My Top 7 Tips for Hiring a VA

As a multi-VA business owner, I’ve hired a lot of VA’s over the years.

At the same time, I’ve been hired as a VA and later, as an OBM many, many times.

So I’ve learned a few things about how to hire and how not to hire VA’s. Here are my top 7 tips so that you don’t have to make the mistakes I’ve seen (and done)!

1. Shed the employee mindset. Hiring a VA is different than hiring an employee, and if you approach it the same way, you’re setting yourself and the VA up for failure. Approach the process as the start of a partnership rather than an employer-employee relationship.

2. Get clear on what you need. If you go into the hiring process unsure of what you want the VA to do, how many hours you’ll need them, or uncertain about the right type of VA [LINK TO LAST POST] for your needs, you’re going to end up disappointed. Make a list of the tasks and tools you’ll need your VA to know how to do before you start to hire.

3. Include your rates in your posting. You don’t have to be completely firm on this, but give an estimate of how much you’re willing to pay your VA, because you don’t want $55 per hour OBM’s wasting your time when you need a $25 per hour generalist VA, and vice versa.

4. Think about personal qualities as well. If you’re a right-brained, artistic coach, you’re probably not going to want to hire a super straight-laced VA who can’t think outside the box. Consider how you want to interact with the VA and what kind of person would be a good fit for you and your existing team.

5. Ask for recommendations and work samples. You might think this goes without saying, but many people do skip this step in the hiring process, and then they often regret it later on.

6. Learn from past problems, but let them go. So many entrepreneurs get burned in their first (and maybe second) experience with a VA, and moving forward, they carry those scars into future relationships. That’s understandable, but it can set things off on the wrong foot. Instead, set yourself up to make sure the same mistakes don’t happen again.

7. Build in time for proper onboarding. Keep in mind that you’ll need to take time away for training on each and every task when your VA initially starts. Think of it as an investment because once they take over those tasks, they’ll save you so much time!