Your business is growing; which is great. You’re started to get overwhelmed with everything that you need to do; which isn’t great. You know that you want to bring on a new team member but you’re not sure where to start. Let me show you how to get ready for your first Virtual Assistant.
My best suggestion, to ensure that your relationship gets off to a great start, is to have systems in place for the work that you want your VA to do.
Your new team member isn’t not a mind reader so they’re not going to know how you like to do business. So take some time to document the way you do things.
You might be thinking that you’ll have your VA do all of that once they join. That could work but remember, not all VA’s do the same kind of work. Some are experts in a certain area and won’t necessarily have the skills to write your standard operating procedures.
While they’ll be capable of typing up notes from a video that you record on how to do a certain task, they’re not necessarily going to be able to tell you if there is a better way of doing that task.
You need the systems strategy piece done before you start to document your systems.
Welcoming Your VA To The Team
You want your VA to be able to take the weight off your shoulders as soon as possible and to do a great job too.
In order to have your VA hit the ground running take the time to outline the following:
What work are they going to do?
You may have a general idea that you’d like your new VA to take care of your social media. Does this mean that she’s responsible for writing posts, creating images, scheduling posts and replying to any comments on posts?
Or is she only doing some of these tasks?
What information does she need to do her job?
Do you have checklists, templates and standard operating procedures that your VA will need to do her job in the way that you envision?
Do you have certain fonts, colours, images that you use for your branding that your VA will need to know about?
Where are those documents and information stored?
Google Drive can be a great place to store documents and information that you want to share digitally. You can set up specific folders that contain the information that your VA will need; that way you can keep any sensitive information e.g. financials, contracts, separate.
Which tools will they need?
Once you know what work she will do for you, think over the tools that she’ll need.
Will she need to access your Canva account? Facebook? Instagram?
Will you give her your password or will you create a separate password for her?
Many of my fellow business owners recommend Last Pass for securely sharing passwords. Last Pass is a tool that remembers all of your passwords, so you don’t have. I have something similar that is contained within my security software and it’s an excellent tool to have.
Communication
One of the quickest ways to ensure a bad working relationship is to have a lack of communication.
How will you and your VA communicate?
Emails, Asana messages or face to face calls are three options.
Decide which tool to use and let your VA know the response time that you expect.
When will you talk?
A weekly meeting at the start or end of the week is a great place to ensure that communication is smooth and that expectations are being met.
Having an open line of communication to share what is working, and what isn’t working, is essential to ensuring a great working relationship.
When do tasks need to be done by?
You need to be clear when you need certain tasks done by. If your blog posts need to be published at 9am on Wednesday, which means that your VA has to have the graphics done by 9am Tuesday, you need to explain to your new VA the wider picture so that she can see how her tasks fit in and why it is essential that she meet the deadlines that she set.
Taking on your first team member may feel overwhelming. That is why I recommend having a plan in place to get ready for your first virtual assistant before they start working with you. In fact, I’d love to see more business owners having a plan, and their systems, in place before they even start the hiring process.
Mapping out your systems means it will be much clearer where you want help and the exact tasks that you want your VA to do. Having this information will make looking for your VA much easier as you’ll be able to advertise for the exact skill set that you need.
I love systems! And I’d love to talk with you about how to get ready for your first virtual assistant in a free mini-consult. If you’re ready to get your systems sorted then book in for our virtual coffee via THIS LINK.
