Criteria For Hiring A Virtual Assistant

[Patrick Wheeler]

Hey BP,

I can't remember which podcast it was that talked about someone's criteria for hiring a VA so I figured I'd ask on here. For those of you that have done this, what criteria were you looking for in a VA? Job Success, Cost, Hours, combination of everything?

Thank in advance!

[Shawn Holsapple]

I've been using Upwork [formerly Odesk] for about 3 years and love it.

I've learned [the hard way] not do go for the sub $2 per hour workers.

I only use $3 per hour workers now and it's been much better. Keep in mind at this price range you are usually getting a college grad.

The hiring process can be overwhelming due to the large amount of responses you will get from you ad.  I now put something towards the end of the body of the ad that reads something like "put the words - Bigger Pockets is Great" to ensure they can follow instructions.

This will week out a lot of the applicants.

Also, be sure to start very slow with your task list. I made the mistake of asking too much of my VA from the beginning. After this failed miserably, I realized to break down my big task into several small steps to be added over a course of a few weeks to build them up to where you want them to be. Tim Ferriss talks about this in The 4 Hour Work Week as well.

I hope that helps.