Three simple hacks to getting the best from your VA

We all know how powerful Virtual Assistants can be for any business. The ability to delegate time consuming administration, someone else to manage the inbox and diary, getting your quotes and proposals back to your clients in rapid time. For some reason however, many people try out a Virtual Assistant, but don’t seem to get it right. They try it out for a few weeks, then it gets too hard and they end up going back to doing it themselves. 

Let’s help you avoid wasting your time and effort by getting it right in the first place. Here are 3 x hacks to ensure your VA captures your intent and delivers you the outcome you’re looking for. 

Task, Transfer, Teach. 

Hack # One. Capture the task and create your starting 5. 

It may sound simple, but capture the task you want them to perform. A VA will turn up ready to go so we need to make sure you’re ready as well. The number one thing that goes wrong with VA integration is the business owner has not prepared for the first day. They’re simply not ready. Hack # One is all about capturing the task you want them to perform. 

In business, there are only two things you should do. The things you love and the things only you could possibly do. Sooner or later, we need to delegate everything else. It’s not all going to happen overnight though. Trust the Process means just that. One by one, task by task we grow and empower the value of our time through delegation to highly motivated, intelligent and hard working team members. Start building a list of everyday activities that you really shouldn’t be doing. 

Once we have our list, we need to identify the starting 5. These are the first 5 tasks you are going to delegate to your VA. The purpose of these 5 is to set up your first week and ensure you are both ready. If you need a hint on what should be in the first 5 – they will be simple, frequent and time consuming. They will be simple to teach, occur regularly in your business and give you an immediate win with delegating to your new team member. 

Imagine delegating one task per day, every day for one year. That’s over 250 things you’re doing right now, that you won’t be doing next year. Imagine how much time you could save if each one of those tasks takes you 10min. How would you spend that time – focusing on revenue generating activities, spending time with your family, even 

Hack # Two – Transfer the task to Loom.com or other screen recording material. 

As business owners, one of the reasons we don’t delegate is because we don’t trust people will do it our way. Because we don’t trust, we tend to cling on to the most basic tasks. This is a mindset we are here to smash! Building a ‘how-to-guide’ or procedure on Loom.com is the simplest way to capture and transfer the task the way you want it done. 

How-to-guides written in ‘TImes New Roman 12pt’ are boring, hard to engage with and easy to ignore. A video, which has you talking, explaining and providing context is far more powerful, gets your intent across clearer and takes far less time to create! You don’t even need to dedicate time to do it, simply hit record the next time you do that task and you’ve created.

Once you’ve created this video, it is the start of your training library. You’re capturing the way you want it done so someone else can do it and most importantly, you’re  building redundancy into your business by getting things out of your head and into a system. 

Hack # Three – Teach

The most important thing to understand about a Virtual Assistant is they are not virtual. They are just like you and me, hungry to succeed and support their families. They are not robots and the quality of their work is directly related to the way you teach them. Hack #3 is all about how to make this easy for you. Remember this little catchphrase

Loom – Zoom – Boom

Loom. As mentioned above, Loom is the way we capture and transfer our how-to guides. Before you want to train your VA, send them your Loom videos so they are familiar with what you are about to go through. This simple step will help speed up the training process. 

Zoom. Do all your training on Zoom… and don’t forget to hit RECORD!!!. First step on Zoom is to demonstrate the task, let them shadow you for a while and watch you do it. Then flip the ‘screen share’, and let them do the task under your supervision. Talk them through, guide and adjust where required. Encourage questions. Once you have shadowed them, test them on getting through the whole task on their own. Remember to give them the recording of the Zoom video for reference later. 

Boom! You’ve trained your VA. You’ve created clear training material for them to refer to later (Loom) and nurtured them along through the Zoom sessions. The Next step is to simply get the VA to do the task and leave it in draft for you to review before release. Once you’re confident with the stage, let them do it for themselves and you’ve finally liberated yourself from the activity. 

Your VA is a huge point of leverage for your business. They can be a critical point in allowing you to win back time to focus on revenue, rather than administration. It’s really easy to get it right, but it can be really easy to get it wrong as well. 

 By following these three simple hacks, you can ensure that you can capture your task, transfer it across and teach your VA so you can delegate it forever. 

Are you ready to start delegating to your VA?

Book in a time here to have a chat with our team.