Are you a busy professional who is looking to hire virtual assistant to free up some additional hours during your day or a business owner who wants to clear out some of your routine tasks and focus on your business? You might wonder: where do I find my virtual assistant and how to choose the best one? Here is the useful manual for you.

Understand cultural differences

It is getting more and more popular to hire virtual assistants from different countries and many business owners are asking themselves: why can’t my virtual assistant work remotely? Therefore it is getting widespread to engage a freelancer or virtual assistant agency from abroad.

Nevertheless it is essential to understand the cultural differences while hiring VA freelancer from another country. In order to make a successful choice, discover the variation of the assistants in different countries and their methods of work:

• When you are choosing the virtual assistant from USA or from Europe, consider that fact that Americans and Europeans are more goal-oriented, while Asian professionals are more process oriented and pay attention to the details and to the process itself.
• The virtual assistants from Philippines and India work better if you have the work process which is well defined.
• In case you are looking for a virtual assistant who will understand the business environment of your country, then the virtual assistant agency should suggest you a nearshore VA.

Be a person with a plan

One of the most important advice for hiring a virtual assistant is to have a plan. If you are selecting between a VA freelancer and a virtual assistant agency it is important to answer the following questions:

• Which specific tasks do you want to delegate?
• Is it an one-time or an open-ended project?
• Do you need a native English speaker or this thing does not matter for your VA freelancer? Which level of English do you expect?
• Should your virtual assistant work full time or just dedicate some hours to specific projects?
• Do you have a specific and well-defined plan of work or you are planning the working process on the go?
• How flexible is the working schedule for your virtual assistant?

Do your home research

If you want to bring in a VA freelancer or to find assistant in a virtual assistant agency it is important to do your home investigation. Remember that not all services are equal and each virtual assistant agency may be specializing in something different. Ask yourself: what should my virtual assistant be professional at? Check the services of different virtual assistant agencies and which assistance they can provide you with.

What to check?

Ask yourself: what do I want to see in my virtual assistant? This will help to define what to check before bringing in a new colleague into your business.

But, as a rule, the following things are important:

• Professionalism and experience. Determine for how long the virtual assistant is doing this exact type of work, especially when it comes to performing the tasks you are asking to do. Also check the VA’s professionalism in such fields as answering the e-mails and phone calls, keeping the promises and being a good listener and attentive person who can get along well with the customers.
• Skill set. Determine which skills are required to do the tasks you will delegate to your VA and check if the person has it all.
• Technology skills. As far as nowadays it is impossible to work without many technologies, your VA should be excellent when it comes to technologies and able to go above and beyond call of duty and use powerful tools for getting success.
• Problems solution and project management. You should know how good the virtual assistant would be if you delegate many different tasks and how the VA will behave in the difficult situation, which way he/she would choose to solve the problem.
• Availability. Does a virtual college work full-time or part-time? Can a VA be available in the evening or on the weekend? Are you in the same or different time zones? It all should meet your expectations.
• References. Ask a VA if there are people whom you can contact to get to know more information about a virtual assistant and to get references.

Once you have learnt how to choose the right virtual assistant, it is time to delegate your tasks. Star with picking the right virtual assistant agency which will provide you with the high quality and productive co-workers. This will be an investment which will enrich your life!