How to Find a Virtual Assistant

So far, we have understood in the previous chapters:

• What is a virtual assistant
• Types of virtual assistant services
• Reasons to use a virtual assistant
• Benefits of hiring a virtual assistant
• What does a virtual assistant do

In this final chapter of our How to find a virtual assistant- A Definitive Guide, I will be talking about how to find a virtual assistant.

If you are going to hire a virtual assistant for the first time, the whole process of finding an adept virtual assistant can be tedious and time-consuming.

My friend, Ben took a whole week to hire a right virtual assistant. In the beginning, he was not quite sure about the tasks he would assign to his virtual assistant. This delayed the hiring.

But if you employ a systemic approach, the process can be just like a walk in the park.
Time to find abodes of virtual assistants!

Best Places to Hire a Virtual Assistant

When it comes to hiring a virtual assistant, you have two options – the first is freelance platforms and the second is virtual assistant agencies. Both options have their own merits.

Let us discuss each platform individually:

Freelance Platforms

If you are kind of a DIY person and want to experience the thrill of hiring a virtual assistant, you should search freelance platforms. There are mainly four websites where you can search for a freelance virtual assistant:

1. Upwork This mammoth platform is a haven for freelancers. With around twelve million registered freelancers and five million registered clients, Upwork witnesses around three million jobs worth a total of $1 billion USD posted annually, making it the biggest freelance marketplace in the world. You can review profiles and portfolios of freelance virtual assistants and assess how they performed in the past.

2. Guru Guru is another freelance marketplace. Here you can hire a freelance virtual assistant for $10-$30 per hour. Guru has 1.5 million members worldwide.

3. VA Networking If you want to know the online place where freelance virtual assistants spend their time, Virtual Assistant Networking is the right place. As the name suggests, it is a social network for virtual assistants. You can submit a job to the virtual assistant job board. Then, the platform will help you find a virtual assistant for your business.

4. Hubstaff Talent Hubstaff Talent is a free directory for remote workers. The best part is that it helps in quickly finding and scaling a remote team for you and that too without any fees.
Hubstaff is used by over 8000 agencies, freelancers, website owners and virtual teams all over the world.
You can search based on various categories (skills, location etc.) and contact the team members who are good fit for your work.
In addition to these freelance platforms, you can post a vacancy for a virtual assistant on your social channels as well.

Virtual Assistant Agencies

Virtual assistant agencies are the companies that have VAs on board and offer them for hiring. A leading virtual assistant agency, such as Acelerar, hires and trains virtual assistants for a wide spectrum of tasks. Whether you want to hire a virtual assistant for social media management or Internet research, a good virtual assistant agency has a VA for you.

Freelance Virtual Assistant Vs Virtual Assistant Agency

A virtual assistant agency is more professional outsourcing set-up. If you do not want to work with a virtual assistant directly and do not have time to provide your VA with essential training, it will be better if you choose a virtual assistant agency over a freelance virtual assistant.

Why Virtual Assistant Agency is a Better Outsourcing Setup

The biggest disadvantage of working with a freelance virtual assistant is you will never know when your VA is going to leave you in the lurch. Judy Carter, the author of Comedy Bible, shared her experience in her post on Psychology Today. She hired a Virtual Assistant from a freelance website and trained her. But before she starts feeling the joy of delegation, her VA left without a notice.

This kind of shortcoming you will never experience if you hire a Virtual Assistant from a reputed virtual assistant agency. What’s more, if you are not satisfied with the work of VA, you can ask for a replacement.

Here is a list of the top benefits that you can avail by hiring a virtual assistant from a reputed agency:

• A good virtual assistant agency offers free consultation so as to help you find the right VA based on your needs.
• A virtual assistant agency has experienced VAs on board. So you will not have to train your VA. You can start delegating tasks the moment you hire a Virtual Assistant.
• When you are working with a virtual assistant agency, you will never have to worry for absenteeism. There is always another VA ready if your VA falls sick.
• A virtual assistant agency offers you a safe option to scale up your business operations.
• Your data is safe with a good virtual assistant agency. Most of the virtual assistant agencies hire VAs only after VAs have signed an NDA

The best part of hiring a Virtual Assistant from a virtual assistant agency is that you can try a VA before you actually hire. Most virtual assistant agencies offer a free trial of their VAs. Even some companies, such as Acelerar, offer a 100% money back guarantee on its VAs.

Things to Consider When Hiring a Virtual Assistant

So, now, you are ready to hire a virtual assistant. Following are three things that will make the hiring process easier if you consider them:

Understanding Your Needs

This is the most important aspect of hiring a virtual assistant. You should have a clear idea about what you should delegate. Make a list of tasks that you want to delegate.

As rightly said by Renée Warren in her article on Entrepreneur,
“Say no to stuff that won’t move the needle.”
You should make a list of all non-core business tasks to delegate. If you have your requirements defined, it will be easier for you to hire a virtual assistant.

Interviewing Prospective VAs

If you are going to hire a Virtual Assistant from a virtual assistant agency, you will not have to go through this process. What you need to do is to tell your needs to a virtual assistant agency, and you will get a skilled VA. But if you are going to hire a freelance virtual assistant, it is mandatory for you to interview your prospective VAs.

Matching the Skills of VAs with Job Descriptions

The VA you are going to hire must have skill sets that the job demands. Most of the leading virtual assistant agencies offer a free trial of their virtual assistants. So you will not face any problem if you decide to hire a virtual assistant from a reputed virtual assistant agency.

However, you should assess the skills of prospective virtual assistants if you plan to hire a virtual assistant.

Conclusion: You are going to hire a virtual assistant to reduce your workload. So the hiring processing itself must not be tedious. If you happen to choose a reputed virtual assistant agency, you will not face any problem. But you must be cautious when you are going to hire a freelance virtual assistant. Having defined requirements makes it easier for you to hire a virtual assistant.