Let's Talk Lady Biz

Ditch your stressful tasks and grow your team

You started your business for freedom.

> Freedom to do what you love.
> Freedom to make as much money as you’d like without having to ask for a raise.
> Freedom to work with people you like and would hang out with IRL.
> Freedom to spend a Tuesday afternoon at the park with your kids.

You started your biz for all those freedoms. But right now, your biz makes you feel anything but free.

There’s so many extra tasks that come with owning your own business. Writing blog posts, scheduling social media and responding to emails have taken up more of your schedule that you anticipated.

The work you do for your clients is what you really want to be focusing on.

You keep telling yourself when you hit $5,000 a month then you’ll hire someone to help you. Once you land 3 more clients, then you’ll finally grow your team.

But what if you had 2 extra hours a week, what could you do?

How about 5 hours a week?

If you stopped waiting and had a wing woman there to take away all the “extras” that come with running a biz – you know, the things that stress you out and really don’t need your attention anyway – you’d have more time to reach those extra clients and build your business.

Now that $5k month is easier to reach because instead of wasting time editing blog posts you have time to meet with more potential clients and do the work you actually enjoy.

What type of team member can you hire to take off unnecessary tasks from your to-do list? A graphic designer? A Virtual Assistant? A WordPress wiz?

Tell me in the comments below who you should hire to help you reach your freedom.

Your business is growing! What’s next?

2017 was a year of growth for your business.

You landed more clients, got visible, and you’re a go-to person in your industry.

But with that growth comes more responsibilities. More work to get done, more clients to juggle, more systems to manage.

The sense of overwhelm has slowly been increasing.

You’re so excited for what this new year will bring for you and your business. But the thought of your business growing even more and having more work to do seems slightly terrifying.

How can you possibly keep up with #AllTheThings?!

Being a solo biz owner comes with a lot of responsibilities – one of them being that you need to decide when to build a team and outsource some of those responsibilities.

If you don’t take some things off your plate, you’ll be left overworked, overwhelmed and your business will remain stagnant because you won’t have enough hours in your day to bring on more clients.

Not to mention, your husband would prefer if you got off your laptop before 7pm every day.

You started your business because you wanted some type of freedom.

Freedom to do what you love for your dream clients.

Freedom to earn what you’re worth and not let a yearly review decide your income.

Freedom to start your days slow with a cup of coffee and some yoga.

You’re holding yourself back from all those freedoms because you’re chaining yourself to your laptop trying to manage every aspect of your business.

Let your business continue to grow and finally find that freedom you’ve been searching for by building your dream team.

Decide what parts of your biz are the most draining – or that you just hate. If you don’t need to do them, start searching for the perfect team member to hand them off to.

Maybe you need a graphic designer, a Virtual Assistant or bookkeeper. Whoever it is that will add value to your team and let you focus on your zone of genius, welcome them to your team and embrace the growth of your business.

Freedom is closer than you think. You just have to have to put the right pieces in place to make it happen.

Tell me in the comments below, what type of freedom did you start your biz for and how are you going to make it happen this year?

Is It Time To Hire A Virtual Assistant?

You try to keep your expenses at a minimum, but at what point do you invest in outsourcing some of your tasks?

If you find yourself in any (or let’s face it, all) of these categories, it’s time to invest in a Virtual Assistant to take over one of your most time-consuming tasks.

You constantly feel overwhelmed

If you’re in a constant state of overwhelm, invest in your sanity and your happiness. A virtual assistant is there to take the weight off your shoulders. There’s a ton of things that need to get done in your business, but don’t feel like you have to do it all alone. It can make a big difference in your schedule to hand over your most time-consuming (or frustrating) tasks.

[clickToTweet tweet=”If you’re seeing these signs in your biz, it’s time to hire a Virtual Assistant” quote=”If you’re seeing these signs in your biz, it’s time to hire a Virtual Assistant”]

You’re doing the same tasks over and over

Be more productive with your time by focusing on the work that only you can do. Think about what tasks you have a system for – integrating your LeadBoxes into your blog posts, scheduling your social media or newsletters. Whatever it is that has a system in place or can be easily taught, hand it over to a VA. Your time is better spent focusing on larger tasks and work that you can’t pass off to anyone, like client work or writing your next e-book.

You can’t keep up with the work

If you’re working 10 hour days and weekends, stop running yourself into the ground. There’s only so much work one person can do. And as your business grows, so will your workload.

You won’t be able to create your best work if you’re constantly struggling to keep up with it all. You don’t want to rush anything or put off your launch for 3 months because you have a to-do list a mile long.

You have no time for a life

You can’t even remember what it’s like to not work past 6pm. And your friends think you’re mad at them because you skipped your weekly Starbucks date 5 weeks in a row.

Trying to do everything yourself, while sacrificing your life, is going to make you resent your work and lose the passion you have.

I know what it’s like to think about every little investment you make in your business. I thought about that $29 investment for ConvertKit for weeks and weeks until I finally decided that $29 a month was well worth the time and energy I’d save creating opt-ins and managing my email list. And let me tell you, it’s one of my favorite investments I’ve made in my business!

Are you ready to get help managing your business? Click here to find out if I’m the right woman for the job!

What Social Media Scheduler Is Right For Your Business?

One of the most time consuming tasks business owners have on their to-do list is social media marketing. That’s why having a social media scheduler to automate your posts is one of the best ways to start lessening your workload.

Since I manage multiple businesses for my clients, I’ve been able to use some of the most popular social media schedulers available. Here’s are the pros and cons of 4 social media schedulers to help you decide which is right for your business.

Buffer

Buffer is a great tool to automate your social media posts. It’s user friendly and there isn’t much of a learning curve if you want something simple. This is a great social media scheduler for people who are just starting out. You can test it out for free so you really have nothing to lose if you want to try it!

I like the calendar view in Buffer because it makes it easier when planning your social media posts. They also have an extension for your web browser so you can easily add any page to your social media queue.

[clickToTweet tweet=”Learn the pros + cons of the most popular social media schedulers” quote=”Learn the pros + cons of the most popular social media schedulers”]

SmarterQueue

SmarterQueue is my favorite social media scheduler. One of my favorite things about SQ that most platforms don’t have is the evergreen content feature. You can load up posts and have them recycled so your queue is always filled. You can also link RSS feeds to your account so you don’t have to go searching for new content to share.

It also has cool features like the Twitter analyzing tool. You can enter any public Twitter account handle and it will show you what hashtags that person uses that get the most likes and retweets, what time slots get the most engagement, and a few other things that are really helpful when creating your social media strategy.

Hootsuite

Hootsuite is pretty robust if you’re just looking to schedule content for a few social media accounts. I think Hootsuite is best if you’re a social media manager and are managing multiple people’s accounts.

I do like the Stream views that show you recent engagement on your scheduled posts. It also shows you mentions across all platforms. Something I don’t love about Hootsuite is you can’t duplicate posts or re-post past content. If you have self promotion posts or launch posts, you’ll have to schedule them individually to go out multiple times.

Later

Later is only used for Instagram but I like to use this for my Instagram instead of SmarterQueue. One of Later’s best features is you can preview what your Instagram feed will look like after scheduling posts. This really helps to keep your brand cohesive and make sure all your posts look good in the grid view before publishing.

You can add content on the web version or on the app. It’s easy to upload photos from your phone right into the app and get them scheduled. When a post is ready to published you get a notification on your phone and it’ll open up in Instagram.

Free Up Time By Hiring A Virtual Assistant

“Sorry I can’t make it, I’m swamped with work”

If your girlfriends are so used to hearing that response that they’ve stopped bothering to invite you out, it’s time to hire a Virtual Assistant.

It can feel intimidating to outsource tasks at first but let’s visualize something for a second…

You (finally) get to spend Sunday morning hanging out in your pj’s and whipping up some banana pancakes.

You have plenty of time to finish up work and meet up with your best girls for a martini.

You get to have your first date night in months.

Getting your life back sounds pretty damn awesome, right?

You don’t need to keep skipping all your favorite things because you “don’t have the time”. You just need to outsource the tasks that are taking way too much of your time. Because, let’s face it, you can’t do it all and still have a life.

The to-do list of an entrepreneur is never ending.

There’s always a newsletter that needs scheduling, social media posts that need to go out and client emails that need answering. The good news is you don’t have to do it alone. And you don’t have to go through the annoying process and commitment of hiring an employee. A Virtual Assistant works as an independent contractor so there’s no strings attached. You hire them for X amount of hours a week or month and get your time and sanity back.

What would I have a virtual assistant do?

You’re probably spending a bunch of time on repetitive tasks. Whether it’s scheduling your weekly emails, setting up LeadBoxes or keeping your Buffer account topped off, find out what tasks have a process that can be easily outsourced.

If you find yourself spending an hour a week editing, formatting, scheduling and creating an image for your blog post, push those tasks over to your virtual assistant. You get to focus on creating the content that you love and go to yoga class knowing the rest is taken care of. Yes, you can start enjoying savasana again.

Focus on what you love

When you free up hours from the not-so-fun, smaller tasks in your day, you get to focus on the work you love doing, which is why you started your business in the first place. You can get back to designing WordPress themes or illustrating your next wedding invitation bundle and know those other pesky tasks are being taken care of.

More time to build your business

When you outsource the smaller tasks, you’re able to focus on the bigger tasks that require your attention. This can be anything from client work, hosting webinars or working on your next big launch. By focusing on these crucial tasks you’ll be building your business which means more clients, customers and of course, more money.

Are you ready to free up time in your life and hire a virtual assistant? Click here and see if I’m the woman for the job.

What Project Management Tool Is Right For Your Business?

A project management tool helps you keep track of to-do’s, client work, launches, stay organized and helps make sure no tasks slip through the cracks. The list goes on!

The issue people normally have when it comes to project management tools is deciding which one is best for their business.

As a Virtual Assistant, I’ve used quite a few different platforms at the request of my clients. Today, I’m going to talk about my likes, dislikes and which ones are winners in my book. Keep in mind, what works for me may not work for you! But you’ll have a better understanding of each platform and can decide which one has the features you’re looking for.

Asana

I’m a huge Asana fan! If you’re working with clients and need to keep track of who’s in charge of what, who’s going to send information, deadlines, etc, Asana is perfect. You can assign tasks, add deadlines, keep track of files and conversations.

I also like that you can look at all of your tasks in one list so you know everything you have coming up and can plan accordingly. You can look at the tasks by project or just look at everything on your dashboard. When I work with VA clients I always suggest Asana because it’s user friendly and pretty hard to not be organized on here.

I’ll be going way more in depth on how to use Asana in my next blog post, so keep an eye out!

Trello

I wasn’t a fan of Trello at first but if you’re organized and know how to use it, it’s really wonderful! It wasn’t until I watched some tutorials on how to use it and learned about its features that I really started to like it. You can set up different boards, create checklists and templates and assign tasks. It’s really similar to Asana except things feel a little more separated out.

I like to use Trello for my own business – not my clients. I don’t like using it for clients because tasks will be assigned in different boards, instead of all in one place, like Asana. Since I use it for my own business I like to map out different things for launches, content calendars and my client onboarding workflow.

Basecamp

Real talk – I despise Basecamp. I don’t like the interface and find it frustrating to navigate. When I used it, I used Basecamp 3. I’m not sure if that was just the version at the time or a specific one my client had chosen, but I was not a fan. I just felt like everything could have been organized better.

I think going from such user-friendly platforms, like Asana and Trello, also didn’t help. But you might be a Basecamp lady all the way and not like Asana and Trello – so test out what’s best for you. Basecamp is also $99 a month, which I don’t think is worth it when the free versions of all the other platforms work perfectly fine!

Test your options

I suggest testing out the different project management tools and seeing which one you’re able to get in a groove with and really enjoy using. Your project management tool is there to help manage your business and should never be frustrating or confusing!

7 Tasks You Can Start Outsourcing

You can’t do everything in your biz without driving yourself crazy. Thankfully, there’s a whole world of kickass ladies on the internet who are ready to help you run your business.

The tricky part for most people is deciding what parts of their business they should outsource and being able to trust that the people they hire can do the job just as good as they do it themselves.

Get rid of your delegating fears

It can be intimidating to let someone else into your business after you’ve been running it by yourself for so long. I totally get it. But once you trust that other people can help you, your life will get a lot less overwhelming!

First you need to get over the idea of thinking that no one can do your tasks as well as you can. If you’ve read my post on how to hire a Virtual Assistant (it can help with hiring anyone, not just a VA) then you did your research on potential people to hire and are confident that the person you’re hiring is good at what they do.

Now, you just have to figure out what tasks to delegate before hiring a new team member. Here are the most common tasks clients delegate to me:

1 + 2. Editing + formatting

You’ve probably gotten used to writing your own emails and blog posts and then spending a bunch of time formatting them the way you like. Think about all those little extra tasks you do in WordPress to optimize the post – like filling in your Yoast settings, adding images and formatting everything to be juuust right.

3. Social media posts

Consistently posting on social media accounts can take a huge chunk of your time each week. There’s clients that I spend anywhere from 10-15 minutes a day scheduling out their daily posts. That adds up quickly! We’re talking over an hour of work each week they now get to focus on important tasks like hosting webinars and client work.

4. Facebook group management

If you have a Facebook group, especially with an active community, it’s a great idea to outsource your group management. Clients have me schedule their weekly post prompts, approve new members and moderate comments. These are really repetitive and easy tasks, however they’re pretty time consuming!

5. Email management

Your business is on a roll! Which means that your inbox constantly has emails rolling in. My biggest advice is to create a general email account – like hello@businessname.com or info@businessname.com – so that you can start using your inbox for more urgent things like client emails. Put this email on your contact page so people can start contacting you through there with requests and eventually, if needed, you can give your personal account.

When handing this over to your VA, create a Google doc with canned responses to the most common questions you see come in.

6. Video/Content upload

A lot of people are taking advantage of video and audio (podcasts) content right now. If you are, you’re probably spending a heck of a lot of time uploading this content to your website, YouTube and iTunes. Record your screen the next time you do this task and share the video tutorial with your new team member. Video tutorials are my favorite way for clients to share their process with me because I can always go back and re-watch it if necessary.

7. Graphic creation

Send your Photoshop templates for your social media and blog images to your new team member and let them create graphics as needed. It’s one less thing for you to worry about when you write your blog post or need some new Facebook ads created.

Ready to start outsourcing your most time-consuming tasks? Learn more about my Virtual Assistant services here and we can hop on free strategy call to see if I’m the wing woman you’ve been searching for!

Organize Your Biz With Google Drive

It’s safe to say I’m obsessed with Google Drive. I use it to host all my business files and love that it’s really easy to use. Seriously, anyone can use it! It’s helped me to stay organized in my own business and easily collaborate with my clients and keep track of their files.

Benefits of using Google Drive

Besides the fact that Google Drive is free, here are some of my favorite features:

Access files from anywhere. If your computer crashes, your files are totally safe and you can get to them from any computer.
Save things directly on your Mac to your Google Drive without being on the internet.
Share documents and folders with team members and set up security preferences. If you just want team members to be able to view a document and not edit it, you can!
Virtually collaborate on the same document at the same time. This is one of my favorite features! Since our businesses are online, it’s pretty common to never see team members face to face. Multiple people can be editing a document and seeing other’s comments and additions.
Plan out your editorial calendar and launches.
Automations in your inbox will save a lot of time searching through emails.

Okay, now that I’ve convinced you to use Google Drive, let’s get your biz organized!

Organize your folders

Start by outlining the most high level aspects of your biz that you create files for regularly. This might be blog posts, products or services, client work, etc. Then, break it down into sub categories. For example, my blog post folder has a sub folder for drafts, published posts, featured images and content upgrades.

A trick to never letting your Google Drive get totally unorganized is to always put a file in a folder. Sometimes if you’re in a rush you might be tempted to just add the file to your drive and not save it to a particular folder. That’s what leads to spending 15 minutes looking for a file you thought was in this folder . . . no wait, that one!

I keep all my client work separate from my own business documents. This way I have 1 folder dedicated to my clients and then sub folders for each individual client.

I suggest that you never delete content in your drive for past clients. I just have a “past client” folder that I drop their folder into once I’ve finished working with them. You never know when you’ll need to reference old content.

Use Google Calendar as an editorial calendar

I love Google’s calendar! You can go crazy color coating things and use it for just about anything – not just meetings. I like to map out my blog post and newsletter schedule in the calendar along with any launches. This way I have a calendar view of what content is going out and when and it’s easy to move things around if I need to.

I color coat everything so it’s visually easy to see where my meetings are and which slots are content related. I also like that you can add notes so I’ll add a few bullet points of what I want to cover in the blog posts while the topic is fresh in my mind.

Finally organize your Gmail

Probably the most unorganized part of everyone’s Google Drive is their Gmail. If you’re one of those people who just keep everything together in your inbox with no folders, this is about to save you SO much time! Just an FYI before we get started, Gmail folders are referred to as labels.

One of the most important labels and automations I’ve created is for invoices. All of your invoices will be kept in one place and will be easy to search through come tax time. When you get your monthly invoices emailed to you from the business services you use, they always have the same subject line.

All you have to do is click on one of the emails, and click the ‘more’ button at the top of your screen, then click ‘filter messages like these’.

Then I fill in the subject line with the subject the email always has. If it normally says something like “BoardBooster Invoice for June 2017”, just type in “BoardBooster invoice” and it’ll move them over.

Then, click ‘apply filter with this search’ and choose ‘apply the label’. From the dropdown menu you can choose your label, or create a new one. If you’ve received emails like this before, something will pop up at the bottom of the box asking if you want to add the label to the other 4 (or however many emails) that it found in your inbox with that subject. It’ll move over all past emails and any future emails.

You can even set it up to manage client emails. Instead of filling out the subject for the filter, enter their email so you can keep all incoming emails from them together in a folder.

Start organizing your Google Drive to save time and keep an organized biz!

For more ways to run your business seamlessly, grab my free list of the 25 systems + automations every biz needs!

Prioritize Your Day With The ABC Method

You get ready to start your day, you’re feeling super productive and then BAM you see #AllTheThings on your to-do list and you go into overwhelm mode. Where the heck are you going to begin?

Coming up with a system to make sure I get my most important tasks done for the day has been crucial to my productivity. Lucky for you, I’m spilling the details on exactly how I prioritize my day! And I’ll let you in on a little secret – it’s incredibly simple!

It’s the ABC Method. It only takes a couple minutes, a pen and paper (or Google doc) and you’ll know exactly what to work on, and when, throughout the day! Let’s get started.

The ABC Method

I like to start by doing a major brain dump of every task I need to get done. This sounds super overwhelming but we’re about to simplify that list and make it much more doable!

Then I draw 3 columns on my paper and label them “A”, “B” and “C”.

Column A: This is going to be for your tasks that absolutely need to get done today. For me this might be client work that’s due that day or a project piece I set a deadline for.

Column B: These are the tasks that can wait until tomorrow. For example, you may have to put some finishing touches on a blog post that goes out next week. It’s important, but not necessary that it gets done today.

Column C: These tasks have no sense of immediacy. These tend to be the “quick” tasks that we think of throughout the day and want to work on to get them out of the way. What we don’t realize is that all these quick tasks add up. A few 10-20 minute tasks scattered throughout the day can take up to an hour (or more!) of your time. I like to save the tasks in this column for slow days when I’m all caught up on my urgent tasks. Knocking them all out in one sitting will help you stay productive because you’re working in short increments so you don’t get bored and are constantly doing new tasks.

Prioritize your tasks

Start going through your task list and put them in the right columns. Once all your tasks are written down, do a quick priority check on column A and B. I like to number them in order of importance so I can knock out my urgent tasks ASAP. I number column B because if I get through all my column A tasks, I get a head start on what’s due tomorrow.

If you get in the habit of doing this on Friday afternoon or first thing Monday, you set yourself up for a super productive work week! As new tasks pop up throughout the week, just add them to the list.

I created the ABC Method worksheets for you to easily manage your tasks. If you’re a digital lady, it’s an editable PDF. Or, if you’re like me and like to physically write down your tasks, print it out each week. Grab your ABC Method worksheets below!

How to Find, Hire, and Work with a Virtual Assistant

Business is booming and you’re ready to outsource the tasks you dread doing every week. You know hiring a Virtual Assistant is your next step but you have no idea how to go about finding one, never mind finding the right one.
Luckily, since I’m a Virtual Assistant for multiple businesses, I know a thing or two about how to find a VA, how to figure out if someone is the right fit, the best ways for getting started working together with your dreamy new VA and how to keep the relationship flowing smoothly.
In this post, I’m going to walk you through the step-by-step process to finding, hiring and keeping the perfect Virtual Assistant.

Step 1: Finding a Virtual Assistant

Some people say that the hardest part of hiring a VA is actually being able to find one. If you do a simple Google search, you’ll probably be met with results for websites like Upwork where you can post tasks and any VA can pick them up. Which is great if that’s what you’re looking for, but if you’re really looking for that 1:1, long term experience, you’re going to want to look further than Google.
My best advice is to search through Facebook groups. If you aren’t in any entrepreneur Facebook groups, there are TONS out there and quite a few members are Virtual Assistants. Search “Virtual Assistant” in the group discussion and chances are people have already asked for VA recommendations in the group. And if not, post your own post asking for VA recommendations and list a few of the main tasks you’d need help with. You can also check out my Virtual Assistant packages to see if your tasks align with my skills.
If you haven’t joined any Facebook groups yet, here are some awesome groups for entrepreneurs where you can definitely find VA’s:

Blissful Boss Society
Savvy Business Owners

Once you have some recommendations, start researching your potential VA’s websites. Check their web copy, blog, testimonials and services. You want to make sure this person resonates with you and shows that they actually know what they’re doing. When reading through testimonials, make sure that people are mentioning the results they got from working with that Virtual Assistant. For example, here are excerpts from testimonials on my website that demonstrate results I get for my clients:

“With Kayleigh’s help I achieved more in the last month than the previous 5.” – Nikki
“My business is so much more streamlined thanks to her.” – Krista

You can see from these excerpts that for Nikki, I was able to help her get more done in a month than she was able to get done in 5 months on her own. And then you can see that I was able to help Krista streamline her business. If every testimonial just talks about how awesome the person is and doesn’t actually mention the type of work they did and how they were an asset to the team, you might want to keep doing some research.

You also want to make sure you can afford to work with the VA’s you’d like to move on to an interview process with. Start by deciding how many hours of help you need each week. If you aren’t sure how many hours you need, time yourself using a tool like Toggl while doing the tasks you want to outsource. The worst is when a client says they only need an hour or 2 of help a week and then start listing a bunch of things they need done that are going to take wayyyy longer. Often we don’t realize how much time we spend on tasks – like taking an hour to write a blog post or 10 minutes a day scheduling social media posts – so when we do finally outsource and someone is timing themselves to get it done, it can be eye opening.
Once you figure out how many hours you need each month, decide how much you can afford to spend. Typical pricing is about $25 – $50/hr for a VA. So if your budget right now only works with $25 – $30/hr, make sure you see if that VA’s prices will work for your budget.
Then start inquiring with the VA’s you’ve narrowed it down to and book an interview.

Step 2: The interview process

Chances are your potential VA has a process for how a call normally flows. For example, I start by asking my potential client to give a quick run down of what they actually do and what tasks they’re looking to outsource. Next, I let them know if I’d be a good fit for those tasks and what it’s like to work with me. Then, I ask if they have any questions for me.
Make sure you write down any questions you have prior to the call. You don’t want to hop on the call and forget everything you wanted to know.

Here are some sample questions you might want to know:

Do you have experience working with X platform?

(ex: ConvertKit, LeadPages, WebinarJam, etc.) Anything that would be pretty crucial to the tasks you want them to do. It’s not a total loss if they don’t know a platform. As long as they seem eager to learn, and you have the time to teach them, it can still work.

How far in advance do you need the task?

This is really important and varies from VA to VA. For example, I tell all my clients that I need to know of a task at least 24 hours in advance of the deadline and that if something is going to take longer than about 2 hours, I’ll most likely need more time.

How do you keep track of your time and how can I stay updated on the time used/remaining?

If your future VA hasn’t brought this up, definitely ask! I’ve heard horror stories of someone hiring a VA, discussing how many hours a month they *think* they need help with and then they get hit with an invoice at the end of the month far exceeding what they expected. I use Toggl to keep track of every task I do and it acts like a stopwatch. At the end of each week I download a detailed report to send my client that shows them what tasks I worked on and exactly how much time I spent on each one. This way there are no surprises at the end of the month!

Step 3: Getting started with your new VA

You’ve found the perfect Virtual Assistant and you two are a match made in heaven! The paperworks signed (your VA should always send you a contract before you start working together) and you’re ready to get started. But where to begin?!

Create a manual

You already know the tasks you want to outsource – you figured that out in step 1. But now you need to explain to your new VA how to actually do these tasks. The best way to do this is to create an operations manual. It doesn’t have to be an official document, an Asana checklist works great! You’ll include step-by-step instructions on how to do each task. Even for tasks that sound simple should still be mentioned. Sending out a broadcast in ConvertKit may be second nature to you but someone who has never worked in your biz before wouldn’t know that you exclude a particular segment from your weekly newsletter. The easiest way to go about this is to go through the task yourself and jot down everything you do. It’s always so much better when a client gives too much detail than not enough.

Decide how you’ll communicate

You probably discussed how you’ll actually send tasks and communicate prior to officially working together. But just in case, ask your VA how they prefer to communicate – email, text, phone calls, Slack, etc. You also need to know exactly how to send them tasks and how you’ll be updated on the progress of each one. I love Asana for this! My clients can add a task, along with any details I need to get it done, there’s a section for comments and they’ll get a notification once I complete it.

Step 4: Creating a lasting work relationship

The hope with hiring a VA is that this person will be around for the long haul and you won’t have to go through this entire process again. Of course, sometimes it just doesn’t work out with someone, and that’s okay. But there are a few key things you can do that will help you create a lasting work relationship with your VA.

Communication

My best tip for working with a VA is to communicate. Just a simple check in email or call once in awhile helps to keep communication open. You want to make sure your VA is happy with the tasks you’re giving them and the form of communication you’re using is working for them. It’s also a great time to discuss if there’s anything either of you can do better. I think a call at least every few months is a great way to keep everyone happy. This way you can actually talk to each other and not just send emails and emojis back and forth.

Constructive feedback

This is going to be the most important part of keeping a lasting relationship going with your VA. After all, if you’re hiring and paying someone to do a task and they aren’t doing it up to par with your standards, you aren’t going to want to work with them very long. I always tell my clients right off the bat that if I’m doing something that bugs the heck out of them or not doing something just right, let me know! This way we can fix it and the client is happy and not secretly cringing every time I do that thing. Keep your communication open with your VA and stay positive when giving constructive feedback. Just let them know how you prefer it done next time.

And you’re all set to work with your VA!

Find out if I’m the right Virtual Assistant for you by heading to my services page and we can hop on a free strategy call to see if I’m the wing woman you’ve been searching for!