How to Hire a Virtual Assistant

I’m Ready to Delegate to a VA!

How to Hire a Virtual Assistant Transcript:

Heather Stephens, Wise Owl Marketing (00:02):

Hey, everybody. I want to welcome you. We have Laura and Jessica here, and Jessica is a part of Wise Owl Marketing. You’ve probably talked to her if you’ve done a discovery call or anything like that with us. And Laura is the owner of a company that we work with who provides VA’s to businesses.

And I know all of my clients, we’re looking for leverage. You want to have some freedom in your life and your business. And one of the very best ways that you can do that is by bringing on some help. And with a lot of business owners, we think—especially to a newer business or a business that might be a solo person, a service provider who does their thing—you might not think that you can afford to bring a person on and have another salary and all of those things.

And I want to introduce you to Laura and talk about what she does, because this is a perfect way to get some support in your business in order to clean up your schedule a little bit, give you some breathing room in your schedule to be able to get more done, to hire some talent that you might not have innate in you in order to help you really scale and grow your business.

So Laura, welcome Jessica. Welcome. I’m so glad you guys are here and I’ve been waiting for this. So excited that we’re finally getting to do this and we could coordinate when we are all available. So I just want to say, thank you. And Laura, let’s start with you. Will you tell us a little bit about your business and you and what you do?

How did you get into the business of being a Virtual Assistant?

Laura Licursi, Elite Virtual Assist (01:41):

Yeah, sure. So, I started actually in the virtual assistant space in 1997. So, yes, that was before Google, like a year before Google was even out. I have been on both sides. I was VA for like 18 years and then I opened the agency in 2015. So we turned six this month, actually it’s our birthday. And, we provide virtual assistant services to business owners, busy professionals. Half of our client base is attorneys. So, the areas that we specialize in providing services is administrative, executive, legal, and digital marketing assistance.

Heather (02:26):

That’s awesome. And as you’re looking at this, I know you said a lot of the people that you work with are attorneys. Are there other types of businesses that you work with too? Who’s your ideal client?

Laura (02:38):

Our ideal client is actually somebody who understands that they need to delegate in order to grow. It’s hard to pinpoint an exact target market like other than attorneys because we work with so many different industries. We work with high-level coaches. We work with nonprofits. We work with financial institutions. We run the gamut across industries. So, what it really boils down to is understanding that you have to delegate and outsource in order to grow is really our ideal client is because a lot of people get very hung up in that spot. They have a difficult time letting go of control, or,think nobody can do it as good as I can, or it takes too long to delegate. And so it’s overcoming those fears and understanding that you need to if you’re gonna go to that next level.

Heather (03:45):

I know when I first hired a Virtual Assistant, my concern was, I didn’t quite know what to give them. I knew I needed help. I knew I was overwhelmed, but I didn’t quite know where to start. Do you have some suggestions for how you’d normally help businesses figure out what type of VA they should hire and where to begin?

Laura (04:09):

So I think the best thing to do is to, and people don’t like to take the time to do this, but you need to start tracking your time. And in that time tracking the tasks that you’re doing in that time. And then it’s really easy, even if you do it for a week. But to be very diligent about writing down everything that you do. And then you look for a pattern, like, what are you doing that’s repetitive? What are you doing that you could train somebody or create a process for that you can hand over to somebody else. Those are like the key first steps in order to really decide what you need to let go of. And then you can always add to it. But I always say start small because you can’t just take your overwhelm and throw it on somebody else because it’s never gonna work out that way.

Heather (04:59):

Absolutely. Another big lesson I learned is that I wasn’t, and I didn’t realize this at first it was a mistake I made, but I was looking for someone who could kind of help me clone myself. And I didn’t realize—thinking back, it seems so obvious—but I didn’t quite realize that to get someone who can be creative and someone who’s organized and someone who is a good person at following through on projects, and finding someone who did all the things I needed them to do and then better was hard. And so I started looking at different VA’s that did different things. And so that to me was a really big shift in the success of the relationship, working with the different VAs and figuring out that they had skills I didn’t have. That they could really help me carry the ball further down the line. Those kinds of things. Is that common?

Laura (06:01):

Yes. No, it’s very common. And you know, we call those, as Jess, knows “unicorns” in our business. So somebody that can really do a little bit of everything. And, even though like those people do exist, what is really important though to understand is there’s still going to be specialized areas that they are going to be really…it’s very hard to find a creative who is very highly organized, right? Because usually the two do not go together. That’s why, if you are tracking your tasks and what you’re doing, it’s a lot easier to get you started and pointed in the right direction of the type of person that’s going to best support you and then be able to kind of branch out from there. Because two of the big downfalls when working with the VA where people have the most trouble is lack of communication, and then also switching directions. So lack of communication, lack of focus. It’s fine to change and update processes, but when you hire somebody to be a personal assistant and then all of a sudden you want them to be a sales person, that’s usually a completely different person. And then everybody gets deflated and you’re setting somebody up for failure when you’re constantly changing direction like that.

What Type of Virtual Assistants do You Recommend?

Heather (07:21):

Yeah. I totally see that. And also I know with Eva, you guys have different types of VA’s. So do you typically work with biz (I know the answer to this because I’ve worked with you), but do you typically have different VA’s serving the same client for different purposes?

Laura (07:40):

Yes. Yes. And just like to what you said, Heather, let’s say that you need somebody to be highly organized and be more of your executive level assistant, but then you also want that creative person who is going to be able to create graphics for you or marketing pieces, since we have different team members, they can pull from somebody who might have a different skill set that they don’t have and they can jump in and help on a project. So, so you get our whole pool of people.

Heather (08:14):

That’s awesome. And so what is the process that you guys have of matching someone to a VA? Let’s say we’ve tracked our time (and I have a worksheet that I’ll put with this video to help people track their time for the first week, which will be a good start for you if you’re looking to hire a VA). (You may grab the free worksheet from the “Files” section of our Facebook Group!) So if they come to you with their worksheet and say, “Okay, I need someone who can help me with the admin, maybe help me with invoicing clients” or keeping track of, for me, the loose ends coming in through my inbox (clients will email me things and making sure they get put with the right project where we can find them, keeping it organized, making sure people are not falling through the cracks). So, you know, let’s say we’ve got someone who can do social stuff. So we’ve got these categories. How do you go about helping to match a virtual assistant to the business?

Laura (09:08):

Our VA’s take a DISC assessment. So that really helps us to see where their strong point is. That’s part of the pairing process. But a lot of it is taking a look at what your needs are and then finding somebody with the right skill set and personality to be able to support you in the way that you need it done. So, we have a series of questions that we ask, we have a whole onboarding process. So there’s a series of questions that we ask that really helps us understand your personality type, the type of personality that will best support you or that, you know, you’ve worked with before. Because that has such a big piece. I’m a big believer in hiring for personality and training for skill. And I think a lot of times, too, people get a little hung up, because they’ll come to us and they’ll say, “I use these five software systems. They have to know these five software systems”. Well, chances are with the thousands of software systems are, they’re going to know a variable of them, but maybe not that those five specifics. So it’s being able to understand that if you know how to use one CRM, you’re going to easily be able to jump in and use another, or an email newsletter type platform or something. So, there’s a lot of questions that we asked to really be able to pair you with the right person.

Heather (10:37):

Very cool. So Jessica, you have been really instrumental in helping me to sort of set some boundaries around my time and also look at other ways of getting things done that doesn’t require Heather to put on that particular hat. And working with virtual assistants is the one awesome method of doing that. And so as you’ve kind of gotten to know our business and the way that it works and the clients that we work with, what opportunities do you see for our clients with Eva in ways that could really help them?

Jessica McGillivary, Wise Owl Marketing (11:16):

That’s a great question. And I was just while Laura was speaking. I was thinking about that. How does this apply to Wise Owl? And I see a few different opportunities. Obviously, when a client comes to us and we have a goal with that client, at the end game we want people to be able to utilize their system and their website and be able to continue on and have it grow over time. And so I could see a virtual assistant coming in and supporting that and helping with the site, helping with social media. Laura, you have social media managers or different types of VA’s that manage social media. And I think that’s really important. I can also see though, Heather, some of your clients may also need somebody to come in and help with inbox management, and really helping with facilitating between all the different platforms, all the different tools we have to use. So that would be the number one thing is having a VA come in and really help with managing all the tools that are now part of their business after developing the system and being able to support, so the website can continue to convert and continue to support that business.

Heather (12:22):

That’s awesome. And I agree. So our goal is to build a website that converts for someone, but if nobody ever sees it, it can’t do its job. And so, if the business owner is so busy managing the clients, they have that they’re not able to get the blog posts scheduled or get the articles cleaned up and proof-read, or find the images or the graphics to put out on social media, or write some tweets, or do any of those things, they end up really, they’ve got a pretty website now, but it’s like having a car with no gas in the engine. I feel like having that virtual assistant who can, can help is key,. If they don’t have someone on their team already, that can do that, that’s huge. And we’re here to always support their website, but we don’t offer marketing services. We don’t go post on social media for you. So I think that’s a perfect example for a virtual assistant. And like you said, the inbox management. I know a lot of my clients struggle because there’s so many moving pieces in a business. You’ve got bookkeeping. You’ve got receipts to keep track of. You’ve got marketing assets content to create. I mean, there’s so many different pieces of it that. I agree with you. I think that’s awesome.

Jessica (13:43):

And that’s the piece, right? If we think about when somebody purchases a maintenance package with us, if you think about all the things that go into that, that you still have to communicate with us. That’s just one part. But the social media piece is really important. I get a lot of that. I get a lot of questions even in the initial call before we even get started, “Okay. So do you do social media management?”, and I have to say, “No, we don’t, but a VA can help you with that”. So it’s a perfect circle. It comes in my head at least six times throughout the process.

Heather (14:18):

Well, and I love that we’re working together to be able to match them up with a VA. So, as we wrap up here, do either of you guys have…maybe aside from tracking your time, and I just created a worksheet for a different program that I’m doing to help track your time. And I do that myself about three or four times a year, because when I start feeling overwhelmed, I realized that’s time for me to sort of take a look at what’s going on. So I have my own little process for that. So I’ll give you guys that worksheet. But aside from filling that out, what next steps do you recommend that people take?

Laura (14:55):

So, my suggestion is, I’m a big believer in having processes because it’s so much easier to turn something over to somebody with a process. The easiest way to do that without actually creating more work for yourself is just Loom them. Throw on that an extension and just start documenting it. You have to do the work anyways, and it’s so much easier. It’s, it’s easier for you to create a process that way. And it’s easier for somebody else to go back and view it, because all they have to do is go back and see exactly the stuff that you just took to get there. So that’s my biggest tip. I think that’s the easiest thing. The easiest way to get started delegating is to start documenting your processes.

Heather (15:49):

I was just going to recap. The extension she’s talking about is loom.com and it’s a Chrome extension you can put on your browser so that if you’re in your inbox about to do something, or you’re about to publish a blog post, you can click it and it will record your screen for you and show click-by-click everything that you’re doing. And then you can save it. You can download it if you need to. I think the Loom free version allows you to have certain number of videos. The paid version you can have unlimited, but you could always download it and upload it to YouTube on a private link and just start creating a playlist of the things that you do. That’s an awesome, awesome tip.

Jessica (16:32):

I was going to mention something that I know, Laura, we used a while back, but even as simple, if you’re thinking about possibly hiring a VA or delegating to start creating a list as well of all the things that you do. And then categorize that list into sections of “things I love to do”; “things I wish I didn’t have to do”; and “things that I have to do, I sort of love to do, but never have the time to do them”. And that right there is maybe a good way to get started in your mind and put it on paper so that when you are ready to hire that VA or to start delegating to somebody internally that you have that. So you know what you do, because we do so many things. I mean, you can’t keep track of it all unless you put it down on paper. So that’s something that I would suggest when you’re thinking about delegating.

Heather (17:15):

I love that. And I think, too, taking a look at, like Laura said, the things that you tend to do that are repetitive tasks. You know, those are things that you can easily delegate. You know, some of the things that I think would be good for a business owner, I just pulled up my worksheet here, but it’s accounting and bookkeeping. So for me, it’s like making sure that I am sending out invoices. (The free worksheet can be downloaded from the “Files” section of our Facebook Group!) If I’m working with someone, I have a tendency to do the work and then forget to invoice them for it. Whereas having a virtual assistant who can say, “Would you like me to send an invoice for this person?”, they can see the hours that you’ve tracked and go ahead and do that. That’s not something that requires them to have a special like tax accounting skills. It’s just a matter of, you know, putting the numbers in and putting the email in and sending out the invoice.

I think also customer service, you know, being able to respond to someone and say, “Thanks, we’ve got your, your message and we’re here that we can help you. Here’s what to do.” That’s an awesome thing.

Creating social content, which we’ve talked about. I think, too, taking some of the content that you have and repurposing it into something else. So if you are doing Facebook Lives, maybe having a virtual assistant take that content and strip the audio from it and have it transcribed. And you now have a video, you have something to put up on a podcast, and you have an article that you can turn into a blog post. And then also being able to do product fulfillment, making sure that people are getting what they need.

I know we had a virtual assistant over the holidays who was basically taking the orders for the planners and making sure that they got to the printer. And if someone had a, “Hey, I didn’t get my planner” customer service ticket, tracking it down, making sure people had their tracking numbers. It was a really awesome thing.

A couple more things. Being able to schedule your follow-up and nurture emails for you in your email marketing platform. Help schedule appointments. Help onboard clients, make sure that they feel welcome, and have everything that they need. Basically scheduling blogs. I think we’ve already talked about it at that.

But all of those things are things that you’re probably doing as a business owner that someone else could do and free you up to have those client conversations or create that content in the first place. And I think if you are able to have a virtual assistant do those things for you, just imagine where you could be in your business.

Laura (19:42):

Right? And the big thing that I feel for most business owners because you are, I mean, you just rattled off like 15 things. None of that is probably being done on a consistent basis. So this way you have something that’s going to create that consistency for you.

Heather (19:58):

Yeah. So homework: Track your time for a week. (Grab your time-tracking worksheet from the files section of our Facebook Group.) See what stuff that only you could do or what stuff that you could delegate. And follow Jessica’s thing, what stuff you’d love to do, but you never have time. Keep track of that. Then start tracking your activities with Loom so that you can start creating, we call it an SOP (Standard Operating Procedures) folder. We have it in Asana. We just pop in what it is that we did and a video link and it’s all there. So when we do bring someone onto our team, I don’t have to be the one to do that. It’s like teaching your kids to tie your shoes, letting them watch YouTube videos to learn how. It’s a lot easier than taking the time to be the one to always have to do that. And then I think the last step would be to schedule some time to talk to you, Laura, and your team, right? To, to talk about what it would look like to have a Virtual Assistant and start that process of finding someone who’s a match for your personality and remembering that the personality is more important than the actual skills that they have. They can learn the programs.

Laura (21:06):

Right. Right. Exactly.

Heather (21:08):

Other things you want to add?

Laura (21:10):

No, I mean, I really think that we covered everything between the three of us.

Heather (21:15):

It was fun. I really enjoyed the time. And like I said, I’ve been wanting to do this for quite a while. So I want to thank you both for being here. Thank you for your time and for helping to make this happen. I hope that it’s helpful to the clients that we serve and anybody else who happens to find it.

Laura (21:31):

Awesome. Thanks for having me, Heather.

Jessica (21:33):

Thanks.

Heather (21:34):

Thank you. Bye, everybody.