92 - Tip Tuesday - Knowing When and How To Hire with Amy Wright
Leaving the corporate world because a young and blended family was created is what motivated Amy to start thinking of how and what she wanted to do. She did not just jump right into anything that she thought of but yet did some good preliminary searching of how she could best support her family and her desire to be an entrepreneur. Listen to the journey of how she takes her skills from the corporate world and transpires them into helping others really find the best fit for their needs and flow of their business by guiding them through the process.
Amy takes her skills and helps business owners create systems that allow for more productivity with in your business. By allowing her to look at your day-to-day activity and streamline practices along with either hiring or determining what you need to hire for the present and future.
Tell us a little bit about yourself? Amy started out as a corporate minion, like most people, trying to figure out what she didn’t want and what she wanted. She struggled as they did not like her colorful language and that she could think for herself. She knew in her early twenty’s that she wanted to be a business owner, however, didn’t know what she wanted. In 2008, she had just moved to North Carolina and had a blended family with one on the way. So her business was born out of necessity as she could not bear the thought of putting her daughter in daycare. She did the preliminary research, of what and how she could start a business. Two things struck her interest one being an event planning but it was 2008 with a plummeting economy and people were not planning events. The other business that struck her interest was a virtual assistant. Her background was supporting executives and coaching some of the executives that she supported so it was a natural fit. Moving forward to the present she has taken all the corporate experience as well as her early VA business and formed a business around all the things that she loves about her past careers.
When is it time to hire? It is a super common question and most people wait to long to the point that they are about to lose it. When a person gets to that point, they are so overwhelmed that they the feel that they are not able to properly train a virtual assistant and can sometimes fail. In order to avoid failure a sign to look for is, do you have consistent business coming in? Some people who have the financial resources to hire and some do not, but you have to determine what works for you. Know that your support does not have to be an ongoing commitment you can use a virtual assistant on an as needed basis, but be clear and honest with yourself.
How do you take care of the training part? The best advice to making sure that you are ready to hire a virtual assistant is to have your operations well documented. Click here for link to blog post that Amy references. So if a practice in your business is to do blog post then create a document that outlines the process with the steps. Amy recommends using a screen capture program such as Camtasia and documenting work as you go through processes in your daily work. This way you do not feel overwhelmed with having to train or document practices within your business.
How do you determine the rate of pay and their worth? This is a roadblock for many in the fact that they feel they cannot afford to pay someone. If you are new to hiring there are some things that are completely fine to outsource overseas, such as a project based task however, you must be able to explain the task in very clear detail as there is a language barrier and a huge time difference. Not saying that outsourcing overseas is wrong but you just have to be very careful and detailed so that you get what you pay for. The best way to determine what you need and determine the pay is to keep track of your time, what do you do every day for a week and how long it takes you. Then at the end of the week look at where you spend most of your time. If you are spending your time on tasks that you can delegate, such as social media, formatting newsletters, or sending newsletter, instead of doing tasks that can generate money for your business. Once you have your list of items that you can delegate, look at what time looks like and what skill level the tasks that you have. Each task can be a little bit of a different skill level but you can then determine what you should pay for the assistant that you hire. Making sure that you communicate your expectations upfront about the tasks that you are delegating.
How do you protect yourself when you are sharing sensitive information? Have a contact of terms put together in which outlines the tasks, rate of pay, and hours; a basic review in written form of what the expectations are and were stated in the interview. Make sure that both parties have signed the contact of terms. It does not lock you into anything it just reinforces what you have already discussed. Also have a non-disclosure agreement, which basically protects the company legally from people taking work or sharing information and using it as their own. Having these documents ready before you need them is suggested so that when you need them they are ready and you are protected.
How do you determine if you want to hire someone like yourself to do the hiring or take on the hiring? The hiring process is very time-consuming, and like most you have waited to long to delegate sometimes you need to find someone to take that off your hands. If you are planning on hiring right then Amy suggests finding someone like herself to assist with the hiring process. If you are new to hiring she also suggests going through the process at least once so that you have a good understanding of how to hire in the future. It is better to hire for your future rather than your present. Knowing the following: what the skills are that you need now and in the future, what your budget is and having a good system.
You can find more about Amy Wright at: www.amywright.biz or on Facebook at Amy Wright Biz.
More about Amy Wright:
Amy Wright helps ladies in business get their shit together. She designed her Sanity Renewal System to help organize the businesses and lives of her clients so they can actually enjoy their lives.
She lives in North Carolina with her husband, 4 kids, a stepdaughter and some furry critters. Amy loves 80’s and 90’s music, hot chocolate, and being outside. Her idea of a perfect day is in absolute silence reading business and personal development books.
Amy’s dream is to continue to change the lives of thousands of stressed out, burned out entrepreneurs who are ready to enjoy a lifestyle, not just a life.