4 steps for outsourcing to a virtual assistant

By hiring a virtual assistant, you have another person who can do work that you don't want to do, do work that you often put off, or help you get something done more quickly than you otherwise could. You have purchased a block of their time. How you choose to spend that time (their time) is your point of leverage. You need to spend some time deciding what the best use of them is. Just delegating the first thing that comes to mind is a careless way to begin your working relationship with them and more than likely there is a more effective task to start outsourcing.

First, you need to decide what goal you are trying to accomplish. Are you trying to feel less stressed? Do you want to spend less time working and more time with your family? Do want to get a particular thing done that you have been procrastinating? Put some serious thought into where you want to end up. It's only by knowing exactly what you hope to accomplish that you can identify the specific steps to get there. It's these "specific steps" that you are going to delegate to your virtual assistant. For instance, if your end goal is to free up your time, spend some time brainstorming the time-consuming tasks in your daily routine that can be delegated.

After you've pinpointed a goal, create and flesh out a plan with objectives, waypoints, timelines, measurements, and deadlines. The more specific, organized, and detailed your plan, the easier it will be for you to delegate, know whether you are on track, etc. You need to start thinking of yourself as a manager and having a plan is the only way to effectively manage.

Now, as the owner of a virtual assistant company, my opinion may be suspect. Of course I want you to use my company. However, our company is not right for everyone. For example, when someone has really simple work for us to do, such as simple copy and paste data entry, I will often refer them to cheaper, foreign firms based in other countries (our competition). There is no reason to pay someone $20 an hour when you can get the same work done for $6 an hour. I'm not unbiased by any means but I think I can offer some straightforward tips based on the differences between each of your VA options.

First, decide whether you want to go with a foreign assistant versus a U.S. assistant. Foreign assistants are much, much cheaper but it means your assistant will not speak your language as a first language, will have a different cultural perspective, and may be working on a completely different time schedule than you. Generally, complex tasks should will not yield very good results. However, foreign assistants are great at dead simple tasks that can't be misunderstood. A U.S. based assistant will be more expensive but the results will generally be better.

The next thing to consider is whether you want to go with an individual or a company. An individual VA working on their own will generally be more expensive than one working at a company, they will be unsupervised, and they will generally be working from home. A virtual assistant working at a company will generally be less experienced, but will be supervised. Working with a company versus an individual also means that your virtual assistant is working with a team of other VAs so they have access to the groups talents, experience, and skills. So, someone at the company may be a graphic designer, someone may be fluent in spanish, someone may have a marketing background, and someone might be an excellent writer. When you work with a company, you are getting a "super virtual assistant" (basically, you are getting access to 10 or 20 assistants).

Finally, you need to decide on what skills and qualities your virtual assistant needs to possess. What are they going to be helping you with? What is important to do those things well? Do they need to know graphic design, programming, HTML, SEO, or be familiar with any particular software? Be sure to ask these questions in advance of entering any sort of agreement.

More than anything, I always stress to new clients the importance of getting started quickly. I've watched as some clients signed up with great intentions but then put off getting started with their assistant. As the weeks go by, delegating to their new assistant becomes just another stress inducing to-do on their list. The point is, you will never be more motivated to put in the effort necessary than you are right now. Don't put off getting started. It is better to get started before you feel ready than it is to delay getting started.

Clients tend to want to get started with a complicated task in order to "test" their assistant. This is very frustrating for me to watch because demanding too much of an assistant before they are familiar with your company, products, and preferences is a sure-fire way to get disappointing results. I always encourage new clients to start simple and then work up from there, giving the assistant time to master one task before giving them more responsibility.

It is important that you continue to give your virtual assistant feedback on every task that they do for you. Your VA has a sincere desire to please you but they cannot do this without learning your preferences over time. Let them know what they did well and let them know what they did wrong.

Virtual assistance is challenging and pretty unique - there is no other service that is so broad and inclusive. Your virtual assistant has to be capable of performing a variety of tasks for a number of different clients and no two clients have exactly the same expectations.

Be patient with your assistant and guide them to successfully working for you. Too often it seems that clients have unrealistic expectations. If a task is not done exactly perfectly the first time their assistant does it, they jump to the conclusion that their assistant is somehow incapable or unable to do their work. VAs possess no magical powers - they are normal people. If you hired someone to work at your company, you would expect that they would need training, supervision, and feedback. VAs need the same guidance, patience, and attention that you would give to an inhouse employee.