Outsource to a Virtual Assistant: Systems, Hire & Manage

In this video, I'll introduce some of the key systems in section 2, including the virtual assistant handbook, the virtual assistant rulebook, and the first-day orientation document. Although putting these systems in place can be time-consuming, it'll save you so much time in the long-run and it's an area I constantly see others neglect, usually to their detriment!

In this video, we'll cover the importance of documenting all of your tasks and how you can do this. I'll show you two methods: documenting in written form and documenting in video form with screen recordings.

You'll also be given access to my virtual assistant handbook which you can make a copy of. To do this, click 'file' > 'make a copy', and this will save a copy to your Google Drive.

No one wants to think about firing a virtual assistant before they've even been hired, but it's such an important exercise! In this video, we'll cover how to set rules and expectations for your virtual assistant in a virtual assistant rulebook, and how to implement a 'strike' system in case they fail to meet your expectations.

Just like the virtual assistant handbook, I'll also be providing access to my virtual assistant rulebook in the resources section of this video.

This might seem like we're getting ahead of ourselves and you might want to do this task at a later date. However, I like to be prepared which is why I created this document before I hired my VA.

The first-day orientation covers what tools your VA will need to set up when they start working for you; links to the handbook and rulebook; notes about pay; and what tasks they can be getting on with. It's incredibly useful and will make onboarding your virtual assistant a hundred times easier and more professional!

This is a really important email that will start your working relationship with your VA on the right foot. The email will contain a link to the Orientation Document we created in the last video and a few further details to help your VA feel at ease.

In this video, we'll introduce the tools which will be useful for you to use when you start working with your virtual assistant - some of which are paid and some which are free. These tools include:

• Asana (or any work management tool you might prefer, such as Trello or Monday.com)

• Hubstaff

• LastPass

• Google Drive

• Zoom

• Dropbox

You don't have to use all of these tools but I know how incredibly useful they can all be when working with a virtual assistant. The choice is yours!

Asana is a really useful tool for managing the workflow between you and your VA, and it displays it all on one easy-to-use dashboard. The plan covered in this video is free to use and there are lots of benefits of using Asana, such as being able to mark tasks as ongoing and the free mobile app it comes with. Highly recommend!

Hubstaff is a paid tool that allows you to track the hours your VA has worked for you on any given day, even when they're not in the same room. It tracks the amount of time they spend on websites, takes regular screenshots, and lets your VA easily export time reports to you so that you can calculate their pay.

This isn't a necessity but I think it's a really nice way to monitor the hours your VA works for you, particularly in the first few weeks. Me and my VA have since reverted to a different method which I touch on in this video and go through in greater detail later in this course.

This is a fantastic Chrome extension that lets your VA login to your online accounts without revealing any passwords. Very cryptic, I know! Essentially, It does this by automatically populating the login fields when your VA goes onto a website that's saved in your LastPass vault.

In this video, we'll go over how to add passwords to your LastPass account, the backend of my account, and how to invite users to your vault.

The three additional tools we cover in this video are Zoom, Google Drive, and Dropbox. These are likely to be familiar to you already, but there are some really neat features for Dropbox which we'll go into greater detail with here, including syncing files from your device directly to the cloud and how to free up disk space by not saving locally.

Section 4 is all about the process of hiring a virtual assistant. This is something many people skip to before they put all their systems in place because it's exciting! However, only once we know what tools and systems we'll be using would I recommend doing this, otherwise the working relationship is likely to break down.

In this section, we'll cover:

• How to craft a compelling job post that attracts the best talent and that will help you quickly whittle down applications

• Sending sample projects to applicants and what to include

• Interviewing candidates for the job

• Actually hiring your virtual assistant!

Before you have interviews with candidates who apply for your job, it's a good idea to send them all a sample project to do ahead of time. This will help you determine whether the candidate is worth interviewing and whether they're serious about the role. You won't be paying them for the sample project work so if they complete this, they're likely to be serious! We'll cover what four tasks to include in a sample project and what these tasks test.

In this video, we'll cover why I think posting on onlinejobs.ph is a good idea and what details to include in your job description. This is the website I used to hire my virtual assistant and I've been incredibly happy with the work she does for me! 

This is a really important step. As well as attracting suitable candidates, you want to attract high-quality candidates by demonstrating you are worth working for. I'll show you how you can demonstrate this and how you can immediately reject applications by including detailed instructions in your description.

Once candidates apply for your role, you'll want to send them the sample project. In this video, we cover how to do this, as well as how to let candidates know about the next steps in the application process.

This is a really exciting step! Once you have received sample projects from candidates and they've chosen an interview time, it's time to meet them!

In this video, we cover the most important questions you should be the virtual assistants and why, and I include a clip of an interview one of my mentors recorded when he was interviewing virtual assistants for a role he was hiring for.

So you've interviewed all the candidates and there's one VA who really stood out. They produced an excellent sample project and performed strongly in the interview. What next?

In this video, we cover messaging candidates to let them know the outcome of the interviews, giving feedback, and how to offer the role to your preferred virtual assistant.

We're in the final straight! In this section, we'll be covering:

• How to give detailed feedback to your virtual assistant and why this is important

• Ongoing communications with your VA and what these might look like

• How to pay your virtual assistant, even when they're on the other side of the world

• Assigning weekly tasks to your virtual assistant

• And how to provide additional training

There are so many benefits of providing detailed feedback to your virtual assistant on their work, particularly in the early stages. They'll be more productive, they're less likely to make the same mistakes twice, and you'll save so much time in the long-run.

In this video, we'll cover how to provide this feedback using the sandwich method and I'll go over an example of feedback I gave to my VA.

This is something I'm asked about a lot, particularly when I tell people that I spend less than 1 hour a week managing my virtual assistant. This video covers how. We'll go over my weekly Zoom calls with my VA, daily reports my VA sends me, and the tools we use for communication.

It's also worth noting that your communications don't have to be just about work. Me and my VA catch up about all areas of our life when we're in touch, and I'd love for you to get to this position too!

When I first started working with a virtual assistant, I thought payment would be a lot more complicated and expensive than it actually is. We didn't get it right the first time but now that we've found a suitable payment provider, I spend less than 20 minutes a month calculating my VA's monthly payment and transferring the correct amount. In this video, we'll cover how you can do this too.

Assigning weekly tasks to your virtual assistant will save you so much time as you won't have to manage their ongoing work. They'll simply know what tasks need doing and will crack on as they see fit! In this video, we'll cover how we use a weekly task spreadsheet to assign tasks and how to assign ad-hoc tasks without disrupting their workflow.

There are a few ways to provide additional training and support to your VA without having to break the bank, and there are so many benefits of doing so. In this video, we'll cover how to facilitate additional training for your VA, even if you don't have skills in these areas, and what the benefits are of doing this for both you and your VA.

I know how tedious documenting tasks in a Virtual Assistant Handbook can be. Fortunately, there is an alternative.

In this video, I cover how you can use screen-capturing tools like Screen-o-Matic and Loom to document your tasks rather than Google Docs if you prefer video to written form.

This is something that people question from time to time, and over the past 12 months, my views have changed. Here are my two cents :)

Congratulations! You've completed the course. Be sure to leave a review and update me on your progress in the Discussion Forum so we can all support each other. Happy outsourcing!