subject: How To Work Effectively With A Virtual Assistant [print this page] One of the biggest obstacles many business owners think they face when it comes to working with a virtual assistant is that they simply cannot envisage how the whole thing could possibly work. Have an assistant who lives 1,000 miles away and is possibly in another time zone? Work with someone you have never met, how do you know that you can trust them, how can you monitor what they are doing?
This is the kind of resistance we come up against every day. These business owners and entrepreneurs have heard that working with a virtual assistant is a great idea, often from peers and colleagues who are already doing so. Yet they still have that one nagging worry "" how can this all possibly work?
Here then are our answers to some of the questions we get asked most frequently on this issue.
How Can I Minimize Risk When Starting to Work with a Virtual Assistant?
One of the things that may make you feel more comfortable about handing over parts of the day to day running of your baby (because we know that to all business owners that is exactly what their business is) is to start small. Delegate one of two tasks to begin with, or commission just a single project. This will let both sides of the relationship "" client and VA "" get used to each other's working styles and learn how to work together. Usually after that first task or project is completed we find that clients are then quite eager to hand over much more!
How will I communicate with my Virtual Assistant?
Thanks to a myriad of technologies there are a great many ways to keep in touch with your VA at all times. We find that many clients are most comfortable communicating via email as that gives them a venue to lay out their instructions and ideas clearly and they can take their time to compose a message that does just that. Email communication also means that they can contact their VA at any time, they do not have to wait until they are in their office at their desk to do so.
Instant messengers like Skype, MSN Messenger, Yahoo and G Chat are popular choices for clients that need immediate responses or like to chat and brainstorm without running up massive phone bills "" something most small businesses can ill afford.
How Do I Know My Virtual Assistant is Working?
This is a biggie for many of the business s owners who contact us about our services. They have an understandable fear that while they are paying someone to work for them that person will actually be playing Farmville on Facebook, or catching up with the latest gossip on TMZ.
We are not sure how other firms do this, but at Wirewalkers we use sophisticated time tracking system that lets clients review exactly how a virtual assistant's time was spent, what they were doing and when. We also make it clear to our VAs right from the very first day that they are hired that this kind of behavior is never tolerated. As we strive to hire only professionals who are dedicated to building their own careers as successful virtual professionals we have never had a problem in this area yet.
