A Startup’s Guide to Hiring a Virtual Assistant

This course is a deep-dive into hiring a VA (virtual assistant) for your startup/software company. It answers every question I've been asked about hiring a VA. I've hired more than 20 remote workers over the past 6 years.

The course is broken up into 4 parts:

Part 1: Why a VA?

1. What is a VA and why would a startup founder want to hire one?

2. What kind of tasks can they help with?

3. Isn’t it faster to do things yourself (and be sure they get done correctly)?

Part 2: All Your Questions Answered

1. Can you hire a VA part-time?

2. Should you hire part-time or full-time?

3. Are they paid hourly or do you have to buy a block of hours?

4. Are there long-term commitments?

5. What are the pros and cons of hiring someone domestic vs. international?

6. Should you hire a firm or an individual?

7. How do you keep a VA from making off with sensitive data, code, passwords, etc...?

Part 3: Hiring Your VA

1. Where do you find good VAs?

2. What does your 4-step hiring process look like?

   1. Job listing

   2. Profile filter

   3. Q&A filter

   4. Task filter

Part 4: Working with Your VA

1. How can you ensure you aren’t being over-billed?

2. How do you send passwords and other sensitive data to your VAs?

3. What are the best types of jobs to delegate to a VA?

4. What’s the best way to train a VA on a new task?

The course consists of:

• 4 video discussions
• Audio versions of each
• Course notes/outline for each
• A full transcript of each
• A VA job posting I've used to hire several VAs
• A sample VA training screencast & process document