Five Steps That Will Help Prepare Your Business to Work with a Virtual Assistant

Working with a Virtual Assistant, especially a Lissie Lu Virtual Assistant, can be a life changing experience for your business. But when you sign up to work with a VA there are a few things you can do to ensure a smooth transition out of the busy work that’s holding you back and into a great working relationship with a VA. Your VA will handle the tasks that are taking up way too much of your time. Add the following Five Easy-To-Do Steps to your list this week to ensure you’re prepped and ready for Lissie Lu Virtual Assisting to take the reigns. You want to prepare yourself, your business, and your new Virtual Assistant prior to your start date so that no time is wasted and you can get right to work crushing goals while your VA handles the tasks that have been holding you back.

Secure all passwords in one easily accessible place

A password protection program/app such as Dashlane is a great place to store all of the passwords your virtual assistant will need to keep your business running smoothly. Include passwords to social media accounts if your VA will be posting or checking messages on your behalf. Include passwords or codes needed for any programs that are specialized for your business. Include all needed information for checking voicemails or emails as needed as well.

You want all of the passwords needed for day to day operations to be easy to access because fielding, “Hey I need the password to xyz” texts throughout the day is not fun for you, your Virtual Assistant, or your iPhone… that baby needs a break sometimes, too! Save your limited communications with your Virtual Assistant (unless of course your assistant will be working hand in hand with you on projects) for important information and questions. 

Waiting on a password from you slows your Virtual Assistant down and throws off the flow of tasks for the day. Make sure your VA has what they need beforehand to save time and therefore money. The more productive your Virtual Assistant can be without unnecessary time being spent waiting on passwords etc the better. Dashlane is a great tool which is safe and handy with both desktop and mobile versions, but there are many other password keepers available on the market. Always do your research and use the program that you deem safest, and best, for you and your individual needs.

Create a detailed list of day to day tasks, monthly tasks, quarterly tasks, and yearly tasks. 

Your Virtual Assistant will complete tasks as they come up, but having a baseline of steady repeatable tasks is key to running an operation smoothly. Daily tasks like checking messages, returning certain types of emails, and any other daily tasks that you have in mind should be outlined and highlighted as daily non-negotiables. Remember, as you work with your VA the lists you have can and likely will evolve. Perhaps you’ll find that something you’ve considered super important daily can be done weekly instead. Having someone else working with you to tame the lion that is your to-do list can help put things in perspective and make it easier to delegate certain things and take back over things you realize are best completed by you-  you’ll have time as you pass off other tasks that are taking up your time. 

Weekly, monthly, quarterly and yearly tasks can be sorted out and put on a calendar for your Virtual Assistant to handle as they come up. Go over these tasks in the beginning to ensure your Virtual Assistant has a clear picture of the expectations that are coming up in order to schedule things out accordingly. Your Virtual Assistant, especially if you choose to work with a Lissie Lu Virtual Assistant, will evaluate the work you are requesting and make suggestions in order to remain cost effective and in order to get all of the work done in a timely manner. 

Again, the to do lists will evolve. Things will be added and taken away as needed to find the perfect balance for you and for your Virtual Assistant as you learn and grow together. The whole point of a Virtual Assistant is to make things easier on you and to free up your time so you can work on things that an assistant can't do like deeper operational work and changes or sales or marketing that is in depth… the things that require your expertise. Virtual Assistants handle the day to day, weekly, quarterly, monthly, and yearly work that does not require your specific skill set to complete. 

Schedule a discussion with your VA and outline expectations on both sides.

Clear expectations are important for any business relationship. Clear expectations are especially important when you’re working with a Virtual Assistant. Set a time for a chat, zoom is a great option! Talk to your Virtual Assistant about your work, what makes you tick, and what your expectations are for the relationship. Making sure that your VA understands the breadth and scope of work expected as well as anything about your business that is pertinent regarding time sensitive projects and tasks will help you avoid any frustration. Your Virtual Assistant can’t read your mind after all. But if that becomes a feature of VAs in the future, Lissie Lu will be the first to implement that cutting edge human technology. *smile*

Setting expectations is equally important for your Virtual Assistant. Your Lissie Lu VA will go over the processes outlined for your account and relay any important information to you. Your VA will go over what you can expect to happen in the first few weeks, first month, and first quarter working together. Your VA will also discuss workload and set reasonable expectations for deadlines etc. Make sure that this is a collaborative conversation filled with questions but leaving plenty of room for each of you to have the floor and discuss what can be expected. If you know what to expect, things will run more smoothly from day one. 

Work out a schedule for “training” to ensure everything will run smoothly.

When working with a new member of your team, you should always plan for a training period. Granted the training period required for most Virtual Assistant tasks are typically extremely short, but still a small window of training should be allotted. VA training shouldn’t take long, especially if clear expectations have been set and the tasks have been clearly outlined. But leave room in your schedule to answer more questions the first few days or weeks than you will need to answer going forward. Your VA wants to ensure that all tasks are completed to the best of their ability and to your standard. 

Working with a Virtual Assistant is going to change the way you do business making things easier to take on and accomplish. But make sure that when something new comes up, you spend a little time thoroughly explaining the task and the processes required. Remember, like I said earlier, VAs aren’t mind readers. They’re humans and they need a helping hand to make sure that nothing slips through the cracks in the beginning before taking the reins. You’ll let go completely eventually, but doing the work of training and discovering best practices together in the very beginning will expedite that process and leave you free to work on other things more quickly. 

Create shared communication methods and coordinate calendars.

There are so many great options for quick and seamless communication with your Virtual Assistant. Outline what you prefer from the beginning. Some clients prefer that all communication is kept up with via email. Others prefer a messaging platform such as Group Me. Your Virtual Assistant will have suggestions and preferences, so make sure you ask before jumping into a new program. If you have something in place that you’re familiar with and happy with that has been used by other people you work with, let your VA know so you can work out what's going to be the best solution. Clear, concise, and consistent communication is key to a great VA and business partnership. 

Creating a scheduling method that works perhaps via Google Calendars, is also a great thing to implement from the beginning with your VA. If you need your VA to keep up with your Calendar also allow them to add anything they need from you to your calendar. Keeping a clean calendar that is managed daily is important as you know. Allow your VA to help with this and also keep up with meetings and expectations via a calendar if that makes sense for your business. 

A little time spent on the organization of tasks and processes will make things much easier. 

Working with a Virtual Assistant is going to be a game changer for your business. You’ll be more productive and have more time on your hands. Making sure that all your ducks are in a row from the very beginning will ensure that process goes quickly and you’ll get the full benefit of working with a VA much more quickly. Take the time to sort through the things you need to review with your VA prior to starting your work and you’ll be glad you did!

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