What to Expect When Working with a Virtual Assistant

Having read our blog on Hiring the right VA 💼 https://buff.ly/3u5vLzj, you’ve brought a new team member into your most trusted circle. Now what? 🤔

Good news for you – you have done the hard work up to this point, so now it’s up to the VA.

Before anything else happens, they should send you a contract. 📝 Ensure that this contains clauses including confidentiality, GDPR, data protection and IP. 🔒

Each VA has their own onboarding process where they send you a contract, terms and conditions and perhaps an onboarding form and a boundary statement. 📑

Ideally, your VA should have their own email address. 📧 Having your VA feel like a member of your team and part of your business is extremely important.  You’ll also show your clients that you’re expanding your business and they won’t be confused if they get emails from a random email address saying they’re your employee. 💼

You will be asked to provide login information for the various applications you use, including, e.g. Slack, Teams, email etc. 📱 The majority of VA’s use Dashlane, LastPass, or Keeper for this because it’s safe and secure and you don’t give out your passwords.

We normally advise our new clients that it takes a good 2-3 months to really get into a rhythm with your VA and become acquainted with each other. ⏰ Also, it takes time for the VA to understand your business, so don’t expect miracles right away.  Of course, you know your business better than anyone! It’s also good to remember that the VA might be learning new software too. If they can get training, that’ll be great. 🚀

With time, you’ll be passing more and more tasks over to your VA as their understanding and confidence grow.  Think carefully about what you need to delegate and you could save 5 to 30 hours a month. 💡

Tips to keep in mind:

📌When you work with a VA, communication is key.

📌Especially in the early stages, give as much detail as possible.

📌Tell your VA if a task has a deadline!

📌It might be helpful to set up Trello or Asana so that you can keep track of all tasks in one place.

📌Avoid micromanaging. Initially, this will be harder; your business is your pride and joy, but once you’ve built up trust, you’ll soon be able to let your VA handle it.

Congratulations on adding a new member to your team! We’re sure you’ll feel like a weight has been lifted, and you’ll get some valuable time back to focus on client work, business growth, and getting new clients! 🎉