When it comes to hiring online, it can be very scary and overwhelming. But not to worry. I will be sharing with you the usual fears people have when hiring online and I will be helping you out with how you can face and solve them.
FEAR: DON’T KNOW WHERE TO START
If you have just started your business or if you have never tried hiring someone online before, this can be scary. Fear of not knowing where to start is actually very common and it is something you should not really worry about. Bear in mind that everyone goes through this as this is a process.
SOLUTION: LOOK FOR RESOURCES
There are tons of resources that you can look up before you start hiring online. For example, you can check out my YouTube channel www.youtube.com/c/LeanLaiLacabaVA where you can watch tons of my videos like “Top Signs of a Good Applicant”, “What to Know When Outsourcing”, “What I Wish I Knew Before Hiring”, and many more. I have a lot of videos on my channel that could hopefully help you get started. Other than myself, there are a lot of other people, videos and testimonials online from people who have successfully hired virtual employees. There are also books and podcasts from people who have done it before who can help you and guide you so you can skip some of the headaches that other people have gone through.
FEAR: VA HIRING HORROR STORIES
You’ve might have heard a lot of horror stories or negative experiences from people who tried to hire a virtual assistant. Like their VA leaving after a week, or not being able to find a good virtual assistant fit, and so on. Hearing or reading stories like this might scare you into thinking that no good can come out from hiring people online. The best way that you can solve this is to…
SOLUTION: LISTEN TO SUCCESS STORIES
Look for recommendations and people who have successfully hired people online. As mentioned before, there are actually a lot of people who have done it before and succeeded. So, focus on what they’ve said and how they did it. Bear in mind that even if there are a lot of horror stories, there are also a lot of success stories of people hiring online and having a virtual team.
FEAR: CONFUSED ABOUT WHAT KIND OF VIRTUAL ASSISTANT YOU NEED TO HIRE
If you are confused or struggling to know what kind of virtual assistant you need to hire then this could lead you to have second thoughts on hiring online. To solve this is to…
SOLUTION: INFORM YOURSELF OF THE DIFFERENT KINDS OF VIRTUAL ASSISTANTS
You can search for different sources online about what are the different kinds of virtual assistants and what they can do for you. It’s also important for you to write out what it is you need. For example, if you need someone who can do part-time work or full-time, if you need someone who is in the same time zone as you, or if you want someone creative or logical. This will greatly help you decide on what kind of virtual assistant you need to hire.
FEAR: WHAT TASKS TO GIVE
It might be a little scary to think of someone else doing the tasks that you usually do for your business. But you must keep in mind that by delegating tasks, you will be able to free yourself up and focus on more pressing matters in your business.
SOLUTION: DO THE 80/20 TASK ASSESSMENT
If you want to watch a full video about this, you can check it right here. Basically, the 80/20 Task Assessment is a process of looking at the tasks that you are doing per day in a week and assessing which tasks are the ones that you need to be doing and what else you can delegate to a virtual assistant. So, try and find in the things that you are doing every day, in the different processes that you have in your business, what are the different things that you can start delegating to someone else without hurting your business at all.
FEAR: HIRING THE WRONG PERSON
This is a very legitimate and understandable fear as you wouldn’t want to hire the wrong person and probably negatively impact the business that you have carefully built. But if you think about it, it’s the same thing when you are hiring in person. There is still going to be that chance, whether you are hiring online or in-person, that you might end up regretting the person that you just hired. To get past this fear, there are 2 solutions:
SOLUTION: PUT IN THE RIGHT FILTERS
When posting your job ads online, make sure that you put in the right filters so you can make sure that they read the job ad and you can attract the right people for your business. Having a good hiring process will really help you through that filtering of making sure that you get the right person.
SOLUTION: HIRE SLOW, FIRE FAST
What I mean by this is you must take your time in assessing and hiring your virtual assistant. Even though it might be too difficult for you to not have a virtual assistant right away, taking your time and making sure that you find the right person will be totally worth it in the end.
If you start noticing that it’s not working out with your VA, if you’ve given them feedback and still have not been able to work on it or deliver quality performance, then it’s probably time to let them go. This is what I meant by fire fast. It will be unfavorable for both you and your VA if you keep moving forward with the same negative results. Just think that by letting them go early on, he or she can find an employer that would be a better fit for them, and you can also find someone who is a better fit for you.
FEAR: MAYBE IT JUST WON'T WORK
This is the most common fear that I hear when it comes to hiring an online employee or a virtual assistant. If you let your fear get ahead of you and think that hiring online might just not work, then you are missing out on one of the best ways to scale your business. This would mean that your business will always be dependent on you and you, on the other hand, will spend more and more time on your business and less on other important things in life. So, how to solve this?
SOLUTION: JUST DO IT
With the steps that I have outlined in this article, this can help you get started and just do it. If you efficiently follow the tips mentioned above, then you will be off to a great start. Keep in mind that you will not gain anything by not doing it and when you do it, you’ll gain knowledge, you’ll become a better employer, a better manager, and you will free yourself up and have time for things that matter the most.
Hiring online can be a taxing process and yes, even scary. But if you let your fear overcome you, you will never be able to scale your business the way it should be. So, with the tips I shared above, hopefully, this will help you soothe your fears and help you get started in your journey to hiring your virtual assistant.
If you have other fears about hiring online that are not mentioned above, let me know in the comment section below.
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