This past weekend, my Virtual Assistant, Skye + I spoke at SNAP Conference about how to hire a Virtual Assistant. We discussed how to know when you’ve hit your tipping point, how to figure out the areas you need to hire help in and what to look for in a Virtual Assistant. It was such an honor + a great experience. Even more exciting – it was a packed house! What?! So awesome! I know Skye plans to share more on her blog about what she spoke about, so I’m going to share a little of what I talked about. We’ve made our presentation downloadable, so be sure to grab the link at the end of the post.
KNOW Where You’re at
- Are you overwhelmed?
- Feeling like you spend more time on your blog or business than with your family?
- You’re loosing you’re creative juices?
“You can either go deep with your blog or biz, or you can go wide, but you can’t do both alone + do it successfully”
“When you hit a point where you can’t find time to create great content, it’s time to hire help!”
KNOW How to get Started
- Need a plan?
- Check out the pdf presentation for an example of the exercise I walked everyone through
- Read Life Rearranged’s book Hire Blog Help! (discount code below)
- Bite the bullet
- You can’t scale your blog + biz when you’re doing it all alone!
“Figure out what things you want to do for your blog and biz + hire help for the rest”
KNOW What You Need Help With
- Now that you’ve made your list
- Prioritize – what are the things you love to do, what could someone else accomplish for you?
- My suggestion – begin with administrative tasks such as general email inquiries, sponsors, giveaway posts, scheduled promotional tweets and expand from there.
“You can’t see your bigger picture if you’re stuck in the day to day grind.”
KNOW What to Look For
- Someone who is trustworthy
- Are they a quick learner?
- Do they understand Social Media?
- Is a blogger who is not trying to grow their own blog/reads blogs or has an understanding of the blogging world?
- Can think on their feet
- Understands and shares your passion for our blog and business and can communicate as your voice.
- Has experience in time management
KNOW How to Hire
- Ask friends who have a Virtual Assistant
- Craigslist
- Don’t be afraid to interview multiple people – you need to find someone who is the best fit for YOU.
- Be upfront about your expectations
- Hire someone who can handle constructive criticism
- Don’t hire someone you can’t be direct with
- Try not to hire you friends
- Don’t be in a hurry! You want to find the right person to work with. I had two Virtual Assistants before I worked with Skye.
KNOW What You Can Afford
- Have a budget in mind
- If you find someone you want to work with + they have a preset hourly rate, find creative ways for you to achieve your goals and them to meet their hourly rate.
- Most importantly remember it takes money to make money.
“Your business can’t grow if you’re doing it all, but it can grow with the right person on your team to help”
If you want to see more about hiring a Virtual Assistant you can check out this post I wrote last year, it also has a list of VA’s to use as a reference. Please know that I am in no way endorsing this list, I had created a link up with the post as a way to keep the conversation going, although you may find some great people to work with from the list.
In case you missed our session, we opened with a rap! Hello, who doesn’t love to watch 2 white girls attempt to rap?
Purchase the book Hire Blog Help using the discount code SNAP13 to receive 30% off your purchase. That’s $7 for the book y’all, you’re crazy not to go buy it NOW. Seriously go! You’re welcome!
Download the full copy of our SNAP Conference presentation HERE.
If you have questions, please leave them in the comments section + feel free to tweet your questions + favorite quotes using the hashtag #hireava and we’ll do a round up post to answer them all for you. Also, be sure to check out Skye’s recap from our session.
katie says
Love this! I missed your session and glad I can read through the notes!
Skye says
Thanks Katie!! 🙂
Alissa Circle says
let us know if you have any questions! and download that book, it’s awesome!
Skye says
This video can go away forever. HAHAH! 🙂 But seriously this was so much fun! I’m glad we went through with it – we definitely had the best session! 🙂
Alissa Circle says
hahaha, right? of course I say that but i was the one who uploaded it! i think it was such a great way to break the ice before diving into a serious talk. haha. love you!!
Katie Shannon says
1. You look AMAZING – your hard work is paying off.
2. I’m stealing that dress 😉
Alissa Circle says
thank you so much!! girl you can borrow it anytime!
Erin @ Isaboo Designs says
You looked amazing btw…I don’t think I am quite ready financially to hire someone, but I am totally overwhelmed since my kids are at home with me most of the time…next school year cannot get here soon enough!
Alissa Circle says
i know, making the decision to hire can be a tough one, but my sponsorship (for example) doubled when I hired a va bc I was able to keep up with the emails and get information to people sooner, which they appreciated. I also hired a babysitter to help with the kids so I could have key hours to focus on work. You’ll get there mama!
Rachael Barclay says
Thanks for sharing! I love coming to your blog for advice/tips for my blog and (maybe someday) business. I am nowhere near needing an assistant or anything (just a small personal blog right now) but this is still great information. Thanks again:) (Oh and I LOVE that dress, you looked great!)
Kelly Cockshaw says
Hi Alissa, thank you for the great info and link to your presentation! You mention a post from last year about VAs, but I don’t see a link. Any way you can respond with the link – I’d love to read it! Thank you so much!
Alissa Circle says
Hi Kelly, sure thing, heres the link to that post: https://littlebitcitylilbitcountry.com/5-knows-for-hiring-a-virtual-assistant/. Hope it helps! 🙂
Kelly says
Thank you very much! 🙂
Crystal says
This is fabulous! I just started a VA business and will be adding a link to your awesome post soon – I’m not sure I could have said it any better myself 🙂
Tinju Ashok says
Hey,
Excellent post. I think the timing of the virtual assistant should be same as they should be online at same spot to work together. Excellent post.
Thank you
Claire @ A Little Claireification says
Again, this is so “right on the money”. As I am now almost to the point where I have a sponsored post once a week, I have a few other monetization things I want to work on before taking this step but it will be so needed soon enough so this is such a huge help.
Sad I missed “Snap!” this year after already hitting two conferences and will be making that a priority next year. And how am I not subscribed to your blog? What the what?? 🙂
Done.
Have a great week and thank you so much for the invaluable info!
xoxo
Amie Cabrera says
This is a great article on hiring a virtual assistant. Those businesses and individuals who are considering to do so will surely find these insights helpful. Thanks for sharing.
Myra says
According to my point of view it is crucial hiring a VA for any business. Firstly to minimize cost of hiring, training and placing a Physical Assistant. Secondly to get more productive results. I would recommend others to read this post and make up their mind in hiring a VA.