On this episode, we are lucky to have Gina Horkey, Founder of Horkey HandBook, back on the show. On episode 45 Gina spoke about how you could hire and work with a virtual assistant, and she is back with more awesome advice and to help you take that first step to hiring your first assistant.

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Gina shares with us:

Hiring a virtual assistant gives you the opportunity to do the things that you do best in your business. You are able to outsource the tasks that are a time-suck and the things that often fall to the bottom of your to-do list.

Fortunately for the modern-day freelancer and business owner, the advancements in technology and the internet have made it possible for businesses to flourish in the online environment. This means that you are now able to choose from a gigantic pool of candidates to help you with your business. Part-time, full-time, flex time? No problem.

Starting Small
Gina Horkey got her own start as a virtual assistant. It was her side hustle, but she quickly realized how much she enjoys watching businesses grow and change from an insider’s perspective. Her experience as an assistant transcends industry and she’s worked with all kinds of businesses and business owners.

You never know what it’s going to look like five years in the future until you put out those initial feelers and start doing stuff.

Since you never know what direction your business could go, Gina recommends starting small when it comes to hiring a virtual assistant. Start out your new hire with only a couple of hours a week or month, just until you understand how the two of you work together. This can save you time and money, and it will make the transition from working alone to working with someone else much much easier.

If you get to that point where you’re already so busy, it’s really hard to onboard a virtual assistant and effectively get them on board.

When you’re already drowning in work, it’s already too late to hire an assistant. Hiring a VA before you get to that stressed out point will give you the time it takes to learn your working style, build it around an assistant, and create appropriate training materials for your future staff. Gina’s advice is to hire someone to do one specific task that you need help with and build on from there. If you don’t know where to start, Gina gives her own opinion on where an assistant can start out, and social media management and bookkeeping are at the top of the list.

Keep Your Options Open
Finding a great personal or virtual assistant won’t happen overnight. You are going to have to put in the time researching and prospecting potential hires before making the big decision. Gina breaks down the different services available to entrepreneurs that will help you interview and hire assistants.

Do what you want to do. Try out more than one thing at a time to see the difference. Try a VA finder and putting a call out to the community.

Gina’s greatest piece of advice today is hiring people for their strengths. Hire a virtual assistant who has a personal affinity for a specific task. Whether they’re the queen of social media or the king of project management, you want to hire them for that specific role. Playing to people’s strengths makes you a stronger business leader, and it will really show in the success of your business.

Remember, personal assistants are supposed to free up your time so you can focus on the tasks you do best. So if you want to play to your strengths, play to your virtual assistant’s as well.

Creating Training Materials
The big detail that new entrepreneurs always forget when they hire someone new is training. We always think we know our business so well that training someone new will be a breeze, but that’s rarely the case. You have to create proper training materials so your new virtual assistant knows exactly what the expectations are. This is where playing to a person’s strengths comes into play.

One of the things that some virtual assistants are really skilled at is project management.

Gina’s favorite method is creating videos. By recording herself using one of her project management tools, she can add the video to any training manual she creates. The new hires then have a visual to help explain their new position and can familiarize themselves with any new technology they may or may not have used before.

Finding a great virtual assistant will take an investment of your time and your money, but at the end of the day, it’s completely worth it. Gina’s tips for finding, hiring, and training new assistants will change the way you look at VAs. Tune in now because today could be the day you find your perfect assistant.

Resources Mentioned:

• Screencastify

Find Gina Horkey Online:

• Website: Horkey HandBook