How Hiring a Virtual Assistant Can Seriously Help You as a Freelancer
Is a virtual assistant a good investment as a freelancer? | Photo by Jud Mackrill on Unsplash
As freelancers, remote workers, and location-independent entrepreneurs, time is our most valuable asset. After all, we’re managers, accountants, salespeople, marketers, and administrative assistants all rolled into one. And being a one-person operation can take you away from the parts of your business that really need your attention. So have you thought about delegating, outsourcing, or automating those other tasks?
How many times have you thought, “I haven’t got time for that?” Or “I won’t find anyone good enough to meet my expectations?” That was me, for ten years of my location-independent working life. I would not outsource, I wanted to be accountable for all my work, processes, mistakes, and achievements.
Fast forward to this time last year. After several false starts, miscommunications, and painful conversations, I finally hired my first virtual assistant (VA).
I haven’t looked back since.
My VA works 5-10 hours a week for me and helps me to:
Save time
Automate tasks
Prioritize tasks
Find leads
Organize myself
Chase up payments/invoices
Do the work that I enjoy
And it’s affordable by-the-hour. His lead generation alone has brought in over $20,000 in new business across 12-months.
So, let me tell you how to hire a VA, what to look for in a VA, what questions to ask when hiring, and how I delegate tasks to save time, make money, and improve my freelance business.
How to Hire a VA:
First, write down all the tasks that you hate doing or would rather not do/wish you had more time to complete.
For me, that list looks like this:
Things I hate doing as a freelancer:
Chasing invoices/payments
Looking for new work/sourcing cold leads
Onboarding clients (especially when this involves endless hours of calls and emails)
Things I wish I had more time to do:
Learn new skills
Read more
Outsource tasks/find skilled workers for outsourcing
Expand my horizons
I used sites like UpWork to start my search and I posted a job about the role.
In your listing, be specific, and be prepared to sift through a lot of rubbish/spam. But remember, finding the right VA for your business will pay dividends, at least tenfold!
Here’s the job posting that I used:
Feel free to use this job post and tweak it for your specific needs.
Now, the “blue banana” keyword was used by just two out of 20 applicants, so you try to include something like this to eliminate copy and pasters and scammers from your prospective talent pool. Remember, if they’re willing to cut corners on their application, they’re willing to cut corners on their work.
A few tips for hiring:
Start with trial a VA for their first week to ensure they’re compatible and that they are efficient/trustworthy.
Try to find a VA with a good rating and feedback that reflects their ability to complete the tasks that you require.
A good VA will cost anything from $4 to $30 an hour. But keep in mind that a cheaper VA might not have all of the skills you need. For instance, they might be be efficient and excellent at admin, but not 100 percent with their written or oral communication. In this example, if you’re looking for a VA to craft emails and communicate with clients on your behalf, factor this into your decision-making process. You want the right VA match for what you need.
Ok, so you’ve hired your VA.
Let me tell you a quick strategy that helped me to expand my business using my VA to complete tasks that I really don’t want to spend my time on. And imagine, if you’re working a 40 hour week, and your VA is completing 20 hours on menial tasks, you’re smashing out a 60-hour week. Either that or you can cruise by on a 20-hour week by eliminating menial, time-consuming tasks.
I’m a copywriter and content marketer, and I’ve worked as a location-independent freelancer for 13 years now. I’ve worked in 18 different countries and successfully expanded my business year-on-year. But one of my pet hates is looking for new work.
I decided that my VA could help me to find new leads and run a LinkedIn marketing strategy for me. Here’s how I did it:
I looked for industries and locations that I wanted to work in/with.
For instance, ‘Web Developers in Florida.’ Bear in mind that web developers always need content writers to add value to their offerings.
I asked him to create a spreadsheet.
My VA populated it with 50 web developers in Florida, their CEO or CMO LinkedIn links, their website URL, their CEO and CMO email addresses, and notes section.
Here’s what the spreadsheet looks like:
Every week I asked my VA to focus on a new location, and/or a different industry. Next, I gave my VA access to my LinkedIn, and I asked him to send out 10-15 invitations to the people he’s added to my list every day.
The invitations contain a note that says:
Hi (Name of Contact).
How are you?
I specialize in creating compelling, informative, engaging website copy. I wanted to introduce myself and to offer my copywriting and content marketing services to (Name of Company).
Can I send over my resume and links to some recent projects?
Marcel
That’s all; it’s that simple. If the LinkedIn messages don’t get a response, the VA has access to my email and sends an email a week later to the contact’s work address. On average, out of 50 LinkedIn connections, I get between 5-10 responses, and 1-2 of these lead to work. All for between $20-$40 per week.
I also set up a spreadsheet with all outstanding invoices and ask the VA to take over communications and chase these outstanding payments up once a week. I’m saving time, and I’m making more money as a result of these leads.
If I had invested the time and energy into hiring a VA ten years ago, I would have achieved so much more in the last decade as a freelancer. If you’re debating whether to hire a VA or have tips of your own, I’d be happy to connect on Linkedin for consultations or any questions.
Guest writer Marcel is a content writer/marketer and a remote work/freelancing coach. After living in 18 countries and successfully scaling his freelance business, he now offers customized coaching sessions to help remote workers expand their business. He can be contacted here.