When you hire a virtual assistant, you don’t have to worry about them taking up office space or sharing their lunch with coworkers. They can work from anywhere in the world—and they typically do. Whether you need help with your social media presence or just want some extra assistance organizing your home office, there are plenty of places to find the right person for the job.
Upwork
Upwork is a marketplace for hiring freelancers. It has over 10 million registered users and offers everything from coding to writing and design services. You can post your project on the site, or you can browse through the listings of available virtual assistants.
Upwork has a large pool of talent to choose from, so it’s not hard to find someone who is right for your business needs–and if they don’t seem like they will be a good fit, simply reject their bid! The site also has a rating system that allows clients and virtual assistants alike to leave feedback after each job completion so everyone knows what other people think about working with them before making their next hire decision.
This is one of the most popular sites to hire VAs, but it’s also one of the most expensive. You can expect to pay at least $20 per hour for your VA here, with the average hourly rate being closer to $30 per hour (and sometimes much higher). If you want a good-quality VA who knows what they’re doing and has plenty of experience working remotely with other clients, this site will probably be worth your money–but if not, there are better options out there!
Fiverr
Fiverr (formerly Elance) is also a marketplace for freelancers, so you can hire someone to do almost anything. The site has thousands of people offering their services at very affordable prices. The range of services offered on Fiverr is vast and includes everything from graphic design and copywriting to video editing and web development.
If you want to get something done quickly and inexpensively, Fiverr might be the right choice for your virtual assistant needs as long as your expectations are realistic about quality relative to cost.
This site offers cheaper rates than Upwork does–around $5-$10 per hour–but quality tends not to be as good because many people who use Fiverr are doing so just for fun or part-time work rather than as their main source income (which means they won’t put as much effort into making sure everything goes smoothly). That said: There are some real gems among those thousands upon thousands of listings! So don’t write off this option just yet…it may be worth exploring further before dismissing it entirely.
VA Associations
Any VA worth their salt will ensure that they are part of a relevant Association, such as the APVA or the Society of Virtual Assistants. Many of these associations will provide a directory of members for you to search and find the support that is right for you.
Word of Mouth
Word of mouth is an important part of the hiring process. A good referral from someone you trust will save you time and energy, but a bad one can do more harm than good.
If a VA is of high quality people won’t have any problems in referring them on to other clients, so ask around. Ask in industry specific FB groups, ask your network on LinkedIn – You’ll be surprised how many people have already used VA’s in the past and are willing to pass on contact info.
Recommendations
Always check out their recommendations and reviews. As with any service you look into the number and quality of their reviews can make or break a decision. Most VA’s will promote their reviews on their website, their LinkedIn accounts and/or a Google Business Page so make sure you do your due diligence following a word of mouth recommendation.
LinkedIn is a great place to find a virtual assistant. It’s a professional networking site, so you can find people who have done similar work before and are looking for work. If you want someone who has worked as a virtual assistant before, this is the place to look.
Local Networking Meetings
I can almost guarantee that every locally run Networking event will have at least one Virtual assistant in the group so it is a great place to start your search. Even if this particular person isn’t the right person for you (due to services offered, skill set or just personality mismatch) it is likely they will be able to introduce you to others. The VA community is surprisingly collaborative.
Conclusion
I hope that you’ve found this article helpful. If you have any questions or comments, please feel free to reach out!