What Should I Think Through Before Hiring a Virtual Assistant?
So your business is growing, you're adding to your team and you want to bring on a VA, a virtual assistant.
I am your friend Maria who just happens to be a lawyer for coaches, healers, content creators and online businesses. And I am going to walk you through eight little boxes to check when you are bringing on and virtual assistant. Let's get into it.
First: Does it matter where your VA is located?
The first thing to think about is where is she located. Now, is this a legal thing, you might ask? Well, it kind of is because if someone is overseas, it makes me pause. We don't know how well your contract with your VA is going to be enforced if that person is overseas. So just be aware of where they're located and the laws that might apply that counteract copyright and contract laws that apply here.
Second: Hiring a VA through a service
Are you hiring the VA through a service? There are a lot of great services out there that pair really skilled VAs (virtual assistants) with business owners or solopreneurs. When you're going through a service like that, we want to know what the default terms are. You will probably sign something with the VA service or agency. But what are the rules that will apply to your relationship with your VA? Are there any built in rules? Or do you need your own contract? (Which brings me to thing number three…)
Third: Enforcing confidentiality with your virtual assistant
Confidentiality is very important. And it’s also important that you know there are no default confidentiality rules here in the US.
If you’re sharing confidential information while working with someone, you need a confidentiality agreement or an NDA or something in place that has confidentiality terms in it to make sure that person keeps your information confidential. You want something in writing with that VA — regardless of whether you're hiring her directly or through a service — that protects that confidential information.
Fourth: Legally protecting your logins, passwords, and your systems.
This can mean passwords and using a good password tool. But it can also mean having some legal terms around accessing those systems. So, making sure your assistant keeps her logins confidential or using a tool like LastPass is one thing, but making sure that they're aware of what they can and can't do when they're inside of your systems is another.
Fifth: IP ownership (or making sure you own the content your virtual assistant creates for you)
You knew I was gonna say this one. IP of course is intellectual property: your beautiful, creative, intangible property.
Is your VA is creating assets for you like graphic designs, text, blog posts, social media, captions, or photographs? Ideally, you would be very clear, again, in a written document that anything that the virtual assistant creates for you is your intellectual property, not theirs.
Sixth: Understanding your VA’s requirements
Let’s talk about minimums. And that is, is there any minimum amount of time that you are signing on for when you enroll or when you take on this VA as part of your team? In other words, do you have to use a certain block of hours in order to enter into a contract with this person? And do those hours roll over? That's certainly something that you need to be aware of.
Seventh: Figuring out how and when to pay your VA
Money, honey! When is payment due? Is it something that's going to be automatically withdrawn? Is something where she's going to invoice you and show a number of hours? And what do you do if you don't necessarily agree with those hours? How does invoicing work? What payment methods are accepted? You need to think about that and figure out the processes and language in your contract that speaks to that.
Eighth: The VA’s Scope of Work
VAs can do all kinds of things from purely administrative, to marketing, to social media, to content repurposing. So it's very important in the scope section of your agreement, or in the scope of work that you have with your VA, that you are super crystal clear on the work, scope of the work that she is going to be doing.
Recap
So we went through eight things to think about when you are bringing on a VA. Here are those eight things again:
where she is located
any default terms that exist if you're using a service to bring on that VA
confidentiality rules,
protecting your logins and your systems,
IP ownership over what the VA creates,
being clear on any minimum hours required
when payment is due and how Invoicing is going to work and
the scope of what the VA is doing for you.
I hope this helps. Good luck bringing on a VA. It's such an exciting time and a business owners life when you get to start delegating these things.