working on another book that will answer the rest..
Cheers!
You know, I think the problem with VAs is that they need to get more information out there. It seems like I’m not the only one interested in VA services but seriously lacking on the who, what, why, when, where and how.
That’s a shame, really. Here are four people commenting they’d like to learn more… that’s four opportunities for work that won’t happen because of a lack of current info.
Teresa… I’ll definitely be looking forward to your posts. Get them out soon!
James Chartrand - Men with Pens’s last blog post..The Classic Entrepreneur: Exploring the Brighter Side
Teresa, what a great post and very timely. You approach the Virtual Assistant topic from a new, refreshing angle. You plant some really great seeds of what to think about before hiring, and I think it will make all the difference for many people!