Hiring a Virtual Assistant

Emily Thompson 0:00
Hello, and welcome to being boss. For this minisode we're talking all about how to hire a virtual assistant.

Kathleen Shannon 0:14
I am so excited to be talking about how to hire a virtual assistant. Because honestly, I think it's if you are a solopreneur, who is starting to just build your business, hiring a virtual assistant, also known as a VA is one of the best investments that you can make and one of the best ways to get into learning how to manage a team. So I will share my own experience with hiring a VA and it started with Instagram. Actually, it started with having coffee with my sister Tara. So this is that braid creative. And we were talking about really needing help. We just knew that we were overextended. And we didn't know if we needed a copywriter. Or if we needed a graphic designer, we weren't quite sure what we needed on on our staff to help round some things out. And then I told her like really my biggest issue was handling email. And so that made me think, okay, I don't need a designer, I need a virtual assistant. So I literally wrote on a piece of paper right then unfortunately, like I have a platform that this worked on. But I wrote on a piece of paper braid is hiring. And then in parentheses, we need a VA and I posted on Instagram this image. This basically help wanted sign

Emily Thompson 1:29
I love the internet.

Kathleen Shannon 1:30
It was so awesome. And I i Okay, so here is my stipulations for doing this. And here's my this process worked for me and Okay, so for example, we have Amy Gretzky, who is a total boss, she's probably been on the being boss podcast by now by the time this minisode goes live, but we have interviewed her. And she's been recently asking about hiring a VA. So this is really the process that I went to be sharing with her specifically, but it will work for a lot of people. So I made my help one and sign up on my Instagram. I said, email me, Kathleen at braid creative com if you want to apply to become a VA, and here are some things I need from you, so people would reply in the Instagram, and like kind of apply via Instagram. And those were immediately disqualified because they did not apply in the way that I needed them to apply.

Emily Thompson 2:22
That is like rule number one, if people do not follow the instructions that you put in the application process, they do not win period.

Kathleen Shannon 2:31
Exactly, exactly. And what I really needed from a virtual assistant was someone who is incredibly detail oriented. Because after I had a baby, my ability to be detail oriented just went out the window, and probably like asleep, or I don't know, just mom brain in general, maybe just like as starting or running two businesses, it's a lot. So I needed an assistant to help me with that I needed them to be able to apply in the way that I asked him to apply. So then I probably got about 30 applicants via email. And I immediately narrowed it down to about 15. Then I decided on I think I interviewed eight to 10 people in like over Skype.

Emily Thompson 3:20
Whoo.

Kathleen Shannon 3:21
Yeah. So I actually went through like quite a process because I knew that I just wanted to get serious about this. I've done hiring before where I've hired the first person that applied and it worked out fine. But I knew that I really wanted to be considered about this process. Because almost in a way, because I didn't really know exactly what I needed in a VA. So it was really cool to see lots of different approaches and styles. So there were a couple people who would email me and here are some red flags, people who wanted to learn from me how to run a business. Like there's a difference between an intern and a virtual assistant. I didn't mean not yet an intern, I did not need an intern because an intern is kind of more of like a mentorship program. And I don't even actually have an internship program. Because here's the misconception here. I don't think that interns are about getting free work. I think that interns are about nurturing the next generation and teaching them how to do what you do. And I'm just not set up to teach anyone how to do what I do, I can barely get my shit done in a day. Plus, like teach someone else how to do it. Like I need someone that could come in and pick up the ball and run with it immediately. So I immediately disqualified anyone who is like I want to learn how you run your business so that I can run my own business. And then I was looking at people who just had jobs in being virtual assistants and I noticed that a lot of them were charging upwards of $50 an hour, which is a lot of money. Like I don't even know if my full time brand director makes $50 an hour. You know I don't even know if I make $50 an hour.

Emily Thompson 4:58
I'm pretty sure I do not

Kathleen Shannon 5:00
Okay, so then. So then basically it came down between someone whose sole role was a dedicated virtual assistant. And then looking at how much they charged and kind of what kinds of things they would do and not do. And then I got an email from a gal named Caitlin, who you all have all met already, she was our SEO boss. And she was working for another company. And it's so fun like hearing her behind the scenes Two years later, like now that we've been working together for a while, she finally shared that she was in a place where she really wanted to get out of her day job, which was still pretty flexible day job working for another startup company. And everything that I had described in my needs for a virtual assistant, which were helping me handle my email and helping me handling social media. She's like, I can do those things. She was not trained as a VA, but I saw a lot of potential in her. And she sent me an email where she used bullets, and bolded phrases that were exact things mirroring back what I was asking for, like, so she was really replying to me in a way that I liked being replied to. She was also already familiar with my work. So that's one thing that I really liked about putting out a specific call for entry on my Instagram feed. And this is how I've actually made most of my hires, is hiring people who are already familiar with my work and my tone, and really my goals. So I ended up hiring Caitlin over this one gal who is like, specifically a VA. And it's worked out really great. And Caitlin has grown in her role within our businesses. So it's been wonderful.

Emily Thompson 6:39
To that, I think, I think that the way you did it is really awesome in a couple of ways. One, and that you posted it in a forum where people got what you did, I think a lot of people will go into this thing, oh, should I post in a job board? Or should I, like, you know, where do I go to find a VA and I think going to a place where your brand is, or people not only know your brand that doesn't even have to be part of it have are part of brands that are similar to yours, like who sort of know what kind of business you're in is really important. You know, going to a Facebook group that you hang out and often asking for recommendations from people that you know, like in people who have similar businesses as you, it can be really, really helpful for finding a VA. So I love that you just posted on Instagram like these people know you, they know what your business is about their Instagram savvy, which means they totally get the kind of business that you run. So I think that is really powerful piece of the puzzle is making sure you're asking for a VA in the right place like going to a job board may not be the place for you, even though it may seem to be the most obvious place for you to go. And then I agree wholeheartedly in terms of how it is that you get people to apply. Whenever I have job openings, I'm usually always very specific about what I want them to do in order to in order to apply for any job that I have. And if they don't follow those instructions to a tee, they fail my test. And they get no further. And like making no qualms about it, like you don't even almost get in, it's either a pass or a fail, and then you go from there. And I also completely love the fact that you didn't get someone who was a dedicated VA or like who had VA experience, because also in my experience. Sometimes it's not the experience that they have, that's going to make them a great worker. It's their attitude and their personality. Because something like a VA they're going to be working very closely with you it has to be someone that you can communicate with has to be someone who has good communication skills. The fact that she sent you a bullet pointed email is everything. Especially whatever doing business virtually like this. As we have worked at Indy geography with people who who have VA that I have to interact with those vas. vas without good communication skills are not worth the money. Like they make your life harder, not easier.

Kathleen Shannon 9:11
But you also have to be boss enough to have systems set up where you can clearly communicate what you expect of your VA and how they can do their job. So one thing I've noticed in working with a VA is that you kind of go from being very micromanaging. Like whenever you're hiring an assistant you have to basically plan on micromanaging them for like a good Yeah, a little bit.

Emily Thompson 9:33
I mean three to six months sometimes I think unless someone has some good experience or just has like a seriously solid head on their shoulders. And that's that's actually the next place I wanted to take this where if you're hiring a virtual assistant or again, really any employee, your job goes from being a little solo work by yourself like doing the thing to actually one being a boss like having to manage someone else to Being an open communicator, like whenever you are working alone, one of the hardest things that people struggle with, in adjusting to working with an employee is actually having to communicate to set employee to have them do the things that you want them to do. One of the hardest things I ever did was, I was hiring two employees at once. Because then so much of my time was then spent just prepping them with work that they could do, like I was spending more work giving them work, then I would have had if I just done the work. And that is part about hiring. It is the hardest part about hiring, but it's a reality. And if you are doing your job well in terms of you have systems set up, and you are you are setting up systems and making them a part of it, because that's really important as well then give it a couple of weeks, maybe a couple of months, and they'll get in the swing of things. But there is a sort of growth or like what is a growing pain period where you have to sincerely adjust to having someone else in your business. And then there's the whole like relinquishing control, because you just got to let it go. And I know that's a really hard part for people too

Kathleen Shannon 11:12
Going from like a doer to a director or a delegator, you don't want to be the bottleneck. And that's something that you got to kind of set aside time for is time to delegate.

Emily Thompson 11:22
Yes, and definitely,

Kathleen Shannon 11:24
like, whenever you're just being super reactive, it's really super hard to delegate,

Emily Thompson 11:29
I hired a VA once and I quit working with her, probably two weeks after I hired her. Because I really went into the engagement thinking, Oh, I'm gonna have someone just do all the things. And that's going to be yet like the thought that I had to put so much more work into having a VA in the beginning was not something I was counting on, and ended up not being a very long term relationship. But another really good tip, I think for hiring a VA is going into it with like a trial period, seeing if you guys are gonna mesh well, because again, that personality, clicking is super important and seeing if it's going to work with a non committal engagement. And then if it does work out, well, things will flourish from then. But going into it with just sort of testing go kind of chain kind of engagement is a really great way to test the waters before you dive in.

Kathleen Shannon 12:23
I also like recommending to start really small. So whenever I hired Caitlin, I knew that the first thing I needed was someone that could respond to client or potential client inquiries. So I was literally having her send the canned responses that I would normally send. As simple as that. Then I started having her take over some of the scheduling stuff, which was a little bit more complicated. And then I started having her load in blog posts. And so I really just built on thinking that if I just gave her one hour a week of stuff to do, not only did it help me temper, kind of my responsibilities over to her, it also helped us start to get to know each other. And I remember whenever I was hiring one of the VA s who was like a solely dedicated VA, one of the things that she said to me because I kind of didn't know what I didn't know, I was like, how much do you start off with? She was like, Don't Don't give your VA the keys of the car, you know, like on your first day, they've got to work up to that. And the truth is, is that you start to earn so much trust and mutual respect that now I probably like Caitlyn into like my freshbooks account if I needed to.

Emily Thompson 13:34
I agree. I agree certainly start small. And I think the things you hand off first are the things on your list that you are not doing that you keep pushing to the side. So even like in deciding what to give your VA first you know, if you enjoy doing the social media don't give that to them just because they're a VA that enjoys doing social media, give them the thing that you're not doing but needs to get done. And the more systemized, you can make that thing like having a canned response, if they're going to be sending emails, the easier it's going to be. And honestly, the more bang you're going to get for your buck.

Kathleen Shannon 14:07
And I just want to say one more thing about, we could do a whole episode on this, but I've heard horror stories of people expecting their VA to like build out their websites.

Emily Thompson 14:19
Oh I know.

Kathleen Shannon 14:21
think that's just crazy, don't have unrealistic expectations for your virtual assistant. And I think that a pro and con between hiring someone that's not traditionally trained as a VA is that they may have special skills. Like for example, Kaitlyn does have special skills in search engine optimization, so she can do that sort of thing. But we've also had to like really respect her boundaries and hire her separately. So like she does some assistant stuff for us. But then we've also specifically hired her at her rates for some SEO projects for both being boss and braid creative so But that said, whenever she's uploading my post to my blog, you You'd better believe that she's probably going to naturally and appropriately target for search engine optimization. So you can hire a VA that kind of has a specialty but don't have unrealistic expectations of your VA to do something that they don't know how to do.

Emily Thompson 15:16
And you mean you'll both be happier for it.

Kathleen Shannon 15:20
Kathleen here, I wanted to pop in and let you all know that branding, business visioning and coaching creatives to blend more of who they are into what they do, while also positioning themselves as confident creative experts is my one and only focus over at braid creative. And I spent years developing an online program for creative entrepreneurs who need a bit of their own brand clarity. Learn more at www.braidcreative.com where you can read free articles, sign up for our mailing list, and get access to free branding webinars. We're also offering an E course to new students only until August 8, so be sure to click ecourse in the main menu to learn more.

Emily Thompson 16:03
Did you like this minisode. Be sure to check us out on our website at being boss dot club. There you can find more from being boss including our full episodes minisodes and blog posts. And while you're there, be sure to sign up for our mailing list so that you can get access to behind the scenes and exclusive content from Kathleen and myself to help you be more boss in your work and life. Do the work be boss