Hiring a virtual assistant in 2023: Everything you need to know
Intro
You heard that hiring a virtual assistant will save you time and money while making your work easier. But you still don’t know how to go about it.
There are way too many options online, and you don’t want to go through them by trial and error. After all, these assistants may need to deal with sensitive information, and you can’t afford to hire and let go of staff members on an ongoing basis.
That’s why this post will guide you through the steps you need to take to put together your own A+ virtual assistant team.
Why hire a virtual assistant
Virtual assistants (Also known as VAs) are often full-time or part-time contractors that almost act as employees. This means they will work on a consistent schedule, and they will report to you on a daily basis.
The term “Virtual” in VA refers to the way you communicate with them (through email, phone, messaging apps, etc.), but I rest assured that they are very REAL people.
In fact, I’d rather call VAs ‘remote team members’ or ‘remote assistants.’ (but for the sake of this post, we’ll just refer to them as VAs.)
There are many types of VAs. In fact, any role that you could be hiring locally could be handed to a VA. Of course, the only limitation is the distance.
Are you looking for designers? SEO specialists? Bookkeepers? Video editors? An executive assistant? Lead generation experts? Or even a hybrid role?
If you know where to look and you have the right systems for training and managing remote team members, you’ll get quality labor at a very affordable price.
That’s because when you hire remotely, you can scout talent worldwide, making it much easier to match the skills you need to your hiring budget.
Read this: The Benefits and Challenges of remote work
How to hire a virtual assistant
Hiring your first virtual assistant is the most confusing part of the process because there are many websites and options available out there.
But don’t worry! I’ll post a simple matrix below to show you how to get your first hire fast.
But for now, let’s talk about your basic needs and how they can be met. When I work with my clients, I break down their hiring needs into three categories
General virtual assistants
Also known as GVAs, these workers specialize in taking care of all the busy work in your business, from managing multiple email inboxes to filing out spreadsheets and operating systems for your day-to-day operations.
Most GVAs will already know how to work on basic tasks and will only need training on your business-specific processes. As of 2023, a GVA overseas could charge anywhere from $3,50 to $4,00 per hour (about $650 to $700 dollars per month.)
While they can use email templates, a limitation of GVAs is that their written English may not be good enough to full-out write client-facing assets like lengthy emails or ad copy.
VAs that can write English copy
For those roles, you may need to hire a VA that specializes in copywriting or, at the very least, a VA that has extensive experience writing in English.
If you are just looking for someone to write emails and respond to client inquiries, I don’t consider that role to be a specialized skill. In fact, many VAs have extensive experience writing in English from their university courses, and they’ll be able to replace a secretary fully if need be.
But if you are looking to hire an actual copywriter to write copy that converts into sales for your ads, landing pages, or email newsletters, I still recommend hiring an experienced copywriter with a recent proven track record.
Specialized skill VAs
These are the VAs that will edit your Youtube videos, launch and manage your paid ads, or write code to build and optimize your site, among other skills. Think of these VAs as people that can do the work you would have had to outsource to costly agencies in the past.
These VAs are already trained and proficient in the specialized software you need, and they will only need training on your internal processes.
Depending on the size of your organization, you may not need a specialized VA to work full-time. For example, if you are just launching a new advertising campaign, you may just need to hire a VA for 10 hours a week.
Specialized VAs also charge more (in accordance with market prices,) but if you hire overseas (India, Pakistan, Philippines, and Ghana, to name a few countries), you can easily find extraordinary talent for $10 to $12 per hour.
Keep in mind that the fewer hours you offer your VA, the more clients your VA will need to work with, making them less likely to respond quickly and deliver your work in real-time. That’s why I always recommend my clients hire a VA for at least 10 hours a week!
Where to hire a virtual assistant
There are many places you could look for a VA, so I’m going to break down the main ones and give you the pros and cons of each.
VA agency
Agencies will do the majority of the work for you. They will provide you with a couple of candidates to interview; they will train your staff on the majority of tools you may be using, and they also replace your VA for you if anything goes wrong (The VA quits or they can’t work for any reason)
These added services come at a price, though; most VA agencies charge a 20% to 50% fee on top of the VA wage, so keep in mind that your overall price will go up.
Virtual work Portals
Websites like Upwork or even Fiverr make it very easy to hire a VA. You can click on someone’s profile and instantly see their work experience and reviews. You can also message them or call them directly from their profile once you start the interview process.
But keep in mind that, just like agencies, these portals take a percentage of the transaction, both from you and from the virtual assistant. These fees can be as little as 10% for the user and 10% for the worker. But if you are planning to work with the VAs in the long run, those deductions can add up.
Matching Websites
These websites help you with finding, vetting, and hiring a new VA (or multiple VA at once.) But when you are done with the hiring process, you deal directly with the VA. In a nutshell, VA matching websites charge you a one-time fee for doing the setup work.
This is a fantastic option if you are looking to cut through the noise and find A+ talent without having to sacrifice a big chunk of your budget on third-party fees.
Direct Hires
This option is the most straightforward of all. You simply find a VA through job postings or by tapping into your personal network. This option may be the cheapest one, but it requires you to have some level of experience in the market for two reasons.
First off, you need to have some experience in vetting good candidates, and you must know what to watch out for (red flags are important!).
And second of all, the wider your network is, the more chances you have to find good assistants!
Virtual assistants for professionals.
The biggest misconception I come across is that virtual assistants are only for fully remote businesses. I hear lawyers, contractors, doctors, and yoga studio owners, to name a few, say things like, “too bad that I don’t have a remote department,” or “I meet my clients in person so I can’t use these remote services.”
So I want to debunk this myth once and for all by giving you a few examples of how our clients have been able to incorporate remote assistants to speed up internal processes, save time for the owners and their management team, increase sales and client retention, all while saving money for the business.
Virtual assistants for lawyers
As a law firm, you could hire a virtual assistant to manage your attorneys’ email inboxes and sort them by the level of urgency. You can also use the same VA to post photos, videos, and polls on social media and then repurpose the same content for your email newsletter.
You could also hire a part-time VA to edit and post YouTube videos and turn those into podcast episodes as well.
If your practice wants to focus on Search Engine Optimization (which it should), your VA team can help you with generating the content and getting you backlinks.
And last but not least, if you have been trying to get PR for your practice, you know how much it could cost you. But with the right training and systems in place, your VA can get you unlimited magazine features for a fraction of the cost of a PR firm.
Virtual assistants for accounting firms
Accounting firms, just like many other professional services, need to differentiate themselves in the market. Everyone needs an accountant! And while that creates a huge demand, it also puts your practice at risk of becoming a commodity.
To make sure you stand out from the sea of other accountants, your VAs can take care of social media management and reputation management (reviews and case studies.)
VAs can answer customer questions and direct them to the right resources, as well as set up informational newsletters to get your clients ready for tax season.
On top of that, you could hire specialized VAs to do bookkeeping and possibly even quality assurance!
Virtual assistants for dental practices
This is the most fun setup because when I get on the phone with dental practice owners, they get blown away by how much time and money they could be saving.
You could set up VAs with internet phone lines to answer clients' calls and book appointments. The same VAs can call or email clients for appointment reminders and follow-ups.
Your in-house team could send before-and-after pictures to a VA, and the VA can crop them, edit them and post them on your social media accounts and on your website.
VAs can also reach out to happy clients and ask them for Google reviews, or referrals.
Virtual assistants for any business
As you can tell from reading the examples above, the tasks I mentioned are almost all interchangeable from business to business. Everyone needs a social media presence. Everyone needs reputation management, customer service, and lead generation. It’s only a matter of having a clear outsourcing strategy and the know-how to set it all up.
If you are looking for an affordable and reliable solution to free up your schedule and take your business systems to the next level, VAs are the way to go.
Conclusion
My team at DenieroB.com and TheRemoteCEO.com have been building remote systems since 2012 and we’d love to help you too.
If you want to:
Get media outlets to fight for your stories without spending a dollar on PR
Blow up your social media presence and become the expert in your niche
Wow your clients with state-of-the-art customer service
Flood your Google account with a sea of 5-star reviews
Get thousands of free clicks every month from Google directly to your site
Avoid wasting tens of thousands of dollars on PR/marketing agencies
Click on this link and book a free 15-minute consultation to see how we can help you.