To make you understand better: How to use a VA (Virtual Assistant, Human!)

1. To make you understand better: How to use a VA (Virtual Assistant, Human!) You: (Thinking thoughtfully to yourself) I am overwhelmed with mundane day-to-day tasks and I really really need someone to take them off my hands! I want to focus more on tasks which only I can do. Should I hire an assistant? Hmm, how should I go about it? Inevitably, when you conduct online research on Google to find yourself an assistant in an endeavour to offload some of your daily tasks, you’ll come across some terms like “virtual assistant”, “virtual secretary”, “outsourcing”, etc. To the completely uninitiated, these terms may seem a bit daunting at first. But, that’s why I am here exactly – to explain the ins and outs of virtual assistance to you. When I say “Virtual Assistants” or “VAs” in short, I mean human assistants, not Alexa or Artificial Intelligence (AI) applications on your smartphone or computer. Virtual assistants are folks just like you and me who have 9-to-5 jobs and friends they like to chill with on weekends over beer and pizza. People who like to binge-watch TV series on Netflix and sometimes hate Mondays just like you and me. I have noticed a prevalent misconception about VAs that they’re freelancers (office-job-free folks) or single moms or digital nomads. But that’s not completely true. The adjective “virtual” is added to their profession because they work virtually or remotely. They cannot meet you physically over a cup of coffee (you could share a cuppa over Skype though). Btw, I forgot to mention — I am one of them and conversing with you from my office, sitting in my nice and cosy chair! Throughout my career as a professional VA, I have come across so many people who have been rather confused or skeptical about the concept of virtual assistance and what it entails. Sometimes, people hire a VA with a lot of positivity and enthusiasm; however, after a while, they start feeling it’s not for them and lose steam! Almost one-fourth of them stop using virtual assistance in the first few months of hiring one. Why? Is it because virtual assistance is not a viable option for most businesses? Or is it worth a lot of time and effort? None actually! The biggest bottleneck that causes most people to stop using virtual assistance is “task delegation”. Business owners want things to be extremely simple; they want to hire a virtual assistant and then simply forget about their very existence. They don’t want to take the headache of training or delegating. Unrealistically, they expect a VA to be like a fairy godmother who twirls their wand and get things done. Sometimes, users feel they’re spending a tremendous amount of time. They consider the time they spend training their VA as an expenditure and not as an investment. But think of it this way, if you were to physically have an assistant present at your organization, wouldn’t you go about introducing her to your other staff, educating her about your business and what it is you’d like her to do? Perhaps you’d even take her out for coffee to celebrate her first day at work!

2. To make you understand better: How to use a VA (Virtual Assistant, Human!) However, when it comes to virtually connecting with somebody, we at times tend to forget that there is actually a living, breathing person at some corner of the world, equally excited about this opportunity. Therefore, at times, you end up making the first mistake. You subscribe but don’t interact efficiently. That’s a sad story…but 100% true! Nowadays, the best part about most VA companies is that when you hire, you don’t hire “an assistant” but you instead hire “a team of assistants”. Great, right? Imagine getting several assistants with several advanced skills at the same price for one assistant! There are various professionals such as SEO specialists, Web Developers, and Designers, Content Writers, Digital Marketers, Accountants who work wearing the badge of Virtual Assistant. So, if you’re a newbie when it comes to hiring a VA, it is always a good practice to have the sales representative you’ve spoken to over the phone to paraphrase your requirements, preferably in writing, so that there’s no room for any miscommunication. If you must, most companies have an “Exclusive Trial” period which works as a tester phase. During this phase, you can check if indeed the company is a good fit for what you’re looking for. Just as is in a long distance relationship, you need to commit and build a level of trust, understanding and clarity in order to work in unison. Now, the next important thing – what must you delegate and what you mustn’t. THE THINGS YOU CARE FOR THE MOST NEED YOU THE MOST Read the above line once. Slowly. Now read it again once more. Yes! The things you care for the most need you the most. What I mean by this is very very simple. You must at all times remember the objective behind hiring a virtual assistant. Why did you hire them in the first place? Maybe you wanted to free up some time to get things done that actually and genuinely needed your attention. Maybe as a first-time dad, you wanted to free up as much time so that you could go back home and spend quality time

3. To make you understand better: How to use a VA (Virtual Assistant, Human!) with your lil bubba. Maybe as an entrepreneur you wanted to focus more on getting more funding from investors for your startup while leaving other tasks and daily duties to your VA. DO NOT FORGET WHY YOU HIRED THEM. That is the golden rule.