How to work with a virtual assistant in 5 bullet points.
You’ve worked with all sorts of people in your various previous careers, colleagues, bosses, employees. Now you have your own business and you’ve come to the point where you need to hire someone to help you on a regular basis. You know how it would work if you were hiring someone to work in the same location as you… but that comes with overheads, and you don’t actually have an office. The easiest and cheapest way to do that is to hire a remote contractor, somebody from Upwork or Freelancer or just the world wide web.
Photo by Kevin Bhagat on Unsplash
Here’s what a great working relationship with a remote contractor has:
The project(s) is/are outlined and broken down in a project management tool like Asana or Trello.
There is clear and open communication about goals, business requirements, timelines and how your lives are affecting all of that.
There is more than one way to get in contact. While most communication is through the project management platform, it is important to have an instant messaging channel in case either of you have emergencies.
Be clear on your boundaries around your working hours and accept the same from the contractor. That means, if they don’t work weekends or after 9pm, it isn’t ok for you set up tasks that will require them to work those times unless they specifically agree to it.
Begin the relationship with a video call, it’s much easier to work remotely when we don’t have to just imagine the other party is a real person.
You’ll note that all of those relate to communication and respect and that’s really what it’s all about. It’s not so different from working with somebody in real life, we just have to get very good at communicating our needs and expectations in writing and respecting theirs. If you’ve had a virtual assistant before and it didn’t work. This is probably why. We all fail to communicate our needs effectively sometimes and that can easily break a remote working relationship, but if you really work on number 2 then you will be able to spend much more time growing your business.