You know that if you want to grow your business, you can’t do everything alone.
And hiring a virtual assistant is an excellent step towards becoming more productive and growing your business effectively. After all, having your VA on your team can remove lots of time consuming tasks from your plate.
However, to get the most benefits from the partnership, you need to work on maximising your VA’s time so they can be productive, too.
Spend a little bit of time setting guidelines together, organising your processes, and establishing effective communication channels. That way, you will truly be getting the most value from the relationship with your VA.
Here are our five top tips for maximising your VA’s time.
How To Maximise Your VA’s Time
1. Communicate Effectively
Effective communication forms the basis for any good relationship. And it’s especially important when working with someone virtually. From the beginning, you want to choose the communication channels that help streamline fast, clear communication.
In some cases, it may be faster and easier to touch base with your VA once a week via phone or video call. However, if you’re in different time zones, email may be your preferred option.
Task management tools like Trello or Asana are fantastic to help track and clarify jobs.
Chat with your VA about what suits them also. They are likely to have some great communications solutions you may not know about. Establish how often you will catch up and let them know the best way to contact you if they have any questions.
2. Have A Clear Brief
It is difficult to get the job done right if you aren’t really sure what you should be doing. Or, if everyone is on a different page about what the outcomes should be.
Providing clear and detailed instructions is a vital part of effective communication.
Leave no room for misinterpretation by laying out precisely what needs to be done and by when. When you are just starting working with your VA, this process can feel a little time-consuming. But in the long run, it will save both of you time.
3. Record A Training Video On Loom
Every business has different processes and a unique way of getting things done. The easiest way to ensure things get done the right way is to show your VA how you would like them to approach various tasks.
Lay out your standard operating procedures for specific jobs. When everything is laid out in easy to understand, step-by-step instructions, your VA can focus on getting the job done without having to ask you for assistance every time.
A written document can outline simple tasks. But in some cases, it’s easier to record the process as you talk through what you are doing. Loom is an excellent tool for this. It allows you to record your screen and create simple, easy to follow training videos to get your VA up to speed.
4. Pick The Tasks You Hate Doing
There will be tasks in your business that you procrastinate about. You know the ones we are talking about. The ones that make you groan every time you think about them!
VA’s are great for doing tasks you don’t have time for or aren’t skilled at – but there are benefits in giving them the jobs you just plain hate doing, even if you’re good at them!
Tackling the jobs you dislike makes your work less pleasant and often leads to procrastination. Do yourself a favour and delegate these jobs to your VA so you can focus on the things you enjoy.
5. Does Your VA Have The Skills You Need?
Want your outsourced tasks to be handled quickly yet to a high standard? You need to hire someone experienced in whatever it is you are outsourcing.
Remember that bookkeeping requires a different skillset to social media management. As does calendar management and website maintenance. Some VA’s may be experienced in lots of different areas of expertise, while others are more specialised.
You need to choose a VA whose skills align with your needs. Sure, you can opt to train your VA on how to complete specific tasks. However, you’ll save yourself time and make their job easier if you hire someone with the right skills and experience from the get-go.
Here at Admin Army, we have a wide range of subject matter experts on our team. With everything from bookkeeping to social media management, and admin to websites, we have you covered. So, reach out to us today and let us wage war on the tasks you don’t have the time to do.