Are you looking to improve your business by delegating tasks to a virtual assistant? In today's episode, I share insider tips on how to find and secure the perfect virtual assistant. We'll cover everything from using social media and networking to find the right VA for your business, to deciding between a seasoned VA with higher rates or an ambitious newcomer with potential. I'll also share my own experiences and give you some advice for success. If you're interested in taking your business to the next level with the help of a virtual assistant, then this episode is definitely for you!
Ready to hire VA? Grab the Delegation Guide to make sure you are ready to rock hiring! ➡️GRAB YOUR GUIDE NOW!
Have a question, want to chat with Karalee? Send a text to (419) 721-6037 and let's chat!
BONUS, want added to the email list to not miss out on all the goodies, sign up HERE.
Are you looking to improve your business by delegating tasks to a virtual assistant? In today's episode, I share insider tips on how to find and secure the perfect virtual assistant. We'll cover everything from using social media and networking to find the right VA for your business, to deciding between a seasoned VA with higher rates or an ambitious newcomer with potential. I'll also share my own experiences and give you some advice for success. If you're interested in taking your business to the next level with the help of a virtual assistant, then this episode is definitely for you!
Ready to hire VA? Grab the Delegation Guide to make sure you are ready to rock hiring! ➡️GRAB YOUR GUIDE NOW!
Have a question, want to chat with Karalee? Send a text to (419) 721-6037 and let's chat!
BONUS, want added to the email list to not miss out on all the goodies, sign up HERE.
Hello, welcome back. We've covered a lot in this series. One of the things I almost left out and I didn't want to leave you hanging is how to find and hire a virtual assistant, and you're probably wondering this, depending on where you are in your delegation process. So there are many ways to find a virtual assistant, but I'm going to share with you three ways today. So number one is you can find them in places like Facebook groups on other social media platforms. Number two, in a mastermind or networking group. And number three referrals from a network or mentors. Okay, so I've personally found team members in every single one of these ways and, heck, you can even find clients in this way, all right, so the first thing we're going to dive into is the social media aspect, right, social media platforms. How can you find virtual assistants on these platforms? So your own social media, following groups or those that you follow? Okay, that's just the first part where you can start. People follow you because they like your vibe.
Speaker 1:
I actually found my first virtual assistant on social media. I posted what I was looking for on my feed and had anyone that was interested fill out an application. All right, so I saw her name come through and I recognized it. She had piqued my interest with that single fact. We had never connected via a Zoom call or even in the DMs. She had been a Facebook friend for almost a year and engaged in my posts pretty regularly. I have no idea if she had done this intentionally and she's also an ops person but it's a good strategy if it wasn't intentional. For UVAs, listening, follow and engage with those you'd love to work for in the future okay.
Speaker 1:
So if you're looking for a job template as well, you can grab the delegation guide which is in the show notes. It's completely free and it goes more in depth from what we've been talking about in this whole series. Okay, they go together. So that's the first way that you can find a virtual assistant is using your connection on social media to be able to then find that perfect person. All right. So the next one I'm going to actually do two and three together is networking and referrals, because they go, they're really, really close together, and so that is networking and referrals, right. So creating connections with other CEOs, entrepreneurs, mastermind members, et cetera you know, expanding your circle of you know of connection Right. It's a huge way to find valuable team members at any point in your delegation process. Okay, creating a network and networking is a way to find those referral partners as well.
Speaker 1:
This is one way that I've been hired as an executive assistant. One of my mentors referred me to someone in her network when they had a conversation about what she needed. Right, so there was a conversation, there was a connection, and then I popped into our mentor's mind and boom, a referral happened. Okay, I am currently working for this person as her executive assistant. Okay, we are. It's a great relationship, all right. So another instance happened when a friend of mine was simply talking about what she was doing as a virtual assistant right now. During one of our connection times, we were just hanging out and she literally was describing exactly what I needed in a second team member. So I've already created an in-depth relationship with this person and she's a friend and a fellow business owner, and so that hire became a no-brainer to me because I knew for sure she could do what I needed.
Speaker 1:
Okay, so another place is networking and referrals. So you can find those things in. You know, networking groups, mentorship groups, mastermind groups, things like that all those places there's also like, obviously, in person events, you could do networking, depending on what type of business you want you have. You know all those different things. So look to your network, look to those people that have worked with you and see if there's anyone else that they would refer to you to. You know, for whatever you offer right for your services, all right. So we have to take this here full circle. So networking referrers are more powerful than social media because they're more connection-based, especially if you're going into groups where people haven't heard of you. Okay, so for me and for a lot of other people, it's all about connection and so being able to connect with people in networking groups, being able to connect with people. As far as referrals, you can connect with people on social media, but I wouldn't necessarily just hire someone off like just off social media without a relationship being created first, especially if you go back to the couple of episodes before this right and the other episodes in this series, is it? We want to make sure that your virtual assistant loves to work for you, we want to make sure that you're delegating the right things, and having a connection already can help that come full circle and you find that person that works really, really well for you. All right. So, when it comes to actually hiring a VA, right, we've talked about where you can find them and now we're actually getting into how you can hire them. So ensure as I keep saying these words full circle, make sure we're going full circle.
Speaker 1:
So these are a few questions that you can ask yourself, ok, so what type of VA are you looking for? Right, are you? Do they specialize in something? Right? Are you looking for, actually, a social media VA? Right, maybe we're purposing content? Do they specialize in, like, graphic design or writing captions or copywriting, things like that? Start thinking about that. As far as, what do you want to actually delegate? Because in a few episodes before this, we talked about what you can delegate. So now we're looking at do you want them to specialize in something? Do we want them to be a general VA? Those types of questions, okay.
Speaker 1:
So another thing is where are they located? All, right, in relationship to you. So a lot of times, it's good to include if you're open to VAs outside of the country that you reside in or not. All right, you'll get a lot of these questions, especially on social media, on whether or not you're looking at hiring outside of your country. Okay, so including that when you're posting or we're talking about it, is also very helpful.
Speaker 1:
So another thing that you might want to ask is, ideally, what are you looking at paying? Okay, and this would also have a conversation about like where, where are they located, right? So just remember, though, that virtual assistants are contractors and they set their own rates, and their rates are their rates for a reason, just like your rates are your rates for a reason. So my, my suggestion here is, when you're looking for a virtual assistant is you could say you could say what you're looking to pay, right? So someone that is way higher than that isn't gonna necessarily maybe inquire, but understand that that virtual assistant is a contractor and they're gonna actually set their rates in the end, okay, so just understand that I actually never tell anyone what I'm looking at paying. I just have them fill out their application. I have them come in If I feel, if I like their vibe based on their application, I want to talk to them anyway, regardless of what their hourly rate is or however they set that up, because I want to really like connect with them, and if you can connect with them, you're willing to pay whatever In most cases, to be able to get the job done well, all right.
Speaker 1:
So another thing that we can dive into is is how many hours are you thinking you actually need? Okay, that's why it's important to ensure you know what you want to delegate, and because you need to know how many, how many hours that might take. And if you've actually done this activity yourself, you have an idea of how long it might take. But I also want to give you a nice little tip here Always assume it will take someone else a little longer than you, at least in the beginning, to do something. Okay. So take that into account. Every time I've come on with a client, things have taken longer in the beginning because you are getting to know the client right, you're getting to know their business, you're getting to know their expectations, you're getting to know all of these things. You're learning their processes and how they want things. So things are going to take a little bit longer to be able to get off the ground. Now, if this is an activity that you're delegating, that you are like it takes you forever because you're not an expert in it, you're hiring someone that's an expert in it. That might look a little different, but I always assume on the higher end different, but I always assume on the higher end and that has always worked for me in the end, okay. So this also goes into kind of this.
Speaker 1:
Next one is do you want a virtual assistant with lots of experience already? Okay, so if they have lots of experience already and you're hiring them for something that is their expertise, chances are they're going to do things faster, quicker something that is their expertise. Chances are they're going to do things faster, quicker, those being the same thing. Anyway, they're going to be doing things in a more efficient manner, more than likely. Okay, they have a lot of experience, so they're an expert with what they do. Or do you want someone that is newer, that you may be able to teach? Okay, so these are two different price points and two different relationships, capacity wise for you as a CEO. So take into account if you want someone with a lot of experience, you're going to have, even if it's a specialty right, you're going to be paying more for that, but chances are things are going to take a little less time and those are, like I said, they're two different price points, but they're also two different relationships.
Speaker 1:
Are you willing to teach? If you're not willing to teach, you need to hire someone that already knows how to do it or is a go-getter and can figure it out, based off of maybe some SOPs or the things you already have available for them to look at. All right, so knowing these things will help you find that perfect match. Okay, so I owned a small digital agency about four years ago and I was at capacity. I was working 60 hours a week and still needed to work more, and that's already a lot, so I hired a virtual assistant. I didn't have the financial means to hire someone that had a lot of experience, so I started with teaching someone how to do things. Okay, so here's the lesson I learned.
Speaker 1:
So I'm going to be real here. When your capacity is already maxed out, it's not. It's not the route to go on for for your own sanity is to hire someone that you have to teach. If unless it's the only option, because what's going to happen is that you're going to use all of your capacity with the things you're already doing, and then more capacity to be able to teach this person and in my experience it hasn't worked quite as well so we need to get your capacity dialed in before we start teaching, if that's an option. If it's not an option, then that's a whole nother conversation. But we're not going to get into that in this episode, okay, but if you want to know, we can totally chat, send me a DM. Not going to get into that in this episode, okay, but if you want to know, we can totally chat, send me a DM, so, and we can figure out how to really get your perfect person into your world.
Speaker 1:
All right, so I changed my whole business model with this, uh, with this small agency that I own now. So, right, I owned a digital agency years ago and I have a small agency now, but the whole business model is different and we actually focus on streamlining operations to create more capacity for CEOs. Right, so I've been talking about capacity this entire episode. Right, if you're at capacity or you need to figure out how in the world to create more capacity, like I'm your person okay, so I was at capacity and needed support from an experienced virtual assistant this time, so I didn't have to teach as much. Right, I did not have the capacity to continue having, you know, good customer service, client experience, all those things to my current clients and having to teach, so I had to go the route of an experienced virtual assistant this time. I might have also been scarred from the last time, but we won't go into that either.
Speaker 1:
All right, so? So I had the SOPs and everything. So I literally was like okay, I like your vibe and here we're going to. What are your rates? This is what I need. Does that sound good? Let's get started.
Speaker 1:
She started in a week, I think it might've been less than that, but it was around the holidays anyway. So this was literally was like um, here's the SOPs, this is the vibe I'm going for. I asked any questions, ask any questions that you have or any additional support that you need. These are the things that you that, if you have an experienced VA like this, is what they need right SOPs, telling them the vibe that you're going for, you're asking any questions that you have or additional support that you need, and then and vice versa for them. And that transition was when I was at capacity was much smoother, given I had the systems in place right, so you can easily give those to an experienced VA. I gave these to my experienced VA and the transition was absolutely spectacular in comparison to before, because I knew exactly what I needed delegated. I had the SOPs in place and then I also hired an experienced virtual assistant. Those are two completely different experiences, from the first one I was talking about in this episode to this one that I was talking about.
Speaker 1:
Okay. So just think that it doesn't matter which situation that you are in, you're going to be able to get some support. It's just the level of hands-off that you're going to be able to have depends on the amount of systems and SOPs and things that you have in place already and the amount of experience that your VA has, along with what in the world you're actually delegating. So there's a lot of variables here, but there are many. Like I said, there's many factors when hiring a virtual assistant and the entire process and figuring out exactly what to delegate, and I hope part of this series has been incredibly supportive to you Any part of it, any episode, all of it. That would be amazing.
Speaker 1:
So I have a few VAs that I'm going to be interviewing over the next few weeks with different stories and perspectives that you'll want to tune into. All right, so it's not just hearing from me. We're going to bring in real life, experienced VAs or some of them might not be as experienced. Okay, but that's okay. Uh, we have a little bit of uh both coming into you, uh, so if you're needing support to streamline your actual operations, to make bringing on a virtual assistant go smoothly, all right, this is where I come in. There are options available to you. Um, with with me, right, like with and my team of virtual assistants right, you can head to the work with me page to learn more by visiting the productivity impactcom. This is also in the show notes.
Speaker 1:
Okay, so I also want to dive into this, because I'm ending this fourth episode on how to like, bring in a virtual assistant and delegate effectively, and so we are a, an agency that has virtual assistants, but we specialize in different things. So I wanted to run through some of the core components and where we, the productivity impact, can support you and your business. Okay, so there are four ways, and the first one is a ClickUp VIP week. Okay, this is creating the central hub for business, making it simpler for you to bring on support. Okay, the central hub where everything is stored, where your virtual assistants are coming in, they're getting their tasks, they're talking, they're you know all of these things. We're really creating it to run your entire business, and then it makes it a lot easier to bring on a team member, all right. So if that sounds like something that you really would need, you can totally check out those options. Click up VIP Week, all right.
Speaker 1:
The other place is if you have a podcast, you wanted to launch a podcast, you want to make content creation simpler, we have our podcast editing and repurposing packages. This is a way to have your podcast be your top of funnel and create a whole marketing strategy around it. So we have that as an option if you're interested. And then we have a full operations assessment. So this is a deep dive into your business operations, with recommendations based on your business and your goals to really nix those bottlenecks and optimize your team, with a clear timeline and an option for implementation support. So I dive into your entire business, we figure out where all the bottlenecks are and we really create a timeline and an additional implementation support if you desire to actually implement it and be able to really get that figuring out how to have a streamlined business. So you have more capacity and you can have a team that is also maximized right, or bring on a team member, whichever that may be.
Speaker 1:
So the last one here is an executive assistant operations manager role. This is me. I come in and become your right-hand person to support you in streamlining your operations while also ensuring your capacity as a CEO isn't being taxed. So, hey, this is even ensuring your team is optimized too, all right. So this is me 100% in your business, supporting you in one of the highest ways that anyone can support you.
Speaker 1:
I have clients that are like you know the most about my business. You have the most access, you have the most everything, and that feels really good. The most about my business. You have the most access, you have the most everything, and that feels really good. And so, really being able to do that for your business, as long as, like I said, as long as I love what you do and it vibes with me, that is what I am there to support you with, right.
Speaker 1:
So, all right, we're going to end this one. What are you waiting for? All right, we're going to get you. Let's get you some support and more time and energy to focus on those higher level strategy and client support pieces. And, of course, if you have any questions or you want to talk about how to work together, you can absolutely send me a DM or email me at caroleyattheproductivityimpactcom, and we're just, we're going to have a conversation and we're going to see how we can get you some support. If I'm the best person for you or someone else is, it's whatever's best for you. That's what we want, all right. All right, if you have any questions, like I said, send me a DM. We'll talk soon.
