4 - How to Hire Your First Virtual Assistant

So in this training video, I'm going to walk you through step by step, how to hire your first virtual assistant or remote team member. These are the exact steps that I have used to hire virtual assistants, web developers, other social media managers, that kind of stuff. And this process is super lean, super effective. And if you do it right, you're able to truly grow and start scaling

your business by start delegating out those low value tasks that you as the business owner should not be spending your time on. So let's dive in. So step one is to create a profile at a website called online jobs.ph. The video, this video training, it's specifically geared towards this job listing website called online jobs.ph and I'll share with you a little bit about why I chose this

website. However, the steps that you're going to use here, it can be applied to other websites like Upwork and Elance and that kind of stuff as well. But again, this training video in particular is geared towards finding workers through this website. Secondly, create a detailed job description with a call to action that filters out applicants who do not follow directions. So the beauty of this process is

you're going to save yourself a lot of time and effort because nobody, nobody truly wants to sort through 200 plus applications, which posting on online jobs as you'll learn is a very high traffic site. You're going to get a ton of applications. You do not want to spend all your time going through these. So what we actually do in this process is we build in steps that

allow the applicants to weed out themselves to eliminate your mental energy investment. So I'll get into that in just a minute. Next, eliminate all applicants who didn't follow the directions included in your listing. And I'll include a template for your job listing as well. Next, spend 30 to 45 minutes to review applications and identify your top 10 applicants. So again, at a certain point, you will have

to spend, you know, around 30 minutes or so to review the applications and make sure that you're finding quality talent. But all in all, this whole process, it shouldn't take you much more than about 60 minutes. So you're going to invest about 60 minutes and you're going to save yourself not only a bunch of time, but a bunch of money because by outsourcing these tasks, you're going

to be able to spend that that time on high value tasks that you're going to be able to use to create leverage in your business and grow your agency. Next, again, we're following up with a dead simple response. And again, we're going to be filtering out applicants with this step as well as I'll share with you. Next, identify your top two to three applicants. Then lastly, share

a brief for an initial trial task with your top one to one or two applicants. And then following the conclusion of that trial task, you should be in a very good place and be at a place where you'll be able to understand if you want to hire this individual or not for ongoing work. All right, so let's dive in to step number one. So the reason that

we're going to use online jobs.ph, it's the best resource for finding high quality Filipino workers. It has very high traffic. There's great talent and it's very, very affordable, both the service as well as the talent that you'll be finding. Filipinos themselves, they're very good English speakers. And they also have great work ethic, you know, they're hungry, they're excited. And they just are the types of people that

you enjoy working with, which is really, really important, no matter what type of tasks that you're working on. And then lastly, they're incredibly, incredibly affordable. I've worked with Filipino outsourced workers from anywhere from $2 up to personally about $15, though, you know, the ranges do vary. But again, this website is just amazing for outsourcing those low level tasks. And you know, it's a really fun and enjoyable

process when you do it the right way. The types of tasks that you're going to want to look to hire out. Like I said, virtual assistants, you know, those could be project managers, WordPress assistants, social media managers, developers as well, designers too. Again, you know, you're going to have to learn how to vet these individuals just to make sure that the quality of their work is high.

But again, this is a very great resource to get started hiring out. To do this, just go to online jobs.ph and click on posted job in the top right. It's a super easy interface. And the cost of the service is $49 a month. However, you can use it just for individual jobs. So for example, go in, create a job listing, pay the $49 membership fee. And then

you're able to cancel immediately after that. If you do need to use the service, again, you can resume your membership. So it's super easy, super painless. All right, next, create a detailed job description with a call to action. So here I've broken down every single thing that you need to include in that job description. And then on the next page, I'll include a template for this. So

in the headline, you want to share exactly what you're looking for, you know, you want it to be very clear at a glance, what you're hiring for, so that you're going to be able to get targeted vetted talent. Next you want to generate excitement. Look, I mean, why, why would anyone want to work with you, right? Like, you still need to build up that excitement and make

sure that you're starting this relationship out on a good foot, right? So you want to share what you need, you want to share what skills you require, you want to share your pay structure, share what's in it for them, you know, are you looking for a quick job? Or are you looking for ongoing work? These individuals, these Filipino workers, they get really excited when you tell them

that there's a potential for a long term relationship here. They want to grow with you, they want to grow with your business. So it's very important that you include that. Lastly, also very, very important is share a specific call to action. And this call to action is going to be the way that you initially filter out applicants that do not fully read your job description. So let's

dive into the actual headline structure first. So here's the headline structure that I've used. I need a blank with blank and blank. So basically, you're sharing your initial core need, as well as, you know, your top one or two skills. Feel free to customize and use variations of this. But this is just what I've used in the past with success. Next, we have our job overview. So

again, you know, you're breaking down everything, you're sharing what you need, you're generating excitement, you're sharing what's in it for them, you're sharing those required skills and responsibilities. And then at the bottom, the most important part, probably of this, because again, it's going to make your job super easy when you need to vet and filter through these applications. It says to be considered for hiring, please be

sure to include hashtag boom sauce in your subject line. So I know you took the time to fully read the listing. Obviously, you can customize that. But the point of this is to make sure that everyone who's applying is actually reading every single bit of your job description, right? You don't want somebody that just quickly blazes through this and doesn't take time to be careful because they're

not going to be the type of person that you're going to be able to grow your business with, right? They're not going to be the type of person that you want to start outsourcing tasks to. So it's very, very critical that you include something that allows them to signify that they've followed those instructions. All right, so here's just a job listing template that you can just copy

and paste, screenshot, whatever you want to do. I've basically underlined everything that you need to adjust. If this is a creative role, you want to make sure that at the bottom here, you include that they must also include their portfolio or previous work. Again, you can have a little fun with your hashtags here, hashtag tacos. I've also used in the past. It doesn't really matter. It just

matters that this applicant has actually followed your instructions. So next, super easy, eliminate applicants. So again, in my job listing at the bottom, I said include boom saucing your subject line. So I know you read the listing fully and can follow instructions. So step one, delete all applicants in your inbox without hashtag boom sauce. That's, it's just super simple. And again, you are probably going to go

from let's say 200 applicants to maybe 100 at this stage, because it's just a given that many, many of those applicants were not individuals who fully read your job description. They likely just copy and pasted their applications elsewhere. And again, those are not the types of people that you want to work with. So very simple, no boom sauce, no cash money. All right, next. Here you can

see, just go into your Gmail, you're going to enter in your criteria. And look, you can see whether or not they included it. All right, so next, once you have filtered out, kind of gone through like the first stage of filtering out your applicants, you want to identify your top 10 applicants. So this is again, a process that will probably take you around 30 minutes or so.

But here's what you want to look for in your applicants. You want to look for good communication skills and politeness, right? You want to make sure that they absolutely understand what you're saying. You want to make sure that they absolutely understand English. Because again, most Filipinos have our very good English speakers. However, some of them won't be and you're not going to want to work with the

individuals who are not, it just makes things difficult. Next, ideally, they have previous experience with a relevant agency or business. However, given the nature of the tasks, you know, depending on what you're going to be providing to them, if they are just simple, low level tasks like WordPress assistance or hitting publish or putting things into a schedule, like those types of things, it's not super, super needed

that they have previous experience with your specific type of agency. Although, of course, it doesn't hurt. Next, specialized skill set. So you're going to want to look for individuals, if you're looking for a virtual assistant, you're going to want to look for individuals that just crush it as a VA, right? You don't want to look for, like, you don't want, you don't want an applicant who says,

I'm a VA, I'm also a developer, I'm a designer, I'm a, I'm a coater, I'm a, I'm a WordPress customization expert, no. You want to look for specialists, okay? Even though you are looking at lower level skills and outsourcing these low level tasks, you want to make sure that who you're hiring knows what they're doing inside and out. And really, that applies to not just hiring virtual

assistants, but hiring anyone else that you'll be hiring in the future for your business. And then, again, if applicable, if you're hiring for a creative skill, or you're hiring like a copywriter or someone, you want to see links to their previous work, for sure. All right, so here is an example of a very good application from an individual that I was hiring for a developer. And I'm

actually still working with this individual and her team for some development tasks. So, as you can see at the top here, you can see that she listened, right? She included, she included hashtag boom sauce in the subject line. She, she wrote very clear, she wrote a very clear description, very great English. You can tell that she communicates well. She writes well, or Google's well, but I'm just

kidding, she does write well, I know her personally now. So, and then at the bottom here, she also included her portfolio. Also a major bonus, she works with a team. So, if you are going to be hiring out some creative skill sets, you know, like design or development, if you do have someone who manages a team, that's potentially even better for your business because you're not just

hiring one, you're hiring three people or five people or whatever, for the price of one. So, those are all things that you can look out for. All right, so next, once you have identified, you know, the top ten applicants or so, you again want to specify a call to action that allows the incompetent applicants to filter themselves out. So, reply with another very specific call to action.

So, here you can see on the left, I identified this individual on the right as someone who was a potential good fit for a web developer. I said in two sentences, so very specific, tell me why you're a good fit for this role and what interested you about the listing. So, I'm less concerned about her reply to this message. I'm much more concerned about the fact that

she responds based on my instructions, right? So, here you can say I said in two sentences and then please include links to your previous work. So, over here on the right, you can see that she wrote me about two paragraphs in a half. So, immediately, she's gone. Bye Felicia. She is gone and, you know, like, you don't have time for people that don't follow directions. So, bye-fuh-li-shuh.

Boom, there you go. So, you got to have a little bit of fun when you're creating these programs, right guys? All right, cool. So, moving on and yes, those are actually Queen Elizabeth's middle fingers. I don't know what inspired her to do that, but that's a topic for another day. Anyways, all right, so now, at this stage, you've already gone through about two rounds of vetting your

applicants, okay? So, now it's time to identify the top applicants and the people that you want to offer an initial trial task to. So, again, you're looking for good communication skills and politeness, previous experience, specialized skill set, and links to previous work, if applicable. All right, so now, once you have identified the individual, maybe you're going to offer this job to one or maybe two or three

individuals, I wouldn't recommend more than that. You know, you want to just really just go with your gut on the first few. But here's what you need to include in this brief. And what you're going to do is you're going to create an initial trial task for this individual to take on. Again, this is the final stage of the applicant vetting themselves, right? So, what you're going

to do is you're going to create a trial task that should be medium to difficult. And it should be exactly what this new hire would do in their role, if you were to hire them, right? So, you should already have the SOPs or the processes or the systems that this specific individual is going to follow. So, literally, just create a sample task for them. It's really that

simple. And this should not take you more than a minute or a few minutes to put together. The brief must include clear instructions, links to reference files, deadline, and pay rate. Something that you should note is you need to inform the applicant that they'll be paid a trial rate for this task, which is slightly less than their regular rate. And this is standard. These Filipino workers who

have experience in working as a VA or other types of remote work, they understand this. This is just kind of standard practice for them. So, you know, if their rate is $5 an hour, telling you'll pay them like $4 an hour or something like that, again, for this initial trial task. And then once, you know, they pass that trial task and move on to you bringing them

on board, they'll go back to their requested rate. Alright, so here's just a sample trial task brief. So, my, what I was hiring for was a virtual assistant. And so, basically, the trial task was to create image quotes for contributors on my Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter channels. Basically, I provided a bunch of guidelines. I provided him with reference files and login details to basically just get everything

set up and ready, right? So, as you can see, it's not very long this brief, but it's very, very informative and descriptive. Also, include templates or reference files where possible. So, here you can, you can see that I basically specified each and every aspect of this graphic that I want. And guys, this is not only applicable to your VAs, but it's applicable to every aspect of your

business. When you're hiring out and you're delegating workout to individuals, it needs to be, it needs to pass that five-year-old test, right? It needs to be so clear how they are one to deliver on this task and then two, what that end deliverable is going to look like. And when you're able to do this, you're really able to empower the individuals that you're hiring and it really

brings your quality of work and your sense of fulfillment as a manager and a business owner to a whole nother level. So, again, you know, go through the extra steps to really just spell everything out clearly because you only, only really need to do it once and then you're good, okay? So, include those reference files and templates. All right, so a few red flags and things to

watch out for. Pretty much standard across the board, but slow response time, lack of attention to detail, not adhering to the deadline, coming up with excuses after terms have been agreed upon. So, pretty straightforward there. All right, so if they end up crushing it with your trial test, then it's time to hire them. And look, start small. You don't need to get married on the first date.

Agree to a weekly hourly commitment and rate and then go from there, you know, it's really dependent upon your needs. But, you know, some suggestions, you know, pay them one time a week or pay them twice a month. Again, this is all based on your needs. And they're also used to starting off under a sort of trial employment period of, you know, maybe one to three months,

something like that before transitioning to full time or however much you need them there. These individuals, these Filipino workers, they're very easy going, they're flexible, and they're willing to work with you. So, there you go. That's pretty much it. Once you bring them on, here's just some tips to make sure that this experience is as beneficial as possible, not only for you and your business, but for

them as well. So treat them as your friend. Look, they're your new hire. You want to, I mean, this, this is my operating style, my management style, you know, I treat these individuals as my friends. I want them to know that I value their relationship. And I'm very complimentary when they do good. However, I'm very stern when they don't. And the best workers are the ones that

can take constructive criticism in stride, right? If they start, if they start getting defensive or they start making excuses, then they're probably not the type of person that you want to grow with, okay? And then lastly, constantly ask them for feedback on your management and processes for, you know, your briefs or however you're running with them, you know, just make sure that they're aware that you're constantly

trying to improve their work and constantly trying to improve how you manage them. So, that is your 20-minute training about how to hire your first virtual assistant or remote worker. Again, guys, this, this process, I've used multiple multiple times and it's been critical in growing my business. So, I hope you are excited to go and hire your first VA or remote worker and I'll catch you guys

soon.