If you have made the decision to hire a Virtual Assistant, one of the most important things you need to know is HOW to delegate effectively.
This is important because you don’t want to waste money asking your VA to re-do a task because you were unaware how to explain it properly the first time.
My five main points for good delegation are:
Ensure the task is one you should be delegating
It would be great to delegate all the jobs you hate doing, or that you don’t think you have time to do, but sometimes it’s not suitable to delegate a certain task. As the business owner you need to be the face of your business, and some tasks require YOUR attention to be successful. You know your business, and what you can and can’t delegate.
Make sure you know the task you are delegating
We all know how to do things in our business, some tasks we don’t even have to think about we just know how to do them. But would you be able to explain the process to someone else? Sit down, do the task once and make sure you know what to tell your VA.
Zoom call screen sharing or video
A great way to ensure your new VA understands what is required is by jumping on a Zoom call and screen sharing so you can go through the task together. You can record the zoom call so they have it as a reference if needed. Another great way is to record a video of you going through the process and share that with your VA. I particularly like this as I usually watch the video once, then play and pause it a second time whilst actually doing the task. I only need to do this once but have the video as reference.
Give specific outcomes and timeframes
If you want a task doing by a certain day or time, you need to make sure you have communicated that with your VA. Even if you say it is urgent, give a time so that you are both clear on the deadline, as everyone’s definition of urgent could be different.
It is also important to let your VA know the desired outcome. If you ask them to schedule some social media posts, be specific about what you want and what the ideal end result will look like. For example, if you asked your VA to do a social media post about cars, that’s pretty vague. What exactly do you want your readers to know about cars, is it price, best models, miles per gallon etc.
Use an online app to assign and check on progress
My clients use various different software programmes that allow sharing of files and assigning work. Trello and Asana are programmes which allow you to create projects and tasks and assign to specific people. It means everyone is kept in the loop, and you will be able to log in and check the progress of specific jobs you have delegated, and see when they have been completed.
I hope you found this useful, and please leave any comments below on other great tips for delegation.