Have you considered hiring a VA to help you in managing your investments? If you haven’t, this article can show you how to hire one.

Before we carry on deeper, let me start with a word of warning: Hiring a Virtual Assistant isn’t easy. It requires prep work, a detailed job description, and a professional interview process. You may have to hire a few bad apples before you find the golden-egg-laying-goose that you’re looking for.

Follow this to-do list to get the best VA you can:

Prep Work First

Once you initiate the hiring process, you don’t want to be chasing your tail all over the place. This will lead to your VA having to do the exact same thing! Spend at least two or three weeks carefully documenting everything you do on a daily and weekly basis – create a separate list for each, it will help you delegate more efficiently when the time comes.

After a few weeks of documenting your task needs, decide what items can be delegated to a VA and which (if any) absolutely cannot. Take the delegate-able tasks and write detailed, step-by-step (read: bullets and numbers work best) instructions on how to get them done. Continue to proof-read and refine these instructions to make them as fluid and easy-to-read as possible as you begin the actual hiring process.

Have at least three people read them through and offer opinions about how easy to understand they are. Avoid people that work in your industry for this step, to ensure someone with limited experience can still get the job done if necessary.

The Job Advertisement/Description

This is where many delegators run into trouble. You need to be specific about what you expect including the experience level of your ideal candidates, how much time you require from them, and exactly what results you expect from them on a day-to-day basis.

Treat your VA job description in the exact same way you would if you were hiring someone to work in your office.  If you want to hire a VA for managing your real estate investing, you need to detail all the requirements, such as handling paperwork, managing leads, and so on.

This link offers an excellent walk-through on how to write a killer job description: https://www.sba.gov/content/writing-effective-job-descriptions

Here are a few facts to keep in mind straight off:

• The best workers are busy.
• They don’t need to beg for work; lowering their prices to bargain basement levels (ie., you get what you pay for).
• If your job ad is confusing, that means that you’re confusing and will be a constant pain in their butt and strain on their time.
• Be open about who you are: your name and contact info and you’ll attract more professional workers.
• Examples of what you need done will go a lot further than a multi-sentence description (ie., link to content similar to what you need done, sites similar to what you need built, images of spreadsheets and databases you need maintained, etc.)
• Virtual Assistants are looking for long-term work. If you’re looking for a long-term VA, say so and include incentives such as performance bonuses and/or a predictable salary increase schedule.
• Including negative comments makes you a bad prospect for any experienced VA. Don’t write things like “If you screw up more than once, you’re gone!” or “I don’t have time to babysit people.” Etc.

Hiring Your Virtual Assistant

Here are some great tips for picking the needle out of the haystack when you’ve gathered some viable workers:

• Don’t rush through the process.
• Collect at least 5 – 10 candidates if you can.
• Insist that you speak on Skype. Talk on the phone or in person (ideal) if they’re local. This is so important if you require someone who speaks perfect English.
• Don’t look for a “Jack of all Trades.” They’re so rare, you’ll have a better chance at finding “Jack” climbing his beanstalk in your backyard!
• Have them to complete a test involving 1 or 2 (fictional) tasks that you’ll require of them. Make it a timed test if they’re required to do a lot of tasks quickly.
• If you do find someone with a one-in-million personality and a sea-of-knowledge that’s valuable for your business, hire them on the spot!
• Understand that mistakes will happen at first, but don’t waste hours of time trying to beat a dead horse. If they can’t get the job done after a couple of weeks of training, they likely never will.

Conclusion

As you can see, there’s a lot of bases to cover. While it sometimes can cost few dollars more in per-project or monthly subscription fees; a Virtual Assistant firm like 24/7 Virtual Assistant, specializing in connecting the right workers with hard-working entrepreneurs, can take a lot of hassle out of the entire process.

They do the hiring. They’re accountable if a worker costs you time or money (as if there’s a difference, right?) They have a wealth of talent they can call upon at a moment’s notice…

In truth, this route can cost you a lot less money in the long run, as missed deadlines, unacceptable results, and hiring/training/firing multiple virtual assistants can cost thousands in lost time and money.