Are you thinking of hiring a virtual assistant but you're still unsure if you're ready to hire?
Hiring your first employee isn't the easiest thing to do, especially if your business is fairly new.
But you're overwhelmed, you feel like you're putting out fires the whole time, and you just need someone else to pass tasks to, right?
Fear not, because in this article I'll go over the ways you can know that you're ready to hire – and reasons why you shouldn't:
- Why You Should Hire: You Have A Recurring Way To Make Money
The reality of hiring someone for your business is this: you have to continuously pay them unless they're just a freelancer.
In order to sustain having someone for that long period of time is to make sure you have a way to be able to pay them moving forward.
You have to ask yourself: can I really keep paying someone or do I just need someone for a short run?
Having this clarity will help you and your Virtual Assistant's relationship from the get-go, since expectations have been set on how long the employment is going to last.
- Why You Shouldn't Hire: You Don't Know What To Delegate
Often the problem with working with a Virtual Assistant isn't HOW to delegate the tasks, it's WHAT.
It's a natural thing to think that you should just give your assistant all the tasks you don't enjoy, but in reality, you will end up hurting your business and the assistant.
The reason why is that no one will really know your business as well as you do.
So if you expect someone else to come in and just start closing sales for you without the full context of your business, you'll soon find yourself constantly correcting them or doing the task yourself.
Focus on the tasks that you're not the expert in that add value to your business, and then start training your Virtual Assistant on the other tasks that they can focus on for you.
- Why You Should: You Have Clear Documentation
The fastest way to create repeatable results is by creating Standard Operating Procedures, also known as, recipes.
If you've never encountered this term before, they're basically documentation of how things get done in your business.
They can come in form of templates, video walkthroughs, or an actual step by step written process of what to do in certain situations.
Before hiring a Virtual Assistant, you'll need to strategize a way where they can either start following and improving your documentation, or that you'll have them create them for you.
- Why You Shouldn't: You Want To Be Hands-On
As entrepreneurs, we know the feeling when we get too manhandled – when you don't have the right freedom to learn and experiment and try something new.
With your Virtual Assistant, it would be the same feeling.
If you plan on micromanaging your Virtual Assistant, nothing will ever get done without you. You still become the bottleneck.
Rather, give your assistant the freedom to learn, experiment, and try something new.
You are hiring them for their perspective, expertise, or attitude. Let them remind you why you hired them in the first place, which isn't to be just your puppet.
- Why You Should: Your Business Can Be Done Remotely
While we've definitely worked with businesses that is done in person, if you're hiring a Virtual Assistant for the first time, it's definitely better to have them be able to run things online.
Either by mostly doing the tasks that can be done online anyway, or being able to remotely coordinate with the physical team that you have, it would be harder to hire a VA if you need them to be on site.
Like above, you'll need to figure out the right tasks that make sense for them and where they're physically at, and meet them there.
- Why You Shouldn't: You Lack Trust
Like any employer-employee relationship or any relationship at all, it has to run on trust.
If you can't trust your employee to get things done, you will end up having to watch their every move.
If you can't trust your employee to make sure they're putting in the right hours or doing the right things all the time, they will usually end up being a self-fulfilling prophecy and do all the wrong things you don't want them to do.
- Why You Should: You Have The Right Tools
I often say that tools are a multiplier – you can have the best camera in the world but if you have no idea how to use it you're better off using your phone.
So before you even hire a Virtual Assistant, you'll need to have the right tools at the ready.
From a communication tool to a time tracking tool, a collaboration tool like Google Docs and Notion, to the all-important task tracker where you can see tasks as they get added or marked as done.
Check out what other tools you'll need by watching this video.
- Why You Shouldn't: You Have No Idea How To Give Feedback
Like I mentioned earlier, trust is key when working online. The other thing that can make or break a working relationship is how effective you are at giving feedback.
When the relationship is fairly new, you'll need to give fast feedback to your Virtual Assistant. That way they'll know what is acceptable and what isn't, before it becomes a habit they can't break.
Learn how to effectively give feedback by reading books like The One Minute Manager by Ken Blanchard to grow your VA faster in learning how to work with you.
In the end, working with a Virtual Assistant can be less daunting when you have the right information. Find out if you're ready to scale your business at all by taking the 2xYou Scorecard!
It will give you feedback on what areas you're still lacking when it comes to successfully growing your business.
Let me know in the comments below if you think you're ready to hire!
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