After all the scouting, interviewing, and preparing for a virtual assistant, you’ve finally made it to your first day with your virtual assistant. You might be excited to start your day with your virtual assistant, but let’s make sure that your first day goes smoothly. Here’s a list of things that you should do to ensure that your first day goes according to plan.
Make sure your contracts are all signed
Before you start working with your virtual assistant, you have to make sure you’re legally covered. If you and your virtual assistant haven’t agreed on the terms or the scope of work, you need to go over that through the contract. The contract should be signed by both you and your virtual assistant.
It’s important to have your contract in place because it protects your business. For the virtual assistant, the contract ensures that they get paid and that the terms of working together are reasonable for them.
Agree on payment and payment methods
This should also be in your contract but it’s worth talking about payment. Your virtual assistant may have a project rate or hourly rate, though you should’ve had a discussion on how that payment was going to happen. Will your virtual assistant be paid upfront? Will they track their hours and then bill you at the end of the week?
Make sure you’re both on the same page about how payment will work so your virtual assistant isn’t left in the dark on how they’re going to be paid. Also, if you agreed to pay your virtual assistant upfront, take care to ensure they’re actually paid before their first day on the job.
Add your virtual assistant to any software they need
Your virtual assistant might need passwords, access to your project management system, and any other software necessary to make their job run smoothly. One of the major first-day issues with businesses is that they fail to give the virtual assistant the information they need and the virtual assistant is unable to get their job done.
If you’re using an extension like LastPass to get passwords to your virtual assistant, send them the info that they need. If you’re using a project management system to assign tasks to your virtual assistant, invite them to the program and make sure they have access to the tasks that you’re assigning.
To be on the safe side, ask your virtual assistant if there’s anything else they need access to that they don’t have.
Assign your repetitive tasks first
The easiest way to get on a great pace with your virtual assistant is to assign the repetitive tasks first. These are tasks that they’ll do daily. This sets your virtual assistant up to expect a certain routine when working with you.
Tasks that you might assign could be checking your inbox, checking social media, checking Facebook groups, responding to important messages, proofreading or editing content, uploading blog posts, etc.
Assign the daily tasks first and then start incorporating the weekly tasks.
When the virtual assistant has a firm grasp of how things work in your business, you can start adding one-time tasks.
The trick is to gently onboard your virtual assistant. Even the most skilled virtual assistants need to get their bearings and absorb what the business is about, especially if they knew nothing about your business before working with you.
Plan to be present on the first day with your virtual assistant
One of the worst things you could do on the first day is vanish from your business. A lot of business owners assume that the virtual assistant is set and doesn’t need any help. In truth, the first day is difficult to work through because most of the issues will happen on the first day. A password might not work. There might be internal jargon that your virtual assistant doesn’t understand.
On the first day, you should check in on your virtual assistant to make sure that they’re comfortable. Make sure they know that there’s an open door policy for any questions they have about the tasks. Create an inviting environment so that the virtual assistant isn’t afraid to speak up if they see an issue with a task. This gives your virtual assistant the confidence to help you run your business and it also creates a sense of trust.
Give feedback
Most importantly, you want to be around to give your virtual assistant some feedback at the end of the day. If anything went wrong, let them know what could have been done better. If things went smoothly, give the virtual assistant a compliment and a thank you. A little humanity towards the virtual assistant goes a long way.
Are you nervous about your first day with a virtual assistant? Let us know in the comments below.
