Anyone who has ever worked with a virtual assistant administrative has heard or had personal experiences of things going wrong. Stories of failed projects, disappearing and unresponsive VAs, and more. The reality is that hiring a virtual assistant or virtual expert is not easy. It is certainly not a quick fix for your business’s problems. Based on our own experiences and those of our clients, we have compiled a list of pitfalls to avoid when looking for a virtual assistant or virtual business team.
1. Hiring a VA for the wrong reasons
The best reason to hire a virtual assistant is that it saves you time , which allows you to perform activities that lead to higher returns. For example, if you invoice your time to clients for €100 and your virtual assistant receives €50 for an hour of administrative work , then you can make a profit of €50 on that hour of administrative work. It can be that simple.
A second good reason could be that you want to regain your focus and outsource the work you don't like. You don't necessarily have to earn money from it, but you do make the switch from work you don't like to work you do enjoy.
But what is a bad reason? For example, you think you should hire a virtual assistant because someone else told you to. Maybe your competitor has hired one or you just finished reading Tim Ferris's 'The 4-hour workweek' . Whatever the case, hiring a virtual assistant if you haven't thought it through is just a waste of money. If you have to come up with tasks to put your virtual assistant to work, you will certainly not save or benefit. It only costs money and time. You must therefore first clearly map out for yourself which tasks your virtual team should take on.
2. Expect too much from your VA
Keep in mind that no one person can meet all the needs you have on your wish list. For example, suppose you need someone to keep track of the administration, manage your social media profiles, set up a marketing campaign and put appointments in the calendar. Those are four separate areas of expertise. The more areas of focus you add, the less likely you are to find one person who can do it all and do it well.
The more experienced virtual assistants now have a clear definition of the tasks they take on. They keep their focus on their own niche. But once you are working and have a good click, it is your natural reaction to see what else your virtual assistant can do for you. And your virtual assistant on the other hand sees you as an important client and may have difficulty maintaining boundaries during the working relationship. After all, your virtual assistant also wants to keep you happy. This is often the start of a skewed working relationship. So forget it, the jack-of-all-trades does not exist! In that case, it is better to get started with multiple virtual experts or a virtual business team, such as Work Ninjas .
3. Don't consider language barriers
The book 'The 4-hour workweek' has increased interest in virtual assistants. However, the convenience of working with virtual assistants from abroad is overestimated.
It is certainly not impossible to find a good overseas virtual assistant, but ask yourself which situation you would be more comfortable working in: spending 2 hours discussing the task at hand with a foreign virtual assistant who pays you €15 per hour or an hour of instructions for a Dutch virtual assistant who pays you €50. Even if you can assume that you can achieve the same result in these situations, you also have to consider the value of your own time. So beware… “Pay peanuts, get monkeys”.
The language barrier can also cause miscommunication, resulting in mistakes and more time needed to explain tasks and correct errors. If you choose a foreign VA, first think carefully about which activities are suitable for this and how you will transfer them.
4. Outsourcing without optimizing first
Working with a virtual assistant requires preparation. For example, by first keeping track of your time , you can see where your time-consuming tasks are and where you might be able to optimize. This can also provide a good basis for tasks that are better outsourced. But before you outsource anything, it is important to first optimize before automating or outsourcing tasks, because “Garbage in, is garbage out”. The better your company is optimized and you have recorded your work processes , the easier outsourcing becomes and the more you benefit from it.
5. Not spending time on training and documentation
Finally, keep in mind that while most virtual assistants are experienced, they are not mind readers. They can’t take one look at your systems and know what needs to be done and how you want it done. So while we know you’re busy – which is why you’re looking for a virtual assistant in the first place – you should still spend time on proper training and documentation. Think of it as an investment.
Creating good documentation and work descriptions not only helps your virtual assistant, it also makes you less dependent on that single VA. What if your virtual assistant becomes ill for a long time, or you want to scale your business with multiple VAs or a virtual team? It's killing if you have to explain everything to your new team members over and over again.
Do you have experience with another pitfall when hiring a virtual assistant? We'd love to hear them!
Once you have finally found a good virtual assistant, be sure to read our blog about common mistakes when working with a VA . This way you prevent yourself from making these mistakes.
Work Ninjas helps you take work off your hands, not only professionally but also privately. We help entrepreneurs and self-employed people who have more work than time. Have you started something new and have no idea where to get more time or where to get a strong team? Do you have a long-running business and do you want to improve or outsource your business processes, so that you have more time to do what you are good at? Then take a look at https://workninjas.nl and let our team become your team.
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