Hiring a digital assistant is the proper staffing answer for a lot of startups. Entrepreneurs like Pat Flynn and Chris Ducker have not less than one on board, and John Lee Dumas even had a crew of 12 nice digital assistants at one level! It’s onerous to not see why when hiring a digital assistant is usually a extremely strategic and helpful enterprise transfer.
Simply to be clear right here, what I imply by a digital assistant is somebody who, like every other freelancer, can work remotely—principally a contract administrative assistant. They’re digitally based mostly staff who may be discovered anyplace on the planet and, with the regular rise of individuals working from dwelling or remotely, they’re extra obtainable than ever.
Apologies to anybody who thought this was going to be an article about outsourcing your workload to futuristic AI. We didn’t give you the identify.
A digital assistant is often a extra manageable expense than hiring a full-time employees particular person and normally simply as certified and skilled for the job. Even for those who’re operating a brick-and-mortar enterprise, there are nonetheless many duties that you could outsource to a digital assistant.
With that in thoughts, I’m going to interrupt down for you at the moment simply how one can begin liberating up your time and direct your focus to the place it must be, in simply 5 simple steps.
Step 1: What Is A Digital Assistant (and Why You Want One)
As an entrepreneur, your most treasured useful resource isn’t cash; it’s your time and power. When your entire enterprise begins and stops with you, you can’t be losing your time or power on issues that don’t want your consideration.
What many seasoned entrepreneurs will know, and youthful entrepreneurs will generally battle to grasp, is that generally you simply can’t do all of it. Generally there simply aren’t sufficient hours in a day, or days in week so that you can get work finished.
You may both deliver somebody on board and assist alleviate your workload, or hold working your self till the purpose of collapse. Alternatively, you may at all times discover a strategy to clone your self and go on a collection of wacky adventures.
Till know-how grows to the purpose the place you may reliably clone your self with out unintentionally splicing your genetic materials with a family fly, you’re type of caught. We do, nevertheless, have know-how that significantly will increase choices and suppleness on the subject of hiring a digital assistant.
A digital assistant, like every other assistant, is somebody you get that can assist you be extra productive, scale back the chance of burnout and resolution fatigue and, most significantly, give your extra methods to leverage your time.
Whereas digital assistants may be very versatile and simply as well-trained as every other worker, you even have to think about the challenges of working with somebody remotely.
The very fact you’re not working with somebody face-to-face means there can probably be problems with belief, productiveness, and efficient communication. In the event you rent somebody from a distinct nation, there may face some language or cultural boundaries. You may offend each other with out realizing it, one thing that’s by no means good within the office, particularly the digital office.
Except you’ve labored with a digital crew, or have labored remotely your self, these may be very critical points that may spiral uncontrolled until you develop the correct tips and procedures.
However, on the finish of the day, the vast majority of digital assistants are extraordinarily hard-working individuals who may be precisely what your small business must take it to the subsequent stage.
Step 2: Get Your Enterprise Prepared
So now that you simply’re set on hiring a digital assistant, the very first thing it’s essential to do is dispel the parable of there being some type of Tremendous VA. Sure, many digital assistants are superb at their jobs, however they’re nonetheless human. Digital assistants aren’t magical beings that you could simply insert into your workflow and simply anticipate them to select every little thing up instantly.
On the flipside, you additionally don’t need to make that classically naive mistake of hiring an assistant after which realizing too late that you simply’re not really positive what it’s you want them to do. Too many overzealous entrepreneurs have employed digital assistants as a result of they only learn Tim Ferriss’s 4-Hour Work Week after which found that exterior of a set of vaguely outlined duties, they actually had no must make the rent.
So what it’s essential to do is just remember to sit down and correctly work out what it’s you want out of your digital assistant.
What I counsel is that for not less than one week you retain a piece diary, or have one thing that tracks the way you’re spending your time. That manner, on the very least, you can begin pinpointing what duties you’re spending an excessive amount of time on and what you may outsource to your VA.
For instance, I’d personally check out a Google Chrome timetracker.
Straightaway, I can inform that I’m sinking in manner too many hours into Gmail, Netflix too now that I give it some thought, and that I may probably outsource some email-related duties to a VA. By checking my work diary, I can inform that I’m spending a number of hours on article analysis, one other activity that I can outsource to a reliable digital assistant.
In the event you don’t really feel like creating a piece diary then you may try foundr’s very personal “Hiring a VA Guidelines” which can information you in determining whether or not you want a generalist or a specialist digital assistant.
Determine what particular duties you really need taken care of earlier than you begin hiring.
Ask your self, do you want a technical or inventive digital assistant? Do the duties you want finished require somebody who is usually a bit extra impartial, or do you want somebody to simply full recurring duties or tasks you instantly assign?
“Rent for the function, not the duty” – Chris Ducker, Founder and CEO of Live2Sell Group.
In the event you had been to create a place description on your digital assistant what would you write? To begin with you don’t need to write one thing like this:
It’s too obscure and also you gained’t get the proper of particular person making use of for the job. What you need to be doing is making a place description extra like this:
You need to be as particular as attainable in order that once you do tackle a VA you understand precisely what it’s you want them to do and the way you’re going to handle them.
Step 3: Discover Your Digital Assistant
The subsequent step is to determine the place it’s you’re going to seek out your self a digital assistant.
When hiring digital assistants previously, we really went via Digital Workers Finder, a recruitment service for anybody trying to outsource their work. All we did was fill out a fast questionnaire about what we had been on the lookout for and we had been shortly matched up with a handful of candidates that suited our wants. After going via some interviews, we instantly employed VA and haven’t appeared again since.
In the case of recruitment providers like Digital Workers Finder, you may usually anticipate a sure stage of high quality on the subject of the expertise pool. Candidates are required to undertake sure assessments so as to gauge their literacy, typing pace, even their Web pace!
Nonetheless, recruitment providers may be expensive, and may not be value it until you’re on the lookout for somebody to work with you for the long run.
Check out these different recruitment providers as effectively:
The choice to hiring a recruitment service to discover a digital assistant for you is to simply do it your self. The most typical manner is to go to websites that supply freelancing providers and publish a job on their job board saying that on the lookout for a digital assistant. It actually is kind of easy.
Try websites like Upwork so as to discover a entire vary of candidates on your job.
Likelihood is you’re going to get not less than a dozen candidates for the job, however earlier than you begin hiring the primary particular person with a half-decent resume, do not forget that hiring a digital assistant is rather like hiring for any job. You need to just remember to have the correct particular person.
Make certain to do not less than one spherical of digital interviews so that you get to know their character and whether or not or not you may work collectively. It’s extremely vital that you simply do not less than one face-to-face interview, and don’t be afraid to get direct and ask the onerous questions.
Taking a leaf out of the guide of our Group and Progress Supervisor David Hobson, I might ship any potential rent this e-mail.
I’ll ask every applicant to learn and touch upon every level with their very own private emotions or opinions as a part of their evaluation. Their solutions may be extremely revealing and insightful as to their character and whether or not or not you need them in your crew.
When you’ve got the time, I extremely counsel setting all candidates a small activity. As somebody who admittedly scored very dangerous grades throughout faculty, I can (hopefully anyway) say that the way you do on paper doesn’t essentially have any correlation with how effectively you do within the area.
In any case, that is going to be somebody you’re going to be trusting with a number of accountability. You need to guarantee that the particular person you tackle as your assistant is accountable, competent, and reliable.
Step 4: Onboard and Prepare
Typically talking, it ought to take round three weeks to correctly onboard your digital assistant and to totally prepare them on the duties you’re handing over.
When it got here to coaching our VAs, we spent not less than two weeks making it our prime precedence, ensuring that they understood the ins and outs of the enterprise and the way finest to go about their duties. For a month, we spent not less than an hour a day having a chat with them to see how every little thing was going and if there was something that was significantly complicated.
As of late, they an integral a part of our crew, and has helped take foundr to the subsequent stage.
Like a tiny seedling it’s essential to take the time to domesticate them to allow them to develop and be part of a forest and stand to be a mighty oak of busi-you know what? This analogy has flown the coop, I’m simply going to belief that you simply perceive the place I’m going with this.
If a tree falls in a forest and nobody is there to listen to it, do you get a digital assistant?
Now I do know what you’re considering. You’re most likely saying to your self that you simply don’t have the time to spend 2-3 weeks coaching somebody. However I can not stress to you the way vital that is.
In the event you’re discovering your self saying that you simply don’t have time to spend not less than one hour a day on coaching a brand new worker, then that may be a clear an indication as any that you simply want extra time! Which is strictly why you want a digital assistant within the first place.
Don’t overlook what it was like once you first began a job, all of the uncertainty you confronted and the way having a affected person boss and a fantastic framework helped you compromise in that a lot faster.
A great way to remain on prime of every little thing and monitor how your new rent is doing is to e-mail them this set of questions every single day.
- What actions did you’re taking at the moment?
- What outcomes did you get?
- What issues did you could have?
- What questions do you could have?
Not solely does this permit the each of you to work via any points collectively, but it surely’ll additionally imply that you’ve got an intensive report of how they’re doing with the work you’ve assigned them.
If something occurs they usually drop the ball on one thing you may very simply level out to them that they didn’t elevate any points up till this level. It’s each an effective way to facilitate robust communication and keep on prime of every little thing.
Step 5: Hold it Actual
All of that technical stuff apart, right here’s the one key factor it’s important to bear in mind on the subject of coping with a digital assistant, or anybody you’re employed with remotely, for that matter: They’re human.
Assume again to any time you’ve labored any type of job the place you felt unfulfilled or unappreciated. The place you had that supervisor who by no means appeared to care about who you had been or why you had been working for them within the first place. When it actually felt like there was no level in attempting to go above and past the decision of responsibility as a result of possibilities had been nobody would even admire the additional effort.
An important mistake folks make once they first tackle digital assistants, or any worker for that matter, is to deal with them like they’re robots who don’t have their very own hopes and aspirations. The very last thing you need to do is deal with somebody like they’re nothing however a senseless drone.
So be an individual, and take the time to get to know them and what they’re all about.
One of many best challenges on the subject of working remotely with somebody is that it’s troublesome to construct a robust basis of belief. In any case, in contrast to the folks in your workplace, you don’t have the identical alternative to speak to them face-to-face every single day.
Or for that matter, have them play pranks on you by hiding numerous photos of Sean Connery in a pink leather-based man thong round your private results.
Whenever you don’t have that fixed interplay it’s onerous to get to construct a rapport with somebody not to mention a excessive stage of belief.
So present that you simply care by asking how their day goes, what plans they’ve after work, what films they’ve seen. Now I’m not asking you to be finest associates and begin braiding one another’s hair. However actively present that you simply care about who they’re as an individual.
Your digital assistant isn’t simply somebody that you simply’ve tacked on to deal with grunt work for your small business, they’re part of your crew. So deal with them like they’re and guarantee that they perceive that too.
The Proper Instruments for the Job
Since you’re going to be working in a digital atmosphere, you’re going to want the correct instruments for the job. Whether or not it’s for communication or collaboration, we’ve acquired you lined.
Communication
I do know this goes with out saying however communication is vital in each office, no matter whether or not it’s “in the actual world” or digital.
- Slack is one other improbable device that we love to make use of at foundr. The flexibility to create totally different channels for devoted duties additionally make this a really nifty strategy to monitor any specialised duties.
- Google, Zoom, or Microsoft Groups are nice for those who’re trying to handle an entire crew of digital staff and simply one other nice all-around service.
Coaching Instruments
I discover that one of the simplest ways to coach digital assistants is to report a fast video of your course of, or create a primary set of procedures for them to observe. You need to guarantee that nothing will get misplaced in translation. There could be occasions the place you’ll want to leap on Skype do some extra in-depth coaching, however for many duties only a easy video will do tremendous. We suggest:
- Loom is our favored device at foundr for doing walk-through movies for onboarding, updates, or communication throughout time zones.
- SweetProcess is a service that we extremely suggest and we use it to fastidiously doc our commonplace working procedures for any given activity. This fashion all anybody has to do is verify SweetProcess so as to work out methods to full a activity.
You can too use Google Docs and create a shared doc to report all of your procedures on as effectively.
Workflow and Accountability
Whenever you’re managing somebody remotely you need to have the ability to hold monitor of their work and the way they’re doing. Listed here are a couple of instruments that we like to make use of:
- Asana is one we love at foundr. You may arrange a quite simple board on your digital assistant and have the ability to monitor what work they’re getting finished. Trello and ClickUp are different venture administration instruments which can be well-liked.
- Wunderlist (now Microsoft To Do) means that you can create activity lists that you could share with anybody. One other neat characteristic is that you could connect feedback and directions to each activity as effectively.
- IDoneThis is a monitoring service which you’ll automate to ship every day reminder emails to your digital assistant. All they need to do is write an inventory of all of the duties they’ve completed that day, and it even syncs up effectively with Slack.
Rent Your Digital Assistant and Begin Scaling Your Enterprise
These instruments and ideas will go a great distance towards making a profitable expertise with digital assistants. And like so lots of the office improvements made obtainable via the Web, hiring digital assistants is usually a highly effective technique, particularly for companies attempting to scale up on the proper tempo.
However you’re most likely seeing a operating theme to this publish. Like all different improvements, we’re actually simply speaking about interacting with folks. So the one factor I hope you’ll take away from that is that, in working with digital assistants and different distant staff, many of the identical recommendation and tips apply as when working with staff face-to-face. It’s a smaller world, however you’re nonetheless simply constructing a crew.
Able to scale your small business? Try our catalog of free coaching to begin rising.
