AUGUST 22, 2023

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Welcome to The Tilt, a twice-weekly newsletter for content entrepreneurs.

How To Find and Hire a Virtual Assistant

Hiring a virtual assistant felt like an overwhelming hurdle to Ella Ritchie, founder of Stellar Communications Houston. But after 10 years as a solo entrepreneur, she was beginning to feel burnout and couldn’t give everything the necessary attention.

“I decided to start small and hire an editor on Upwork for assistance with a single project,” Ella says. “I like the crowd-sourcing approach to vetting assistants because it’s a low-commitment way to test several prospects.

Whether you choose the online marketplace route or seek alternatives, you need a plan. Let’s dive into the who, where, what, and how of hiring a virtual assistant who can help your business.

Identify the type of virtual assistant you need: Erin Booth, a virtual assistant mentor, says entrepreneurs usually hire a VA to serve as a jack of all trades or for specific skills needed for their business.

General VAs typically offer admin services, such as managing calendars, travel, inboxes, digital organization, bookkeeping, etc. “Think of them like the admin wheels that keep your back-of-house running,” Erin says.

Specialty VAs offer services on top of general administration work, usually based on their education or prior work history. “It's not uncommon to find VAs who specialize in things like brand management, social media management, copyediting, video and podcast editing, community management, and more,” Erin says.

Rates differ for the two VA categories. According to Erin, a typical general VA rate is $20 to $35 an hour in the US, while specialty VAs can charge $40 to $75 an hour.

Find virtual assistant candidates: While Ella went the Upwork route, Erin outlines several other hiring options to consider:

• Ask your network for recommendations. Having a trusted person in your network recommend a VA takes care of the social proof right away.
• Post a job listing on your social accounts.
• Use the search bar on LinkedIn, including “virtual assistant” and the specific services to find specialized VAs.

“To get quality candidates, however, you need a quality job listing. If your job listing isn’t precise, explicit, and thorough, you’ll end up sorting through piles of resumes from candidates that don’t meet your requirements,” Erin says.

What does a quality job listing look like? Erin says it should incorporate the following:

• Exact skills necessary
• Expectations for their work
• Logistics of the job
• Budget
• Detailed instructions about how to apply for the job

After sifting through the application, it’s important to hop on a phone call or video chat with the finalists. “Ultimately, virtual assistants are business owners themselves. A call between the entrepreneur and the VA is important for both parties to get a better sense for cultural fit,” Erin says.

During the interview, consider asking questions such as:

• How long have you been a VA?
• What services do you offer? Do you have any specialty or niche skills?
• What is your availability? Do you prefer synchronous or async work?
• What are your rates?
• What is your work style?
• How do you handle challenging clients?
• What would you do if I gave you a task you didn't fully understand?
• How do you handle mistakes that you make?

“Behavioral questions can help assess a VA's problem-solving skills and how they handle challenges. Don't be afraid to ask these tough questions,” Erin advises.

Hire the VA who you think best fits your needs and with whom you feel you could work well.

– Ann Gynn

​Bookmark the full article, which also includes the pitch email Ella sent her prospective VA, as well as tips for onboarding your VA.​

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Entrepreneur and Biz: Alexis Haselberger

Tilt: Time management and productivity coach

Primary Channels: Website, online courses, blog

Other Channels: LinkedIn (4.8K), YouTube (1.26K), Instagram (917), Facebook (236)

Time to First Dollar: 3 months. Within 8 months, she matched her full-time salary.

Rev Streams: Online courses, group and one-on-one coaching, corporate workshops

Our Favorite Actionable Advice:

• Contact everyone: Alexis launched her business by sending the announcement to every email address in her contact lists, from high school peers to her insurance guy. All of them weren’t in her target audience, but they might know someone who was.
• Grow and send regularly to your email list: Unlike social media, email addresses let you contact the person directly. Alexis sends a weekly newsletter with a post from her blog and quick calls to action to stay top of mind.
• Think three years: After three years, Alexis found she didn’t have to hustle as she did early on because many of the content seeds she published were growing.

– Sarah Lindenfeld Hall

​Read more about Alexis Haselberger.​

Know a content creator who’s going full tilt? DM us. Or email tilt@thetilt.com.

• ​Time To Stop Publishing on Amazon (Content Inc.)
• ​Fake Content Everywhere [And What To Do] (This Old Marketing)
• Let’s talk on Tuesday at 12 p.m. US ET on Tilt Your Business: A Weekly Mastermind for the Creator Economy. Michelle Peterson Clark and Ann Gynn co-host.
• ​When don’t you patent your intellectual property? (Tech Crunch)
• ​What advice do Magic Johnson and other celebrity entrepreneurs have to offer? (Entrepreneur)

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