Virtual Assistant: Why You Need to Hire an Assistant (and How to Find a Great One)

Hiring an assistant has been one of the BEST decisions I've ever made. It saves me time, makes me happier, and helps me focus more on what I enjoy.

Today, I'm going to show you how to hire an assistant, or virtual assistant, who doesn't suck. Even better, you don't have to be a multimillionaire to hire someone to help you: I'll show you how getting someone to help you 5 hours per week for $15/hr can be a massive help — saving you time to focus on what you love.

"once you go va, youll never go back"

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[JaydenLawson]

Step 1) 4:12 Make a Standard Operating Procedure for your life.
It's your preferences, eg. when do you like to have meetings - weekdays after 12pm, never on Wednesdays. The SOP has most login info. The SOP should be a replacement for your brain - of the things you like and the things you do. Eg again: what restaurants do you eat at, who are your contacts. The assistant can organise that in to a Google Doc.

Action Step: Make a Google Doc yourself of all the things you keep doing, so it makes it easier

Step 2) 5:22
a) Create a list of Tasks that you want handled. What tasks are you doing every week that you don't want to? Write those down.
b) Keep doing the things that you enjoy doing.
c) What tasks have been on your to-do list for over 2 weeks? Those are tasks for your assistant.
d) What are the main tasks that Noah always gives to his assistant: 1. Scheduling travel (flights, coupons, sorting out miles, accommodation). 2. Scheduling meetings. 3. Purchasing things for you or gifts for others.

Step 3) 8:08 How do you test your assistant to find out if they are a good fit?

Take 4 of the things that you want done on your task list, and make those the tasks. Put them in a Google Doc and see how they would solve them.

8:40 How do you find an assistant?
a) It will take interviewing 100 people to find just 1 good one.
b) Ask someone who has an assistant if they recommend their assistant (not sure if this means the assistant works with multiple people but I guess we can assume they do)
c) Ask a reliable and organised friend to do things for you. You don't need a full-time person, just a few hours a week usually.

Step 4) 9:30 in general, hiring women are better than men.
Because they are more organised, reliable, resourceful, and they smell better.

9:43 Common mistakes when hiring an assistant
- the first person you hire may not work out.
- give it time to train the machine. Be patient and allow them to learn more about you and document more about you.
- be patient and give them a learning curve. Give them 60 days to actually start performing, unless it's horrendous.
- you must have an SOP ahead of time
- you get what you pay for. Noah pays between $25-$60 / hour. There is a direct correlation between someone that is really great, and how much they want to get paid for doing great things.

[DavidKadavy]

Great video, Noah. For people who feel overwhelmed with the prospect of creating an SOP, you can get practice delegating by using FancyHands. You soon learn that you have to get VERY specific, and really simplify tasks. Then, you can upgrade to someone on upwork.

One good way to test out the lower-cost assistants is by giving them an extremely simple task (like entering data into a spreadsheet at certain intervals), and hiring several assistants to do it. You just keep the one or two that follow the instructions well, and work your way up to more complex things.

If you treat working with an assistant as a learning experience for yourself, it can be easier to manage when they don't do things your way. It's a challenge in learning how to communicate.

[tjhughes]

I'm a Virtual Assistant my niche and expertise is with the Entrepreneur, Small Business Owner, CEO/VP. With years of experience as an Executive Assistant to CEO/VP. Facilitating organizing my clients life and business is what I do successfully. Noah laid it on the line. BRAVO!

[dhruvvssouth]

Thanks for the incredible content Noah! Would love a podcast episode dedicated to the process of finding a virtual assistant and the best tasks that you can outsource to them in a way that goes deeper into what was covered in this video.

[danny.fortes]

WOW Noah, you totally just put this into perspective for me. From top to bottom I realize what I have been doing wrong and you gave some major insights to making this work. I said it once or twice and I'll say it a 2nd or 3rd time. Loving the videos bro!❤😀

Once you go APP you never go back

[JasonMcGarva]

Great video as always, Noah. I've been using Fancyhands for years and have been more or less happy with them. The downside, of course, is that you don't get someone who "just gets" you and your business. But still, it's a great way to start out hiring people.

[MKSpeakz]

I’m a virtual assistant myself and I’m just here to take notes haha

[petejuratovic]

Dude, this is so timely. Im testing assistants this week! Thanks for sharing your framework! Wished your team did office tours, I'll be in Austin all week!

[richardantao]

Awesome video Noah! I loved how you laid out the steps to finding an ideal VA. Definitely something I'm going to implement as I continue to grow my small business.

[deckyharris]

Hiring a virtual assistant for ourselves is like having an extra pair of hands. They take care of our things, while we can focus on the work where our presence is needed. My virtual assistant from Habiliss comes to my rescue whenever I'm in need of "me time"....

[bjornbaumann]

Listened to your podcast with Neville lately talking about making those (new) videos. Yes they are a lot more professional than the old ones. But way more important - at least in my opinion- they really do transport (your) personality! Keep it up!!! And give us some tour of the sumo office :)

[ValleyVirtualOperations]

Thanks for the great points about hiring a VA.

[timsmithejr]

I've been meaning to learn more about this! Thanks, Noah!

[MillionaireDarkness]

I have 3 side hustles. All of them make between 250 - 350 per week. I have 3 VAs that do all the work. I pay them €3 per hour and hire them for 20hrs per week. Money is a game people. Learn how to play it. It’s all about arbitrage, leverage and margins. Buy for 5 sell for 10.

[monicaleacisneros]

Loved the video Noah! I so need an assistant. Right now every time I think of something I need to buy on Amazon or a task that needs to be done, I email it to... myself. Just think if I could replace myself with an assistant how much faster those things would get done and I can just focus on growing my business. WIP

[Practiceofthepractice]

Thanks for sharing all these valid points!

[wp]

Thank you, very cool info and funny too 🤓

[Soyunmaní]

"there's a reason why women are in charge of having the baby" made my day

[musicrocksinaustin]

I'm a Virtual Assistant now, but in previous jobs where I've been an Executive Assistant to a President and Senior VP, the first entire WEEK ON A NEW JOB as an assistant for someone is literally asking and finding out their PREFERENCES. How they want everyone done from how they want you to answer the phone to how they want their email account organized, letters typed, etc. Now as a VA it's getting to know your client personally, getting to know their industry or business since you may not know anything about it....and what their priorities are in growing their business. I even buy a spiral notebook/journal​ to keep for each client just to make sure I write down all sorts of information that I tend to capture while i'm on the phone with them. CosmicVA.com

[emilhajric-helpjuice]

love the videos. I'd love to hear your thoughts on remote vs having an office