5 things you NEVER want to do while outsourcing

1.) Never hire a VA to do everything
You are either in luck or in your dream if you think your VA could do everything for you.
I have learned my lesson when it comes to hiring a VA. You MUST give them one specific task matching their skills. Normally, you can find VAs in the following categories: programming / web developing, article writing/copy writing, video editing, book keeping/filing, sales/marketing and project managing. Some of them obtain more skills than the other; however, most of them are only good at certain skills.

2.) Never hire VAs without training them
Just like any business with employees working at the office, you need to train VAs correctly in order to see the results you expect them to bring to your business.

You are the only person that knows well about your niche, your business.  Your VAs can’t read your mind and take over all the tasks once you hire them.  Therefore, you MUST train your VAs, regardless if they have strong skills in what you hired them for.

3.) Never ask VAs to work for you for free before hiring them
Most people won’t do any work until you hire them. Ask yourself the same question, “Will you complete the work spending tons of your time not knowing if you’ll get the job and get paid, too?  Of course not!

You need to pay your VAs, even though you are not sure if they are the right persons for your project. Offer your VAs a job first and then tell them the first 2 weeks is a probationary period. You will have enough time to see if their performance is up to your expectation.

4.) Never expect results right away
To be honest with you, most of your VAs are not business-minded. It takes time to train them to understand your business.  You are creating long term jobs with your VAs and you won’t get results overnight. Assign them a task, one at a time along with the appropriate training. Eventually they will be on the right track and be more productive.

5.) Never forget to set the ground rule
A common mistake most people have when they hire VAs is they expect their VAs to work without supervision and be totally self sufficient. Well, if you have this kind of mindset, you are most likely expecting to see them fail your business.

Right at the beginning you need to set the ground rules and provide a strong direction of what you need them to do. Here is what I would suggest you to say to your VAs:

“When you are assigned to a task that you are not sure what to do, I expect you to try to figure it out yourself first. If you can’t really solve the problem yourself, please do ask me, as I am here to help you. Besides that, you are required to submit the daily work report that outlines what you have completed and what tasks you need help with. These are my expectations when you begin working with me.”

By using the above outsourcing do’s and don’ts tips, I’m sure you can create a workforce that work 24/7 and have a business team that possibly rivals any big business.