How to Hire a Virtual Assistant

Business owners are pulled in a hundred different directions every day. One minute you’re booking a flight or ordering office supplies, the next you’re updating a contact database or trying to make the wireless printer work. The fact is that most business owners spend too much time on tasks that don’t significantly contribute to the bottom line and could just as easily be handled by someone else.

That’s where a virtual assistant comes in. Virtual assistants are like in-office assistants, except that you may never meet them face-to-face. Communication is typically done by e-mail, phone, or webconference. Virtual assistants perform administrative duties and other jobs from home on a contractual basis. Increasingly they also provide a range of specialized services, including bookkeeping, market research, and even technology troubleshooting.

Spending Efficiently

Virtual assistants can command anywhere from $20 to $75 an hour, depending on their geographic location and skill set. That may seem like a lot, but keep in mind that these assistants don’t require health insurance, computer equipment, office space, or anything else to do the job. They also tend to be more efficient, since every minute of their work is accounted for. In other words, they don’t expect to be paid for time spent tweeting or gabbing in the kitchen.

Virtual assistants based in countries where English is a second language, such as India or the Philippines, are also available, and at a lower rate. But remember that you get what you pay for. A foreign virtual assistant may be perfectly fine for simple tasks, like booking a ticket, but not so well-equipped to navigate more difficult assignments.

Hiring Virtually

How do you find one? Many are only a click away. Sites like the International Virtual Assistants Association and AssistU provide registries of qualified professionals. These registries gave details about areas of expertise for every virtual assistant and also rate them based on past work. Other sites like DoMyStuff.com allow you to post the task you want completed and then wait for virtual assistants to bid on the work. Many of these professionals also have their own Web sites where you can learn more about them.

Locating an assistant is the critical first step, obviously. But just as important is finding one who is right for you. Since your virtual assistant can reside anywhere in the world, you have to ask yourself whether you need someone in the same time zone. Or would you rather have someone across the world who will be hard at work while you’re asleep and can update you in the morning?

And since communication is the key to success in this relationship, you’ll want someone who is in synch with your personal style. For instance, are you the sort of person who wants an immediate reply to every one of your e-mails? If so, make sure your assistant can accommodate this mode of communication and is comfortable carrying around a BlackBerry or other mobile device with e-mail access.

Finding the Right Skill Set

Of course, it’s also important to identify a virtual assistant who focuses on your industry or specializes in the skills you need. Virtual assistants today have talents that far exceed the traditional administrative assistant. For example, InternetGirlFriday.com offers a variety of pros with Internet and social-media expertise. They do everything from writing a blog for your business and managing your Facebook profile to updating your Web site and ordering business supplies online.

But how can you ensure that your assistant possesses the talents you need, especially if you’ve never met them in the flesh? It’s important to set expectations from the outset by discussing your project in detail and setting a framework. This might involve stating upfront how many hours you expect a particular task to take and agreeing not to pay above a set number of hours.

Learning to Share

You should also keep in mind that the best virtual assistants are free agents who work with several clients simultaneously. That means you won’t have a monopoly on their time and you may not always be top priority.

Bottom line: Hiring a virtual assistant isn’t like hiring an employee. In fact, most think of themselves as entrepreneurs who run their own businesses. Engage with a virtual assistant as you would any other contract professional, such as a lawyer or accountant. You’re entering into a business partnership. The more you nurture the relationship, the better and more profitably it will work.

Tom Stein has contributed to leading business and general interest publications including Wired Magazine, Business 2.0, Venture Capital Journal, and Tennis Magazine. Previously, he held staff-writer positions at the San Francisco Chronicle, Red Herring, and InformationWeek. He also was a senior editor at Success Magazine, where he covered some of the most unusual and utterly unique entrepreneurial companies in the world.