Have you thought about getting a virtual assistant? Or maybe to become a virtual assistant? In this Expert Insight Interview, Maria Carras discusses both sides – how to hire or be hired as a virtual assistant. Maria Carras helps people launch their independent businesses as virtual assistants and companies to find a perfect virtual assistant.
The interview discusses:
- Benefits of having a virtual assistant
- Finding a perfect fit
- Learning to delegate
- Setting boundaries
The Benefits
Virtual assistants are helpful because they can take care of the smaller tasks for you and provide you with free time to focus on growing your business. Things that virtual assistants usually do are admin work, bookkeeping, marketing tasks, etc. From a virtual assistant perspective, this is a very desirable opportunity because it is location-independent since it is remote and flexible on working hours. From the employer’s perspective, this is a time and cost-effective option for an extra resource.
Virtual assistants already have the background knowledge and a set of skills. They only need to amplify the skills they already have, identify them, and package them to be an attractive option for employers. Also, since we live in a highly innovative and constantly changing world, virtual assistants should stay updated with new and upcoming online systems and tools.
The Perfect Fit
A personality test is a big part of finding a perfect fit between a company and a virtual assistant. Both virtual assistants and employers have to answer many questions to identify values on both sides. Often, the cause of conflict between coworkers can be the difference in personalities, beliefs, cultures, and work ethics. Thus, the key is that both sides have a clear understanding of another side before the discovery call.
Delegation
Hiring a virtual assistant for the first time is a learning process because many business owners have a hard time letting go of the things they used to do alone. It takes coaching and starting with small steps. When you think that you are ready to hire a virtual assistant, it is beneficial to implement standard operating procedures. That way, you will still feel like you are in control even when you delegate the work to the other person.
Boundaries
Employers might not do this intentionally, but it happens a lot that they demand tasks that are out of the assistant’s reach and skill set. Thus, an assistant must set the proper boundaries with a client. Also, an assistant has to train the employer to use the most efficient software for communication and project management.
Our Host
John is the Amazon bestselling author of Winning the Battle for Sales: Lessons on Closing Every Deal from the World’s Greatest Military Victories and Social Upheaval: How to Win at Social Selling. A globally acknowledged Sales & Marketing thought leader, speaker, and strategist, he has conducted over 1500 video interviews of thought leaders for Sales POP! online sales magazine & YouTube Channel and for audio podcast channels where Sales POP! is rated in the top 2% of most popular shows out of 3,320,580 podcasts globally, ranked by Listen Score. He is CSMO at Pipeliner CRM. In his spare time, John is an avid Martial Artist.
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