Hiring Your First VA: 3 Mistakes Small Business Owners Make

This post is for the solopreneur – the small business owner who is just starting to grow your team. Who is wondering if it’s the right time to hire your first VA, or maybe has already started looking at options. If that sounds like you, keep reading. I’m going to share my top three mistakes when hiring your first VA.

These are things I’ve seen come up over and over again. Whether in my own client experiences, or in my professional networking groups.

And I want to help you make smart decisions, but also be realistic. Because a unicorn VA can help create magic for your business, but you’ve got to start with the right foundation.

1) Having skill set tunnel vision

I see this one so much in the digital media marketing world. Business owners create job listings with a laundry list of requirements, tech skills, and client experience.

They want to hire VAs who have worked in dozens of specific tech platforms and are already proficient at every tool and strategy that they want to use.

That’s fine if you’re a successful 7-figure client with a large team who needs to fill some specific niche roles.

But if you’re a small business owner, who is starting from nothing, you need to hire for the attitude and mindset. Find someone with a work ethic that complements yours, and who is eager to learn and knows how to dive in deep.

It doesn’t matter if they aren’t experts in every single thing you want them to do for you. If they’re a problem solver and smart, they will know how to figure it out.

You don’t have to blow your budget on a high-level freelancer at $75/hr with decades of experience in specialized skills.

If you’re hiring your first VA, just don’t make this mistake. Stay out of the “must know” trap and be open-minded. Hire for the hunger, because your unicorn VA can learn those specific details very quickly as you grow.

Instead, find a fresh new face in the field who will grow with you and build your business.

2) Expecting brand voice to develop overnight

So you’ve hired your first VA and she’s ready to start taking those tedious tasks off your plate.

Except you take a look at the first round of emails that she’s written and they just feel…off. Maybe it’s an adjective that you would never use, or a paragraph that feels forced or fake.

This is where a lot of solopreneures make a huge mistake after hiring their first VA.

They assume that their unicorn isn’t going to work out. That they will have to give up the dream of sharing these higher level tasks and go back to writing all of their own copy and emails.

Stop. Don’t even go there.

Instead, let’s be realistic.

Because even high level copywriters can take six weeks to pump out a brand voice guideline.

So if you’re starting with a unicorn, who is not a specialized copywriter, you need to give them a chance to build that voice before pushing out the final products to blogs, social media, etc.

Otherwise if you want flawless conversion copy, be prepared to pay $100/hour and set aside months for your return on the investment.

Instead, take this opportunity to coach your unicorn VA. Be honest and give them feedback and corrections, but also give them time and space to work.

Get your VA’s final draft before it gets published, and make those minor corrections. Add a sentence or two that feels natural for you.

Sure, if you already have a brand voice guide created, you can expect things to speed up a little.

But I suggest taking your time, putting some faith in your unicorn, and working out the kinks together. Before you know it, she’ll be sending out copy that is so on-brand that you might be convinced that you wrote it yourself.

3) Waiting too long

Another common mistake – waiting too long before hiring your first VA!

When I wrote this recent blog post about frequent concerns I hear from business owners about hiring a VA, a common theme that I kept hearing was “I’m not ready…”

Like I wrote in that post, you are probably more than ready. In fact, there’s a good chance that you are waiting too long before hiring your first team member.

Here’s an analogy that will make sense if you’re a mom. I’m a military wife who has been working from home for years. We move around a lot, and my husband is often working crazy hours or even deployed for months at a time.

Guess what I’ve learned is one of the top keys to my success? Finding a good babysitter!

If you’re a parent, you know. You can’t wait until the last minute when you’re desperate for a night out or a child-free zoom meeting to try to find someone.

Nope. If you wait too long, all of the good babysitters are taken. And you’re missing out.

You need a babysitter already set up and ready to go.

So you make it a priority to find a babysitter, make the contacts and build the relationship. Then make sure they are happy and you’re paying them enough.

Well, hiring a new VA is very similar.

If you know your business is growing and scaling, and you are expanding, you need a VA now.

And it doesn’t have to be a big commitment. In fact, with some of my favorite clients I’ve started with only a handful of hours each month. If you’re ready, hire now.

Don’t wait until you’re down in the weeds. You’ll be overwhelmed and desperate. Take the steps now with a small commitment and get that new VA onboarded so that you can build together.

You’re not going to magically have more time later. Make it a priority now. Because hiring a unicorn VA will help you free up time very quickly.

BONUS MISTAKE Not vetting your new hire