Evan Carmichael explains how to hire and keep virtual assistants productive. Start part-time to test fit, record your processes with screen-capture videos instead of writing guides, and delegate repetitive online tasks. Let VAs pitch their own projects to boost engagement and retention.
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How to work with virtual assistants. I got a great question recently from one of my YouTube subscribers, love you guys, Neil, who wrote in and he said he hired a virtual assistant and is having a hard time keeping her busy and trusting her and wanted my advice on what to do. So here's what he wrote. He said, "Hey Evan, I have a virtual assistant and don't seem to keep her busy even though I'm always inundated with work. This brings me to my question." "how can you figure out what to delegate and trust that the person to whom you delegate will do it correctly? Also, how do I get myself out of the mode of thought, 'It'll take me so long to explain how to do it, I'll just do it myself'?" This is a fantastic question because a big problem for entrepreneurs is realizing that, you know, I need to bring on a team, I need people to help me to build this thing, I can't do everything myself, but finding the right person and then training them and working with them can be so time-consuming. And then what if they leave? Then, then you're stuck doing everything all over again. It's just a big waste of time. So it's getting through that first hire, that first successful hire, and often it is on the admin side. When you can get through that, then you're on your path for big success. But I know it's a huge pain point for a lot of entrepreneurs. So here's how to do it. Here's, here's how I've always done it, especially on administrative stuff. Number 1 is start part-time. I never start a new admin staffer full-time. It always starts on a part-time basis for a couple reasons. One, it's to try each other out. Okay, so it's been great, we've interviewed, great, they love it, they see what they can do, you know, you see a lot of potential with them, fantastic, but we don't jump in full-time. I want to test them out. I want to see how they actually work in in the environment, and I don't want to be so bogged down with training and supporting this person that I can't actually go out and do the rest of my stuff I need to grow my business. So what I'll usually do is find whatever the easiest thing is to do that can get off my plate, that I can explain quickly to this person, that they can come on board and do it. They start seeing immediate results, and that's my starting point. So what happens from there? They get some confidence, they can, you know, build up their skill sets a little bit, they start saving me time, right? And when they start saving me time, I see they're doing a good job, I have more time to invest into doing more with them. And so I'll think of new projects and more initiatives that they can get involved in. And so I slowly build up, and that may lead to a full-time job as an admin assistant, or it may mean that they work 10 hours a week or 20 hours a week or just as an on as-needed basis, right? It doesn't necessarily have to be full-time. But if you're struggling to find full-time hours, maybe, you know, just make it easier for yourself and start smaller. Start with 5 hours or 10 hours a week, little projects, and then build yourself up. The second thing is record your processes. And so you have to understand that not every project is great to be outsourced to virtual assistants. Sometimes you need people who are in-house and sometimes you need to do it yourself, just depending on what it is. The projects that are best suited towards virtual assistants are ones that can be done online and that are repeated. So if you find yourself doing the same thing over and over and over and over again, that's the kind of thing that you can either automate— so I always look to automation first, software tools, something to do it automatically— but if I can't, then delegate to an admin assistant. And what I usually do to explain it is I'll make a video. So I'll explain what I'm doing. So here's what I'm doing, I am building this list, and I pull up my Camtasia software. It basically records your screen on your computer, and you have a microphone and you can speak into it and explain what you're doing. And I'll show how I do this process. And then they have the video, so then I don't need to write a step-by-step guide because it's in the video. And you can build a library of all the videos that they can look at and it's easy to get them trained that way without you having to create extra work for yourself. So as you're doing it, just record your screen. That I found is super helpful. The last thing that I found really interesting and really valuable as I've built up my team, my, so my number 3 tip is have passion projects. I always try to encourage the people on my team to come up with a project that they can work on that supports the mission of the business, but it's not something that I've given them to do. And so this encourages them to learn more about what we do. It's never something they get within the first week or first month. It usually takes a few months to get into it. They understand how the business works and they start seeing ways that the business could be better. And the more they can tie their passions into what your business is all about, it's gonna make them feel happier and you also have new projects happening with your business. So I got this idea from Google where they give workers, you know, 20% of their time to work on their own passion projects that still fits within kind of Google's scope. So, you know, if you want to— if you want to be a baker, you know, there's not a lot I can do to help you with that in my business. But if you want to do something else that relates to entrepreneurs, if it's build a form or whatever it is, you can do it. And empowering your workers to come up with projects and ideas that excite them, keep them tied to you longer, and build amazing things for your company. So if this person has been with you for a while and you trust them and you like them and you know them and they're building up their skills, it might be something to look at too, giving them a passion project to work on or having them come up with one, give them the option and see what they come back with and see if there's something in there that they can build to help you grow your business to the next level. So that's my advice for working with virtual assistants. I know it can be frustrating, I know it can be hard, I know you feel like you're doing so much work yourself, but you have to get through get through this grind. You have to get through having that first employee, and it may not work. Like a lot of entrepreneurs, they hire and then that person leaves, and they hire, that person leaves, and you feel like, "I'm just going to do this myself. This is ridiculous." But to build something strong, to create your movement, you need to have a team. And so you have to have the courage and the fortitude and the conviction to stay through this, to have not just one person but a whole team of people working under you. Belief. For those of you watching, like the video, please give it a thumbs up below. Let me know what you think, leave a comment underneath. If you have a question for me, put it in the comments and I'll make a video response just like this one. 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