What sort of VA do you need?

So you’re in the right mindset to get support (if not see my previous post about 3 things to consider first here) – now it’s time to narrow down exactly what tasks you want support in. 

An easy first question to ask yourself is what, out of the long list of things you do, do you not want to do any more? Either because you don’t like them, they take up too much time, or you’re just not that great at them?  I’m not saying write the list and then, voila, job description written. It’s not quite that easy.  But fundamentally if you’re doing tasks you don’t want to be, for whatever reason, chances are you’re not being as efficient as you could be either.  

Once you’ve got your list group them and see if there’s any recurring areas like marketing tasks, finance, customer support, website updates and writing, daily admin etc.  Prioritise which ones will make the biggest impact for you, and if there are any that, whilst not ideal, you could carry on doing if you knew the rest were being taken care of.

Not long after you start looking in to VAs it will become very clear that the term covers A LOT of different industry areas and business skills – there are some incredibly talented people out there! Once you’ve got your priority list you can start by looking for ones that might specialise in those areas you’ve placed top but do keep an open mind as chances are you’ll be surprised how versatile a VA can be.  Also remember not to presume that if they have one set of skills they will/won’t have another.  Your list is to get your started but don’t get too hung up on ticking boxes too early on as you’ll only really find out what’s on offer, and what they can really bring to your business, once you get talking to them.  It’s also definitely worth remembering that the  VA industry is underpinned by networking, connections and knowledge sharing, so if a VA you meet and like doesn’t quite fit what you’re after I bet they’ll know someone who might.

 Right, so you’ve got your list of tasks/areas you’d like support in, and you’ve found a few possible VAs that might fit the bill.  Now what? It’s time to chat! And fortunately my next blog post is all about questions to ask!