If you are interested in hiring a business virtual assistant, first of all, congratulations, your life is about to change for the better. Secondly, here is my experience and how I did it, hopefully this will help you.

Having a business virtual assistant (VA) has taken so much of a load off my shoulders, I can’t tell you how great the whole thing has been. I assume you already anticipate that, or you wouldn’t be reading this article, but the reason I bring it up is because I learned about virtual assistants last summer, and I made mistake number one: I didn’t jump on it. Why? I guess because I’m just a glutton for punishment and wanted to continue starting each day with more tasks than I could possibly do, and end it in frustration. Because that’s where I was at.

But once I got smart and realized I needed a VA here’s what I did:

1. Google. I searched for the term “virtual assistant” and looked through the various sites. I gathered information, asked people to contact me back, and generally researched the whole thing.

2. After discovering that there are two basic ways to go: through a service or direct to an independent, I decided I wanted to work directly with my own personal VA, so that’s the direction I continued in. The services are more expensive (between $10-15 per hour vs $3-4 per hour) and I just didn’t want to work with a committee. I just wanted one person, the right person, who would get to know me and work with me and be just like any other employee that I have locally.

3. I made a list. I listed everything I wanted my VA to do. For example, I wanted them to be able to work on my blog, so an understanding of HTML and wordpress went on my list. I wanted somebody that could help me distribute content and videos, and monitor my analytics etc.

4. I went to elance.com and posted my job. Elance has tons of VA’s in the system, and I was even able to be proactive and research good VA’s and invite them to bid on my job.

5. The bidding process. I was surprised how many people responded to my description, and I immediately had several qualified people bidding on the job. The two things that made the most difference in my final decision were how good their feedback was from other clients, and secondly how aggressively they were about getting my business. In the end, Prabhu really impressed me when he researched me online, found my phone number, and called me directly to introduce himself. He ended up with the job.

It has worked out just as I hoped it would, with Prabhu doing tons of important, but time consuming work for me every day. He has a great attitude, loves to work, and has great skills. He is currently doing projects that I didn’t even think of when we started, like posting advertisements, helping with my social marketing and facebook groups, even checking my e-mail!

And he’s proactive in making my life easier. I asked Prabhu to help with this article, and here are his comments, in his own words:

“My name is Prabhu from India. I am working Virtual Assistant (VA) for Dave Sherwin. He is running a internet marketing firm, he does not have enough time to do everything that is the reason he hired me. Working with Dave is a joy and pleasure. Everyday dave send me list of tasks which is have with complete instructions. I finished the tasks and send him updates daily. I am very much pleased to work with him and looking forward to work with long term.”

Prabhu is college educated, smart, and efficient. You can probably tell form his writing that he speaks English as a second language, but we have had no communication problems. All tasks are detailed out in a Google doc that we share, which he up-dates daily, including his hours per day.

And did you catch the part about working with me being a “joy and pleasure?” I bet none of my other employees think that. I can’t wait for my wife to read it. But the fact is Prabhu and I work very well together, I don’t know how I got by without him. I highly recommend you start the process right now, and find your own VA.

To your success,

Dave Sherwin
Lighthouse Marketer
Blogging and online network marketing junky.

For more ways to save time and be more efficient: Effectiveness In The Digital Age video

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