Having a Virtual Assistant is a great way of getting those admin tasks completed that get in the way of you doing what you do best; but how do you make the most effective use of their time?
I have been a virtual assistant or VA for over 5 years now and here are my top tips:
Communicate!
I find a meeting every week is a great way of clearly communicating. In this meeting you can let your VA know what you want from them and they can understand your needs. It’s good to find an effective way your VA can get in contact with you quickly – this could be using tools such as Microsoft Teams or WhatsApp. Without a strong line of communication work could be slowed down by delays in responding. Make sure you are clear about the work you want your VA to do and when you want it done by.
Utilise the skills your virtual assistant has
Find out your virtual assistants’ areas of expertise. If this is finance pass your invoices and expenses to them, if they are super organised, they could manage your diary for you and make room and travel bookings. Your VA should be extra efficient at completing the tasks they are an expert at.
Schedule your work
Let your virtual assistant know (if you can) what tasks you have coming up for them. This is especially useful when you have a virtual assistant that works for several companies. It means they can schedule time in to complete your work in a timely manner and they won’t have to rush the work.
Give your virtual assistant the right jobs to do
This should be the tasks that ‘waste’ the time you have and that could be better spent on the area of expertise you specialise in. Ideally these would be tasks where your virtual assistant doesn’t need specialised knowledge (as giving them this will use up more of your own time). This could be areas such as diary management, invoicing, travel and room bookings.
Use the right tools
This could be to share documents (OneDrive, Dropbox or Google Drive), to safely remember usernames and passwords (LastPass), tools like Doodle are great for setting up meetings for several people with different options and are much more efficient than sending multiple back and forward emails.
Feedback
Let your virtual assistant know if they didn’t do something quite right and then this can be remedied next time. As well as this make sure you tell them you appreciate their hard work; keep your VA motivated by letting them know when they have done a good job and how that has helped you and your business. I always work more efficiently when I am motivated and happy!
Expectations
Don’t expect your virtual assistant to know everything about your business and how it works. It’s good to give them a basic knowledge of what you do along with other detail they may need to complete specific tasks.
This article has been written by Charlotte Richardson (charlotte@wheresmylunch.co.uk) – Charlotte has been helping me keep organised now since early 2022. She is fab!