How to Find a VA That's Right for Your Needs

Finding a VA is not as hard as you might think. One thing you want to do is avoid huge VA companies that pay their VAs pennies while taking dollars from you. Instead, find an independent VA who either works alone or has a team who works under them. If you can find someone in your own country, or who speaks your language, that’s much better. To find the right VA, do the following.
* List the Tasks – It’s important to make a list of all the tasks that you need the VA to do. The VA you hire will need to know what’s involved, and you can’t hire someone until you can make a list of all the things you need them to do. You may discover you need more than one VA if your list comprises a lot of different business areas.
* Write a Request for Proposal – Using the task list, write an RfP. An RfP lists all the things you want the VA to do, as well as the compensation range and other expectations you will have of the VA. Remember not to expect too much in different business areas of your VA; most VAs specialize in one or two areas.
* Elance.com – Post your list on Elance.com, and put a budget. Sign up for a paid account and restrict the bids to people with paid accounts. Check their references, check their work history, and do not pick the lowest bid. You can even restrict bidding by country.
* Vanetworking.com – This is a great place to pay to post your completed request for proposal. They have high quality paying members who are serious about building their VA business. You’ll likely get some very good bids from proactive virtual assistants if you post your RfP there.
* Your Groups and Organizations – If you are part of any group or organization, you can post your needs for a VA there. They will likely have plenty of recommendations and even recommend their own VA for you.
* Social Media – You can post your RfP on Facebook, LinkedIn and other social media, and you’ll get applicants as well as recommendations from others about who to hire.
* Colleagues and Contacts – Send notification to your circle of influence, mentioning what you need done and that you want to hire a VA. They’ll then recommend people to you, or send out the notice to their circle too.
* WAHM.com – On WAHM.com there is a VA message board where you can post your RfP. There are many good VAs who frequent that message board who will answer your RfP, but there also questionable people.
If you’re careful, know what you want and stay proactive with your VA, you’ll end up having a great experience, improve your business, and make more money.