Forums: Discussions for entrepreneurs and small business.

Hi Michele,

I posted this on another thread, but I think it might be useful to you. So I`ll repost it here, if you don`t mind.

Joy hit on several things that I completely agree with and here are a few things to keep in mind in considering a Virtual Assistant.

1. Talk with her several times. There is a lot of VAs out there vying for your business. We all want to help you out, but there are some out there who may not have the experience, drive, desire that you are looking for in a team member. My suggestion is to interview them, speak with them on several occasions, and ensure some common ground between the two of you. A good VA will ask the right questions and feel the same way you do about your deadlines -- sometimes you’ll just feel it.

2. Do your research. A VA should have several years of corporate/real-world experience. Additionally, it would be helpful if they can provide you with a list of references. If you want, and have time, give some of those people a call.

3. Don`t settle. In my opinion, you`ll know when you find the right person. If it doesn`t feel right, keep looking. If you’ve contracted them for a month and it’s still not working, dissolve the relationship and try again. After all, this is your business and you have a lot riding on it. Believe it or not, Virtual Assistants can feel the same way you do -- if we come across a client that we`re unsure about, we won`t work with them. In short, we don`t settle either.

4. Most important, Communication. This is a two-way street. Your VA will and should communicate with you and ensure her understanding of what you need done. Likewise, you should be communicating with her.

Bottom line: it can work. Once you have a VA whom you begin to trust and you have a system going, you`ll find it easier and easier to delegate projects to her. Start off with something small, see how she handles that and see how you feel about giving it up. You don`t have to give up everything all at once, but if it works, you`ll find yourself giving up more than you ever thought you would and having time in your day to actually work on your core business rather than handling things such as bookkeeping, compiling marketing lists, or trying to figure out that dreaded mail merge system.

Let me tell you, once you work with a good VA -- you`ll never be without one again! I`m sure there will be other VAs who may have some other advice, but those are just a few things that I can think of now.

I wish you luck and if you have any other questions feel free to contact me. I`ll be happy to answer them.

Good luck!

Rebecca Kennedy
Co-Owner
www.EliteVAs.com

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Elite Virtual Assistants, "Combining Today`s Technology with Yesterday`s Professionalism," Elite VAs

Getting a bit off track with the VA direction this forum has taken, I`d like to comment on CraigL`s comment above.  We tend to discount such philosophy - but I agree with thim.  The whole gist of what he said can be summed up in his one paragraph. 

I`m not going to be as philosophical as CraigL; I`m going to put my comments in more simple terms. 

You don`t want to hire you, you want to hire someone "smarter" than you.  You may want someone with the same work ethic, but you don`t want someone who is a mirror of you.  You want someone with certain strengths in the area where they really need to be - and maybe in different areas than you. 

Oh how I wish I could run my entire business myself.  I`d have exactly what I want.  The reality is, it`s never going to happen.  And why would you want to do everything yourself anyway?   

You can always "train" a partner/employee, what-have-you on what customer service means to your comapany; outline the expectations and, provide a guideline/plan for them in reaching those expectations and follow-up to be sure. 

I say that even if you are hiring a "partner" entrepreneur, employee, contractor, whatever you want to call the person, you cannot be afriad to have an open dialogue and let them know whether or not they are working up to your expectations, and why or why not.  If they are, you should praise them for doing so.  Don`t just bring up the bad all the time and never any good.  It`s going to turn the relationship sour. 

If they are not meeting your expectations, you need to be frank about that too, in a professional manner. Schedule check-ins and discsuss what can be done to get to the level of service you need and expect.

The thing about entreprenuers is that we all got into the business because we wanted to be our own boss; we wanted freedom from the drama that goes on in any work environment; however, this does not mean that when we are hired by a client that "we do what we want because this is our business" and not work for our clients best interests and build a mutually rewarding partnership. 

Now back to the VA talk.  The one rule that I`m working from with most of the contractors I`m hiring is that they have to be "smarter" than me in the area in which I`m hiring them to work with me.  It`s not always an easy thing to recognize in the beginning stages, or through interviews. I`ve hired some with stellar references who ended up below expectations and who did not deliver on contractural obligations.    I`ve learned a lot from this experience and have modified the way that I do business in certain areas as a result. 

There are certain things that we can all do to better ensure that we are attracting the right type of person to our organization - this is what CraigL was talking about.  Learning how to attract such people does take skill and strategy.  It`s not easy.   

However, as we all get better at what we do, this is a skill that we will develop along the way - and some of the learning will come through hiring the wrong people. 

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Tammy Graham, Founder & CEO, True Genius Apparel Company: fitting your personality; www.mytruegenius.com. "You must be the change you wish to see in the world."

I am at the point where I need to start considering hiring someone part-time--contractor preferably--so I can grow my business further, I would love to hear how some of you went about this when you were doing this for the first time.

Here in North Carolina a former employer only need answer two questions:
1. Did this person work for you
2. Would you hire them again
I note that someone brought up the latter as a key question to ask a reference.

I used to work for a staffing agency, so employment law is something I had a lot of contact with in this state. In some cases the former employer will answer more than these two questions, but they don`t have to and many won`t take the time. I can get record checks done through contacts I still have who are in the business.

What I really want to know is....
1. What did the entrepreneurs here find most useful in their search for qualified employees/contractors? What was least useful, even if others recommended it?
2. What hard lessons did you learn that you can pass along, so those of us who are just reaching this stage can avoid some of the pitfalls?
3. What was your worst experience in hiring? What was your best?
4. In your experience, what kinds of things should a business owner have in place before considering hiring an employee?
5. Has anyone here ever used personality tests in evaluating an employee--I had one given to me at one time and I apparently must have done okay with it as I was hired, but how useful are these in determining employee success?

Thanks for any and all answers!

I am currently looking to start a VA business.  I have many years of experience meeting deadlines and I am proficient in many aspects of administration, billing, budget, database creation, etc.  I am just a stump right now on how to get started with a business.

I am willing to offer my services free of charge, a one time offer, to anyone that would need a relieable, effecient individual to accomplish a task at hand.  Give me a try and I will prove to be the best you have ever had. 

I am currently employed but willing to do provide a service free of charge for exposure in the industry and critic from those whom I would be offering the service to.

Looking forward to a reply on this post.   Thank you.

 

Luiset

 

 

My search for contractors started on Elance.com and Guru.com where I was bidding on jobs myself. I read some of the posts from other bidders and decided to contact a few who sounded like they had the same work ethic as I did. I paid them to complete a small test project to evaluate their skills and wound up hiring a few on a project by project basis.

One contractor turned out to be stellar in every way and she is now my main source for typesetting help. Others I dropped because I found they just wouldn`t do things the way I asked, and I got tired of repeating myself. It`s just trial and error, but that`s the beauty of working with contractors instead of employees...there`s no obligation other than what the two of you agree to at the outset, and that can be just the project at hand.

Hiring contractors doubled the size of my business in one year. What started out as a search for "a little help" became a completely different business model and now I need more help to handle the volume of coordination between contractor and client (unless I start turning away work, which I don`t want to do.)

When I owned my "old" business I tried the personality test approach a few times but didn`t find it to be any more accurate in finding a good employee than my "gut" feeling.

People say philosophy is interesting but not particularly useful. And yet, how much do you think it`d be worth to have a concrete, analytic approach, in a step-by-step way, to work with "gut feeling?" :-)

I second that! In my own experience I get a lot of offers to design a website, for which the recipient will pay me later from the profits they gain from it. I read this as not getting paid at all... First, one can hide the profit behind their costs, second, it takes a while for a site to gain momentum and really start to pay off, and third, it means the person has to put some effort into marleting that site and what do I know of their business expertise? I have to assume they re just looking for a free site.

The people who want services tend to be the most demanding (there are other words to use, but this IS a public venue) and take up far more time than those who are really serious about their business. The only sites I will do for free are for family or close friends, and I limit how often I do it--I need to make a living, after all, as do you.

As 1106Design says, giving away your services undervalues them and undermines customer respect for your knowledge and experience.  Her recommendation to offer a trial period with a guarantee is excellent. (But she knew that...)

You can also discount your services temporarily to encourage signups, but do so only for a limited time and make sure it`s very clear that it`s a limited time. You could offer it for the first week or two of service as an introductory offer, after which the standard rate takes over. Or a 10% discount on the first invoice, if they sign up before a certain date, and then be strict about that date and how many hours you will work at that rate.  Make sure with discounts that you note the real rate on your invoices, then show a discount from that. This way you are not "raising prices" when you go back to your standard rate, you`re just removing the discount. The client then feels they got a deal, rather than taken in.

Design,

I`ve also been brewing over this problem.  One solution I read about was reducing the learning curve and creating a structured environment.  You may or may not have a developed system.  Like most entreprenuers you probably have your system but it`s not laid out on paper. 

I don`t remember where I read this but I thought it was extremely helpful.

1. Create a profile of the position you are hiring for and then think of the tasks that person will perform.

2. Detail the tasks and how they are to be performed.  By creating a workflow system it will one reduce the learning curve of hiring a new person and two it will create a structured environment that your new hire can thrive in.  Instead of just throwing things at them and letting them figure it out as they go.  That would only waste your time and money as the person found their groove.  Then if they were to leave someone else would have to do the same. 

3.  Now create a system of checks and balances that ensure accountability and honesty within the system.

Disclaimer:  No one wants to micro manage or to be micro managed.  The workflow and accountability structure do not have to micro managed or burdensome but are established as guidelines that are in tune with your company culture and attitude.  Your employee will most likely improvise and make things more effecient but laying the a foundation ensures that they are doing what they are supposed and you are able to check their work.

Hoped this helped.

Aaron

Luiset - you already got some great advice about working with VAs (if  in fact you are interested in that route).

For you and anyone else out there reading this thread, you can submit an RFP (request for proposal) through organizations such as the International Virtual Assistant Association (www.ivaa.org).  Set out your needs and any specific requirements and interested VAs will tender a reply.  What`s good for you (the potential client) is that you can do this anonomously and have the advantage of having several potential contracts to choose from (much like going through resumes).

Now will that help you make the best choice the 1st time out...maybe not.  But in my opinion you have an advantage working with VAs over employees as their success directly correlates to yours!

Whichever route you choose: VA or employee the important thing is that you get some support so you can enjoy what your business has given you.  70 hours??? 

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Jill Martin | Martin Management Quality Business Solutions for Smart Business http://www.virtualprofessional.ca