How to Start: Hiring a Virtual Assistant

Time to DELEGATE

Hi there! Wow - I was off to a good start my first week as a professional substacker (posting twice in one week!!) and then… sh*t got busy. In the midst of all of this, I appealed to my amazing Instagram community, a few women’s groups, and friends for advice on how to find a virtual assistant.

Back in 2016ish, I called one my mentors from the post office line. I was so excited to tell him about how busy I was with all of these orders! While yes, he was obviously very proud of the 30 orders I was shipping out, he also doled out some very wise advice. He basically said - “Christina, you need to stop going to the post office. You need to stop packing orders and doing customer service. Any time that you are doing something that you can easily delegate, you need to hand it off - because it’s taking away from growing your business.”

As I continued to grow STIK, I continued to hit growing pains and it was funny how I’d call him for advice - not realizing that it always came back to the post office tale. Whenever things were overwhelming or I felt like I didn’t have a good handle on the massive to-do list, he would remind me of the 25 year old girl at the post office and tell me to use that same logic.

So here we are today - I no longer am running STIK, but I have this new “business” that is exciting and keeping me really busy. My life is also a lot different than it was 10 years ago - my priorities have shifted and my work hours exist between the crazy breakfast routine and school pickup. I also have learned (from mistakes) that I NEED to factor in time for ME (like going for a walk or working out) in order to stay sane. Therefore, I simply have less time in the day to get things done!

So here we are on a search for a Virtual Assistant. And here’s some advice I can share with you:

• A lot of people recommended Belay Solutions

  • Pros: they seem really great and do a ton of background work to find you the perfect VA who has years of experience and really fits with your work and personal life. The other pro is that if it’s not the right fit, they will quickly help you find someone new.

  • Cons: It’s pretty expensive and I’m not sure I’m there yet. They require 45 hours a month which seems high for me - so for that reason, I’m not going to use Belay. It nets out to being around $60 an hour.

    • A little analysis: while this sounds expensive - I am in the camp of: You get what you pay for. I would hate to bring someone on and have it not be a great fit… it’s like buying a red-eye ticket because it saves you $200 and then mid-flight you would have paid a million dollars not to be on a red eye.

• Mom to Virtual Assistant: I just love this concept!! I have talked to the founder a few times and think it could be a great solution!

• Duckbill: Just adding this in case you’re not familiar with it! Duckbill is really for personal assistants and not business. It’s primarily AI driven but behind the scenes there are real people who have been in the business forever!

• TwoLoops Concierge: If you’re looking for something a little more personal than Duckbill, get in touch with my friend Julia who runs TwoLoops!! Again, this is a personal concierge service and what I’m in the market for is really calendar syncing and inbox management. But Julia is the BEST!!

In the end, I am going with a woman who was highly recommended to me. I would share her name… but we are just getting started and I’ll keep that to myself for now. Here’s what we are going to do together:

• Multi-inbox management - cleaning it up and bringing what is most important to my attention

• Calendar scheduling - hoping for less back and forth AND less double-booking of myself (I’ve done that a few times recently)!

• Invoicing and basic admin tasks

• Some personal things like helping book appointments, travel, and anything else -but we are starting small!

My last tip: I am a firm believer in “hire slow, fire fast.” I am a person who trusts first and I have made mistakes in this department. I took my time to interview a few options, get references, and really consider the scope of our working relationship before jumping in feet first.

Hope this is helpful! Leave recs or questions in the comments section!!

XO!

Christina