Outsourcing projects and tasks for your business is a huge deal. When you’re hiring a virtual assistant (VA) or any freelancer or independent contractor, you must prepare your business ahead of time. This ensures a seamless introduction and as little interruption to your business as possible. We have rounded up three ways to prepare your business for the dawn of a VA and how it can help you become more efficient and effective as a whole.
Be informed
Before the VA’s start date, it’s helpful for you as the client to brush up on any informational readings or messages they’ve given you beforehand. Things like welcome packages, onboarding slideshows and more. These will help you understand how they operate as a professional and business and what you should expect from them.
It’s also helpful for you to take notes and ask questions during the consultation call with the VA and ensure you always have an open line of communication. It’s helpful to understand things like what hours they typically work, what the best way to reach them is if they do check-in calls weekly or monthly to evaluate the work, and so on.
You can also reach out to other businesses in a similar industry or field and ask them what their experience was working with a VA. They might also be able to shed some light on how you can prepare your unique business for the arrival of a VA and how to maximize the working relationship.
Spread the word
You must let people know that you’re thinking about hiring a VA or outsourcing a specific project or task for the business. If you have permanent employees, it might be worthwhile to have a team meeting or shoot off an email letting them know that you’ve hired a VA for a specific role. This way, no one is caught by surprise, and they can also prepare for how to accommodate the change best.
If you have any clients or investors that might be directly interacting with the VA or would have a stake in their role in the business, it would be helpful for you to give them a heads up about what’s going on. This maintains clarity and trust within your relationships and helps you remain in good standing with your stakeholders.
As a part of preparations, if your team (or you) isn’t familiar with video chatting or online messaging, then it would be helpful to take a day to learn how to set up video conferencing software, how to communicate with one another in a video conference call, and how to share files or information virtually. There are no excuses for miscommunication or a lack of communication.
Create accounts
If you have any specific subscriptions or accounts that your VA might require access to in order to complete their task or project, consider having that sorted out before their start date. For example, if you use a specific social media scheduling app but only allow one user at a time, find out how you can update the subscription to accommodate more users or a different scheduling app that would fit the needs of your business.
This avoids any headaches and wasted time once the VA has started and allows them to get to work as quickly as possible. Remember, VAs and freelancers are responsible for their training and education, so they’ll be ready to start working ASAP, so you don’t have much room for technology blips or forgetfulness.
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