How to Have a Successful Relationship with
a Virtual Assistant (VA)
It takes time to find a great VA –
someone who you will share information about your business; someone that
will, over time, “partner” with you to help you in building your
business revenue.
More than likely, you want someone that
is excited about your business. Someone who can’t wait to help you
reach your goals and someone who can offer a wide range of knowledge and
expertise in using technology to help simplify and automate tasks.
People “find” their VAs in different
ways. You may have been referred to a great VA from one of your
colleagues, maybe you browsed around the internet, met someone at a
conference/meeting or perhaps the VA found you and contacted you
regarding your business. Whichever way you found a VA, there are certain
aspects that are imperative to ensuring the relationship is going to get
off to a good start.
Through managing the Multiple Streams
Team and my own VA business, Victoria Business Solutions, I speak to
people every day that know want to hire a VA. They are at different
stages of their business, however they know they NEED HELP. When I ask
them what kind of help they are looking for, they all have a variety of
responses – some that don’t match the criteria of what a VA is and
can do.
Firstly, before I go forward, there is
one thing I must clarify - a VA is NOT a Coach! Little bells go off in
my ears when I hear small business owners say that they don’t want to
delegate to a VA – they want the VA to tell them what needs to be done
and then help them do it.
Perhaps after working with a VA for
numerous months, after they have a clear understanding of your business
strategy and goals and have developed a good relationship for you, they
will be able to offer suggestions and feedback on what you may want to
consider working on. However, it is NOT the VAs role to tell you what
needs to take place next in your business. They can certainly provide
insight on the tools and resources available to accomplish a task (for
example, the various ways to automate your newsletter sign up and
distribution function), however they should not be expected to provide
you with a strategy on what you need to do in order to build the
multiple streams of coaching income for your business.
Here are 5 tips to consider before and
during a new relationship with a VA. If you follow these steps, you are
more likely to have a positive and successful relationship with a VA
from day one.
1. Know your Business Strategy
If you are clear about what you want for
your business, you are already heading in the right direction as far as
working with a VA. By sharing this information with a VA, they will
learn the general structure of how they can best assist you. As your
relationship progresses and they learn more about you and your business,
they may provide you with suggestions and feedback on how a certain tool
may benefit you both short term and long term.
If you are not clear on your business
strategy, I encourage you to consider this before starting a
relationship with a VA. You will find that by having your business
strategy in place, your discussions and focus will be much more
streamlined and well worth your investment in having a VA join your
team. Remember – think of them as a profit center.
If you don’t know your strategy, how
will you know how a VA can become your profit center?
2. Define Your Goals
By having a business strategy in place,
it makes it much easier to define your goals and approximate “deadlines”
for when you would like to accomplish them.
By sharing these goals with your VA, they
can assist you in prioritizing tasks that need to take place in order
for that goal to be completed. As they become more comfortable with you
and your business, they will start to “look ahead” at the priorities
and consider the kinds of tools/resources needed to accomplish future
goals.
By sharing your business strategy and
goals with your VA, you have set the foundation for a successful
relationship.
This doesn’t mean that you can not
change your priorities – of course, changing of priorities is “normal”
as we build our businesses. We may decide to focus more energy on one
area versus another; however the tasks and general direction towards the
business strategy remain the same.
3. Communicate Your Expectations
We all have expectations on what we would
like our ideal “partner” to be. If you have specific expectations,
then communicate these to your VA well before you start to dive in and
have them take over tasks for you – avoid any frustration or
disappointment well before it has time to evolve!
Remember to be realistic in your
expectations. A VA is a sub-contractor – not an employee, therefore,
things you may need to consider are their hours of operation that they
have other clients also, and they are not always going to be available
to you 100% of the time by phone or email.
Also, remember that a VA does not know
everything. For example, they may be very skilled in some areas and not
as skilled in others. Even in areas that they are very skilled in, they
may not be aware or potential glitches unless they have already
experienced them with another client.
VAs take pride in what they do and often
they are continuously looking at ways to strengthen and build their
skills (that’s why we started the Grow Your VA Biz Membership Area at www.growyourvabiz.com).
If they don’t know how to do something, it’s not because they’re
not a great VA, it may mean they just haven’t experienced that
particular task yet.
4. Be Ready to Invest Some Time
I can’t stress this tip enough – it
takes time, from both the VA and the client, to build a successful
relationship.
Any relationship requires time,
especially at the beginning. A relationship with you and your VA is no
different.
When starting to work with a VA, be
prepared to take time out of your week to connect with them. This may
include sharing information about your business strategy, goals,
preferences, your “wants” and them learning how they can convert
those “wants” into functioning items in your business. Be available
to answer questions they may have, take the time to “share” with
them and allow for time to simply getting to know each other.
If you make the time for this
relationship while you are in the beginning stages, you will find that
less time will be required later on. This doesn’t mean you won’t
communicate with your VA weekly, it just means that they will have
learned about your style, wants, needs etc. in the early stages and
therefore, can confidently move forward in providing you with support.
Not investing time in your VA, especially
at the beginning of your relationship could mean frustration from both
parties and even failure. You will spend much more time “fixing”
pieces later on than you would have if you had taken the time to put the
pieces in place at the beginning.
5. Start with a project
Many times we are so pleased to know
there is someone to assist us that we have difficulty determining where
to start! I recommend starting with a project – something you’ve
wanted to do for some time but just haven’t had a chance to do it. An
example may be submitting your articles on the internet.
I quite often refer to a client that I
started working with about a year and a half ago. When we decided to
work together, he provided me with 5 articles and asked me to find
places online that I could submit them to. The goal was to increase his
visibility on the internet. This was a GREAT start for both of us. By
reading his articles, I was able to learn about his business, his
target, the services he provided and his general style. This also
provided him with an idea of my work style. Did I call and ask questions
if I had them, when I was left to work on an assignment, did I need
constant reminding, or did I just do it? After some time of working on
this, we moved to bigger and “better” things. He learned he could
trust me, and I learned more about how I could best benefit him in his
business. Today we’re still working together and have a great
relationship.
In starting with a project, there is very
little “risk” involved. It provides the both yourself and the VA
with critical information about the each other before moving forward.
Consider a project that a VA can help you
with. If the project is a success, keep moving forward. If there are
questions etc., then address those at the time. It’s much easier to
deal with any issues at this point of the relationship!
Bonus Tip - 6. Have a Communication
“Plan”.
As virtual partners, it’s important to
have a good “communication” plan in place with your VA.
For example, with clients whose
businesses I am very involved in, I have a weekly one hour phone call
with them. Throughout the week we communicate via email relating to the
various tasks we are working on, however once a week we get together for
a one hour discussion that includes our current tasks, future tasks and
anything else that we are working towards.
This provides both parties with a
personal connection and allows for easy discussion rather than
interpreting details from within an email.
I find this weekly call to be invaluable
in my relationship with my clients and I know my clients appreciate it
also.
How can you put these tips into place
with your new or current VA relationship?
By considering these tips, you will be on
your way to having a great, long-term relationship with your Virtual
Assistant.
Would you like the
best help available to create your passive streams of income?
Check out the Multiple Streams 'Dream' Team. www.MultipleStreamsTeam.com
Best regards,
