You might be reading this blog and shaking your head. The idea of delegating or hiring a virtual assistant leaves a bad taste in your mouth because you\u2019ve had terrible experiences with virtual assistants in the past. Bad experiences happen. The good news is that not all virtual assistants are the same. Understand why the past lousy experience happened You have to understand why your past experiences failed. Was it the virtual assistant? Was it you? The answer is most likely: a mixture of both. A common problem with delegating to a virtual assistant is that people aim for the cheapest virtual assistant. After all, how difficult can it be to upload a blog post or answer an e-mail? For the inexperienced virtual assistant, even the tasks that seem the easiest can be the most daunting. If you went the route of a cheap virtual assistant, you would invest much time into training that virtual assistant. Training is time-consuming and frustrating, especially when you figure you can do it yourself. Another common issue is lack of communication.  Maybe the virtual assistant took forever to answer your messages or get tasks done. Perhaps you were too vague or frantic with the way you managed your virtual assistant\u2019s responsibilities. Finding a virtual assistant who works well with your style of communication may take a few tries. Few people are lucky enough to land their perfect assistant on the first try. (Psst – if you want to make that hiring process a little bit easier, you should download your virtual assistant hiring checklist. Enter your e-mail address below, and I\u2019ll send it right over). Enter your email address:   Delivered by FeedBurner Make sure you\u2019re paying what they\u2019re worth There\u2019s no such thing as \u201cyou\u2019re asking for too much\u201d when it comes to a virtual assistant, as long as the rate your paying is matching the workload. For example, I\u2019ve seen job ads where someone wants an on-call virtual assistant that can do any task within minutes of being assigned. They want a turnaround of fewer than three hours. However, they only want to pay the virtual assistant for hours worked, and not the hours spent being on-call. These types of job listings will attract only low-quality virtual assistants who are desperate for a job. They\u2019ll take the offer, but since the pay isn\u2019t consistent, they\u2019ll look for other job offers as well. Eventually, they may land a better deal, and your job gets put on the back burner. However, if this job listing paid the virtual assistant for the hour they\u2019re on call, even when there\u2019s no work to be done, the virtual assistant has more incentive to give their full attention to your business. High quality work comes with a higher paycheck that you\u2019re willing to give the virtual assistant. Write down a set of qualities you want and don\u2019t want in a virtual assistant The nice thing about virtual assistants is that there are so many of us on the market. You can mix and match or pick and choose the quality you want to see. You are allowed to say that you want a virtual assistant who can handle every aspect of your business- from bookkeeping to customer support to managing your social media accounts. Remember, the higher the skillset and the more you want out of your virtual assistant, the higher their rate is going to be. You might also be on a budget and only want a virtual assistant to handle a small part of your business. For example, you might write a weekly blog post but want someone to upload, categorize, and tag it for you. That\u2019s fine too. Make sure you write the requirements out clearly and hire a virtual assistant who makes you confident in their skills. Terrible experiences with a past virtual assistant can sour how you feel about delegating your tasks. If you\u2019re not ready to hire another virtual assistant, that\u2019s fine. There\u2019s nothing wrong with running your business solo, especially if you take joy in doing the more tedious tasks on your own. If you\u2019re looking to build a second business, spend more time with your family, or take a load off your plate, consider revamping your hiring process for a virtual assistant. Take the time to draft requirements, set aside a budget, and interview your most promising prospects. They will make it worth your while. To make your hiring process more manageable, don\u2019t forget to grab your virtual assistance hiring checklist below.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2316,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false}}},"categories":[51,35,38,20],"tags":[21,22,39,23],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"yoast_head":"\n