by Marta Costa
Whether it was by Twitter or article or blog post, somewhere along the way you saw the term Virtual Assistant. It struck a chord with you so you decided to look into it. Once you did, you knew this would be the perfect resource for you. You set out to hire a Virtual Assistant, but you didn’t know how to go about it.
How do you find a Virtual Assistant? What kind of Virtual Assistant will you need? How much do they charge? How do I get in contact with them? How does this all work?
First things first, there are some things you need to take into consideration before even beginning the process of finding a VA.
1. What kinds of tasks do you want them to take on? Write it out with as much detail and structure as you possible can. 2. Are you comfortable with working with someone virtually? Can you handle not being able to see someone fact to face? 3. How many hours do you think youll need them for each week/month? 4. How much can you afford to budget for this? Take into account how much more productive you will be during those hours that your Virtual Assistant will be freeing you up. For example, if your hourly rate is $200, at $50 per hour for a Virtual Assistant, for that same $200 you can free up 4 hours, opening your availability to make an additional $800.
Now that you’ve got that all figured out, you’re ready to begin. You may be inclined to just do a Google search for Virtual Assistant and go from there. There is a much simpler way to attract the perfect VA candidates for you.
An RFP allows you to take all of your answers from the questions above and put them out there on these sites so that the Virtual Assistants with the proper qualifications can contact you and take some of the legwork out of the process.
Some of the most popular site are:
* IVAA or International Virtual Assistants Association * VANetworking.com * Virtual Assistant Forums * A Claytons Secretary * Find Virtual * Home Secretarial Services * Virtual Assistance Chamber of Commerce
Once youve posted your RFP, just sit back and relax. Youll get an influx of proposals from qualified, professional Virtual Assistants ready to partner with you. From there its just a matter of connecting with them and discerning which one you feel the most comfortable with.