The Simple System I Used To Hire My First 2 Badass Virtual Assistants

how to hire a virtual assistantIf you’ve read my last monthly income report, you’ll probably know that I’ve started build a team of virtual assistants (VAs) in the Philippines to help me grow my business.

In this article, I’ll show you step by step what I’ve done so you can easily build your own right away using my system.

There are 2 ways you can use to hire your first virtual assistant in the Philippines:

1. Use Virtual Staff Finder (VSF)

Hiring a highly talented and qualified virtual assistant who can do the work for you is not easy. If you don’t want to deal with all the chaos and hassle of the hiring process, Virtual Staff Finder is defenitely the best solution on the market.

Founded by Chris Ducker in 2010, a British businessman who lives in the Philippines for over 12 years, this done-for-you service has helped thousands of entrepreneurs easily find their best virtual assistants with a fixed fee of $375.

I haven’t tried the service but according to the reviews of some famous online entrepreneurs like Pat Flynn, Corbert Barr, Ryan Lee, etc and with the reputation of Chris Ducker himself, I can say that this is really a reliable & high quality service. I will give it a try the next time I want to expand my team.

For more information about this service, check out VirtualStaf Finder.com! (affiliate link)

2. Do It Yourself Using Onlinejobs.ph

Don’t worry if you can’t afford the price of VSF at the moment because I have another solution for you :).

Yes, hiring someone is not an easy task and it may take up a lot of your time but with the simple yet effective system that I’ll be showing you, the task is much simpler.

The only investment required is $49 for one month subscription to Onlinejobs.ph. This website has the largest database of thousands of Filippino workers looking for online jobs.

Go and check out Onlinejobs.ph! (affiliate link)

 

Why You Need a Virtual Assistant?

As an entrepreneur, you can’t not succeed doing everything on your own. Personally, after working with my VAs for over 4 weeks, I saw many amazing benefits:

1. Working With VAs Changed The Way I Do Business

A business is not a hobby and it has nothing to do with your personal life. Yes, I love what I’m doing. However, if I want to take it to the next level, I can’t treat it as a hobby but a business instead. These two things must be separated.

2. I Saved A Great Deal Of Time And Significantly Increased My Productivity

Time is so precious, especially with entrepreneurs like us. We should delegate all the mundane, time-consuming, and boring tasks and concentrate on more important, money-making tasks instead.

3. I Don’t Have To Deal With Technical Stuff That I Hate To Do

My niche website business requires lots of technical tasks like setting up WordPress sites, running the VPS, using different SEO tools, etc.

Even though I’m pretty tech-savvy, I don’t want to do those tasks as they’re, well, quite boring.

There are a lot more reasons but you’d be better off trying to hire your first VA right now and see for yourself, then you can thank me later 🙂

101 Tasks Your Virtual Assistant Can Help You

[wpsharely id=”1114″]Go and check out Chris Ducker’s post about this.  [/wpsharely]

The Simple System I Used To Hire My First 2 Badass Virtual Assistants

I learned this system from Noah Kagan (#30 at Facebook, #3 at Mint, Founder at Gambit, founder of AppSumo) and it’s proven to work very well to help you weed out all the bad candidates and only interview the good ones.

Here’s the system broken down in steps:

Step 1: Sign Up For An Account At Onlinejobs.ph

You can sign up using my affiliate link 🙂 It’ll not cost you more, but I’ll earn a few bucks 🙂 Thank you for that!

To save money, after upgrading your account, go to your Paypal account and cancel the recurring subscription immediately. In my opinion, one month is more than enough for you to hire your first 2-3 VAs. You can always subscribe again whenever you need.

Step 2: Write and Post Your Job Listing.

Having a well-written job desciprtion is critical as it helps you attract the right candidates who are willing to work for your business for a long time.

Here are some tips to help you write an effective job description:

  • Write an eye-catching title to make your job post stand out. Eg: Badass Online Writer Wanted for a Digital Publishing Company (Full time position, $500+ per month salary)
  • Thank them for checking out your listing.
  • Clearly give your expectation right in the start to weed out bad candidates.
  • Describe your business in details.
  • Put up the job requirements up front to filter unqualified people out immediately. Don’t be afraid to be harsh and real because your time is valuable and you only want to spend it on the most qualified candidates.
  • Tell them about the salary/benefits when working with you.
  • Require them to send you a specific magical word or something unique (example below)

IMPORTANT: If you are interested, please send me your Linkedin and Facebook profile via email – youremail@gmail.com. Don’t send anything to my inbox.

  • This is to ensure that they are attentive to details and have carefully read your job description. Weed out any resumes from those who don’t follow your instructions.
  • Add in a call to action. “Congrats, you made it to the end. What are you waiting for? Email me – youremail@gmail.com with your Linkedin and Facebook profile.”

Step 3: Using Gmail Filters For Automation

This is what makes this system so effective for hiring good people.

In the description, I required the candiates to send me their Linkedin and Facebook profiles.

Now go to Gmail and create a filter using those settings (image below):

How To Hire Your First Virtual Assistant Using My Simple System

Here’s how the filter works:

  • If the applicants don’t respond with their Facebook and Linkedin profiles, then the emails doesn’t get read (automatically get deleted) because they don’t follow your direction and are not worth your time.
  • Any resume that includes FB and Linkedin profiles will be responded with a “Canned response” (template below)
Sweet! You are one of the surprisingly few people who could follow emailing me linkedin and facebook profiles.
You’d be surprised!
I love you.
Anyway, on to round 2.
Please complete this form. I value everyone’s time so you will receive a $10 payment directly to your Paypal or any other online payment alternative right after you’ve completed this form.
{link to Google form}
– Tung Tran (your email)

To create canned responses: go to “Labs” and turn on “Canned Response”.

Step 4: Using Google Form To Survey The Candiates

This step is crucially important. The candidates who passed the filter must complete this step and you’ll choose the ones to interview via Skype.

Put up your contact info in the response email and give a specific deadline because we wan’t to know if the applicant is reliable.

Write questions that show actual work that they’ll be doing and can reflect their qualification. (i.e. “Please write a 500-word SEO optimized article about “how to start a blog”)

Don’t be so serious and make the form all about work. Ask about their hobbies, morning routine, books they like, etc.

There are 15 questions I ask to my applicants:

  1. What is your typing speed?
  2. What is your internet speed?
  3. What’s your background, experience and do you have a specific skill set?
  4. What are your main communication methods?
  5. What are your strengths and weaknesses?
  6. What were some of the trainings you’ve had the past six months?
  7. What were some of the books you’ve read the past six months?
  8. You have a deadline when your computer suddenly crashed. What would you do
  9. What are your plans for the next 5 years?
  10. What do you usually do outside of work?
  11. Do you exercise everyday? If yes, which kind of exercise?
  12. What is the first thing you do in the morning?
  13. How do you stay productive and organized?
  14. After hearing about my business, What questions do you have?
  15. Listen to this song (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7l74d1fmZbw) – What do you think about it?

Step 5: Selecting The RIGHT Candidate

After the deadline is due, sorting through the answers and pick the top 3 that you like the most, then send them a follow up email (“Hi X, you’re one of the very few that has made it to the final round, I’d like to do a voice chat with you at “insert time here” )

Then you interview them via Skype, I prefer voice chat as you can know more about their personalities through face-to-face chatting.

Take notes when interviewing so you can always come back later and decide which is the best fit for the position.

I always put everyone on a 2-week trial to see if they are reliable for the job.

Once you have hired the right employees, give them training, invest your time and be with them closely for the first 2-3 weeks, give immediate feedback to help them understand the job.

After that, you can sit back and enjoy the great experience of having highly talented and well-trained people working for you and helping you grow your business.

Here’s a great guide on how to hire,train and work with virtual assistant from the Philippines by the Virtual Varlley team.

Over To You

Now that you’ve learned my simple system to effectively hire qualified people.

Building a team of people to help you grow your business is not an easy task and it may require tons of time and effort.

However, it’s our job as entrepreneurs, so don’t hesitate to go out of your comfort zone and take the first step as it will greatly benefit you and your business in the future.

Have you utilized virtual assistant to grow your business? If not, what is holding you back? I’d love to hear your thoughts on this topic. Leave a comment below!

Tung Tran

I’ve built and sold a bunch of highly profitable internet businesses since 2010. After selling my last one in November 2020, I decided to go all... [Read full bio]