#340 Hire a virtual assistant (for your existing day job)

Hire a virtual assistant
(for your existing day job)
Preparing to Hire a virtual assistant
Measure before you Hire
Before you hire a virtual assistant, use an app like toggl.com to measure your time usage
Be realistic and ruthlessly honest!

Define outcomes!

Business as a whole
Next year
Next ¼
How this tasks feeds those goals - or whether it does actually not contribute to desired goals

Eliminate before you delegate!
If you wouldn’t be willing to pay someone $4 (£3.20) per hour to do a job, why are you doing it at all?
Before you hire a virtual assistant, ask: Does this task need doing?
If it does, can you make it more efficient?

Typical you can hire a virtual assistant to perform
Finances
Be VERY VERY  clear exactly what purpose accounts fulfil
Corporate tax return
Companies house
VAT quarterly UK
Management accounting
Gross profit for product
Management accounts.
Also clarify EXACTLY what records you need and what you DON’T need.
Typical tasks
Take receipts photo and upload then VA’s job is to assign to a Xero transaction - category and cost centre. But the feed uploads the transactions - about 40 a month - scan for duplicates
How many hours- 8 hours for 2 months’ worth - feels intuitive

Possible other tasks
Sales
Outbound calls - need training - good ROI with right person.
Inbound  calls. Again need training but good ROI with right person.

Emails
Inbound and outbound X a day
Customer service?
Sales enquiries - survey or email

Research
This is an EXCELLENT test task.

It will do little harm to the business if done badly (usually).

Done well, it should help you get to tasks you keep putting off that could grow the business.
Websites
Amendments for website - web developers will usually do a way quicker job that you unless you have web dev expertise.
Receivables
Chasing up late payers - another great way to get an ROI
Put together a “bundle” of tasks 
Scan the business for other outsourceable tasks to get to a bundle of 10 hours a week
Super-competent admin - head screwed on.

Where to hire a virtual assistant from
Freeeup.com
(Affiliate link)
Use American or Philippino - think about timezones
America (lower 48)  -8 to -5 hours behind UK
Philippines 7 hours ahead

Fiverr.com
Good for micro tasks - another good way to test potential hires.
Upwork
Good for hiring for specific projects.
I've found good Eastern Europeans here (Serbia, Romania for example)
Clarify what kind of virtual assistant you're needing to hire
Criteria
Personality type
Eg fast learner
Articulate
Able to manage upwards (esp in Philippines this is important)
(e.g., if you ask something dumb, they will question "Did you mean that?")
Skill sets
Experience
Selection
Review 
Look at CV/background
Ratings on Upwork/Fiverr
Interview
Get a feel for:

Quick on uptake
Level of spoken English
Ability to think on feet

Hire 3 people for a project or even a task- set Test tasks
Test 
Research is really great first task
Book keeping is okay if you give small amount and check
CRM - onboard and train first

QUICK ACTIONS YOU CAN TAKE NOW
Action 1 capture and clarify tasks
What needs doing?
If possible measure your time usage eg with Toggl.com
What doesn’t get done...?
Especially ...that could bring in cash

Action 2 define business objectives by area
Eg CRM - to generate warm leads to phone or email
Inbound emails -  convert lukewarm to warm or customers
Outbound calls - convert warm/hot leads to customers
Look at or even make KPIs - currently achieving?

Action 3 Eliminate tasks that don't contribute
Where are you wasting your time?
What is so low a priority it should just not be done (at least for now)?

Action 4 Look at usual suspect places

Upwork - Eastern Europe
Worth checking Freeeup esp. if e-commerce related (affiliate link)
Fiverr.com
Look locally - talk to your network

Sometimes local is best