5 Tips to Help You Work More Effectively With a Virtual Assistant

It takes teamwork and communication to effectively outsource business (or personal) tasks.  Just like the planes flying in formation at left, without that teamwork and communication… things will crash and burn!

Here are 5 tips to help you work effectively with a virtual assistant.

1) Decide what you want to delegate and the goal.

Tell your VA what you’d like completed, and send any instructions you’ve got for the task. If you have a task you don’t know how to complete, your VA may be able to send you suggested steps to look over, ask questions, then approve to be completed. Many VAs have standard checklists for their most common tasks and can help you by allowing you to spend less time on the details.

Also, let your VA know what your desired results or end goal is. Knowing what you want to get out of a specific tasks or project, or your overall goal will help your VA complete the task more efficiently and sometimes offer helpful suggestions to achieve your desired results.

2) Details are good!

The more details you can give your VA about what you want, the quicker it can be completed properly. Consider using screenshots or video to show your VA exactly what you want.

3) Provide specifics on when you need an item completed by as well as how long you expect a task to take.

If you set a deadline and total time before assigning a project to your VA, you’re less likely to end up with surprise bills or late projects. Give your VA a chance to let you know if your deadline and total time expected for the project is reasonable, and if not how long it will take so you can decide together if the deadline and time you want spent on it is flexible.

Keep in mind that for bigger projects (like a complete website redesign) your VA is likely to need more time than for smaller items (like one or two website updates).

4) Stay in touch and be responsive.

Sometimes your VA may have questions about a task or project and need your feedback. Without it, the project will be stuck! Even if an answer seems obvious, always reply to any questions from your VA requesting additional information or confirming details. Most VAs haven’t mastered mind-reading yet.

5) Send your VA honest feedback.

If a task wasn’t completed quite as you expected, let your VA know so it can be fixed and done right next time. While VAs do strive to get everything right the first time, sometimes edits are necessary. More direction from you will help your VA get things done just the way you want them.

These tips will help you build a better, more open relationship with your virtual assistant so you can collaborate effectively.

This is the final post in this week’s outsourcing series – but don’t miss the rest of the great content on my blog! Subscribe and get free updates at http://feedburner.google.com/fb/a/mailverify?uri=MichelleShaeffer