Hiring a Virtual Assistant (VA) can be confusing and frustrating. If you find the right VA to fit your needs your business will excel. The following steps will aid you in your VA hiring process:
Clearly define your VA’s expectations.
Do not assume the VA knows what you are thinking. Despite what you may think VAs are not Information Technology Deities. VAs are typically experts in two to three technologies at most. Do not expect them to be a Programmer, WordPress Expert, SEO Expert and Article Writer all-in-one. If you set unrealistic expectations you will be disappointed with the outcome. Write up the requirements and show them to a friend who has minimal computer experience. If your friend can understand the expectations your off to a good start. Pretend you are writing to 3rd grade student. Make your VA job requirements as simple as possible. Clearly define your desired outcome. Once you know what you are looking for you will be able to identify the VA that is best for you.
Create your job posting from the information created in step one.
Keep it short and to the point. Maybe three to five sentences with four or five bullet items. Define whether you are looking for full or part time help. In your job posting define how much you are willing to pay.
Also define how you intend to pay. I recommend using PayPal on a bi-monthly basis.
Prepare your VA hiring test.
After you narrow your VA choices down to a few employees have a test prepared for them. If they are as good as they say they are have them implement a small technology test that encompasses a little of everything you’re looking for. Here are some test ideas to get you started:
- Buy a test domain for testing the skill level of your potential employee.
- Configure a limited FTP User ID that only allows access to your test domain. You may need to ask your Host provider for help with that. Tell them you have a VA and you want to give them limited access. Also tell your host provider what the VA will be doing and ask if there is any other type of access they will need. Be sure to tell your host provider that you want the VA to have limited access initially.
- If you are looking for a programmer ask them to code login web page that redirects them to a welcome page displaying the user ID entered on the login page. A junior level person can get this done inside of 3 days. Ask them how long they think it will take to code it. Then ask them to do it. A seasoned person can get this done in an hour or two.
- If you are looking to have them setup your WordPress website then ask them to install WordPress, Configure Permalinks, Add at least one plug-in, Change the Theme and finally create a Post with one image in it. The image is important because they will have to configure Read/Write access on the Hosting Directory for Images folder. A junior person should be able to do this inside of two days and a seasoned person can get it done inside of 4 hours.
Next week we will continue with Part 2!
Tom Sasnauskas, Understand-IT-Now.com
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Sterling (Jeremy Frandsen) Reply:
Hey Chris,
I can tell you that we pay once a month for most and sometimes 2 times a month, if they request it. We also make the VAs be totally responsible for sending us an invoice. They have to be the ones to make sure we pay them!
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